Okay, I'll get started Call this regular meeting of these Arlington school committee on Thursday, March 28th to order And I welcome our AEA representative Linda Hansen and our senior Class person who will be giving his name very soon. We welcome you even though we don't know your name yet Eric Lee. Thank you for coming And is there any I don't see any and there's no public participation So we will start actually I'm jumping ahead because I have opening remarks Yeah, it's another bag Now this is me I'll do this one. Yeah, that's in the rolling the eyes and stuff Okay, so I'm not usually a big talker and I don't usually do big acknowledge all your team I try to show you I appreciate you by listening to what you have to say by respecting what you have to say and trying to Understand it But given that this is my last meeting of chair I also wanted to touch on some of the lessons. I've learned from all of you and I think of it as providing a foundation so from Cindy, thank you for starting the governance project and Also, I learned the value of sending a letter that the recipient felt was a little bit off the mark and how it garnered a whole lot more attention from the Department of Education than I think if we had just written something You know spot on and stuff. They were much more interested and responsive to it, which I thought was kind of funny From Jeff who is not here, but I'll keep going I learned the value of experience on the committee and the extremely useful refrain of kick it to a subcommittee So that goes a little bit more From Paul I found out about unexpected answers to questions and Also, someone who knows an awful lot more about numbers than I do And From Bill respectful dissension while trying to hold to your point of view and from both Bill and Libba the benefit of your teacher and administrative experience And you can see we're getting something. I didn't time this out from Libba the value of Creating a community committee to address an issue and how that snowballed into the kindergarten tuition You know, I'm in it, which was pretty and we get more money, you know, it's kind of a total win-win and then from mr. Pierce The value of a well-written policy and also the value of a very helpful vice chair. I appreciate everything you've done being willing to dive in if you're confronted with unexpected things even if You're Rightfully concerned that maybe I'm gonna make there's gonna be a laugh at the end of it But and I'm not trying to ignore the rest of the team, which is the administration I appreciate all of you, but I'm not gonna go through the whole thing. You guys are the roof So And of course I have to quote yes, this yeah, you'll notice I hired out some of the yeah artwork there Yeah, sub that out. Yeah So I have to close with and since I've had one or two times when I skipped ones we get two quotes tonight So from Henry Ford Coming together is a beginning keeping together is progress working together is success and From a poster somewhere Teamwork is the ability to work as a group toward a common vision even if that vision becomes extremely blurry I think that kind of defined school committee That's great So and with that We've already discussed the art last time and we have no okay, so now we move on to approval of the trip to Beijing I trust you all receive the information sheets So I don't if you have any questions we this is the extension of I know a lot of you hosted this past year at your homes Some of our Chinese visitors from Beijing and we want to continue our relationship with them through a two-way exchange next year So I will be the primary Shaper Shaper own along with the teacher from the middle school. We Hope to welcome the students again as we did in February and then travel to Beijing over April vacation So I don't know if you want me to go into more detail or if you have other specific questions Mr. Hannah, how many are currently going I have not begun to enroll students I'm a little concerned if it reaches the top number that there's only two adults going if it does go above 30 We'll have a third chaperone included I would be very surprised, but yes, I guess my concern is 15 to 1 ratio with high school students I don't know how much they've changed since I was in the high school, but that I mean well with the France exchange We have I think we have 24 students and it there's two chaperones. So it's not Too unusual. I would prefer not to have 30 students as well But I don't think I would be very surprised if we hit that number But if we go above it, we'll have a third chaperone Are there any provisions for scholarships No, and that is something I would like to look into for future years for the entire as we're one of my goals And the department has been to increase our trips and exchanges And I think we do need to seriously look into that I'm going you know having something at this time No, but it's I think something we need to make a goal for thank you this dark I Actually was part of the Japanese one of the Japanese exchange programs a couple of years ago And there were only three of us and it was middle school and high school kids And it was fine. They were they were great and actually When you get there there were so many other people so many other adults who were there to kind of help see us around that They easily doubled as many chaperones as we had and then there was always some tour guide So there was always a lot of adults. So I'm not I'm not concerned at all about that I really like the fact that they are going to stay In the homes. I feel like that is such a great part of these kinds of exchanges You learn so much in those hours where you're just Sitting around and what you see in their houses and how that everyday life is different than just you know visiting The sites which are beautiful as well, and I'm excited that they're going but I This it looks awesome. I hope you guys have a great time. Hope it'll be good. Thank you anyone else I had the same question about scholarships from mr. Hanner and asked it Okay since this is a Trip beyond the borders of Massachusetts We need your approval for this trip and I did not want to begin Advertising it with for students until the school committee acted on it Question to approve the Beijing Arlington exchange Proposal dated April 17th to 20 April 27th 2014 Any further discussion very numb all in favor any opposed and okay, okay great. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great trip Okay At this point we move on to the monthly financial update this Johnson Thank you As of the end of February, which is the reports I'm reporting on We are tracking slightly under budget right now the deadline for general fund expenditure Submissions is April 12th And I've just run another set of reports for the administrators, but I didn't have time I wanted to get all the POs in that I had so I didn't have time to get those reports to you tonight You'll be getting those reports after I come back from vacation and In fact, I'll probably run fresh reports with the updated information later in April but at that point that'll be it for the Administrators spending their budgets and then at that point will re-consolidate and see where we stand and start making projections towards the end of The year at present we only have utility bills through the end of January And I'd like to see February and March on the books before I start making estimations about where we'll end with fuel charges for the year As any questions does anyone mr. Hinner who do we rent the pierce field to I keep seeing that showing up and it's the same number He said he I think it was in the one of the accounts pierce field that it said 20 or $22,000 That's the budgeted amount We expect to spend out of the revolving but the amount that we've actually brought in on the pierce field is in the revolving revenues report And so far as of February 28th. We had brought in 11,438 dollars I guess it's not the numbers. Who do we actually rent it to a variety of Different groups. I can't tell you right off the top of my head That's handled typically by the athletic director and Paula Neville in my office. Okay. Thank you Any any other questions? Okay, I had a couple questions first on the building rental on the last page It says revenues received as of February 28th, and it's 131 131,000 and the estimate was 350 and I'm wondering this late in the year if that's it's okay So that's actually on track because I'm thinking a lot of the years We have several of our long-running programs pay at the end of the year Okay, and then the second thing This is Partly for miss Starks. My recollection is that the sorry I should have talked to you before My recollection is that the budget subcommittee made a list of things that you hope would be Purchased if there was any money's left over. Yes, we made a prayer. Yes, and I'm just bringing that to your attention Because I think the first thing on that list was curriculum. Yes And that's I just want to be sure that we remember that that list is out there Thank you. Okay anything any further mr. Pierce has has this year taught you or Given you any guidance in terms of budgeting for next year and what what types of lessons did FY 13 give you in your preparations for FY 14 Well, that's the tricky thing about budgeting because we start the process so early the current year doesn't tell me much It's really the year before because that's where I have 12 months worth of data So I look much more closely at 11 and 12 to make 14 than I do at 13 Okay, so, you know, it's kind of a two-year process right well then my question goes then to What what types of things did you assess from from that complete year that they did you and well a couple of things we're trying to Develop a more finer granulated budget So the budget in FY 10 was in big lumpy categories, and I'm trying to break it out But it's impossible to determine what you're going to spend in little line items if you haven't had them before So I've been using 11 and 12 to expense the data the budget was still fairly aggregated But the expenses were more detailed and so as each year goes on I can refine that further I can look at and as I have more years of data I can see that some line items, you know Most line items are going to run at a certain rate and some are going to be fluky and some are going to be one-offs But you know that line got expensed once and hasn't been expensed in three more years So, you know you that's how you start crafting your budget and you refine it down and down to the point where you're budgeting in Sensible levels of detail not crazy levels of detail and that's kind of a Fluid thing. I mean this is the first year with FY 14 that I decided to stop spreading out maintenance budget and Re-aggregate it back in facilities Because what you're gonna you know the boiler isn't gonna break every year for the same amount of money in the same school And so trying to spread it out that way doesn't make any sense But on the other hand schools tend to spend about the same in paper toner and ink over a period of time So that is one that is really good to watch and after two two years of actuals. You're starting to get a picture Typically in budgeting you want three years of actuals and then a year of projection That's what the ASBO the national organization for school business officials recommends three years of actuals A year with projections and then your budget year and that's what I've been building towards since FY 11 So I'm getting closer Okay Thank you anything any further questions. Okay. Thank you very much. Yes, John And Next the FY budget an update on the FY budget presentation to the finance committee Thank you Thank you to those of you were able to make it. I know some of you had conflicts that evening We did present the FY 14 budget to the finance committee last Wednesday And we were we were in discussion with them for several hours actually What do you have at your place for those of you that did not see it, but I think you maybe have had this even earlier this was our Just sort of the slides that we presented to the finance committee Just give them an overview of the FY 14 budget There's no information in here that you haven't seen or we've talked about before When I when we I think about that evening in terms of the budget and what was the focus of the finance committee the bulk of the discussion which was actually quite lively and in and I hopefully Informative for the finance committee was around special education They had there was some concern about the issue of the growth of special education growth of educate a special education in this year and then projected growth for next year and We talked we were able to talk about it over multi years Because of that discussion there was an amendment that was put forward by a member of the committee to reduce the school budget by Nearly 500,000 and there was some discussion around that that amendment did not pass and These the finance committee did vote approval I should say to recommend our budget to the town meeting later this spring in addition to Discussing special education we talked in general about just Education that's going on in the public schools today and also about the medical program but I would say really the bulk of the evening was talking about special education and because there has been this question about What our budget shows for next year regarding the increase in special education I asked Diane if she would Go take another look at how to look at the budget in terms of growth over multiple years and how And how we are projecting for FY 14 and so she had a few slides tonight That we just taking another just another lens at the whole issue And it might be something that the committee might suggest that we Potentially share with the the finance committee and and Potentially share at a town meeting when we project or when we present our budget Do we have a copy of this too? It's One of the first questions that arises is what our special education costs and in our budget special education costs Are costs that directly support children on an individual education plan or an IEP? So this is teachers related service providers OTPT speech Psychologists social workers teaching assistants the people that directly work with special needs children It also includes Transportation out of district tuition Expenses that are directly in the service of special ed The other thing that's that is included in our special education costs are costs that support the administration of IEPs And that would be the special education administration and their staff who actually work the paperwork That definition of special education pretty much tracks with the state end of your report and how they define special education costs think the Important thing to bear in mind about special education costs is when they're defined this narrowly It's important to think about them as separate for the rest of the budget because in fiscal hard times Those are not costs that we can cut those are all driven by IEPs and we're required to maintain those services We can sometimes restructure within the context of IEPs as we have done this year by increasing related service providers And decreasing the number of teaching assistants But special education costs as defined by this are not things that we can that we can cut easily or often One of the things that's important to remember about special education costs is because we don't have the power to cut them they can grow in a regular and sometimes alarming rates based on the needs of the individual IEPs as This slide says When school appropriation doesn't take that into account special education costs growth can really cut into regular education cost growth Because special education costs are mandated regular education costs are not to the same extent And as regular education Loses