 Good evening. I'm calling to order the regular meeting of the Arlington School Committee on Thursday, February 9th, 2023. I'm Liz Eckstin, the chair We're all in person. Oh, actually Confirm members that are remote because it doesn't seem like we have Tonight's meeting of the Arlington School Committee is being conducted in a hybrid model before we begin permit me to offer a few notes First this meeting is being conducted via zoom is being recorded and is also being simultaneously broadcast on ACMI Persons wishing to join the meeting by zoom may find information on how to do so on the town's website Persons participating by zoom are reminded that they may be visible to others and that if you wish to participate You are asked to provide your full name in the interest of developing a record of the meeting All participants are advised that people may be listening who do not provide comment and those persons are not required to identify themselves Both zoom participants and persons watching on ACMI can follow the posted agenda materials Also found on the town's website using the novice agenda platform And we are all in person. We will not need to take all of our votes by roll call Our first item on our agenda is public comment We do not have anyone signed up for public. Okay Our next item on the agenda are AHS student representatives to the school committee. I don't see anyone here anybody on Zoom All right Next we have a recommendation and possible vote for the deputy superintendent for teaching and learning and I will turn this over to Dr. Homan. All right So I am very happy to announce that we have concluded our process for determining who would be my recommendation for the next deputy Or the new deputy superintendent of teaching and learning, which is an adjusted Title for the one Dr. McNeil currently holds We've gone through a very comprehensive process to select the individual that I am recommending to you tonight We had an initial committee of 15 community members who donated significant time to initially interview 11 competitive candidates for this important role those members underwent some orientation and By us in hiring training ahead of us welcoming the candidates for the initial round of interviews And we had a process monitor as well on that committee to help us Think about the candidates that we had seen and what the process how the process was going and reflect on How we were asking questions and how that process went Throughout all stages of the process. We were seeking as much input from community members as we could once we got to the final round We put forward three finalists and those finalists engaged in school visits where they met with students teachers and administrators They engaged in forums virtual forums with families staff and administrators and they Came to see the cabinet team meet the central office team and also did a one-on-one Session with me. They also held a session with the people who they would potentially be the direct supervisors Hi to Maki. How are you? So in at the end of that process I went through all of the feedback and all of the feedback for all three candidates was very strong and that led me to think through what the skill sets were that each candidate brought to the process and Tonight the recommendation that I am bringing to you is that Ms. Mona Ford Walker Be our next deputy superintendent of teaching and learning and she is here I'm sure we'll welcome her up in a moment to say a few words Throughout all stages of our process Ms. Ford Walker demonstrated deep knowledge of what is required in order for our system to have Excellent teaching and learning that is student and equity centered In her interviews she talked about how she would lead school-based teams to support teaching and learning She talked about powerful professional learning and what the components of that are Including elements of professional learning that we've already begun implementing Surrounding giving teachers choice making sure that good Professional development is job embedded and instructionally focused She talked about instructional leadership teams and what it looks like to lead groups of leaders in Constructing and enacting excellent practices and studying good practice through the instructional leadership team And she has experience at the administrative level at middle school elementary and the district level where she's currently serving as interim special education director and a Superintendent resident in the Revere public schools her experience is very Complementary to mine and my own leadership background and I look forward to working with her as a partner in leading the Arlington Public Schools for the next several years We've conducted some extensive reference tech checks as part of the process and received excellent feedback on every aspect of Ms. Ford Walker's leadership Particularly though I want to call out that we heard so much about her humility approach ability Relationality as a leader and her exceptional leadership skills with all of that said I will welcome Ms. Ford Walker to the Arlington Public Schools pending of course the approval of the school committee you have a copy of a contract to consider as well In your materials for tonight, and I will leave it open to any questions that you have for myself for Ms. Ford Walker or about the contract Thank you, Ms. Walker Walker would you mind? joining us at the table Congratulations and welcome I will open this up to the committee of actually would you like to say something? That's okay, good evening Hear me good evening school committee members Dr. Holman and leadership team as well as the community in town of Arlington. Thank you so much for Having me here this evening. I do want to start off by saying thank you for this opportunity I've had the privilege of visiting a few schools in Arlington talking to a number of students and staff and The one thing that I recognize is that this is a special community a special town And it's a committed group of people who want the best for their town and for the students that attend the schools and so I'm extremely impressed by Just the conversations that I was able to have with students particularly at Harlington high school and how they expressed What they wanted for their school community and so I thank you for the opportunity to Allow me to contribute to the great work. That's taking place and the work that will take place in the community We're very glad you're here and in the Private dinner we had beforehand to which the public was not invited But the public is invited. Sorry. I was just trying to make a joke Land well But you said something I thought was great You asked us the question which is which neighborhoods should I visit first in Arlington? So I thought that was says a lot about you you want to get to know our community and our kids and our families and That's that's exactly what we need. So that says a lot about you. Thank you Mr. I move approval of the contract between the Arlington school committee and Mona Ford Walker and The author and authorize the chair to sign on our behalf We have a motion by mr. Slickman seconded by mr. Heiner any more discussion Roll call vote miss. I'm sorry. Mr. Heiner. Yes, Mr. Carden. Yes, Morgan. Yes, mr. Slickman Yes, and I vote yes, that's unanimous. Congratulations. Mr. Heiner Just wanted to add I think it was very fortunate that we did not get another Elizabeth. Thank you Thank you so much Thank you and welcome as you're here our student reps are here Tomaki and Amy if you will pass you the mic if you want to give us an update Should we like All right, so yeah Tomaki and Amy go ahead and share about the fight the wrestling team won their league for the fifth time in the Before the new building. Well, I guess Fusco gets torn down. So that's pretty big moment Thank you Welcome we have more visitors. So we are going to reenact our Contract for your for your family. So I have a different motion Mr. Carden I move that we appoint Mona Ford Walker as our deputy superintendent effective July 1st second We have a motion by mr. Carden seconded by mr. Heiner Roll call vote miss discussion Roll call vote mr. Heiner. Yes, mr. Carden. Yes, miss Morgan. Yes, mr. Slickman. Yes, mr. Ethelman. Yes, dr. Allison Ampe. Yes, and I vote yes, that's unanimous I Was going to ask for a reference check Yes, that's a vote of confidence Alright Next we have a social emotional learning presentation And I just we have a lot of presentations this evening So I will sort of give you a year halfway through your Time queue just so you can keep on track. Thank you so much. Yes, please And someone will get your slide Ready for you. Yeah, I wasn't sure. Yep. I'm gonna drive for you And if you'll just I didn't I don't want to mispronounce your name So if you'll introduce yourself, I understand. Can I actually start sure? So Welcome Magali. This is Magali Olander. Do I say in your last name, right? Magali Olander. And she has been our interim director of social emotional learning and School counseling since October. I think yes. Yes. Yes and Is doing a spectacular job and has been a wonderful partner to our school teams a great leader for our school counselors and really was sort of thrown in to the role and Has been wonderful wonderful to have on the administrative team First presentation to this committee, so I wanted to introduce her and told everybody what a wonderful job. She's been doing And I'll hand it off to her So I did make slides I will But obviously the first order of business is to introduce myself I Am Magali So I'm Magali Olander. I I know many of you. I have voted for some of you because I'm also a resident That says more about my voting record like my getting to the polls than anything else And So I have I live here I work here I started my school social work career here in Arlington in 2009 at the high school working in What is now called the reach program within the special ed department, but I've been a social worker since 2000 and But I want to share you by way of introduction Oh, I I took a little break in between to go hiatus over went over to Chelsea was an assistant principal at Chelsea High School for four years but couldn't stay away from Arlington also kind of needed to get back to or was very excited to get back to a leadership role around Social-emotional learning well-being mental health And and being with my people they have felt my fellow social workers and counselors and also in my town I What I want to share a little bit with you is a bit about my why so you know where I'm coming from I In my slide presentation, there's a delightful picture of my children so To to communicate that my why is the kids I think a lot of us many of us in education say our why is the kids and my particular Flavor of that is as a social worker. I've always seen myself as an advocate for kids because we adults build systems that we ask kids to be a part of and Sometimes we're good about making those systems work well for them and sometimes we need their input and as a social guy I've always seen it as an opportunity to be the advocate for Helping the systems work as well as possible for kids and I've always wanted to do that from inside those systems and So being able to be in a leadership role where I'm thinking about what I'm passionate about professionally social emotional learning and well-being and mental health and also working directly on behalf of and with Kids and also really supporting the people that are doing all the work working within supporting our kids gets me Gets me jazzed. So that's why I'm here That is my why You're gonna have to see the picture of the kids. I'm sorry. We're gonna have to get there My delightful teenagers So What else I want to show next is just a little bit about my vision so I'm not Obviously, I'm as Liz the dr. Homan said I'm relatively new here in this role. I'm not new to mental health and Social emotional learning, but I'm new to getting to lead it and so I want to share a little bit about my vision Where I land where we're at right now or my vision is out right now Because it is and needs to stay an evolving thing that is responsive to what the needs are in front of us so I share with you the MTSS framework right now that is Anchoring my thinking about social emotional learning and mental health in schools Everyone's seen versions of the pyramid the triangle the tiers of support But what what this reminds me of what's important about this image for me is that it is all happening all the time It's we never trade out mental health for SEL. We never trade out tier one for tier three We're doing it all which is a big ask. It's a lot of it's a tall order, but it is always happening and Ideally, we're getting the right amount of it to where it's needed at the right time and in the right distribution So that is how what kind of grounds my thinking about how it's a part of everything we're doing And just Not surprisingly as a as a social emotional and mental health leader I do believe that the five castle standards are are the anchor and the underpinning for how as a school we can reach our vision I Self-awareness self-management Social awareness relationship skills and responsible decision-making are the foundational skills that we all need forever and I think they they lay the fertile ground for our vision become in a reality If you go to the next slide, I'm gonna get a little deeper into just the how How would focusing on these five competencies get us to our vision? So I just wanted to share that if you look at the the five competencies that I just laid out and how they can lead to These core constructs of identity agency belonging collaborative problem-solving and curiosity Like that is the work that strong and social emotional learning can Do for us. That's that can move us there. That is our vision So I do believe that and I'm grateful that Arlington has invested as much as it has in social emotional learning and mental health because I do think It's could kind of be though the water that we surf in on for all the rest of the amazing things we do Not that I'm biased or anything that social emotional learning is it So that's a little bit about where I my lens where I come from Where my current thinking is about how important this work is for the work that we're trying to do for our Arlington students and families and our staff So I'm just gonna share a quick update from the different sort of teams that I work with and that'll be it So we have a social emotional learning team, which this year is comprised of a threes SEL coaches One is a permanent position that we've all we've had for a couple years and we'll keep having two currently are grant funded By a desi grant that we are fortunate to be Supported by right now for our SEL work They are working across the district supporting in various ways individual coaching team coaching working with administrators Supporting different initiatives that different schools are doing so they're really a little bit of everything everywhere And it's been great. We're learning a lot from them about what our schools are needing and wanting more of so That's really helpful for planning going forward our elementary schools Continue to mostly implement second step as our social emotional curriculum at the elementary level many are also engaging in Responsive classroom practices which also support social emotional well-being and mental health Some highlights from the Gibbs we've had the opportunity as an SEL team To provide some direct instruction with Students at a truly tier one level like we're there with every kid when Different core academic departments have been out on professional learning days It's like the math team was out for a couple days SEL team moved right in and taught some SEL lessons directly to Done two days so far's and we're going to do two more days when the social studies team goes out for professional learning So we're really getting to get in there and do some real tier one instruction in that way the SEL team has been critical in that Work at the Odyssey To build on the work that's already in place With the support of our SEL coaches and their kind of expert lens on how this work does live structurally in schools we're embarking on an Audit to really highlight