School Committee — 2025-10-28

Agenda

1. CALL TO ORDER/PLEDGE (0:01)
2. PUBLIC COMMENT (0:52)
3. ANNOUNCMENTS OF THE SUPERINTENDENT (1:31)
4. Report: Personnel (1:48)
5. Report: Technology Plan Update (2:30)
6. REPORT OF THE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES
7. CONSENT AGENDA (7:35)
8. Meeting Minutes from October 14, 2025 (8:39)
9. Cafeteria Report (30:18)
10. Concussion Report (1:23:15)
11. Warrants Warrants dated 10 /28/2025: FY26 School - S26029 - $ 426,398.06 FY26 Officials/Refunds - S26030 - $7,189.50 (8:48)
12. SUBCOMMITTEES (COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE)
13. Policy and Planning - Matt Hartman/Margaret Driscoll (9:35)
14. Vote: CTE Policy (10:17)
15. Vote: JJF Policy (11:40)
16. Annual Review: Policies IJND and IJNDB (18:24)
17. Finance and Facilities - Seamus Kelley/Jennifer McAndrew (8:57)
18. Vote: Monthly Budget Summary/Grants (29:18)
19. Report: Special Education Expense Update (30:05)
20. Educational Programs and Personnel - Jennifer Razi-Thomas/ Margaret Driscoll (36:00)
21. Vote: Hoover School Improvement Plan (36:36)
22. Report: METCO (46:55)
23. Vote: Lincoln School Improvement Plan (55:22)
24. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE CHAIR (1:23:00)
25. Review: Superintendent Priorities - Progress Update (1:31:35)
26. Vote: MASC Policies (1:46:36)
27. Vote: School Committee Calendar for 2026 (1:47:12)
28. Report: Outreach (1:47:35)
29. ADJOURN (1:48:04)

Minutes

Melrose School Committee Regular Meeting Tuesday, October 28, 2025, 7:00 PM 562 Main Street, Melrose, MA 02176 Council Chamber, First Floor, Melrose City Hall MINUTES 1. CALL TO ORDER/PLEDGE Attendee Name Title Status Dorie Withey Chair Present Jennifer McAndrew Vice Chair Present Jen Grigoraitis Mayor Absent Jennifer Razi-Thomas Member Present Seamus Kelley Member Present Matt Hartman Member Present Margaret Raymond Driscoll Member Present Cari Berman Interim Superintendent Present Also in attendance: Interim Deputy Superintendent, Ken Kelley and Recording Secretary, Kristen O'Connor. With a roll call vote with six (6) present, the meeting convened at 7:00 PM. 2. PUBLIC COMMENT Without objection, the Chair opened Public Comment. With no one present and without objection, the Chair closed Public Comment. 3. ANNOUNCMENTS OF THE SUPERINTENDENT 1. Report: Personnel The Superintendent presented the personnel report from the packet and highlighted a few unfilled positions that were in the approved budget from the spring and the two new reading specialist positions approved following the increase in Chapter 70 funding. Interviews for the reading specialists are scheduled for later this week. 2. Report: Technology Plan Update The Superintendent presented the technology plan update and expressed gratitude to the technology committee for their work, specifically acknowledging Melanie Acevedo (Executive Director of Academics and Accountability) and Ms. Jones. Ms. Razi-Thomas acquired about any budgetary implications for the rest of the year, and Ms. Acevedo was invited to speak to the memo. She spoke of the plan next week at the PD day to replace all teachers' aged out laptops with new Chromebooks as part of some free cash allocations, and shared that the committee is looking carefully at program and application 1 budgeting as many technology resources were cut this year. Ms. Acevedo also spoke about the new BYOD program working very well but some concerns with lack of Chromebooks for MCAS testing, so trying to put a plan together to put some devices aside for that time. 4. REPORT OF THE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES There were no student representatives present this evening. 5. CONSENT AGENDA RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Seamus Kelley SECONDER: Margaret Raymond Driscoll AYES: Dorie Withey, Jennifer McAndrew, Jennifer Razi-Thomas, Seamus Kelley, Margaret Raymond Driscoll, Matt Hartman ABSENT: Jennifer Grigoraitis Ms. McAndrew requested that the concussion report be removed and placed under Policy and Planning and Ms. Driscoll requested that the cafeteria report be removed and placed under the Announcements of the Chair. All other Consent Agenda items were approved as presented. 1. Meeting Minutes from October 14, 2025 2. Cafeteria Report 3. Concussion Report 4. Warrants Warrants dated 10/28/2025: FY26 School - S26029- $426,398.06 FY26 Officials/Refunds - S26030- $7,189.50 6. SUBCOMMITTEES (COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE) 1. Policy and Planning - Matt Hartman/Margaret Driscoll Matt Hartman A Vote: CTE Policy Mr. Hartman shared the CTE Policy as it was being presented for a second vote. A motion was made by Ms.Driscoll, seconded by Ms. McAndrew, with six (6) in favor and one (1) absent, the policy passed. 2 MOTION: To approve the CTE Policy RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Margaret Raymond Driscoll SECONDER: Jennifer McAndrew AYES: Dorie Withey, Jennifer McAndrew, Jennifer Razi-Thomas, Seamus Kelley, Margaret Raymond Driscoll, Matt Hartman ABSENT: Jennifer Grigoraitis B Vote: JJF Policy Mr. Hartman presented the JJF Policy for a second reading. The packet included the current Melrose policy, the proposed version and the MASC version. Discussion included policy language around the timing of independent auditing and also internal auditing. A motion was made by Ms. Driscoll to approve the proposed policy with language that states "in the years with no audit, the School Committee will receive a report of the results of the review from the district on the accounts" which was seconded by Ms. Withey, and a friendly amendment was made by Ms. Razi-Thomas to update the numbering of the proposed version, with all in favor, the middle proposed policy passed. MOTION: Approve the JJF Policy with the amended language RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Margaret Raymond Driscoll SECONDER: Dorie Withey AYES: Dorie Withey, Jennifer McAndrew, Jennifer Razi-Thomas, Seamus Kelley, Margaret Raymond Driscoll, Matt Hartman ABSENT: Jennifer Grigoraitis Mr. Hartman presented the student activity funds manual in the packet for an informational reading. Deputy Superintendent Kelley shared that they reviewed several neighboring communities and put together this document to show how the student activity funds are currently operating which aligns with the policy. Discussion included fundraising for student activities and what can be paid for out of these accounts, the process for fundraising and depositing funds, the idea of training student leaders as a learning opportunity to learn about the process, and also how there are only student activity funds at the middle school and high school levels, not at the elementary level as that's not recommended by DESE. C Annual Review: Policies IJND and IJNDB Mr. Hartman presented IJND and IJNDB policies for annual review. Ms. Acevedo presented the IJNDB Policy, and the technology committee has been working to update what was the acceptable use policy into the empowered and responsible use of 3 information policy. The committee created a more concise list of what students and staff should be able to do. Ms. Acevedo was happy to answer any question as this was an informational read. Ms. Acevedo also recommended looking at updating the IJND at a later date to better align with the IJNDB Policy once that's approved, 2. Finance and Facilities - Seamus Kelley/Jennifer McAndrew A Vote: Monthly Budget Summary/Grants School Committee Member Mr. Kelley presented the grants report and the special education report from the packet with no questions from the committee. Mr. Kelley then brought up the cafeteria report that was pulled from the Consent Agenda. Ms. Driscoll inquired about sales that were slightly higher in 2025, lunch counts were higher and reimbursements were a bit lower resulting in revenues that were close to each other. Interim Deputy Superintendent said he would follow up with the Dining Director regarding the questions presented to get more information, noted that it may be an overlap from the month of August. Discussion include: potential SNAP benefits expiring on Saturday and the impact of that on families, and free lunch and breakfast options for kids all year. A motion was made to approve the grants report, cafeteria report and the special education report, seconded by Ms. McAndrew. With six (6) in favor and one (1) absent, the motion passed. MOTION: To approve the grants report, cafeteria report and the special education report RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Margaret Raymond Driscoll SECONDER: Jennifer McAndrew AYES: Dorie Withey , Jennifer McAndrew, Jennifer Razi-Thomas, Seamus Kelley, Margaret Raymond Driscoll, Matt Hartman ABSENT: Jennifer Grigoraitis B Report: Special Education Expense Update 3. Educational Programs and Personnel - Jennifer Razi-Thomas/ Margaret Driscoll A Vote: Hoover School Improvement Plan Ms. Razi-Thomas presented the three items under Policy and Planning: the two school improvements plans and the METCO report. Principal Galante opened the meeting by celebrating the Hoover School's Blue Ribbon Award, recognizing her staff for this achievement in overall excellence. She then presented the School Improvement Plan, which focuses on two main goals. The first is to elevate math proficiency in geometry and algebraic thinking through enhanced teaching practices, the IXL and Envisions programs, and staff professional development. The second goal is to improve school culture and climate by using a grant to partner with 4 Jeffrey Benson. This effort involves reviewing the school discipline policy, establishing consistent language, and reviewing the PBIS model to reduce office referrals. The discussion highlighted positive staff responses and confirmed the current downward trend in office referrals. MOTION: To approve the Hoover School Improvement Plan RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Dorie Withey SECONDER: Seamus Kelley AYES: Dorie Withey, Jennifer McAndrew, Jennifer Razi-Thomas, Seamus Kelley, Margaret Raymond Driscoll, Matt Hartman ABSENT: Jennifer Grigoraitis B Report: METCO Superintendent Berman spoke to the METCO Report in the packet, prepared by Director of Student Relations Doreen Ward who was unable to join the meeting. The factual report showed a decrease in METCO enrollment , looking at the need to fill allotted spots to develop a stronger program. The Superintendent acknowledged Ms. Ward's effective efforts in building strong relationships with parents and ensuring that METCO students are fully supported. Discussion following the presentation covered the frequency of receiving such reports, students still enrolling after the start of the year, providing a late bus to address the transportation aspect, Ms. Ward's data collecting, and per pupil funding from the program. C Vote: Lincoln School Improvement Plan Principal Patti presented the Lincoln School Improvement Plan. She began by thanking all her staff members who joined her for the evening and highlighted incredible things happening at Lincoln The overall goal of the school is to create a daily learning experience that makes students want to go to school and want to learn and feel a sense of belonging and safety in the school community. The School Improvement Plan will focus on two areas: literacy and attendance. For literacy, Ms. Patti stated that it is a strength and a good starting point. Staff can have the opportunity to dive into MCAS data, implement tier two time, and look at data as a team. In regards to attendance, the school identified just under 50 students as chronically absent last year, noting that many situations involve families who travel. The school is currently in the information gathering phase. Discussion included strategies for communicating the importance of attendance to families, and also looking at ways to provide additional support for students transitioning from 5th grade to the middle school. MOTION: To approve the Lincoln School Improvement Plan RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Jennifer McAndrew 5 SECONDER: Dorie Withey AYES: Dorie Withey, Jennifer McAndrew, Jennifer Razi-Thomas, Seamus Kelley, Margaret Raymond Driscoll, Matt Hartman ABSENT: Jennifer Grigoraitis 7. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE CHAIR Chair Withey brought forward the concussion report which was pulled from the Consent Agenda. Discussion included: possible reasons for the increase in concussions such as more being diagnosed, greater awareness, or an increase in sports participation. The Committee also discussed how to improve tracking this data while protecting confidentiality, how athletic trainers may be using this information, and the nature of this being a co-curricular report. The Committee decided to hold the report until more information is provided with plans to revisit at a future meeting. MOTION: To postpone the vote on the concussion report until the November 18th meeting RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Jennifer McAndrew SECONDER: Margaret Raymond Driscoll AYES: Dorie Withey, Jennifer McAndrew, Jennifer Razi-Thomas, Seamus Kelley, Margaret Raymond Driscoll, Matt Hartman ABSENT: Jennifer Grigoraitis 1. Review: Superintendent Priorities - Progress Update Interim Superintendent Berman presented an update on the progress made toward her priorities approximately 45 days into the school year. She acknowledged the last few months have been challenging and required many difficult decisions, yet she finds the work to be rewarding. She expressed gratitude for her supportive community and the dedicated educators and leaders within the Melrose Public Schools, also recognizing the hard work completed in the previous year. Superintendent Berman then reviewed her core values and discussed progress on the first two objectives of the strategic plan. (see slides) The first objective, Academic Knowledge and Skills, showed evidence of progress through initiatives like offering Orton-Gillingham Professional Development (PD) to over 30 educators, aligning school improvement plans with the district's strategic plan, setting goals with educators, and utilizing data-driven instruction. For the second objective, Personalized and Equitable Opportunities, progress was evidenced by providing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) training for both leadership and educators, as well as initial data gathering. She also reviewed the next steps planned for both objectives. The Committee expressed their appreciation for her follow-through, leadership in organizing 6 the district, and the positive direction she is establishing. (Ms. Razi -Thomas left 8:40 PM - 8:41 PM) 2. Vote: MASC Policies Ms. Withey reviewed the MASC resolutions. She confirmed that the Committee had previously voted for Mr. Kelley to serve as the delegate for the MASC conference. The Committee's resolutions will be forwarded without a vote, as it's not anticipated that any Committee members will attend the assembly. 3. Vote: School Committee Calendar for 2026 Ms. Withey presented the School Committee meeting dates for the 2026 calendar year. Since there was no feedback from the last meeting, the Committee voted on the approval of these dates. MOTION: To approve the 2026 School Committee meeting dates RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Seamus Kelley SECONDER: Jennifer Razi-Thomas AYES: Dorie Withey, Jennifer McAndrew, Jennifer Razi-Thomas, Seamus Kelley, Margaret Raymond Driscoll, Matt Hartman ABSENT: Jennifer Grigoraitis 4. Report: Outreach Ms. McAndrew took a moment to remind the community of the upcoming monthly office hours which are posted on the website and encouraged community members to attend. 8. ADJOURN The meeting adjourned at 8:48 PM. MOTION: To adjourn RESULT: ACCEPTED [UNANIMOUS] MOVER: Margaret Raymond Driscoll SECONDER: Matt Hartman AYES: Dorie Withey, Jennifer McAndrew, Jennifer Razi-Thomas, Seamus Kelley, Margaret Raymond Driscoll, Matt Hartman ABSENT: Jennifer Grigoraitis 7 School Committee September 28th, 2025 District Priorities - Progress Update Cari Berman Interim Superintendent 1 My Core Values ● All Means All – Every student, without exception, deserves to feel valued, supported, and challenged. ● Student-Centered Decision Making – The needs of our students will always remain at the heart of every decision we make. ● Equity and Inclusion – I am committed to creating learning environments where diversity is celebrated and every student has access to opportunity. ● Integrity and Transparency – Open communication and honest dialogue will guide my/our leadership and decision-making. ● Collaboration and Partnership – Together, as educators, staff, families, and community members, we achieve far more than we ever could alone. ● Respect and Empathy – By listening with compassion and honoring the perspectives of others, we build a stronger, more supportive community. 2 Back to Basics and the ABC's A = Accountability B = Belonging C = Consistency 3 MPS Strategic Objectives and this year’s focus ● #1 Academic Knowledge and Skills ● #2 Personalized and Equitable Opportunities ● #3 Global Engagement ● #4 Professional Culture ● #5 Finance and Operations Executive Summary and Implementation Guide 4 #1 Academic Knowledge and Skills Objective: MPS will promote the learning and growth of all students through the implementation of high quality curriculum materials and rigorous, grade level instruction with just-in-time scaffolding. Our educators will hone in on creating effective lessons with clear goals that drive the creation of assessments and activities. 5 #1 Academic Knowledge and Skills - Evidence of Progress ● Professional Development (PD): MPS will be offering over 30 educators, both general education and special education teachers, intensive training on the Orton-Gillingham (OG) principles and Morphology. Educators will gain additional skills that will directly support high-quality, research-based literacy instruction to ALL students. ● Planning Alignment: All School Improvement Plans (SIPs) have/will be aligned with the District’s overarching Strategic Plan and five objectives. This alignment will ensure that school level goals directly support district level priorities. ● Goal Setting: Goal development for all educators is in process. The expectation is that each educator’s goal will be directly aligned with both the Strategic Plan and the respective SIP. ● Data-Driven Instruction: Every educator participated in a fall data meeting to analyze initial student performance data (DIBELS, IXL, common assessments) and identify areas for targeted instructional focus, a critical precursor to effective lesson planning. 6 #1 Academic Knowledge and Skills - Next Steps Our work moving forward will shift from planning and training to execution and monitoring: ● Lesson Plan Checklist: The leadership team will create and implement a lesson plan checklist focused on ensuring clear goal statements and assessment-activity alignment. ● Collaborative Meeting Time: Teachers will focus on unpacking standards, writing measurable goals, and aligning assessments before designing classroom activities. ● Walkthrough Focus: Administrators and teacher leaders will begin conducting non-evaluative walkthroughs to gather evidence on instructional alignment. Key "look-fors" will include: the teacher articulating the clear learning goal to students, and students understanding why they are engaged in a particular activity. 7 #2 Personalized and Equitable Opportunities Objective: MPS will ensure personalized and equitable opportunities so that all students may learn to use their voices to define success in their own way, celebrate differences and multiple perspectives, empathize with others, and build connections with peers and adults. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework will be utilized to ensure inclusive, equitable, and accessible learning environments by proactively reducing barriers to learning and providing multiple options for how students access information, demonstrate their knowledge, and engage in learning activities. 8 #2 Personalized and Equitable Opportunities - Evidence of Progress We have successfully launched our UDL reset through focused professional learning: ● Professional Development (PD): Leadership and all educators participated in comprehensive UDL training led by Kelly Mertens. This has equipped our educators with the foundational knowledge needed for implementation. ● Alignment: Just as with Priority #1, SIPs and goal development for all educators are fully aligned with the district's UDL priority. ● Initial Data Gathering: Initial classroom walkthroughs and observation data have begun to identify baseline data on instructional practices and student engagement practices. 9 #2 Personalized and Equitable Opportunities - Next Steps We will now move into collecting evidence to measure the impact of UDL implementation: ● UDL Walkthroughs: We will implement non-evaluative classroom walkthroughs using a UDL-specific rubric. This data will specifically look for evidence of choices being offered, flexible grouping, use of diverse materials, and intentional use of digital tools to support accessibility. ● Equity Impact Analysis: We will compare achievement gap data to establish a benchmark. Our goal is to measure a reduction in disproportionality among our subgroups, which will suggest improved equity and accessibility resulting from UDL. ● Perceptual Data: We will provide students with surveys to gather feedback regarding their sense of belonging, their perceived control over their learning (choice), and whether they feel the instructional methods help them understand the material. 1011

