All right.

Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to the October 30th edition of the Sharon School Committee.

This meeting will be conducted remotely over Zoom. Attendance by the committee members will be remote, and remote attendance shall count towards the quorum. The meeting will be broadcast live and recorded by Sharon TV. If you elect to enable your webcam, your image and background may be broadcast with or without sound.

So we have a very packed agenda tonight, and we are going to start off with public comments, and Adam will keep the time of two minutes per person.

So Joel Lessard, kick us off.

Oh, sorry.

Thanks, Julie. Evening.

I was compelled to speak after seeing the school improvement plans on the agenda. Last year, Central Administration investigated high school staff found that they, in official roles, targeted my daughter.

The Central Admin's official report substantiated allegations of bullying, retaliation, fear, and intimidation against my daughter from high school staff.

My daughter is a child, and Central Admin found that high school staff, who are there to protect her interests and are mandated reporters, turned the tables on her and retaliated against her. She's a student today. These staff members are on staff today at the high school. She sees them regularly.

They voluntarily show up at her after-school events, despite having no role. They stand at the front of her class and preach to her about mental health and suicide prevention.

We asked the high school administration to intervene, prevent these types of interactions.

They advised us to have our daughter opt out to avoid the people who targeted her, should they choose to attend those events. The high school administration requires constant supervision to maintain the bullying intervention plan, and they need to be coerced into applying what should be common sense. The high school administration has been feckless and has failed us repeatedly, let alone our daughter.

As you review the school improvement plans and the platitudes about safety, inclusion, valuing every learner, I ask you to please review and revise the hiring and performance evaluation, incorporating strict ethical guidelines.

Nothing will improve our schools more effectively than eliminating low character individuals from their leadership ranks. Thank you, Mr.

Lassar.

Ms.

Crosby?

Thanks, Julie.

So tonight you all are going to be looking at the final reconciliation of fiscal year 24, and I believe you're going to be asked to vote retroactively four plus months after the end of that fiscal year to approve transfers between cost centers that were made unilaterally by Dr. Botello and Alan Whitmore.

I'd like to remind you all of your policy DBJ, which by the way, incorrectly cross-references the wrong mass general law section. The right section is chapter 71, section 34. And it also properly references Department of Revenue opinion 94-660, which was issued in September of 1994 and makes it crystal clear that nobody other than the school committee has the right to approve transfers between cost centers.

And in that Department of Revenue opinion, the superintendent involved had transferred $3,000 between cost centers and the Department of Revenue said, no, you cannot do that without getting school committee consent.

So by asking for school committee consent, four plus months after the end of the fiscal year, when transfers were unilaterally made, is a blatant failure to follow state law around how transfers are supposed to be made.

If there is going to be a penny transferred from one cost center to another in your budget, and last I looked in Munis, you had about 57 cost centers, that needs to come to this committee for our discussion before it happens, not months and months later.

And I'm very frustrated and tired seeing you all consistently violate this law. At some point, it's going to show up in the annual audit, and you're going to get smacked by the audit committee.

So please, please discuss amongst yourselves and start doing this correctly.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Crosby.

Are there any other public comments tonight?

Okay, seeing none, we will move to our correspondence.

Since Shauna has unable to make it tonight, Dan, do you want to do the correspondence?

Do you have it? Sure. I'm happy to fill in for the secretary.

Yes, I have it.

School committee has received 15 pieces of correspondence between October 9th, 2024, at 9 a.m. and October 30th, 2024, at 9 a.m. There were several letters to school committee expressing concerns over special education staffing and specifically concerns that ongoing vacancies continue to impact the services of special education students.

Sharon High School parents have contacted school committee to express concerns about the high school AP exam fee. We received several editions of the Metco newsletter.

Sharon High School's Honor Select Choir invited the school committee to attend a performance in Foxborough, Massachusetts on October 24th. We received a letter expressing concerns about a personnel situation at Sharon High School.

We received several pieces of information regarding the dedication of the athletic facility at the high school, the Gary Hall, on Thanksgiving Day, including information on the signage for the dedication.

