 Good evening. I will call this school committee meeting of April 25th 2013 to order my name is Judson Pierce chairing the school committee tonight. I'd like to start out with Respectfully with a moment of silence For those who have tragically lost their lives and those many who were injured last week in Boston. Thank you We'll see I'm wearing a hat and I'll be wearing it all night We have a special guest with us tonight to start out the evening First I should say Miss Heim Regretfully cannot be here with us tonight Due to some obligations at home, and we believe mr. Thielman and mr. Schlickman are on their way Hello, mr. Schlickman I'll let dr. Cheson if you wouldn't mind introduce our guests sure It's my pleasure to introduce our special guest tonight Ben Sherston. Ben is a teacher at the Dallin elementary school He's also a key member of the tech leader team across the district Which is made up of teachers from every single building elementary middle and high school Ben has taken a real role in the leadership of the Putting in technology at the elementary schools. He actually has a pilot classroom in which his students One-to-one iPads. It's a third-grade classroom, and he's going to tell us a little bit tonight about what the work He's doing in his classroom Okay So to start off I do I have this one-to-one environment in my classroom, which has been great And a piece of this has been just trying to try a little bit of everything to try to get a sense of what works And what doesn't work so that we can really inform the new environment that we're going to have in Thompson next year So that's kind of part of where I'm coming from Before I show you some of the stuff that my kids have been doing I just want to say a little bit about sort of where where I'm coming from from the instructional lens The iPad for us as a tool and it does some really neat things and there are some things it does really well And some things it doesn't necessarily do well, and that's okay. It's not replacing all the things that we do So when I think about where I want to incorporate this into my teaching I Sort of ask myself three questions One of them is is this going to allow me as a tool to do something that I've never done before Is it going to allow me to do something much more easily than I have been able to before do something that was prohibitively difficult? And isn't it going to make something more fun because that's an important piece of school as well So I just want to run through and show you guys a few things that that we've been doing and tell you about that I jumped in with with with typing and the writers workshop and when we came around to our second round of a personal narratives I gave the option of the kid that you guys want to write in your notebooks With pencil that's fine. If you want to do typing that's fine, too I've got some students and we all do it third grade that are just really slow writers and I said, okay well, maybe Maybe the typing won't be any faster, but it might be more legible It might you know Maybe create something different for them and certain and certainly revising typed work is very different from revising written work and so I gave them the option and Of my 24 kids by the time we got through that piece about a third of them had done the entire thing by hand about a third of them did it entirely on the iPads and about a third of them did a mishmash of both and Where it's really made the biggest difference is revising when we go back to to change things And add things it's it's really different when when you're on a computer And or on a digital device and for kids these days. It's a lot of erasing It's a lot of cutting paper apart and piecing things together and that final draft is a very much another draft And you know, I tried as best I could with paper to to limit the amount of copying over the kids We're doing but to some degree it has to happen And it's been really interesting with the iPads that we get to that final draft and all of a sudden We've done all we're editing and we've done all of our revising and that final draft is suddenly there We don't have to rewrite it. It's done And the kids love that For that that last step of writing was always the most arduous if I have to copy this over one more time and Now that's not a piece of it anymore which has been really neat for me and for them and Because we use a shared evernote account, which is cloud-based. I can access all the writing from anywhere So if I want to look at what they're doing or comment on it I can do that from my device without having to track down their stuff or if I want to look at stuff at home I don't have to bring home a stack of Writing journals. I can pull up all their writing on my own device And look at it and see where they are Sort of better inform instruction or if I want to check in with the kid the next day Then I can sort of plan that meeting the night before while I'm at home that I have to bring a bunch of stuff with me It's it's changed the way that we do some of our research We don't do open Google searches in third grade. We do thanks to our PTO have a subscription subscription to something called nettrekker Which is a search engine that has been vetted by actual real humans And has an elementary appropriate section middle school appropriate section a high school appropriate section and we're able to get on those with the iPads and What's interesting is that we've done this research before and it's always been in the computer labs And when you sit with a computer that is Solid and kind of stuck somewhere research becomes very isolating and Now that we have kids working in groups with their own devices that they can hold in their laps They can say to the person next to them. Hey, look at this really cool thing that I found Which is what you can kind of do with a laptop But it's a little more cumbersome than just to have something that's you know the size and the weight of a notebook and So