Transcript

▶ 0:01 Good evening and welcome to the Melrose School Committee meeting on Tuesday, October 28th, 2025. Thanks for being with us this evening. Ms. O'Connor, will you please call the role? Yes, Ms. Woody? Here. Ms. McAndrew? Here. Ms. Frazy Thomas. Here. Mr. Kelly? Here. Mr. Driscoll? Here. Mr. Hartman? Here. Great. We have one absent and then six present. Therefore, we do have a quorum. So let us rise as we are able to stand for the pledge. Our pledge to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Just a note, before we start this evening, I wanna remind everyone that this meeting is being broadcasted

▶ 0:52 by our friends at MMTV and it is also being live streamed. Again. As a reminder, this meeting is being recorded. First up on our agenda tonight, we have public comment. If anyone would like to speak this evening, please take a moment just to sign up. We've got a sign up sheet right on that table. So we'll take a moment and see if there's anyone that would like to speak, Seeing that We do not have anyone in person tonight that would like to speak at public comment. Uh, Ms. O'Connor, I'll ask, is there anyone on Zoom? There is not. All right. Seeing that there is not, I'll now close public comment. Again, if anyone has questions or concerns or comments, please don't hesitate to reach out to us via email.

▶ 1:31 Next on our agenda, we have the report of the student reps. It looks like they may be busy this evening as well, so we'll move right on in to, oh, excuse me. We'll move right to the announcements of the superintendent. I went outta order. My apologies. Great. Um, thank you Madam Chair. Um, first, um, regarding the personnel report, there's an updated personnel report in your packet. Um, I'd like to highlight that the district still has a few unfilled positions, um, and that all positions, again, as a reminder, other than the two reading specialist positions, were in the approved budget from the spring. So, um, the only actual two new positions that we have, and again, that was, um, for the increase in the chapter 70 funding that we saw

▶ 2:12 and decided to try to meet the needs of all students, um, at both the elementary and the middle school level. I'm really excited to announce that we do have some interviews, um, towards the end of the week for that, um, those two positions. So hopefully we can get those filled pretty soon. Um, and I would be happy to answer any questions you have. Any questions. Great. Thank you. Okay, So next I'll move on to the, um, technology plan update. Um, I would like to thank the members of the technology committee, um, for their hard work and dedication over the last, um, few years with putting all of this together. And especially, um, Melanie Acevedo, who's leading this community committee and I believe also co-chairing, um, with,

▶ 2:59 with Sue Jones as well. So, um, she, Melanie, with the help of the team, has compiled the memo for you. Um, I'm happy to answer any general questions or, or find, you know, the answer to any other questions that you may have, um, regarding the technology plan update. Mr. Hartman? Go ahead. Um, another question. I just, I just would thank the team for putting the work they do into this. Um, I know my kids spend a lot of time on screens, but they're learning good lessons at school. I hear about the lessons they're teaching, so thank you for reinforcing them and really, uh, making it a, a, a quality of what we educate with in our, in our buildings. So, thank you. Anyone else? Questions? Uh, Ms. Rezi, Thomas, go ahead.

▶ 3:45 I can't help but ask about, um, budgetary implications in the next few months. Do we have, we're okay through this year. Like we have a set plan for this year. I, I see Melanie, uh, Ms. Acevedo, uh, very, very nicely coming to the mic. Um, 'cause she probably has all the details on this. So Ms. Acevedo, would you like sort of? Yeah. Um, so we were able to provide, um, next week during PD day, we're gonna be replacing all of our teachers laptops, which have aged out, um, as part of some free cash, um, allocations that was able to be used. Um, we are looking very carefully at the budget with what programs and, and applications we spend our money on. We're making sure that they're well used by educators,

▶ 4:41 that they have a, a strong student impact. Um, we've decreased the number of technology resources that are available, um, in last year's budget as we kind of, um, whittled down that, that $4 million. Um, if, if there aren't additional funds, um, it's gonna be difficult to replace Chromebooks and, and those kinds of things. But, um, in terms of the products that we use, we're being very careful about making sure that they're high quality, that they have high student impact, um, and that educators are using them widely. I don't know if you have any specific questions about the budget that you were hoping to answer. Well, I know that this year we went to a bring your own device in the last six to eight months,

▶ 5:23 we've moved towards that. And so I, you don't need to give this level a detail, but at some point it would be good to know how many students are actually just bringing in their own devices. And then how many Chromebooks do we need to continue to purchase and take care of. And what does that look like in terms of a budget number need going into next year's budget? I can tell you that every student who needs a device has been provided. One, there aren't any students that we have had to turn away. Um, and we are trying to fix devices as quickly as we possibly can. Um, I can get exact numbers from Yeah, thats fine. Next time. Um, there are some concerns when it comes to MCA testing right now mm-hmm.

▶ 6:04 Because I looked into bring your own device with the state side of things. Mm-hmm. Um, I think we would be okay with the high school because many of them are bringing in laptops or iPads or other mm-hmm. Um, more higher quality devices because they are going off to school or, or they need them. Um, what we found and what we encouraged our middle school students to do was buy personal Chromebooks, which is great for everything except MCA testing. Mm-hmm. Um, we can't actually use, bring your own device devices for MCA testing. So I'm working with, um, Mr. S Mulligan and Mr. Mon Ano, um, and Mr. Dole, her, um, to try to figure out a plan that we can put some devices aside just for testing, um,

▶ 6:48 and not put them out into circulation so that we have that covered. Um, and planning for that now, rather than trying to, to do that in the spring, Because otherwise you'd have to probably get Chromebooks from elementary schools and get them up to The middle school. We've done that one year. We put them on trucks and, and brought them over. We would really prefer not to have to do that again. Yep. Um, but we are looking at what that might look like to try to prevent 16 days of MCM a s testing at the middle school. That's a huge disruption when we can test everybody in, in the whole school at once and bring it down to about five or six days. Um, so, okay. Great. Thank you so much. Mm-hmm. Any other questions

▶ 7:28 or comments regarding the technology update? Okay. So those were my only two items for this evening. So that concludes my Announcements. Great. Thank you very much. Um, next we have the consent agenda. And so for tonight we have the following items that are listed. We have the school committee regular meeting, minutes of October 14th, 2025. We have the cafeteria report. We have a concussion report, and then we have the warrants as follows. FY 26 school, that is S 2 6 0 2 9 in the amount of $426,398 and 6 cents. And then we have FY 26 officials and refunds. That is S 2 63 and the amount of $7,189 and 50 cents. Would anyone like to pull anything from the consent agenda? Ms. McAndrew, go ahead. I'd like

▶ 8:18 To pull the concussion report, please. We'll pull that and we'll put that under the announcements of the chair. And Mr. Kool, did you wanna pull the cafeteria Report Please? Cafeteria. No problem. We'll also pull that, and I'm happy to put that underneath the announcements of the chair. So we're gonna pull two items just to say them again. The concussion report and the cafeteria report. With those two pulled means, we have the warrants and the school committee minutes in the consent agenda. What's the will of the committee at this time? Motion to approve. I have a motion on the floor to approve made by Mr. Kelly. Seconded by Mr. Hartman. All in favor. And that passes unanimously. Next up, we'll move into our subcommittee work.

