Good evening, everybody, and welcome.

This is the April 16th meeting of the Sharon School Committee and is being conducted remotely, consistent with an act relative to extending certain COVID-19 measures, which was just extended at the end of March.

So these provisions allow public bodies to meet remotely as long as reasonable public access is afforded so the public can follow along with the deliberations of this meeting.

So we are convening by Zoom.

The members of the public have been provided with access information.

Votes will be conducted by roll call, a request from Sharon TV that speakers turn your camera on if you can.

We would very much appreciate that.

And so we will start, as we always do, with public comments.

Adam, do you mind keeping time for that?

I am happy to.

Thank you. All right.

I see George Ann's hand, so I'll ask you to unmute.

Hi, thanks.

I just wanted to start the meeting by thanking Dan for all the work he's put into the JIH policy.

I look forward to hearing the final version.

And I also just wanted to recognize I'm really looking forward to the discussion on school choice tonight. I'm hoping for a robust presentation that can give us some good information with outcomes from other schools and benefits for our district.

Thanks for the time.

Thank you.

Okay.

Ms. Cresby, I'm going to ask you to unmute.

Thanks.

So I also wanted to recognize the work that Dan did between the first discussion and the second discussion of policy JIH and the improvements.

The one thing I do want to ask the committee to consider is defining exigent circumstances.

Because I am concerned that in the Fourth Amendment context, exigent circumstances can include things like needing to preserve evidence.

And I don't personally think there's any reason relating to evidence that police or any law enforcement officials should be able to engage with our students when they are questioning them without a parent presence.

So I would propose defining it as a situation in which there is an immediate threat to health or safety.

Which ought to cover all of the various examples that have been given, right?

You know, if there's a bomb threat, if there's a threat of a shooter, if, you know, it looks like someone is setting a fire.

There's lots of situations that would be captured by immediate threat to health or safety.

But it's clearly seeking to exclude the broader definition of exigent circumstances that exists in the Fourth Amendment context.

So thank you for allowing those comments.

Thank you very much.

Is there anyone else?

I don't see any other hands.

So I will move on to the next item on our agenda, which is correspondence.

So I'll throw it to you, Shawna.

Yes, thank you.

One second.

Let me pull it up.

All right. The school committee has received 30 pieces of correspondence between March 19, 2025 at 9 a.m. and April 16, 2025 at 9 a.m.

We have continued to receive letters from staff and community members which advocated for the school committee to settle the contract with the instructional assistants and highlighted the critical role that IAs play in the district.

Sharon Public Library sent a letter with an invitation to their grand opening scheduled for Monday, May 19, 2025 from 2 to 5 p.m.

We received the April editions of the SHS and Heights Library newsletters.

A parent wrote to express their concerns and inquire about transportation information and accommodations for a student.

We received a letter that expressed concern about substitute pay for school assistance with a recommendation to review and raise the current rate. The Sharon Pluralism Network provided information on their meeting on April 2, 2025 and plans for their next event and announced the creation of a Google group to help support collaboration across Sharon community organizations.

A parent wrote to express their concerns about the content of a video that may have been shown in a high school class.

We received a Boston Globe press inquiry regarding the Sharon High School football program. A parent wrote with feedback on policy JIH, student interrogations and searches, and made recommendations on the draft policy.

Hi, buddy.

Hold on one second. Hold on. Hi. One second. But sorry, guys.

A parent wrote with feedback on policy JIH, student interrogations and searches, and made a recommendation on the draft policy that was discussed at the previous school committee meeting. We received two editions of Millie's Metco newsletter that highlighted Metco's 59th birthday celebration, Metco's advisory Day on the Hill, and the additional $500,000 Metco supplemental budget.

Thank you.

All right. That's great. Thank you, Shauna. Is there a student representative?

I wasn't told that there would be one tonight, but is someone here?

Bueller?

Okay.

So then I guess that will be for the next week.

Great.

So now I would like to give it to Peter, who will give us the superintendent general updates.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's a great question. Thank you.

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We've had great participation from various stakeholders and some really strong candidates.

We had site visits occurred this week, and then we were looking for a decision announcement very soon as we work with the two finalists that visited.

Student services initial interviews occurred this week, and the process will continue with that after April break. The first, this is a rescheduled meeting of the Elementary Master Plan Working Group will be tomorrow night.

Also, there's a general reminder of we've been having some increases in absences due to extended vacations.