there's this whole social piece That's been that's been emerging with the iPads that isn't possible at all with desktops and it's difficult with laptops So it's really interesting to see that how that's changed We also use when we were studying space some NASA has put together some really great apps with information And so we were able to do some apps specific research as well And again that social piece came out where they were really more easily able to share with each other Each other the things that they were finding and this whole different level of engagement When you bring the social aspect into it, which was really neat This is actually gonna start All right, I'm just going to do this the right way So one of the core apps that a lot of folks are using a lot of folks love is called explain everything And really the best way to describe this is just in the name It allows you to explain anything And so you have the audio recording that goes over it And then students can Predraw or draw in the moment anything on the screen at the same time and it zips together into this beautiful movie file And they can go back and edit things and so at the end of my unit on sound Rather than giving a quiz or something of that sort what I said to kids was here to open it to questions about sound You should be able to answer Go for it explain what you know to me Using the explain everything app. And so this is what one of my students put together. So we'll see if you guys can hear this When you hit the tune Then it hits this first layer of molecules They love it the next one the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one until it goes inside your ear To your ear does like it will seem like a flat piece of skin And then that you just wiggle for instance in your signal to your brain my new brain On a guitar if you tighten the string It gets higher because it moves fast If you loosen a string This one it gets lower because it moves slower So how do you change your picture on a guitar is you loosen the string or tighten the string Now you loosen your tight strings You turn this thing one way to have it tighten the string And the other way to have it loosen like this string And so we have this this new way for kids to explain how to explain to us what they know And it really sort of is like We all wish that we had the time to sit with those kids one-on-one And can you take two minutes and explain to me what you know rather than give a test or have them do a drawing And this allows us to do that But not having to sort of sacrifice all that class time If I spend three or four minutes with every kid suddenly an hour and a half has gone by and most of those kids spent that chunk of time Not doing anything And this also allows them just to go back and revise And and make it perfect or as perfect as they want it to be or I can go back to them and say hey Can you explain this part a little bit more? And it really allows them to do a lot and this app has come has really exploded was actually put together The guy who came up with the idea is a teacher down in New York City and got together with some guys who code And they put this thing together and it sort of exploded now to the point where as you are Explaining and doing your screencast you can have a live Web browser on the screen as well So you can actually navigate through the web well talking about it all being recorded at the same time All in the same device and it's all right there in front of you There are no cables to plug in and when you're done with it You can just email it out and it's done notes, you know looking for cables and trying to convert file types It's all there, which is really great We made a lot of use out of there's no the core app that we've been using a lot called book creator Which is exactly that there's a piece of it that is just so Just simple with kids and so they select basically a book size and then they can add Text to it they can add pictures to it They can add their own audio recordings over to if they want to This was actually neat when I did it with with kids I had one group that decided to audio record their voices reading every single page And I collected them all in and some of them were not the quality that I wanted them So I handed them back said okay guys like You just this is this is my feedback and you know Let's let's change some things and as soon as the other groups realized that one group of kids had done this They all did it the second time around So you can go in and you can have this read to you by the kids It's a standard e-pub format. So it opens up in iBooks and everything else. It works across non-apple devices as well And we were able to actually put them all together into one book That's ready to go ahead and send it out yet But ready to go out to parents and you know rather than having those final projects We hung on the wall in a space where Parents have to come in and see these things so we can now put them on Public spaces or send them out over email so that so that you know the as we try to share what we're doing We can do this beyond the walls of the school, which is really neat I'll go back The last three things that I want to say I asked my kids in the last couple of days said okay I got to go and give this presentation. Why do you guys like doing this? you know, what do you enjoy about having these in the room and We talked for a few minutes about and a lot of things came up and they kind of centered around three ideas One of them was that the iPads are mistake tolerant, which is the adult phrase that we use these days That it's easy to to play around with stuff. It's easier for them to try something out if they don't like it to change it I mean if you think about what I mean with pencils we can erase them there's you only erase so many times before you have to start over again if you want to look really nice and iPads and digital devices allow us to make those changes really easily and the kids