▶ 8:57 We'll have finance and facility first, uh, chaired by Mr. Kelly. Okay. Good evening, everybody. Tonight we have a short agenda. We have our monthly grant report and our special ed expense update. Do we have Mr. Ken? Did I see Ken earlier? Yes. I'm not sure he where he went. Hmm. Okay. Okay. Why don't we switch to another subcommittee and we'll come back to this one. Why don't we, uh, move to policy and planning with Mr. Herman A little bit more in this one. Uh, Good evening. This is policy and planning subcommittee. So we have, uh, four documents in front of us tonight. Four, yeah. Um, one of them coming back for our second vote. Um, and why don't we actually start with that one? That is the, uh, the CTE policy.

▶ 10:18 Um, folks will remember at our last meeting, we had a discussion about this policy. It's a new policy from Melrose, um, in response to DSI guidelines that have been put out to require us to have this policy. Um, it comes back with amendments around student records that would be provided to this. The, uh, the schools that are doing admissions for, um, VOC ed. And so if those, at our last meeting, we had our, our vote to suspend our, uh, reading of the policy and move right into the first vote of the policy. And we took our first vote on that policy as amended. So that language was brought to the floor and included in this draft that you see before you now. So tonight would be our second vote on this

▶ 11:02 and approve the policy if there's questions or a motion. Motion to approve. Second. So, Mr. Driscoll moves to approve, seconded by Mr. McAndrew. Is there any discussion on approving the policy? All in favor with six in favor and one absent. The policy is passed and we can meet our deadline for desi. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank You. Um, moving to the second reading of the JJF policy. Um, so this policy, if folks will remember, we had a first reading, uh, a first review, um, about I think two or three meetings ago where we raised some questions about the policy and changes that we might wanna reflect on it. Um, and I see Mr. Kelly has returned, uh, if we have questions on this. Um, so moving to this policy,

▶ 11:55 there are three versions of it in front of you. Um, we've discussed a couple of elements that could change. In particular, adding language from the MASC policy about, um, accounts that are unused and expired should be, uh, discontinued. Um, that language is added in the middle version of this policy, as well as language about reviewing the accounts, uh, at the school committee once a year, just to review the accounts and the balances that exist so we have better knowledge and tracking of what's going on with student activity accounts. Um, there were also some questions on the processing of checks, and so that's highlighted in that middle frame of the policy there as well. Those are the changes that we might consider for tonight.

▶ 12:35 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: Um, the, the policies are presented alongside each other so members can follow along what changes have been offered. Um, and at this stage, uh, I think we would take our first vote tonight if that's the will of the committee, and we would wanna be specific about what language we would include based upon those three different versions that exist in front of us. So, um, we can start with a motion or, uh, any questions we could direct to Mr. Kelly, if that's what we need to do First, uh, Mr. Driscoll Question, please. Thank you. And I, I believe you touched on this, um, through the chair, uh, to Mr. Kelly, um, in the past. I just wanna confirm, it does say in the, um, in the policy that, uh, the account will be audited every three years

▶ 13:24 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: and that, that, um, that audit comes before the committee as part of the, um, audit at large. Is that correct? So we actually are seeing the audit, it's just not necessarily called out completely separately. Is that correct? So could you speak to that please? Sure. Thank you. And apologies I had to step out. Unforeseen technology issue. Sorry about that fire for my delay. And thank you for the question. So yes, it, um, it would be independently audited every three years and then internally in the, in-between years. And that, um, every three year audit would definitely be shared with school committee as part of a packet this share out. Um, we did that this year when we had it audited, um, and, uh, reviewed all

▶ 14:04 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: of our findings internally at the business office. But yes, we would share that with the school committee happily, to have you look at the, uh, the results of the audit. Perfect. I think, I think that would be very helpful. And I would like, um, I would propose that we amend the language to, um, say potentially in that same section that, um, in the off years, the first and second year, that, um, the administration would provide a report indicating that that review had been completed. Okay. Um, so would that be something that would, the yellow sentence about annual review of the counts, would you want to add it? Maybe perhaps right after that? Yeah. Um, And I'm happy to draft some language specific to that.

▶ 14:48 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: But the, the spirit of the intention is that in the off years there would be a report mm-hmm. Not necessarily a, you know, got it. Long document. Just sharing with us that, that, because that is a sensitive area and we just wanna make sure that we're, um, using our oversight correctly, that, um, it's an opportunity for the administration also to share that you are being very watchful of, um, funds that in other districts may have had issues. And we don't here. So, um, and I, so I would, um, I would certainly make a motion to approve with that language added. So says, motion to approve with, um, language that we, would, we want to try and put some words to it right now as part of the motion. I think

▶ 15:36 That would be Sure. Um, yeah. In the off, in the, uh, off years. Is that a fair, um, Mr. Kelly? I ask which the audit is in Occurring or something in all other years? Say again? In all Other years? Yeah. Yeah. So that's fine. In all other years, the, um, school committee will see, receive a report at a school committee meeting indicating that, um, a report, uh, that a review has been completed and the results of that review. Um, so the language as I, as I wrote it down quickly as I could, um, the school committee would re in the years with no audit, the school committee would receive a report of the results of the review from the district on the accounts. Would that be a good, so the motion is to approve it with that language added in

▶ 16:47 the section right after the yellow highlighted language on school committee getting annual updates about the balance of the accounts. Is there a second to that motion? Second from Ms. Withy. Okay. Any discussion on the motion? Well, just one other recommended edit is the numbers in the, the middle, um, proposed version Yes. Are just incorrect. So you just need to go from six to 1, 2, 3, 4. Mm-hmm. Except it as a friendly amendment to that motion. That would be great. Thank you. I see nodding indicating. Yes. Yes. That's great. Uh, Ms. McKen, just To, for clarification, um, also the dates will be updated, I'm assuming, um, are we, is the motion now just related to the policy? Yes. Yes. And we'll do the procedure next. Yes.

▶ 17:40 Because I have questions on that. Okay. Thanks. And just to indicate the clarity on the motion is for the middle's policy mm-hmm. With the changes included, um, as we've discussed at this point. So any further discussion on that as a motion on the table. All those in favor. So with six in favor and one absent the middle policy passes with the amended language offered by Ms. Driscoll, second by Ms. Withey. Um, moving to the next document is the, um, student activity policy. Uh, I wonder if, uh, Mr. Kelly can introduce this for us as is the first time we're seeing this in this context. Sure. Thanks. So, yeah, appreciate the approval of the policy. And then this manual now is something that, um, we've, uh,

▶ 18:24 read several, uh, neighboring communities, um, and looked at, at, you know, MASC Maslow policies and, um, brought together this document that sort of encapsulates and captures how the student activity funds is currently operating. It does align very closely with, uh, the policy, um, that was just approved and that, that middle column, um, and it just, uh, is kind of an overview of basic terms, um, uh, the use of the accounts, uh, eligible deposits and expenditures ineligible examples there. And then, um, uh, just some, some basic terminology. And I'd be happy to answer any questions and, and happily receive feedback. 'cause this is our first draft. Great. Uh, so that's the introduction. This would be our informational reading.

▶ 19:07 Jennifer McAndrew: Do we need to approve this? Is that correct? Eventually, or This is what we're following at school. So I would, I I would say yes, that's something that, you know, we would review it constantly and, and, and, you know, um, it's a kinda a living document, so if there were changes to it that needed to be, uh, brought forth, we could do that, you know, uh, at, at subsequent meetings. Okay. All right. Um, so this would be our informational reading on this, this pass there. Any questions on this as we see it? First time, Ms. Mc, Andrew, Thank you. Um, thank you for this. Um, agree. I completely agree that this is a big need and a big improvement and step forward. Um, I think it's just as a general practice

▶ 19:45 Jennifer McAndrew: for the committee to have a specific policy that is short and clear. Mm-hmm. And then a procedure that illuminates that policy for the day-to-day is really helpful and important. Um, and this one in particular for student activity accounts, um, we've seen a real proliferation of student clubs and extracurriculars, which is awesome. And our students are leaders and they, they wanna do this work, but, you know, they are collecting, in some cases, collecting money, putting money in bank account, you know, in the school, bank account, et cetera, and drawing down on those accounts. So this is a really important step forward. Um, I just wanna clarify a couple things and ask just a couple quick questions.

▶ 20:26 Jennifer McAndrew: So my understanding of what's here and what's in the policies that student activities accounts are for student facing, things that are not part of school, not part of the curriculum, not part of school. So extracurricular activities. Um, I think there's some, uh, confusion sometimes about what can be paid for out of these accounts. And I was happy to see the clarification around staff. So if staff are paid out of these accounts for say, um, like, uh, something that, that is a benefit to them, um, like travel or something like that, that is considered income. Am I understanding this right? You are. And it's reported that way? You Are correct. Okay. Um, so I think my questions are around, I are

▶ 21:23 Jennifer McAndrew: like fundraising for, so let's just take a fictional student club at the high school, and there's like a trip, I don't mean a, like a global languages exchange trip. I mean, like, there's, you know, some sort of like science fair that they wanna go to that's somewhere else. And there's, they have to travel and they're, they're using and they fundraise for that. So to offset the cost, is there a direction around how the fundraised money is, um, distributed? Is that something that we help the students with? Do you know what I'm trying to say? Like I'm asking? I do typically, yes. We, it's collaboration between the business office, the club advisor, and the students themselves as to the distribution of the money.

▶ 22:11 And so that does, um, vary a little bit, but for the most part it is, they would fundraise, deposit the funds into the, the student activity fund, um, subcategory for that, that club or, or, um, activity. And then through collaboration with student leadership and the advisor, they would decide best how to allocate that. Whether it covers the entire cost of the trip or it subsidizes a portion for, for students. Um, that's all something that's driven by even student vote with collaborating with the, the advisor. So the one piece for fundraising that we want to be careful of is the scholarships. We can't, we can't provide scholarships through the student activity fund, so it's pretty prescribed

▶ 22:50 Jennifer McAndrew: things you can and can't do with it. And scholarships is one of them, but fundraising for, for trips, um, is, uh, um, something that we see pretty common. Okay. So one, one, like in this simplistic example, um, you know, the club is, you know, fundraising for, um, limited travel by, let's say train, um, and the to and for some sort of entrance fee to whatever, this is competition, and the total cost is a thousand dollars, and they raise 500 through fundraising. And then, um, the students who are participating would then maybe be charged a percentage of the 500, and that would go into the student activity, and then the cost would be paid out through filling out the form, getting a check, doing the procedure.

▶ 23:36 Jennifer McAndrew: Yes. What you've just described is a typical operation firm, right? Yes. Okay. Um, I guess what I'm, one of the things that this made me think about is that this, you know, being the leader of a student club is a really great opportunity for a high school student as a real growth and development opportunity. And I wonder how, um, and they have a lot of different responsibilities on them, including being careful about money, um, in consultation with their cl with their club advisor. How do we, are we thinking at all yet? And I know we're early in the process of, you know, putting out this procedure, but, um, about like, training for student leaders? So that's a, that's a great question. And, and yes, I think, um,

▶ 24:19 even certain advisors are thinking along those lines because just, I think it was yesterday or maybe even Friday, um, a club advisor did bring the treasurer for that group down to beat people in the business office, bring deposit down, show how that gets counted and then brought to the bank. So, um, I think people are thinking along those lines, and we welcome that to show them the process about how, 'cause sometimes I think there is a, a lack of awareness that this is actually real money that, that, you know, we're in charge of. And the Student Activity fund is a great example. It's an agency fund. It's actually technically not our funds, it's the student's fund. Mm-hmm. So, um, as, you know, to show them

▶ 24:53 Jennifer McAndrew: how the funds are deposited and then expended is, is a great exercise to see. Great. Thank you. Yeah, I really think it's a great learning opportunity all the way around. And I think even just having this document and distributing it to the student leaders of the clubs is a great opportunity for them to say, oh, they're actually, you know, here's this policy that I can learn about and follow and ask questions about. Yes, our plan is to give this out to all the clubs and advisors to share with students for sure. Great. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Are there further comments or questions from the committee, Mr. Sko? Yeah, just a quick question. So, um, I see that, um, this account list has, um, clubs

▶ 25:32 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: and classes from both the middle school and the high school. Are there any at the elementary school that would be involved? No. So we, we don't have student activity fund, uh, accounts at the elementary level that's not recommended by, um, uh, all the, the best practices out there. The Abrams group, uh, DESI doesn't recommend that. Um, so we have student activity funds established for the middle school and the high school. At this time, we do not have elementary and nor are we advocating for that at this time. Perfect. I'm a little disappointed that the juggling club isn't the thing anymore, but back in the day it's very popular. So, um, I appreciate the fact that they're all, um, really responding as Ms.

▶ 26:12 McAndrew mentioned to the needs and desires of the students and, um, being flexible so that, um, students can really live their best life, um, uh, during and after school at Melrose High School and Melrose Middle School. Thank you. Great. Any further comments or questions? Great. So I think we'll see that one again, but, um, we'll move on to the next items in the agenda. Um, sorry, I'm still navigating our new software, so gimme a second to find the titles of things. Um, so here we are at our annual review of the IJND policy, and we have a new, uh, I-J-N-D-B policy available to us, which Miss Acevedo's gonna introduce for us. Um, this is, uh, our annual review that we do on this policy every year.