what folks are already doing Build on the practices that are already strong and learn with the staff at Odyssey and like where they want to grow Where they need support what that looks like for building SEL and when I say what I'm saying SEL just to be clear I'm talking really about the tier one like how are we getting this to everyone and that is that is sort of like the frontier of Education for most for many school districts right now. We're throwing a lot at it, which is exciting, but it is still This is where we're growing. So that's what we're focused on right now at Odyssey Another highlight the team is working with the high school to really think about Where where how does collaborative problem-solving as a as a modality? Support the universal teaching of social emotional competencies as well. So really getting in there and Again building on a foundation that they've already invested in that they believe in and that it feels meaningful On some level already and saying great. Let's how do we how do we get this learning and teaching happening? For all adults and students and then last but not least our social emotional team, especially with the support of this grant has been gone through a formal process of some social emotional competency Data collection that we are just about ready to churn out into a Comes back in a lot of billed jillions of numbers from the states as the state is helping us the screener We use is called cellists And we're about to get some some data back to the schools About how their students perceive their own social emotional strengths and areas for growth and then Use that data as well to get informed what we're building for the rest of this year and going forward So that's our SEL team. That's sort of not everything of course, but that is those are some highlights in our mental health programming We have one District-wide social worker that is dedicated to support supporting the mental health and universal mental health screening work Before I stepped into this role. I was also kind of on that team working with Sarah bird also coordinating the mental health screening work and then the follow-up programming Relatively new for Arlington across all the schools to do mental universal mental health screening started in the spring of 2020 and have grown from there to really try and implement a universal program of Taking some dipstick data on how our kids doing right now. What do they need right now and trying to get it to them? So we've continued to do that we've screened last year we spent a whole screened about 2,600 Arlington students Around Every every student that sport in an elevated range was offered some kind of support whether that was a tier two intervention like the group Support fighting an outside therapist just more supports sort of implemented during the school day And so and so this is being like the second really full year of a universal screening program That has been working with grades 3 through 12. We've now had enough time to learn some key We've done some like key learning about how to make this work even better. And so The district-wide social worker and I just recently started working with an interdisciplinary team of teachers Administrators and social workers to think about how do we make this even more responsive more effective? Going forward so we want to continue to grow this programming and keep it nimble enough to be responding to the needs that we're seeing And our interventions so far seem to be working the initial data is telling us kids that got the intervention Did feel a little less distressed anxious and depressed after so That's exciting And Last I just want to share some updates about the actual teams of folks that are in the buildings doing so much of this work They do lots of things in the buildings But I'm gonna just tell you a little bit about the things that they're doing with me for you know in my Department so the elementary social work teams continue to do all the things that they do plus they have taken out an enormous role in supporting both the mental health universal mental health screening work and the Social emotional learning that's taking place So they have been pivotal in making sure that that the screening gets done to fidelity and that the interventions are made available to every student the big update from the six through eight level is that we've shifted the We're shifting I would say the model of service delivery student support service delivery From one that had a pretty clear general education and special education Split like who did what to a combined sort of everyone's doing a little bit of everything across the tiers of support Like everyone's doing a little bit of the universal everyone's doing a little bit of like the small group and everyone's doing some of the special education more specialized Service delivery so that is a change in growth process for the teams and Trying to work very collaboratively with them help have them help us build the way it's going to work best for their teams and their schools and their students and families and Then last but not least I want to shout out that with the addition of An additional school counselor at the high school and an additional social worker at the high school They have their capacity to really take on and support the identified mental health and social emotional needs of students has it has increased they've always Done an amazing job to like pull out the support that's needed But now with some additional staff we're seeing some kind of exciting developments in being able to be more systematic and Programmatic about how they're delivering those supports will again for example They've been able to be really involved with the mental health screening work and not needed as much district-wide support, which Doesn't go without saying is we want we want our kids to be connected to the adults in their buildings for the support They need so that's been exciting capacity growth to see at the high school Those are my updates and I'm open to questions if anyone has them. Thank you very much Questions or comments from the committee miss Morgan. Hi. Thank you Can you talk a little bit about so what the feedback that I have heard from families is that their experience has been that they Their child has been Identified through a screener. They've been offered Teared intervention or support and then that offering has been like oh well. Yeah, they just don't go to math class they go to this like SEL session and What parents have said to me is well my kid is stressed like my kid is anxious about math class And now they're supposed to miss math class to go to this anxiety workshop and like to do this work And so I guess like what are we able to offer kids that doesn't? Require them to miss their like their academic subjects and how are we doing with that? And what do we need to do either staffing or funding wise or? Just structurally so that we can offer support to kids at times when they're not having to make choices between either going to math class or Also going to you know the club that they really want to go to because that serves their social and emotional growth as well Yes Is my answer no It is it is the problem with all of those things happening all the time It's supposed to be happening all the time is that we do end up in In those situations where we're digging one hole to fill another where we do have some There are some limitations to the school day structure and calendar This looks a little bit different at every school some of the elementary schools have different blocks of time built in Where there's been a more natural ability to pull an intervention or to schedule an intervention for that time at the at the high school we we have we have used the X-block period which is that time to go to a club to do some of the other things that are interesting because a The schedule at the high school makes it so that you could never pull all the kids that need to be in a group together the kids just aren't available at the same times and And So I will say that is to say we within the current limits that we have around the schedule and around what time is not Already spoken for in the schedule. We have been as creative and flexible as possible And and of course never forcing anyone and Saying if that group time and structure isn't going to work for you Can we get you some support in another way? There's always that offering If you are receiving reports that students are being pulled from core content in order to do some of this It would actually be helpful to know where that's the case because that's not that's happening Okay, so we're gonna look into that because that is really not Be cool The other thing that I wanted to say about elementary in particular is that we've been talking to the principals about building Intervention time directly into the student schedule and having intervention blocks that are designed specifically for whatever a student needs so having a wind block that Creates the opportunity for students if they need to get extension if they need to get additional support services if they Need to get services that are already on a grid that they can do that during a designated time as opposed to having that be coming out Of course, you also have to then do all of the math associated with Each of our content areas and making sure that you're not reducing time in literacy for example but It is not an expectation that students being pulled from core content to receive additional services, so we're going to look into that So and I just I I guess for me like I I'm Excited that you're that you're here and that you're like I don't know what's like I see interim on the front of the sheet So that's awesome, and then we see where that goes, right? But if this becomes something where There's longevity to this I hope that just you know one of the things that you'll look at is where we can create additional opportunities looking beyond you know and and usually looking beyond some of our Structures that we have cost money, and it's it's something that we have to resource appropriately, and I hope that That you will come to us and to dr. Homan, I'm sure you know they're obviously open to that I hope that this is something that making these opportunities available to kids if we need to do it Somehow that costs more money I we want to we want to know what that is so that we can we can do it or or not if that's not you know But I'm glad that you're here And I think there's there's a lot of work to be done in this area So it's very exciting. Well, and I appreciate you so much for blessing your support for making it happen if it if it takes More resources of whatever those resources may look like I'm I also want to know like I I am I Was not aware that specifically the interventions that my folks are working on like around the mental health screener Are they that they are actually pulling from core content time? I do know that like at the high school they pull from expo time at At the elementary school sometimes they pull from like lunch, but never not recess like we've made it a lunch Kind of lunch group so if it's happening somewhere else, and it's certainly when it's the types of interventions that I'm directly overseeing I really I do want to know as well Great. Thank you. Mr. Cardin. Thanks. So I have a couple different things And again, this is also directed at Ms. Elmer because she's not in terms. So, you know to the extent that There is something that changes. These are still things like that. Hopefully the department can work on So one is that you know in the in the strategic plan MTSS and outlining What we do for MTSS and sharing that with parents is very is one of the key initiatives And I think SEL should be one of the first areas we do that because that's where the most mystery is right now in The district people don't know, you know, they hear about these these groups that are offered they hear about You know and about counseling sessions, but they don't really know what's available for their students Lots of questions on Facebook about if you're in the group about You know, my child has anxiety. What do I do? You know, so I think that's something that we should Prioritize in that initiative is is laying out a little bit more detail than you did tonight about what the MTSS is that we're offering and And how people can access that and sharing that broadly with the public The other major item that I thought Ms. Bird was working on And I hope will continue is is again outlining our approach to social emotional learning curriculum. We've got second step at elementary and then we go to Responsive classroom at some schools, but not all of them But then I Gibbs is responsive classroom But there sort of is that autism and not really and then could elaborate a problem So we have the high school and we have advisory Blocks different at different places and at Audison it's basically just a break the 10 minute break in the day You can't really deliver a curriculum in 10 minutes. So Looking at that even if we need to bring in a consultant because we don't have internal resources I think is a very high priority because I don't think it's very effective. It doesn't seem to be very effective right now Maybe it is more effective than it sounds, but I don't know how what do you think when you and when you say the it You're meaning like the delivery of instruction of SEO directors. Yeah, I Would say I've we have room to grow okay as well and I I do I think and like I said before this is very much like the the the front of the learning curve for many districts right now and in some ways It's exciting here because it's a little farther along than other districts. I'm aware of So but yeah, I mean I think this is kind of like the frontier right now And kind of walking up walking out of the pandemic We kind of energize around the importance of this kind of learning and support Yeah, we why we definitely want to keep Building more transparently at least for the the public and and and what is going to be effective and meaningful I Think I think curricula are can be great and I think curricula can also sometimes Never leave the box. I want to make sure that whatever we're doing is Really meaningfully getting into the hands of the students and the adults that are tasked with doing it I think to that point if we all have some learning to do around the castle competencies and how that how that ties into the school Day, I'm excited to to do some of that teaching and Learning and co-designing with with my colleagues in the schools. I'm feeling like there's other energy There's other people that are matching my energy around beings like yes, let's do this in a way that gets it there so So yes, and thank you for the support with that for that and definitely those two positions that are grant funded I mean, I think we we need to look for a way to incorporate them into future budgets. That's a high priority for me And last question so the Tier 3 support where there is individual counseling. Is that only offered to people on IEP's or No, that it's sort of a myth. That's out. That's one of the myths that out there So it is yeah, it is offered individual counseling is a Tier 3 intervention that does often come via an IEP It rides in on an IEP There are lots of students at all levels across the district that are getting lots of individualized support whether it's counseling Multiple times whether it's counseling plus a check-in check-out plan whether I mean There's a lot of different ways that you don't have to have any kind of paper product to get the individualized care you need Having the additional capacity especially like where some of our teams have been able to high school team has grown Has really increased our ability to make sure like There's a gen ed social worker that is just dedicated to seeing all the kids without IEP's that need to come in for support Now their work might be more to provide school-based needs But make sure that they're getting connected with community and outpatient needs effectively Because you know, it's not necessarily like the man like a 12 month model the way an IEP might be but absolutely We've got people that are Delivering individualized support to students. Okay, last