resources parents are incentivized to seek special education placements for their children when they struggle This leads to the destructive cycle. I apologize to those of you who remember this from years ago I have recycled it for tonight But basically this talks about what happens when special education cost growth starts eroding regular education Differentiated instruction response to intervention programs like literacy and math intervention Those are the things that tend to get eaten up which in turn increases referrals to sped which increases eligibility findings Which grows special ed cough grows? Grow special ed costs and further reduces resources to regular education So it is very much a destructive cycle that you don't want to be in What's not included in the way? We're looking at special education costs our district-wide professional development department and school-based leadership in academic content areas District-wide administration and the response to intervention particularly our rich literacy program and our growing math RTI program When you consider that 25% of our teachers and 15% of our students are part of special education By extension anywhere from 15 to 25% of all of these costs could also be considered special ed costs because obviously The cost of educating special needs students isn't just the cost we count as special ed We want a quality education for all of our students Inclusion practices, you know allow teachers to be more skilled in differentiating instruction And that doesn't just benefit special needs children. It also benefits regular needs children as We've spoken many times before the response to intervention models and literacy and hope and as we develop in mathematics They're going to help our struggling students without the need for special education identification This helps to keep our special ed costs down by making sure all children are getting the support They need without needing to resort to a special determination of special ed This is the constructive cycle that we're working towards we have strong differentiated instruction Reducing referrals to sped fewer eligibility findings sped costs better controlled and more resources to regular education So essentially when we look at the FY 14 Budget, this is what's going on. We've been doing a good job with our interventions We're holding our numbers our numbers in special education are Coming down a little bit our special ed costs are flattening out and this is all very desirable And and we're because of this we're able to reinvest in the response to interventions that we need to continue this trend When we look at the history of special education costs in Arlington, I was trying to come up with ways to To show what's going on as best I can because it is complex and volatile in this particular graph starting with FY 05 the dark blue line is Our our special education costs from the end of the year report through FY 12 The FY 13 amount is estimated for this year and it's the FY 14 budget at the end That shows what our actual growth has been over this period of time The top line shows starting with the what we spent in FY 05 where we would be if costs had grown at 10% annually The yellow line is a 7% growth curve and the bottom line in pink is a 3.5% growth curve So as you can see in the early years Special ed costs were growing faster than 10% Which is you know if they had continued to do so you can see our cost would be up You know getting close to 25 million dollars, which is pretty scary Instead you see that there's been changes And this is through several administrations and changes of staff But you can see that by and large we're bringing we're bringing those costs more in line with 7% I also took a look at the same idea, but starting in FY 11, which is the beginning of the recent long-term plan And so we see that going into FY 12, which is the first year of the override our costs exceeded our cost growth exceeded 10% 7% and 3 you know 3 and a half percent in fact It isn't until the FY 14 budget that our special education costs are coming in below 10% So when you consider it in this light You know 7% over time is not an unrealistic Estimation of our costs given their volatility and given what we're doing and so That I think is the important takeaway from all of this is that well for this particular budget for FY 14 We are slightly below 7% and certainly if we look at it in isolation from 13 to 14 There isn't 7% growth over those two years if you look at the long term both in terms of longer history and shorter history The 7% is still a reasonable funding model for our special education costs and by funding it at 7% It allows us to continue to maintain strong regular education services to not get back Into the destructive cycle where where special education is eating the heart out of regular ed Questions Anyone have any questions Have a comment up Okay, mr. Heiner. Is it the intent to present this to town meeting or just have it available ready to or I think this is something we would like to have your input I Given the level of questioning that we received. I wish we had Do we know if the finance committee is if a minority report may be planned? I Don't know. I have no idea I want to ask about the 504 costs Do they overlap with their Special ed costs or are they kept distinct as well? They are distinct I count them in with our special ed costs, but they're they're relatively Not large in Arlington Mr. Shookman first of all having been at the meeting. I want to thank Ms. Johnson for her very articulate Explanation to the finance committee. She really brought in educators view to to the question and It showed a depth of knowledge that I thought was commendable The issue here is twofold I think that one of the things that we've been very priding ourselves in is the transparency of our budget process and That Ms. Johnson has been very Dilligent in terms of breaking out costs and trying to assign them both in it transparent in a consistent manner A special ed is costly and we don't necessarily Tag every expense that could be tagged as a special ed expense In that bucket Because for example, if we're doing professional development for all our teachers We're not tagging the professional development costs of special ed teachers as a special ed cost and if we were to quote Bloom to be alley stock or was be alley stock to bloom You're an accountant. You can move the decimals We could move the decimals every year to bring this number in its seven percent and do it in a legitimate manner but in our efforts to be transparent of what we're doing to Try to service special ed students through an RTI model which involves the use of regular Education teachers it appeared that we weren't growing at seven percent and that's what became the target You didn't grow seven percent. We're going to take that money away from you Which might have been valid if we were at eight percent and they would have given us more money to to make up the difference, but we can't be playing a heads you win tails you had heads I win tails you lose kind of deal where the reward for frank and honest budget presentations is to have our Budget come under attack and and I think that we have a very defensible budget We're both doing the right thing fiscally and the right thing for kids And I think that we would have Tremendous support on the floor of community and I think you've got seven school committee members in this room Who are articulate spokespeople for this and and we'll be able to go and defend it if it comes to that I? Would just add miss Johnson the destructive The destructive cycle the word I I wouldn't use that word because I I don't think to many Parents it's useful so well this is actually a rerun from town meeting in FY 11 So this has already gone to the floor. Yeah, and then I'm then I'm railing against that slide I'd like to I'd like to I mean I I see what you're getting and I see what your point is but perhaps Using some different type of description for it. I think it's more appropriate here. I Would I would chime in on what mr. Pierce said that I know we've seen this before and thinking about it I think you're saying it's destructive to budgets, but the problem is it at this point seen it again It makes me think destructive to children and or something. It's just not a good association So if we can come up with something else Miss Hansen I Was just gonna say how about counterproductive? As an alternative Okay, mr. Hannon, I'd rather show the the constructive one and go in a positive vein the one that you showed What we're trying to do this year and present that one It's it's the antithesis of this and I think that would be better received it basically shows What we are doing and why we are why? The numbers came the way they came and we're doing a positive job in education We're we're doing what everybody wants us to do and I see this as a promo. I agree with mr. Schlickman. I think During the debates in the past when there has been special education pitted against general education and issues like that There have been a lot quite a few people coming forth on the floor and Coming up with a positive thing. I just see this is a positive way of looking at We can change that for sure One of the things that you I just want to follow up on your comment it it is very positive and We have been moving in the district to having that line between General education and special education blur completely and that I think is going a trend that's going to continue So it's not It disingenuous to say that the cost of curriculum leaders Has an effect on special education because more than ever They are involved with special education teachers doing professional development supporting them in the content But I'd like to go back Diane for a second to the one the slide I think was your very first slide because I want to make a comment about about this When we first began talking about what would be a sustainable number in Long-range planning for special education well first of all even before that Should we break it out and there was a lot of disagreement on that and I think that that my strong position as well as the members of School committee to participate it was that yes, we should because that particular part of the budget was so volatile and affects general education So significantly, but the thing that I want to point out is in this particular graph So when we first began talking about what would be a sustainable number We were looking at a ten-year history What special education costs had been at one point and we were looking at 10% and our goal has been to reduce that All every year and reduce it but while at the same time improving Delivery of special education services, and I think that we've been able to do that through our programming through RTI Through much more of it as I said a blurring between special education general education in terms of content professional development so There's no there's a whole number of things that we've been doing as a district to Reduce the rate of growth, but I think that we're also even with the reduction the rate of growth Are truly offering a much better product much better services than we did even a couple years ago And I suspect that in the years ahead. We will when we start looking You know each year we do an analysis of multiple years. Maybe we'll stick with this, you know a same number I think this last one was nine years wasn't it Diane This is actually ten this one's ten, but to keep That window of ten is going to keep shifting obviously with each year To be able to see that that rate of growth is coming down is exactly what we want to see as a School community and certainly as a community in Arlington So I feel actually very Pleased that it may be dipping a little bit below for 14 now That's projections and I and I really emphasize that that's projections because this was all Created Before we even knew what might be some recommendations for placements going into next year and I already know there's placements So those are not captured in these projections And so at the end of next year it may be that while we had hoped To be able to sort of dip below slightly under the seven percent that may not be the actuals of the situation But that's what we would hope to have happened now as you can see from this graph and we've had other ones in the past It's so volatile that It's you have to look at it over multiple years because any one year is not True picture of what's going on and So I hopefully this is helpful in understanding that but that the other part that's really important to notice in this graph is the purple line if we were to keep Special education costs rising at three and a half percent, which is what we're doing with the rest of our budget You can see what would happen. But what happened for many years is that? We have we're mandated to expend these monies and it's at other costs in the budget, so Hopefully this is helpful and I for people who are listening may be helpful as well and you know getting your advice in terms of our presentation to tell meeting to be Good to know what you think about whether we we actually have this in our presentation or just wait in questions Okay Did you have sorry mr. Thelman? So the cycle question the important thing to understand is the destructive cycle was the old way of doing business in This community not that long ago five six seven years ago I know maybe I'm not bringing them but not that long ago That was that was the old way of doing business and the constructive cycle is the way we've been doing it in recent years and in the past several years, so that's the important thing to Point out how are we phrase it and that's the important thing to celebrate We've developed a new way to approach special education That's helping more kids and keeping our costs down That's something that we have to celebrate and we're and we're I think we're always trying to improve We're trying to get better and better and better all the time. That's that's our philosophy. That's our approach So I just wanted can you dr. Buddy repeat the question that you're asking for us because I'm not sure we've actually answered it Well, maybe we can bring this to the budget subcommittee before we present our budget to Tom meeting whether you would want To include this and maybe mr. Fanning can also give us some feedback on that I Knew there was gonna be questions about special education But I was a little bit of surprise that it really was the dominant conversation that evening and so if since that's the case This may be something that's important to Present as part of our budget presentation Do you want a formal motion or you just? Okay, okay, I just wanted to make a couple of comments to first I like the graphs I Wonder if we'd want to include a graph of the person the way the percent increases or decreases fluctuate from year to year You know, it's like this and that and that And I also wanted to note that as we're moving into More students in inclusion classrooms to me it seems like that's also kind of muddy in the waters because How do you? assess the cost of the teeth, you know, how do you Put a value on the teacher. It's not just the special education Support person even though we've doubled them. It's also the classroom teacher there And so that's something else, which I think pretty well muddies these waters and is Something we should think about Any further thoughts or comments or we'll wait until budgets have committee thinks about it. Okay? Great And if this we move on to the update on the Thompson the Yeah, the Thompson is moving along quite well Next week we have our monthly Thompson School Building Committee meeting Which will actually be able to give you a much better picture at the April 11th meeting but right now there's been a focus on some change orders and There's