▶ 27:01 So, uh, we'll just go from there and learn about the new document in front of us. Yeah. Um, so for the past couple years, you probably heard me say we've been looking to update our acceptable use policy. I think it was last updated in 2015. Um, technology has evolved quite a bit since 2015 and our use of it in schools. Um, so the technology committee, um, has been working for probably the past year and a half to update what was the acceptable use policy into an empowered and responsible use of information policy. Um, many districts are moving in this direction. They are getting rid of the list of don'ts, um, and really thinking about what do we use technology for. Um, we were able to take our seven page policy currently

▶ 27:42 and bring it down to a much more concise, um, list of things that we want our students and staff to be able to do. Um, so the table on the, I believe it's the second page, um, list some of the, um, principals and responsible use that we're, we're encouraging for not only our students as we're teaching them digital literacy, but also our staff. Um, and then it just kind of makes it much more clear about kind of the liability and the consequences and, and some of those things that were a little bit more, um, fuzzy in our previous policy. And I'm happy to answer any questions. Um, I think this is just up for an informational read tonight, not a vote. Yes. Yeah, both, both of these would be informational reads since is

▶ 28:25 the first time we're seeing it this year. So, And we as a committee decided not to update anything else. The other policies, the, um, access to digital resources, which is also on the agenda for tonight, the social media policy. And I apologize, but there's one more. Um, all are are pretty outdated and haven't been looked at for several years. So once this is, um, approved, we would start looking at what those other policies are so that they more closely align, uh, with this one. Great. Uh, other questions or comments from the committee? Seeing none, um, I think if there are questions or comments, please send them in so that in the weeks between when we see this and, and approve these, we would have the chance

▶ 29:09 to take any amendments, uh, hopefully before the day of the meeting, um, to get us on board and move us forward with what we want to see. So. Okay. Thank You. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you. And that, with that, I think that concludes policy and planning. Great. We'll go back to finance and facilities. Uh, Mr. Kelly, I'm also gonna add the cafeteria report under yours instead of under the announcements of the chair. So we'll go through the budget summary, special education update, and then cafeteria report, if that works. Okay. Welcome everybody to Finance and Facilities. We've got a short agenda tonight, um, starting with the, the vote, uh, the, uh, monthly grants report. Does anybody have any questions

▶ 30:03 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: for Mr. Kelly about the monthly grants report? Okay. How about special education report? Not a very chatty group tonight. Okay. We'll move on to the cafeteria report. Ms. Driscoll? Uh, yes, thank you. Um, I just, um, wanted, let me get back to it's page five at the back, doing a lot of back scrolling here. So, um, I did notice that, um, as I'm sure you all did, um, that, um, the sales were slightly higher in 25, um, and, um, the reimbursement's a little bit lower, but, um, and the lunch counts were higher, um, so resulting in revenues that were relatively, um, close to each other, but, um, the expenses, particularly in the line of product cost relative to food and paper purchases were significantly different, um,

▶ 31:04 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: as a percentage and in real value, um, representing, um, over $20,000. So, um, uh, and Mr. Kelly, I'm gonna, if through the chair I was gonna ask Mr. Kelly about that, um, I've put you on the spot a little bit. I apologize for that. So if you just wanna get back to us, that would be fine. But that is curious to me, um, is that jump, um, by 12 points in the, um, the overall pie where, um, where that expense comes from? Sure. I can certainly get more information on that. Um, sure. Our, our director, um, Mr. Molly's very accessible, so I can certainly check in with him. And I, I would speculate there may be some overlap with, it's pure speculation, but it might be some overlap with the, the month of August there, and I can confirm that.

▶ 31:46 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: But I'll definitely check in with Mr. Molly. Okay. That's very helpful because if it is, you know, mostly true that, you know, there was a substantial product cost different, I think there is alignment in what we're experiencing as a district and that we're not experienced, it's not a revenue issue that we're facing, it's an expense issue. And I would point to this pending, um, more confirmation that, um, this aligns with that. So thank you. And I would make a motion to Approve. Okay. We have a motion to approve all three reports. Is there a second? I just had one more. Oh, sorry, go ahead. Um, just one more question on this. Thank you for, um, raising this. I think it would be no surprise to me if our costs were

▶ 32:31 Jennifer McAndrew: considerably higher, um, as opposed to one year ago, which is what the report shows. Um, given the inflationary pressures on literally on groceries on every part of the economy right now. Um, I also just wanted to point out, 'cause I think it's important in the context of the cafeteria report, um, and the grants report that, um, we are likely to be in a situation where, um, SNAP benefits expire on Saturday. Um, that is, um, food support for, um, children and families in need. Um, and so the focus on, um, school lunch and um, meals at school is probably going to be even more significant than it already is, even in places like Melrose. Um, and so I just, I'm, I know for a fact without even asking that, our superintendent

▶ 33:22 Jennifer McAndrew: and deputy superintendent are thinking about that and all of our principals. But, um, just something that's definitely on my mind in the context of this, uh, report and also with keeping our, uh, family supported. So thank you Mr. Hartman. Um, follow up question to that actually. And I'm very equally concerned about the impact of, uh, the loss of SNAP benefits on many of our kids, uh, in the district with, we have an early bird program, right? For, for early meals for kids, is that something that is locked in at the beginning of the year or is that something that could change for children who, um, may need it in in a time like this? I personally do not know the answer to that question at this moment in time.

▶ 34:04 I don't know if Ken, Mr. Kelly does, I think maybe just some clarification you're asking if we have the before and the before school program. Early bird Before school, yeah. Yes, yes. Is that something That we do have that, so I guess maybe just the other part of your question I didn't Understand, is it something that the families are locked into if they choose not to do it at the beginning of the year? Or is it something that they can change in the middle of the year so that they can access a breakfast? Yes. Breakfast. Breakfast and lunch are both free and masks, so, yeah. Yes, they would have access to those if they, if they choose, They can choose it midyear at this point. I think they can choose it on by the day. Okay.

▶ 34:34 Alright. Maybe That's something frustrating. We may see that our production's gonna have to go up in, in each of our buildings. Right. But, um, hopefully we have like the provisions to be able to, um, you know, meet the needs of the kiddos. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. One Quick, Mr. Rosie Thomas. Thank you. Just, I mean, it could be totally inflation. It also could be that we have a new director doing different things and ordering different things. So I'm very curious about how this evolves over the course of the next few months. And, and it would be great to check in with him or through you. Either way is fine. But I think it's gonna be, you know, we have to pay attention to the ridiculous thing that's going on

▶ 35:11 with Snap For sure. And thank God we're able to offer free meals. That's a really, really wonderful thing for families. So we've gotta be ready for that more too. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. I, Mr. Sk, had you, you had made a motion to approve all three. All three. Is there a second by Ms. McAndrew? All in favor? Wait. Oh, Mr. Hartman, did we discuss the, uh, special ed update? Yep. Zipped it right by you? Sorry. No one was paying attention. We Were paying attention. I was recovering from my chair. Sassy up there. All in favor? Any opposed? And that passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, finally, we have, um, educational programs and personnel chaired by Ms. Razzi Thomas. Good evening and welcome

▶ 36:13 to Educational Programs and Personnel. We have three items on tonight's agenda. Two, our school improvement plans that we will need to, um, vote on. And then we also have the Meco program report. And so if we're ready, we can start with the Hoover plan. And we have our wonderful Hoover principal here. Thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you. And I'm so happy to be here. So, um, before I start on the school improvement plan, if it is you indulge me a little bit, I was asked to talk a little bit about the Blue Ribbon Commission Award. Um, I wanna thank the school committee for giving us that. Um, congratulations. And the note that went out from Central office regarding our Blue Ribbon Commission Award.

▶ 37:03 I'm gonna give you a little bit of background. You're gonna bear with me for just one second while I get up my information. Um, I, I just, I have to say, I have to start a little bit, um, with the kudos to my staff, because without the hardworking people that I have in my building, this would not have been possible. So, Hoover was, um, nominated for the Blue Ribbon Commission. We were one of seven schools in Massachusetts that were nominated, um, for the Federal Government Award. We were nominated based on our overall achievement and excellence. So we're very proud of everything that we've done. Um, there were, um, there were many pieces to what to, um, to finish the application. Many of my staff members

▶ 37:50 who participated in collecting the data and the information that was needed for the award and filling out, um, uh, a huge amount of background work. So I wanna say thank you to all my staff members who were participating in that as well. So, um, thank you. Thank you for everybody. Um, Anyone have questions on that? No. Congratulations again, Thank you. I'm so, so proud of my, um, my staff. Congratulations to all the Hoover Hawks. Yeah. Woo-hoo. Go Hoover. Um, all right, now back to our agenda item, which was the school improvement plan. So I want to thank you, Madam Chair. Um, superintendent Berman, all members of the school committee. Um, and I'm here to present Hoover's, um, school improvement plan.

▶ 38:33 And it's a roadmap designed to cultivate an academic rigor academically rigorous and inclusive and equitable learning community, um, where all students can thrive. Um, we have two overarching targets for our goal this year and our school improvement plan. The first part, um, deals with our mathematical scores, um, our students, um, our hope is to provide a place where math outcomes and, um, can, we can show improvement overall. Excuse me, I'm very tense. Um, we wanna elevate our math proficiency. We are looking at two subcategories overall and what we're looking at. Um, we are focusing, this year we're gonna focus on, um, um, geometry, which, if you look at some of our data, um, we have 28 students who are scoring

▶ 39:24 below grade level at our beginning of the year benchmark. Um, that represents 31% of our overall pop overall population of students. Um, and then algebraic and algebraic thinking with 70, 69 students performing below grade level. And that re represents 27, 20 6% of our student population. So that'll be our two primary focuses. We are using, um, collaborative time in our school, um, during our school schedule, um, to help look at teaching practices in order to help move students along. We are using, um, the, uh, new IXL program in order to help facilitate some of that additional learning. We are, um, digging deeper into some of our, I, um, our envisions programming and what other things that they may have to offer.

▶ 40:12 Um, and through a use of all of that, and with some of our professional, um, development within the school, hoping to move our scores significantly in those two subsets under mathematics. Um, our next goal is about our social emotional goal and improving, um, outcomes for Stu, um, forte teachers and staff in the school culture and climate. Um, and how having a well thought out, um, integrated model of support to implement cohesive frameworks to, in using the, um, school discipline and social and emotional structures that we have. We were granted, we had a grant, um, that was awarded to us to work with Jeffrey Benson on, on his, um, hacking school discipline policy. Um, he's, um, been to Hoover twice this school year,

▶ 41:02 presented to our staff during our staff meetings. Um, with that, we have two teachers who are, um, guiding us through some of those teaching practices. And we're keeping data, um, trying to lower our office referrals, and then having a cohesive, um, set of language, uh, excuse me, a consistent set of language and how we deal with students. And that in addition to that, we'll be looking at our PBIS model and whether or not we're fully, um, using that to the best of our ability. Great. Thank you for that really nice summary of, um, a very detailed plan. I really appreciate all the work that you put into this. And that your team, who, who worked on this with you On the school improvement plan?

▶ 41:48 Yes. So I have two, two parents. Um, and I have two staff members that join us to do This. Great. How did you decide how to narrow it down to those two major areas? Math. So we Looked, we looked at our beginning, um, we looked at our beginning of the year data, and those were the two ca the two, are you talking about math or the social emotional? Both of them. Yeah. So the math categories, we looked at, um, the lowest performances that we had within those standards, and those were the two that were clearly identified. Um, and in our social emotional, we talked, um, there was a lot of anecdotal data coming from the staff, um, asking for some structures around the way we deal with issues in the school regarding student behavior, um,

▶ 42:33 and having consistency with that. That's great. Thank you. Any questions or comments from the committee? I got one more. Let's, um, how has it been so far this year in terms of what the feedback you're getting from the staff, if you've set up anything to like, help curb the referral process? Um, I think the positive, the, we've had a lot of positive feedback. We're starting to get some more data and we keeping, um, count of the number of office referrals that we have. Um, and that seems to be going in a downward trend, which is nice to have. And I think the teachers have been very happy with the professional development that, with Jeffrey Benson coming in to address specific and going over specific scenarios

▶ 43:23 and how to best deal with those, those things as they come up. So we're getting some, you're getting some coaching through a grant? Yes. That's great. Yep. Exactly. Good. And does that come from the, um, Melrose Education Foundation? It does. All right. Um, thank you so much for being here with us. I don't see any other principles here, so perhaps Ms. Aceto is going to talk with us about the Lincoln one, but before you go, let's have a motion. Wait. Oh, so sorry. I think this, oh, I'm so sorry. Just one quick question. Sorry. No, that's completely Fine. Go ahead, Ms. Withy. Um, I noticed a lot of the work from an academic standpoint, again, is focusing on math and I appreciate you calling out, particularly in the plan

▶ 44:03 and here too, just the importance of conceptual understanding. I, uh, heard you talk a little bit about the professional learning that was happening with Jeffrey Benson. Was also just wondering like what kind of professional learning is happening related to the conceptual component as well. Like, what structure you, are you able to leverage? How are folks learning a little bit more? 'cause I'll be honest, I didn't learn conceptual math back in the day. Um, so I know that's a huge change as we also think about how math instruction and the standards have evolved over time. Yeah. Um, we have, I'm trying to remember the name of the, excuse me. No worries. I wanna get back to you. Sure. Is that okay? I just, I, I have it on the tip of my tongue,

