Brookline School Committee Meeting - October 14, 2026 (Audio Fixed)

0:12 Okay, welcome everybody to the October

0:15 14th, 2026

0:17 Brookline School Committee meeting. We

0:20 uh hope that this will be another

0:22 engaging and exciting meeting for

0:24 everybody here and in the in the

0:27 audience out there. U so welcome to the

0:30 school committee meeting. Um

0:32 we're obviously operating in our new to

0:35 intimate format here so we can talk to

0:38 each other more easily. Um and we're

0:40 going to begin as we have been beginning

0:42 each meeting with a moment of

0:44 inspiration and tonight's moment of

0:46 inspiration will be brought to you by

0:48 our vice chair Donna Perry.

0:52 Thank you Bob. Um,

0:55 for my moment of inspiration,

0:58 I want to go back almost 15 years to

1:01 when my kids and I were relatively new

1:03 to PSB.

1:05 Our principal at Lawrence was Rick

1:08 Rogers and our vice principal was Monica

1:11 Crowley. I remember Rick as a

1:14 soft-spoken man, an instructional

1:16 leader, an academic, a deep listener

1:20 with kind eyes. Rick was admired,

1:23 respected, and loved in the Lawrence

1:25 community. His leadership was powerful,

1:27 but not loud. It was rooted in

1:29 mentorship, relational trust, and

1:32 integrity.

1:34 Principal Rogers did many extraordinary

1:36 things, but I think his gift was his

1:38 innate ability to make every child in

1:40 that K8 building feel seen. I think

1:43 today we would call that belonging. For

1:46 Rick, it just seemed to come naturally

1:48 on every student's birthday. And I think

1:51 Sarah, and if Justin's still in the

1:52 room, he'll remember. Every student's

1:54 birthday, Rick would visit their

1:57 classroom and personally deliver a

1:59 handwritten card to them. Every single

2:01 student, every birthday, and the kids

2:04 waited for those cards, he made them

2:06 feel so important.

2:09 even when they were in trouble. If you

2:11 were sent to the principal's office, one

2:14 of the consequences might be losing your

2:16 free lunchtime, and instead you'd be

2:17 forced to spend it one-on-one with Mr.

2:20 Rogers.

2:22 One beautiful spring day, I happened to

2:24 be walking across an empty Lawrence

2:26 field around lunchtime when I saw Rick

2:29 come through the side door with a little

2:30 boy who couldn't have been more than six

2:32 or seven.

2:33 I immediately recognized what I'd come

2:35 to think of thanks to my own child as a

2:38 lunchtime discipline date. They walked

2:41 over to the track and I was several

2:43 hundred feet away so I couldn't hear

2:45 what Rick said, but I watched the little

2:47 boy nod eagerly and crouched down into a

2:49 sprinter's position while Rick looked at

2:51 his watch. And then the boy took off.

2:55 Rick stood there timing him, his eyes

2:57 moving between his watch and the little

2:58 boy as he ran his lap around the field.

3:02 When the boy crossed the imaginary

3:03 finish line, Rick gave him a high five

3:05 and then the two of them walked slowly

3:07 back towards the school, deep in

3:09 conversation.

3:11 I have remembered those moments for more

3:13 than a decade.

3:15 This was likely an interaction that

3:16 began with a little boy being sent to

3:18 the principal's office, maybe with

3:20 butterflies in his belly, worried about

3:22 what awaited. And somehow Rick turned it

3:25 into a moment of genuine connection.

3:28 There was no audience, no recognition,

3:30 just a principle in his child. And a few

3:33 minutes in which that child had his

3:35 principal's complete attention.

3:37 When I sat down to write my moment of

3:39 inspiration and thought about how to

3:41 describe it, I thought of a verse in

3:43 Proverbs from the Hebrew Bible about

3:46 righteousness, integrity, and what we

3:48 pass from one generation to the next. In

3:51 Hebrew it reads

3:54 a

3:56 righteous person walks in his integrity

3:59 and fortunate are his children after

4:01 him. I think sometimes people of

4:04 extraordinary character are recognized

4:06 not through grand acts but through the

4:08 small things they do when they think

4:10 they have when they have no idea anyone

4:12 is watching. Rick Rogers probably had

4:15 hundreds of moments like that with

4:17 hundreds of children. I happened to

4:19 witness one. How fortunate all those

4:21 children were to have been touched by

4:23 this extraordinary and yet ordinary man.

4:27 More than a decade later, I still

4:28 remember a little boy who likely

4:30 struggled in his classroom running

4:31 around the Lawrence field and a

4:33 principal standing there watching every

4:35 step. Thank you.

4:40 Thank you, Donna.

4:43 Next up, we have the Excuse me. Next up,

4:45 we have the consent agenda. Fairly long.

4:48 Are there any comments before we vote to

4:50 accept it consent agreement? Yes,

4:52 Carolyn.

4:53 Um I think I have a question and this is

4:56 bringing forward something that came up

4:58 in finance when we looked at that. Um so

5:01 in 2H the um prism grant for beep um

5:09 literacy

5:11 curriculum I think like study and

5:14 purchase. So um

5:18 I think there was just curiosity be

5:20 curiosity given that we've been engaged

5:23 in purchasing and rolling out a new

5:26 curriculum literacy curriculum just like

5:29 how does this align with

5:32 fish tank and that work?

5:38 Okay, great. Thank you.

5:40 Thank you Carolyn. Thank you Robin.

5:49 Hi. Um, so I I watched the subcommittee.

5:52 I know you had some questions about the

5:54 Prism 2 grant. So, this is sim we had a

5:57 similar grant for part of our fish tank

6:00 um adoption that supported some

6:02 professional learning and supported the

6:05 purchase of some of the materials. Um,

6:07 for this Prism 2 grant, it's specific to

6:10 um preschool. So it's only a preschool

6:14 grant. It's a in a preschool cohort. And

6:16 so what they are going through, they

6:18 already use some materials that are

6:20 aligned with what we use at the K8. Um

6:24 but they do not have they're looking

6:26 for, you know, to make a more robust

6:28 literacy curriculum for our our beep

6:30 students. Um so part of the grant funds

6:33 the work of the committee through their

6:36 se their selection. They are part of the

6:39 Massachusetts implement

6:42 um cohort for imp uh for for the um

6:46 selection for the investigate and

6:48 selection as well, but it's one that's

6:49 targeted again specifically to

6:51 preschool, but it follows the same

6:53 framework. Um so this fall they'll be

6:55 engaged in some vision setting with

6:57 their committee um which includes um a

7:01 number of stakeholders on educators.

7:04 around February, they'll be um reviewing

7:08 curriculum and beginning to look at

7:09 that. At that point, they'll also bring

7:10 in Kristen Gray, who's our K8 literacy

7:13 coordinator to help with that alignment

7:15 and also to be another member of that um

7:19 of that committee after they've created

7:20 their vision. Um really what they're

7:23 looking at, they are looking at

7:25 materials are based on playful learning.

7:27 So, it's it's age appropriate. It's it's

7:29 aimed at middle at preschool students.

7:31 Um it's really to provide tier one

7:33 instruction for all students involved

7:35 that are participate in BEEP. Um I think

7:37 one of the questions you had because it

7:39 does support the purchase um the

7:42 potential purchase of curricular

7:43 materials and it covers a portion of it.

7:45 So I think you asked the question around

7:46 like what would be the um what PSB would

7:50 have to contribute. Um my understanding

7:52 from talking with Margaret um our

7:54 principal and you'll hear from her

7:55 tonight as well for her school

7:56 improvement plan um potential to be f

8:00 what the the gap between what is funded

8:03 by the um grant and what might need to

8:06 be provided for purchase could

8:07 potentially be part of the paid for out

8:11 of the revolving fund. It may require

8:13 some thoughtful you know planning for us

8:15 as part of the budget process but that

8:18 um that's that it's it's a small amount.

8:21 It's really it's not as uh as large a

8:24 purchase obviously as a as a K8 literacy

8:27 program. We're talking about a much

8:28 smaller um ask from the from the get-go.

8:31 Um and the grant does cover a good

8:34 portion of that. So um it's to yeah so

8:37 it's to to support BEP with early

8:40 literacy to build on resources and align

8:42 with ones that we already have and also

8:45 bring coherence with the K8 selection.

8:48 Thank you Robin. Any other questions on

8:50 the consent agenda?

8:53 Is online?

8:58 If there are no further questions on the

8:59 consent agenda, I ask for a motion to

9:02 accept consent agenda. Suzanne makes the

9:05 motion. We have a second.

9:07 Second.

9:08 Jesse seconds it. Laura, how do you

9:10 vote?

9:10 Yes.

9:11 Have you vote?

9:13 Yes.

9:14 How do you vote?

9:15 Yes.

9:16 How do you vote?

9:16 Yes.

9:17 How do you vote?

9:18 Yes.

9:19 Suzanne,

9:20 yes.

9:21 Val,

9:22 yes.

9:23 Bob, yes. Unanimously approved the

9:25 consent agenda. Thank you very much.

9:28 Item number three. On November 5th, the

9:32 Brooklyn High School Innovation Fund

9:34 will have their annual Galorama

9:36 fundraiser at the high school. And so I

9:39 need to entertain a vote to authorize

9:41 Brooklyn High School, the innovation

9:43 fund to serve beer, wine, and hard

9:46 seltzers during the annual gayama on

9:49 November 5th. Um to be held in the STEM

9:52 wing lobby from 7 o'clock in the evening

9:55 until 10 o'clock in the evening. Do I

9:57 have a motion?

9:58 So move that. Jesse moves it.

10:00 Suzanne seconds it

10:07 yes.

10:08 Yes,

10:09 Sarah.

10:09 Yes,

10:10 Laura.

10:10 Yes,

10:11 Val.

10:12 Yes,

10:12 Bob. Yes. Unanimously approved.

10:14 Congratulations, Brooklyn High School.

10:16 Have an amazing gayama on the 5th of

10:19 November. Okay, moving right along.

10:22 Anukica, we have a student report. Let's

10:24 go.

10:26 Hi everyone. I hope everyone's doing

10:28 well. I think if you asked most of the

10:30 students at the high school, they would

10:32 say they're doing really busy. Um, but

10:35 we started off the month with our annual

10:37 back to school night, which was guided

10:39 by the Brooklyn High School Ambassadors

10:41 Program, which is the student body who

10:44 assists in helping parents find their

10:47 students classrooms and get to meet and

10:48 greet the teachers and also the advisory

10:52 junior and senior keepers acted as

10:55 guides during this night. It was really

10:57 great as I heard from my mom as well as

10:59 many of my teachers. Um, a couple other

11:03 things. uh the interim progress reports

11:05 were released on October 8th and that um

11:09 is a normal occurrence halfway through

11:11 each quarter and the only change is that

11:15 attendance this year has been slightly

11:16 shifted due to the new schedule. We have

11:19 longer class periods and as a result um

11:22 there is a lower quota for um the amount

11:25 of attendance that you have to fulfill.

11:27 Um, so you cannot be absent um as many

11:30 days as you could in the past and if you

11:32 did um exceed those absences that would

11:35 have been mentioned on your IPR. Um, as

11:40 for this week, we began the week with

11:41 the day off for Indigenous People's Day

11:44 and there was a celebration that was

11:45 hosted at FRR that several high school

11:48 students attended. Um, and this Saturday

11:51 at 7:45 a.m. there will be the PSAT

11:55 administered at the high school, which I

11:58 will be in attendance for. Um,

12:01 in other note, student government has

12:03 officially began its year at the high

12:05 school. With legislature, our student

12:07 and faculty branch hosting the elections

12:10 for a student and faculty chair as well

12:12 as student council elections being

12:14 completed. We now have a full student

12:16 council and will be proceeding with

12:19 student council business very soon. Um,

12:22 and lastly, on a very positive note for

12:25 both the staff and the students of the

12:26 high school, our studentr run

12:28 restaurant, the Tap and Green, is

12:30 officially in operation for the school

12:31 year. Thank you,

12:33 Anukica. Great job. Does anybody have

12:35 any questions for Anukica Banerjee, the

12:38 amazing student rep? We do have some

12:40 questions. Sarah,

12:42 mine's a comment. Um, I wanted to This

12:44 year when I went to back to school night

12:45 at the high school, there were a couple

12:47 of teachers that decided to not only

12:49 present who they were and their

12:50 backgrounds, but they also sort of

12:52 unveiled a little bit the way that they

12:54 teach by sharing something that they

12:56 taught with the parents and it really

12:58 felt to me like a highlevel conversation

13:01 about how they approach education and I

13:04 really enjoyed that. So,

13:06 thank you Sarah. Hi, Carolyn.

13:09 I just have to do my annual I love back

13:12 to school night. I guess this was my

13:14 seventh. Um, it's talk about

13:18 inspiration.

13:20 It's just amazing. Um, and my husband

13:24 feels the same way. We just leave

13:26 pinching ourselves saying, "How could we

13:29 be so lucky to be able to have our

13:34 children at a school with teachers who

13:36 are so dedicated, so smart,

13:40 so enthusiastic." Um

13:44 so love last one and I will also say a

13:48 couple of the teachers um commented

13:51 specifically that they are really liking

13:53 the 70inute period. They really are

13:56 feeling like that's giving them an

13:58 opportunity to like switch up what

14:00 they're doing really dig into the

14:03 material. Um so that was a positive note

14:06 too.