Just a reminder to do everything in your power to have your kids in school. We know there are some situations beyond control, but when you can schedule vacations and such over the vacation weeks, that really helps kids and the staff that are trying to support them.

We hope that you enjoy your April break, and we'll then be jumping into the final nine weeks of school.

Over breaks, we really try to take advantage of the time, and we'll have some building cleanings and inspections to inform, to start to think about our FY27 capital requests.

Town meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 5th and Tuesday, May 6th. The district budget is on the warrant article for town meeting, and your participation in this process is important.

So please attend, and I know I want to throw it over to Adam for a couple of words on that.

Thanks, Dr. Ptello. And Jane, can I share my screen quickly?

Okay.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Okay. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thanks. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thanks. So I think on this note, I just wanted to remind everyone kind of where we stand in terms of the current budget and the town meeting process.

So the school committee had voted a budget with a 3.98%

increase to our operation budget, and that was based off of the priorities allocation of a 4.0 increase to our budget.

The finance committee disagreed with that allocation and recommended a 3.54%

increase to sectors operating budgets.

And if that's adopted, it will mean a reduction of one high school teacher, a reduction of a second grade teacher at east, and 15% increases to our athletic and transportation fees. So the way the warrant is constructed, it is the FINCOM's recommendation that will be presented kind of as the budget.

So if we want to increase the budget to match that 3.98%

budget that we as a school committee had voted on, they'll require an amendment.

So just to kind of clarify where we stand, the kind of budget presented or the warrant article presented will be at the 3.54

level.

And if we want to try to change that, it will require an amendment.

Thank you, Adam. Jeremy?

Well, we also voted on 3.54 versions.

So we voted on a 3.98

and a 3.54.

So we talked about cuts and kind of what would be included in a 3.54, which is what's included here on the slide.

But the version, the operating budget that was voted by the school committee was a 3.98 budget.

There was no other budget voted.

There was an awareness and understanding of what would be cut at 3.54.

But the school committee's official budget proposal that was presented to finance committee is the 3.98% budget.

So just to be clear, the school committee understands what we will do in case of a 3.54 operating budget increase.

But the voted budget and recommendation of the school committee is a 3.98%

increase.

And that was based on the priorities allocation of 4%. Okay.

I mean, that wasn't how I interpreted it. I thought we were sending two recommendations at two levels.

No, you can refer to the minutes. Because I definitely don't support a 3.98% increase.

We can, I don't recall your vote, but we can look at the minutes.

But that was, that was the official budget that was voted.

And you can refer back to the slide as well to show that administration did not support the 3.54% cuts, but was letting us know what would happen in the eventuality that the town decided to vote a 3.54% operating budget increase.

Right. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Right.

We voted, we voted on, I think it was option 1B.

I think was the, there was, there was a couple options presented.

So we, I think we all voted it was option 1B. And then we voted on like sort of a package that would be the extra roughly 250,000 that would have to get us to the 3.54%

if that's what the town wanted.

But those were, that was, it was like two parts, not, not a single thing.

Right.

That was my understanding as well.

Right. So our budget that we voted on was the 3.98%.

And then we also voted in case we have to go to 3.54%.

We already had those fee increases and cuts already to go.

So, all right, Avi.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't, I guess it goes without saying that I support a 3.98, given that as a member of voting member priorities, I was one of the four members.

I think there's a number of those, I think there's a number of, you know, that's not something that's really important. But I do do just want to, I do just want to say, I think to some degree, the discussion we're having right now is semantics.

But I do think it's important semantics. And I think Jeremy's understanding is, is right and fair.

Jeremy, I do remember the vote, and you voted in favor of the budget. But to the point that you're making tonight, that budget included the list of cuts, because if you remember, these versions each had a different set of what would happen at the 354 number.

And to Jeremy's point, as he's stating tonight, he doesn't support the 3.98.

I think it's I think it would be unfair to characterize that vote then as his vote, which was affirmative, as automatically then supporting a 3.98. So I agree.

My understanding was the same as Jeremy's, that we accepted a packet.

We accepted a this is what 3.98 would look like. This is what 354 would look like.

Four of us voted or five of us voted yes on that budget.

Six. Six in the end that voted.

I mean, we voted a couple of versions and maybe there were some duplicate votes there. But again, I just want to I do think that it's it is fair to say we could have taken a vote at a 3.98 and only a 3.98.

We didn't. We took a vote on a version of our budget that showed what would happen at both numbers.

