Superintendent's Update (5 minutes)

Transcript (~6 min @ 15:25)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 15:29 Speaker 1: motion to close please made by miss McAllister grand seconded by miss Casatelli discussion seeing none all in favor opposed next I would invite the superintendent to provide an announcements section thank you very much mr. school a few things that I got to write up today first of all which is not written up is the intent is for the new website to go live January 15th so you will be hearing from Miss Kamosa on that matter on November 22nd

▶ 16:03 Speaker 1: Massachusetts passed new legislation regarding the delivery of English second language services while the regulations impacting service delivery remain to be written the bill also establishes a statewide seal of biliteracy Melrose has piloted this program over the past four years and has awarded students for their efforts the seal of biliteracy recognizes graduates who speak read and write proficiently in another language in addition to English with a seal on their high school diploma what I would like to do is provide recognition tonight for dr. Kim Talbot dot Kim has been an advocate for this both in Melrose

▶ 16:50 Speaker 1: and statewide and her advocacy made significant contribute contributions to this law being passed and in our achievement in this area we have become a leader in the state for this and I want to just recognize Kim for that the second thing remind everybody the annual Melrose veterans middle school musical is this weekend we have four performances of once on this island and over a hundred and fifty students participating they do a great job of participating kids through different versions so that more kids can participate and I will tell you all that they're concerned we are encouraging it as a no homework weekend so our kids don't have to be worried about homework work either if participating or attending the last thing I want to report out is I had told you recently that seem collaborative was applying for a grant if the grant is resource reallocation to district priorities it's part of a new grant programs working in conjunction with radar which is the new database basically replacing dot and it's the resource allocation and district action reports we've been awarded the grant for almost a hundred thousand dollars for two years and it'll be a joint effort with Woobin Wilmington North Reading Melrose Wakefield Stoneham and Reading and our focus will be how to use the radar data to increase our grade pre-k through 12 educators capacity in the area of inclusive practices which is being defined for the purpose of the grant as the instructional and behavioral strategies that improve academic and social-emotional outcomes for all students with and without disabilities in general education settings so we're all very excited the first grant meeting is this Friday in a very locate very convenient location

▶ 18:59 Speaker 1: Worcester but as we know the state thinks Worcester and Marlboro are central to all of us so there will be a team going out to gain the first information Mr. O'Connell just very briefly through the chair of the

▶ 19:13 Speaker 4: superintendent so this new ELL legislation or law it's early obviously and I'm not I don't mean to put you on the spot any do you anticipate that we're gonna see major changes in our curriculum or our approach to this area

▶ 19:34 Speaker 1: of education as a result of this law I don't really have an answer for you Dr. Adams and I discussed it briefly today because we know Governor Baker signed it today we have to wait for the regulations the significant changes you know that Massachusetts moved under question what was it question two and a two question two several years ago that ESL had to be English only the sheltered English immersion model on top of it there was a US Department of Justice advisory to the state that we were not making sufficient progress and we were not being inclusive enough which resulted in the requirement that every core in every course subject teacher be trained in sheltered english immersion it is now a requirement of the state to have your less license to have sei cert uh it's not certification endorse endorsement thank you um millions have been spent on this and so the question for all

▶ 20:42 Speaker 1: of us is what changes um having been in this business long enough i've been through every model including the model in which kids were taught in their native language i knew at that time the human cry was they were not making significant progress in the against standards based criteria criteria because they were not being taught in english so now this new bill

▶ 21:10 Speaker 1: will allow us to return to that do i anticipate that happening here not at this moment what i do worry about here is again we need to add staffing that that'll that'll be the big thing for us but it could be up to a year before the state comes out with