We received a letter regarding the suicide prevention program offered at Sharon High School.

A vendor who worked on the high school project wrote to school committee for a reference.

And the school committee received a letter asking the district to prioritize free full-day kindergarten and make sure that the issue is addressed in the upcoming budget discussions.

That is all.

Thank you, Dan. And tonight we are hearing from our student school committee representative, and I believe it's Isha?

Hi.

Hi. Hi.

Thank you so much.

To begin, Halloween Spirit Week is always exciting at Sharon High School. Spirit Days culminate with Halloween costume festivities and contests, including a mummy wrap. We are looking forward to it tomorrow.

Eagle Sports continues to have success with several teams eyeing playoffs, such as the girls and boys soccer teams. Our cross-country team had huge accomplishments.

Alex Blumen finished first at the Hockamuck League Championship.

The team finished third overall at Hawks. The unified basketball team continues to be competitive with lots of enthusiastic high school volunteers supporting the team.

Tri-M Music Honor Society induction ceremony went smoothly yesterday evening. National Honor Society induction is next Wednesday, November 6th. We're proud of students upholding values of scholarship, service, and leadership.

Our amazingly talented Eagles Honor Select Choir performed Illuminare by the incredible Elaine Hagenberg in collaboration with the Foxborough High School concert chorus and orchestra last Thursday.

It's great to see schools that are often competitors on the athletic fields come together in celebration of music. It is available through Foxborough Cable Access.

Radio Club hosted Open Mic Day last Friday after school, which was an energetic end-of-the-day concert that drew a nice rocking crowd. On Monday, November 4th, Evelyn McCullen, longtime chair of school METCO coordinator, is being recognized for her service and contributions for creating the foundations for a successful METCO program.

The dedication will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. at the high school. The student council is hosting a blood drive on December 6th. We are grateful to the school committee members who have donated in the past and will reserve spots for any who are interested.

The goal is to introduce first-time blood donors to this life-saving endeavor, but we always have extra slots for teachers and parents who might want to donate with their child.

Key Club is also hosting a candy drive for the Halloween season, a box will be placed by the office, so feel free to drop over any leftovers after trick-or-treating.

Key Club members will use the candy as part of their ongoing care packages for families at the Ronald McDonald House or area shelters.

Teams such as Math Team, Quiz Bowl, Science Quiz Bowl, and Speech and Debate began their competitive seasons with positive results and excitement.

Clubs are in full swing and eager to participate in the PTSO Color Run fundraiser on Wednesday, November 21st.

This is a great opportunity to support our PTSO, who do so much for our school through grants and celebrations.

We hope all of our clubs and students will pay a small fee to participate with proceeds supporting PTSO as well as potential earnings for their individual clubs.

Students must be registered by parents online and then will be put into their groups to earn raffle prizes and some funds for their clubs.

Student volunteers will be helping PTSO with Election Day fundraising.

Be sure to visit the PTSO table to support our senior class. The Powder Puff game, where Class of 2026 versus Class of 2025 on Thursday, November 21st, at Night Under the Lights will include almost 70 Eagle participants plus cheerleaders.

Everyone should come for the spirited rivalry and halftime cheerleading entertainment by members of the boys' sports teams.

The juniors will be attending the upcoming Financial Reality Fair on November 15th to learn more about finance as they grow older. SHS talent writers and journalism students will be writing features on this upcoming school committee meetings to capture notable discussion points.

Be sure to follow all the excitement on Instagram at Sharon.hi.eagles.

Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you, Isha.

And go Sharon Eagles.

Yeah.

It's awesome.

So now, thank you very much.

That was a great update. It is now time for the superintendent's general update.

Great.

Thank you. Yeah. And I want to thank Isha as well for highlighting all those great activities and clubs.

Our kids really are the heart of our clubs.

They usually initiate the beginning of them.

They might have advisors, but the kids are really in the driver's seat leading those clubs. And there's so many different ones that allow for different kids with different interests to really explore their passions.

So, Isha, thank you for highlighting those.