really like that They like the idea that they can change a color or change a font or move a picture around that if they don't like it They can easily put it back It doesn't cost them huge amounts of time to do those experiments and it changes It changes the way that they plan for these things to you know kids are impulsive and sometimes that I mean there they should be they're developmentally impulsive and Sometimes that can be can be tricky for them They want to try something that it doesn't work and then it costs them time and energy and now we can just put it back And they know that and they appreciate that The other thing that they talked about was this idea of gamification The idea of taking this this inherent competitiveness that kids have the people have I have to teach multiplication math facts in third grade and It is boring. There's no way around it I'm really glad that I do it and I'm really glad that my kids learn it I'm glad that I learned it in third grade, but it's boring And my kids will say even now we have a couple of apps that allow them to practice these things and They get high scores and there's a timer and they'll come to me and they'll say I'm don't have my work Can I practice my math facts? Which has never happened before ever And that's really exciting that like yeah, they want to do this and it's it's it's it's sinking into their heads Which is really neat and The last one was this idea of differentiation and the kids are picking up on this too that It's easier for them and one of them actually said that it noticed that it was easier for me Which I thought was kind of cool That if I have different kids at different levels, which we all do in every classroom that it's very easy to Tailor what kids are doing to their needs With these devices really easy to sort of ramp things up or bring them down if we need to And and I noticed that certainly was really neat that one of my kids was able to point that out to me as well And so of all the things that they notice they seem to You know come around those three categories, which are great because those are things that are important to me, too And it was nice to hear that out of the out of the mouths of my eight and nine year olds So that's what I had you guys have any questions any questions sir. Mr. Hanna. Do you have one that? for the word Word processing and stuff. Yeah, do the children have a keyboarding course or program? We don't have one this year We have in past years done that through the library through our library technology program a couple years ago when we were cut Down to a single fizz ed. We had a more formal computer program or a computer special that they went to every week We don't have one now. I didn't know with with all the technology if there isn't Out there or something. I am sure they're out there And and personally I think it's an important skill for kids to have We played around with some of the dragging dictation software out there, and it's pretty good But it's not perfect and where it gets tricky is that oftentimes those kids that have the The fine motor difficulties are often kids that have like a lisp or a little bit of a speech thing Which is really tough with dictation software So it actually isn't doesn't help the way that it would help for you or I as an adult speaker And thank you start what was your level of knowledge on the iPad before you started this Do you feel and did you need to get any training on this or did you kind of learn as you went as well? And and how how much of a ramp-up time do you see with any of this with the kids? The first piece I own I had my personal iPad for about a year and a half Before I started doing stuff with kids A lot of them have had some exposure at home And what's really neat is to get into something and there will be those kids It'll pick it up really well, and they will automatically Go and help out other kids doing it and oftentimes because it's coming to me I don't remember how to do this Okay, can you find someone else who does because I'm sure that there are 10 kids in the room who know exactly how to do this And so a lot of that initial piece is training those kids to be independent And then also getting them into the mindset of there are 20 other people in this room And if I don't remember how to do something my teacher is not the only person that I can ask And if he's with somebody there are lots of other resources in the room In terms of having to learn things there were some apps that I was really familiar with Evernote is one that the one that we used for writing is one that I live on personally my entire personal life is in another evernote account But I wasn't other than that I wasn't doing a whole lot with cloud storage Things like Dropbox, which I learned how to use because I knew we needed it But that's sort of how we transfer stuff from device to device and so I learned how to do that with the kids and They picked it up really quickly and within a couple of weeks. They were able to Take a picture on one iPad upload that to the cloud and then pull it back down onto another device Which was great for me because they were able to do it on their own and the more they can do then Unless I have to do in the more time I have with kids Cool, thanks. I'm just wondering if you could reintroduce the speaker since mr. Schlickman. Oh, absolutely This is mr. Ben Sherston. He's a third grade teacher at the Dallin and as you can see very Very well-versed in the iPad Any other questions by the committee? Dr. Bodie, Dr. Chesson No, I guess the last thing I want to say is on Tuesday evening We had the pleasure of having an event a kickoff event sponsored by the Arlington educational foundation Which has is its goal to try to accelerate the technology plan that we saw during the last school committee meeting And I would invite anyone who's listening at home to check out the Arlington educational foundation Site which also has information has like a blog and we