So and I think in.

In defense of the point that Jeremy is making here, if that had only said 3.98 without those cuts, I think what Jeremy is saying and Jeremy, I don't want to put words in your mouth. You would not have supported it just the 3.98.

So so in fairness, I don't think we should characterize this as having voted a 3.98 budget without recognizing that we voted.

We voted at both levels.

I view it the same way Jeremy does.

OK, well, I'm glad we clarified it because I I didn't.

I didn't.

I saw it more the way Adam did. But regardless that there is a budget with a 3.9 percent increase and there is a budget that the Finance Committee is recommending that's in the warrant that everybody should have gotten in the mail today.

That's a 3.54 percent increase.

So that is what will be presented to the town.

And in order to have the town look at the 3.98

percent increase, we will have to do an amendment at town meeting.

Bobby, did you have something else?

OK, so anybody have any other comments?

Appreciate the clarification, gentlemen.

Thank you very much for that.

OK, the next item on the agenda will be the culture and climate survey update.

Think is that Joel?

I don't know who it is. That was it.

I'm doing something else, but I know for the.

Yeah, I have it, Joel.

Yes, thank you. As mentioned in previous meetings, we're partnering with a company called, it used to be called K-12 Insight and now they're called Socialist Socialist.

And they are they do school climate and engagement surveys throughout the region and even the nation.

And so we've worked with them to to develop a survey that we're administering to all of our students.

There's different survey versions for younger kids. And then there's a K through two, a three through five and then a six through 12.

Those surveys were sent home to families so that they could review them and opt out if desired.

And they'll be conducted.

They started being conducted today and tomorrow.

We'll also be sending out family surveys as well, which have a lot of parallel questions as well as staff surveys, which we are still working with the SDA to just get approval on that. But this should provide some really great information about student giving feedback on how they experience the school and the district, what type of engagement they're feeling that will inform future school improvement goals in the district plan.

A big part of this is a big part of our district plan is around a sense of belonging.

And that's one of the primary reasons that we're doing this. And this survey will be much more kind of official than surveys we've had in the past. So we're looking forward to getting the baseline this year and then using it for improvement efforts going forward.

And that's it for me.

Does anybody have any questions?

Jeremy?

Didn't we see a similar survey last year or was that a different baseline?

Last year, there were homegrown surveys.

This one is, you know, we get the benefit of a company that really develops survey questions as it's in a, you know, in a kind of professional manner with research-based manner.

It also allows us to break down the results and dissect it in more sophisticated ways than our homegrown survey.

It also allows for complete consistency across not only the elementary schools, but across the district.

So each survey has versions of questions that are developmentally appropriate for different levels, but have parallels.

So it's just going to allow us to kind of have a more sophisticated analysis and greater consistency to measure improvement efforts.

So what action items are going to be driven by the results of this survey and how much did it cost to bring in this third party?

The cost, I believe is, Helen, do you remember what that cost was? Was it $15,000, I think?

But our district plan is centered, especially our goal around equity is centered around, you know, whether or not we're developing a positive school climate, whether students of all grades and backgrounds and disability status have a strong sense of belonging.

So that those efforts each time we'll be able to look at the actions that we're taking and seeing if they're impacting those measures on our survey and then take additional actions to improve things more so. Also, the survey provides a launching point for other methods, whether it be focus groups or other kind of, you know, additional kind of questions, but it gives us a baseline each year.

And just thinking about best practice with these things, what are our targets going into the survey?

So what are some of the key questions and what level do we hope to achieve?

Right now we're looking for a baseline, but...

Right, but like a baseline is not helpful because...

Just so you know...

We could already be doing well.

Like, how do we define what well would be on these questions?

Can I just jump in? I did send to the school committee, like, the email just to make sure everybody...

Did everybody get the email that had the links to the surveys?

Okay, just wanted to make sure. Thanks.

Thank you.

Yeah, did you...

I'm not sure what...

Right, so...

If we think about it, like, the survey will come back with some answers.

Correct.

We should be thinking about, like, what a good level should be for that, right?

Rather than saying, here's what it is now, let's improve those deltas.

Or...

So, kind of like, what are aspirational targets and which questions are we focused on in the survey?

Yeah, I think certainly when we get the results, we'll be looking at seeing areas that...

Where we did exceptionally well.

And those might not be the...

Those would likely not be the areas that we would target for improvement.

And then there are these areas that clearly are where we didn't do well.