And for also highlighting Unified Basketball and our sports teams.

And we've gotten some good spectators out there. We're even exploring, it might not happen this year, but a Unified Cheer Squad in the future.

And so, thank you for highlighting those things as well. A bunch of us attended a showcase in Boston at the Boys and Girls Club for METCO program.

So, it was districts from throughout the region who participate in the METCO program there to tell about their districts and their schools, talk about prospective parents and kids.

Carla Hans on METCO, DRECA was there, as well as myself, and a big crew from Central and Building Administration.

And so, it was a great event to show off and hopefully have some new members.

And here's Mr. Madden was there, as well, as well as Carla.

And that's Millie, who is the head of the METCO Inc. in Boston.

Also, as Isha said, the McMullen Trailblazer Center is being dedicated on Monday at 4. There'll be a 4 to 5 program and then 5 to 6, just some refreshments and gathering.

And thanks, Carla, for organizing that.

Special education staffing updates.

We, you know, continue to look to kind of fill all of our positions.

There's definitely a both national, state, and local challenge in filling all special education positions.

And we're competing with folks from, you know, throughout the state.

Recruitment is increasingly difficult, as there are fewer people going into the fields and growing needs within our system, but also systems throughout the state.

And some particularly difficult positions to fill have been long-term substitutes.

Specialists like speech and language pathologists, as well as, you know, our IAs, especially since we have a big, important group of IAs.

Filling some of those, especially long-term sub-IAs, is difficult.

Just a kind of a current status.

We're kind of getting down to a small number of positions.

But we still are looking to fill a long-term substitute educator in our SOAR program at Heights and our DLP program at Cottage.

We had the DLP offered to someone, and they kind of backed out of the position, so we reposted again.

We're also continuing to both post, but also to reach out to agencies.

We also have four IAs that we're looking to fill.

Two of those positions, the one at ECC and Cottage, we have offers extended and hope that they will accept tomorrow or the next day. And then interviews in process at Heights and then looking to start interviews at a middle school position that is a long-term substitute position.

You know, for those who are, you know, we're certainly frustrated by not being able to be fully staffed in talking to my peers.

You know, they're having similar issues, but it's frustrating for all of us. We work together as a team to make sure that kids are receiving their services and are making progress, but we'll also continue to work as creatively as possible to advertise and recruit as well as using staffing agencies.

Unfortunately, sometimes staffing agencies are not as effective as we would like because they're trying to serve so many different districts, and they might give us people who say are looking to be virtual.

And, you know, almost every position we have as far as special education is not a virtual position, but we'll continue to use the agencies that are more effective to fill in the holes while continuing to post. Around budget planning, we've, you know, started up the budget planning process.

We're starting this year with a zero-based budgeting model where we're meeting with both principals and coordinators to outline what are the exact needs for the district starting from the ground up instead of how do we change our budget?

How do we really identify needs and costs and create a budget that way? How do we invest in a gap between this growth?

going on since the beginning of the year. We're also meeting with a special education director and administrators to look at projected costs in those areas.

Also looking at potential increases in costs like out-of-district tuitions as we have in the past. Also looking at potential offsets, including grants and retirement savings.

And so through that process, we'll continue to develop a budget that really is based upon the needs from the ground up and look to bring that to the table in early December.

And I'm going to turn this over to Dr. Jocelyn and Sarah Klim, our literacy coordinator for the elementary level, to give you a little update on our elementary ELA. All right.

Good evening, everyone.

So I will soon turn it over to our literacy coordinator for elementary.

Sarah Klim has done an admirable job really running and leading the project of piloting the three DESE-approved research-based literacy programs that we've been investigating.

But before that, I just want to give a heads up to the community and to the school committee that we are continuing.

We have three programs that we're piloting, CKLA, My View, and With and Wisdom.

And these have been going well.

However, so we meet regularly with all of the teachers who are piloting those programs.

We also have a curriculum review committee made up of teachers led by Sarah Klim.

So we meet on a regular basis to kind of like assess and determine how things are going.