have teachers that are actually posting Then I know has personally has posted out there We have a number of other teachers that have posted on that site Things the parents might want to read to consider about technology and technology for their children and technology and education Well, thank you very very much for joining us here and helping us understand a little bit about what you're doing every day with these kids Thanks. Welcome. Thanks for having me. I Just have a quick question in terms of classroom management. Yeah working with the kids Do you have a display? Are you running through Apple TV? How much are you bringing stuff together? From kids and displaying it We do have an Apple TV. We have a dedicated ceiling mounted projector as well So both my device and all the kids of devices are able to hook into that Apple TV as a way to share And with that I've also been using we we have a small document camera for Physical stuff as well And I've actually started in the last few weeks doing more with the camera on my device As a mobile document camera basically and mirroring What's what's being viewed for my for my camera so rather than kids having to bring stuff up to the document here? I can bring my device is a document camera around the classroom. Oh So the Elmo kind of camera you're not using as much not as much I use an IP vote not an Elmo, which is a very different P-scale so to speak But but for that you know just you know for kids explaining what they're doing in math rather than bringing it up Sometimes it's easy for me to walk around and I can they can sit at their desk. I can hold My iPad over what they're working on and they can explain it and it's up on the board Thank you very very much. Thank you. Thank you. That's great. Thank you. Thanks, Ben Before we move on tonight, I'd like to introduce our AA rep, Siobhan Foley. Thanks for being here Our student rep. Could you take the mic and maybe introduce yourself and Senior at age Keep the mic over there because you're gonna play we're gonna figure you in prominently I think in this next spot So if I could ask miss my against it to come up to the podium and discuss your town cleanup event Yes, please Hi, good evening everybody We usually watch this on TV, so it's exciting to be here Live on the stage So, thank you for having me. I'm coming to you My name is my against I am I've been in Arlington for about 10 years I have two children both at the Brackett school grades one and and and three And over the last several years, I've developed a growing concern around litter in Arlington I think it's a beautiful town With a lot of beautiful open space But as a runner in the town, I have been seeing a lot of litter especially over the last few years. I think I think with the economy sort of When the economy went down I think they had to lay off some of the people in the town who helped keep the town clean So there and the town has grown. So I've been working with the town as well as with a number of other concerned Members of the Arlington community who happened to also be parents in the Arlington schools Dalin Bishop and Brackett and We have been trying to think of ways to address this issue So we formed a group we were calling ourselves the Arlington clean team act and As our first project we've we are planning a town-wide cleanup Now there are other cleanups that go on in the town, but they're very focused on specific areas There's a bike path cleanup and a robin's farm cleanup and our concept was more of a town-wide cleanup So it's going to take place on May 11th from 9 a.m. to noon and The concept is is that we will be meeting at the parking lot on mystic where the farmers market is held And I'll be there and other members of act will be there And we will be giving out garbage bags and we'll have a list of suggested areas in the town But it's really for people who come to decide The areas that they're concerned about maybe they walk their dog in an area every morning That's littered and they want to use this as an as an opportunity to go clean up that specific area And then we're just asking that people return the bags of garbage to either the meeting spot at Where the farmers market parking lot is or at the DPW who happens to be having a Trash collection day there as well for TVs, etc. So So our challenge of course is everyone's busy, especially this time of year with sports So our challenge is getting people involved and getting people to show up I look at this as not just an opportunity to clean up the town but also just as a as a Effort to raise awareness about this issue. I think again the town is growing There's a lot of people doing a lot of different activities and unfortunately sometimes this results in an abundance of litter In certain areas of town. So I'd like to start raising awareness and I think My reason for coming to the school committee is because I think that the children of Arlington are a great place to start So we can all develop good habits early So I'm coming to you to ask I guess for your support and your ideas about how maybe we could get The students in the Arlington public school system involved in this event and just overall You know involved in keeping the town clean and beautiful. So that's my My spiel as the judge said so I have a few handouts with the specifics But I you know, certainly if anyone has any questions for me or or ideas. I would welcome them wholeheartedly so Well, let me just begin by thanking you for coming one of the reasons why I wanted you here Speaking tonight was because you presented a town meeting. You presented at the board of select men Yeah, very eloquently. I mean you are first-hand witness to what? Isn't something that I think our town would like to see yeah And the board of select men in their meeting. I believe it was last month or perhaps two months ago Suggested that she come and speak with the school committee About what we could do to foster awareness and I've spoken with