And we would target those areas for improvement.

And then the areas in the middle, we would, you know, want to grapple with more and decide if there's any areas that, based upon what we believe to be a solid score.

One thing that the benefit of working with this organization, that they also can give us information on how other...

They won't give us specific names of other districts and such, but what is a...

What tends to be, you know, a high score in districts beyond ours.

Okay. So, it'll have... So, we're going against benchmarks of other districts that do the same.

That makes sense.

Yeah. They work with hundreds of districts, so they'll have that information as well. Okay.

Thank you. Jeremy. Alan?

Yeah, I just wanted... I guess Peter maybe addressed it at the end. But, Jeremy, I think your question is valid, but I think it's entirely premature.

I don't know why we're worrying about that at this point.

I think the whole purpose of hiring an established industry-leading survey company is because this is what they do all day, every day for districts all across the country.

If they don't give us some kind of benchmarks in the sense of what the range would be, then I think we have reason to go back to them and say, what are we paying for?

But I think let's wait until we get the results in, and then we can worry about whether or not we've gotten the information we expected from it.

I'm going to... Jeremy, I'm going to let Avi go, and then I'll get back to you. Is that okay?

Yeah, that's fine.

Okay, Avi. All I was going to say, and I don't think...

I don't know how much value it is to go too much to back and forth here, but I just wanted to say to Alan's point, though, I think Dr. Botella...

I mean, I put my hand up, and then I put it down, and then I put it back up because I think Dr. Botella did speak to it at the end there.

But I think it is far from premature to ask what good is. So when we talk about what areas we felt like we did well on, the point is what's well.

So I think it answers the question, Dr. Botella, at the end there.

That we're relying on this third party to establish relative to other districts what well is.

But I certainly, Alan, think that that's an important thing to establish before going in, not after.

Because if we think 80% positive answer on something is good, and everything comes back above 80%, then I guess we're good across the board.

If we establish that 80% is good, and everything comes back below 80%, I don't think it would be right to discard the best scores and only focus on the less. I think it would be right to recognize that then everything's bad. So it sounds like the third party, it sounds like the $15,000, I can't speak to whether or not that's a good value or not compared to what these things cost. But I can say it sounds like what we're paying for is an improvement over previous surveys in that they will provide us with more than just questions.

They'll provide us with benchmarks to aim at and what industry-wide or hopefully comparable districts.

I guess that was going to be my other question was, are we relying on them to sort of show us what other districts are comparable?

And are we doing back-end work ourselves to see if we feel like those districts are districts that we, in these departments, hope to be compared to?

You know, I know I've spoken to administrators before who make the point that belonging is a good thing.

It matters. Hearing people say that they feel belonging is certainly a worthy thing to find out if the people in our school feel that way.

However, if we're making folks feel like they belong while also failing them in other metrics, there's something uniquely bad about that. Because they feel like, hey, this is great, this is happy, but it's not actually going well.

So I guess, like, you know, I see a value in measuring this.

I also want to make sure that we're looking at the districts that we would be comparing ourselves to as far as what is good and understanding if those districts are, in fact, performing the way that we hope to perform.

And if we're being honest with ourselves about what the other metrics we need to measure in the groups that say they feel like they belong, because simply measuring whether or not folks are being made to feel like they're getting good services, I don't think is a fair measure of whether or not they're getting good services.

Yeah, I guess I would just ask people to take a look at the survey and ask yourself, first of all, would you want to have a sense of how kids perceive these different questions?

Because to me, there is some great value.

If you look at the question, I want to know, like, what kids think about those things.

I think there's a, there's a, there's a, just a beginning value in that itself.

And yes, I agree. We need to also, in order to really target improvement efforts, look at, you know, what, what ratings relative to other districts, you know, are deemed to be strong and use that information as well.

Adam, can you hold on one second?

Dr. Jocelyn, did you want to jump in on this?

Yes, please.

Thank you. So I just want to kind of like address, so in terms of partly Jeremy's question, and I think Alfie kind of highlighted some of those points.

So when you get, when you do a survey, you, it is good to have number one, three things, right?

Or really four things we're looking for. Number one, we do need some kind of baseline data. So the first administration of the survey helps to establish that baseline, which then we use as an initial reference point for future comparison and growth.

And Dr. Botello want to continue to essentially have those surveys almost on a regular basis.

So you do need some kind of baseline data. Number two, that company will provide us normative comparisons so that compare district results against state, our results against like state and national norms for the survey.