14:06 Thank you very much Laura.

14:09 As the mother of a ninth grader, this

14:11 was my first BHS back to school night.

14:13 And I want to echo what was said. I was

14:15 incredibly impressed by the passion and

14:18 intelligence of the educators, the the

14:21 care they put in into how well-run it

14:23 was. In addition to giving shoutouts to

14:26 high school for back to school night, I

14:28 also want to give shoutouts to our uh

14:30 middle schools that are also welcoming

14:32 parents in as well. I had the

14:34 opportunity to attend uh the parent open

14:37 house at Driscoll which was also it I

14:40 left feeling very confident about my

14:42 son's education and knowing that the

14:44 students were in very capable hands and

14:47 I think that was a really lovely thing

14:49 to be able to attend as well.

14:56 Monica, thank you so much for your

14:58 student report. I was hoping you might

15:00 um give some feedback on this on the new

15:02 six day schedule and if you feel like

15:04 you're falling into a routine and how

15:07 others are experiencing that.

15:09 Absolutely. So, I'll speak for myself. I

15:11 do really enjoy it. I think the idea of

15:13 having fewer classes in a day is really

15:16 beneficial, especially given the

15:17 homework load and that just allows

15:20 students who play sports and have other

15:21 extracurricular activities to balance

15:23 their life slightly better. I think the

15:25 key challenge is just planning out.

15:28 Normally you would say on Mondays I

15:29 would have this activity, on Tuesdays I

15:31 would have this activity. And the idea

15:33 of there being a day one through six

15:35 does challenge that slightly. And I

15:37 think for teachers as well, I've talked

15:38 to a couple and just being able to set

15:40 office hours and a consistent schedule.

15:43 I think that's the the main difficulty

15:46 with the schedule. But otherwise, people

15:47 are adjusting. And originally we they

15:51 tried to introduce brain breaks which is

15:54 a middle school concept that many of you

15:56 might be familiar with. Um and I think

15:59 we've slowly been weaned off of those.

16:00 So I think we're getting somewhere. But

16:03 yeah, overall pretty great.

16:05 Thank you.

16:07 Okay. I just want to say I I fondly

16:10 remember back to school night at

16:11 Brooklyn High School and when we were

16:13 lucky enough to have the Red Sox in the

16:15 playoffs during that time. You know, the

16:18 format is the parents come and they

16:20 follow their students schedules

16:22 throughout the throughout the night and

16:24 during passing time I would announce the

16:26 Red Sox scores

16:28 and cheer the Red Sox on when they were

16:31 doing really well. Anyway, thank you

16:33 Anukica very

16:36 Okay. Public comment. We have four four

16:40 people making public comment tonight.

16:42 You have three minutes. Betsy is the

16:44 timekeeper. She's brutal.

16:47 So t take your take your three minutes

16:51 and let's get going.

16:52 Uh Yasm mean Sharief, you're first. Hold

16:56 it right up.

16:57 Hold it right up. Okay. Good evening.

16:59 How are you? Uh, my name is Yasmine

17:02 Sharief and I'm a sixth grade teacher at

17:03 Baker School and I'm here to share my

17:06 concerns about how recent changes to the

17:08 library program are affecting our middle

17:10 school students and their access to

17:11 books. In previous years, sixth graders

17:14 had a bi-weekly library period that

17:16 included a short lesson and an

17:17 opportunities to select books. Between

17:20 scheduled visits, students could also

17:22 stop by the library during the school

17:23 day as their schedules allowed to return

17:25 or exchange books. Last year, our sixth

17:28 graders checked out more books than any

17:30 other grade at Baker School. Many of our

17:33 students are enthusiastic, voracious

17:35 readers who genuinely love books.

17:37 Fostering that enthusiasm is something

17:39 we should be actively encouraging,

17:41 especially as students get older and

17:43 develop lifelong reading habits. Within

17:45 days of the school year beginning, my

17:47 new group of sixth graders were already

17:49 eagerly asking when they could go to the

17:51 library to get new books. I had to

17:53 explain that access to the library would

17:55 look very different this year. Under the

17:57 current program, there are no

17:58 opportunities for students to

18:00 independently visit the library during

18:01 the school day to select or exchange

18:03 books. Instead, they will have access to

18:05 the library just 15 times over the

18:08 entire school year. For many students,

18:10 this is a significant disappointment and

18:12 a real barrier to their reading habits.

18:14 Some devour books at a rate of one per

18:16 day, meaning they may finish several

18:18 books. Oh, sorry. My phone just rang and

18:21 then it disappeared. Oh no, my time.

18:23 Hold on.

18:25 um

18:27 instead they will have access to type

18:29 15. Okay. For many students is a

18:31 significant disappointment and a real

18:32 barrier to their reading habits. Oh no,

18:34 I read that. Shoot. Hold on. Although

18:36 the library is open for 10 minutes

18:37 before school and 10 minutes after

18:39 dismissal, these brief windows are not

18:40 practical for many middle schoolers who

18:42 need time to prepare for the school day

18:44 or have family responsibilities and

18:45 other commitments after school. These

18:47 limited hours are not an adequate

18:49 substitute for access during the school

18:51 day. The school committee policy itself

18:53 supports the importance of providing

18:55 students with flexible needs-based

18:56 access to library resources. With only

18:59 15 20-minute periods available to my

19:01 sixth graders for this entire school

19:03 year, they should at minimum be

19:05 permitted to visit the library during

19:07 the school day to return books and

19:08 select new ones when they finish

19:10 reading, provided their schedules allow.

19:12 Unfortunately, due to changes in the

19:14 library program this year, this is not

19:15 possible. At a time when children are

19:18 spending increasing amounts of time on

19:19 technology and screens, we should be

19:21 creating more opportunities for them to

19:23 engage with books, not fewer. Unlike

19:25 many elementary classrooms, middle

19:27 school classrooms typically do not have

19:29 extensive classroom libraries. For many

19:31 students, the school library is their

19:33 primary source of books, and restricting

19:35 access makes it harder for them to

19:37 sustain their reading habits. If our

19:39 goal is to foster a schoolwide culture

19:41 of reading, reducing access to books,

19:43 particularly for students who are

19:45 motivated and eager to read, is

19:46 counterproductive, a more flexible

19:49 library schedule would also benefit

19:50 teachers and students who need library

19:52 resources for research assignments and

19:54 special projects. I respectfully ask

19:57 that the current library program be

19:58 reconsidered and that middle school

20:00 students at minimum be given

20:01 opportunities to access the library

20:03 during the school day on an asneeded

20:05 basis. Our students have demonstrated

20:07 that they want to read and we should do

20:09 everything we can to support their

20:10 interest by ensuring they have

20:12 meaningful, consistent access to books.

20:14 Thank you for your time and

20:14 consideration.

20:18 Thank you.

20:20 Next up,

20:22 Amanda.

20:25 Hi, Amanda.

20:31 Good evening. My name is Amanda

20:33 Crutchmar and I am here speaking tonight

20:36 on behalf of our K8 school librarians. I

20:39 have been the Pierce K8 school librarian

20:42 for the past 17 years. Just one year

20:45 ago, I stood up here as your Caverly

20:48 Award-winning teacher. I spoke of the

20:50 power of books, the joy and

20:52 effectiveness of true collaboration

20:54 between school librarians and teachers,

20:57 and the value of our school libraries as

20:59 the hearts of our schools.

21:01 Unfortunately, I am standing here

21:03 tonight just one year later, reeling

21:06 from the cuts that were made last year

21:08 to our educational technology teachers,

21:11 our high school librarian, and the 50%

21:14 budget cuts to our school libraries.

21:17 Now, I am asking you to reconsider our

21:20 district's decision to use our K8 school

21:23 libraries as K8 teacher drop off

21:25 specials like art, music, or PE. This K5

21:30 dropoff model will not only deprive

21:33 students of their access to information

21:35 and books, but erode our schools

21:37 cultures of reading that the public

21:39 schools of Brooklyn has always valued.

21:42 Historically, our school libraries have

21:44 had flexible schedules where teachers

21:47 attended library class with their

21:48 students so we can collaborate, co-e,

21:51 provide readers guidance together with

21:53 the teachers knowledge of student needs

21:56 and the librarian's knowledge of books.

21:58 Students could come to the library

22:00 whenever they needed a book, even when

22:01 we were teaching a class since there was

22:04 always multiple adults in that space to

22:07 assist.

22:09 We could reschedule missed classes,

22:11 manage our fabulous collections, and

22:12 developing program develop programming

22:14 and instruction based on student and

22:17 teacher needs. This flexibility is what

22:20 made our school library programs so

22:22 successful. We were told that this

22:24 disruptive change to our school library

22:26 programs was due to the need for the

22:28 implementation of the multi-tered system

22:30 of supports model known as MTSS.

22:33 The district's response to DESIE

22:35 directives instead of thoughtfully

22:38 strategizing how to find time for

22:40 teachers to do this work, hiring

22:42 additional staff to implement this model

22:44 effectively or implementing a slow roll

22:47 out to determine the value of this

22:48 model. The district has instead rushed

22:51 through a major shift in our already

22:53 understaffed and underfunded K8 school

22:55 libraries

22:57 without even officially telling us.

23:00 There were no department meetings where

23:03 we could strategize there plan a

23:06 schedule that made sense that could work

23:09 well. None of that. Our neighboring

23:12 school districts who use this model of

23:14 library as a drop off schedule are K5

23:18 schools with separate middle school

23:20 buildings that have full-time certified

23:21 school librarians and flexibly scheduled

23:24 library programs in Brooklyn. in this

23:26 fixed drop off model will not only take

23:29 away from all K8 students ability to

23:31 access library resources on an asneeded

23:34 basis, but it'll obliterate our middle

23:37 school library programs since the focus

23:39 has to be on those K5 fixed classes.

23:43 While most of our schools have multiple

23:45 art, music, and PE teachers to provide

23:47 services to all KA classes, we continue

23:50 to be the only school librarian in each

23:52 building. Whether our enrollment is at

23:55 400 or 900, teaching all KA classes,

23:58 working with every teacher, managing our

24:00 wonderful school libraries, that are

24:02 resources for all becomes impossible.

24:06 Decades of research across more than 30

24:08 states links strong library programs to

24:11 higher reading and math and writing

24:13 scores with the largest benefits for

24:16 low-income students, English language

24:18 learners, and students from historically

24:20 marginalized identities. Those are the

24:23 very groups this district has publicly

24:25 committed to serving better. The drop

24:28 off model removes every one of those

24:29 researchbacked ingredients at once in

24:32 exchange for a cheap scheduling

24:34 convenience.

24:36 I understand the goal. Teachers need

24:38 time to review data and the district

24:40 wants instructional consistency. Those

24:43 are legitimate goals, but this

24:45 particular solution was designed for a

24:47 district structure that we don't have.

24:51 And it quietly closes the school library

24:53 to the students who need it most. THANK

24:56 YOU.

25:03 THANK YOU, AMANDA. NEXT,

25:07 Eric Liano.

25:15 Uh, good evening. Uh my name is Eric

25:17 Lauraniano and I live next to Potterham

25:20 uh golf course and I want to speak a

25:22 little bit aside from education about

25:25 the proposed lighting bylaw coming up

25:27 for a vote. The proposed lighting bylaw

25:30 specifically names Potterham and

25:32 Potterham Woods as sensitive areas and

25:35 where lighting will not be permitted.

25:38 We're asking the school committee and

25:40 town meeting members to request an

25:41 amendment to the bylaw to remove

25:44 Potterham and Potterham Woods from that

25:46 list or vote no on the proposal

25:49 altogether. As written, the bylaws will

25:51 pre prevent Potterham from adding

25:54 compliant shielded uh lights to the

25:57 driving range. Without these lights, the

25:59 driving range cannot operate during the

26:02 fall and the spring days of daylight

26:04 savings time. It just gets dark very

26:06 very early. We can't operate from 4 to

26:09 about 8:00 p.m. at night. Those few

26:13 hours will mean about $160,000

26:16 in lost revenue to the golf course,

26:20 which is important to maintain and

26:22 improve the golf course. But is more

26:25 than just golf. We have October Fest. We

26:28 offer a spring festival. We do uh movies

26:31 for families on the fairway. We um also

26:35 have um concerts and many other

26:38 activities. Uh not to mention Potterham

26:40 Woods, which is a great walking trail.

26:43 The driving range and golf course

26:45 welcomes people from everywhere. I've

26:47 met people there who are retirees,

26:49 firefighters, police officers, students,

26:52 uh kids from the neighborhood, dads and

26:55 moms with their kids. It's just a great

26:57 diverse place and we need places like

27:00 this in the growing uh communities of

27:03 Brooklyn and I think it's so important.