dr. Bodie as well to see if there's any sort of Opportunities and I'd love to get your your take on this too To get to get the word out and get people to to be a little bit more cognizant Do you have do you have any opportunities to maybe speak with with some of your fellow students between now? May 11th about this event and see what we could do to drum up some support for Things in terms of like the entire student body ever being together in one place that never happens I think the one thing we do do is like get flyers out through like through the principal emails out to homeroom teachers And home teachers tell students or like some like gives teachers packets. It's mainly in homeroom Each student's home. They can receive information. There's also the daily announcements every morning So I think work and spread through that and we can also try to like even have like a table in the cafeteria It's a common thing for people to spread awareness because people come and talk in the cafeteria So I think those are the best ways that I think about top my head. Okay. I think you can get something out of it Okay, that sounds like a good plan. Perhaps, you know, maybe make a meeting if if if you can with the Mary belong on the principal to high school and And talk with Mary about setting up that table in the calf or doing that announcement over the over the homeroom I don't like whoever's interested in it Maybe like can meet in a certain room at a time and like those people could be like the proponents Like if there's like certain group of kids that are interested in like really I'm Leading the group then it's like they can get their friends and that's usually how things also spread Is there a high school sort of environmental club or something? Yeah, I'm actually a part of it just it saves students against violating the environment I'm sure actually I probably could talk to them I can talk to the president of the club to charting something out There's also like an agriculture club and a social justice club, which is kind of like they try to learn about like Environmental justice as well. Okay, there's those three clubs. I think that okay talk to them, too. Yeah, that would be very helpful I really appreciate that that would be great. Thank you Luke. I appreciate that. Yeah, the members have any questions for Maya? Well, the timing of this could be very good for seniors because there's often a rush at the end to finish up hours of community service Arlington Public Schools has a 40-hour community service requirement over the course of the four years Not that they were just trying to fulfill their community hours, but at the same time It's a great way to to accomplish both so going through the different clubs would be very helpful, but I would also Make sure we could make sure the guidance knows this because often Those activities are organized through the guidance department We can also if you give me the flyer Make sure that all of the PTO so you may have already done that are aware of this I I think we have the PTO covered, but I'm happy to give you the flyer because I cannot hear things enough, right? So that would be wonderful. Thank you And I I think that you would also have some success at oddison So I certainly can pass that on to the the principle of oddison and let that be known up there as well I would be very appreciative. Thank you so much. So can I leave this? Yes, please? Yes, thank you so much Maya. Thank you for doing this. Thank you very much And if any of you would like to come out and join We will be there So I'm just gonna leave these fires here and I'm gonna kind of get in touch with your crew over the high school Okay, thank you. Have a nice evening everybody Okay, moving on right on time The Human Rights Commission appointment. We have two vacancies that we need to appoint as a school committee Two folks have come our way one has just come in this afternoon by way of resume and letter of intent and With with your permission, I'd like to meet with her Intendantly scheduled a meeting with her tomorrow morning and if Things look good. I'll present at our next school committee meeting her credentials and see if we can Appoint our second person, but tonight. I wanted to discuss with the committee this letter from Sharon P. Grossman and I'd like to put a motion on the table that we Appoint miss Grossman to the Human Rights Commission Miss Grossman as many of you know has been in town for for over 30 years. She's been active in a variety of capacities Ranging from advocacy No place for hate Arlington common threads to political campaigns and school related issues like PTO and high school selection committees in her professional life, she's a school psychologist and She's a strong core belief that our community should be welcoming to tall and bias and unfair treatment of any sort is wrong I think miss Grossman would be the ideal appointment by our body So is there a discussion all those in favor So if Karen you want to get I'll get a letter to you Great. Thanks Okay monthly financial report miss Johnson you have the reports we are we have completed the request for Purchase orders and they're all in the process of being processed I was away at the beginning of April and came back to a formidable stack But we are churning through that and I hope by the report at the beginning of May I'll be able to update you with our year-end balances in light of the entry of all those PO's Any questions Dr. Allison I had a question for page two of three The power and electricity. I was just concerned that we're running a hundred and thirteen thousand above budget and Wondering why that is and also Whether we've budgeted enough for next year with the Thompson coming online This is just the general fund portion of power and electricity. There are other places where power and okay, okay? So it's being paid out of a different right and also if you look at the line immediately below that We're running significantly under a