So you can, you can, you can look at, okay, kids across the country or across the state feel this particular way with our students feel this particular way. So we have, we will have that information.

Then that also, as you do it as on a yearly basis, for example, then you'll have the benefit of year to year trends.

So it'll measure improvement over time by comparing the current survey data to the previous years and previous years and previous years so that you see how we're doing longitudinally as a district in all those measures that we're trying to, we're trying to measure.

And then you also have to think of like, we have our district improvement plan and school improvement plans that embed our internal goals and priorities.

So the result from that survey will help define, in a way we'll define what good results are based on those priorities.

And then whatever goal and action steps will hopefully make their way into the development of data-driven improvement plan, both in terms of district improvement plans and school improvement plans.

And then frankly, the other piece also is, even if you have good results, whatever that's defined now, you really can use those good results for actionable improvement.

So even high scores will then highlight for us areas that we need to sustain, continue to do well on, and then lower scores, obviously, will clarify priorities that we need for targeted interventions and support.

So I think what we're doing right now in terms of what we're doing right now in terms of with this company is just going, you know, all out to get high quality data from a company that does that particular, that's their core competency.

That's what they do for a living.

And it will give us baseline data, normative comparisons, and then that year-to-year trend that we need. Thank you, Dr. Jocelyn.

Adam, you've been so patient.

Thank you, Julie.

So I have some experience with survey research and this type of survey.

I think another challenge in this case in terms of defining kind of good-bad as we go into it is answers to survey questions can vary fairly wildly, which is why those kind of relative kind of responses and scores is so important.

Like it really, to Dr. Jocelyn's point, helps you understand where you are to other districts or companies.

I think a good framing might be oftentimes within these sorts of surveys, you have different modules that allow you to focus on different areas.

You obviously can't ask everything that you would ever want to know because it's just too much. It's too overwhelming. And so understanding where our focus areas are and which modules we've selected might be kind of a good framing to understand where we're focused and where we're interested.

This being the first year, it might be a more generalized kind of baseline survey.

But I would expect us in the future, in addition to using that baseline, to also be able to focus on kind of specific modules where we want to kind of dig in and get more information.

Thank you, Adam.

Jeremy?

Yeah, I mean, I think those are helpful. I think that understanding that there are benchmarks is great.

I've done a lot of survey work as well.

And, you know, it's hard to know what like a good net promoter score is, right?

So you look at others in your industry.

So I think the benchmarks are valuable.

And, you know, that'll be a good reference point. I just usually you want to come up with kind of defining what good is before you do the survey so that you're not retrofitting to the data.

But I think benchmarks are probably the best way to go. So I think that that approach makes sense.

Avi? Yeah, and I just want to say that I have no problem with a survey that measures students' happiness, feeling of belonging.

You know, looking through the survey, I think that those are great things to establish benchmarks on and see if we're continuing to make kids feel that way and making more kids feel that way. My point is, looking at the survey, Dr. Patel, like, I would say, for example, asking third graders, do you feel prepared for your next grade?

Is it? That's a great question.

If we're then following up on how the kids that respond to yes perform the next year?

Because to me, what's an interesting thing to be measuring in that question is, are we accurately making kids feel prepared?

If, in fact, we see that 89% of kids say that they feel prepared for fourth grade when they're in third grade, and then we see that only 71% of kids show the growth that we want, then to me, we would have identified not only that our kids are not prepared, but also that we're something about how we're communicating to them is making them believe they're prepared for something that they aren't.

So to me, I just wanted to point out that these things, to me, have a lot of value, but they have a tremendous amount more value if we're then looking at other metrics and seeing if our making students feel a sense of belonging and happiness and safety correlates with their happiness and their safety and their growth. But that's one of the reasons we chose this company instead of doing homegrown surveys is we're able to connect the survey data to, not to their names, but to their ID numbers, which then can connect to other data that we collect as well.

So we're, you know, we're able to see some correlations between how they perform on a certain question on the survey and things and how that, how they might connect to their scores or their grades.

Now with elementary, you know, that there's, there's limits to that because we don't quantify stuff all the time, but we do have much greater capacity, capability of making connections between how they respond on the survey and other measures that go beyond the survey.

And that's tremendous.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Dan. Hi, Dr.

Patel.

Is the, is the open response comment at the end of the survey, something that the company is required, or is that something that we're choosing to do? Because I asked for a reason, because I've seen many of these surveys come and go.