We have a very specific plan to visit other districts without implementing any of those three programs to kind of like get a sense how things are going for them. For my view, we have heard from the teachers from the curriculum review committee.

And in terms of some concerns relating to pieces of literacy that my view is lacking.

So what Sarah and I did, Sarah Klim and I did, after meeting with those teachers, we met with the review committee.

We also met with all of the teachers who are piloting My View across all three elementary schools.

And then it was interesting because to unanimity, none of them really felt great about my view, which in a way is a great thing because that's what we're looking for in terms of teacher feedback, making sure that whatever program that we look at meet the needs of our students and the teachers are the ones on the front line. And I was really impressed with the emphasis that they had as they were giving their feedback.

They were very level-headed, all of them.

They provided the fuel strength of the program.

But their focus was not how cumbersome the program was or it wasn't teacher-centered.

It was all about those pieces of the program that don't meet the needs of my students, of our students.

And we want to make sure that we maybe would just finish unit one and move on.

So what I did after that very productive meeting with all of the teachers who were piloting My View across all three schools, I actually went in one of the elementary schools and observed my view instruction in kindergarten in third grade because I wanted to see how the program is at the very K through 2 and then 3 to 5. And frankly, my observation, I do have a literacy background, my observation of the teaching, the teaching was great.

The teacher was excellent.

But the component of the program, the teacher constantly had to kind of remedy on the spot, supplement on the spot pieces that my viewer was lacking.

So we came back and really made, we thought it was the wise thing to do to discontinue my view.

And which to me and to all of us, that's a win because that's the whole point of the program.

So we are going to continue with CKLA and Witten Wisdom through December and then we'll make a decision.

Part of the due diligence involved constant meeting with the teachers, observation of the teaching, review of the literature around those programs.

And also actually, Dr. Botello and I and Sarah Klim, we actually have scheduled some visits to some of the districts who've already implemented those literacy programs to get a sense from them how things are going.

And then we're also developing a set of criteria to determine for us to actually have a standard to choose the right program for our students.

So I want to switch it over to Sarah Klim, who can give us a little bit more detail.

And also, what's the plan post my view between now and end of December?

Sarah Klim, Ph.D.:

Thank you, Dr. Jocelyn.

Yes, and I just want to echo what you said that we're very grateful to the pilot teachers for their really thoughtful feedback from all of the pilot teachers, not just the my view teachers.

But it's really helped us to make, you know, a good decision, I feel in this case. The concerns that the my view pilot teachers began raising, you know, pretty early on into the pilot have been very consistent.

You know, it's not like it's just something in one grade or, you know, maybe for one teacher or one school. There's very consistent concerns, particularly in the areas of phonics and writing with the program.

And, you know, those are such major components that you can't ignore them.

And, you know, we know that we want strong programs and resources in those areas in Sharon.

So the teachers right now, the plan for my view was to pilot two of their units.

Their units are organized into five to six week increments.

And most of the teachers are now finishing up unit one.

They have maybe another week or so to go.

And the decision it's it's the timing is right to conclude the pilot as they finish unit one so that we bring it to a logical conclusion and just not move forward into unit two.

So if we can go to the next slide.

Obviously, what happens next is a big part of this. We met with the my view teachers this afternoon to communicate to them and also sent an email out to all staff later in the afternoon to bring all of the elementary staff on board, bringing all of you and the community into the conversation tonight.

And we'll be following up with an email specifically to the families whose children have been in the my view pilot classrooms tomorrow morning to make sure that everyone is is receiving the same consistent message.

We knew this was only going to be a pilot into November or December.

So it's always been at the forefront that as the pilot concluded, there would be a transition plan back to our other instructional resources.

It's just happening a little bit sooner than originally planned for my view. So in the next few days, I'll be meeting with all of the teachers, either, you know, as their grade level teams or their partners, depending on how many people, you know, are piloting at that particular grade to look at what curriculum frameworks and standards have they already covered in ELA, you know, through the my view resources, what remains to be covered through the rest of the year. And to come up with a plan for how, you know, we'll make that transition in each grade level and ensure that all of our grade level content, you know, is covered by the end of the year.