quick question. There was an article today about cartwheel care I don't know if you saw that they provide services to 16 school districts that that sounds like an An interesting model to I mean, obviously we want to have people in the building but as far as supplementing the support I wonder if there's something we've looked at or we would consider looking at I'm very familiar with cartwheel care. I actually I actually was a sort of Founding consultant sounding board to them. I Actually I am employed I was employed by them Then I got this role and then it becomes a little sticky to say now I'm going to bring my cartwheel care people here But I would love to get cartwheel care The model of cartwheel care for those that don't know similar to what we have via interface in terms of helping find long-term Therapeutic connections for families and students, but in the meantime, they have a team of clinicians that are providing interim care Like direct services almost immediately. They're not the only agency out there. They are the only ones that also offer psychiatry I wish I had never Gotten my foot in that bucket as well as this bucket because then I do believe There'd be at least great funding somewhere that we could use something. I'm happy to explore Great, but yes a model like that would be I think would fill one of the holes that Everyone has right now, which is the wait times to find a therapist Thank you from a lot of us anybody else. This is like men. Okay I Take a deep breath I could go on this topic for a long time because I Intellectually knew how social workers were important at one point in my life Then I became an elementary principal and knew Viscerally how important social workers are in an elementary building. I Only know Arlington really from Helicopter perspective of school committee and looking at the budget and every time I look at the budget my responses We need more social workers and that as we designate positions within the budget social workers Tend to be tied to special education. I Guess I'm feeling for a discussion of Our staffing levels of social workers For general education for the whole building and not just for special ed Particularly from my Professional perspective on the elementary level, but I'm certainly interested in the district Do we have sufficient staffing? What model is appropriate for us to be having in a post pandemic world that we're in right now? where there's That where the where there has been a lot of disruption in lives of children and they're there and while there are missing academics There is a lot of social Things that we're missing through the developmental process Where do we need to go I think we Are currently Pretty we have a lot of so I feel like we're well resourced in part because I I know the practice of almost every Clinician or counselor in this district have from having worked here or I'm now getting to work with them in a different way They're really high quality counselors and social workers Model-wise I don't I don't feel like we have a Jurassic like disparity between the number of people designated into counseling and support roles and Counseling and support needs At the same I mean at the same time as a society we feel like we're all kind of I Don't know under this like anvil of mental health need and not enough hands to hold it up. I think that's just like a collective feeling right now I I Am ex I am hopeful about ways in which we can make the work of the counselors and social workers Counseling and social work work and not some of the other stuff that counselors and social workers sometimes get pulled into do so that is a piece of sort of refining our structures and and keeping open dialogues about The lines of communication between my office and whoever else is working directly with Clinical staff about what are you seeing? What are you needing? What do you need to prioritize? How do I help? I think right now it Yeah, I just wanted to add While the social workers at the elementary level I think is what you're referring to you see tied to the special ed budget They actually work with general ed and special ed. Yeah, the funding formula. The other thing is dr. Allison Ampey asked couple weeks ago under this new student services umbrella part of what are the opportunities from Moving school counseling and social-emotional learning under a student services model is that thinking of our behavioral health As beyond social workers. We have school psychologists. We have BCBAs. We have school nurses We have school counselors and social workers who all contribute and have a lens on behavioral health And so I think one of the opportunities with a student service model that we are Adopting is that we are broadening the number of folks and not sticking to singular roles and titles So I think a little bit of what you're talking about is making sure that the work is coordinated and complimentary Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? All right. Thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it Thank you. Thank you Next we have a digital learning program presentation, which I believe is on Zoom Dr. Homan, do you want to introduce? Yes, I do miss Pimper car. Are you pulling this up yourself on zoom? If you would like me to I can or I would suggest it given some of my technical difficulties, but I think I've solved them However, that will allow you to to share the screen. I think she she probably wants to drive the slides though so as Miss Pimper car gets everything pulled up I just want to say I have really enjoyed working with her to join the district when I did and Has brought a such positive energy and excitement and so much innovation to the Arlington public schools Alongside her team in libraries and digital learning. We're focused on digital learning tonight We'll probably be or definitely will be bringing her back to talk to us about libraries a little bit later this spring And miss Pimper car was featured at the Arlington Education Foundation showcase just this past week. Yes Showing off some of the unbelievably cool robots that we have now in our classrooms as part of our computer science work So take it away, Rashmi Can everyone see this like that and can hear. Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you Good evening everyone Thank you so much honorable members of the school committee Dr. Homan the community at large dr. McNeil. I'm sorry. I see a small window Thank You Allison Rob Michael and all present there For this opportunity to talk to you about the digital learning program at EPS With me tonight my wonderful colleagues Robin Peezy Lee and Erin Gill Who are elementary digital learning specialists Joanna Galvin who is our middle school digital learning specialist? Jeff Snyder our high school digital learning specialist Unfortunately is not feeling well, so he could not join us today But is absolutely cheering for us with a glass of some warm green tea. He likes green tea. So In addition we want to share a quick shout out to our lead DL Sorry lead DL educators from each of our schools who actively model Integrating digital literacies into our teaching and learning on a regular basis. So that's that's sort of the digital learning team in in a Inshore, but we are much more when we do interdisciplinary work, which is all the faculty in APS Give me a quick second. Awesome I'm invoking Dr. Seymour Papert here because Dr. Seymour Papert's transformative theory of constructionism has and will continually impact deeper learning Science research for all learners and it's across the globe and so very close to us at MIT media lab He actually formulated MIT media lab and his theory just to give a quick glimpse is built on a lot of you probably know PHA's theory of constructivism and by Gatsky's theory of zone approximate development and his theory proposes the Best way to ensure that knowledge is built in a learner is through the active construction of something shareable And he talks a lot about a poem a program a sandcastle a model or an idea. So it's very inclusive But he also emphasizes that it can be improved upon by seeking and incorporating it rate of feedback That sort of is what inspires us as a digital team and it's also in our vision for APS And we endeavor to create opportunities for learners to actively engage with educational technologies in purposeful intentional ethical iterative and constructive ways, so it's it's a it's a very intentional way of Creating our curriculum and engaging with the faculty Especially around professional learning and we'll talk a little bit about that Um, this is our digital learning at a glance Um, can everyone still see the slide deck? It just appeared to be a bit hazy at my end Nope, we can see it. Awesome. Thank you Um, the digital learning team tries to support the students teachers administrators school professionals and community in many intentional ways So for example, we provide support and learning guides for Over 150 plus at tech applications systems and platforms across the district That's just one part of it But more importantly we advocate for procure update and maintain a database of student data privacy contracts For each of the at tech application that are used in the district This is super helpful because it keeps our students data private and safe So that's one of the systematic or processes that we we engage in on a daily basis on an annual basis We also collaborate with various departments in designing Necessary supports potential structures and professional learning experiences So everyone can sort of look at at tech as a tool that they can use successfully and with a purpose But the most important part of our work is of course with faculty and students We develop teach and iterate interdisciplinary curriculum units that are aligned to the massachusetts digital literacy and computer science standards And with a specific focus on interdisciplinary content Our focus is always to facilitate or help facilitate learning experiences for all learners where they sort of see technology as a way to to create to to engage to communicate to To sort of simulate situations and more importantly engage with an iterative problem solving process And that's both for faculty and student Here are some standards that we Standards guidelines and frameworks that we use In informing the work that we do And of course i've linked them in here for for your in-depth proposal So i'm not going to um into this but udl is sort of our foundation stone In terms of how we engage with the learning experiences I also want to quickly So to give you a glance this is a rough draft of our live curriculum grid Wherein we are currently developing iterating and posting lessons and curriculum units that are aligned to specific dlcs standards With interdisciplinary alignments. I keep repeating interdisciplinary because that's the world we live in nothing is sort of in isolation We communicate with each other. We make sure problems are touching multiple places multiple topics multiple content areas So we try to do that with our curriculum development we are part of desi dlcs learning community and We regularly collaborate with districts across massachusetts Rhode Island and new ham sure who all sort of are engaging in a similar curriculum development effort and are Involved in an iterative process. So that helps us tremendously And we hope to make all of this curriculum and resources Live on on our website so that you know community that is our arlington community and community beyond arlington can sort of Use it and give us iterative feedback so that we can improve improve our content um This is a quick example of how we plan Or design our professional learning sessions and resources that we provide during our session This is an example session of our egg tech accessibility tool for all learners called google read and write I just want to give a quick shout out to dr. Holman and allison because Um, they relentlessly helped, you know, they they really pulled out all staffs to get us this tool And for the district because it it is really helpful for all our kids and faculty to be able to use a tool such as google read and write Just to go back to our professional learning model Our sessions are usually designed with three sections in mind The first one is a launch section where we provide the necessary information and a live demonstration of the tool The second section of our professional learning is usually titled learning by doing And i've linked all the learning by doing guide in here so you can you can take a look at how it's structured But the learning by doing is where the learners Engage in various activities to learn the objectives by doing And it's the learn by doing part which actually comes from dr. Papert's philosophy But it's literally how we learn And then we find how they struggle or As they're learning they find certain new ways of approaching the content We design these activities with an intentional focus of being interdisciplinary And we always try to model the udl guidelines. So that's sort of the cornerstone of it And last part is of course the question and answers and reflection section Which is again part of that iterative learning process which informs the learning that needs to come next I I had the good fortune of meeting a lot of you during the The aef a joyful presentation where we had the b-bot and finches modeled at the And we had a few of the mats, but this is how the curriculum looks like This is a quick glimpse of the curriculum unit at the challenges. These are just three of them The following three are from Addressed the shapes life cycle and literacy so you can see the hungry cattle Hungry caterpillar book But you know, we have seven challenges that we have defined or designed with teachers and then we have more that we are Sort of co-developing with teachers as we go into the classrooms We are again super I just want to let you know you have about four minutes left Thank you. Thank you. Um manager time Absolutely. Um, I'm going to go quickly through just a big shout out to aef and everyone This is the dlcs finches that we are hoping to Now develop in our integration This is again our microcontrollers and our kids are going to be engaging with this and they might come home with fit bits So please use them and give them feedback. I want to hand it over To my wonderful team, but before that I just want to show you What we are hoping to achieve right now We have the b-bots and the finches in here But we hope to get a gamut of this toolkit with grants with aef support with your support so that we can sort of Cultivate this for our k-12 classrooms And I'll hand it over to robin peasley and erin gill who are elementary specialists will give you a glimpse of the elementary Highlights just a second Hi everyone, I'm erin gill. I am the digital learning specialist for elementary school And i'm just going to kind of go over some of the things that we do We are currently developing and teaching digital literacy and computer science curriculum models into our fourth and fifth grade ace block classes Additionally, as you've already seen in our b-bot integration example We've really been working to integrate the b-bots into the classrooms of k-2 students at all seven of our elementary schools And as mentioned before we support all students faculty and families from all seven elementary schools with any and all ed tech questions And rashmi if you could click on the link to the lesson on common sense media We just wanted to provide you with an example of a lesson that we have been using in our classrooms with fourth grade specifically And this lesson highlights the importance of media balance Which we have found to be especially relevant for students to reflect upon their own media consumption and how they can find balance in their own lives This particular lesson comes from common sense media Which is a great resource that we use a lot in our classroom And each lesson includes teaching points short videos discussion questions activities and assessments, which we find really engaging with students Thank you. I'm going to hand it over to robin Hi everyone, um, my name is robin peasley And because of your support, we were able to add one digital learning specialist this