27:06 We do have to be aware of the

27:08 environment and sensitive to uh wild uh

27:12 to wildlife. The proposed lights are

27:14 very modern. They're very limited in

27:17 where they shine. They will be directed

27:20 directly on the um driving range. So

27:24 they're not going to be lighting up and

27:26 they're going to be very very minimal

27:28 where the golfer stands and up to 150

27:31 yards where they can see the ball

27:33 flight. Beyond that there will be no

27:35 lights and the driving range is 250

27:38 yards. All of that other area will be

27:41 entirely dark. I have here a map that I

27:46 um gave to the committee where it shows

27:49 that Putterham is not itself a wetland.

27:53 There are several small wetland in and

27:57 around Putterham and those orange areas

28:00 there are the ones that are wetlands.

28:04 This map also shows that there will be

28:08 lights added to West Roxbury Parkway to

28:11 light the new bike path and road. Um,

28:15 also we have lights across the street um

28:18 at night at Skyline Park. The fire

28:21 station is lighted. The parking lot for

28:24 Potterham is lighted. There is a deck in

28:28 the patio that is lighted. The public

28:31 works building is lighted. So we think

28:34 we can just add a little bit of lighting

28:36 to the beginning of the driving range so

28:38 that Potterham can continue to flourish.

28:41 Thank you very much.

28:44 Thank you. Next up,

28:49 Andrew Porter, please.

28:56 Good evening. My name is Andrew Porter.

28:59 I live on Waverly Street and my daughter

29:01 Sophia attends Driscoll. I'm here today

29:03 to ask you to reinstate a flexible

29:05 schedule at the Driscoll Library that

29:07 affords middle schoolers the opportunity

29:09 to visit the library throughout the day

29:11 throughout the week. I understand that

29:13 K5 teachers need planning time, but

29:15 meeting this requirement should not

29:16 compromise Driscoll Middle School

29:18 library access or special programs. This

29:20 is the second year I have volunteered

29:22 weekly in the library and I am

29:24 witnessing the effects of the current

29:25 policy. What was once a community space

29:28 is now a room with books in it that

29:29 students must now enter like any other

29:31 classroom. I grew up in Florida in a

29:34 working-class family with a father and a

29:36 big brother who both failed fourth grade

29:43 and a grandfather who held only a sixth

29:46 grade education, which is the grade my

29:48 daughter Sophia is now enrolled in. At

29:50 Driscoll,

29:52 I knew that if I was going to get out of

29:53 Florida, education would be my way out.

29:56 My high school did not offer an advanced

29:58 placement curriculum. So, when I entered

30:00 11th grade, I made an arrangement with

30:02 my teachers. Instead of attending class,

30:04 I went to the school's library and

30:06 taught myself AP.

30:09 Sorry, sorry.

30:12 I scored high on three tests, went to

30:14 college and graduate school, and now my

30:15 daughter Sophia attends Driscoll. If my

30:18 school had a policy like the one now in

30:20 place at Driscoll, I and my daughter

30:22 Sophia would not be here. I know the

30:25 comparison is not exact, but the stakes,

30:27 I would argue, are no lower for our

30:28 middle schoolers. Middle school means

30:31 more independence and responsibility.

30:33 Restricting library access robs

30:35 Driscoll's middle schoolers of a space

30:36 to exercise that newfound freedom and to

30:39 access that part of learning that is not

30:40 about instruction and fact retention,

30:42 but curiosity and discovery. Driscoll

30:46 students need an open library in a way

30:47 that your spreadsheets and schedules

30:49 cannot quantify or capture. An example

30:51 of the loss that results from the

30:53 recently adopted schedule is the end of

30:55 the library's participation in the Zoo

30:57 New England hatchling turtle program.

30:59 For the last two years, Driscoll

31:01 students had the awesome responsibility

31:03 of raising

31:05 threatened turtles over the course of

31:06 the school year. The Turtles brought

31:09 together students from across the

31:10 student body. From kindergarteners to

31:12 almost freshmen, from avid readers to

31:14 self-p profofessed non-readers, with the

31:16 library serving as the nexus for this

31:18 shared obsession with these tiny,

31:19 adorable, utterly dependent creatures.

31:22 If you want to understand what you lose

31:24 when you adopt a fixed schedule for the

31:25 library, the next time you see a

31:27 Driscoll dragon, ask them about the

31:29 turtles.

31:31 A school library should be open always

31:33 for everyone. The current fixed schedule

31:35 means that this is not the case,

31:37 especially for Driscoll's middle

31:38 schoolers, and I urge you to find a way

31:40 to correct that. Thank you for hearing

31:42 from me. Good luck.

31:51 Thank you very much. That concludes

31:52 public comment for tonight. Next up,

31:56 exactly on time, 6:40 according to the

31:58 agenda,

32:00 Superintendent Bella Wong will have her

32:02 superintendent report. Thank you.

32:04 Pressure pressure to stay on time.

32:07 Anyway, thank you. Um so I want to thank

32:11 the committee um for for

32:15 approving um last week's leave to be

32:18 able to go to Helsinki um Talon and

32:21 Tartu. So I returned um from Estonia on

32:26 Monday evening and so this is probably

32:29 my 12th experience of being part of an

32:32 educator tour to other places to visit

32:35 for the purpose of visiting schools.

32:37 This is the fourth tour that I've led

32:40 and um and so we we spent some time in

32:43 in Helsinki. We visited two schools

32:46 there, one school in Talon and then

32:48 three schools in Tu. Well in T we were

32:52 25 kilometers from the Russian border.

32:55 Um, Finland also has the largest shared

32:58 border of any other European country

33:00 with Russia and so geopolitically it's a

33:03 very interesting place to be and to

33:06 visit. Um, we had 18 educators visiting

33:11 the schools and I feel we had some

33:13 really important takeaways a very

33:15 productive trip um just and so Finland

33:20 has been known for their PISA scores.

33:22 They're not as high as they were before,

33:24 but interesting with Finland, they never

33:26 thought it was about their PISA scores.

33:29 Um, what's appealing about Finland is um

33:32 the schools across the country have very

33:35 narrow gaps from each other. So, they

33:37 have this equity across the way. Um, and

33:40 there's a strong focus on students,

33:42 whole child and support, social

33:44 emotional supports. Um, es and also in

33:47 Estonia. Estonia interesting is now one

33:51 and two in their PISO scores. Um they

33:54 are ahead of us in technology and the um

33:59 we learned we were exposed to a lot of

34:01 frameworks about AI that might be

34:03 helpful for us and um and also their

34:07 personalization their strong sense of

34:09 social emotional supports and their

34:11 focus on students being able to be

34:13 comfortable in their environment and

34:16 thriving. We also visited so we visited

34:18 K12 schools and vocational schools. So,

34:22 um hopefully we might be able to share

34:25 some of those takeaways later al

34:26 together.

34:28 Um the other thing I'd wanted so I was

34:32 asked to update on where we are on my

34:34 superintendent's goals. Betsy might be

34:36 able to put the goals up on the screen.

34:39 Thank you. And so just as um just as a

34:42 reminder. So the first was the is the

34:45 student learning goal decreases

34:46 disproportionality for PSB students. to

34:49 no longer be identified by Dussy as dis

34:53 disproportionate. And so that is tied um

34:56 to our our goals around MTSS.

35:00 So MTSS launched last year but really

35:03 more robustly this year and across the

35:06 K5 and also um also in our middle

35:10 school. And so where we are right now is

35:12 that all these schools have their MTSS

35:15 teams. Um there have been a couple

35:17 faculty meetings focused on the

35:19 implementation of MTSS.

35:22 I would say just about now teachers are

35:25 being able to look at um data um al

35:29 together. So it took a little while for

35:31 us to um get our systems up and rolling

35:34 to be able to do that. I think next year

35:36 we'll be able to start sooner but I

35:38 would say it wasn't until October that

35:39 we were be able to really have the data

35:41 to look at. Um so that's where we are

35:44 right now. Um I've talked with the

35:48 leadership team about making sure we

35:50 establish our base metrics um to be able

35:53 to measure growth and so to select what

35:56 what metrics that we'll be looking at.

35:58 The second goal professional practice

36:01 goal was is working towards achieving

36:04 100% evaluation of all unit AB and

36:07 unaligned administrators to sustain high

36:10 quality instruction

36:12 um and implement an evaluation system

36:14 for professionals. This work actually

36:17 began um in the summer and um as the

36:22 district review report notes that when

36:24 Robin presented at the last meeting um

36:28 the district had been on the 2012

36:31 rubrics for teacher evaluation and so

36:34 through the summer um and also in

36:36 communication with um the leadership we

36:40 asked if maybe we could look at the 2024

36:43 standards but um narrowing and focusing

36:46 on the critical indicators that we

36:49 wanted everyone to focus on as opposed

36:51 to just adopting all of the all of the

36:54 um 2024 standards and we picked the ones

36:58 that were tailored to support our work

37:00 around MTSS and supporting high quality

37:03 instruction. Um so I am very

37:07 appreciative in the communication we had

37:09 with principles and all our

37:11 administrators and also with the

37:13 leadership to support

37:16 to 2024 standards. So we are well

37:20 underway on that. At this time is when

37:22 educators are doing their self

37:25 assessments to pick their goals for the

37:27 year. So they also will be picking

37:29 professional goals, student learning

37:31 goal and also other goals that they

37:33 might that will be aligned to the SIPs

37:37 of which you're going to hear two

37:39 tonight and you're going to hear more of

37:41 that um reports on the SIPs through

37:43 December.

37:45 um to align with the SIPs which are also

37:48 aligned with our priority district goals

37:50 which are aligned actually with the

37:52 goals that I set out um for um 26 27. So

37:57 I think we we've made um a really good

37:59 start and we're well underway on that

38:02 goal.

38:04 The other so then there are four

38:06 district improvement goals. The first

38:08 one evaluating the grade configurations

38:10 to improve scheduling and staff equity

38:12 across the K8 schools. You will receive

38:16 an enrollment report um in no I could be

38:20 the end of October or the start of

38:22 November. We we're still working on that

38:24 timing. Once we have our enrollment set,

38:27 we will we will lean into looking at the

38:31 great configurations moving forward. Um

38:34 so that's that's where that is. So,

38:36 we're just waiting for enrollment

38:38 numbers updated and then we'll So, we

38:40 haven't started looking, we haven't done

38:42 any work looking at grade configurations

38:46 um yet. The next district improvement

38:49 goal is establish equity leadership team

38:51 and develop a strategic equity plan is

38:54 required by the state. Um so, the state

38:59 um has had a diversity educator act, but

39:02 it's been updated to be the leads act

39:06 and that was um signed in

39:11 I should say so it's not this year but

39:13 actually before this year and part of

39:15 the there are many parts to the leads

39:18 act and one part is to ensure that every

39:22 district has a plan for recruiting

39:25 hiring retaining um diversity of staff

39:30 um within the schools and so that has

39:34 also So um been extended to make sure

39:38 that there is training for to ensure

39:41 cultural proficiency um for staff and

39:44 also it is now just generally being

39:47 expanded to ensure that we have um

39:51 practices of antibbias and um to support

39:56 belonging and inclusion in our schools.

39:59 And where we are on on this is um over

40:05 the summer just to determining how we

40:07 were going to build the plan. And um the

40:10 state requires that you either have a

40:14 DEI officer or you have a team

40:16 designated. The SLT senior leadership

40:19 team is assuming the responsibility of

40:21 being that equity team. So it's on top

40:24 of the other things that we're doing for

40:26 the districts. Um we also engaged um

40:31 Disa Am Jackson to be um consultant with

40:36 us in building this and so she actually

40:39 worked um with us and was introduced to

40:42 the administrators on August 28th. So

40:45 the admin the larger group of

40:46 administrators so between 60 and 70

40:49 educators for the district and um so

40:52 we'll be working with her on creating

40:54 the plan. So that's where we're at where

40:56 we um have identified this as a priority

41:00 goal and they have engaged with a

41:03 consultant who will be working with us.

41:05 The next step is the selection of a

41:08 screening committee um that will work

41:11 with SLT and also just laying out some

41:14 of the professional development. We have

41:16 already done some professional DMA

41:19 development during the summer

41:20 particularly on the August 28th date and

41:22 we have also plans for the PD day um for

41:26 in November and um and so we just and

41:30 then we also continue to be a member of

41:33 ideas and so there's a conference coming

41:35 up and actually we're really excited

41:38 because um when we've made the offerings

41:40 the number of people who are asking to

41:43 be um part of the that are offered

41:46 through ideas has exceeded the a lotment

41:49 that we had set aside. So, we're going

41:50 to see if we can do some more funding um

41:53 through our title two grant. So, but

41:55 that's great because we we were within

41:59 our spots last year and we've exceeded

42:01 just for the interest um in the

42:03 district. So, so that's where we stand

42:06 on on um district improvement goal

42:09 number two. The third district

42:12 improvement goal was a placeholder to

42:15 address concerns identified by the

42:16 district curriculum assessment report,

42:18 the district review report which Robin

42:21 presented. And so they highlighted for

42:23 us concerns around supervision

42:25 evaluation

42:27 um development of a articulating a

42:30 professional development plan um also

42:33 MTSS

42:35 and the development of an equity plan.