also the possibility of some potential fundraising for the Thompson PTO, but I can tell you more about that at the next meeting Otherwise, there's really not much to report at this point other than from what I've been reading from the construction reports We remain on schedule And no no major deviations. I don't know Diane if you want to add anything to that We'll get a complete report next week. Mr. Hayner When we're gonna go visit When you're ready, I've just I talked to our project manager about it He knows that you want to visit as does the Thompson School Building Committee and He was suggesting that maybe a late April or early May would be the best. It was still a lot He was concerned that there's still a lot of wires and all that and stuff on the ground And didn't want to take a lot of people in quite yet. Just tell him I'm gonna ask you every two weeks, okay? Well, you're definitely on the The planning Can we have a motion to table the police until they arrive so move Second all in favor. Hi. Okay Would you like to go on the superintendent report or do you okay? Let's do that. All right Well, let's talk about snow for a second The last day of school is June 28th, and it is a Friday and we can't go beyond that So every time I hear that there is more snow approaching I do listen with great care But I think we may be out of the woods at this point, but one never knows I think that Of course the concern would be what would happen if we were to have another snow day or rain, you know hurricane day or whatever Because our two alternatives remaining would be vacation days during April vacation and then this comes to a certain point when you can't plan that anymore and We make me may be close to there right now So that only leaves Saturdays after that and I think that we're what I'm hoping and certainly Thinking positively about that that we will not have to to go there but the April 11th meeting would be the last time that we could make a vote about School vacation, but even then it's awfully late for people who make plans Mr. Hader just as preventative would it be appropriate in your opinion to do that now and Only use it in absolute emergency Because I don't I think there's a concern from what I've heard is that that I'm not trying to put any blame, but part of the Couple of the days that were non-school days this year It can also be affected by having a school on a Saturday as well Saturday may not be acceptable to a large portion of population within the community as well And that's my concern in that aspect. So I Just putting this up for discussion. I guess whether we The element that is awful shot to inform that we're gonna have a even now Maybe it may even be short right now because that's only two weeks away That's right two weeks away. I don't think it'll be necessary. I I'm certainly hoping it's not going to be necessary So I wouldn't at this point people have so many plans. I Just it's just something that's out there I Think April 11th is too late to do anything about that. I suspect that we would have to do is to get through Put it later in the year now there's always a chance that the governor might Forgive some days. It's hard to say but we're not we're not the only district in this position There are a number of districts who are going up to that last day the 27th 28th But then there are some districts that are still back the week before and the reason why they are is that there's they're actually having students come before Labor Day I Heard Westminster is already planning a day during the April vacation. There's some districts that have it Central Massachusetts and Western Massachusetts have had more snow days or bad weather days than any other place in the Commonwealth Fortunately for them and many districts they start the last week of August So they have a little bit more given their their schedule And then there's the other issue too is that even some of our neighboring districts that have a little bit more give It's they do not They do not have days off on any of the religious Holidays including Good Friday So there are a number of school districts around us that will have a half day tomorrow When we initially started looking at this, I think it was brought forward that DESC recognizes 20 or 22 or 23 official religious days and recommends that they not be considered as a school day But also the school is to recognize these individuals and not to penalize them as a It would be considered an excused absence That's the ESC's right because there's no way any school could recognize And I think as communities become more and more diverse When we recognize some is going to be a desire to recognize more and more So I would support what the superintendent just Stated that at this point the committee has already approved The calendar with the major rocks that are in at the the holidays the start dates. That's all been approved What's going to come to you? Probably it's not the next meeting certainly by the end of April A complete completed calendar, which will have the early release days on it the conferences the night conferences for next year so that everybody has a Complete calendar With all the dates on it before the end of this school year in past years We've waited to put conference days on until the fall and that's just it's just not Today when families have a lot more scheduling challenges It's it's much better to know ahead of time and so that's what the plan will be our next calendar Right now the way it is set up We have only one additional snow days potential for next year, am I correct? We're up to the 26th the 27th of June It's something like that. Yes, but there that next year it wraps around. I think the last day of June is on Monday but we're up to With only about two days with when you add on the five that are required by state law We're up to about two days from the potential last day of June Can I ask a question about the requirements? Is there do we have to have a certain amount of attendance at school? For it to be considered a legitimate day or is it just we offer school and who comes comes There is an attendance requirement and I just would have to look at I don't know it off the top of my head Minimum Yeah, so that would be a question My understanding is if and it goes to illnesses and stuff of a certain percentage Is not present and it can be attributed to an illness the school is required to be closed I didn't know if it was that that the day could not be I thought as long as the schools are open. I Could let me look into that when I bring the calendar. I will double-check that. I May be incorrect, but I'll double-check that. That's my understanding though. I think that's a question we would have but partly I'm not sure if we're Ready to make a decision to call school on during April vacation if we were to have a I'm saying shaking the head and no What happens if we don't do if we came out 179 days? Are we is our chapter 70 money? Is that the sort of damn at least they hold over us? I don't think we even have the option. I think we have to schedule Let's say on May 4th a hurricane hit We have no days to we then have to pull a Saturday. Oh, there are I'll pull it out so you can see it. There actually are guidelines if when you have an emergency say in June and I forget what the first day it may be just June or maybe sometime in late May When that happens, I Do not think you have to make it up, but they're like the governor sent out those Regulations last year and I will Get a copy for you Mr. Thelman, there's always there's always the option depending if there is a stone There's always the option of an emergency meeting the school committee if you had a recommendation Yeah, so we don't have to wait the 11th of April good point. That's a very good point You could say a next day. I want to have an emergency meeting Curse He calls the meeting we meet you make a recommendation Yes, or no, okay. That's I like that Answer and actually it gives us a chance to start talking to people about would you rather have that or a Saturday? Right and we can find if you can send us the information about how many people have to be present because that I think factors into it Because if we're not going to get enough attendance on a certain choice, then Doesn't work Okay Your call next week I told you community experience. You weren't you weren't here. I Said that you bring that the can bring to the committee experience and thank you Show much logs I'll go into another topic which since it's earlier in the evening I know there'll be a lot of kindergarten families that are interested in this Subsequent to the committee approving tools of the mind We looked at the kind of professional development That was needed for teachers and needed to be done this year in order for the teachers to be to have the summer to prepare for that this change in our curriculum and as part of the All of the professional development that will be necessary We need to do two training days in the end of the end of June So as you're aware, I sent a survey out not only to the kindergarten teachers, but to kindergarten parents Unfortunately it was a little bit of a snafu with the email Getting out from Saturday was sent out on Saturday, but did not arrive until Tuesday And I I don't know why but at any rate We extended it and we I think we've had all of the kindergarten parents respond In fact, we have more responses than we have children Which Which might be that there is you know families that that have joint custody. I mean, I that's but it's not It wasn't that much was we have for I think 453 responses you have the results here and we had We have 432 children, I believe in our our kindergarten's so the The the majority I shouldn't say the majority but the largest number of parents Actually about 200 families would prefer to stay The course and have the last day of school on the 28th And I received a quite a few emails from parents And I'm sorry to those that I haven't been able to respond to it's just that I did receive a few more than I could is That they is that even though we're trying to do this what we think is timely for them Even this even this far out is still going to present problems in terms of child care camps Camps that they had to get refunds on because we went into that last week and And and there are issues around siblings that would not be at home So all of those things we thought would be an issue Are an issue, but I wanted to be able to to have the parents part of this Part of the thinking on of this the kindergarten teachers Their preference is to actually have the last day be June 21st With some that did not some one of the the 25th But since the largest number and it's a fairly significant number of parents would rather go to the 28th My recommendation is that we do not change the calendar for kindergarten for this year Mr. Hanner when will the training place place then we're going to do it on Monday and Tuesday of that week so that the teachers would be back in the classroom For Wednesday and Thursday and of course Friday half day can make a suggestion that an invitation goes out to parents and To help out in their kids kindergarten classrooms on Monday and Tuesday It would be a great way of building. I think a community and give perhaps a little bit more fun and Interesting activities for the kids that way this suggestion Anyone else? Okay, so that that is so I will send an email out to the parents tomorrow I've already notified the teachers before I came into this meeting so that they wouldn't hear about it at the table And actually they did they were back and forth about the whole issue as well But they just thought I would have a was better to do it On Friday than on Tuesday just because of the the shorter week there so in any rate that I think this is going to work out and We certainly have more professional development for them as we move through next year So this is going to we're going to give them the kind of sustained support that they need to to do this the other question I had was that was the reason why we're coming to this decision or now because we needed to take the vote to see how the pilot went this year and We took the vote as a committee last in other words We couldn't have had this out there as an option earlier on correct. We couldn't have done we wouldn't have known if this was the right program That's right. I Can't put this out in October and though some parents would have wanted to know it in October We really couldn't do this until we had the the approval on the curriculum, right? So it is what it is But I think that this is going to work and we're going to make sure that the classes are covered in that They're going to have quality activities during those two days More superintendent report sure actually I'm going to give somebody talking a lot of it lower chest and talk a little bit. We actually Received notification that I went to public schools would receive an award from the College Board due to our continued success with our AP The AP achievement of our students and our increased enrollment of students taking AP courses and I'll let Laura talk about this We were notified by the College Board that they have a grant program that was funded by Google and Their program is to increase the number of underrepresented groups students of color and Females in what they call STEM so science technology and engineering and mathematics AP classes There are a number of classes that they would like to see increased enrollment in underrepresented groups calculus BC Some forms of physics that are also calculus based that are based on mechanics environmental science AP stats and AP computer science they offered schools that had shown improvements in their AP Enrollments the opportunity to receive additional funding to offer more AP classes So we will be offering AP statistics next year for the first time in a while and Our environmental science class will be changed to an AP environmental science class The College Board will provide funding for the two teachers for those courses to attend the AP training They will be providing money for materials based on the kind of course So it's around a little under 2000 for the AP stats class all the way up to 7500 for materials For the environmental science class We had to make a commitment to offer that course for three years We have been successfully offering environmental science so and had been looking to improve Upgrade it to an AP class But this will allow us to do it because it will provide the training for the monies for the training for the teacher and the materials in addition because we have Agreed to become part of this program and and as part of this program We will be reaching out to underrepresented groups and within our own student body to try to increase our Enrollment and all the College Board has asked for is due diligence on our part but Because we have agreed to be part of this program in any of our STEM classes if that that we've offered up to this point if the teacher shows an increase in enrollment for the next school year of Students from underrepresented groups and those students score a three four or five the teacher will receive a Monetary award For each of the students that scores three or four or five if they have an increase in the number of under enrolled Underrepresented groups, so it's sort of a two-prong program. So it's a quite an exciting program and it's going to allow us to really offer Some classes we've been looking forward to doing so You had to have at least ten students We would have liked to have operate AP computer science But just we're not sure that we would have had the enrollment that we needed to do that so we just made the decision to just stick with these two and offering AP stats will offer another alternative for a fourth year of Mathematics of the AP level for students who