And then we'll continue the pilots with CKLA and Witten Wisdom as planned.

We have, just like with my view teachers, we're getting feedback from all of those teachers.

And while we still have some questions, which is why we're going to go visit some other districts and keep the pilots going, we do feel that we have two very strong options with these programs.

So I will personally just say I feel I feel good about where we are in the process and really appreciate, like I said, all the efforts of our pilot teachers.

They've done a phenomenal job this fall and have worked so hard.

Our ELA committee has really been just on top of things and providing feedback and the support from all of the elementary administrators and Dr. Botello, Dr. Jocelyn and everyone.

It feels like we're in a really good place as we move forward with the pilot.

And by saying that, I do echo what Sarah Klim was saying.

We're so grateful to all the teachers for piloting.

That's a lot of work.

And also very impressed with the teachers who are piloting, my view, because the nice thing is our students have not been lacking because whatever was missing.

So, for example, in the phonics, in writing, they've been constantly using other resources to make sure that the students are not left behind.

And we basically felt it's the logical thing to do. That's the whole point of a pilot.

And just like any empirical research in the medical field or whatever, you know, you're piloting different, you know, interventions.

And if you feel one is simply not having the desired effect early on that you're not even going to consider it as an actual, you know, deployment to market, it's just the right thing to do. And so that you can focus more on the interventions that are going to be the more promising.

And to us, we're feeling really good about CKLA and wisdom.

And we think, as Sarah mentioned, we have two very strong programs to choose from.

And we're going to continue to do our due diligence. We've been developing a set of criteria that will determine what we're going to be using to make that decision so that it's a very clear, coherent decision that takes into account ease of use, focusing on all of the key components of literacy for our students.

And also looking at the needs of sharing students that make sure and teacher voice is a big piece of it. And we honor that.

And like I said, I was really impressed to see how their feedback was not about, oh, this thing is so cumbersome.

It wasn't about them at all.

It was all about their students and what's best for them.

So we're grateful.

But as Sarah said, we're in a good place to really pick a very strong program.

And the program is not everything.

It's a set of resources that we'll draw from and the teachers will continue to just do their magic and use their skills.

Absolutely.

And I just want to add to that, too, the fact that our teachers have been so student-focused and, as Dr. Jocelyn said, have kind of already started pulling in from other resources because they were concerned about some of the things that maybe weren't getting taught through my view. It's actually going to make the transition for their students back to, out of my view and into what will come next into the use of other resources a lot smoother for their students.

So I just wanted to point that point out, too.

So thank you. Thank you.

That was a tremendous presentation.

I'm so excited to hear this.

And I'm sure that there are a number of questions from my colleagues on the school committee.

So I'm going to see if anyone does anyone have any questions on.

Oh, I'm sorry. Are we not doing that right now? Are we going on to the general update or can we just talk about that for a second?

Anyone have any questions on the literacy?

Jeremy. Yeah, I was just wondering about the relative pros and cons.

Like, I know that curriculums, you know, you can't cover everything in depth.

So there's trade-offs.

So just curious, like, what the trade-offs you guys are thinking of making when assessing the curriculum.

Like, I've read that CKLA is a little bit more focused on foundational skills.

Wit and Wisdom is more on, like, classical texts and critical reading. Both are found important, but just curious how you guys are thinking about the balance of those and fit for sharing.

I can speak to that a little bit, just thinking about the ELA committee and how we kind of got to the place where we picked these three. As Dr. Jocelyn said, we, you know, have criteria, you know, that as we looked at sample materials sent to us by a very wide variety of publishers last year that we were looking for.

Not an exhaustive list, but obviously that included things like alignment to the Massachusetts frameworks.

What components were incorporated?

What the scope and sequence of skills was across, you know, reading foundational skills in writing?

What were the texts that were being used?

Did those texts represent, you know, a wide variety of cultures and individuals and, you know, speak to the diversity that we have in Sharon and that our students see and encounter in the world every day?