fall Miss erin gill We love her so much We now have one digital learning specialist for every four elementary schools We would very much appreciate your support in getting two more digital learning specialists for our pre k to five schools So we can have a ratio of one digital learning specialist per two schools This will allow us to focus on student learning Curriculum development individual school needs and continue and continue to build relationships with teachers Students and school community Thank you again. And I'm going to hand it over to our middle school digital learning specialist. Joanna galvin Hi awesome I just want to be mindful of the time we have about a minute left so that we can have time for the committee to ask questions as well Sure, so I'll just say hi everyone. I'm Joanna galvin. I'm the digital learning specialist for gibbs and oddison Thank you for having us Currently we are developing and look forward to integrating Dlcs curriculum modules into all of our classes for grades six through eight We've linked a lesson there that you can take a look at From common sense media. It's a sixth grade lesson In addition to the curriculum work As we've mentioned we support all of the teachers students and community members with all of ed tech tool related questions And we're also supporting schools and new initiatives Such as the lightspeed chromebook classroom management. Thank you again Since jeff snider is not here tonight. We just wanted to highlight some of the awesome things. He's also doing at the high school I I know we have 30 seconds If I could just play the video so you can see how joyful our kids are which you already know But it's just amazing to see them and talk about the academic content and collaborate with each other And being kind to each other. So just a quick glimpse of what our kid 24 seconds That's fine. I think we made it in time We would love to take questions from you And really really are thankful for your kind support Thank you very much Questions or comments from the committee. Mr. Cardin First I want to thank you your Yours is the first presentation that where the links and novus worked. So I don't know I don't know how that happened, but uh But that's great Because usually we get links and they don't work for some reason. But anyways, thank you Just a sort of a question about how you work with the curriculum leaders So, you know during during covid there was a lot of movement of of work to things like dreambox or Things like that And out of necessity and we've heard some feedback that there's still a lot going on You know a lot of assignments in dreambox and other online tools And that may or may not be The best In for our students. So how do you how do you work like with the math department on Analyzing if that's the best way to deliver curriculum? That's a great question. Thank you Dreambox is We work with departments. We take the department lead in terms of the curriculum Or the curriculum tools at tech tools that they are recommending. We help them roster. We help them Sort of navigate the tool and we integrate that into clever so students can access it students and teachers We can also track data We when asked we do give Data about how it's being used how much it's being used And anecdotal data, of course is there because our digital learning specialists are in the schools Um However, we do not we refrain from saying this tool as a department If the department is recommending it we we actually align ourselves As much as possible with the department tool that they are recommending We do recommend desmos in addition. We do recommend other tools that can provide a visual Visual models for certain mathematical examples. So those are some of the ways in which we support that Great. Thank you Okay elephant in the room to tell me about the chat gbt and what we need to be thinking about um It's um It's a ai tool now that all our children know And many of them have used it. They have used chat gbt and the new google tool as well Which they'll tell you the bash has come out So they know about it in APS it is blocked However, there there is some scaffolding that needs to happen In terms of why this tool is there how because you you you want to create an ecosystem that is about These are all creators our children are able to create technologies such as these So what are again that ethical use of technology and A lot of that comes from discussion a lot of that comes from reading and writing and recognizing what are the pitfalls of using technologies that give um You know non dynamic which is not active kind of engagement and chat gbt. Unfortunately ends up in there Because if you're Using it for plagiarism then that is hurting you as a student as a learner So that's where we are it is blocked in g in APS right now But it's not blocked on v y od and it is not blocked on the machines that they have at home Can I just say one thing? Erin and I just watched an incredible webinar on it the other day and they said you have to be 18 years old To in over to use it and the data is not protected So I'm not sure if a lot of people know that but I know it's constantly changing And I just heard yesterday that microsoft is going to use it in their browser in bing So Well, nobody knows uh, it's my cat on the internet either. I mean it's hard to enforce an age limit I just wondering I mean anytime there's an advance in technology. It's usually the students who get there first and then Us adults have to catch up Um I'm just wondering if there's anything we need to be thinking about on our end in terms of our curriculum and how we uh How we teach And do discourse as a result of the arrival of A more commonly available AI Absolutely you you said the two keywords right through our curriculum through our learning through our discourse Through examples that they find through research as well as we provide to it's it's an ecosystem that Needs a little bit of scaffolding from us And of course an intentional effort on our part to to bring out these cases because there are many many cases where Students are using it for coding purposes. They they are able to grab code and then modify it What does that mean? How does that track? It is it static? So those are the kinds of um evolving question which does challenge us because we are as you very correctly said, we are always one step behind um The children and which is a great thing but it's also It's also something that Helps us learn I think Okay, thank you. Uh, thank you Um, thank you very much for this presentation. I uh Was that the when you presented to the aef as well and um, so one of my questions is It sounded like it sounds like um in third fourth and fifth grade this not all of the students um Have the opportunity to to do the digital learning because if I think if I understand greatly if you take an instrument It's the students who are still in the classroom and Whoever, um, but I guess my question is, you know, I appreciate you asking for more for more digital learning specialists and I think that that's important, but um I want to make sure that if we're going to do something like that that every student In the school has access to the learning and I don't dr. Homan. Do you I know rashmi has ideas about what this could look like. Okay It doesn't have to be a quick an answer today. I just want to go ahead rush I just want to give you a huge shout out for saying that. Um, yes, that is the vision we we right now Work with the library team because they do have the k3 block But with erin and robin Split between seven schools and joanna between two schools We really would appreciate Two more wonderful digital learning specialists Who and then we we hope to do k5 Of course six to eight and nine to twelve. So that that's the that's absolutely the goal When we do the steam and robotics unit, we all go in literally Because we do robotic olympics in the classrooms. We have six challenges going on as you saw And so if you give us the two We will invite you in as well to to join us our robotics olympics, so please and so you you feel like Can I can I also add on to that? I think that if we have more Digital learning specialists in the district we can do more integration And it's also like to go along with the direct instruction So it's also working with teachers in order to integrate these Interdisciplinary skills around digital learning into the classroom And so if we have more individuals to do that we can push into more classrooms. We have more excess accessibility To the curriculum Thank you Thank you Thank you very much for your presentation. We appreciate it Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you Joanna, Ed and Robin. Thank you If somebody can just stop sharing there Thank you, okay Um next we have the elementary literacy core curriculum update from dr. McNeill Okay, perfect Okay, so um, this is just an update On the progress of our literacy program review. So we can go to the next slide So The objectives of the slide deck is to give an update of the process that we're engaged in right now Communicate the plan for parent involvement Provide a draft outline of an implementation plan once a program is identified and then I'll take comments and questions So this is a graphic of a timeline of where we are On this outlines the things that we've already Completed we have completed two rounds of literacy program review And that's all k5 staff have been involved in that They use a tool that we have Received from the hill for literacy The hill for literacy which we've partnered through partnered with through this process We're right now We just started our third round of the literacy program review And after each round of review Our literacy core team meets to debrief about the process and then we make certain adjustments in order to make Um the process a little bit more Smooth to go a little bit more smoothly From as we receive suggestions from teachers and other staff that I mean teachers and other staff that are participating in the review process Looking at the next Hold on no not yet yet through the timeline so Looking at the winter of 2023 once we go through the literacy program review process part of the process is is having a staff to Attend publisher round tables and if you look at the timeline those are the dates That are right there with those round table discussions are going to happen So as they are reviewing the tools looking for evidence of certain things Based as they review the programs looking at the tool and looking at the items and looking for the evidence In the program for those various items There are teachers are also asked to come up with various questions that they can pose to the publishers And then we will have a chance to Ask those questions to the publishers during the round table discussions We're also going to have and I've set up Two I already have two dates for parents to also have a publisher round table So and you'll see later on in the slide deck that we have resources that parents can access electronically I've thought about this and reflected on this process in order to involve parents And this is the best way to do it because it's It will be much more convenient for parents and also for staff To have parents to be able to access the different program materials electronically so Once they access those Program materials electronically We will have a publisher round table for each program The only one that I that is not set yet is the My view literacy and I that's why I have a proposed date So I am waiting to hear back from the publisher Of my view literacy to confirm March 15th 6 to 7 p.m. And then as these dates become As we get closer to these dates I will send out a Communication to all parents to let them know and invite them to the round table discussion And then the proposed final date for review of the data is april 6th We'll make that We'll look at the data. We'll look at the data that we've collected from the program review tools And then we will make a recommendation to dr. Holman And right there at the bottom of the slide you'll see a link To the all the it's like a it's a it's a table that has all of the dates in there Right there these this includes all the dates and all the activities that we participated in throughout the review process So we can go to the next slide So the next few slides are just um, and I want to emphasize this to all parents who are watching that um Once you access the slide deck again, it's in a pdf version So I'm going to have to send out the slide deck or message to parents with these links So that they can click on the links They will have access to the program materials for all grade levels And then there's other supplemental resources that are right there in the slide as well And then we have the curate reports and then we have the ed reports Which is a review on all the programs And uh different programs as you see there in this particular slide for What is that l education el education you'll see the curate Reports for k through 2 3 through 5 and then the ed reports is comprehensive and that's k through 5 So though that slide slide number 4 This slide right here go to the next slide that's for um My view and then the next slide is for wit and wisdom So all those are all the materials that parents will need in order to review the materials And it will be at their convenience Next slide All right, so the implementation plan And this is just a sketch because I haven't really revealed this to teachers just yet But some of the initial ideas is we're going to have to do this. We're going to have to do this in um Different segments So the first segment will be fourth and fifth grade because we've just completed a lot of work at the early literacy Um levels with our early literacy Focus and we've introduced foundations at kindergarten and third grade We've also introduced hegerty and the decodable texts So because the teachers are still getting familiar with those materials and we've also Implemented the uh all of the subtests for dibbles Teachers are still getting familiar with that. We're going to focus on grades 4 through 5 So we're going to look for those teachers The goal is to have one fourth grade and one fifth grade classroom become a lab class Classroom in each building throughout the district. Those will be teachers who feel like they're comfortable And um implementing the entire all of the units in the program that we select Those teachers will be fully supported with all the professional development throughout the summer And then when we use those classrooms as lab classrooms so other teachers can come and see how that program is being implemented At the same time next year all fourth and fifth grade teachers will receive Uh full on professional development throughout the entire year and teachers who feel comfortable can maybe at some point in time during a year Uh Test out one of the units where they feel comfortable. They can do one unit throughout the year So at the end of next year, it will be the expectation going into The following year that all fourth and fifth grade teachers will be implement will implement the new program And then we'll start the same Process for the other grade levels And that is it How did I do on time? Very impressive seven minutes Is that a record? Is that a record? For you it might be. For me. Oh Wow, it's the record this evening. Is that all right? Wow Nice. Okay. I'll take that questions or comments Mr. Carden your links are working. So maybe it was a novice upgrade. Everybody's everybody's links are working now That's that that's that's a relief. Yes. Um, but we we had meant I'd suggest it and and still hope you will send out A communication to parents Especially elementary school parents that you know where we are in the process sure that these these forms are coming These materials are now available for them Here's the link to where The stuff is yes absolutely Look for that. I'll I'll get that out as soon as possible. Great. Thank you And the implementation plan sounds sounds very very reasonable and but yet aggressive. It's very balanced. So thank you Mr. Simmons, I just I just think it's important to clarify The district is selecting the curriculum. It's not if you're getting parent input, but it's the superintendent's