Superintendent's Update (5 minutes)

Transcript (~8 min @ 30:02)

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▶ 29:48 Jessica Dugan: i think it's important for us to see um the the kind of broader budget implications of our goals and our in our strategy uh with no further questions thank you very much we'll return to the

▶ 30:20 Christine Casatelli: regular agenda before we continue it I'd like to take a moment of personal privilege to remind our viewers that this meeting is being recorded thank you

▶ 30:37 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Ms. Castelli. She didn't have a script. Next on our agenda. My understanding is we will

▶ 30:42 Speaker 3: commence with the announcements of the superintendent schools. Thank you. So to Ms. Dugan's very

▶ 30:51 Speaker 3: point, superintendent's updates. One of our teachers, Jake Whitmore from the middle school had one of those great experiences he did an externship with Raytheon he was he's a math teacher and he was old he was able to see the connection between what he teaches as early as seventh grade to the workplace and he did a presentation I've seen the presentation and we're looking forward to him sharing with his colleagues how you make learning more authentic based on what he learned while working at Raytheon again for PD not only are we we participating in PD we have begun to give PD because of our expertise Carrie Berman and Kim Talbot presented at the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association Summer Institute on inclusive practices in foreign language as you know mass core which is the graduation requirements for the state require all students regardless of who they are to take two six two years of a foreign language two consecutive years and when I first came here Kim Talbot and I had a long conversation about how do you make that happen for special education kids and Carrie and Kim have been partners in this for the six years to the point where we now help other districts understand how you make that happened we continue our CBE work we applied for a grant and lo and behold we got to we're sending two teams to observe other schools in other parts of the state to high schools to understand some of the innovative practices help happening in other parts of the country we're sending a team to San Francisco San Francisco excuse me San Diego next month to look at an innovative school

▶ 32:48 Speaker 3: and then a second team will go to Philadelphia in April to look at some of the practices of going there this is through the bar foundation and the next generation learning challenger challenge which is one of the many groups in this country looking at how do you rethink high school so we're very excited about that and then as somebody referenced we had our South Korea principals I wish I wish Jenny had stayed for it we had the best time I can't begin to tell you we just had the best time with them they contacted us out of nowhere they are visiting New York and Massachusetts it's something their government does to send them to learn about innovative practices don't ask me how they found us we cannot figure it out we think because we're a blue ribbon school they looked at us in Madison Park which if you know Boston schools is a vocational school 22 of them delightful delightful they were very interested in how principals in America have so much power because they have so little all right they kept saying to us no but who decides and I said no they decide no doesn't know they decide well who decides who to hire they did they get to choose yes they get to choose it was just fascinating to see where the difference was the ambitions for the kids are the same the desire for kids to have success is the same but it was they were that they kept coming back to that subject who has control but they they were delightful and we were glad to host them and i'm sorry i forgot to wear my jewelry that they gave me i don't think i have to disclose it i got a lariat with with a a clip that in korean says the name of their district yeah all right so um so that that's uh the superintendent's

▶ 35:00 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: update opening day was very good any questions on on the superintendent's update miss dugan

▶ 35:03 Jessica Dugan: Thanks, not a question, just wanted to let folks know that I was listening to a story on NPR today about competency-based education, and they were interviewing an educator from Kittery, Maine, but they did talk specifically about the work that's happening in Massachusetts at private schools and Melrose. So I think that was exciting, and for folks who are interested to kind of just look that up on public radio, it was it was a great story because it talks about what was working well and what was also challenging and not working well for them in Kittery and it again all informs the work that we're doing in relation to these visits that we have to go out and see other other districts at work thank you for that any

▶ 35:50 Speaker 8: additional questions mr. O'Connell Thank You madam chair through you to the

▶ 35:53 Speaker 5: superintendent just very briefly a question and a comment mr. Whitmore is experienced with Raytheon sounds terrific I'm wondering is this something that just happens by chance is this something that he made happen and ultimately I'm wondering if this is something that can be replicated in

▶ 36:13 Speaker 3: future years with other teachers 21 is a professional development provider and actually a consultant as well and they will often send us opportunities that we will share with staff if anybody's interested in it and luckily this didn't cost the district anything so we're always pushing out information to the teachers encouraging them especially for summer study this is similar to our science teacher who if you remember last year spent the summer on a ship in order to expand his understanding of environmental science so we're always trying to make those connections for our teachers thank you for that and my

▶ 36:52 Speaker 5: comment is with regard to Miss Berman and Miss Talbot's presentation very interested and excited to hear about this it's great stuff the kind of stuff that you know we love to see our administrators and educators being involved with I think it would be terrific if we could at some point as part of a larger presentation on inclusive instruction maybe have them and talk about that and with your special education generally because this seems like great work and something that more people should know about so thank you any additional questions or