▶ 44:48 but I don't wanna speaking 'cause it's not Of No problem. No problem. So thank you for sharing all the information that you are doing, and I think it's great that you're leaning into the math side and the conceptual side. 'cause again, that's just, it's different than how I learned math, and I'm sure many of us did. So appreciate you naming that. Thank You. Mm-hmm. Mr. Kelly? Sure. Thank, thank you very much. This is actually more of a question for the superintendent. As we've gone through a couple of these, each school has a different focus, um, or slightly different focus depending on what, what's in the, in, in their plan. How do we sort of, at the end of the year or sometime next year, how do you take lessons learned from the various different

▶ 45:29 school improvement plans and apply them across the district? Yeah, so I think we're trying to have that primary focus on the, of the district strategic plan to try to tie to those. Um, I think as we mentioned previously, some of the work was started at the end of last year. But with just, you know, a lot of the changes that have happened, um, I don't think that these plans are, they're really, really good. I don't know if they're like, quite as consistent as we want in many ways. Um, I think the most important thing we wanna do is get a consistent template for everyone so that we're looking at action plans and then measurable goals that we can then look at and, and really see are we meeting them and,

▶ 46:05 and how do we streamline. Um, I fully expect that, you know, I'll just use the two that are presenting tonight. Like, you know, Lincoln and Hoover may have different goals that are embedded or, um, you know, overarching coming from our strategic plan. But I think if we had a more consistent format just to look at that would help with, um, understanding the consistency for, for what we're Doing. Great. Thank you. You're Welcome. Motion. I would appreciate a motion motion on the floor to, um, get, get to, to approve the plan for the Hoover School motion. I'll happily make a motion to approve the Hoover School plan. Thank you Ms. Hy. Second. Um, by, um, Mr. Kelly. Okay. So all in favor. That passes with six in favor and one absent.

▶ 46:49 Thank you so much, principal. Thank you so much. Appreciate, thank you for being here. Um, okay. We are gonna, next, we're gonna move around the, our agenda slightly. Uh, our superintendent would like to us to go to the report about meco, the program, and then we'll go back up to the Lincoln improvement plan. Yeah. Seems to be the theme of the night. So I just figured we'd stay with, with switching everything, um, One on the edge of their seats. Although I see some of our, you know, terrific Lincoln staff here. I will not put you on the hotspot, um, to, um, present, although I know many of you were, were part of the planning. Um, principal Patty has been doing, um, crisis prevention, um, intervention, like deescalation

▶ 47:28 training with some of our staff. So she was just wrapping up, um, at, I believe it was at the high school. So she's on her way. Oh. Um, but if we can give her a moment to come in and breathe Sure. I think we could go to, to the METCO report. So, great. Um, we have the pleasure of having, um, Doreen Ward back as our student relations director, as has been shared with you previously. Um, unfortunately she could not be here tonight, and she does look forward to coming and presenting to the committee, um, maybe after the new year, um, or at some point when she has a chance to settle in. This report itself is pretty factual at this moment in time. Um, and I know one of the things that, you know, pops out

▶ 48:05 to me and, and I had an awareness of already is our decreasing enrollment, um, that we have. So, um, that's a little bit of an elephant in the room, um, some of which, um, she did not have control over as she moved into this position. So I think it is important that we are looking to fill our allotted slots, um, for a number of reasons, um, but to keep, you know, our really, um, robust METCO program, um, going and providing experiences, you know, for, for all of our students. So, um, it's, it's a pretty factual piece at this moment in time. Um, I do like a lot of the successes that were identified, um, and just kind of digging into, um, that I know we are continuing to look at the disproportionality, um, that occurs, um,

▶ 48:52 with, with all our students specifically in this report, um, our METCO students. So it's something that Ms. Ward definitely has an area of focus on. Um, she's making great relationships with, with our parents and, and reaching out to them often and, and speaking on the phone, um, and just, just doing a really wonderful job of making sure that our, um, METCO students are, uh, fully supported in our Melrose Public Schools. So, be happy to answer any questions that I can answer or get you answers moving forward. Great. Thank you, superintendent Berman. So, any questions from the committee? Yes, Mr. Hartman? Go right ahead. Uh, I just have two and, and thank you for spotting the, uh, enrollment.

▶ 49:34 I, I noticed that as well and certainly would like to hear more about that if, if, uh, we have Ms. Ward come before us. And the other question I had was, was actually around, um, how often we would see a report like this is this anticipated to be, uh, you know, a couple times a year we would see a report and, and have a, a discussion about, about this. Um, I would always look to the will of the committee on this and trying to support what's, you know, reasonable within our, our lean team, especially right now. Maybe in the future it could look different, um, but certainly if we start here, maybe we come back in the spring with some, some next steps. Um, I would love for her to, um, help you all understand

▶ 50:11 that the METCO process has actually changed a little bit, and I don't have all of the details about that, and nor do you probably want them at this moment in time, but how is that affecting us as well? I do know we have had some new students who have started, like after our kind of school year, got rolling. So she has reached out to METCO Inc to try to bring students, um, still into, into the Melrose Public Schools. Mm-hmm. Um, and kind of telling them it's, it's not too late, So. Okay. Yeah. Um, and if there's any, uh, maybe thinking about looking at how the state, the, the program, the whole program itself, if this declining enrollment is similar to what we're seeing in the program as a whole,

▶ 50:48 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: or if it's Melrose or, um, those kinds of questions we'd love to hear more about in the future as you get to dig into that question a little bit more. Sure. Mr. Driscoll, go Ahead. Thank you. So, um, I just wanna be very sensitive around, um, the transportation piece, um, and how I'm delighted to see that, um, late transportation is being provided. Um, there were times when funding was very low that a late bus was not, um, able to be run and that, um, METCO grant was needed to be used for other things, certainly qualifying things. But I'm delighted to see that it's here and I hope we can stay. Yeah, I can just give a little feedback That four 15 Bus is actually, um, not full ever. It actually has like one or two riders very often.

▶ 51:37 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: So we are at looking at that for a short amount of time, um, to run that two days a week for kiddos to be able to, um, engage in those afterschool activities. They still would have access to that six 15 bus. But, um, Ms. Ward has, um, collected some data to figure out how to do that best and, and which days to choose, um, as we get through kind of the next few months. Um, just because it's not, it's not populated, it's not, yeah, it's not worth Needed if I may go right in, I I appreciate that. I don't know if there's, uh, any cost savings and how much wiggle room there is in the contract, um, to run a van instead of a full size yellow bus. If there's a cost savings there that would still supply

▶ 52:16 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: that opportunity with the hope that, you know, there would be students who would be able to access, um, after school activity. I mean, with 37 students at Melrose High School and 22 part in particular at the middle school, um, you know, encouraging students to be fully involved to the extent they wish in our, um, co-curricular activities, I think is something that this district has always, um, invested in heavily from a philosophical and an actual standpoint. So, um, if there were any wiggle room on the composition of the bus and the requirements around the driver, which are different from Vans and the big yellow bus, um, I'd be interested in in learning more about that potentially again, um,

▶ 53:00 after the first of the year when Ms. Ward comes before us. Sounds Great. Any other questions or comments? I have a few. Um, so I was able to talk to the superintendent a little bit before the meeting just to, to try to get a sense of the enrollment too, because we are budgeted up to 109 slots for students. Um, and we only have 82 currently filled, and then we have, we're losing potentially 17 to graduation this the end of this year. So that's a lot of open potential slots. And I, I don't, I think that funding is based on per pupil as well as a certain amount of money in the grant to suburban districts. Um, so it's a combination of, of how the, the grant is su is supplied, but it would be good for us to be able to fill,

▶ 53:54 fill all our seats with up to 109 students in from the MECO program. And obviously that's a process. You can't all of a sudden just snap your fingers and have that happen because you have to have parents that wanna send students here. And that's an enormous exercise and trust to be willing to send your, your, uh, your loved one into a system, um, far away from your home. So I think our Meco families are incredible. Um, and I know Ms. Ward is amazing and I'm sure that, um, you know, I know her reputation precedes her, and I think it seems like Dr. Crawford's also pretty incredible. So we hope to see that the program will grow itself back out again, um, and that we'll be able to provide wonderful learning opportunities for students,

▶ 54:44 um, all of our students, MECO students, um, and families. So I, I look forward to seeing what, what Ms. Ward does over time. And then she's also growing into this new position too. So it would be great to get an update from her in the springtime at some point on her role in general and just, you know, how she sees kind of building it back up. Um, and we're lucky to have her. And I think one of the reasons why we have her back is because she trusts you, superintendent. So if we, unless anyone else has anything they wanna add to the Meco report, I'm gonna move us along to the Lincoln, um, improvement plan. Okay. Yes. Great Principal, Patty. Hello, miss Patty. How's it coming? Welcome, welcome. Hi. Yes.

▶ 55:34 We're keeping you pretty busy. Yes. It's been a busy night. Lots of talking tonight, but that's okay. I don't mind. Um, should I just get started? Well, I just wanna say thank you for all the work that you did on, on the, um, improvement plan. It's incredibly detailed, um, with lots and lots of data in, especially around your attendance, um, uh, as well as your, your test scores. And so thank you for all the work that you did with your team. Thank you. First of all. I appreciate that. Um, so thank you for having me tonight. I'm here on behalf of Lincoln and I, I just do wanna give a shout out if it's okay, because I of course have four staff members that came. You can have Them join you. I,

▶ 56:13 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: I You want Let them join you? Go ahead. I Don't think they wanna, but, um, I'm honestly, I, I said when I came in and Dory was like, are you okay? I just wanted to cry. Just seeing them here, that really means a lot to me. So I wanna give a shout out to our staff and thank you for all that you've done at the Lincoln you've done an amazing job as a leader there. So it's an incredible school to work at. Um, so you started there many years ago. I did. 18 years ago I started as a one-to-one power professional, um, for anyone that doesn't know. I went on to teach first grade there kindergarten. Um, I helped get our access and now what we now call access and Student Success Center programming up and running.

▶ 56:49 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: So that's our, for our students with emotional disabilities. I did that before switching to district wide. So lots of different hats, and now I'm blessed to return as their principal. Um, so lots of different experience across the building. Um, and honestly, I think that's a lot of what's driving this accelerated improvement plan is we have a lot of incredible things happening in the building, and we wanna continue to really build an engaging learning experience for our students that makes them want to come to school and want to learn. And so that's really the kind of, I would say the, the cusp of this. And I know that you've heard from Ms. Berman and from other principals about how this will eventually lead

▶ 57:31 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: into a school improvement plan. We know we still have a lot of data diving to do. We know we have a lot of digging in as a staff to do this is I'm a big systems person and this really to me is about building a system that will be ready for that when we, when we need to shift into that. Um, and so, like I said, our goal is to create that daily learning experience where kids, um, are learning to read, are wanting to learn, and that they have a sense of belonging and that they feel safe in our community. Um, we know we have a complex learning environment that gives us curve balls every single day all day long. Um, but that's kind of what we love about the Lincoln, um, is that it isn't like any other school in the district.

▶ 58:11 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Um, the two solutions that we've chosen, um, as a school or that we've, we we're kind of pushing towards as a school is to focus on literacy, right? So literacy as we know, is the basis for every bit of learning, right? Um, we need our students to be reading. It's also a place where, if I'm being honest, like we weren't doing terrible at a, as a school. So I think it's a safe place to start to build a system. Now that's not to say it's not without concern. We absolutely have concern, especially when we start to dig into subgroups and looking at that progress or lack of. Um, and that is something that we'll continue to do throughout the year. Um, starting with our November staff meeting, we'll be di

▶ 58:49 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: or our next staff meeting, which is in November. Um, we'll be really diving into that MCA data and talking about it vertically around why do these skills kind of, um, it isn't just a fifth grade teacher's responsibility to teach comprehension. It starts in kindergarten, and we all build on that every single year. So we'll be really unpacking that and looking at it in relation to that IXL data, which we are getting ongoing and looking at, um, our DIBELS data and all of that. Um, so as I said, it's really about building a system. Um, our teachers are tasked to do so much, right? We know that, and I, I feel like I have to highlight some of the, the, the additional work sometimes that we have to do at the Lincoln having such complex learners.