may not want to take calculus Great, that's wonderful The Based on a previous topic. I just want to add that the commissioner of education in February 2011 stated the following all days lost Due to health weather or snow emergencies from the first day of school to March 31st needs to be made up To ensure 180 days if you lose days between April 1st and June 1st as long as you get to your 185th scheduled day, you no longer have to add days So we will be at the 185th day So should we lose any days after Monday? We do not need to make them up and any district that loses days after June 1st never has to make them up So we are in view. Good. All right. Thank you. Oh, yeah Wait a minute. You got Friday Saturday Friday. Yeah. Oh, we don't have school tomorrow. So Sweet thank you Good job Good research. My memory was that it was later, but that's good. Very good news All right I think that the group may be here. Yes Okay, he was at an award. Yeah, awards even so we can because there's more to go on. There's more Robotics the robotics team this year did very well and it was a young team last year was mainly ninth graders this year was 10th they went into the semifinals and They were it's very complex. Mr. Weather was telling me how this works, but essentially At the at the state finals They were brought into the group because they thought that Arlington team had something to offer Another team they partner up. It's a very interesting different kind of competition than many others. It's a really Fosters a lot of collaboration but at any rate the good news is our team did well and they're doing better and They they got to that level this year, which is terrific. So was that semifinals state or some There is a the curriculum and I don't know if Jeff was gonna either here right now. We can put this off So we'll take the Arlington police a YCC partnership diversion program off the table second all in favor Hey, thanks for coming Dr. Birdie would you like to I would and thank you everyone for coming? I don't know. I think that you probably know everyone that's here, but let me introduce them if you do not Chief chief Ryan who is the chief of the police force who is here and Mary Vellano the principal of the high school Ellen Digby who has many titles Court liaison the tendons rims Homeless she does many things and Colleen Ledger who many of you know is the director of our what it's the Arlington youth health and safety coalition and The reason everyone is here tonight is to talk about the diversion program and what we're going to do moving forward now I don't know how public this information is yet that Ellen Digby Has decided to retire Yes, sad, but true We've tried we tried, but she's she's going to do that and and with And at the same time one of the things that's happening is that the grant For the diversion program is ending in September So this was a chance for us all to be thinking about what we what we needed to do going for forward If whether we would change the job description substantially for Ellen's position and expanded we certainly need to That would involve Responsibilities for the diversion program now for a lot of people they don't really know what the diversion program is and Colleen is going to give us an overview of it because in in our view And I certainly I know that the people that are here this evening to present to us Feel very strongly about how important this is and what an impact it is positive impact. It's made on the high school Rob has put together in collaboration with Everyone a new job description for this position which tonight we want to ask your approval for and Once we have that approval, then we'll be posting this position right away And the reason we want to move this forward is that with Ellen retiring at the end of June it would give us a chance to have whoever has chosen to have some overlap time because it's it's this there's a lot and That we need to be able to to have that kind of mentoring happen So Colleen welcome and thank you very much for coming and I'll turn it over to you for right now Thank You Dr. Lody and thank you for having me here tonight So I'm here to talk about the Arlington diversion program and it's initiative of the youth health and safety coalition So I thought I would just provide a little bit of history on the coalition in case not everyone here is familiar with it So the Arlington youth health and safety coalition we're a community coalition made up of representatives from public So strong partnerships with the Arlington public schools the Arlington police police department health and human services And private youth serving organizations churches Businesses and then other community members including parents and youth. So this is really a collaborative approach to prevention In our mission, we're working to engage inform and empower the community to prevent and reduce substance abuse and other risk behaviors that adversely affect Arlington youth we have Federal funding to the drug free communities program. So our primary focus is substance abuse prevention, although as much as it correlates with other mental and behavioral health among youth We coordinate we collaborate with other Resources and organizations in town so our prevention focus we're looking at primarily alcohol marijuana prescription drugs and tobacco use and We've identified these substances as the primary substances of abuse among Arlington youth primarily through the Arlington youth through the youth misbehavior survey, which we administer every other year and These are the substances that are most widely abused in the community and And then through various community data and ongoing Assessments over the years We're looking at certain risk factors in the community and that's looking at just kind of the culture the attitudes policies and practices that either kind of support underage drinking and drug use or somehow are permissive of those behaviors We're also looking at social and retail access. So making sure that our Retailers in the community are practicing safe sales and that they're adhering to minimum age requirements But primarily we're looking at social access. So we're looking at families And friends of young people who provide to them because that is the primary source in the youth risk behavior survey Arlington high school students Indicate that their primary source of alcohol is older or older family older friends and Siblings so we look at that and then we also are looking at youth misperceptions about peer substance use Regarding marijuana and alcohol use both middle and high school students have an exaggerated perception that this is the norm That they tend to think most of their peers are engaging in these behaviors and the reality that is that it's not So we want to clarify those misperceptions So some of our community objectives, so we want to reduce reduce youth access to alcohol and illegal drugs Also reduce youth access to legal prescription medications Or the diversion of prescription medications for abuse among youth We want to support the development and enforcement of healthy community standards around substance use So working with parents families the schools and law enforcement to ensure that we have Healthy expectations for our young people and that we enforce those standards We're also we collaborate with organizations and resources in the community community to facilitate youth access to support services Highlight like I said highlight positive social norms and then strengthen community partnerships to prevent healthy youth development This is what the coalition is really about. It's working Collaboratively as a community because it's a community issue Around some of these behaviors So just a few examples of some of our initiatives we've been working You know in the school level on school chemical policies We worked with Arlington high school on that we'll be working with the middle school to just strengthen school chemical policies We work with Arlington Police Department around enforcement issues the Board of Selectment and the Board of Health on regulations around retailer Retail of policies and enforcement of violations of Underage sales parent education just increasing awareness Around youth substance use and trying to enhance skills So we have these programs navigating the teen years and guiding good choices that are targeted to to parents of preteens and teens and To help keep them informed and prepared to address these issues in the family As I mentioned retailer education we support the Board of Selectment and the Board of Health to provide Training so alcohol awareness seminars tobacco awareness seminars save sales practices And then we follow up with compliance checks with the Board of Health and Arlington Police Department and We've worked with Arlington High School around healthy social norms and developing social norms campaigns again to clarify misperceptions around alcohol and marijuana youth We have a medication disposal box kiosk with the we collaborated with the Arlington Police Department And that's a permanent kiosk that's located in the community safety building and that's for to support people to rid their homes of unwanted unused prescription medications Especially those that we know could be abused by young people and others in the community and then offering youth support so collaborating again with resources in the community to facilitate access to mental and substance use Evaluation and counseling and then providing leadership training and skills development to high school and middle school students and finally again, we're really interested in increasing collaboration and Collaboration around enforcement and I'm here tonight to talk about the diversion program Which is a partnership really that evolved from the schools Arlington Police Department health and human services So a little overview of Arlington diversion. It's a community-based alternative to the criminal justice system so really it enables young people to avoid prosecution by Ensuring that they comply with Individualized intervention plans or contracts It's really a holistic model to address high risk and criminal behavior among youth We look at each youth individually look at sort of the underlying issues and needs for each Youth and we hold them accountable, but we also ensure that there's some support around, you know, mental social emotional health academic needs We look at we identify underlines as I mentioned social emotional academic needs mental health needs And try to facilitate access to support services So a little bit about the history. It was piloted in October 2007 again And this this evolved out of collaboration among the schools police department health and human services and Over time it we've become more involved with Arlington Youth Counseling Center who provides the substance abuse evaluations and Mental health and behavioral health counseling to our diversion participants And it was really prior to this I think and I am sure chief fine could speak more to this Youth was sort of being missed. So they may have been on, you know, the school's radar or the police radar But then they may have been like persistent persistent ongoing risky behaviors But there wasn't much communication a collaboration on how to address it And we know that by you know setting community standards and expectations and enforcing them youth are less likely to get involved in these behaviors So we came together and thought we don't want to we don't want to strap these kids with a criminal record necessarily we don't want it all to be about punitive consequences, but we want to hold them accountable for criminal behavior and criminal and delinquent behavior and and this was kind of the proposed model that that we developed and Over time it's become a model for the middle sex DA's diversion program and for other communities as well who've looked to this because the collaboration in this community is really unique and It's been really effective for this program and We've been funding this primarily as dr. Vody said through grants through the coalition And one of our primary sources of funding will be ending in September You know in the first few years Arlington police and school resource officer at the schools They referred participants into the program and again, these are for criminal offenses Over time we collaborated with the middle sex DA's office and the district court clerk And they also refer into this program now and then in 2010 when the marijuana marijuana law has changed We also included citation management So for young people who are caught either having publicly consumed marijuana or in possession of marijuana We've offered the chance to be part of diversion in lieu of paying a fine so as I mentioned diversion has really been all about community collaborations and What has sort of evolved out of these main? departments who have been involved is that Diversion is provided a clearly defined enforcement alternative for offices So we've heard from many law enforcement officers that they don't want to They don't want all the punitive consequences associated with an arrest Or the sort of collateral collateral ramifications associated with a record, but this isn't this is an enforcement tool It's increased it's increased over time the Arlington police department's response to youthful offenses so we've seen report writing increase over the years and Official action occurring as a result of diversion because they now have this tool and they can refer into the diversion program and With that it sort of prompted a cultural shift among police department Personnel where they where they kind of they see the need to address these Criminal or substance using behaviors and they feel more comfortable with this as a tool chief. Would you agree with that? Thank you I don't often get to sit before the esteem school committee, so I wore my class a uniform tonight for you while I hope You all I thank you and and you know, it's interesting To listen to calling go over the history of this and I harken back to a tragic event that really triggered the fruition of the the coalition it followed the suicide of an Arlington high school student and We all met after that tragic event and and started a brainstorm and Felt like in many ways, we had let the village down as leaders in the community and and how then do we Do we not let this happen again or do everything in our power not to let it happen again? And so the coalition was born from those discussions and from that the diversion program evolved and And in many ways police and other leaders in the community were reinforcing risky behaviors on the part of our of our youth You know a youthful offender. We would identify them and you know Just maybe dispose of the alcohol or the marijuana and not have any accountability that to go along with it And and that was happening for many valid reasons, you know, our leaders didn't want to give these children a scarlet letter They were making risky decisions But we don't want to give them a scarlet letter for life So we dump it out and forget it happened and we we really sort of look at it in a more sophisticated way and said that's That's reinforcing risky behavior so the diversion program was really the answer and so Now youthful offenders are in a structured environment. There's a a Substance abuse assessment done as a contract executed. They're held very accountable to get them back on track making non-risky and healthy decisions and It really has been Not to any work of my own but really through Colleen and and Ellen and others a program that that I'm very proud to say I'm associated with because it's doing it exactly what it was intended to do and I I have no doubt that we have prevented injury and or death to a child in Arlington as a result of This program and and as a result of these