And often in the past, we've gotten quantitative data from the survey itself, which I assume is the major value of it. But then some respondents inevitably leave comments.

And I've noticed that some of the interpreters might not know exactly what the data tells them. So they just go to the comments and then the comments just receive a wildly disproportionate amount of attention.

And it kind of takes over the survey and people are trying to parse words.

Do we need a comment section?

Is that something we're choosing to do? And how are we going to control for that risk in this survey that it doesn't just like take over the survey and that we're really focusing on the quantitative data? Yeah, I guess we're trying to focus on the use of the survey at the, you know, building and district level.

So we certainly, we can, we find value in having an opportunity for people to provide some commentary narrative.

It allows us to, you know, consider perhaps additional questions in the future or consider digging into certain areas.

It's certainly not the, the, the major part of the survey is this, it's quantitative aspect to it. But I don't think we're at the building level that we will, you know, over emphasize or not use that in a, you know, kind of a measured way.

So, but I think it does provide value to us. So, yeah, so we did choose to have at least one or two commentary questions.

Hey, if there aren't any other more comments or questions, I would like to pipe them. So, just on that note, Dan, so I've, I was in marketing for a long time.

And I think the comments really make surveys kind of spark.

Like, then you're seeing how people are interpreting what you asked in the survey.

Sometimes they're giving you additional information that you wouldn't have thought of. So I was, I was actually going to say the exact opposite, which is, I hope there's a lot of space for comments because I think those are the most interesting.

The second question I had was, would we have the ability to, I think we must be able to do like a cohort.

So like, we do third graders this year, and then next year, fourth graders.

So we, it's sort of what Avi was saying, but just in more general, like, if we do this for a couple of years, we'll have information.

Like, as the kids go on in school, and we might be able to find some valuable information.

Like, if everything suddenly tends to drop off in seventh grade, then we know that, you know, like, if it's consistently falling off in seventh grade, then we, I'm just picking seventh grade.

I'm not picking on seventh grade. But I think that would be, like, kind of valuable information.

Yeah, we'll certainly be able to do that.

And we probably should be able to do more of a true cohort versus what we might typically do with our own surveys, which might not take into account that certain kids have joined us and certain kids have left.

But because it's more sophisticated in its implementation, they should be able to do more of a true cohort that discounts for those changes in kids across the, you know, years. That's great.

All right. Well, thank you guys. And thanks, committee, for a really good discussion.

I appreciate hearing everybody's thoughts.

And now I'm going to, I believe, Dr. Jocelyn and Ms. Kemp are going to give us an elementary math curriculum review update.

All right.

Am I right about that?

Yep.

And I definitely invite Ms. Kemp.

I can see her. Hopefully, I'll give her a couple of seconds to start.

But I'll just start in terms of, so it's that exciting time when we're really getting ready for a review, a program review of our elementary mathematics.

And then the purpose of the discussion really right now is just to provide the committee and the public just a high-level overview.

This is a two-year process.

It's a two-year process, but we wanted to start it very early because it has all kinds of implications, including budgetary, and also just be upfront in providing as much information in the front as possible.

So it's going to be pretty short. So it's going to be pretty short. And the goal is, as we go through that program review, we will continue to update the committee and the public.

So basically, the goal is to look at our elementary math programming so that, in the end, we can select and implement an elementary math program by September of fall of 2027.

So now, why do we engage now?

Like I said before, we want to take things early and not do things last minute.

The current contract for our current math program ends on June 2027.

And we don't want to get into a situation where, because we're not taking things early enough, that we just have to re-upper the contract just because we didn't have enough time to do our due diligence way ahead of time. And then the second thing was that the last elementary math program review was over 10 years ago. So the goal of that review really is multi-part.

The first one is we want to make sure that as Dr. Botello continues to lead us in terms of the instructional vision for the district, as we use data to surface the needs of our students, we want to make sure that whatever program that we use is aligned with the district's instructional vision.

Also, we want to make sure, because the research continues to evolve in terms of how math is taught and how kids acquire mathematical reasoning skills.

We want to make sure that the math programs that we use and the next one continues to be research-based, continues to be empirically validated.

And then also, as important, really, that we draw from the list of the high-quality instructional materials from DESE, because these have been vetted.

And then also, if down the road we were to apply for particular grants around math, often you're not eligible as a district unless you're using high-quality instructional materials.

And so, again, we have several goals.