42:37 So actually those things were already

42:38 incorporated in the goals and the

42:40 priorities that we had set for

42:42 ourselves. I do want to say that even

42:44 though MTSS is encouraged by the

42:48 district report, we actually believe in

42:51 the premise of MTSS and what it wants to

42:54 do. It's not merely a mandate. It's

42:56 something that we endorse as good for

42:58 all students in the district. The fourth

43:01 district improvement goal was sort of a

43:04 compendium.

43:06 about related to use of facilities,

43:08 maintenance and repairs, work order

43:10 systems, emergency response, security

43:12 and safety and transportation practices.

43:15 So there are bits and pieces of this

43:17 that we've been addressing. Um so I

43:20 checked in with um is it Anakah? Anukica

43:25 Anukica because the high school had a

43:27 major

43:28 yes evacuation drill and so the district

43:33 really wasn't doing the drills um last

43:36 year and we started doing them last

43:38 year. Um the high school is is our most

43:41 complex evacuation drill. Um there are

43:44 several buildings that are involved and

43:47 um and the area is quite tight and so I

43:50 know I don't know if they timed your

43:53 evacuation drill.

43:55 Okay. So that's kind of a thing where we

43:57 do we time and see how we got everyone

44:00 out. So um anyway, so so I'm really glad

44:03 to hear that. I heard it went well and

44:05 that there were also some takeaways. So

44:07 doing the drills is really important

44:09 because you find out obstacles to

44:12 getting out of the building and how how

44:14 you deal with that. Um so that so I just

44:17 want to give kudos to um Joe Albuquerque

44:21 who's been lead working with the town

44:23 and working with um each of our schools

44:25 and in improving our drills and

44:27 evacuation.

44:29 Um so we are still in evaluation process

44:33 um related to the use of the facilities

44:36 um just just um collecting information

44:40 about who's using the buildings, whether

44:41 they're renting the buildings or they're

44:43 not renting the buildings, but they're

44:45 in the buildings. So that's still in

44:47 process, the collection of that data. Um

44:51 and I I think that's that's just where

44:53 we stand right now. So, so even though I

44:56 guess we're we're in the second month of

44:57 school and so I think making good

45:00 progress. Um the other thing I just

45:03 wanted to highlight before um going on

45:07 to the next topic is we did send out um

45:12 a school calendar survey or a survey on

45:14 school calendar. It went out to all our

45:16 families and it's gone out to all our

45:18 staff. That survey will close on Monday

45:22 and so we'll send another reminder out

45:24 um on on the school calendar. And so

45:27 we're seeking input on what we will

45:29 recommend for the year forward and for

45:32 for years after that. um

45:37 just and so

45:40 I I I think it's okay to share um

45:45 very early even on the weekend we had

45:48 already achieved 50% rate of return from

45:51 staff and so we're going to hopefully

45:54 get more and more but that actually is a

45:56 really positive beginning and um for

46:00 families it was um at 17% on the weekend

46:04 which may sound low but actually for

46:06 family surveys that sometimes 70% is

46:10 where you are at the end. So there's

46:12 high interest and so my saying this is

46:14 to encourage everyone who got a link to

46:17 to do that survey. It's really important

46:20 I think um school calendars are

46:22 different by community and it should

46:24 reflect um input from the community on

46:28 um on that. And that's it for my report

46:33 today.

46:34 Thank you.

46:34 I don't know if you have questions.

46:36 Oh, questions. Sarah,

46:39 are we open to discussing the um goals

46:42 or do we want to kind of is that a

46:44 presentation this time and we'll discuss

46:46 them more later?

46:48 I think it was an update. So, it's just

46:51 giving you a snapshot, but definitely I

46:53 don't

46:53 at a later date we'll have more of a

46:55 discussion.

46:56 I I don't think it precludes a

46:58 discussion. I'm guess I'm looking to the

46:59 chair. It's an update and you can

47:02 Tonight was an update and of course

47:05 there are possible questions that you

47:07 might want.

47:09 I would go. Okay. All right. Um the

47:12 first one isn't really about you. It's

47:14 just about any new superintendent. Um

47:17 I'm surprised in the setting of goals

47:19 not to see a real emphasis on getting

47:22 out into schools. And so I would love to

47:24 I think that your your goals are great

47:25 as they are. I would love you to flesh

47:28 out in some way um you know more time

47:31 with people in the buildings to know the

47:33 programs to know the educators to

47:35 especially know the K to8 um buildings.

47:38 Absolutely. So these are the goals that

47:39 were presented in June at a group by

47:42 school committee um but I am I've

47:44 actually cycling into two schools a week

47:47 right

47:47 and so I'm cycling through schools I

47:50 think I'm actually starting my second

47:52 round already.

47:53 Okay. So I guess what I'm saying is I

47:55 would love to see that somewhere written

47:57 in just because I think it's so

47:59 important is is knowing the schools. But

48:02 um but we're not updating these at this

48:04 point. So maybe maybe my

48:06 but I guess I'm saying that actually

48:07 that that I'm that goal of yours.

48:10 Yes, it's happening and and and sort of

48:13 I don't know if it's um it should just

48:16 be part of regular practice and so last

48:19 year was difficult for me um to get out

48:21 into schools and so um

48:25 last year was just difficult. Yeah.

48:27 And so it should be actually part of

48:29 one's regular practice. So again, I'm

48:32 already starting the second cycle.

48:34 That's great.

48:35 Yeah. I had I had more. Um I was also

48:38 wondering um when I hear you speak about

48:42 so where you said evaluation of grade

48:43 configuration to improve scheduling and

48:45 staff equity across the K8 schools. I

48:48 feel like as I hear you talk in these

48:50 meetings that idea has um become more

48:54 and more about the overenrollment of our

48:56 largest K to8 school and so I wondered

48:59 if that might be something to rewrite at

49:01 some point is it seems to be a goal of

49:04 yours to address.

49:06 Um it is not the primary reason for for

49:12 that goal.

49:13 Okay. Um when I arrived when I arrived

49:16 in Brooklyn, there had been a middle

49:18 school study on the concern about the 8

49:22 to9 transition

49:24 um that students in the 8 to9 transition

49:27 were getting different minutes of

49:29 instruction per subject. And so that's

49:32 really what that is addressing. Um

49:36 we have 8K8 schools and we have schools

49:39 that are sectioned from two to five and

49:43 um practically speaking when we allocate

49:45 staffing particularly around specials

49:48 it's really challenging to um

49:52 it's really challenging to schedule them

49:54 across schools in a in a way that's

49:56 equitable. And it's fair that when

49:59 teachers need to go from one school to

50:02 another that there hasn't been allowance

50:05 for travel. So I don't know if people

50:06 realize it's a generally a 0.1 FTE. So

50:10 if a teacher is already scheduled

50:13 to point 8 and they need and they it's

50:17 they almost can't travel because by the

50:19 time they get to the other school the

50:21 allocation of time they can teach is is

50:24 not what is needed. So then we have

50:26 teachers who are assigned.8

50:29 but they are 1.0

50:31 And that's not necessarily fair across

50:36 all staff that situation. So um and then

50:41 also the way scheduling is happening

50:43 when students graduate

50:46 from grade eight and enter grade nine

50:48 the difference of minutes. So it's so

50:50 they're looking is there a way we can

50:53 look at our grade configurations to

50:55 alleviate that disparity when we go to

50:58 89.

51:00 It's not about one one school. It's

51:02 about how all the schools the the

51:05 allocation of minutes

51:08 are are different.

51:10 Understood.

51:11 Yeah. But it's good to ask the question.

51:15 Yeah.

51:19 Thank you. Just super quick. when we did

51:21 the um when we pushed out the calendar

51:24 survey, I just want to ensure it went

51:26 out to out of district families because

51:27 I know sometimes

51:30 they're not always that there's certain

51:32 hiccups in in some of our um platforms

51:35 and pushing information out to them.

51:38 Absolutely. I'll have to double check

51:41 um because it would affect it would

51:43 affect them as well.

51:47 Suzanne,

51:48 thank you. Thank you, Bella. I wonder if

51:50 Belle if you could just spend a few

51:51 minutes talking about the work that you

51:53 envision for Denisa and the equity plan.

51:56 Um can you tell me a little bit about

51:58 what what her goals might be or what

52:00 your goals with her are or what's the

52:03 work?

52:04 So we so administratively we're lean I

52:08 so we have three deputies and and myself

52:12 and then there's not that much

52:13 infrastructure in the next level. So um

52:18 having engaging Darnisa is to help

52:21 supplement

52:22 um and based on her experience with

52:24 other districts and her work. So she is

52:27 ex she's been part of she's has been and

52:30 still part of Harvard Graduate School of

52:32 Education. She's been part of different

52:35 um

52:37 means of organization to work with

52:39 schools. She has um she's worked with

52:41 the MECO program. She's presented to the

52:44 superintendent through the MASS

52:46 conference several times. Um, and so and

52:50 she's worked with other districts. I

52:52 have known her over time. So we're

52:54 somewhat familiar. I she actually was

52:57 she actually had a contact with NATC. So

53:00 when I was in NATC, I got to work with

53:01 Disa then. Um, so it's really having her

53:06 pulling us to like a to to start to

53:10 finish and um and then also consulting

53:15 with our steering committee on ideas

53:18 around how to do training and um

53:21 challenges, overcoming obstacles,

53:24 getting like how do you how do you get

53:27 people to be able to do this with

53:29 limited time on on other things?

53:33 But it's really leaning in on her

53:36 experience.

53:40 So I have worked with her in the past as

53:42 well. Um and uh but that was a while

53:45 ago. So I don't I don't quite know where

53:47 she is today in her thinking. And is it

53:49 a a lot around cultural competence or

53:52 we're

53:53 going beyond that now?

53:54 No, she so um when she presented at MIS

54:00 um her focus is academic.

54:03 Okay.

54:03 And so driving educational equity

54:06 through academics.

54:08 Um so she so she in with in terms of um

54:12 inclusion and belonging she would say

54:15 that diversity, inclusion and belonging

54:18 are building blocks to equity that you

54:21 have to master those building blocks to

54:23 be able to achieve equity. And so I

54:25 really like the idea that she considers

54:27 building toward equity a developmental

54:29 process like organ

54:32 And um so sometimes I think

54:35 it can be it's like sort of um one time

54:39 things and so she really emphasizes um

54:45 how these are discrete things that you

54:46 need to master to be able to get to

54:48 equity. Where she's where she has now

54:52 evolved um with that still in place is

54:56 saying that um

54:59 tiered intervention supports must be in

55:02 place. So, MTSS, but she also advocates

55:05 for UDL,

55:07 yes, universal design. And so, she leads

55:11 with um making sure that all students

55:14 are getting what they need academically

55:17 within

55:18 an environment that's culturally

55:20 supportive, right? So, she leads with

55:24 the academic part um but also within

55:29 student doesn't feel safe to learn,

55:31 they're not going to learn as well. But

55:33 she feels um anyway, so that's that's

55:37 Disa. So she's a good partner for us um

55:41 and working with MTSS. We have

55:44 introduced we've mentioned that UDL, but

55:47 you know UDL will come, but we're

55:50 focused right now on MTSS.

55:53 Thank you. I appreciate

55:55 anybody else.

55:57 So,

55:59 I want to commend Superintendent Wong

56:01 for being a really longtime leader in

56:04 organizing these international trips for

56:06 educators where they visit places that

56:10 do things perhaps differently um and

56:13 well and learn from the international

56:16 community of educators and um the fact

56:19 that that Superintendent Wong is a

56:21 leader in this and has been for a while

56:23 to me that polishes the mystique of

56:24 Brooklyn public schools as She's a

56:27 leader way beyond Brooklyn and I just

56:29 want to commend you for that. You use

56:31 some terminology like Pisa that we well

56:34 some of us know but I think the the

56:37 viewing audience probably doesn't know

56:39 some of these terms. P is like the

56:41 international achievement test that

56:44 measures achievement in reading and

56:46 writing and mathematics internationally

56:49 and then they rank nations on how well

56:52 they're doing. So Bella went to Finland

56:55 other and Estonia. Finland was

56:58 historically the highest PISA scorer in

57:01 the world as she said now they're

57:03 probably number five but Estonia where

57:05 she visited is now the number one Pisa

57:09 nation in the world. So I just want to

57:11 commend you on being a part of that

57:14 international exploration of education

57:17 throughout the world. Thank you. Um,

57:19 also the term SIP, which we're going to

57:21 learn more about tonight, school

57:23 improvement plan. So, we're gonna have

57:25 every school leader present their school

57:28 improvement plan, which is an annual

57:29 thing, but SI sometimes we use acronyms

57:32 that that viewing audience probably

57:34 doesn't know. So, I'm going to try to do

57:36 the best I can to clarify what these

57:38 things mean. MTSS, we talk about that.

57:42 Okay. So having said that and having no

57:46 more questions, we move on to the first

57:50 SIP school improvement plan presentation

57:52 by Lawrence school principal Vanessa

57:54 Bel. Vanessa, welcome to the podium.

57:59 Thank you.

58:18 You can if there's an arrow, you can

58:20 just let us know.