partnerships You know dr. Bodie Diane Robb We're all on a first-name basis Ellen. I want to make my deputy police chief, but she won't she won't accept the position but you know therein lies the value of partnerships and community approach to to these difficult challenges and and I I Really ask your support of ongoing support of this diversion program. I've offered financial support proportionally from police resources that Committed to our youth and preventing tragedy among our youth and and I could go on all night So I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Thank you, too So you spoke very good. I answer your question I wanted you to probably didn't even answer a question very eloquently about how it how the police department have really has evolved with this program And likewise Arlington public schools. I think it's really strengthened communication among school administrators staff in the Arlington Police Department around youth delinquency You could speak more to that but And it's increased enforcement of school-based offenses. We've seen You know more students I think held accountable at the from school than in previous years for criminal offenses and then the Arlington Youth Counseling Center and With a new grant that we received last year has developed a clinical capacity to address use substance use so they're really exploring and developing the clinicians ability to implement an evidence-based model called motivational interviewing and they've actually come into Arlington High School and they're working They're using this model with some students at the workplace and we're also offering this to divergent participants as well in addition to substance abuse evaluations and other types of treatment So sort of summary of diversion cases since 2008 as I mentioned 2007 we piloted it But since 2008 we've had 171 youth accepted into the diversion program. So they met the eligibility requirements For a range of misdemeanors and felony incidents, although 90% if not more of those participants are involved in new substance use. So that's really That's that was initially our concern But I mean substance use correlates with other high-risk behaviors and these instances criminal behaviors So they're all of concern calling. Can I interrupt? Yes, you know You may pause when you see felonies. I know some people pause me. Oh, you you you screen in felons You know when we started the program we excluded felonies shortly thereafter We had a couple of middle school students break into the gym at the middle school to play basketball Technically under the statutes of film now, do we want to be putting middle school kids in on felony charges? Absolutely not. Do we want to hold them accountable for the damage and for the harm done? Absolutely So we quickly it was it was a quick learning curve Well, we went back to the drawing board and eliminated that exclusion of felonies So, you know, I don't want you to think we're screening in You know violent felons, but certainly there are some felony offenses where this is an appropriate response from the community Since that time we've had in the age ages range. I think from 11 to age 20 really from middle school To just out of high school and we've had nine contract violations. So those 171 youth were all We're all enrolled into our year-long contract where they had to meet certain conditions As chief Ryan mentioned community service. They have to uphold a certain academic performance participating counseling and evaluation And community service so there are conditions outlined so of those 171 who were contracted there were nine violations and then sort of looking at recidivism rates There have been 16 diverged former diversion participants who have committed some sort of subsequent offense So that's a 9% recidivism rate, which is pretty low It's better than the department corrections doing Thank you So just sort of to wrap it up our goals for the diversion and for the community We'd like to see this continued intervention and support around high-risk youth this communication This collaboration is really essential to the services that we provide And these are the key stakeholders that the public schools the police department The counseling agencies Health and human services want to keep this and strengthen these partnerships And also I think we want to continue to be a model for other communities as other communities are looking for ways to address youth substance use and High-risk behavior. This has been a successful model that Certainly our project opposite from the drug-free communities program our federal grant has Has identified as being really unique especially due to our collaboration So we want to provide this model For replication to other communities and then for Arlington We really want to just institutionalize this where we don't have stable and consistent funding through grants We'd really like to see this succeed in the community And hope that in some way we can Support this as a community in a more consistent way And just by way of comparison there's a nearby community of similar size and sophistication That has responded to youth substance abuse with zero tolerance. I am not a supporter of zero tolerance approaches They have a zero tolerance arrest or criminally charged every youthful offender and I think that when you when you compare that model To a more sophisticated preventative model certainly a lot more work a lot more time and energy and commitment and resources But at the end of the day far superior leadership from our community leaders in engaging in preventative measures and You know as I said earlier Mary and I and and Ellen I mean, you know, we have this partnership that that that we're laser focused on on the health and safety of these kids And I'm proud to be a member of this team Mary you want to talk and I know Well about the program from your point of view I will just precede that by saying that there is someone who oversees the program right now is paid for the grant And that's why we're looking at how we're going to institutionalize this Mary Well, I don't think I could explain it any better than to fry and just did but from the high school perspective This has been a glad sign for us because these issues come into the school in many different ways and When we need help we know we can rely on the police department the coalition a YCC it really is a community approach We brainstorm together they support us they listen to us if we have a concern It's it's really it's a collaboration that is Very strong and very effective and the schools can't do this kind of work with kids alone. It has to be I Think to you've mentioned the village. It really is a village approach and It really needs to continue so I strongly support that myself and I'm gonna pass it on to miss digby We've tried we've tried I think that the best Thing about diversion is for you to ask us some questions about it because it's so successful We can sit up here and we can talk about it But we have so many things that have come into play our memorandum of understanding through the DA's office We never had this before so we can talk to other schools We can talk to other collaterals in town and we're protected by the law and it's that's very important for a school department And we still guide the privacy of our kids So You know Right mr. Hanger Do any of the graduates or do you get them back involved is there any thought to do that? Not at this point. Okay. I didn't know happy to be rid of us When they finish their contract do they recognize the positive value of what they've got the alternative what it would have been Yes, I mean it saves you from appearing in court. It saves your parent from getting you a lawyer, and it saves you from getting a record So what do you need from us Support in what way? Well, I think that when Colleen tells you the amount of money that we're gonna need I think that Fred is gonna kick in and the school department is gonna kick in and we're gonna make it happen Our manage the community service last summer and all that heat those kids are out there pulling weeds and painting and I Mean they do it I'm just seeing the value in it and and this is just I think a stellar program in and I want to know What we can do to let this flourish because I can tell you just from your numbers That you've made a difference in the lives of these young people a very positive difference And and I want this to go on right so we incorporate this in my job description number one And then that the person that takes over whenever we post it that person will have responsibility Mr. Starks, um, so how many students can we handle at one time now? We have 45 right now. Yeah, and there's always room for more Right, so what is the current d during the summer? 70 during the summer and how many staff do we have that work in the diversion program? Right now. There's about three or four of us that work But that's not counting that they have to go for substance abuse. They have drug screening. They have counseling Okay, but the people who are administering making sure following up with them checking in with them Doing all of those things ask school resource officer myself and another coalition member. Okay Can I I have lots of questions? So Well, let's jump in here too, but we're proposing and we can get into more details a minute We're proposing to combine This digby's role Which is while it's a school year role the truth of the matter is she really does work most of the summer Here and there on because the issues with children don't go away But we're thinking of combining the two because the kind of partnership that goes on The the person who is the coalition diversion director works closely with this digby with the chief with the principal and so it makes sense all of that would come together with one person and of course Financially it will be a larger salary than currently we're having for for Mystics be position But that's where the chief was talking about over all gonna sort of we're going to contribute to that But that's why we're here tonight. We're trying to lay the groundwork for why this diversion program is something We don't want to lose and if we didn't think we're either gonna have to fund it the way it is now but the money would have to come from Some place to pay for the person who coordinates it But even though we're not happy with This decision to retire is it is be presents an opportunity Let's rethink this role and make it a 12 month role and wrap the two together That's what's going on and but we want because it's gonna cost us the district more money I want you to be convinced that this is important Okay, let me just ask to work clear on what the plan is so right now there is Miss Dickey who is a tenants officer and Court liaison and our rems director for all of the so we have that and there is a Diversion coordinator who's funded by a grant which is gonna the money's gonna go away Correct, and is there anything else that we're gonna be talking about that we need to know about? The job itself is very broad and it's very difficult in as you see the draft job description in front of you to incorporate into a position title all the aspects of the job, and you know, I'm I'm actually open to a Creative title that would incorporate all the aspects of the job But it does as dr. Bode mentioned includes the attendance officer court and home liaison Diversion coordinator is part of this rems. There's so many aspects to it There's not and other people out there that we have to be thinking about funding and stuff to at this point Okay, so it's just taking it's just taking it's we'll be one position one person in one position In a very broad defined job that incorporates many different functions. Okay now. We'll go back mr Okay, so we are not Increasing the number of people who are helping in the diversion program No Okay, that's my concern. Yeah, because this week finding out that this was on here I reached out to several people. I knew whose children are on the diversion program who have been in the diversion program They say they love it absolutely best thing that ever happened to their kids, but that the problem is it's understaffed There's not enough follow-up that there aren't enough check-ins So I was hoping that we were adding to the program, which is why we had this so that's why all of my questions about Okay, I have another question. I was hoping that you could explain to people how Individualized the plans are I know for myself because I did some research, but I Understand that there's a big difference. I go to a party. I have one beer. I happen to be caught up in a sweep That's one level or that could be one set of things It's very different from a kid who broke into a car and stole a GPS unit It's very different from a kid who's got a drug problem who also may get caught up in a sweep But had drugs on them. Can you explain how those plans are created and what well how individualized they are? I think I think that's a real this also comes from the police report It's generated from the police report and how that police officer has written that report Because if we do have a sweep which we did have and we had 17 young people involved in it and They all were charged the same because It's like the other jobs you do if it's across the board if you don't live in Allington to get thrown out It's like the same with this program So we charge them with minor in possession. We give them community service If they are in minor in possession of alcohol They have to have a substance abuse if it's minor in possession of marijuana They have that as well in a drug screen and they do have check-ins and they have check-ins through Allington High School And we have permissions from the parents to do drug screens, which we do we have a separate area which we do It's not in the clinic children have privacy and it's worked out very well I Correct I May just add She-flying mentioned and Ellen mentioned so there is a set contract But then the coordinator does meet with the youthful offender and their families to kind of Tailor it to their individual needs and with the substance use evaluations Which are actually required of all youthful offenders because we do see a correlation between any high-risk criminal behavior and substance use all middle school and older do have to participate in a substance use and evaluation and Adhere to any recommendations that come out of that evaluation. So that's another individualized component of the contract Well for a comment and then a couple of questions, you know great program and it's good to see you here And I think this should be a presentation you make to the school committee every year I think it's just good to kind of have you come the recidivism rates Yeah, the recidivism rates for those who go to jail, you know is like over 50 percent They go 50% of the people who are actually spend time in the criminal justice system for a violent offense and they come back out They actually commit a crime so a 9% rate is really good and And preventing kids from going into the criminal justice System is a great thing. I so that the two questions I have are first of all tell us about the interactions you have with the Anyone of you with the middle-sex district attorney's office, how does that work? How do you how do you have a conversation with them so that they're they're diverted from the court system and put into this program? How does that actually work? So we develop our own community-based diversion program However, the diversion coordinators in contact with the DA's office diversion coordinator To make sure couple things make sure that are not already in diversion via another jurisdiction And to keep those lines of communication Hope that another channel will be out and these are not school-based offenses We have a community-based offenses