natural gas, right? I think it will more than wash itself out without having to turn to those other funds But we budget we don't just budget in the general Okay, so that there's other electricity budget in other parts of the budget. Okay Such as where the building The building rental fund and we can also take some power money out of Pierce field for the electric on the lights If we choose to do so Any other questions, okay, great. Thank you very much Update on Thompson rebuild Dr. Bode well, there's since the last time I reported there. We have not had another Thompson building school committee Thompson school building committee meeting however since then members of the committee have Visited Thompson, and I don't know if they would like to share some of their impressions at this point That was awesome. I got my own private tour because no one else showed up yesterday, but it was a gorgeous day so that was nice and They said it's it's kind of interesting They said if you came every week now you'd see there's huge changes because that's where they are in the building I was I was just floored at kind of the whole flow of it the way It flows especially when you enter the building and kind of how you can see the whole main floor from that entry way I just love that the way it's going to be all open and kind of glass and I Mean, I know that right now there's no glass, so it's kind of hard to visualize it But I don't know it just it seems really cool and just the way they've thought through the space and the flow of it You know like the fact that there's Two ways to get into the library, you know So you can kind of run through it and that there's all these different Meeting spaces like there is this place where the kids can sit In the middle of some of the floors like in the middle like I think it was the kindergarten first grade There's like this stepped up thing that's built and that's gonna also happen in the library There's gonna be like a reading area, so it just seems to me It's really been thought well thought out as to kind of how kids Congregate and how you kind of want to teach them things And I thought that was really cool I also of course stuck my head in the bathrooms and wanted to look at the bathrooms because those were so horrendous at Thompson before And and I said hey, there's no doors on the bathrooms, and they're like yeah You know it's like the airport that you don't need them And there's there's no sense in having them because they only get in the way and pinch fingers and all that kind of stuff for little kids And I thought oh that's really cool idea, so it's got that big kind of entry way But you can't see beyond it, but you know it's obvious one way is one way So I thought I just I really think it's just really well thought out, you know I just feel like it's and it's just a lot some of the tile was up not all of it But I you can get a real sense of how bright and you know just so bright all those windows It's so bright and wonderful in there. I think it'll just be so much fun to go to school The kitchen's starting to you know come together too, so that was cool Just you know to see all that knowing what that basement kitchen was like before you know It's so cool having the Kind of the before and after you know going in and seeing he's like you want to see the heating and water system I said yes because I said I have this picture in my mind of that old thing that we replaced You know and he's like here it is and I was like that's it and he's like yeah, and there's a backup system I thought that was cool, and I don't know it just it feels like I mean I just can't wait now, and he's like well you can come back You know come back in a couple weeks It'll look so much different because you know every day the stuff gets added in there You know whether it's ceilings or flooring or whatever, so it was really cool So thank you so much for setting those up. Oh, you're welcome. Well They'll be toward the end of June and go in they'll just be amazing. Well, we will have occupancy after July 12th So when you I think that what you're gonna see is exactly what Brian D. Philippa said is that it can be major changes all the time Because when we were there, I thought how I'm gonna have three months left to this and he said really the last month it just Falls it just comes all together. I think you had mentioned that July 12th Would be marked the earliest, you know occupancy date. Yes of any recent building in the town, correct Mr. Hand between seeing the school and hearing the presentation tonight the old man has a feeling you'd like to go back to teaching So much there well so many things are happening in education and like this building It's changing so quickly for the better. I think and it's really exciting to see what's happening and The other night with the technology night watching the different levels from the elementary kindergarten class all the way up to the high school and with this new building. It's exciting. I Can't speak directly to it, but these little pieces of material that are just outside the windows They're Well, I wouldn't even call them an awning because it's only going to come out about this far They are awnings is what they are, but they're going to redirect the light Sunshades Everything is so well thought out that it's exciting. I I've got to say And I don't mean to be a doomsayer, but each one of the rooms is set up for 26 students And I really would like the room set up for like 22 23, but With that's where we are The and each level when we went in the first level was just basic construction But the time we get to the third level the rooms were finished They just needed furniture for the most part with some fine fine touches And you really get a sense and feel for the size of the rooms and stuff Thank you. We have one of the Thompson teachers here. I think you've already seen it You've had a tour of it, too. And how are the teachers feeling about a shaman? Oh, I mean