choice It's not a school committee vote either Right and we go to budget Yes, and the core team will provide me with a recommendation and that the time and care that that group has put in under dr McNeil's guidance Um, I I have a hard time imagining that whatever recommendation they were to bring me. That's not what we would go about doing But yes, it's a district's um decision with all of the input from teachers and from everybody else. Yeah, I was It's always good to Remind the audience of that, but it's considered a significant curriculum change. So we ultimately have to vote on it That's true. Is that right? Okay. Yes, that's my recommendation would come to me and then my recommendation And we would we would so we would be taking a vote on this new curriculum. Okay. I just want to clarify Okay, thank you I just want to say thank you I asked a lot of questions that you answered in this presentation, so I appreciate all the thought that went into it and The the getting information from all of the The teachers in the building Not just the classroom teachers And the special education teachers, but as I understand it the music teachers the art teacher the pe teacher were all asked to provide feedback and I I think that that's it's important that that many stakeholders Were able to think about this and provide the the committee the literacy committee with Their feedbacks. I appreciate how thorough this process. Thank you very much and thank you for the questions as well All right Superintendents proposed budget for l24 dr. Helman If you like While we're waiting, I also want to highlight that um Miss elmer and miss perry are also co-chairs of that literacy core team. So They're thought partners as well and and so it's been our collective leadership that has Helped move this along Okay, I believe I'm getting it started. Yes Yeah, of course. Yes, good evening members of the school committee It is myself and mr. Mason's pleasure to bring to you the superintendent's proposed budget for fy 24 I want to start by thanking the students who contributed the artwork for the front cover once again this year We had a lot of potential artwork to choose from as you know, because we have a Spectacular art department and we're thrilled that we can grace the cover of this year's budget book with more student work I want to begin by highlighting some of the priorities and highlights of the document that you received Shortly before this meeting in which the public will have the opportunity to review offer their commentary on and that you Will also have an opportunity to offer your feedback on tonight and ongoing Our priorities were to make sure that we addressed increasing enrollments at the secondary level Our as our enrollments have leveled off at the elementary level We are seeing some of those bigger classes move through the gibbs the oddison and now the high school We wanted to make sure that we are ensuring equitable distribution of support staff at our elementary and secondary level and have completed Some of the efforts we had started last year to make sure that we have math interventionists appropriate levels of English learner and special education staffing At all levels we want to expand the capacity of the system to address our achievement and opportunity gaps in alignment with our soon to be implemented strategic plan As well as the operational capacity of the system in response to organizational growth As you know, we expanded a lot of student facing Roles and didn't make a lot of adjustments as student enrollment was increasing to some of the operational capacity that surrounds Those student enrollments and so some of these objectives are tied to that We also need to make sure that we staff the new orlington high school building to meet the demands of that building and the new Programming that was written into the programming proposal when we initially imagined what that new building would look like And of course we want to plan for the implementation of our five-year strategic plan Which includes um several items that have a dollar sign attached to them Some of the highlights that you'll see in this year's proposed budget Are additional English learner teachers to match increased enrollment At a couple of schools particularly at pierce and oms Some additional An additional point five special education team chair at gibbs to meet the demands of students with iEPs at that school An additional elementary librarian additional elementary math interventionists that come with an offset because we're moving Non-professional role into a professional role in those places Additional teachers at the middle school and high school levels to address enrollment and additional operational staff in the business office And to support the new high school as well as our facilities department I'll hand it off to mr. Mason who will talk you through some data Thank you dr. Holman So this so um first, you know Part of allocating our budget or looking at our budget is looking at the enrollment and So what we have here is six years of actual Data from fiscal 18 of fiscal 22 With additional projected years From our internal projection, which you'll see that's in the green line These are just for in district enrollment. This is not included out of district out of district enrollment Which hovers around 60 or so students For those that are keeping track looking at the previous october 1 numbers that we've provided What um, I will say that also it includes two project, uh, three other projections Two was provided from a vendor more recently decision insight And another was mckibbon. That was the last one provided back in august of 2016 And what I will say to note is that you know the mckibbon forecast As some of us have already discussed and alluded that you know is pretty much projected a trend line That is actually occurring With our current enrollment based on our mathematical projections And I I will add to that is that you know with any projections. It's hard to Actually nail down because of the arbitrary Factors are a matter of how you would calculate it Um, but some of the things that did go into these projections Is birth rates and which we're which I've been seeing that there are declining and They're also some of the other projections did look at real estate data or transactions to the best of their abilities And other data sources But overall what what you'll see is dr. Holman alluded to in the highlights is that We're gonna we're seeing our enrollment bubble work through the up mid to upper grade levels right now So that's where our resources will be allocated in this budget so The next slide is revenue sources For the last five years, which shows our main sources of revenue has come from the town appropriation Which include um, it's a formula that's Been agreed upon in the long-range plan, but it includes funding that's from chapter 70 state aid and local tax dollars Which the community of ralenton Contributes to the town and then we do have our our normal entitlement grants And our special revenue revolving as well as circuit break Also included is uh in in our numbers and this is the last year you will see this Is our coven 19 grant funding sources so that The one you'll see in this year is s or s or three which we'll talk about and how we're going to tend to use The remaining of those funds because those funds expire september of 2024 Which will be slightly after the fiscal 24 ending period If you go to the next slide You'll see that the majority of our budget is funded and this is a snapshot for fiscal 24 What we anticipate our funding sources to be which is over 91 percent is more 90 about 91 percent is From the town appropriation, which is the chapter 70 dollars, which is equitable funding formula and state of mass and The local taxpayers and then we also Show that in red is the the grants portion, which is about three percent which can fluctuate up or down um Our special revenue and circuit breaker is another about 4.6 percent and then the orange sliver which is so little compared Which is about 900 thousand dollars. It's just the covet Related grants if you go to the next slide You'll see that this is um Based on the school committee voted uh budget transfer categories Um, this is how our operating budget breaks down for fiscal 24 and this proposed budget You'll notice that you know, the main big sectors are elementary education Our secondary education, which is nearly 27 percent each and then special education Related spending is around 25.4 With administration and then curriculum instruction However around six percent and other which includes transportation facilities I t In other special revenue fund funding sources That could be used for various purposes or at around 10 percent So this is how the numbers break down so between We're seeing an increase of from the the local contribution and the chapter 70 So the town appropriation about 4.4 million dollars Which is about 5.33 percent if you add the two together respectively It assumes that Um in the current long-range plan that we have a three percent increase in chapter 70 state aid As this is the new the first year for the governor Those state aid numbers are and have not been released yet um In our grants since we do not know what we're expected for grant allocations We always level fund Assuming that we're going to get the same amount these numbers can increase Sometimes they do decrease, but uh, mainly they do increase would largely with the idea grant Being a substantial portion of that um Our co-operative related grants we're we're itemizing and um and pulling it out and so This year, uh, we're anticipating that we'll have about 930 thousand dollars that we'll be carrying over into fiscal 24 After we do some transfers On back onto the general fund for this year's dollars and that'll give us an increase over last year one time spending dollars of One in 30 thousand We'll talk about how we intend to use these additional dollars to help accomplish some of our our strategic planning items and Um head start some jump start some some other initiatives And then there is some one-time spending. Well, that's what we happen from those grants and then as well as the Seeing an increase in special revenue and revolving about 350 thousand Doesn't mean that we're necessarily going to get an increase in funds But it's based on increase in the spending to spend down balances that we have in books And then we did see a decrease in what we're receiving for circuit breaker over the prior year. We're still carrying over prior year Revenue so this this year we're we're receiving about 1.9 million dollars, which is about 383 thousand dollars less Which overall gives us a 5.37 percent increase that we're anticipating to get for 4.9 million dollars Or over our prior fiscal 23 budget So the breakdown the math and get you to and before I hand it over to dr. Holman and get the boring this all the boring stuff out the way Is that you know You know, we're looking at our total operating budget um Of our main funds for about 95 point 1 million dollars And adding in the 936 thousand adder from esser When you take away what we had without the the cova grants last year was about 90.6 million from fiscal 23 Which leaves us with the actual budget increase between the years of 5.4 million, which we've already covered so After taking away Contractual obligations and cola, which is around 2.3 2.4 million We estimate There's some you know, it doesn't consider staffing In those who may retire or leave and how we replace those and what savings or We may not have savings happens when we do higher replacements um, but we also um have our We're increasing our out of district tuition and transportation I know that there's some discussion about that might happen around the transportation line item that I'll have to look into um Utility increases or anticipating This reduced from a previous estimate and to be able to actually balance the budget but also With one of the initiatives in the budget that dr. Holman will touch upon We hope that that role could help save some costs and utilities and then also with increasing department budgets About $450,000 across the board As well as 1.3 and proposed budget efficiencies that leaves us about 3.1 million dollars to actually allocate for Things that we like to do so I hand that over to dr. Holman who can explain it so elegantly about what we're going to do It for fiscal 24 Okay, so um Actually, I thought you were going to do efficiency Oh, yeah, I'm so very sorry my apology. So um, what I will will say is that um So we have a couple of budget efficiencies, which is The starting with the top one, which is our director of communications and grants in title one, which um The individual will be Not necessarily leaving the district will still be supporting us and you'll see and explain in terms of an offset That's going to happen out of one time funds as that person Phases out over time and then We'll see that um There you'll see there's a reduction of teaching assistance. This is all for monotony This you'll see that there will be an ad later on. This is an offset to get all of the um Teaching assistance at the Specialized support paraprofessional level SSP level um at the monotony preschool Um, so that offset will be later on in the later slide. Dr. Holman will touch upon Um, we're transferring a special education teacher from the bracket to the hearty So that'll also be touched. That's an offset for that As we're doing two math interventions. So it's going to be offset with uh with two SSPs That we'll be saving for that to get a professional level professional status Support and then um, we're doing it The administrative assistant is not necessarily a reduction. Once again, that's a transfer from one office to another To provide support in the business office And we are restructuring Changing the model of from science and social studies coaches to science and social studies curriculum specialists, sorry and then and then last but not least after like We had a lot of vacant positions on the book this year that were very difficult to fill And and even they were some of them were vacant prior to that. Um, we decided that It might be best to clean clean those off the books and that's what you'll see also in the proposed budget Which is a bunch of vacancies That these are not people losing roles but positions that we were not able to fill And that's going to be able to help us try to allocate dollars towards Other items that we would like to work like to propose in this budget Now i'll hand it over to dr. Holman, okay So i'm going to start with proposed additions to support the high school. This includes core area teachers in math history and world language at various levels of fte Some of this is bringing people who are in current part-time positions up to full-time positions to support additional sections There is also there are also some shared positions between for example art and computer science to expand interdisciplinary learning Some of which you heard about When we had the high school program of studies here recently We have additional teachers as well to support Some of the elective areas such as in wellness in facts in class areas that are frequently over Subscribed when students fill out their course selections And this should help us also reduce the number of students who have free blocks free periods in their in their schedule Because they couldn't get into whatever elective might have been offered during that time We also need additional reading support at the high school We have more students who are coming to the high school with reading services necessary And we would like to add a theater manager to help us support the beautiful Performing arts space that is built into the new high school We imagine that this theater manager could actually help us with all of the performing arts spaces There's a recording studio. There are various technologies available throughout the performing arts area And there's also the beautiful new discourse lab All of which contain av equipment that requires specialized knowledge to be able to use and so that's why that Is on the proposed ads there are also spaces like the smart lab in school cafe That will be part of the new