58:21 Okay. Sure.

58:21 Yeah.

58:22 Okay. Um, hello.

58:27 Sorry, I'm so used to not using a mic

58:29 even at Lawrence. Greetings. Nice to see

58:32 all of you. I'm Vanessa Blo. I'm the

58:33 principal at the Lawrence School. This

58:35 is my fourth year in Brooklyn. Um, after

58:38 quite some time away, I started here as

58:40 a special ed parah many, many moons ago

58:43 at Lawrence School and have returned to

58:46 hopefully stay and finish my career here

58:48 in Brooklyn. So, I'm very happy to be

58:50 joining you all today. Um, my school

58:53 improvement plan is in a little bit of a

58:55 different place than some of my

58:56 colleagues because we are finishing out

58:58 our plan this year. So, this is the last

59:00 year of our plan. Um the districts that

59:02 I've worked in, unlike um Superintendent

59:05 Wong, I come from districts where most

59:07 plans are two or three-year plans

59:09 mirroring a strategic plan cycle. And so

59:12 we are just wrapping up our plan this

59:15 year. Um what right I'd like to give

59:17 thanks to our new school council. We've

59:20 just started with our new school council

59:22 team who's up there on um the slide

59:25 right now. And I believe you've all seen

59:28 our school improvement plan. So you've

59:30 seen how that iteration is that this is

59:32 the final year of our plan. So what this

59:35 school council will be doing this year

59:37 is monitoring our goals how we do in

59:39 this last year of this cycle and we are

59:42 going to be working on crafting our next

59:44 goal um as a one-year goal per

59:47 superintendent Wong's um direction. So

59:50 starting next year we will be in a

59:52 one-year plan cycle. All right. So thank

59:55 you to my former team who helped me

59:58 develop this. our previous school

59:59 council just rolled off after two years

1:00:01 and so that is a new team that's joining

1:00:03 us. Um we always like to put down what

1:00:06 our budgetary impact is. We are a public

1:00:08 school and we are thankful to the

1:00:10 Brookline um taxpayers who have done so

1:00:13 much to support our schools over the

1:00:15 years which is why we have the high

1:00:17 performing schools we do. certainly our

1:00:19 parent and caregiver community, um

1:00:22 dedicated educators, and when I think

1:00:24 about our budgetary impact at at

1:00:26 Lawrence, um it's certainly our high

1:00:28 need students that drive our needs. Um

1:00:31 there's no doubt about that. Right now,

1:00:32 we are sitting around 44% highne

1:00:35 students at Lawrence School. What we

1:00:38 have seen is a little drop in our

1:00:40 population. I talked about this last

1:00:41 year. We've seen international students

1:00:43 at Lawrence go down. We've actually see

1:00:46 seen our lowincome students um rise

1:00:49 quite significantly and you won't see

1:00:51 this yet until SIMS projections I

1:00:54 believe that will come out in the next

1:00:56 month or so. Um but we've always sat

1:00:58 around 11% low-inccome at Lawrence and

1:01:01 this year I believe we're running closer

1:01:02 to 15 or 16%. So we've seen less

1:01:05 international students. Um but our EL

1:01:07 population still continues to drive a

1:01:09 lot of our conversations as well. We sit

1:01:11 around 16% of our students that are EL

1:01:14 at Lawrence. Um, one of the numbers

1:01:16 that's actually dropped in addition to

1:01:17 our overall population is our percentage

1:01:19 of special education students. We have

1:01:22 been working really hard on MTSS already

1:01:24 at Lawrence and we have seen a shift in

1:01:27 um, as we've implemented those

1:01:30 initiatives in MTSS. We've actually seen

1:01:33 our population of special education

1:01:35 qualifying students go down. So, we are

1:01:37 sitting right now um, around 13 and a

1:01:41 half% special ed. when I came in um

1:01:44 three and a half years three a little

1:01:45 over three and a years ago now we were

1:01:47 sitting closer to 17% which is about

1:01:49 what a lot of the schools in Brooklyn

1:01:51 are at but we are we have dropped down

1:01:53 in that special education um eligibility

1:01:55 area but overall we continue to be about

1:01:58 44% high need so when we're talking

1:02:00 about MTSS and you see these um threads

1:02:04 of MTSS and equity throughout my plan

1:02:07 and um that's because as the Lawrence

1:02:10 team likes to think about it we see that

1:02:12 as embedded in the work MTSS is at the

1:02:14 heart of what we are doing and have been

1:02:16 doing. So we started really um as I came

1:02:19 in focus on PBIS positive behavior

1:02:21 intervention systems and supports and

1:02:24 that was our precursor to preparing

1:02:27 Lawrence for MTSS work and over the last

1:02:29 year and a half we've really been

1:02:31 already forging ahead with that work

1:02:33 believing that um as we were

1:02:35 implementing our new literacy work that

1:02:38 all of this was the heart of the work

1:02:40 that we need to do as educators. All

1:02:41 right. So, um I know you've had a chance

1:02:44 to look at our goals already. What I'd

1:02:47 really like to focus on and is sort of

1:02:48 telling the story of where we are

1:02:50 sitting right now and what we see the

1:02:51 work to do if that makes sense to all of

1:02:53 you. All right. So, our first we have

1:02:55 three SIP goals. Our first is literacy.

1:02:57 Our second is math based and our third

1:03:00 is social emotional learning. And um so

1:03:04 in terms of our literacy goal, we're

1:03:07 really looking to use our um strong

1:03:10 highquality instructional practices and

1:03:13 our curriculum it woven in with our MTSS

1:03:17 framework to meet the needs of all

1:03:19 students. And when I look when you look

1:03:21 at the overall goals that we've set,

1:03:23 you'll see that I use that percentage of

1:03:26 85%. 85% of our students meeting or

1:03:29 exceeding. And this is this runs through

1:03:32 all of those goals in terms of what

1:03:34 we're looking for. We always know we're

1:03:36 going to have outlier students at

1:03:38 Lawrence. One of the big drivers we have

1:03:40 is an incredibly transient population.

1:03:43 And so I did the math. Um you know in

1:03:45 the last year last year we had 91

1:03:48 students unenroll from Lawrence. So we

1:03:50 have about 17 to 20% turnover of

1:03:53 students at Lawrence in a given year.

1:03:55 That's not counting kindergarten. That's

1:03:56 not counting eighth grade. Um, and so

1:03:58 that's an incredibly high number for a

1:04:00 school that makes it really challenging

1:04:02 to set goals because the students you're

1:04:04 looking at in the fall and our cycle at

1:04:07 Lawrence is unusual um, partially driven

1:04:10 by our international population. We have

1:04:12 a huge influx of students usually

1:04:15 February to May and that's very unusual

1:04:18 to from most schools. And then we also

1:04:20 have our apartments that lead to a lot

1:04:23 of enrollment very late into the summer

1:04:25 and into September and October. So our

1:04:27 numbers are a little different in that

1:04:29 way. Um but so we have seen a as I

1:04:33 mentioned a drop in a little bit in our

1:04:36 special education population. Our high

1:04:38 needs have stayed the same but our e

1:04:40 population continues to be one of the

1:04:42 populations we really want to focus on

1:04:44 as well as looking at our

1:04:46 disproportionality.

1:04:47 Um and so that would be our students of

1:04:49 color and then also how of our how are

1:04:52 our special education students doing.

1:04:54 So, as we go into these goals, you'll

1:04:56 see that we have goals. Um, the

1:05:00 benchmarks and objectives are really

1:05:02 looking to see, can we hit 85% of our

1:05:05 students at Lawrence, meeting and

1:05:06 exceeding, and that includes our EL

1:05:08 students, our special education

1:05:10 students. And we're also always looking

1:05:13 for growth percentiles in the average

1:05:15 range, which is 40 to 60 for all of our

1:05:18 measures. I know you've heard this if

1:05:19 you've heard presentations on MCCAST. I

1:05:22 know there's going to be an MCCAST

1:05:23 presentation. I'd actually like to focus

1:05:25 on some of the other data and I know

1:05:26 I've put all of them in here, but I know

1:05:28 there's going to be an MCCAST

1:05:29 presentation soon. So, I'm going to

1:05:31 focus on some of our other data sets um

1:05:33 so that you can see those. So, if we can

1:05:35 skip ahead, Betsy, to a couple. Um, so

1:05:38 when we're talking about our goals, so

1:05:41 we're talking about SGPS on things like

1:05:44 um both STAR and MCCAST, but also for

1:05:46 our earliest learners, our foundational

1:05:48 literacy skills with M MCLASS, also the

1:05:51 Dibbles assessments, which we know is a

1:05:53 mandated one from the state. So those

1:05:55 are K3 students and woven through all of

1:05:58 this work. So my initiatives are all in

1:06:00 there. I know you've had a chance to

1:06:01 read those. Um, we are mid work here.

1:06:05 And how are we doing? Well, the MTSS

1:06:08 work, as I mentioned, last year,

1:06:09 Lawrence really embarked on this journey

1:06:12 already. We started having regular data

1:06:14 conversations that were driving

1:06:16 instructional changes. Um, Betsy, if you

1:06:18 can flip to the next one. If um, sorry,

1:06:21 two more. So, we're really thinking

1:06:23 about tier one and tier two. I'm sorry,

1:06:25 two slides back. Sorry, little too fast.

1:06:29 I'm looking for the MTSS one. It's in

1:06:31 there. There we go. Okay. So, as I

1:06:35 mentioned, we're in year two of

1:06:37 implementing MTSS at Lawrence, and these

1:06:40 are the areas that we're really thinking

1:06:42 about. One, articulating our tier one

1:06:44 instruction and ensuring that all

1:06:46 students at Lawrence are receiving that.

1:06:48 And also defining designing tier 2 and

1:06:52 tier three interventions that will

1:06:53 support all of our student learners,

1:06:55 whether they're an EL student, special

1:06:56 education student, or not yet um

1:07:00 identified, or students who just require

1:07:02 a little more support. again lots of

1:07:04 high need students. How do we meet those

1:07:06 needs? Um and using data to inform our

1:07:09 decisions decision- making has been

1:07:12 integral to everything that we do. We

1:07:14 are having regular professional learning

1:07:16 communities, we call them CPTs here in

1:07:19 Brooklyn. Um especially K through five

1:07:21 that's focused on this. Our literacy

1:07:23 specialists, our math specialists at

1:07:24 Lawrence have been integral to this

1:07:26 work. And as a leadership team, we meet

1:07:29 with them regularly to plan this work.

1:07:31 and what are our data cycles going to

1:07:33 look like using now the um district data

1:07:37 protocol.

1:07:39 All right. So now we can skip ahead.

1:07:41 Let's look at some data. So how are we

1:07:43 doing at Lawrence? I mentioned that we

1:07:45 are really looking to see 85% of our

1:07:48 students meeting exceeding

1:07:50 on different assessments. and I talk

1:07:53 about our subgroups and again our L's at

1:07:55 Lawrence are a really important um group

1:07:58 for us to identify and look at and in

1:08:00 depth and the first part here what

1:08:02 you'll see is um DESI's reporting in

1:08:06 terms of how are our students who take

1:08:09 access testing which is the EL

1:08:11 assessment doing in terms of moving

1:08:14 towards um flap status which would mean

1:08:17 that they have left EL services and as

1:08:20 you can see we are exceeding our targets

1:08:22 in this way. How are we doing that?

1:08:25 Especially with such turnover of

1:08:27 students coming in, newcomers all the

1:08:29 time. We have made an incredible effort

1:08:33 and if you look back into those goals is

1:08:36 ensuring that every student sitting in

1:08:37 tier one instruction. So Heaggerty

1:08:41 Foundations, every single single student

1:08:44 at Lawrence has been in those classrooms

1:08:46 and we have put an incredible emphasis

1:08:48 on co-eing e teachers pushing into

1:08:51 classrooms, special educators pushing

1:08:53 into tier one instruction and then

1:08:56 figuring out what are the additional

1:08:57 supports above and beyond that. We've

1:08:59 also implemented a win model all um from

1:09:02 last year. Scheduling is essential with

1:09:05 an MTSS framework. And so those graphs

1:09:09 which are hard to see on the screen

1:09:10 here, but I know you have the

1:09:12 presentation, we have seen really

1:09:14 dramatic growth of our ELS over the last

1:09:17 couple of years at Lawrence um since we

1:09:19 have made this move to say we're not

1:09:21 going to pull L students out of that

1:09:24 quality um tier one instruction. They

1:09:26 need to be in the classroom. And so if

1:09:29 you look at where our students have

1:09:31 started and um so in terms of the dots

1:09:34 here, we have made over the last two

1:09:37 years dramatic growth of our L students

1:09:41 and particularly the the second column

1:09:44 and the third column are in decoding and

1:09:46 phmic awareness. Decoding is directly

1:09:48 tied to foundations. Phenemic awareness

1:09:50 is directly tied to heerty. And if you

1:09:53 look at those charts, it's hard to tell

1:09:54 right here in the colors. Um, but over

1:09:57 the last three years, we've seen

1:09:58 phenomenal growth in this area, which

1:10:00 really sets our students up for success

1:10:02 in terms of literacy. So, if you go to

1:10:04 the next slide, Betsy, on this slide,

1:10:07 what you'll see is our overall student

1:10:09 percentage on Dibbles. So, kindergarten

1:10:11 through third grade students take

1:10:13 Dibbles three times a year in Brookline.