everyone's just Really excited You know the overall question has been when we're gonna be able to move in when we're gonna be able to start bringing our stuff over there And you know, where's everything we just want to know where we're gonna be able to put everything and we're already trying to visualize it We've had meetings about what's been ordered for us So now it's a matter of you know starting to pack up our rooms There were a couple of teachers already came in over vacation to start packing up their their classrooms So yeah, I think everyone's chomping up a bit I also really love that there's no lockers Yes, you know there won't be any of that. I don't know that clangie. I hate that sound I teach in a middle school. I guess we have to have lockers But I love the fact that they they maintained cubbies in the classrooms. Yeah, you know You know, I think it just adds a sense of warmth that there's not these big metal lockers out in the hallway I remember it was it was my first couple of months on the committee and we went we had the opportunity to go to Boston to Listen to an architect specialist in school buildings and one of the things I remember from that talk was the new concept of having sort of hallways that aren't as Exactly what you said like clangie and industrial and More open space, you know And I think that's what they created with with this It was nice to see the way they were setting up the kindergarten suite with that Couch in the middle and between the four classrooms. Yeah, and Going up to the third floor and looking at the rooms because you saw the cabinets coming in and all the amenities and the views from there It's just just you know from the third floor. It's just going to be so Beautiful looking out there. You could see up to Sims You can see across to Cambridge and Somerville depending on what direction you are and the fact is that because the building is Caddycord It really makes it even that more interesting to be looking at over the rooftops of the homes in the neighborhood. It's it's People are just going to love being there Good report. Thank you Okay, superintendent's report I just have a few things Well, first of all Thank you for the moment of silence We had moments of silence at the middle school and the high school this week and at the elementary schools as I had said in my my email to parents on Friday that very much like the last time we had a A similar situation with the tragedy in new town We from what we what we knew intuitively what we what we had Had read what the research had showed is that is that the best thing to do is to have as normal a school day as possible Not that you don't answer questions and that did happen But I've talked to all the principals and they all said that it went very very smoothly and a lot of credit to to our teachers and staff that they were the The models that that made that possible so I want to thank them and Say that I also want to thank all of the administrators who also were very much a part of this planning going on to I want to We had another honor for one of our music teachers Tino D'Agostino and There is an organization in Boston called the Pirandello Lyceum and this is an organization. It's an unprofit organization that Tries to it aims to encourage a greater understanding appreciate appreciation of Italian culture and every year they give awards to outstanding Americans of Italian descent and and they also raised money for scholarships and this year Mr. D'Agostino who you all know Received one of those honors and so I wanted to congratulate him. It's a in in this in this community It's a very prestigious award and I might say quite well deserved I also want you to be aware of a program that we're going to be starting next year very soon. This is going to be Advertised it's it's very close to being ready to go out, but since we've had a lot of discussion this year about Spanish immersion program We have not because of Budget issues being able to fund that I still see see the possibility may May be there in the future. We're not ruling that out But there is a tremendous interest and demand for this type of programming and so we are going to begin an after-school Spanish immersion program as a pilot next year for students in grades K and 1 at the Brackett School and We decided upon the Brackett School even though it's an all-district program It's that we still have long wait lists at Brackett to get into the after-school program But as I said, this is a an all-district program And we have a set up in terms of a schedule so that there would be time for People to come from other schools to join in Obviously, there'll be space limit limitations to this program But all of that will unfold over the next week and I'll probably have a flyer for you on May 9th But I wanted to mention it tonight so that parents are aware of this I think that one of the things that we're seeing in Arlington increasingly is a demand for after-school care as we have more to income families and Unfortunately, the schools many of the schools are not even able to provide for the demand that we are seeing it at these schools And in particular at the Brackett School, we usually have wait lists So this is another going to be another opportunity and parents will have the Option of having a two or three-day program and the program will go from after-school till 6 p.m So it really is an immersion opportunity and Eventually depending on how this program goes how well it's received We we can expand into other grade levels, but right now we're going to just start with K and 1 Dr. Anthony, will there be busing from other schools besides Brackett? Unfortunately, no There would not be busing we don't have a busing program now on the other hand We do have a bus for Bishop, and I don't want to commit right now to say that that might be a possibility It really depends on what on the route and the schedule next year But I'm hopefully and if there are people at a particular