programming that requires some level of staffing We'd like to go slow with this and so we're adding point fives in each of those areas It could potentially be shared In hopes that we can eventually fully staff these spaces with ssp sorts of roles Who would work directly with students to make sure that Services are provided in the smart lab and in the school cafe At the middle school level we have increased enrollments in um of english learners at the Middle school level particularly at oms requiring an additional fte there We have growing enrollments And we have expanded the core area teachers with additional lcs over the past couple of years But we haven't done the same for some of the Other classes that sort of surround the core lcs. So we need additional To make sure that the class sizes are manageable in the specialty areas at Addison middle school And as mentioned before we are adding a special education team chair at gibbs And there was an additional efficiency that i'm not sure was in the list that you added But we have a point five clerical role at gibbs that we are that we haven't been able to fill That we'd like to repurpose towards this transitional specialist for the gibbs Which would help coordinate activities coming into and going out of the gibbs And making sure that we have a smooth transition through that only school that has only a single year Of students in that space. So they're kind of in constant transition mode And this role would replace the point five clerical in order to help make sure that that is a really smooth transition We're imagining that person would work carefully closely with the welcome center to Support orientations and other transition activities at the middle grade levels Um for Ella preschool and elementary proposed additions. We are you saw the offset of the special education slc teacher at bracket That program is moving to hearty And will be need to be fully staffed with two classroom teachers this year Additional el teacher appears to support growing enrollments there and as well as a special education liaison at pierce To make sure that they have an appropriate ratio of special education teachers at that building The additional math interventionists, which again is just a transition from a non professionally licensed role into Full math interventionist licensed teacher role instrumental music teachers to support the growth in instrumental music Across our system because of the reduction in fees an additional elementary school librarian to continue the work That we're trying to do to build out that programming And an adjustment to create a specialized support pair professionals at monami preschool Where there were previously t8s. That's the offset that was earlier in the efficiencies As for district wide proposed additions There has been an adjustment of so there was an efficiency of an assistant in my office To become assistant to the assistant superintendent of finance and operations creating a clerical role in the business office That again is budget neutral because of the offset a building systems manager, which was part of the High school plan was to have somebody who would manage some of the automation systems that are part of our newer buildings This would be a district wide role that would help us manage the efficiencies of all of our buildings But would be housed primarily at the high school to make sure that this building systems are running efficiently Which helps offset some of the cost of electric that mr. Mason was of energy which mr. Mason was talking about Earlier in utilities There's an increase in hours for payroll staff as I mentioned before we've increased Instructional staff along with the increase in student enrollments. We've also increased Staff as a result, which means we've increased the demand on the payroll office Which requires us to make sure that those people can keep up with paying all of our people which is very important um The grant administrator role that was an offset in the efficiencies We'll move over into the business office as a full-time grant administrator That role currently is shared with communications and I'll explain that as part of the SR dollars in a moment And as you saw before the coaches turn to specialists And there is also a The reading teacher i'm a little confused by mr. Mason Are you talking about that over the ahs? I'm not sure why that's on district wide. So we'll take a look at that that might be a duplicate So that's not an additional reading teacher at ahs. Yes um And then for s or three We know that there is hesitation and concern about us having a lot of positions on the s or three dollars Especially positions that we are interested in maintaining out through multiple years So we did as much as we could to keep positions that we think we might like to have in the out years Away from these dollars. So we're not over committing ourselves to future budgets ahead of knowing what the outcome of future budgets might actually be That said we do have some specialty roles on the s or three proposed additions that we would like to try out Assess and then make some decisions around once we know dollar amounts for future budgets. This includes Dei specialists a director of research data and accountability which we would post as a one-year role This would be to do some setup work in collaboration with the deputy superintendent Around a dashboard for to you know, project the success of our strategic plan to get some data systems and Routines in place And to do some analysis aligned with our strategic plan as well as to try out this role This is a role we've talked about in the past whether or not it should be at the director level whether or not it should be at the teacher level And what kinds of skill sets we thought we needed available for that? I would like to try it in this way and Take take a look at what we think the impact of it is and assess whether or not we want to keep it in future budgets There's also director of communication and family engagement. This is one that we would want to keep This would be the director of a welcome center and the new central office This role would oversee all aspects of district-wide communication registration and enrollment and would work as a member of the cabinet team We've also included a counseling director for Arlington high school It would be specific to counseling and to overseeing counseling as well as coordination of 504s across the district Which at the moment don't have A lot of consistency in terms of how they tend to be implemented and carried forward across multiple years This person would because high school counseling is a very different thing from counseling and social work at some of the Lower levels would be responsible for helping also with the coordination of the high school schedule which currently falls on one of the many the few administrators in the building and It's usually that the schedule falls in a counseling department But the way the counseling department is currently structured. It doesn't it falls on a single high school administrator And so the goal is to move some of that responsibility back into the counseling office in order to open up space for those administrators to do teaching and learning work And help with supervisory loads that right now are pretty heavy. Also on our directors There is a communication specialist This is a role that we are not sure would continue in the system But it would be to help us clean up some of the aspects of the new website that need to be reorganized to help build some systems around communications and some Expectations around communications that we could share out with all of our Administrators in the district linked to some of the goals of our strategic plans As well as an expansion of instructional leadership teams stipends Which we have done a lot with this year and teachers on the ilt told us this is a lot of work We think we should be paid more for it So we would like to pay them more for it and try to get that into future budgets as we are able And they're the other one-time spending on us or three. I would have to defer to mr. Mason I am not sure what the plan is for some of the one-time spending Some of some of the one-time spending include Also indirect charges that will be tied to this to the personnel related to this grant and any Ideas of any of instructional support that might be needed to the district whether it's equipment or technology purchases And curriculum purchases It this that those dollars could allow us to get slightly ahead though Dr. McNeil has reminded us that it is important that we make sure whatever we purchase is newest addition So we would probably prioritize purchasing fourth and fifth grade materials for the new literacy curriculum Over getting ahead on grades two and three because it's possible that they would roll out updated Resources in the next couple of years. So we wouldn't want to be too far out in front of that All right, and our remaining steps are that we will have a school committee Meeting in march for a public hearing at the beginning of march and then mid-march for a tentative date for a vote on the superintendent's proposed budget We visit the finance committee in march and town meeting in april I'll take we'll take any questions that you have thank you Questions comments Mr. Hainer just a minor one back on the elementary proposed additions I instrumental music teacher 1.2 I assumed you based it on a $70,000 for 1.0. Shouldn't that be a little bit more? That's the math in the spreadsheet It's a minor question actually not 1.2. It's just it's 1.16 It's the actual fte I should have known you had the answer. Yeah, thank you 1.16 Mr. Cardin So looking at the budget efficiencies from vacancies, there's Four of my specialized support paraprofessionals that look like they support slcs Are we able to operate the slcs without those people? Their vacancy there's their positions that are vacant now They're in the budget, but they're vacant because we weren't able to fill them We've been using them providers We've been using contracted providers. Um, so the positions are still posted So these are positions that are not posted are not filled are not filled by service providers are not Like right now they're just vacant and they've been vacant We One of the ways that we're thinking about doing this is we're trying to take a look at positions that we have not filled at all This year And we did have a rapid expansion of ta positions during the pandemic That we never looked back at and said what should the proportion of ta's to students in a building be? And I think that changes depending on whether or not you have a program in the building So to your point if you have a program that requires a lot of hands-on Work with students then you might have more ta's in the building But we haven't gone back and right sized from the pandemic the number of fts We have in a building and as a result We sometimes have vacancies that it just isn't that important to the school To really try to fill as much as it is to try to fill a vacancy over here or to bring in a contracted service So we've cleared some vacancies from the list and the we've added some reserve positions to the budget And what we're planning on doing is saying if these are services that you In building your schedules are you're not able to work with the staffing that you have then provide us with some data That tells us that you're going to need additional staffing in order to provide these services We have reserve positions in the budget Our hope would be that we could use those towards some proactive roles like moving something off of us or into the general fund Or adding some additional digital learning teachers or librarians But if we find that the need is so great and that we can't adjust schedules and use our service providers Efficiently and we need an additional service provider in a space because of what the student needs are Then we can use those reserve positions to add back Um some staff we we took from areas where the proportion of TAs to students in that building were particularly high even given the fact that there might have been a program in that space so I just understood your question because um the positions that are filled though by contracted service providers are actually being rolled over in the budget Those vacancies Are being maintained so that we will be hiring Ideally for next year first because we can't supplant um unit D positions that those those vacancies are the ones that are Yeah, and it's not advantageous for us to continue to contract those those positions Right. I mean what dr. Homan said sounded sounded correct for teaching assistance But i'm talking about the specialized support professionals which are budgeted under special education and It sounds like they're not positions that we couldn't fill but they're legacy positions that were in the budget mistakenly or For some reason Right without without yeah without getting I think we need I think I'd like more detail on it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I think without getting too nuanced operationally Leaders do make changes in their buildings and instead of the roles being changed in compensation a staff member held uh SSP level pay Even though they weren't may have not been in that same role anymore Because they were shifted around and those roles have been been carried in the budget and so now This is to correct that But I can give you more data I just wanted to follow up because I had this similar question Um, and I'm just going to ask it again to make sure So my concern is when I look at the efficiencies I see three SLPs for stratton for special education being eliminated and There aren't that many paras in that building so I'm just concerned whether our students have The support that they need and whether we are Vanishing something that they need but It sounds like miss elmer was saying that They're being it's being staffed by contracted. So there's certain positions. I'm just understood his question I thought he was asking about the ones that have been vacant this year that we have been staffing with contracted providers I'm talking about I know I now realize what you're talking about. So I was responding to it Okay, I thought with a different question. Okay. Well, then I asked my question if it's not addressed by your things So so I'm concerned that it seems like a lot. I mean, I'm concerned about the other SLPs and other schools too, but three of them from a school that only has 14 to start with Seems like a lot and especially since They're not all in the slcs. I mean it just It under the stratton heading It says for paris that there's Oops, I'm wrong. There's 16.8 and in Uh fy 23 and then we're getting rid of I'm confused whether it's four or five because there's different numbers in different places Of paris two of them are ta's three of them are slps SSPs SSPs, sorry, sorry, sorry SSPs But it just feels like a lot for The program and I just don't understand and I'm concerned So sorry, I was not trying to interrupt Mr. Cardin. I had kind of the same question If I could just respond Well, I mean a I'd like to further investigate for you to give you some reassurance, but I'm sure That these positions have been vacant for over a year and they've been operating But secondly is that not every not every Position that's an SSP Actually is funded under the particular school's budget So there are district-wide accounts that you would have to dive deep into the budget Which I'd like to give a chance to do because they're not necessarily nested under that. They may be under a 81 I'm good. Okay. So they have they may be there may be places other people in there that aren't showing up in that little box Okay, that's fine, but I still feel like three out of What can't be a huge number is a lot. It's actually five Well, no, it's it's it's two TAs and three. Yeah, it's two TAs and three slps ssps. Sorry SSP So I do also just want to add that ssps Serve multiple purposes. So you may have a one-to-one that was with a student who then moves on two gifts We are trying to get better at making sure the position goes with the student But as michael was saying sometimes those positions stay in the building gives hires a new