1:10:15 As I mentioned, we were looking to shoot

1:10:17 for 85% by the end of these goals. We

1:10:21 hit um 87 two years ago and we just hit

1:10:23 almost 90% for our kindergarten through

1:10:26 third graders at Lawrence. That includes

1:10:28 every single L student. That includes

1:10:30 every single every single special

1:10:32 education student. As a matter of fact,

1:10:33 at first grade, we didn't have a single

1:10:35 student including first including

1:10:37 special ed or EL that was below grade

1:10:40 level on Dibbles. That sets us up for

1:10:43 tremendous success. So, we've actually

1:10:44 already met that goal. We have to

1:10:46 maintain it. Um um but we are

1:10:49 tremendously proud of that work and um

1:10:54 again literacy specialists, our K3

1:10:56 educators, all of them have been deeply

1:10:58 involved in this work and we're really

1:11:00 proud of it. So I wanted to highlight

1:11:01 that because that really is the building

1:11:04 blocks of all of the rest of our work at

1:11:06 Lawrence. All right. So um I also wanted

1:11:11 to put in a few slides about those

1:11:13 subgroups. And so, while we're not there

1:11:15 yet, as you can see, we've really had

1:11:18 some tremendous grow growth in our

1:11:20 subgroups as well. And this is something

1:11:22 we monitor carefully as well. So, two

1:11:24 years ago, we were at 69% for our black

1:11:27 and Hispanic subgroup K through three.

1:11:29 And that has risen to almost 74% now um

1:11:33 as of the end of last year. So, we are

1:11:36 again, we need to monitor our overall

1:11:38 student growth and achievement. We also

1:11:40 need to look at that subgroup really

1:11:42 carefully and dive into where are the

1:11:44 students that need a little bit more.

1:11:46 All right. And same thing, the next

1:11:48 slide shows our special education

1:11:50 subgroup. And again, you can see there's

1:11:52 been tremendous work by my team. Um, we

1:11:55 are fully committed in special education

1:11:57 at Lawrence to do as much co-eing as

1:11:59 possible. And I believe that is a huge

1:12:01 part of this. But we've also invested a

1:12:03 lot of work to um look at interventions

1:12:07 and match what we're giving each student

1:12:09 in terms of their specially designed

1:12:11 instruction in special education with

1:12:13 what their needs are. And I think we are

1:12:16 um we're really proud of the progress

1:12:18 that we've made in special education at

1:12:20 Lawrence.

1:12:21 All right. So, the next two, and I'm

1:12:23 going to go through these quickly, but

1:12:25 what I do want to point out is in STAR

1:12:27 and MCCAST, where we're really looking

1:12:29 third um for MCCAST 3 through 8, and for

1:12:33 STAR, we're looking at fourth through

1:12:34 8th. I wanted everybody to see the real

1:12:38 close alignment between STAR and MCCAST

1:12:41 data. So, this is our fourth through 8th

1:12:43 grade STAR from the spring. You can see

1:12:45 we were sitting at about 73 74% of our

1:12:48 students meeting and exceeding on STAR.

1:12:50 So again, this is higher level literacy.

1:12:53 We still have some work to do in the

1:12:54 comprehension. Fish tank just rolled out

1:12:57 last year. Um, so that's where we're

1:12:59 sitting. If you see that's at 73.5%,

1:13:02 next slide, Betsy. So this looks at how

1:13:06 are our students doing MCCAST in the

1:13:09 spring. So third through 8th grade, we

1:13:10 hit 73%.

1:13:12 Um, which again is the highest that

1:13:14 we've been at Lawrence. So we're proud

1:13:16 of that. We still have a lot of work to

1:13:17 go when you think of that 85%. The part

1:13:20 that I really wanted to highlight though

1:13:22 is, you know, we've talked about fish

1:13:24 tank. I know you've heard presentations

1:13:26 on it. There's a lot of questions about

1:13:27 what that does. What I saw that being

1:13:30 incredibly important for is our writing

1:13:32 instruction. And if you look at um so

1:13:34 that 2023 spring data, so that's right

1:13:37 before I arrived at Lawrence, and then

1:13:39 our data from this last spring, where

1:13:42 you will see the largest growth is in

1:13:44 essay and writing. And to me, that right

1:13:48 there is the story of the power of fish

1:13:51 tank. And it is already showing to be a

1:13:54 pretty significant boost in our students

1:13:55 writing. We've seen that. We have, as I

1:13:58 mentioned, piloted the district data

1:14:00 protocol. We actually did that with some

1:14:02 of the writing assessments from fish

1:14:04 tank last year. But when you look at

1:14:06 those essay and writing scores from 2023

1:14:09 at Lawrence to 2026, and again this

1:14:11 includes most of our L students do take

1:14:14 that um pretty significant growth in

1:14:17 those two areas of MCCAST. Great to see.

1:14:19 All right, so that's goal number one.

1:14:22 You can flip through.

1:14:25 Um our next goal is in math and um

1:14:28 Lawrence, we've been working hard on

1:14:30 math since for many many years. You know

1:14:32 that math, our adoption is a little

1:14:34 ahead of ELA, right? Fishtank is a newer

1:14:37 adoption. Foundations has been here a

1:14:39 couple more years. He's a couple years

1:14:41 in, but our math adoption was several

1:14:43 years before that in terms of

1:14:45 investigations and Desmos and um but we

1:14:49 still are hit we were setting that goal

1:14:51 again of 85% recognizing we have

1:14:54 different learners. If you flip through,

1:14:56 our goal in this area has been really to

1:14:59 work on differentiation. So how are we

1:15:02 meeting the needs of our highest

1:15:03 students through our math workshops and

1:15:06 how are we meeting the needs of the

1:15:07 students who need a bit more. So you'll

1:15:09 see similarly we're looking for our

1:15:12 subgroups to have growths in STAR and on

1:15:16 MCCAST of at least 55. So remember we're

1:15:19 looking for 40 to 60 but if we need to

1:15:21 close gaps we need to be above that

1:15:23 average of 50. Um

1:15:27 so similar types of goals. Let's go

1:15:29 right to how are we doing?

1:15:33 Um, again, we've had a lot of an a work

1:15:36 to create a model over the last couple

1:15:39 of years and schedules drive all of that

1:15:42 work. A model of math instruction again

1:15:45 that's tier one. Our math specialists

1:15:47 are pushing into classrooms. They are

1:15:49 pulling out almost no students. Our

1:15:51 special educators are pushing in. So

1:15:53 this allows us to really create a true

1:15:56 workshop model where we are

1:15:58 differentiating and we are continuing to

1:15:59 work on that. So again I like to point

1:16:03 out how star really is very good

1:16:05 indicator of how we're going to do on

1:16:07 MCCAST. This year you can see over the

1:16:10 last couple of years on that right how

1:16:12 we have steadily gone up and we just hit

1:16:14 80% third to eighth grade in terms of

1:16:17 students at Lawrence meeting or

1:16:19 exceeding in math MCCAST which is um

1:16:23 really exciting to see. The other thing

1:16:25 I like to point out about this is if you

1:16:27 look at that graph you will see that

1:16:28 exceeding group continue to grow. So if

1:16:32 you look all the way over on the MCCAST

1:16:35 and you look at the dark blue bands

1:16:38 continue to grow. Again, this is the

1:16:40 power of really having a differentiated

1:16:43 classroom supported by our math

1:16:45 specialists. Thinking about what every

1:16:47 child needs in that classroom and that's

1:16:48 the heart of MTSS.

1:16:51 All right, you want to hit go ahead to

1:16:53 the next one? Okay, so how are our

1:16:55 subgroups doing? Well, we still have

1:16:57 growth to make as you can see. um our

1:17:00 special educ special education subgroup

1:17:02 and our black and Hispanic subgroup. But

1:17:04 again, we have some really good trends

1:17:07 in the right direction. If you look at

1:17:09 that, our number of students who are

1:17:11 well below has gone down pretty

1:17:13 significantly as we've done this work to

1:17:16 improve um how we deliver math

1:17:20 instruction and what it looks like. All

1:17:22 right.

1:17:24 All right. So, um, this is just

1:17:27 something from Desi is they're putting

1:17:29 together and we did exceptionally well

1:17:31 this year in our accountability from the

1:17:34 state. We hit 98% and our math growth

1:17:38 over these last couple years is

1:17:40 certainly driving some of that um,

1:17:42 performance because as you can see we

1:17:44 are exceeding that typical growth across

1:17:47 the board in almost every single

1:17:48 subgroup at Lawrence. Thank you, Betsy.

1:17:51 You can go on. Okay. Our last goal is

1:17:53 really our social emotional learning

1:17:55 goal and this is really thinking about

1:17:57 student belonging and this is a really

1:17:59 tricky one in a school with so much

1:18:00 turnover um in terms of students. We

1:18:03 have students arriving every single day

1:18:05 from different countries um newcomers

1:18:08 with very little English or no English

1:18:10 and helping our students that come in

1:18:13 throughout the year feel part of

1:18:15 belonging of our community has been an

1:18:17 important part of our work. I mentioned

1:18:18 we started with PBIS a couple years ago.

1:18:21 We've really moved our work in terms of

1:18:23 belonging into our middle school

1:18:24 setting. Um, really taking to heart a

1:18:27 lot of the things that our middle

1:18:28 schoolers need to have a robust

1:18:31 opportunity at Lawrence to be school

1:18:33 leaders and really building on the idea

1:18:35 of the K8 model and how we use our

1:18:38 students there. So, a lot of our work

1:18:40 here is two-prong. One, making sure our

1:18:43 students feel like they belong in our

1:18:44 community through PBIS and our middle

1:18:46 school initiatives. And the other part

1:18:48 is really close monitoring of our

1:18:50 attendance data. Attendance, I know Dr.

1:18:52 Dubois comes and talks to you about

1:18:54 attendance data, but it is something we

1:18:56 regularly look at. So our goals in this

1:18:58 area are those two areas.

1:19:01 Um, in terms of how are we doing, we saw

1:19:04 tremendous growth last year in our

1:19:07 attendance data and this year it's

1:19:09 stagnanted a little. And so as an admin

1:19:11 clinical team, which includes our

1:19:13 counselors, um our special education

1:19:16 team facilitator, the building

1:19:18 administrators, and our school nursing

1:19:20 team, we are looking at attendance data

1:19:23 every single week. Who are our students

1:19:26 coming to school, who are not? It is

1:19:27 really challenging to hit benchmarks in

1:19:30 terms of students coming to school

1:19:31 regularly in such an international area.

1:19:34 We have a lot of students who struggle

1:19:36 with coming to school regularly for a

1:19:38 variety of reasons. mental health. Um,

1:19:40 we have students who travel regularly,

1:19:42 but all of those really do hit in terms

1:19:45 of our ability to get school regularly

1:19:48 and that impacts learning. We know that.

1:19:50 And so, how do we help families

1:19:52 understand that importance of getting to

1:19:55 school regularly? Um, they have to feel

1:19:58 like they belong in order to want to

1:19:59 come to school. Number one. Number two,

1:20:01 we have to work with families regularly.

1:20:03 K through eight. It's really a family

1:20:05 dynamic often and that's a big part of

1:20:08 our work. And again, our subgroups are

1:20:10 the ones that we're most concerned with

1:20:12 when we look at some of this attendance

1:20:14 data. So, if we go a little bit further,

1:20:17 Betsy,

1:20:18 we have several areas and ways of

1:20:21 measuring how our students feeling in

1:20:23 terms of culture. We have our panorama

1:20:25 data, which again, I know Dr. Dubois

1:20:27 comes in and talks you through. Um, and

1:20:31 we also, as I mentioned, have attendance

1:20:33 data. So, we can just flip ahead. So,

1:20:36 our belonging data as a as a school has

1:20:39 grown a little bit over time. As you can

1:20:41 see, we've continued to rise up in that

1:20:44 area. We do see a lot of those students

1:20:46 who are new to our school struggling.