We looked at things like what types of assessments does the program include? And, you know, how the lessons were laid out and those types of things.

And that's how we got it down to these three.

But, you know, looking at sample materials, looking at a company's website can kind of only tell you so much. So now as we've been living these resources in our classrooms, we're able to kind of see, you know, where some of the gaps have been, in my view, or where things that might on paper look okay, don't actually make sense when you're in a classroom with children with a wide variety of needs and things like that. So you very much had kind of those criteria and things at the forefront, you know, and have been, we've done two surveys thus far of all of our pilot teachers with all three programs, asking them all the same questions, and then being able to kind of compare as well as, you know, our informal conversations, our chats with them in the hall or, you know, before a meeting starts or something like that. So I guess I would say we have quantitative data as well as qualitative data that right now really indicates to us that, you know, this is the right move to end the MyView pilot early.

CKLA and Witten Wisdom have some things in common.

They're both knowledge building curriculums.

But then there's a lot of things that are different about them too. So again, that's why we think we have two viable options, because they each bring something a little different to the table. Thank you.

Adam?

Thank you.

Excuse me. Thank you for the great presentation.

Love the approach that you're taking and very much agree with everything that you and Dr. Jocelyn said in terms of this really being a successful part of the progress or process, excuse me, that we've been able to make the determination that, you know, one particular curriculum is not a successful part of the process.

That's the one we want to move forward with.

I was just curious if, as we evaluate these curriculum, you could speak for a moment to the extent to which they support differentiation in the learning, whether in physical tests or using technology.

I think as we support educational needs moving forward, the ability of technology to allow students to get help where they need it and move quickly where they don't is really is almost like a superpower for the teachers.

So just would love to understand how those are incorporated into these different programs and if there are any differences in that regard.

Yeah.

And you said it right.

Our teachers have superpowers and they're so good at differentiating and, you know, making those modifications and accommodations for all of their students on such a regular basis. So, you know, the program only gets you so far and then it is the teacher and we're really fortunate in sharing with the high caliber of our teachers and how they rise to the occasion and do that for their students.

And I know my colleagues agree with me on that. So all of the programs that we were looking at this fall, all students are exposed to the same high quality content rich text.

It's not like, you know, OK, well, you know, you're a struggling reader, so you're going to read this. You know, everyone's being exposed to text with really rich vocabulary and rich, rich content and those types of things. And then depending on the program, some of them come with like decodable readers that might be helping more with those phonics pieces.

Those are, again, available to everyone.

But obviously, teachers have some, you know, some students might read the text once during the lesson and maybe they read it a second time in a small group or something like that. The technology, most of the, I believe all of the programs have the ability for those core texts also to be available as an audio recording for students.

So students might, you know, again, listen to it maybe ahead of time to preview or things like that. A lot of the student materials that are available as print can also be pushed out to students online if it's easier for students to type instead of write, if they have fine motor difficulties or things.

You know, we're still learning these programs.

So I think we're going to continue to find the ways that they're differentiated.

Some of them come with specific supports for multilingual learners or things like that.

So those are still some of the questions that we're kind of seeking to answer.

But there's definitely some of that already built in.

Thank you.

All right.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah. Sorry, Joe.

Sorry. No, that's okay. So I think the questions also was in the technology components.

So I know like CKLA, which actually stands for Core Knowledge Language Arts, does have a technology component that provides digital resources for teachers, students, and also families to enhance classroom instruction and also families to enhance classroom instruction. And then to make sure that there's a level of differentiation.

So the main digital platform for CKLA Hub includes interactive e-readers, knowledge builder videos, and then some planning resources that teachers can use. And then for with and wisdom, most of them have the same, most of them kind of do, like most of those programs have embedded in them a technology component.

And then with and wisdom also include some online teaching resources.

I believe it has also, it also has like a student digital platform that includes like student activities, some videos and e-books.

But obviously with all of that, often they provide, it's almost like an a la carte type of approach where they offer all kinds of stuff.

And then, you know, you kind of select what you need.