▶ 59:33 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: So their common prep time ends up having to go to, um, consults, right? Because we have big team consultations. It ends up going a lot to prep because we have a lot of visuals for the learners in front of us. It sometimes goes to working with their paraprofessionals, things like that. Um, and they don't always have the bandwidth to do the data diving that we need them to do, right? And so one of the solutions that I kind of have proposed for that, or a big piece of that is to implement, um, a tier two time that I am, I'm supporting them, right? And I by no shock to anyone here, love to talk. Um, it's not that I'm not shy. Um, years ago when I was a teacher, there, there were principal assemblies

▶ 1:00:17 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: and it was just like this fun engaging time where the principal really focused on building morale and culture and like kind of made it exciting. And I'm really happy to say that last Friday we had our first principal assembly, and I've had two students that I didn't expect to say that I was pretty funny. And one of them said, I should be a YouTube performer. So I'm pretty excited about that. I felt like that was like the ultimate stamp of approval. Um, but what really was the excitement about that day is that teachers got time to work on tier two instruction. So like, what is happening at your teacher table? Which is the most basic form of tier two instruction, right? It is the most powerful form is when a teacher can have

▶ 1:00:59 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: that time with a student to really dive into the skills they see that student struggling with in the classroom. So my guidance this year has been to focus on literacy, right? Because it is something that I think my staff as a whole has a strength in, right? I have some incredible teachers back there that teach reading, and one in particular takes pretty much every PD possible. Um, she's giggling right now, um, possible on teaching literacy. Um, and it's really about giving them that time and helping them build the culture around looking at data as a team that isn't always instructed from a district perspective. Um, many of you know, I was a coach for many years. I was a director for many years.

▶ 1:01:41 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: I know how to lead data meetings. We know the culture that comes from data meetings or that we, I myself had a part in, in creating, it's not always a safe space for teachers, right? They sometimes need time to talk as a team. We'll still have those benchmark times of the year where I'm involved. I'll still give them feedback and process with them in between. But this is about giving them space and time to have that. So while this year it's around literacy, it could shift to math next year, it could shift to SEL another year. It really is about building that time and about giving me time with students. So we are focusing on, um, using literature when we are in those assemblies. And I'm hoping over time to kind of build that skill

▶ 1:02:23 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: again through me as well. Um, is it okay to shift onto the next solution or do you want me to Okay, so the next solution, I, I do feel like if we're gonna talk about an engaging daily learning experience for our learners, we have to look at attendance at Lincoln. Um, for anyone that hasn't necessarily dove into our attendance data, it's concerning. Um, we had just under 50 students last year identified as chronically absent. Um, I know that's different from the rest of the district. We have some unique situations there, um, that we need to spend the year really unpacking and looking at. I have some hypotheticals, right? I have some predictions. One of them being, um, a great chunk of this is families that travel.

▶ 1:03:08 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: So for example, we have almost two weeks off for the midyear or that mid hall that holiday break or the winter break this year. Um, there are so many multilingual families that have already reached out about extending that so they can go back to their home country for a month or longer, right? And that makes sense, but it's also a missed 10 plus days of school. And so I'm regularly brainstorming this with Melanie and with my staff is like, what else can we do to help these learners? But right now, I would say we're in an information gathering space, right? We're really diving into that subgroup data. We're really talking about it as a team. Um, we have a system at the Lincoln that I was able

▶ 1:03:49 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: to help build when I was the director of social emotional learning called the triage meeting. We do it every single Monday morning where we talk about like emerging concerns in the building and how we're gonna address them throughout the week. So we've added an attendance check right into the triage meeting. Um, we were able to meet, I'll give an example, yesterday, um, we identified four students that we are already seeing as chronically absent this year. We were able to give reasoning for some of them being like they had COVID and needed to be out. Oh, they were out for a vacation. And we, we know about that. But then there was a couple that we said, these need a follow up. And so we were able to already connect with families.

▶ 1:04:26 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: We kind of designated, like one of them was me partnering with the classroom teacher, the other is the nurse. And so we're trying to like, involve not just me, because I think we so often say, well, what are you gonna do? Or what's the principal gonna do? And that's not always the right path. Um, we wanna acknowledge that that sometimes feels punitive to families or to students. And that's not the approach we're trying to take. We're really trying to take that partnering community building, like really seeing where a family's at approach. Um, and again, we're putting it right into a structure so it holds me accountable. It holds them accountable. Um, and again, we're always trying to partner with,

▶ 1:05:02 Jennifer McAndrew: with the teacher as well. Um, and so that's kind of where we're at. And I, I know you have the packet. I'm happy to answer any questions, um, that you might have. Terrific. Thank you. Of course. Questions? Yes. Go ahead Ms. McAndrew. Thank you. Um, thank you Principal Patty for being here. Um, it's great to see you and the whole Lincoln School community who's here. Thank you. Um, thank you for the plan. I think it's very clear and accessible as they all have been very focused on, you know, the one, two or three key things that you're working on, and you've been clear about that, which I appreciate. So I have two questions, um, about the second strategy goal. Mm-hmm. Attendance. Um, I just, just first

▶ 1:05:45 Jennifer McAndrew: of all wanna just commend you for naming that as a central challenge because I think, um, the more you talk about it in the Lincoln School community in the, in our wider community, the, the more helpful that will be. Mm-hmm. Um, so that, my first question is just about how are you, um, kind of socializing these two goals, and especially that one with the whole Lincoln community, especially the families and caregivers. Um, it's a good question just to know, like not just that, oh, here are the statistics and there's a percentage that's chronically absent, but like why that's important to consider and look at as a school community. Yeah, That's a really great question. And we did cover this at my first site council meeting.

▶ 1:06:26 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: So they've already seen this. They given feedback and they are also starting to kind of be involved in the process. And so I would say it starts there, right? The next step is gonna be, um, we talked about the next PTO meeting, this potentially being something we talk about there. And so I think just trying to come at it, I'm a big fan of p small pockets and not overhauling, right? And so I would say site council is one of them. PTO is another, I I I know you all get my newsletter every week, right? So it, it'll be mentioned in there. And then also just having conversations. I think just being visible with families, letting them know that it's a concern. It's something that we're talking about trying

▶ 1:07:04 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: to educate the community, um, on why chronically absent students typically underperform as time goes on. Because I think that people don't always see the impact of the decision of travel, right? So I think it's just also helping families, again, when it comes up, which is helping them understand and not coming at it in that like, why is your child absent so much? It's like, Hey, I wanna help you understand, like, let's talk about this together. Um, I will say like one statistic that, um, and I wanna just be protective of like the student's, um, identity of course. But like one instance of a student, I will say that we had, um, a coming into last year, ending last year, I'll just say over a hundred absences in their career.

▶ 1:07:45 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: They have had not won this year. And that I really feel like is such good data on like the, the power of partnership, not just like with me to the family, but the staff with the family. And like one of their teachers is back there that like, it's hard to go slow to go fast. But I think this was a perfect example when we tried to partner, it wasn't met like with the, the strongest response. And so we just took a big step back and said, we're just focusing on small positive interactions this year. That's what we're gonna focus on, is like giving this family small, positive, supportive interactions. And now we have, we're on date, I think 42 First grade Teacher, 4, 2, 4 3. Mm-hmm. Um, and we've had no absences.

▶ 1:08:24 Jennifer McAndrew: So I feel like that that's the data I'm looking for, and that's the power I'm looking for and the education right now. Thank you For that. That's really helpful. I just really commend your very supportive approach to this and very public approach. Um, and so the, the second is related just how, um, I totally get your point that the Lincoln School community has, um, special challenges, needs and opportunities. I'm wondering, um, how we, how you as a principal are working to maybe get ideas, support, um, feedback from other principals and or, um, districts outside of Melrose In relation to attendance. Yeah, yeah. Strategies. So we, we did spend a good atti a good amount of time talking about this last year.

▶ 1:09:06 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: It was led by Dr. Turner. We were trying to really just, it's not necessarily just a centralized linking concern. Um, although I, I have looked at the DESI data, I know that ours is more alarming or it just, to me at least it feels that way when I'm looking at it. Um, Mel's the data person. Um, but to me it feels like it is, does feel like a more prevalent concern there. But we do talk about it regularly. The principals and I meet weekly. Attendance is often something that comes up. We did start to try to build more of like a tiered attendance plan last year, but it was really just about unpacking concerns. I have already shared with my internal team, the, the high school kind. It's the high school, but it's really the high school,

▶ 1:09:48 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: middle school now attendance tiered plan. 'cause I was part of that a few years ago when they were developing that. Um, and so I would say just keeping in touch. Like it's something that I know I'll, we've been, we've looked at each other's AIPs. It's something I know we all care deeply about it. Just because it's not in their AIPs doesn't mean it's not something that we're all talking about all the time. Um, we all have students that travel that we are all concerned about. We all have students that I think is a product of COVID. They still feel the need to stay home when there's a cold. And we try to, it's hard to tell a family sometimes. Like, it's okay if you have a sniffle or it's okay if you have a cold, a cough,

▶ 1:10:27 like you can come to school. 'cause we were, we kind of put that in them to not come to school for such a long time. So I think we do regularly talk about that and I think we'll continue to do That. Thank you. Really helpful. Of course. Appreciate this. Of course. Great. Yes, Ms. Withy, go ahead. Um, also just very thankful to have both of you come before us and share the plan. One thing that I noticed that I really appreciated, and just the way you wrote the goals was in this desired impact for solutions, you referenced like wanting to enter the 26 27 school year. Mm-hmm. So it, it signaled to me for a second that perhaps this might be more than just a year long plan. Is that what you're envisioning too?

▶ 1:11:06 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Like this is phase one, phase two might be going deeper on strategy one. Yes. Okay. Yeah. I think my vision, right? Again, all about building systems. And while I know again that like literacy, our math data looks more concerning, right? But like, I'm gonna focus on literacy for so many reasons, right? Number one being, again, trying to leverage a lot of this, the professional development that we're accessing this year, 14 of our staff members are taking the OG training awesome. For Orton Gillingham, which I'm so ecstatic about. Mm-hmm. Um, I'll give a shout out to my whole entire third grade team, including special ed is take is taking it. I can't wait to see what happens. Um, and so I think it's just really about kind of, um,

▶ 1:11:47 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: sorry my brain is so fried tonight. Um, I think it's just really about taking the time to like look at that and, and think deeper about that. But I'm happy to like follow up, just follow up on anything. No, This is, this is great. And I was really excited to see the large amount of teachers that are also taking the OG training. Yes. And I think like knowing that you're trying to think about interventions, knowing that you also have a group of people that are gonna be taking this training. Yes. There's gonna be some really nice cross pollination I would imagine around learning and then applying and like bringing that back that I think is just so powerful and profound for the community. So thank you.

▶ 1:12:20 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Absolutely. Absolutely. And then I'm sorry, just to add on, 'cause I know you asked this question. Now it came to me. I think like my goal really is about kind of taking all that unpacking we'll do this year, and that serves the, that serves the development of the school improvement plan, right? Like, so very helpful. The, the data that we're gonna really unpack this year, that's gonna build that school improvement plan. So like, I don't, I don't see our literacy work going away after a year. I think it's really like the exposure in skill building this year in system building. And then next year we're gonna say like, well, how are we gonna implement this? And that won't be done. Just me. Like, that will be done as a team. Same with the attendance.

▶ 1:12:56 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Like this year we're really trying to like unpack the attendance issues and like concerns and just, and we're trying some things out and documenting it and putting it in like in a system that's already working. But it's really gonna be about continuing that work next year, because that's not, it's not gonna be an overnight success. Thank you for bearing with my, um, eight o'clock ring. No, that was great. Thank you so much for letting us see how it's gonna evolve over time. Thank you. Yes, Mr. School, go ahead and Mr. Hartman after that. Thank you. So what I've heard, um, from all of you who have presented, um, uh, before us, your school improvement plans is, um, a real focus on professional culture

▶ 1:13:37 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: and creating that sense of belonging and trust in your schools in different ways, right? Because you have different student populations and, um, I just happen to know Lincoln more than a lot, some of the others. So what I see, um, continuing, I think for, uh, a long time is this real melding of heart and data. And I think that's sometimes a challenging balance when you are really focused on driving improvements for students. And each of those students has a face and, and needs to have an an individual learning plan. Yes. And with many of the opportunities and challenges that comes from having a different kind of population. Mm-hmm. And I know how focused, um, all of Lincoln staff always has been on that.

▶ 1:14:26 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: And the other thing I'm just hearing in that is the accessibility, um, that all students and families, um, that I've seen, um, feel when they come to be with you. Um, you make your hearts, um, open so that you can really hear the problem or you can hear the challenge or you can hear, um, what they're facing right now. And it's so different because if that student speaks a different language from the student sitting next to them and has very different cultural practices, I've always seen that the Lincoln embraces that. And the joy and curiosity around those cultural practices and those languages in the spirit of everybody can come together and learn together and be better together. And I appreciate the fact that all of you continue

▶ 1:15:14 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: to embody that joy. And that's very hard to do when you want to solve problems right now, because you know that every day that goes by that a student misses school or a student doesn't feel that a curriculum is accessible. It is not a completely lost day. But you wanna make it, you know, a hundred percent and not 75% that day. So I'm just grateful for the way you treat each other and the way that you treat your students. So thank you. Thank you Mr. Sk. Yes, Mr. Hartman. Um, thank you for this and thank you for the detail and the plan as well. Um, I was really interested in the, the absentee section of it, and, and I very much appreciated the approach that, that you're taking with it. And I, I can see how much work

▶ 1:15:59 that approach is gonna be from so many people in the school, um, from the teachers in the classroom to you, to the, the admin staff. Um, I think that's, that's worth noting. Uh, and one of the things you said caught my attention that, that you had been involved in some of the, the absentee issues at the, at the higher levels as well. And so, um, you know, I see a lot of opportunity for success in what you're writing here, um, to the, to your point, it's gonna take some time. It's gonna take, uh, deep dives and, and work, uh, more than one year. Understandable. Um, and I, I think one of the things that comes to my mind is these students are gonna turn into middle schoolers and turn into high schoolers.