where children are might be from, you know, low visiting town So we'll then refer them to the DA's office diversion program So that they have an opportunity to get heard but they're not supervised by our role in diversion. So The reality is the middle-sex DA's office is modeled their program much Right down to our contract. Oh good. I should get a fee for that Yeah, right. Yeah, that we do direct divert. Yeah, so there's got to be some tension around some cases I would imagine To the extent that we're deferring children, not giving them the scarf that are, you know, not always going to be happy Yeah in our business But and we've learned from our mistakes, we've modified the contracts, we've gone back to the drawing board as needed, we're open to construct the criticism And I encourage you to reach out to us if you haven't, we welcome you And just to clarify, this program covers students until they're seniors in high school Well in the community it covers 20 years of age 20 years of age So it covers 20 years of age So it's a real community based model Not just school offenders, but community offenders involved And then the question about Do you feel, I mean, honestly that you have enough resources to meet the demand to keep up with all of the students and young people you have to serve Obviously, you know, in a perfect world, there'd be more resources, but Teachers are more, police officers are more Yeah, yeah That said, I think we provide a quality version with proper oversight I'm hearing tonight maybe we need to be a little bit more thorough on our follow-ups And we're going to take that as it could provide feedback Yeah, could we use more resources? Yes, it becomes a matter of priorities And Dr. Vody is one who asked you for resources I spoke with the town manager and we're going to step up and provide some resources and institutionalize it Can I get a piece of the timeline and argue a lot? Yeah, and that's my final point We have two key players in this who are leaving So it is important that this continues You're on my handcuffs Yeah Yeah, well, yeah, and I think it's important that, you know, we have the experience of creating programs in Arlington and elsewhere And then when key people leave, sometimes that program doesn't continue So I'm glad to hear that we're doing everything we can to continue Which is why I want to put this motion on the table whenever it's appropriate Let's keep people up, yeah Okay, so I'm going to vote for this as soon as we get to put it on the table Okay I want to first start by saying I really appreciate the value of this program as somebody that works in the school system But at the community-based justice meetings, it's constantly hearing about diversion program successes You know, I really think that this is fabulous. It helps children and it educates children, which is what we're about My concerns are that we're not looking for enough resources to actually do justice to both of the key components of this new position So what I'm hearing is anecdotally, I'm sorry, I feel like I'm getting feedback When I'm hearing this anecdotally, this might not be enough I don't know if you've looked at the number, the overlap between our court-involved students That our attendance officer and court-in-home liaison looks at And the diversion program students and whether there's any overlap But with the new CRA law, what the attendance officer is doing and the home court liaison is doing has now increased Because the burden of intervention is now even greater on the schools And then to have this all rolled into one position, I can't help but wonder if we're setting up so much That it's going to be hard for this person to be successful at any aspects with that much on the point The new CRA law has also opened the door for parents That has given them more latitude to go down and file on the kids And before it used to be just a six to sixteen window Now it's a six to eighteen year old window because we don't want these kids to drop out And it's the parents that can go down and hit that window So that's very important Warrants, you can't do anymore in chins, we used to do chins warrants You can't do that with this new law You can get an apprehension warrant from what I understand today from the court You can't even hold a child after 415 after the court closes on a chins So we're not relying on that chins or the new CRA, we're relying on our resources And I think our resources within this town are much better than any district court That's who the resource was Because actually you're bringing up some of the same point that Cindy brought up And when we talked about this, Ms. Digby was talking about her role And how this would overlap so well because you're in the school And one of the issues is the presence in the school for check-ins And maybe you could talk a little bit more about why you feel strongly That this is probably a doable arrangement to have these two merged together It's visibility. I'm here, the school resource officer is here The kids come by, my office is kind of off the beaten track So it's not causing a lot of scuttled butt when Jeff is coming to my office Bill is coming to my office and it's handled a lot better I see the kids in the corridor, I see the kids in the cafeteria So it is visibility and I think it's important that we keep this in the school Are you going to call me to your office again? That's why I'm retiring Thank you all very much for telling us about this and explaining it I share a leave of concern, I think this is a job description for two people Not just one person, I'm wondering if that could be discussed a little bit more I had a question about the contract Are all the contracts the same duration? Do they change? I'm not sure, what's the length of time generally?  What preventative measures occur in that law? Very little or not, you know here we've got somebody under contract for a year So the visit for a year, substance abuse analysis for a year So it's a big commitment on the part of the community You guys are spot on, absolutely, it's a big challenge for the team But we also recognize the resource challenges in the community So we try to respond in our request for those valuable resources And we think we can get it done Also just to address some of the concerns about the two positions Just to clarify the current coordinator position for the diversion is only part time So where there are many similar or even overlapping responsibilities with Ellen's position This will also bring it to full time and again increase visibility at the schools But also in more exchanges during the school day So it's going from 41 weeks to 52 weeks, which is huge Thank you So I had a couple questions too I had the same kind of timing commitments Wondering if this is more than one person can do Not that you folks aren't hard working strong people Just there's only so many things you can do at once And then one other question I had was I just wonder how much time the diversion program saves on the police side That instead of having to funnel these kids through whatever happens in the police side They're kind of shunted off And so it seems like there is some resource time and effort saving on that Yes, that's an excellent point It's actually a shift of job function So under the traditional model we had a police prosecutor who worked out of the police department That shepherds any criminal complaint through and navigates it through the criminal justice system So in case it's diverged, she doesn't have to do that But then no responsibility shifts over to the school resource officer Who then works with Ellen and the version coordinator For oversight on the divergent contract So it's a shifting of function rather than an elimination of the criminal The channels we're seeing is, you know, and you know, even though I'm crazy when I say it We're seeing fewer arrests That's a good thing for a number of people If I could get it down to zero, you know, I would consider that a huge success You know, sometimes, you know, when you're trying to justify budgets Or justify your existence, you try to inflate numbers We're doing the opposite If you want to be preventable And if we get a zero across the board, it would be very happy Not being a budget Right So I had one other idea for funding Can't we franchise this? Charge other town's franchise fees? This is a joke Anyway, Mrs. Flickman I just have one other question Given the fact that we do have a job description in front of us What is our prognosis for recruiting and hiring a qualified candidate into the position? I think our prognosis will be good We will, once this is approved, we'll post it We will post internally We'll post on school spring and maybe some other resources That would attract the types of candidates who would be attracted to this position So I think we will develop an interview team of the core people Who would, you know, need to interview the people interested And I think we will have someone in place in time Probably by May, sometime mid-May Hopefully if we can post it pretty early April To get, you know, have some overlap with Ellen before she retires Thank you I just didn't have any experience with hiring this kind of position Yeah, you know, and it's a new position for me to hire And maybe the chief and other people can speak more to it But I do think we will have some interested candidates We're looking for people with criminal justice Kind of people who have worked with juveniles in the past So I think there are people in the community who would meet the qualifications Certainly Okay, Mr. Fieldman So I move that we approve the position of attendance officer Court and home liaison and diversion coordinator That's one job for those of you listening at home Okay Did you want to speak to your motion? I think we've had a good discussion about it I favor it, I think that we should adopt the motion now And then over time evaluate the needs of the program Have them come back, you know, next fall And if there's pressures that they can't keep up with Talk about additional positions But for now approve this and move forward Mr. Hayner Under the qualifications, it says preferred study in criminal justice As you go through all the different aspects of this It sounds like this person is going to be neat To be well grounded in the law Are you folks satisfied with the qualification aspects of this? Absolutely Fine Absolutely Okay And it's got a real preventative Coming to it, that's what we're about Okay Thank you Any further comments on this? Okay, Mr. I think this is one of the most important things we can do As a community is one of the things that we can do as schools Because if we can keep these kids in school You know, they're not in the court system They're not in juvenile detention They're here and we can help them here I personally talked to so many people Who this changed the lives for their kids You know, because they may have been dealing with an issue And you know how kids are, they never listen to their parents And something happens and they end up in your program And just knowing that someone else now knows And someone's paying attention The fact that they don't repeat And that they do realize that it's important That they figure out how not to do whatever it was They were caught doing I am concerned that we don't have enough help Even if what you think you need is part-time clerical work Maybe it's the paperwork or something, some small way That we can, you know, may not be another position of this size Or depth But if there's any more help that we can be Please let us know Because I feel like this is so important I just, I really want to support this in any way we can Because you know, however many, the kids that we have helped I feel like are kids we've saved And I just, I feel like that's so important So thank you all for all of this And let us know if there's anything else we can do Anyone else? Okay, I just, oh, this, hi I'm not going to repeat myself about the fact That I think this is not enough But I do have some concerns That we have accurate data Because I do think we're going to have to revisit this Within a year or two to expand the support to this program If we're truly committed to doing it well And so I'm not looking to amend the motion But I would like there to be some sort of record keeping Compilation beyond recidivism So we can see about if there are other ways Of directing financial resources to this program Based on which segments of our student population We find it most serving Or whether it just seems like there should be other ways To wrap this into our overall budget Those are wonderful comments I see no more, all in favor? Aye Any opposed? Okay, motion passes? I'm sorry Well, the chief is still here I don't know if we want to just spend another minute Just talking about some of the larger partnerships We also have I mean, I think that what has been expressed tonight Is I think you see that we all work together And I think that is one of the strengths Of what we do in this community We really do see ourselves And I just want to invite the chief If he wanted to say anything more about From his point of view The strength of that partnership And ways that we do it Yeah, thank you, Dr. Glory You know, amazingly, it's not the case In many jurisdictions That surround us or in the Commonwealth You know, when I say we're all In the boat rowing in the same direction We're all on speed dial with one another And there's nothing in my opinion Or the opinion that I will speak for them That's more important than the health And safety of the students But, you know, the partnerships Go beyond those informal speed dial type You know, Ellen mentioned the formal MOU We the coalition meets monthly On Thursday with all of the stakeholders Dr. Bodie is involved with the coalition And intimately aware of the business that we do Mary has been wonderful You know, it's just I'm saddened by the departure of the two of them But I know with the leadership that we have That these will rebuild relationships With whoever fill their shoes So, I think the point is You know, there's the informal networking That really is very important in real life every day But there's also the formal legal documents That empower and enable us To share information in a timely manner Which is critical and more important When we develop information about the safety of shoes Well, I value the partnership we have And we talk regularly, yes I've always been talking about that But I also want to take this chance Because Ms. Digby, Ellen Digby Who is just such a trusted and wonderful colleague Want to acknowledge the work she's done here In this district The list goes long One more year It's been fun Really, talk about lives being changed She has had that effect on many students And I bet there's some adults here Who have relied on your sage And no nonsense Wisdom And we want to let you know how much we've appreciated it And it's been a wonderful colleague you've been And we will miss you But well deserved Moving into this next phase of your life Next phase, next phase Well, thank you Thank you Mr. Schluchman I also want to commend Chief Ryan Since he's been here And during my previous tenure on this committee It's been obvious that the chief has been Tent on maintaining relationships with the school department Both the formal and informal And in the care and commitment these had For the children of this town has been outstanding And this is just another manifestation of it Thank you for your service to our town as well Thank you very much Well, proud graduate of all the time And he wasn't in diversion Thank you well for coming Thank you Kelly, thank you Mary Can I leave the uniform home next time? I love it Don't press up for us He was doing formal awards this evening Thank you very much Thank you Thank you I know, I have your starting