Number one, like I said, alignment to standards, making sure that we continue to align our math instruction to state standards, which is currently the common core in the math frameworks.

Making sure that we continue to align our math. Making sure that we continue to align our math. Making sure that the curriculum is relevant, that we keep instructional content current and reflective of recent educational research.

And also making sure that, as much as possible, we make data-driven decision-making so that we'll have enough longitudinal data on student performance to identify those trends and needs. And we actually have seen the success of that.

We essentially almost have a template in the implementation of, in our review of and selection of our reading program.

So we really, we essentially have a playbook that we're hoping to use as we begin the process of looking at our elementary math program and eventually piloting and selecting a new one. And I just want to head over to Ms. Kent to talk about the phase, phase one and phase two and going forward.

Thank you, Dr.

Jocelyn.

Yes.

Like Dr. Jocelyn said, we have a playbook and we'll probably follow a very similar process as the ELA program review.

In phase one, which will be next year, it'll be primarily a time of review and research where we will identify those research-based empirically validated, highly high quality instructional materials and narrow down to determine which ones will be options for pilot programs.

And we'll start to anticipate what type of professional development might need to take place even before implementation and recruit pilot teachers.

And, and always looking ahead to research what the potential costs would be for those programs that we are considering.

And we'll, back one, go back to my slide.

Yeah.

So phase two of this two year process will be a busy one, primarily around pilot and decision making.

We anticipate conducting pilots of at least two programs that would involve classrooms and grade levels across the district and across grade level.

We'll observe those classrooms, those pilot classrooms and watch the students and the teachers in action as they interact with the, the pilot materials.

We'll visit peer districts that are implementing pilot programs and gather feedback from parents, teachers and our families, teachers and students.

We'll have to finalize our budgetary needs, make a decision, develop and create a professional development plan, all in preparation for purchasing and preparing for implementation.

And, and be a busy year.

But, you know, with all of this, our commitment to excellence is at the forefront of this process.

And we really look forward to this opportunity to ensure that we have a robust elementary math program that ensures that enhances student outcomes and, and is aligned with district priorities.

We'll have a lot to do, but our first steps will be forming a community committee and defining our instructional vision.

But we're dedicated to a inclusive and transparent process.

So we thank you for giving us the time to update you tonight.

And we'll continue to keep you informed as the process unfolds.

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: I appreciate it. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: And, um, Shawna. SPEAKER_UNKNOWN: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Quick question.

So I love that we already have the playbook given what we've done with the literacy curriculum. What are the chances? Now, I know we have to think two years in advance. What are the chances that we would target a trial of the class of the curriculum with a group of students that had an elementary literacy trial?

So, so, so say the student was in first grade, right?

And they were in the literacy program that we did not go with.

That was not as robust.

I'm worried for that child that may matriculate to third grade. Right.

And now is in a trial for math curriculum that may not be as robust.

Does that make sense? Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That makes sense. Um, I mean, we, like I said, we haven't randomized it, but that's a, that's a good point. Um, making sure, um, part of it is, yeah, we, it, it, it is potentially likely partly because when you think of like class list.

So if you have, you know, in one school, let's say cottage or whatever, East, you have like four classrooms, a hundred kids, you know, when they move on from, let's say first grade to second grade, it gets all, you know, it's all, you know, so the probability of like two or three kids. Being, you know, moving to that is, is a possible, but I do have to, to clarify though, the, the program that we discontinued, honestly, it wasn't because it was like horrible and bad. Uh, it just didn't meet our, our criteria.

And that's what the reason also we cut our losses early.

Okay.

Okay.

So we didn't like, we didn't continue with it through the end. And I think by like December or something, when we realized, okay, that's not going to make the cut. We, we pivoted.

Um, and, and so basically those kids still got solid instruction.

Oh, of course.

My kid was, my kid was in the pilot. Um, I'm happy with that. I'm just wondering, right.

What would happen if, if a kid was in the pilot?

If a kid kind of got pegged twice.

Right.

Like, yeah. Like, would we look at maybe implementing the trial in a school, which didn't have a literacy, or are we still going to, um, be taking, like, so, so pretty much, I believe all, like all the schools.

Were involved in the piloting because that's all idea of it. Mm-hmm . And, um, and yeah, honestly, like statistically, uh, one or two, you know, a handful of kids being, like, part of the pilot that were part of the pilot that wasn't selected.

Right.

Is, is it, you, you're absolutely correct. Okay.