I think my guess is the approach that we're going to take is once we, you know, we set our set of criteria, we compare the two programs, we get full feedback from the practitioners, the teachers who are doing it. And then we go and observe other districts, ask questions, and then we'll have our rubric, essentially we score.

And then from there, then we can decide, okay, based on, from a fiscal standpoint, what can we afford?

And then go from that list. But all of them have menus of, you know, technology resources that, that allows for internal differentiation, you know, like essentially getting the, the, the students to where they are. And then often like, as they work on, on, on things, it assesses where they are, move them up. But it's just going to have to be a choice that we make once we decide which, which program that we're going to go with and then decide which pieces of the program we are going to, to purchase.

But the key also is, as Sarah mentioned, the, the real magic happens with the teacher.

And also as a district, we are really, I mean, that's really Dr. Botella's vision, which I would fully embrace in terms of student learning, student centered learning.

And we are training our teachers on the concept of student centered learning.

And that also going to be part of our rubric to see which of those allow for student centered learning practices, such as multiple means of assessing students, opportunity for students across all grade levels to collaborate together, which, which one nurtures or enhances the opportunity for student discourse in the classroom.

So all of those pieces will also be part of the formula that we, we use to fit into that, that set of criteria that we're going to use to, to make that choice.

And once we make that choice, we'll then have to come back to the table and say, okay, which components, including the technology piece, pieces that we're going to be, are we either able to afford or fit the need of our, of our, of our, meet the need of our students or we don't need. And then we'll go from there.

That's awesome.

That's awesome. And, and Joelle, thanks to you and Sarah and the 38 teachers and everybody else who's been working so hard on this, this year. It's, it's so exciting to see it moving forward so quickly and, and, and expertly.

So I think Peter, were you still in the middle of your updates?

Should we go back to you? Peter, are you still in the middle of your day? Yes. Thank you. Yes.

So we have an early release day on Friday.

Friday. The elementary is focusing on student centered learning.

And then we have another early release day on it's November 5th, Tuesday.

And then veterans day on the 11th.

And early release for conferences on the 14th.

And then another one on the 27th. And then Thanksgiving recess after that. We send out some guidance and reminders on religious holidays.

Just iterating, you know, that no homework should be assigned on the day prior to a holiday.

No exams or exam review on the day of a holiday.

No exams on the days after the holiday.

And homework project presentations cannot be the day after the holiday.

In addition to that, we have announcements just trying to educate folks in our community about the various religious and cultural holidays that are, you know, celebrated in our community.

We got Halloween coming up on, on tomorrow.

And so we got some school events going on throughout the building, the buildings, including a Halloween rally. We had a trunk retreat at ECC last week, which was very, very well attended.

And I got down to their classroom seeing these kiddos today.

It was great. Coming back to, I had presented last week about our proposal for, to help with our substitute shortage.

Currently, we pay daily subs $100 a day and building subs $120 a day.

But building subs are ones that are assigned to a particular building and they're typically in school every day instead of going to various buildings based upon need. There's definitely a shortage across the region and it's very difficult to get subs. And that results in multiple holes, sometimes pulling IAs, which we never like to do, which, because it impacts the mandated services that they're trying to provide.

High school teachers who volunteer to pay are getting $17 per period.

But we don't, we typically don't have enough teachers who, you know, have free periods or are volunteering to pay to cover all that. And then also in, you know, situations where it's really have tons of holes, which often happens during the winter months, students needing to be placed in library or auditorium with multiple classes.

So my proposal is to move our daily sub rate from $100 to $110 and our regular building sub rate from $120 to $20 to $25.

And probably the bigger part of the proposal is also to increase our regular building subs at the middle school from $1 to $2 and at the high school from $2 to $4. So we, you know, have $100 per day where Shrewsbury is the only one around us that has the same rate and most have $110 or $115 or $125.

How would this break down as far as costs? So $125 per day times the remaining number of days is approximately $17,250.

You know, at the high school level where we're at looking to add two building subs in order to still cover those classes without putting people frequently into the library auditorium, we would need to get volunteers, which is $17 per hour times six periods for the day, which is $120, $102 per day.