One-to-one for that student and that's where some excess may come from So when michael gathers more detail, we can tell you about exactly those positions that are listed We've also had a decrease of the number of students in the slc We peaked at about 33. I believe two years ago We're around 24 or 25 right now So the question to a position has remained vacant this year Like there's also fewer students in that program. So they may not have needed as much stuff But I think it would be helpful to get more detail Expectually from dr. Hannah And then then the other follow-up was just I understand that they've been Functioning but that doesn't mean they've been functionally functioning optimally Right and that's my concern is if we're getting rid of the money that would pay for the person Then we can't hire the person if we find one so on to the point mesalmer made in those places where that Functionality is significantly impacted by the fact that there's not somebody there That's where we've gone to an agency because we simply We know that that need is there it's evident to us And these are positions that have been vacant for significantly longer than that which makes us Question whether the need is there but like I said we have the reserve positions at least in part because We want to make sure we have a little bit of room to add and the vacant positions Note for an ssp would be you know, two of them within one of those vacant positions the capacity to add So that gives us the a little bit more flexibility to assess once schedules are built and once we've tried to place students Strategically whether or not we actually will have need for additional support because we're not meeting students services in any of those classrooms Okay, if I can add one more thing. I just also would imagine that besides reserves is that Over the summer if we do then we're going to do that analysis of the turnovers, right? And so I'd imagine that they're going to be positions that we still will have trouble filling And that we will then be able to assess the need if there are other like More important needs or higher level needs Such as an ssp we will then can allocate those resources at that point in time as well So I I I don't want to necessarily run the same level of access That we brand this year. And so that's also part of because Thanks very much. I I just I'm the esser funds the elementary secondary school emergency relief funds they expire that goes through june 30 September 2024 2024 Okay, and then okay, so these this 936 thousand dollars worth of positions We're hope we're obviously hoping that there's enough revenue the following year to cover those positions with our With non-esser funds And do you not not all positions? Okay. Yeah, I think there's one or two positions one position that needs to be reassessed Okay after First year and then the other position may get carried over you could you clarify that what position needs to be reassessed on You know if you said that I missed it The research data and accountability we would post as a one-year position you have okay. All right The communication specialist who would also post as a one-year position Okay, and then you would just see based on Okay All right. I just want to clarification. Thank you Miss Morgan still working on the mental gymnastics of the esser because that's it's tough for everybody Because if this is a deviation for us and that's why like a lot of us are feeling really itchy So what you just said dr. Homan like three minutes ago was if we don't need these reserve positions for the ssp's or whatever else Then maybe we move some stuff off of esser But like we have to spend that esser money next year right so like We can move it off in our mental gymnastics when we do the vacancy When we do the efficiency Add reconciliation for f y 25, but we really can't move any of these things off of esser because we've got to pay these Think we have to spend that without spending it on something else. Yes. Okay. Um, great. So that makes sense to me Mr. Mason has been very patient with my pages Questions this week. Um, I am all sorted on the bishop bus Which is great one thing that I noticed Was that in the revenue? it looks like We put that because I I was worried about where the covet infusion went the 600 000 that we had agreed to With like that we have a tentative agreement with About it looks like that was put in the f y 20 operating override edition row for f y 24 As opposed to in the covet 19 infusion. I believe that 600 000 is still we're still calling it a covet infusion So we want that In the like five rows down I think because the f y 20 the override editions there aren't any for 24 So on page 17 the chart So I think that needs to go down because it we there so which brings me to my next comment Does that make sense? You know, no, what I will say if I could respond is that If you're looking at the pdf document at the moment The pdf document's going to always be going to be slightly different So as I get feedback and updates from the members of the committee and my team We are going to be consistently updating the link that was provided earlier. So, um I did do an update to I believe that page you're referring to Okay, but it may have not been converted to a pdf And then we got it. Okay. I I've been very good about being in the google doc all week And then I made the mistake of switching over to novice for our meeting. So that's why I'm not following Okay, perfect. So that's great. So So there there are no override editions Presently no in for fy 24. That is a still a debate, right that we are are having and I you know from for me, I I am very supportive of of the additions in this budget I do think that we've made Well, not explicitly called out. We are making some important adjustments for unit d the math interventionist positions being Transitioned the work that we're doing at the preschool around making those important reclassifications To a you know, slightly higher pay scale. So I'm glad that we're doing all of those things. I And I do hope that if we are able to secure additional funds for fy 24 as part of the override that we'll we'll use those to Look at our at our contract My personal preference. I want to look at the unit d contract, but you know, we can debate that I want I want to make sure that if we do secure additional funds for fy 24 that that my preference is to not Work through additional positional ads, but to use that toward contractual adjustments So I I just want to say that Here because we're talking about the fy 24 budget and most of it is you know, the most of it is locked down But if there are additional funds that we're able to secure contingent on the override That's what I want to do with that And otherwise, you know, this is a huge undertaking and I I'm very impressed with where we're at and I know we've got you know Some more time before we need to vote this and we have budget tomorrow morning. So that'll be super fun So thank you so much Just one more question one more comment So Dr. Homo you just said about the director of communication Troubles me a little bit. I mean if our intent is to Find the funding for that I actually think there's other things that we're adding like the transition specialist at Gibbs That is would be easier to fill and it's more likely also and it's equally Cuttable if we have to make cuts So I think if you're posting that position for just for one year that's going to affect the candidate pool If you flop those two You're still short forty thousand dollars, but um There may be other there may be other I think that director of communications position Is more important to be in the base budget than some of the other stuff just just feedback to consider Let me clarify one thing the one I said was We would post as a one year was the communication specialist role And the director of research stated an accountability role The reason for some of that is tied to personnel Okay, I think it's a director of communication the director of communication family engagement We would post as a permanent role. Okay, but I take your feedback about maybe looking at other positions to move into the Esser versus the base Thanks So I just had a couple other comments right now Also about us are First, are we sure that the esser spending that we're uh anticipating Meets the grant requirements I mean that that we check we're checking all the boxes that that it does what they want. Okay um, and and that's another thing as we Move things around we need to be sure that we're still doing and second for the positions that we're talking about funding for one year um I'd like to hear something in a future date about how we're evaluating the position success You know, how do we decide is this worth doing or or what are we going to learn from this and then go back and and check that out at the end Yeah, the only I I just want to focus on the other unknown in here is the enrollment Is that we did have that drop After the pandemic and we did gain some back in two different ways It appears from the state data That we had some kids who were redshirted in kindergarten in 2020 and came in in 2021 But there's also just this permanent gap of 10 20 30 students whatever who Disappeared at that point and haven't come back yet, but I'm tracking the entry year for kindergarten because before 2020 we were um uh We were declining a little we went from 522 to 587 the peak uh Down to 524 and then boom with the pandemic it went to 453 Two subsequent years were 486 So I'm wondering if that thing is going to sort of stabilize and start to pop back up again. I mean McKibben projection on on the graph Uh seemed to be The really sharp one in that when he did this he was looking he brought in a whole bunch of Uh real estate transit He brought in a whole bunch of real estate transactions in there So having done Some projections Uh, I I when I was doing is all doing is statistically and not with the depth that McKibben did So I'm wondering, you know, I'm wondering given both the fact that the town is looking to be more inclusive in terms of its housing and development as well as Uh The possibility that number is going to kick kick up again Um I hate seeing those low numbers in in the projection in the graph because I just don't think they're they're they're really that realistic You know what I mean? Absolutely. I understand what you're saying. Um once again, you know Many factors as you know going to Doing a projection. I what I will say is that you know Our earlier years, um that you're referring to had births at highest 600 I mean over 600, you know to Up for 500 and so now what we're looking at is Low 400s to mid 400s. Um in terms of birth birth data and so I mean you're probably you You bring up an interesting point that if you know if there are any zoning changes or any any particular change in terms of Housing opportunities. Yes that I can't see an uptick that these projections just won't provide. Yeah But those are things are hard to to predict in general the one that the other the other thing It sort of worries me is what the housing crisis going up is the younger families Who are really young are less likely to be able to forward to come in but we'll have a few more earning years and uh more incentive to relocate into a Community where they like the school so that There there'd be an uptick between birth decay Demographically Yeah, it's it's always a puzzle. I don't I don't have the answers. I just want to play with those questions and think about Uh strategically long range what we may be looking at because we may we may hit Nobody saw the increases that came after 2012 That was really a demographic shift in in terms of Young folks who were willing to raise children in smaller housing units. Yeah and so I I think I think we're still a desirable community And that we we I think there's still room for even that sort of development plus New housing that might be coming in Thank you both very much for all of your work on this Thank you for the monotony Paris. Thank you And actually I'm gonna just stop if our um, if Tamaki and Amy if you would like to leave you are welcome to Move on Stay, but I don't want you to feel like you need to um The second read on the school year, uh 2023 2024 calendar Um So you have an update for the calendar what we um, our hoping might be able to happen tonight We had actually moved the the timeline on giving you a first read of the proposed calendar up a couple of weeks up a meeting Um so that we could address some concerns that we're coming in from the community and talk about some of the data that we had gotten back from our surveys We're hoping because we're still trying to nail down Things like conference dates and which dates will be are all release for disrequired pd days Um, we we don't have those in here yet We have made some significant revisions based on some of the feedback that we received at the last meeting So we're hoping that we can review and discuss and then have another couple of weeks before we do a vote Because we know there will be some additions and changes We can do that. I also I just wanted to We could vote this so that Families and teachers can know when the first day of school and the last day of school And I believe all of the vacations and professional days are accurate now And then you can bring us an updated calendar that we can revote when The early release days and the conferences are in there. Sure I just want to confirm before we do that the Elementary will continue to have an early release every single Wednesday. Yes. Okay. Um, so it's the secondary That's the secondary all days that we haven't nailed down yet. Correct motion to approve a preliminary calendar Confirming the starting date This preliminary calendar which has the start date the holidays But that is a preliminary calendar because Okay We have a motion by mr. Schlickman with someone like to second it seconds. So we're just for We're not doing two readings. We're just gonna just We saw this Yeah, this is the second this is the second read All right, so when we have those other pieces we'll bring them back to the committee. I'm clear. We've done that in the past Yes, we have We have a motion by mr. Schlickman seconded by mr. Hayner To do a preliminary approval of this calendar Discussion miss morgan. Yes. So the plan for a hs So right now the the plan for I did follow up on this and the plan for a hs is not to have Is to have departmentalized days where we move departments And then the students on those days wouldn't have the class for in the department that is moving As opposed to having half days or having Days off to facilitate the move So there would not be half days or days off at a hs to facilitate the move But there would be a day where the history department is moving students do not have history class Okay, that makes sense and and that's over how many days I That detail we still don't have the exact it wouldn't be more than two from what I understand right now Um, like the history department would move over two days But I need to double check that still with the Folks who are organizing the high school move Okay, so is it gonna like the number that we had when we made the recommendation to the building committee to to retain Fosco so that we could eliminate disruptions on kids was that the move was going to take five days And that two of them could be over a weekend So it's really was three school days And then the question I had asked was about the 25th of september, which is um young capoor and So is that like so I guess what I I guess you're you can bring us a plan, but it just it Are we now talking about having like if it's two days per department? Then that there's a lot of departments Like are we talking like 12 days of moving like the 12 days of christmas like Okay Oh, of course. Yeah, okay. So it's just history english foreign language Yeah, and not even all of the english classes need to move Um, because some are already over in the new wing Okay, um, it's it's the bulk of history and social studies and world language. It's not every department Um And we would still be able to use some weekend time to facilitate the move It's mostly the get your and we will have teachers getting their rooms Not really unfully