▶ 1:16:32 How do we start to make that connection in the middle school and draw the lessons learned, the, the relationships, the, the things that these students have succeeded at after years of working at, at Lincoln and move that into the high school and make in the middle school and make sure that those lessons are still captured at the, at the middle school. Give them the same opportunities, give 'em the same types of, um, responses when they need it. Entering a building that goes from, uh, about 400 kids to about eight, eight or 900 kids from all parts of, of the district that, that maybe they have never seen before in Melrose. Um, very different, uh, building culture. Um, and so, you know, I wonder if you want

▶ 1:17:07 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: to use your eight o'clock brain or not. This is an optional question. Um, just how do we take some of the lessons that you might learn at Lincoln and start to bring that into, uh, our middle school where we, where we've seen some of these struggles? Yeah, I'm happy to talk about that. So, just for a little perspective to when I was the director of social emotional learning, that was a big part of my role was, was working with the transition from fifth to sixth. So I would partner with elementary principals, partner with middle school administration, and we would try that transfer. Um, obviously with adjustments in administration, it's, it's, it's, it's revamping, right? It's a work in progress,

▶ 1:17:39 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: but I don't think the, the basis of it is gone. Um, I, I have a whole team of people who take that transition so seriously. Um, we've already started identifying students that following the new year, we need to start a transition plan with that would include, and again, every student's so individual that it might include just meeting administration. 'cause they don't always have a history of trust and administration. It might mean taking a few planned times to meet their counselor. So then that's like a familiar person. Um, we also, we started this about 10 years ago. We continue to do it for students that we know have significant anxiety about middle school. They all have step-up day, but we also do individual visits

▶ 1:18:19 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: or, um, like small group visits to the middle school. Um, we too, we've done it from everywhere to like attending a lunch to, um, like helping them like try to get into their lockers to helping them navigate the building. So we've done a different target in so many ways through the years. It's really about like the learners that year and what they're kind of sharing their concerns to be about. Um, we invite often for, um, the staff to come down, especially the Access and Student Success Center staff, because we want them to see the kids that they sometimes present with the biggest balls of anxiety, just kind of like inside of them. Um, but really we invite anyone. Um, a few years ago we were planning lots

▶ 1:19:02 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: of different visits for sixth grade team leaders to come down. I would love to work with Jason and Brian and Michelle and Steve again to kind of get that up and running. Um, so I think all of those things will contribute. And again, this is something that I would talk about with all principals and we can talk about like how all kids would benefit from it. Um, but I, I think one of the things that I'm grateful for having that five years of, of that district experience is I don't really have a, it's not a discomfort to pick up and call Jason or it's like, I don't mind just like kind of saying, Hey, they're coming over. Like, what time can I expect them to be? Or like, what time do you want them to be there?

▶ 1:19:37 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: Um, it's just a different comfort level. Um, but again, our staff sees the value in that they start working on it very quickly. Um, and I'll even speak to like the preschool to kindergarten transition. Like we had quite a few Franklin learners coming to us this year with complex needs. That process started in, at the midyear, like that wasn't an overnight. Um, we did at least I would say 10 visits there last year to really get to know and get eyes on those learners, um, and get to know their families. And so I would say that it's the same process for fifth to sixth. 'cause I think one thing we don't take for granted is that, um, there's a lot more like, I would say like handholding or closeness with like the coaching

▶ 1:20:19 Kate Lipper-Garabedian: that you give a child in elementary school. And that's different in middle school, you know? And so I think that the staff there over the years, they've grown in hearing that. Like we say, come see where the learners are at, not necessarily where you want them to be. Um, and I do think they hear that and they believe in that and they, they are, they're trying to address that. Thank you. Of course. Of course. Any other questions? Great. Um, wonderful discussion. So in Salem where I work, they do these buyback days. 'cause we have a big attendance problem in Salem that we've really worked on real, very, very well and comprehensively over the last four or five years. Um, and 'cause obviously if you wanna catch the problem

▶ 1:21:00 when they're in elementary school and not have it continue to grow and grow and grow and then cause dropout or just failure. So, um, I don't know if you can do buyback days at, at the elementary, because I'm willing to talk to you about it now. Yeah. I need to learn more. Wrote it down. Talk Online because, but there's a lot of really good ideas out there and I, I I just don't know how they would translate to elementary school. Yeah. But I do wanna say that you really are running the school that is the most urban of our elementary schools and a true melting pot of many, many, many cultures. And that makes for an incredibly dynamic learning environment and a large spread of needs. So I think what I can tell from the talking

▶ 1:21:43 to people in the community is if, oh, you have a student that goes to Lincoln, oh, we're the Lincoln Lions. There's such pride. It seems like the morale is very, very high on your staff. Um, the students and the parents are very happy to be there. And that hasn't always been true in the last eight years, um, of me being on the committee at least. And I think there's always been a great effort for things to be going well there, but it seems like things are going very well now. So I wanna thank the educators, you, um, the families and the students for working so hard to, to make it feel more solid. Thank you there. And more joyful. Thank you. Um, so I'm really happy and I think that, um, the partnership

▶ 1:22:22 and the relationship building with families while you begin to make systems moves sounds just perfect. Thank you. 'cause without that trust, you can't build those relationships, right? So then, and if you have the partnership, you can get through anything. So thank you for all you're doing. Thank you. And we're very proud of the Lincoln Lions, and we'll look forward to seeing where all your, your goals and data go to. Awesome. Thank you all very much. Thank Oh, we have to, we'll vote on your plan now. Oh, okay. Sorry. Do we have A motion? Yes. Okay. Ms. Macand and second by Ms. Withy. All in favor. Here we go. There's your sex. Thank you everyone. Thank you. And with that, that concludes, um,

▶ 1:22:58 Jennifer McAndrew: educational programs and personnel. Thank you. All right. We have five things under the announcements of the chair this evening. We actually moved the concussion report off of the consent agenda. So I'll start there. That'll be the first thing that we discuss this evening. So are there any questions or comments related to that report? Ms. Der, go ahead. Thank you. Um, appreciate this. We see this annually, um, for, and this is for the calendar year 2024. Um, So I just, I think my, looking at this report, we can see there was a significant increase in concussions from 2023 to 2024. It's more than double. Um, the, it's not, it's, um, you know, I think there could be a lot of reasons for that.

▶ 1:24:06 Jennifer McAndrew: Um, we know from looking at the athletics participation reports that in 2024 we were at or exceeding pre pandemic levels of participation in sports. So part of it could be like a literal population thing, more students playing sports, more games, et cetera. Um, although I see that the level is still above pre pandemic concussion levels as reported here. So, um, could be that we're doing better with tracking and reporting and with relationships with physicians in the community, et cetera. Um, but I think what, um, so there could be many reasons and I, I actually don't know. And that's actually what my point is, that there's not enough information in this report. So my suggestion would be that we, um, uh,

▶ 1:24:52 Jennifer McAndrew: unless there's a reporting requirement that we need to meet, I'm, which I'm willing to hear about that we hold this and get a little bit more report, um, information in the report about what, like what is the analysis as to why there's such a big increase this year? Sure. I, I did speak with, um, athletic director Fogerty, um, 'cause I saw this as well and was slightly shocked by, um, doubling from, from past years. Um, and was trying to understand, right? Like, did, I don't know where did, did we start a new drill in football? Did we start a new drill in another, you know, what, what were we doing? Where was this increase? Where did it come from? Um, so I think, you know, we would, I don't,

▶ 1:25:35 that data did not appear to be readily available at this moment in time. So we would have to dig in and, and find that data about, and I'm sure it exists, right? Like which sport, which kiddos, I mean, it is diagnosed through the doctor, uh, as opposed to, you know, it's not, it doesn't go through our athletic trainer or anything. And you guys all know the, the protocol and the policy around that. But, um, you know, I was wondering, is it just more, are, are kids just playing harder? Are we, are we in, uh, experiencing tougher games? Like I, I don't know, um, is there a bigger awareness? But we can certainly see if there's any, um, further information that we can bring to the committee. Yeah, that would be helpful. I think.

▶ 1:26:08 Jennifer McAndrew: I just think that, you know, and we may not know and that's fine, but we don't have any, um, factors, even potential factors listed Here. So, and, and I do, I guess just, sorry to interrupt, but no, um, even if we can't find the information from last year, obviously, how do we track and do better for this year so that we can understand when we get to this time next year, um, of how it's collected, right? What sports? Lots of different pieces. Even if That information can't be shared because of confidentiality. Just Yeah. How are we using this information to inform our training of coaches? Mm-hmm. Um, how is this information used by the athletic trainer or sometimes we have contracted athletic trainers

▶ 1:26:52 Jennifer McAndrew: 'cause um, our salary's not high enough to fill the position for a full-time athletic trainer. Um, you know, what are we like, just a little more information here, I think beyond what's required that we report to the state, which I think is the number mm-hmm. Correct. Um, I think would be really helpful. And, um, again, it could be that we're doing better with getting the information, reporting it, and tracking it, and then that means that we're doing better with the protocols for re return return to participation for those students. Um, and you know, I also know this is, I think it's from six to 12. Yeah, it's, Yeah, Grade six to 12, sorry. So, you know, that could also be, we have, you know,

▶ 1:27:35 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: a big middle school population participating in, um, sports and other extracurriculars as well. So I would just like to see a little bit more, or, or maybe a format for a more, um, little bit more robust report going forward. Thank you. Thanks, Mr. Driscoll. Go ahead. Yeah, I just wanted to amplify actually something, um, that I had been thinking about, um, that Ms. McAndrew um, mentioned, which is, this is a co-curricular report. Mm-hmm. This has, so it could be the band. Mm-hmm. It could be drama, it could be, so I just want the community at large to understand it's not necessarily just athletics. Mm-hmm. Um, but that it could be a wide variety of activities. And if there is data to, um, narrow that down, for example,

▶ 1:28:16 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: it's, you know, it could be the drama and somebody slips, you know, so who knows? Are there things that safety protocols that can put be put into place by the district that support, um, healthier outcomes? Thank you. And I would, um, hope that if there, if and when there are things identified and they, if they have budgetary consequences, that those would be included. Because obviously the number one, um, thing we do is we, our students can't learn unless they're safe and healthy. So we wanna certainly have that as a priority. Mr. Hartman, did you wanna add anything? Yeah, thank you. And, and I just, uh, I agree with my colleagues on this. It's concerning to see a, a doubling like that. Um, just thinking

▶ 1:28:57 through data points that we might wanna see. I certainly also wanna see if there's any, uh, record of repeat concussions. 'cause those are certainly the most severe impact for, uh, anybody who's getting a repeat concussion. Um, and I don't know if that's data that's available, but it would be helpful to understand, um, you know, if we are allowing students to continue through programs with repeated concussions, that seems like a major issue to, to address. Um, and then, uh, you know, I think looking at what programs and, and trying to identify, um, whether there's a trend emerging in one program or another. Um, and to the superintendent's point, I don't know what we have retroactively, but certainly we wanna be informing ourselves

▶ 1:29:36 to the future when, uh, with this report 'cause it, it should be a report that informs us to understand what decisions we can make about the numbers that we see. So those are some data points that I'm interested in seeing as we return to this at some future date. Any other questions or comments? So I think on the table is to hold so that we can get more information beyond just the numbers that we're seeing in front of us, which I'm certainly happy to suspend a vote this evening so that we can look into this a little bit more. Just on my quick look, it seems as though all we are submitting to the state is the number of head injuries. Um, so I can also double check with attorney linguist to make sure that there aren't any

▶ 1:30:19 other reporting requirements. Um, procedurally is there anything else we need to do here? If we do decide to hold? Okay, then let's, let's hold and not vote this evening. Um, and I think the superintendent and I both have a few next steps to figure out what's realistic and feasible for us to be able to learn a little bit more. Good. Do you think there's a chance that we need to vote the number to be reported? I know that attorney Lindquist is not here by a certain date. I mean, The date that I see here is August, so I would assume we may have already reported numbers. Okay. But I don't know, we could vote on the numbers this evening if that would be beneficial. Um, and then recognize that we wanna come back

▶ 1:31:05 Margaret Raymond Driscoll: with more data just in case there is a requirement. I wouldn't be comfortable with that unless it is an absolute requirement. I mean, I don't have any, um, if it's, if it's authorizing that, you know, we believe this to be true, um, you know, I think having more information would give me a little bit more comfort level. Okay. So motion to postpone till November 18th. Second. Great. So I have a motion to postpone made by Ms. McAndrew, seconded by Ms. Driscoll. All in favor? And that passes unanimously. Thank you everyone. Um, next up we have the superintendent priority update. And so before I turn it over to Superintendent Berman, I just wanna acknowledge that at the beginning of the year, we had the opportunity to hear from the superintendent

▶ 1:31:51 with regards to her overall priorities for the year. And given that we're at about the 45 day mark, almost, um, thought it would be a helpful moment to allow for her to just share any updates on progress thus far. So I'll give the floor to you to hear a little bit more. Sure. Um, so, well, first of all, thank you. Um, there is a memo in your packet, um, that I'm sure you have all perused, but I also am gonna highlight some of the key points with slides because I think I've shared with you that I am a visual learner, um, and it, and it does keep me on track as well. And I will not read them to you, but I will just highlight some of the key points from the memo that I have on the slides as well.