So that same rate at 138 days is $14,706.

So the difference between doing it with building subs, which really allows us to have, you know, be able to plan ahead much better and be able to know that we're going to have enough people, because again, that $17 per hour is based upon volunteers.

And that means people are getting pulled away from their prep periods. If the increase is $3,174.

And then the total cost for the three building subs across the buildings is approximately $9,500.

And then additional cost for $10 per day increase for daily subs.

If you did that with an approximate number of eight subs per day district-wide, we've been getting a little less than that, but we're hoping to get a little bit more, and it's approximately $20,000. And how would this be paid for? It's primarily paid for from savings from unpaid leaves of absence.

So when someone goes on a leave of absence and we bring in a sub or a long-term sub, their, you know, their rate is typically much, much less than the person is going out. So we count on that savings, which is hard to predict in, you know, explicitly each year.

But we know that each year it's substantial to really pay for not only these additional costs and subs, but subs throughout the district.

Also, in situations where if we had, you know, enrollment dips and we didn't fill a position, that money would be used for that.

So we had a couple of positions like that, which allowed us for savings going into the year.

So again, the proposal is to increase daily sub from $100 to $110 per day to make it more aligned to neighboring districts, increase building sub from $120 to $125, and to hire three additional regular building subs, two at the middle, two at the high school and one at the middle school. All right.

Thank you, Peter and Jeremy.

Is this something that our approval is required for? Are we transferring money between cost centers?

Like, I'm just trying to understand.

Yeah, usually the rates, the rates of subs and because it has a budgetary impact is something that is approved by school.

Got it. All right.

We did have a chance to, I believe, talk about this the last meeting.

Does anybody have any last minute questions or can we go for a vote?

Bobby.

Thanks, Julie.

Dr. Botello, are there any other $30,000-ish positions or needs in the district that you would prioritize above this change to sub pay?

Or is this the top priority at give or take $30,000?

I think it's just the top priority because of the impact on kids and also the fact that we're going to need to be paying at least the money that's going towards those regular building subs. We're going to kind of need to be paying most of that out already.

So, yeah, this is, I'd say, the top priority for this, especially the building subs.

I'm hopeful that the increase in pay for subs will increase our ability to get subs in because we're in dire need of subs throughout the district.

And so I think, yeah, both just because of, you know, if we don't do it, we're in danger of, again, putting mass classrooms into the library auditorium and pulling IAs away from mandated services.

So I think the consequences of not trying to do something, I think, make it necessary in highest priority.

All right. Thank you.

Anyone else?

Or can we have a vote?

Okay.

I will accept a motion for approving the increase in sub pay.

Moved.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you.

Alan.

Yes.

Dan.

Yes.

Avi.

Yes.

Jeremy.

Yes.

Adam.

Yes.

And I'm a yes. So the motion passes six to zero.

Great.

We will now be moving to, again, back to Peter.

Throw it to you.

Great.

Thank you. So let's.

So let's.

So on November 20th, I'll be presenting my superintendent evaluation goals and the performance indicators to be focused on for this year.

Tonight, I just wanted to go over the evaluation and process timeline.

And in. And in.

At the end of last year, when I was meeting with the evaluation chair, we talked about going once once a teacher or a principal or superintendent passes their third year, they typically go to a two year cycle.

So this is outlining a two year cycle in which the beginning of the cycle would happen in November when I present goals and focus indicators.

Then there'd be some progress updates throughout the year. But then the mid cycle progress instead of being in March would be May and June, where I provide an update highlights on progress towards goals and reflection on focus indicators.

Then at that point, there'd be a kind of a mid cycle evaluation session where feedback is given by the committee on on my progress.

Then we continue into that second year with periodic updates and then towards the end of the year in the spring, I'd again give it end of the year up into the cycle update on progress goals and get a formal evaluation using the formal rubric at the end of the year in 2026. And just for a reminder, as far as the goals and performance indicators, I would be including on the 20th district improvement goal that I'm setting, you know, for myself, a student learning goal in a professional practice goal.