1:20:49 And so, thinking about ways to make them

1:20:51 feel that they belong and integrate in

1:20:53 the community as quick as possible is

1:20:55 one of our biggest goals. I did want to

1:20:57 highlight if you would skip ahead Betsy

1:20:59 to the next I'm sorry flip keep going

1:21:01 one more oh this is oh okay there sorry

1:21:04 these are the ones I did add in terms of

1:21:07 some of our subgroups what I did want to

1:21:09 point out is um I did do a little bit of

1:21:12 dive into two subgroups that are

1:21:14 important um in terms of struggling with

1:21:17 attendance we have our steps to success

1:21:20 program which is a pretty large program

1:21:21 at Lawrence and a couple of years ago we

1:21:24 were hovering really around 50% % of our

1:21:26 students feeling a high level of

1:21:27 belonging in that subgroup. We have hit

1:21:30 80% this last year. So we have seen some

1:21:33 really tremendous growth in that. The

1:21:34 other one that's even more striking um

1:21:36 the year before I arrived so 22 23 our

1:21:40 MECO student sense of belonging was at

1:21:42 42% which is really concerning. Um we

1:21:46 hit 85% in the spring. So this focus

1:21:50 that we've had on building a sense of

1:21:52 community that goes from everything from

1:21:54 us being now the Lawrence Leopards and

1:21:56 having an identity, the PBIS work. We

1:21:58 have a spotted ticket program. Um we

1:22:01 have we have students who earn spotted

1:22:04 tickets and you can see the one on the

1:22:05 left there, principal of the day with

1:22:07 me, principal Khloe. Um, we also have

1:22:10 started a leopard pack, the principal's

1:22:12 advisory council, which is our version

1:22:14 of a student council and students are

1:22:16 selected to be on that for sixth or

1:22:19 eighth grade. They serve on a term and

1:22:21 we launched that in the spring and it's

1:22:23 been a tremendous um boon for our middle

1:22:25 school. So, those are some of the things

1:22:26 we're really working on building overall

1:22:29 belonging at Lawrence School. But um we

1:22:32 have our new leopard mascot. That's Lori

1:22:34 there in the middle um with one of our

1:22:36 pack members in the spring, our

1:22:38 inaugural pack. So that was an eighth

1:22:40 grade student now at BHS, but he was our

1:22:42 leopard at our last community meeting in

1:22:45 the spring. So wanted to end on some

1:22:47 happy leopard smiles and open it up for

1:22:51 any questions you have.

1:22:53 Thank you, Vanessa. That was great. Um

1:22:55 questions go.

1:22:56 Hard to be the first one, you I was just

1:22:58 going to congratulate Vanessa and being

1:23:00 the first one. So So um traditionally

1:23:03 the SI SIPs have been presented to

1:23:06 curriculum subcommittee and and so I ask

1:23:10 that the principles come to the school

1:23:11 committee as a whole. So because

1:23:13 everyone in the community can see and

1:23:15 also well I think the most important

1:23:18 interaction is between teacher and

1:23:20 student um in the district that the the

1:23:24 next most important um educator is the

1:23:26 building principal and you can see

1:23:28 they're the ones that make it happen.

1:23:30 Anyway, so Vanessa,

1:23:32 any questions? Happy to take them. I

1:23:33 know Margaret's waiting patiently at

1:23:35 home. Hi Margaret.

1:23:37 I'm sorry.

1:23:40 Um, hi Margaret. We'll get to you.

1:23:44 Donna, question.

1:23:45 Thank you. First of all, I want to say

1:23:47 thank you so much. That's an incredibly

1:23:48 impressive presentation, but more so the

1:23:51 work that you've undertaken

1:23:54 is just is is um incredible. I had a

1:23:57 couple of a couple of questions. First

1:23:59 of all, a really quick one. Is there a

1:24:01 space at Lawrence where the K8

1:24:04 um community can come together or No,

1:24:07 they're too big.

1:24:08 Okay, that's what They do K through five

1:24:10 meetings. Um the other part of having

1:24:12 this the pack, the leopard pack. Um

1:24:15 though they're not pack animals, which

1:24:16 is ironic, but the the pack, they really

1:24:19 said we needed to have community

1:24:21 meetings for the middle school. So we

1:24:22 just started those this fall. We've

1:24:23 already done our first cycle. We do we

1:24:26 did grade level meetings and so we're

1:24:27 starting to do middle school meetings as

1:24:29 well. But we do not have a space. As you

1:24:31 all know, we have the smallest

1:24:32 cafeteria. So we this year we're running

1:24:34 five lunches. Last year we had to run

1:24:36 six. Um, so space is always a challenge

1:24:39 at Lawrence. Some of those other spaces

1:24:40 didn't expand when they added those

1:24:42 extra classrooms. So, yeah, we do not

1:24:44 have a space that's large enough. The

1:24:46 one um time when we do all come together

1:24:49 is um Dr. Dominique, our K3 princip

1:24:53 assistant principal, she helps organize

1:24:55 our annual Halloween parade. And um

1:24:58 starting last year, we did come all

1:24:59 together for a community meeting out on

1:25:01 the tennis courts outside. So, as long

1:25:03 as we can do it outside, we did actually

1:25:05 have everybody come together. And that

1:25:07 was a really special time that hasn't

1:25:09 happened since Lawrence was much, much

1:25:10 smaller.

1:25:11 I was lucky enough to see your first

1:25:13 my K5 one.

1:25:15 It was pretty amazing because it was

1:25:16 early in the year.

1:25:17 Yeah.

1:25:18 It was

1:25:18 our our PBIS work has really like we our

1:25:21 students understand, be safe, be

1:25:23 respectful, be responsible. The

1:25:25 kindergarteners can um name it. We give

1:25:27 out spotted tickets. When I have a

1:25:29 principal of the day, they I had one

1:25:31 today. she was out giving out those

1:25:32 spotted tickets. So, there really has

1:25:34 been that community sense. We started

1:25:36 with K5, the pack, and all of these

1:25:39 efforts with our middle school has been

1:25:40 this second leg. And I'm really excited.

1:25:42 It's it was great to have our first

1:25:44 meeting with the pack. And um you know,

1:25:46 they're focused on service um spirit.

1:25:49 So, they pick our spirit days, they're

1:25:50 picking our service projects for the

1:25:52 year, and they also are going to be

1:25:54 coming and help run the K5 meetings and

1:25:57 um showing up as Lori. So, it's really

1:25:59 exciting. And so we are finding other

1:26:00 ways to infuse that cross.

1:26:02 Thank you. That's really great to hear.

1:26:04 And I just think that's actually another

1:26:06 another um it even makes it even more

1:26:09 impressive that you're able to build

1:26:11 this sense of you know the sense of

1:26:12 community in a space that doesn't even

1:26:14 have a a community space. I wanted to

1:26:18 ask about one of something you mentioned

1:26:20 um around pullouts. M

1:26:23 um am I did I hear you correctly when

1:26:25 you said this isn't my question but did

1:26:27 I hear you correctly when you said tier

1:26:29 2 happens in the classroom or maybe

1:26:32 for the most part yes

1:26:34 so when we were working with our

1:26:35 educators last year and rolling out the

1:26:37 MTSS framework um we really have to

1:26:39 think flexibly but even in terms of

1:26:41 specially designed instruction for

1:26:43 special education students traditionally

1:26:46 there's always been in Brooklyn a

1:26:48 learning center model or our intensive

1:26:50 programs and um even those students

1:26:54 really should be and so we have students

1:26:55 who are working on specially designed

1:26:57 instruction for math which would be or

1:26:59 or reading and that's above you know

1:27:02 even beyond if they're already on an IEP

1:27:04 but we those students are in the

1:27:06 classroom they might be looking doing

1:27:08 something slightly different or they

1:27:09 might be doing exactly what their peers

1:27:11 are doing but this is the power of

1:27:13 co-eing and it's the same thing we have

1:27:16 foundational L's now that are sitting in

1:27:18 fish tank and um Mari Kale one of our

1:27:21 educators is pushing in as an EL

1:27:23 educator into the classrooms and and

1:27:26 we're seeing some pretty phenomenal

1:27:28 growth in those students because they're

1:27:30 getting that exposure to that rich

1:27:32 high-quality instructional materials

1:27:34 with the supports to ensure that that

1:27:37 they can access it. That's really

1:27:39 incredible, Vanessa, and I want to

1:27:41 commend you on that because I do think

1:27:42 that um our I mean, our learning centers

1:27:45 are invaluable, but I do agree that like

1:27:47 missing out on tier one instruction is

1:27:50 really tough for students. And um

1:27:53 sometimes um that creates an additional

1:27:56 deficit. And so I wonder when you were

1:27:58 talking about the the the shift in the

1:28:00 numbers for special ed students. I'm

1:28:02 wondering if some of that is coming just

1:28:04 from the fact that um they're in the

1:28:06 room for the tier one instruction.

1:28:08 Absolutely. And sometimes it's looking

1:28:10 and seeing okay these children are

1:28:11 rolling around during heerty and so we

1:28:13 need to find and that this would be a

1:28:15 tier two. This kid needs a double dose

1:28:17 of heity. So we're going to have a parah

1:28:18 pull them so they get it a second time

1:28:20 later in the day oneonone but they are

1:28:22 then getting it twice. That's a good

1:28:24 example of a tier 2 intervention that

1:28:27 can happen right in the classroom.

1:28:28 Doesn't need to happen somewhere in a

1:28:30 literacy room. Um, but it also, I am

1:28:33 hopeful, will help with our sense of

1:28:35 belonging for our special education

1:28:36 students because if you are constantly

1:28:39 going into the learning center for every

1:28:41 instructional block, you cannot bond

1:28:43 with your classmates. In the same way,

1:28:45 if we have our L's sitting in an L

1:28:48 classroom all day, they don't get to

1:28:50 build those relationships with their

1:28:52 peers. So, I mean, that's the other

1:28:54 piece that I do hope will go up as we

1:28:56 really continue this effort to do as

1:28:59 much as possible in a workshop model in

1:29:01 the classroom.

1:29:02 Thank you.

1:29:03 Y

1:29:05 Suzanne,

1:29:08 thank you, Vanessa. I know how much hard

1:29:10 work this is to even go up a couple of

1:29:12 percentage points. So, you've made

1:29:14 terrific progress in many areas. It it

1:29:16 is the educators at Lawrence and they've

1:29:18 been committed as I said even before our

1:29:20 district really um was able to have the

1:29:22 structures in place to support MTSS. Um

1:29:25 Joel Peterson and Dr. Matt Dubois have

1:29:28 really supported me in this drive to

1:29:31 really um forge forward with this work

1:29:34 and I am hopeful that it'll help build

1:29:36 some structures now that we have we

1:29:38 tried the data protocols last year at

1:29:40 Lawrence and now all of the schools are

1:29:42 rolling them out. So, I'm really hopeful

1:29:43 that um the willingness of Lauren's team

1:29:47 to trial this and get a little messy

1:29:50 this last year is hopefully going to

1:29:51 benefit all Brooklyn,

1:29:53 but we know without strong leadership it

1:29:55 wouldn't have happen as well. So,

1:29:57 congratulations on that work. I wonder

1:29:58 if you could talk for just a minute

1:30:00 about um this is your goal three. You

1:30:03 were doing early on some good

1:30:05 educational equity work. Yep. And a

1:30:07 number of times you have office of

1:30:09 educational equity was closed. We know

1:30:11 that because of budget cuts. I wonder if

1:30:13 you could talk about how your work is

1:30:15 continuing. Sure.

1:30:16 How you're doing that without the

1:30:18 budget. I mean with with the cuts. So, a

1:30:20 lot of the work we did um alongside with

1:30:22 Christy Hernandez, who originally was

1:30:24 part of the Office of Education Equity,

1:30:26 and she's obviously now an assistant

1:30:28 principal over at um Pierce, but she

1:30:31 worked with our middle school team a lot

1:30:34 in terms of improving our advisory

1:30:36 program and looking at incidents of

1:30:38 harassment and hate speech and how do we

1:30:41 address those period places of harm in

1:30:44 our communities and using our advisory

1:30:46 better in the middle school setting. So

1:30:48 we did all of that work with her. Um in

1:30:51 addition to that, we had a culture and

1:30:54 climate team at middle school level. So

1:30:56 one of the things that you all fund is

1:30:58 stipens for what's called our culture

1:31:00 and climate teams, our student

1:31:02 intervention teams, and MTSS teams. This

1:31:04 is critical work for educators and our

1:31:07 culture and climate team at the middle

1:31:09 school was really looking at our grading

1:31:10 for equity practices, which um predated

1:31:13 me at Lawrence, but that's an integral

1:31:15 part of our grading practices. and we

1:31:17 wanted to look at that in terms of our

1:31:19 grading. And so if you look at some of

1:31:21 these um strategic initiatives that we

1:31:24 have in here, it is looking at our

1:31:26 grading practices specifically at middle

1:31:28 school. One of the things that they did

1:31:30 when we moved away from um moving into

1:31:33 grading for equity is we stopped using

1:31:36 the old um behavior and effort codes for

1:31:39 middle school on reporting. However,

1:31:41 what we saw is we still have a lot of

1:31:42 students in middle school who parents

1:31:44 are looking for that information. How

1:31:46 are my kids doing? We're looking to

1:31:48 transform and use both grading for

1:31:50 equity language and the resources from

1:31:52 there and also castle language. I

1:31:54 believe Dr. Dubois has talked to you

1:31:56 about castle um frameworks for social

1:31:58 emotional learning. There are whole

1:32:00 rubrics that we can look at which are

1:32:02 much more strategic and designed to

1:32:05 measure specific areas of competencies

1:32:08 for social emotional learning in a way

1:32:10 that effort and behavior grades can

1:32:13 become biased. And so this is again this

1:32:15 is a way of equity being embedded in the

1:32:17 work. It's um and the other piece of

1:32:20 this is obviously this push for co-eing

1:32:23 and making sure high quality um

1:32:25 instruction is available to all students

1:32:27 in the classroom. So I hope that answers

1:32:30 your question. Yeah,

1:32:34 Carolyn,

1:32:36 thank you for this Vanessa. Um I have a

1:32:39 quick question.