number At this point we move on to More superintendent report Nice, you're just like that All right, one of the topics that we had For tonight is the communication That the district has with parents And at your places is a survey That we have constructed And I understand completely that we are amateurs At this, at this endeavor I will say that in constructing this We looked at lots of surveys To try to get to I think was the intent Of what this committee was looking for In the way of information Both in terms of both directions You know, what ways do they get information What ways do they prefer to get information What they basically think of our websites But also the other part of it is They're feeling of their access To communicating to the district So what I would like to be able to do Is to put this survey out to all parents And give a reasonable window of You know, maybe a couple of weeks To get feedback But what I would like before we do that Is to make sure that there aren't Other questions or additions Or changes that you might want to make And I know the curriculum And accountability subcommittee Saw this the other day But would like your feedback And it doesn't necessarily You know, you could email suggestions As we move along But if you think it's fine Then we might just go ahead after the After the holidays and send it out Mr. Hayner Is this going out just to the school community Or the whole town? This would be going out to the parents In the school district Now that's a whole other issue There was a question on the vision 2020 this year to the whole community And I can get you those results So you probably already have them They've been presenting them publicly At this point now Okay, Mr. On the ones like number one and two I think six is check boxes But seven might also be rank order Where there is rank order I find that it's best if you tell people For example on number one You might add with one most preferable And eight least preferable So that they know how to rank order them Some people rank the higher number higher Good point Right, so you want to tell people Give a number one to the most important way And an eight in this case Because there's eight choices In a number two you'd say Rank number one is the most important Or the most preferable And six is the least preferable But just give them a little bit more That's the only thing Some of this actually overlaps With what the community relations Subcommittee was looking for In terms of a survey So I'm wondering is there a timeline For getting this out Or would it be better to just do One larger survey that is then all inclusive We could, we could do one larger survey And bring this community relations Could look at this and see what things You might want to add to it I think as a parent As long as it's not too long I think when people, I know myself When I get a survey and say It's going to take you 20 minutes I'll also get to it But quick surveys And people respond to it faster And we'll get a better turn out I think I mean to be honest it also could Possibly make sense to do both To do the survey separate And have those overlapping questions In both surveys as a way of assessing The validity of the response If you'd like to have a subcommittee meeting And we can hold off on this Maybe we wait till after vacation too Because I think as we get closer to vacation The attention to this is going to drift That would make sense because We can certainly set up a subcommittee Meeting for after vacation Actually before the election Or it might be a different subcommittee Well then if you have any suggestions Just give them to me I can bring it to community relations And we can work on this Okay My only question is timing You want to get this done by no later than May Correct I don't want to go into June I think you want to just be conscious of the fact If we're going to delay this New committee sits on the 11th People are appointed as subcommittees And you're talking about You have to have the meeting In the third or fourth week of April The latest so you can get input for the survey So just be conscious of the time Okay The point It's exactly the same The only suggestion I make on question 5 I'd flip the axes It has the I don't know this just doesn't I'm not used to things That's why that's the standard Is the way you're talking with the Flipping it the other way What was great on top You put the information available I'll flip the axes I knew what you meant Okay Okay so if we have anything We should either send it to you Or talk to community relations And we'll figure out who's on what Later and Okay All right I Just wanted you to be aware Of this little strip of land We've had this conversation before About that little piece of land That's near the Brigham's project It's not called Brigham's project anymore But I just want you to know that They have Official name for it now Which is called the Millpond park A little piece And there'll be a sign saying That that's what's happening Excuse me is that the land That they keep asking us for Or is that something else Yes but it's going to have a name They've decided to name it for us Well there was a need to It was a need to move forward with it And I don't know if we would come up Honestly with a better name But I mean it's still under our Control It is definitely under the school committee's control I just wanted to be able to talk about it And didn't have a name to talk about it But it's not the piece of land That Bill's talking about is the parking Is one to be used for parking It's not the parking lot There's two pieces There's a chunk of the parking lot And there's the parts a little with the bench The bench is now a park We haven't named the parking lot It might be the smallest park in Arlington Yeah it could be That's the most valuable piece of property In the town It's a micro park There's a question for the next trivia Yeah exactly Which brings me in thank you Dr. Chesson I have to say it was so much fun And I want to congratulate The foundation The Winchester Education Foundation For just a wonderful day Arlington I said Winchester You know what because I've participated For so many years it's just like in the back I'm recessed in my mind I'm sorry the Arlington trivia bee It was wonderful It was so much fun And the team from the school committee Did very well We really didn't Kathy You didn't make it You didn't make it in the You didn't make it in the finals But you did well You are very kind You could have given us The construction right We did the best we could With what we had to work with We were We had a lot of fun It was a good time It was a great event Terrific More teams than ever participated this year 2018 No they had A last moment When they had 28 And there was another feature this year When they did the construction A team from the audience Could come up and do it as well Mainly the students In the audience they really loved it In fact their hands were waving To be able to be picked for it So it was a fabulous day And it's just another way That the foundation Supports the schools And proceeds from that Also will ultimately support The schools With the how widely it was Viewed that Who knows we might have A fifth round we'll see And then lastly So thank you on behalf of The foundation and the schools Because without a judge Dr. Bodie was one of our Judges That was fun I enjoyed it a lot And the last thing I wanted to tell you Is that we have completed And the winner is Well There's still more work to be done We're still calling some people Who we sent packets to Who have not registered But that number is fairly small And it's going down every day Because we have one of One of our staff people Making the phone calls We also had a lot of people Who put the registration into the computer But didn't come to register And some of the people have been Notified as well So I think that probably By next week we will have had What our expectation would be For the number of students that we Think will be in kindergarten Will be registered Which is terrific And what was interesting As you know when we set up The buffer zones That represents about 25% Of the land About the same number In terms of the percentage Of students coming into kindergarten That are in buffer zones So roughly It will be able to tell you More exactly once we get The last 30 registered Do you know if we got anybody From mill street The Brigham's area I don't know the answer to that That would be a good question We'll look at that So we'll be able to do The We can't, see the problem Without having complete registration Really couldn't do the work We needed to do with buffer zones But I think we're going to be able To move forward with that Over the next two weeks Did you get any feedback on the process Good or bad? The feedback from our staff Was that it went very well It was very organized We did not survey The parents Maybe that means something That we could do down the road Because now we have all of their Emails That's one thing about having them In power school So that might be a possibility And I also want to just Acknowledge the great work Of the team that Put this together with Leilani Dagestino who really set up The whole structure for this And Adam Koroski who is Worked on creating the software And he was available many of the nights For people who had difficulty And then our Secretarial staff and our nursing Staff who were there and volunteered Actually To be there and were very Well they were paid yes But still they didn't have to do This and they were willing to do it And that makes a big difference So we still have to tabulate What the total cost was of doing This and we'll get that Number to you but it was Really I thought well done But the biggest concern was to make Sure that we could get everybody in And we had some weather days As well in this process So all in all it went well And I think that's it That I have I don't know If there's anything What oh yes yes Thank you for reminding me Probably should have done this On the Thompson update The what we have decided to do And we've Is to open The after school program At Thompson in the model of the Hardy school and in fact The director of the Hardy school Program is going to Set up the after school program And oversee the after school Program of Thompson To the Project Boys and girls club had a Program there as well as A program at boys and girls Club Their after school Program remains very strong And will continue to remain very strong Simply not enough Program space for all the Students that want to be in after School but they agreed That it that This is a fine way To proceed And in fact I think over time As we have other programs That may Not Continue obviously going to have An after school program at all Schools but the idea is that these Will be under the auspices as Other programs perhaps retire That we will continue this So I'm very pleased with this As you well know that the Other programs do have a Wonderful reputation We will probably be able To have 100 Students in the program Which would be terrific So we've begun All of that work and in fact I think even this week They had their first meeting With the Thompson families to begin The registration process for That program So if families Are interested in participating Next year they need to Contact That's all That's all been sent out to parents That's all been handled at the School level And Thompson Kindergarteners that have Registered we will get that Information to them as well Now there was one more thing Because it was under the Program For the superintendent's Evaluation we're going to need A lot more discussion we're all Involved in This I know that Cindy and Louie you're Involved with it and of course Paul is as well In your own districts but this Is a major initiative at the State level of having An Educator evaluation system Involves And all All levels Of personnel in school districts Teachers, administrators Central office, superintendent The superintendent Evaluation Process Was something that we're going to Need to work on together as a Committee. Tonight is not the Time to really get into that as Much but rather to talk About what a pilot would look Like just sort of to try it on a Little bit to see what how it Would work which is exactly what We're doing throughout the rest Of the district we've talked About that before and Sure You have a handout here which Is a purple sheet the Arlington Effective educated development System This new initiative by the State involves all levels Assistant superintendent all Administrators and all teachers We want to This spring Have a pilot at all those levels And we've already begun the pilot Mr. Hayner has been involved with the Task force and is very well Where we're going with this So In the pilot that we're doing With the teachers and Administrators we Selected a limit we only Selected two standards in fact For administrators it was only one Standard because of just The how you'll see a Diagram in a second as to why We only picked one standard But we were looking at Ideas that Would Go as a through line from the Superintendent to Administrators to teachers and Here tonight are the The two co-chairs of our Task force and the Hanson and So they've been very much Involved in all of this but In this pilot We're only asking Participants to have one Goal and we're Focusing only on two Indicators And what you see in this Next slide is how All of this is linked The For principles and Superintendent the two Indicators that we're looking At is the instruction indicator And the assessment indicator Which as you look in this Diagram corresponds to two Different indicators and Two different standards for Teachers so For superintendent the assessment Indicator corresponds to the Assessment indicator for Principles that's the For teachers it goes to Standard one Indicator B When we're looking at The instruction indicator Which is standard one Indicator B for the Superintendent the black line There that corresponds to The instruction Indicator for Administrators but It corresponds to Standard two indicator Teachers and these Represent the through line And that's what we're trying to Achieve with this particular Pilot So Teachers who are in the Pilot Are picking a goal that Corresponds to one of these Two indicators and in general It corresponds to one of Their goal for their Professional learning community Is as Related and cohesive as Possible so that's how The rubrics are connected now If you look at The next slide here You what we've indicated Here is what does Proficient look like just For the Assessment indicators And you can I won't Read all of these but you can See what profession looks like Read but the other ones That I won't Proficient would be supports Administrator Teams to use a variety Of formal and informal methods And assessments including common Interim assessments That are aligned across Grade levels and subject Areas so The superintendent is Working with the principals And making sure that this Is going on At the school or department level And then the principal Is working with individual teachers To support that Work happening at the classroom level So that's the ideas to Have all of these Be connected to each other Now One of the district goals Now so the goals that The superintendent will have Are going to be very much linked To what district goals are And then that continues In its through line through The entire process So one of the goals that we had This year For goal two student achievement Was to number four Was to create and identify two Common I lost it It's two common assessments At every level in all disciplines To measure student progress And to obtain high expectations For learning Teacher consistency and a common Focus on instruction And in fact this particular Goal is sort of a foreshadowing Of work that we