▶ 1:32:30 So, um, just give one minute and All right. So just my cover slide. So, um, I just wanna start by, you know, thanking the educators, the students, the families, the community members, the school committee, um, for the opportunity to serve as the interim superintendent of Melrose Public Schools. Um, it has been an honor to lead the district during such an important transitional period. Um, and I'm grateful for this privilege, um, and the support that I've been provided, um, throughout my time serving in the Melrose Public Schools, and especially over the last few months, I've worked hard to highlight who I am as an educator and share my core values. You've actually seen this slide before. It was in my first presentation.

▶ 1:33:17 I just thought I would bring it to light again. Um, and I would not be honestly demonstrating one of my core values if I stated that the last few months have been easy. Um, they have not been easy. The last few months have been challenging, and there have been many difficult decisions that have had to be made. Um, despite any of the hurdles that have been presented, the work has been done with the help of many members of our Melrose community. The work has been rewarding, challenging, and unpredictable at times. What stands out most is the incredible dedication showed by our, our entire community. NPS employees are excellent educators and leaders, and I am beyond grateful for the experience to work for

▶ 1:34:02 with them each and every day. Um, I would continue, or like to continue to recognize that there was a lot of good work done last year, um, a lot of which I was part of, um, but wasn't leading. Um, and I, along with the leadership and educators, strive to be the best we can be and do right by our students each and every day. As mentioned in previous meetings, Melrose Public Schools is focused on the first two objectives outlined in the strategic plan for this school year. Um, I do have a flu few, a few slides that I would like to share with you to demonstrate the progress and next steps, uh, towards these two priority areas. I would like to highlight, um, and add that a crucial priority will be coming up very, very, very quickly.

▶ 1:34:49 Um, I'd like to just talk about the groundwork and collaboration and development on the budget for the 26 27 school year, which is very quickly approaching, um, moving forward. My commitment remains unwavering. Um, my goal is to foster an environment where every student in Melrose can thrive, and they're supported by clear leadership and dedicated staff. So, um, thank you all again for your support as well, and I look forward to sharing the work that, um, we have all done as a team, um, over the, uh, last few months, um, which seems crazy. So, um, just again, a reminder slide you saw before, but back to basics. Um, and so to me that means, um, accountability, belonging, um, inconsistency. And if I were gonna give you like three sentences on that,

▶ 1:35:37 just to summarize, I would say that we need to meet the needs of all students and provide just in time scaffolds in order to access curriculum as needed. Um, I wanna ensure, and, and I think everyone, um, across all buildings, across all levels, um, wants to ensure that we're building effective lessons, um, and that we are demonstrating knowledge of grade level standards and that we're using high quality instructional materials. Um, and then we really need students to know and understand what they're learning. Um, if, if they can't make connections, then our, our work is useless, frankly. So, um, that's what I mean when I say, when I say back to basics. Um, I have to put it this way. So you all know our, our big five strategic goals and,

▶ 1:36:24 and our focus is on the first two. Um, and these are just reminder slides as, as to what they mean, the objectives and what it looks like. So some of the highlights, I just want to give some, um, evidence of the progress that has been made. Uh, everyone, and I know I've mentioned it before, and, and principal Patty mentioned it tonight, and I think she said she had 14 educators just at the Lincoln School. Um, but I be, you know, we're offering over 30 educators an opportunity to engage in Orton-Gillingham training, um, which is huge, um, that is really going to help us, um, set the standard for, for a lot of our children. And it's, you know, a research based, um, methodology that we can give to all students.

▶ 1:37:09 We do not have to qualify for students for special education or, or put them in, in different groups at that moment in time. So, um, one of the other focus was really on that, that planning alignment. So ensuring that our school improvement plans are aligned with our, um, district plans. And, and we've worked hard with the principals and our principals meetings and our leadership meetings to ensure that there's that through line. Um, that then goes also down to the educators goals, um, and, and what they're looking at, um, which is really summarizes in that. Um, and then I think we have had all buildings, which is really exciting. Um, even, you know, our, our secondary, um, staff, the high school specifically,

▶ 1:37:51 has engaged in like a full data meeting. Um, and that's exciting. And there were a lot of aha moments that came out of that. We're able to look at some of the additional, you know, um, initial scores. Um, some of the teachers or all of the teachers and educators were look able to look at the disproportionality that exists. Um, and I think, you know, we'll continue to look at our DIBELS in our IXL and, and have those data meetings and really target so that we can put in those instructional practices. Um, again, coming back to that critical lens for the lesson planning, and then just some next steps. So, um, similar again, I feel like to what, uh, I feel like Jess, uh, principal Patty teed me up a little bit here tonight.

▶ 1:38:36 Um, some of the things is putting in some of these systems and knowing that we're really gonna start to gather the baseline and the data to be able to move forward. Uh, again, we've had some inconsistencies with some pieces, and we also have a very, very lean team, I would say from, from paraprofessionals to classroom teachers to our specialists, to our leadership team, to our central office team, right? It, it is lean, um, but everyone is working so hard to, um, really do what's best for everyone. Um, and so I really just commend everyone. We hope to do kind of like a lesson plan checklist from leadership to make sure that, um, staff can reflect on the lesson planning that they're doing. Um, we help to use our collaborative times,

▶ 1:39:21 so our staff meetings, our curriculum, meeting times, early release times if it's chosen, different things like that. We're unpacking the standards, looking at our goals, looking at the data, um, and then having that walkthrough focus. That is something that we did a lot, uh, prior to COVID and then tried to bring back a little bit over the years with pieces. We need to get more consistent in that, um, non evaluative walkthroughs where teams are going in and looking to collect data in 12 to 15 classrooms to come up with some really good, uh, takeaways of about what we saw for very specific pieces. And then what my favorite is the quick wins. So what can we, what two or three ideas can we give to educators

▶ 1:39:59 or to leadership, um, that you could do tomorrow with like, no planning. It's just a, it's a quick win. Um, so that, that's for goal number one. So I will jump to goal number two. And again, just a reminder of what it is, um, and some evidence of progress. So this is all around our, um, our professional learning and our UDL reset that we are, um, have worked on again a little bit last year. A lot. Many, many of us are very familiar with a lot of this language. And I think just being, bringing it to the forefront, um, the expectations for what we're looking for, um, as teachers plan and as students engage in the classroom. So, uh, we kicked off our first couple days, you know, we had Kelly Merton's come in

▶ 1:40:41 and talk about our UDL training, ensuring, again, our, our goals from our, our district goals to our school improvement goals, to our educators goals are aligning and putting in some of those UDL practices and then gathering data, having that baseline for, um, the instructional practices and the student engagement practices that we're, we're utilizing. So that's the work we've done over the co last couple of months, um, to set the stage. And, um, our next steps are really finalizing those walkthroughs and giving that consistent feedback, gathering that data, um, and looking at that equity, uh, big piece that disproportionality, what, what are we, how can we do better? Um, how do we close achievement gaps?

▶ 1:41:27 What are our, our, what are our achievement gaps? Um, we have to call 'em out. We have to name them, um, in our buildings as we discussed earlier, may, may look different. And then one of the pieces I think is really important is, is this perceptual data. How do students think we're doing? Like, I don't know that I'm sure, I know we have awesome educators, like I'm sure they're polling students. I don't know that that information is making its way to the leadership team or maybe even to their principal. So how do we design, um, some surveys that are consistent across buildings, across grades, across curriculum area where we can really understand how our kiddos doing, what is, do they feel like they belong?

▶ 1:42:12 Do they, you know, have control of their learning? Do they have that choice? Do does that represent the UDL principles? So those are, are our next steps, um, that some of the evidence. Uh, we have a lot of work to do with a little bit of time, but, uh, more than half the year still to get through. Um, and I just welcome the opportunity to, um, continue the work and, um, happy to take any questions you have. Mr. Hartman. Go ahead. Um, I'll start in with one thing. Um, so I really appreciate the update and, and how detailed it is and your thoughtfulness and bringing it forward and speaking to it. Uh, and I actually, I really appreciate the equity impact analysis that you've got some focus on.

▶ 1:42:59 Um, not, not uncommonly, I hear, you know, our MCA scores are great, we have 80%, uh, meeting or exceeding expectations, things like that. Um, and I constantly reply back that we have lots of gaps in subgroups of students. And so I really appreciate the focus that you're putting there to, to draw out, um, those gaps and to understand them and understand how we can address them. And I think your, your background in the special education world is really important to be successful in that arena. Um, so that in particular stands out to me as a, as a really key focus that calling it out upfront here as a, as a space for us to focus on is really important. Because I think that's where we, we struggle as a district.

▶ 1:43:41 Uh, when we have limited resources to apply to issues that we're seeing, that's where we can't get into the weeds. We, we don't have enough to do there. And I think that's really important that we're identifying it. Um, and hopefully we can, we can find what we have now and, and maybe more in the future to bring to it. 'cause I think that's where we have a lot of space to grow. So thank you for putting that at the forefront and as a, as a key aspect of, of what you're focusing on. Mr. Kelly. Sure. Thank you. Thank you very much for putting this together. This reminds me a lot of, uh, your presentation from our September 9th meeting where you introduced many of these topics, and I'm glad to see the

▶ 1:44:21 Jennifer McAndrew: follow through that's occurring with them. It seems to be really focused on getting the, the district organized, prepared, kind of the back to basics. I think it's very easy to follow and understand. So I just really appreciate the work that you and your team have done, um, in the summer and throughout this fall. Thank You. Definitely a team effort. Ms. Der. Thank you. Um, I echo all that and thank you. Um, I know we'll be getting more into all of these, um, throughout the, the rest of the school year. I, um, I also think to me something that comes through here is your, um, the longevity of your career in this district. Um, so I, um, I'm really glad that you mentioned student voice and sort of student feedback.

▶ 1:45:12 Jennifer McAndrew: Um, and I'm not surprised by that because of course you came up through the secondary, uh, school and system here. Um, and I just, I really appreciate that and I, I really think I'd like to hear more, more about that going forward. What your plans, how you plan to do that and sort of instill that, uh, throughout the district. Um, I think you probably have a lot of students at all levels, um, all the way down probably to pre-K I mean four year olds have a lot to say mm-hmm. Um, that have feedback and, and ideas for you. And I think, I think you're the perfect person to hear that because, um, you know, this district and those students so well and have known them for so long. So thank you. Any other questions or comments?

▶ 1:45:58 I would just add gratitude too. I think it's really clear to be able to say, this is where we're starting, this is what we've done thus far. 45 days isn't that much time. So to be able to see the movement that's already begun, I think is just very helpful to be able to picture where we're headed is even better. So thank you for including those next steps. I am incredibly appreciative of you stepping up. I know you recognize that some days are harder than others. Um, and I am grateful for the years that, again, you've been with us here in Melrose and the path you are charting currently in your role. Um, thank you. With that, we have a couple more things under the announcements of the chair. So one is the MASC resolutions, not policies.

▶ 1:46:40 Um, I just wanna acknowledge that the previous meeting we did vote for Mr. Kelly to serve as our delegate to the MASC conference. Thank you again. Um, during the conference, the resolutions that were sent to you all via email will be put forward. We actually are not gonna move forward with a vote tonight, um, as I don't anticipate that we would be attending that delegate assembly. So no need to vote, but wanted at least for folks to be able to see what they were so that we could lean in, understand some of the topics that are gonna be discussed at that conference. Next, we have the school committee calendar for 2026. Um, we looked at these proposed dates in our last meeting. I didn't hear any feedback

▶ 1:47:22 Jennifer McAndrew: or questions regarding any of the dates. So given that, what's the will of the committee at this time? Mr. Kelly? Motion to approve. I have a motion to approve the school committee dates made by Mr. Kelly, seconded by Ms. Razzie Thomas. All in favor? And that passes unanimously. Last, but certainly not least, do we have any outreach reports this evening? Ms. Gander motion to remind, um, everyone that the school committee has monthly office hours, some on zoom, some in person, and all of those dates and locations and times are on the, um, school website. Um, thank you Ms. O'Connor for doing that. Um, and encourage people to come and see us. Great. That's all we have in terms of business tonight.

▶ 1:48:05 Do I have a motion to adjourn? Ooh, made by Mr. Driscoll. Seconded by Mr. Hartman. All in favor, and we are adjourned. Have a great night everyone. Thank you.

Original documents

• Minutes (CivicClerk PDF)
• Agenda (CivicClerk PDF)
• Agenda packet (CivicClerk PDF)
• This meeting on the city portal