school they they can arrange some kind of carpooling Carpooling up to Brackett and how many slots are there? I think that we were going to have two classrooms. We've already worked with teachers That have been willing to have the program in their in their rooms because that was certainly a key a key necessity before we can move forward I I Want to say 20 and I think that is the number But I think there's some flexibility around that number right now It's how many it's how how many hours a day and how many days a week? parents can have a two or a three-day option and It starts right after school though. There's a and it can go to six o'clock We're building in a couple of time periods where there's a transition time and parents can pick up at those transition times We don't want to just have Pick up throughout the entire afternoon, but There will be a time for snacks and and before the actual program starts so the parents that are Carpooling or bringing their children from another school. I will have it will not miss anything and you're promoting starting to promote this and We're gonna promote it. Oh definitely going to promote it. I wanted to to touch base I did touch base with Donna. It's and who is our Our director of our community at program which is part of the early into public schools So this is an early even though we're having a vendor a go lingo, which has been Very well received with our after-school language programs And they have They have done similar programs elsewhere, but this is they're very they're very happy to be working with us They have I have to tell you they have made a point of telling me how much they have enjoyed working with Arlington children Totally unsolicited so they're very happy that that we're interested in doing this So this all this will be out in the next couple weeks, but I know parents start thinking about this I've already had actually I've already had a couple of emails Asking where we were on this program. So We're Moving forward. Mr. How was this funded? Tuition it that it will be very similar to any after-school program Price will be fairly comparable. Thank you. We'll go lingo still be operating in the other schools that I were the other programs We'll still continue Thank you, it'll be great and one last thing Again the Arlington community education is a part of the Arlington public schools and one of the Innovative things that we've been doing this year for adults and and also for high school students is to have Speakers come in and we had one just recently which was I went to was terrific the Lincoln's tragic pragmatism But we have another author coming On Tuesday, May 7th at 7 from 7 30 to 9 in the high school media Center. This is Margaret Fuller And then it's an art It's a biography of Margaret Fuller a new American life and the biographer is Megan Marshall who will be here to discuss her book so hopefully there was a large crowd for the last program and hopefully that That people will be enticed to come to this as well And that's it great. Thank you. It's subcommittee reports policies and procedures We need to schedule a meeting to start revising CBI, but we have not done that yet budget We have nothing to report Community relations, I think that's Yeah Curriculum instruction assessment nothing to report Facilities Legal services, I don't know if we reformed legal services I'm sorry we were discussing that last time I think that we stay in effect through the end of the school year Till we make a report. Oh, okay. Yeah, so I thought that it was okay. We still exist Chair, there's nothing for me to report Consent agenda All items listed with an asterisk are 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 It's normal sequence Most new approval warrant one three one four seven dated April 11th, 2013 total warrant amount 396,156 dollars and 49 cents a minutes of approval regular minutes March 14th and March 28th 2013 an approval of jazz band Italy and Switzerland music tour 2014 second Any discussion all those in favor? All those against Passes Secretary's report. All right over the last two weeks. We've received the following correspondence the town of Arlington fiscal year 2014 town managers annual budget and financial plan a copy of the Arlington public schools report to town meeting in fiscal year 2014 budget summary a flyer from community education on the great conversations that the superintendent just told us about the 2013-2014 list of Arlington school committee members and our appointments a letter from chairman Judson Pierce to town meeting members Introducing the book for town meeting a letter from Evelyn Smith DeMille to Kathleen Bodie informing her of the APS receiving $34,000 in funding from the Sanborn Foundation for the Arlington public schools 2013-2014 anti tobacco education and a letter back from Kathleen Bodie to Evelyn Smith DeMille thanking her for the good news on receiving the Sanborn grant mass equity school committee survey a copy and request to take it online a Proposal for the jazz band Italy and Switzerland music tour 2014 that we just approved the April 2013 monthly tracking reports from CFO Letter and resume from Sharon Grossman to Judson Pierce and Adam chaplain in application for one of our two vacancies on the Arlington Human Rights Commission and Responses to the budget questions raised by mr. Heiner from Diane Fisk Thank you. All right, I'd like to Make a motion to go into executive section conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with union and or non-union personnel Or contract negotiations with union and or non-union in which a failed in an open meeting may have a detrimental effect To conduct strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation which have been held an open meeting may have a detrimental effect collective bargaining may also be conducted Only to come out for the purposes of going into a retreat to discuss our district goals for the 2013-2014 year An executive session