unpacking a room So they may not need a full day to prep their room And then they would need a full day once they're in the new building to get Their rooms prepared So that would be it would be two days in a department would be get your room prepared to be moved out of and then get your room Prepared once your stuff has been moved probably overnight into the space or over a weekend into the space to get your room set back up okay, so It it would be helpful I think because It sounds like it has the capacity to have an I mean I I would be grateful when there's a more like Concrete plan for us to just have a chance to see it so that it we can sort of just get a sense of how big the impact is on learning time across you know multiple days because that would be That would be helpful and I just want to make sure that This is a pretty significant deviation from which is fine. It seems like it's a good one I didn't you know who knew this was this was a possibility Um, it just it feels like a significant change from what we had agreed to it On the face of it seems like an improvement, which is great, but it would be helpful to hear about it so that we know Whether it really is so Thank you I think part of the problem is that it's going to depend on when the building is done And so we can't you know We could look for efficiencies, but if the building is not done to correlate with rosh Hashanah or or Whatever holiday week won't be able to use those So it's something we can have a plan, but the plan may change late because It turns out that it's not done We heard at the last at the building committee meeting on tuesday that As of the start of january, they were 31 days behind schedule But then at the end of january, they were only 19 days behind schedule. So they they have the ability to Make up time, but still those are You know, that's a lot of time to catch up It would have been nice if they could make up like 10 days and just do it before school starts Mr. Thielman, so that we're not going to have a really clear schedule of the summer So it's just it's just not going to be known until the summer Mr. Haener I'm on the permanent town building committee. I got to tell you from everything that I've heard the high school is really efficient Making up and fixing time compared to the other two building instructions. Granted. They're not dealing with kids I'll give you that but the town yard and The senior center Let me I I think they're going to make up time to get very close I do based on their history, but we're not going to know that and we can't make a promise until I think sometime in the summer But they're going to get close to the 19th Yeah, they'll get close. They'll get rid of those 19 days. Okay, so let's let's stay focused on Approving this preliminary calendar. We can talk more about The moving date any other discussion on approving this preliminary calendar You know motion by mr. Schlickman seconded by mr. Haener Those in favor Opposed Abstentions, that's unanimous Help So now we're gonna We can take a possible vote for approval of the a hs Nordic ski team. Um, I think everyone knows this but Mr. Bowler at the beginning of each school year presents a list of teams that a hs will be competing in in the miah For that year so he he can Present the ski team, but since it's been a topic of discussion We felt that it was important to for the committee to acknowledge This team and they want to confirm dr. Holman that that is mr. Bowler's plan Okay So would someone like to make a motion to approve the a hs Nordic ski team? So moved Second we have a motion by mr. Thielman seconded by mr. Haener any discussion All those in favor Opposed That's unanimous Okay An update on the implementation of policy ecev electric vehicles Signs are up This this is sort of proud things along and I know that the superintendent has Requested the police chief to send the parking enforcement people over there as well Thank you Superintendents update dr. Holman Hold on one moment So I have a few Sort of good news items to share with the school committee We had an lgbt qia plus task force which is a task force of the rainbow commission That's been liaising with Their wonderful liaison dr. McNeill over the past about two years now And they had a forum for families on january 22nd, which was one of the days that Poor weather threatened to shut down our after school activities and despite the threat of slippery streets We had 30 plus families attend that session and hear from a panel of students Um and teachers about the work that we're doing in earlington public schools to support our lgbt qia plus Identifying students and so that was a wonderful opportunity to hear about the experiences of students as well as some of the work innovative work Our teachers are doing and there was some fantastic and a very Rich discussion amongst the participants in that forum about some of what we are doing well and what we can continue to improve We had the aes f grants showcase the first in person one as I understand it in about three years on january 30th There were a lot of really exceptional projects by some of our educators and partners in town Showing off some of the innovative work that's happening in the earlington public schools pictured there is miss pimpercar from earlier tonight Speaking as one of the keynote speakers at the showcase We also published a new professional development course list For our educators for the second half of the year and we've had two sessions one session one session For the new under the new menu And listed there are a few of the offerings that are some of our newer offerings being offered by both consultants and our own Educators some very exciting ones. We still have our affinity groups running. Those were running last Last semester as well We have a new program understanding the arlington met co-program another one how gender expansive youth engage in educational experiences as well as some Sessions on reading instruction and early literacy and so so so many more really cool opportunities for teachers the feedback dr. McNeil Let's me know every single time the feedback comes in that it is Overwhelmingly positive and we've gotten some really great feedback too from teachers on some little things that we can tweak to make this even better next year So we're looking forward to continuing and expanding on this approach We are about to enter strategic planning public comment phase and I am going to be Creating a video that's fairly straightforward. I hope nobody expects very many frills with this video Mostly just going to talk through exactly what is in the plan as quickly as possible So that if people don't want to read lots of really long documents They don't have to And then we'll have a forum where families can submit some feedback Tell us what they really like in the plan and what sounds compelling and what they hope to see out of it And if they think we've missed anything We're also going to work sort of more long range with acmi and some students Who are part of the u-view group at the high school to produce a little bit more of a promotional video That sort of explains the plan once it's approved so that we can share it out more broadly So that we can sort of have something that talks about the key elements of the plan that are really exciting And actually have some students and teachers talking about what they think belonging is going to look like what they Get from the new vision statement and what they're excited about in some of the new initiatives we are Going to enter into a public comment period next week once we have a chance to get the video out to community members And then that will be updated with translation following our collaborations with students because the translation piece in particular takes a Long time to get turned around. We're going to try to do that as quickly as possible We just returned members of the central office team as well as a building leader and a curriculum leader from the deeper learning dozen convening At high tech high we visited high tech schools from elementary through high school to learn about how deeper and project based learning Approaches have worked there and also how the system itself has worked to create cohesion Of professional learning opportunities of additional planning and co-planning time for teachers It is a public school within it's within a public system But it uses a lottery based approach to assign students to it so that they can create a demographically representative group of students Within the high tech system So it was really interesting to learn about a public system that has established Coherence and deeper learning and project based learning as part of their model with a lot of really innovative work around how they do teacher professional development So it was great to visit those schools and talk to those teachers and students about what that looks like for them And to learn from that and think about what pieces we might want to bring back We did a leadership reconvening tonight of all of the 120 plus people who were part of our august leadership workshop Including members of our school ilt's Pictured right here is the sixth grade gibbs chorus getting us kicked off this evening. That was impromptu We weren't expecting to do it But they had just finished rehearsing a song for the first time and they came in and performed it for 120 people Good for them and they did beautifully. It was so much fun So that was just to compare notes on how ilt work is doing And to make sure that we have a chance to reconnect and remember some of the work We did last august so that we can prepare in the last half of the year To think about what a strong start to next year will look like We just received an afghan refugee support for schools grant in the amount of 20 162 that's going to go towards supporting teachers and providing support staff such as tutors to our students Who have been recently relocated into arlington? We have several students who are refugees from afghanistan and so we're grateful for the opportunity for that grant from desi and that we have received Some funds from it I wanted to provide a little bit of an update on frigid cold and broken pipes, which we had over last weekend It got exceptionally cold last weekend as everybody knows We flew out of san diego and into a very very very cold boston And we did have some issues with broken pipes particularly at bracket Where a pipe burst and impacted the front office main office area and lobby the music room Which is right off of the lobby and a room that's used for intervention and coaching which is right off of the Main office so luckily no core classrooms were impacted by this We are working on figuring out what the repairs Process is going to look like we did need to rip some of the walls apart a little bit so it's Looking a little bit like we have some work to do in there right now But the whole bracket team has been exceptionally gracious and we had a huge crew of facilities maintenance custodians Principles donating their time from other schools there over the weekend helping with the cleanup And we're really grateful for all of the help that they provided over the weekend And because of that we were able to open on monday, which was really great news We also had a couple of pipes that froze in other places But we were able to slowly warm them up and so they didn't result in a burst pipe Which was great news I also wanted to provide update on communication that was recently sent out by some district administrators following the tragic death of tyreen nickles And that communication came out last monday and there was some verbiage in it that was objectionable to members of our community And I just wanted to acknowledge that we're doing work with the arlington police department I've been in close collaboration with chief flarity as has margaret creedal thomas our director of dei And we're planning on engaging in a conversation with them next week about some of the impact of some of that messaging Which was intended to talk about the impact of institutional racism on all of our institutions not only on Policing institutions, but that's true of a lot of our institutions It failed to acknowledge in that messaging the work that all a lot of our institutions including the apd have been doing To dismantle institutionalized racism So we acknowledge that some of the words that we used And the way they were put together had a pretty negative impact on some members of our community We want to hear what that impact was we also want to talk about how we move forward in a shared dialogue And we're committed to making sure that that dialogue happens. We're very grateful for our partners across town in all departments And I wanted to make sure everybody knew we were working closely with them To learn from our experiences when we talk about things like race and violence We're sure to sometimes say things in an unfortunate way And we will learn from those those instances and grow from them And finally enrollments are in your materials and I am happy to take any questions that you have Thank you Okay, thank you. Dr. Homan Consent agenda all items listed with an asterisk are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the committee so requests In which event the item will be considered in its normal sequence Warrant number two three one six five dated january 24th, 2023 in the amount of seven hundred forty one thousand six hundred thirty eight dollars and fifty eight cents Warrant number two three one seven four dated february 7th, 2023 in the amount of six hundred fifty five thousand Four hundred ninety three dollars and forty five cents meeting minutes january 12th, 2023 Meeting minutes january 26th, 2023 Over to approve is presented Second We have a motion by mr. Heiner seconded by mr. Schlickman all those in favor Opposed And i'm gonna abstain All right subcommittee leads and reports and announcements budget dr. Allison ampe Budget will meet tomorrow to discuss The budget and uh More work on preparing for long range plan meeting for next week Community relations mr. Heiner The school committee chat for lgbtq plus families will be this saturday february 11th from 11 a.m. To 12 p.m. I want to just Restate that the purpose of these chats are for the two school committee members Who are present are there to listen and to pass on concerns? We're not there to solve any problems If we can answer questions that we are aware of we shall do so but for the most part we're there to listen Thank you curriculum instruction assessment and accountability mr. Morgan. We are having a meeting on march second Facility don't know what we're going to talk about There's a list i don't know what's on it we meet on Monday february 13th At 9 15 a.m. For 45 minutes. We have two agenda items An update on different facilities and then a conversation about this space by the addison Policies and procedures mr. Schlickman no report Arlington high school building committee mr. Thielman. We talked about it during the calendar discussion Maybe for intended evaluation mr. Carter nothing to report liaison report Announcements i have a really quick one. That's a good one miss keys. Um Long time oddison custodian cliff phallus retired this week and The man never liked to be the center of attention and snuck out the door with us surprised. It's my last day So some teachers of the oddison are collecting Memories or well wishes and if you'd like to send one you can send it to randy flinn It's our flinn at arlington dot k12 dot ma dot us and she's going to put them all into a video and just Send him the link so he can watch them on his own and not be in the room with a bunch of people staring at him We wish him well. We don't know what we're going to do without him But it's You know good. We're we're very happy for him and he's off on all kinds of grand adventures I believe he was cited by some students at a convenience store at arlington There are parameters on like file type or anything like that that she has or has sent you all do you sit okay Future agenda item. All right I will entertain a motion to adjourn Dr. Allison every second is in my mr schlickman all those in favor Opposed abstention motion passes This meeting is adjourned. Thank you