need to do next Year for the whole evaluation System because part of The Educator evaluation system is To be able to look at the Impact on student learning And We'll talk more about These district measures That are being asked of us At another committee meeting But not tonight. So at any rate That was our goal for the district And so therefore My goal that I would use in The pilot would be That those assessments Were in fact created And then That has a correspondence to The work that principals and Students are doing to ensure That that is happening And certainly the work of teachers To Accomplish that. I think one of the Things that this is an aside To this whole Is that One of the things Arlington I think is doing very well Is looking at these Measures student progress At the Classroom level and we want Teachers that are teaching In all the different disciplines To be very much involved In what they think Are the best Measures of student progress. And so these kind of discussions Are going on at all In all disciplines including Guidance and related services. Now this year we have piloted Some already Next year we'll pilot Some more but the idea is To identify them and that's The specific goal for this year. So I would like to have Us engage in the Pilot. So we get a chance to feel how It works and that's really What the intent is Certainly at The other levels Of this process. And How we move forward with this Is something that we want Maybe talk about whether it's going to be At a subcommittee level. The kind of discussions we need to have In the pilot and The thing that's sort of Different about The superintendent The school committee superintendent Part of this Is that Well let me first say how it works At the other levels because then you can see What the issue is. And this is a coaching model for Continuous improvement so a lot Of the emphasis is on the conversations That occur After an observation And That is not Something that's how it's built into Our structure of how to do it. So how do we Fit This education evaluation system Into the structure that exists In a school committee superintendent And I think that Bill went to A meeting last week and I think that there's A lot of Questions as to how this works technically But I don't think we need to talk about it tonight But rather this something we need to talk about In some kind of a committee form. Mr. Schlock. At the Curriculum Instruction Assessment and Accountability Meeting We had a fairly Extensive discussion About how we'd want to proceed Both in terms of the pilot And in terms of the actual evaluation That we would be doing under the New regulations next year. The thinking In our conversation was that Because the pilot Really is more of a professional Development Session for All of us. The school committee and the superintendent To learn how to do this Is that it would be appropriate For us to Do a professional development retreat Similar to what we did for the governance Project And work through The Pilot evaluation in That venue So that we'd all learn how to do it So when it comes time to actually do In the formal process next year That we would have the Pilot Under our belts as a professional development And trading exercise. So that's the direction that The subcommittee Recommended through a motion At The meeting on Monday. We should make a motion now. Maybe you should make a motion now. So I'll make a motion That I just want to make sure I've got the I move That we schedule a professional Development retreat for the purpose Of working with the superintendent to Pile the new evaluation tool. Does anyone have Mr. You weren't at the mini Is you comfortable with this? I think it's a great idea. I think it's a great idea.  We've got to get a doodle going. I realize There's an election, but if we get A doodle going to get some dates On the calendar, it would be good to do. I'm trying to be as diplomatic as I can. We've got to get a doodle going Even though there's an election. Doodle a doodle. Okay. How long do you anticipate This Requiring and We're not quite sure, but we figure That if we do a little bit of Homework first, we would be able to do it In one session. I need to know how long To set the doodle up for. I would recommend six hours. I don't think we need six hours. No, I don't think we need six hours. Okay, I'd recommend four hours. No. Okay. Having spent Gosh, how many hours have I spent At least 20 hours On the new Evaluation tool and writing up the Indicators And My brain's going it's like SEJ SEIJ now and all the stuff about How What formula used to approach in the Conversations. I think this could be a very Time-consuming process And I think we need to look at In two parts One As negotiating some of the Not Negotiating, but just Working through some of the initial Challenges around How we want to approach it, whether We would like to do some formal Professional development around this How we see structuring it Whether everybody's involved with Each part because in essence I see that as somewhat guiding What type of Retreats we need to have together Around the tool So I think this might need to be a Two-phase part, the first phase Being shorter and then the second phase Being somewhat dependent on perhaps Getting some sort of Technical assistance or Or PD, more formal PD And us around this. I saw Mr. Hinner. I agree with that concept. Mr. Hinner put this together. Gave a lot of thought to the teacher Aspect. Chunked it up to the Administrator. Gave no thought to the Superintendent because you now have One person being evaluated by seven And I can't imagine at a regional District with 16 to 17 people Having to somewhat act independent And coordinate and put it all Together. So I would agree with Ms. Hyam's aspect of it. That's so Partly just having To set up doodles and stuff And also thinking this is a pilot As opposed to the real thing that We can also do the Educate some, I'm not sure Do all of us have to learn everything All at the same time. And then Build on that. Actually there's Supposed to be inter-rater reliability In terms of the tool. I'm not Questioning that. I'm saying We have to set up a pilot Very quickly. And I have to be part of setting up That pilot very quickly. I'm not Saying once we get to the real thing Yes, all of us need to be at the Same speed but there's a difference Between setting up the pilot and Doing the real thing. Mr. Shlickman. My original Thought was to do two Smaller Professional development retreats. One In which we get together to set The ground rules and figure out what We're doing and second to pilot The Evaluation With each other And that might be the way to go if We set but the thing is if we set up One Retreat professional development Session we can see where we End up at the end of that and make a Decision is where we want to go after We hit the first one because we are Granted on uncharted waters Despite the fact that many of us have Been trained to some extent Within the new system and the Rubrics are pretty specific It's more An element of us getting a Feel for how we are going to do This as a public body And how we're going to engage In a relationship with the superintendent That's going to Honor her work and Be a respectful thoughtful process Right and part of my pushback Is just coming from my experience and having To try and schedule you guys to goat And where and And So part of it I want to be sure We all are needed in second Saying sometimes That doesn't happen So right now what I'm hearing is Three hours as soon as possible Do we need is there anyone else Who needs to be brought in Dr. Bodey Dr. Cheson I know I know I'm just how much Who else is Talked It might not be a bad idea to see If we can get Nancy back for this But I think that we are Capable of doing this on our own Okay So Yeah okay Yeah my opinion I think We would be helped by a facilitator With this I think otherwise I'm not sure who would share it how We would move it along Right and that's part of my concern To think about how to do this Logistically I think it's a three My personal opinion it's a three hour chunk Of time with Nancy waltz Is our facilitator because she knows Us and she's familiar with this And it's on a weekend Can I just propose an alternative Having not been at your discussion And just seeing this for the first time Tonight to me it would make More sense if Three of us maybe one of the subcommittees Decides we're going to be the brain For this and you guys figure it out And then And you could have the facilitator And talk And work out which thing it is What you pick you're going to Pick the goal you're going to To forward to the rest of us you're Going to pick the indicators And all that and you have that Worked out and then we have Another meeting With all that stuff already worked out With a facilitator To kind of guide us through With the whole committee I think it's not a bad idea The only place it could go right now Is the cia committee so it would be A question of Setting a meeting next week Which I'm happy to do if we can get Kathy's schedule and all three of our Schedules lined up we can Why don't we do this we can try To get a meeting of our subcommittee With dr. Bode Next week to try to get this Displaced out if you want. Okay. I actually disagree With the concept of having a group Of three do it because there Tends to be An expectation that the work Has already been done and then We're just moving forward with it And this is one of the most Important things we do In our roles is Our evaluation of the superintendent And to pretty much You know have this Powerful tool Have three people bring forward A recommendation but not Necessarily have input from the rest Of the committee around some of Their concerns And then You know get to the point where we're Tweaking it just doesn't seem Like the way to build A system. And just to respond so The reason I'm suggesting this As an alternative is that I'm not disagreeing that it's Important. I'm not disagreeing that We all need feedback but I'm Seeing what we have to do is bring A pilot to going from 0 to 70 As quickly as possible And we don't move that Fast as a group. I mean As a group of seven. We move Faster as groups of three and Then we pull the rest of us along And that's why and I'm not Disagreeing with any of that This I'm focusing on this As the pilot and I'm trying to Create a shape that we can work Forward from and we're going to be Saying well you know I wouldn't Pick that indicator so you know You'll remember that when you go When we have the real thing but That's fine there were other Mr. I'd like an opportunity to Respond though there are ways For us to all be at a retreat And work in smaller groups with Certain things by certain Yeah the purpose of the pilot Is not to produce an outcome the Purpose of the pilot is to be The professional development For the entire group so For us to go and Put it off to a subset of The committee I think would Not achieve the purpose of the Pilot I mean the thing is as we Talked about the cia Subcommittee could Coordinate and make Things work but in terms of The process and the learning We all need to be there Well why don't we do this This is about possible success So one idea might be that We do a poll to Find a three hour block of time We try to find a Facilitator and if we could Find a time for a subcommittee To meet we can kind of Do some thinking next week For an hour about the framework Or the structure of the Retreat so maybe what Three of us can do in a subcommittee Rather than design the whole tool Is just give some more Specific detailed thought to How the retreat would work So we have two things going on Simultaneously an attempt by our Subcommittee to meet next week For an hour to think through The details of the retreat with Kathy there and then a poll To find a time for a three hour Block In April Okay I mean I think that That seems to be where we The happy compromise here to get Something moving Okay I agree that it's fine That a sub like we said It's a pilot and we're all Going to learn from it regardless Of how much each of us Individually puts into it And any of us Can send input and feedback to That subcommittee meeting So having that subcommittee Meeting I think is not saying That all of us can't attend it Or that we can't all have input It's just saying that someone Should drive it which I agree I think trying to decide all Seven of us is going to It is going to take six hours For us to get anything done on This because it does take a Long time and I don't mind If someone else even if I don't Agree with what the goal is That's not the point, the point is to Pick something and try it If it fails miserably we've learned A lot, if it is amazing We've learned a lot and if it's Somewhere in the middle we've also Learned a lot, the point is to take Something and go with it and try it Right and see how it goes Whether or not it is the right Thing is not the question this time Right the question is can we get A process with the thing we've picked That would be my opinion Has it already been picked? Pardon me, isn't this what we're Going to evaluate you on on the pilot? This one little thing, the assessments? No, not a little thing It's a small little thing What you've got to understand What the intent of this is Is not the specific, it is The process, it is so Different, but we picked it It's more than just The goal in making a judgment on it Trust me, there's So many aspects of this thing That's the easy part Am I wrong? So we have a motion Did you want to say something? I'm sorry I was just going to say I think That the idea of retreat is a good one Because even though it's the pilot And we're going to learn something from it We have to really think about What it's going to look like next year And think about the through line So what we do is going to be It's going to affect everything else As we go forward And interlaced with this is of course The work we're going to do in the next month On district goals And because we've got to get those In place by mid-May That's that I know, so there's a lot going on right now So one thing That this is all supposed to start with Is a self evaluation Are we going to assume that you are going to show up With the self evaluation Because given that it was supposed to start With whoever's being evaluated Doing a self evaluation You're supposed to start with that And through that self evaluation You pick the thing that you're supposed to focus on So I assume you've already kind of done that Given that you've picked the thing You want us to focus on So I would also like to make sure That that piece of those Pre-steps also comes with us To the retreat So we can see how the process went for you In the kind of the before part The part that happened before this Right Okay Right What's Talk about the pilot in this respect Is that this goal that we had Putting back there is a goal that we had For the year And so why did we have that goal That's where the self evaluation comes in When we say self evaluation for the superintendent We're really talking about The Evaluation of Why we're moving in certain directions With certain goals What were the The Drivers for putting that there So it's not so much a Self evaluation It's more an evaluation of where we are As a district in that particular Area Okay so we have a motion on the table Right now which is To Set up a meeting So any further discussion On the motion All in favor Aye All opposed And I'm abstaining because I'm still questioning the possibility Of actually scheduling all of you No I'm sorry I am It's not going to happen in April That's Or That's fine Okay and Curriculum can do As they see fit Okay so I will set up a meeting That's it for me Okay So at this point we are on to Policy and procedure Something to report Hey budget We heard budget I want to say something else I know you did It wa