1:32:40 Sure.

1:32:40 And then a question.

1:32:43 Well, it might be for Bella and maybe

1:32:46 it's for to to sort of flag for later.

1:32:50 Um, and it's not directly from your

1:32:52 presentation, which I super enjoyed and

1:32:55 studied before the meeting. Um, you

1:32:57 mentioned that you it is necessary for

1:33:00 you at this time to be running five

1:33:02 lunches.

1:33:02 Yes.

1:33:03 Can you please tell us what your first

1:33:05 lunch?

1:33:06 We start at 10:30 in the morning. We

1:33:09 finish at about 1:40. So our seventh and

1:33:12 eighth grade that has to tie to the end

1:33:14 of the day because again we have a lot

1:33:16 of short you know school days and since

1:33:19 seventh and eighth grade have less of

1:33:20 those. So our schedule at Lawrence is

1:33:23 100% driven by conservatory when we have

1:33:26 that and also the lunch schedule. And

1:33:29 because of how big our school is like

1:33:32 again we talk about that enrollment we

1:33:34 dropped a little and it was really down

1:33:36 in June and so I was able to do five

1:33:38 lunches. we have been creeping creeping

1:33:40 up and so it it's a little tight in some

1:33:43 of those lunches at five. We really

1:33:45 should be at six but staffing it's very

1:33:47 challenging. Um

1:33:50 so yes it's a real it is a real

1:33:52 challenge as I mentioned they they added

1:33:55 on to the school classrooms but that did

1:33:58 not add well parking spaces. We've been

1:34:00 working on parking over in the Lawrence

1:34:02 region. Um they it did not add to our

1:34:04 cafeteria size. It did not add to our

1:34:06 music or gym spaces. So, we have to get

1:34:08 really creative as you've seen coming

1:34:10 over to tour where we're doing art in an

1:34:12 extended day classroom where we're doing

1:34:14 music. We have to be really creative

1:34:16 thinking about spaces for sure, but the

1:34:18 cafeteria is the biggest challenge for

1:34:20 sure.

1:34:21 Thank you. Yep. Um,

1:34:26 and then my other question, I think I

1:34:30 don't want to put you on the spot, but

1:34:31 maybe so you were talking about grading

1:34:33 practices in middle school. You're using

1:34:36 a model called grading for equity.

1:34:38 Yep.

1:34:39 Um I guess I want to maybe I don't know

1:34:42 if you need to answer, but I'm wondering

1:34:45 if as we're are do we have

1:34:49 consistent

1:34:51 grading practices across our middle

1:34:54 schools? Like do we have districtwide?

1:34:58 I can share a little bit if you want.

1:35:00 Um so in terms of common assessments,

1:35:04 they're moving towards that. So in fish

1:35:06 tank we're moving towards that Desmos

1:35:07 and math have common assessments. So

1:35:09 students are graded on a percentage

1:35:11 basis in middle school. So from that

1:35:13 perspective yes we have common

1:35:15 practices. Grading for equity um is

1:35:18 really looking at proficiency based. So

1:35:20 we look at our standards and so it is

1:35:23 taking a standardsbased approach and

1:35:26 establishing that through really strong

1:35:28 rubrics. And I mentioned that we've been

1:35:30 really examining this over the last year

1:35:32 because what we wanted to look at were

1:35:34 our grades aligned with MCCAST's

1:35:38 indicators. And what we actually found

1:35:40 is there was very good consistency. So

1:35:43 concerns about grading for equity maybe

1:35:45 elevating student um performance and not

1:35:49 being in line with where they actually

1:35:51 perform. We are actually seeing very

1:35:52 tight alignment. So that was part of our

1:35:54 work on our culture and climate team.

1:35:56 And what we saw was actually our

1:35:58 students performance academically again

1:36:00 we've been sitting at 80 up to 90% in

1:36:04 terms of our eighth graders meeting or

1:36:06 exceeding on MCCAST and our grading

1:36:08 practices are aligned. So we have been

1:36:10 doing that work to ensure that part. The

1:36:13 part that's been missing in middle

1:36:15 school as I mentioned is really those

1:36:17 other competencies that are tied into

1:36:19 how students do. And again, so a

1:36:22 homework is not counted quite as much

1:36:24 integrating for equity, but if you're

1:36:26 not getting that practice work in math,

1:36:28 you are not going to be as proficient as

1:36:30 your peers. So, how do we communicate

1:36:32 that necessity to parents while not

1:36:34 penalizing a student who may not have

1:36:36 the resources and supports at home? That

1:36:38 is really the basis of grading for

1:36:40 equity. I I don't know if that fully

1:36:42 answers it, but I I'm happy to talk

1:36:44 offline or in another time because I

1:36:46 think there is um a really strong need

1:36:49 for this in terms of our equitable

1:36:51 practices. Grading at middle school,

1:36:54 there's a lot and high school can be

1:36:56 very um

1:36:59 not as discreetly based other than math

1:37:02 on how a student's doing. There's a lot

1:37:04 of subjectivity to it, right? And so the

1:37:06 better and more clear your rubrics are

1:37:09 and defined the better it will be

1:37:11 aligned with learning outcomes.

1:37:13 So also um you asked you were asking

1:37:16 about middle school but I believe our

1:37:17 progress reports were just updated for a

1:37:20 K5

1:37:22 right. So there so yes so we always have

1:37:25 a mind for alignment. Um, but I will

1:37:28 also say that Vanessa in terms of her

1:37:31 adoption of MTSS and Fish Tank is ahead

1:37:34 of some of the other schools because she

1:37:36 was piloting and so so the reflection of

1:37:39 the data is is actually not just um from

1:37:43 one or two years like she's they've

1:37:45 embraced it there. Um any but that's

1:37:48 good because it's something that can be

1:37:49 modeled for the other schools. Thank you

1:37:53 Laura.

1:37:55 This is really impressive. So, thank you

1:37:57 and congratulations to you and your team

1:37:59 at Lawrence. Um, one of the questions I

1:38:01 had, so I know that I think it was your

1:38:03 second uh goal had to do with

1:38:06 mathematics and trying to, you know, get

1:38:09 all of your students up to was the 85%

1:38:11 proficiency rate.

1:38:12 Correct.

1:38:12 And I believe you mentioned that one of

1:38:14 the programs that you rolled out as part

1:38:15 of this was Desmos. Am I remembering

1:38:17 that right?

1:38:17 Desmos is the sixth to eighth grade

1:38:18 math. Yes. So, I guess one of the

1:38:20 questions that that I have about Desmos

1:38:22 is, you know, there's so much that's

1:38:24 good about it, but one of the things

1:38:26 that I've noticed as as a parent is that

1:38:28 it's computer-based. And so, now my kid

1:38:29 is doing mathematics on the computer as

1:38:32 opposed to, you know, taking notes on

1:38:34 paper. And so, I'm wondering like have

1:38:37 you noticed any

1:38:40 is it is it more difficult for students

1:38:42 to sort of show their work to find their

1:38:44 errors? I mean, it's wonderful having

1:38:47 edtech, but there's downsides, too. And

1:38:48 I was wondering if if you had

1:38:50 experienced some of that.

1:38:51 Um, so I think Desmos is incredible and

1:38:56 it's not just the program, it's the

1:38:58 educators doing it. And I know prior to

1:39:00 my time here, I've talked to Charles Dy

1:39:01 who is one of our seventh grade but our

1:39:03 eighth grade math teacher. And um, we've

1:39:06 had a lot of conversations back in the

1:39:08 day before a lot of budget cuts. There

1:39:10 were math coaches in the district and he

1:39:12 talks about the math coach working with

1:39:14 him in terms of individual conferencing

1:39:15 and working with students. Um, I would

1:39:18 urge any of you to come and watch some

1:39:21 math lessons in the classroom because

1:39:23 yes, it is computer-based, but it is

1:39:26 also incredibly differentiated which

1:39:28 allows students who are ready to again

1:39:30 have extension enrichment um in a way

1:39:34 that another program cannot. And so I

1:39:37 think there's incredible advantages. Um

1:39:39 I happen to have a child who just

1:39:40 graduated from um Cornell in STEM and I

1:39:43 have another one at Harvey Mud who's

1:39:45 embedded in engineering right now. And

1:39:48 so as you know they've gone through

1:39:50 schools recently very heavily

1:39:52 computer-based middle school and high

1:39:54 school programs and they said this is

1:39:56 what's prepared them for that STEM

1:39:58 setting in college. Um what it looks

1:40:01 like now as an engineering student. Um,

1:40:03 my youngest says, you know, she

1:40:06 constantly says a lot of people my age,

1:40:09 cuz I'm old of course at 51. Um, really

1:40:12 think that everything has to be pencil

1:40:14 paper. Um, but she said we're really

1:40:16 embedded in the mathematical thinking

1:40:18 and you can do that through

1:40:20 computer-based. It's they're they're

1:40:22 just wired differently than our

1:40:24 generations were. I think most of most

1:40:26 of us sitting in the room and how we

1:40:28 learned math. That being said, there is

1:40:31 still an incredible amount of

1:40:33 manipulatives

1:40:34 in the middle school level Desmos. You

1:40:37 see those digital manipulatives, but I

1:40:39 was just in a kindergarten classroom

1:40:40 today. They were counting actual bags of

1:40:43 materials, right? So, it has to be a

1:40:45 balance and um and there will always be

1:40:48 a balance. So, I don't think it's

1:40:50 impacting our students. I think they are

1:40:52 growing up as digital natives and so

1:40:55 it's just a different way of learning.

1:40:57 But I think it's allowing them to focus

1:40:59 on the mathematical thinking and the

1:41:01 processes and the problem solving.

1:41:03 Okay.

1:41:03 Answers at the clock. And Vanessa,

1:41:06 I could talk about these things forever.

1:41:07 I'm happy to come back.

1:41:09 Vanessa, I I loved reading

1:41:11 or come come visit. Come see math at

1:41:13 Lawrence.

1:41:14 Your report was amazing. The data was

1:41:16 amazing. The progress is amazing. That's

1:41:18 a reflection on you as as well as your

1:41:20 team. Thank you very much. Let's move on

1:41:22 to

1:41:22 Margaret. Margaret. Beep.

1:41:24 Margaret. um from beep. I Margaret,

1:41:27 correct me if I'm wrong. I think beep is

1:41:30 perhaps the earliest the first early

1:41:34 school systems early childhood education

1:41:36 program in the country. Maybe B.

1:41:39 It's one of the oldest ones. That's

1:41:40 correct. It's from 1972. So it's, you

1:41:43 know, um a lot of years old now. And

1:41:46 it's one of the most early inclusive

1:41:48 early childhood programs certainly in

1:41:49 the Commonwealth. For sure.

1:41:51 Yeah. Okay. Margaret Everheart. Beep.

1:41:52 Go. Well, I want just want to say thank

1:41:54 you to Vanessa for her presentation. Um,

1:41:57 I work with the most amazing principal

1:41:59 group. I work with the most amazing

1:42:00 administrators in the Commonwealth and I

1:42:03 feel very honored to be a part of this

1:42:04 school district and the public schools

1:42:06 of Brooklyn and I just wanted to congrat

1:42:08 congratulate Vanessa on her presentation

1:42:09 and the hard work at at her school. I

1:42:12 spent some time there. I've I've

1:42:13 actually witnessed that co-eing fish

1:42:15 tank um uh lessons and they're pretty

1:42:18 amazing and powerful. So, thank you

1:42:20 Vanessa for the presentation. Thank you

1:42:22 to the school committee for inviting me

1:42:23 this evening to talk a little bit about

1:42:25 beep. You will see that our school

1:42:26 improvement plan looks very different in

1:42:29 some ways from the school improvement

1:42:31 plans that you will see from the

1:42:32 elementary schools and from the high

1:42:34 school. So I'm happy to start going.

1:42:39 Yeah, I love we don't have a mascot and

1:42:41 be

1:42:44 um these are just some pictures from the

1:42:45 classroom some of the um the posters

1:42:47 that um teachers have done. Um I don't

1:42:50 think know if this is the most updated

1:42:52 version um Betsy since the slide in the

1:42:54 front looks a little different but we

1:42:56 can go ahead and see. Okay. So I want

1:42:58 you all to know that our first BEP

1:43:00 school council membership meeting is on

1:43:02 October 22nd. You will know that a half

1:43:04 a beep rolls over every year and we have

1:43:06 all new students and all new families

1:43:08 that start with us. And getting our site

1:43:10 council up and running takes a little

1:43:12 bit longer because half of the school is

1:43:14 new and we have to recruit new families

1:43:16 to be on the site council. So we will

1:43:17 have our first meeting on the 22nd and

1:43:20 this proposed school improvement plan I

1:43:22 will present to them and we will work on

1:43:23 it based on some of the work we've done

1:43:25 in the last few years and we will at the

1:43:27 first site come up council meeting elect

1:43:29 a chair and a co-chair and then begin to

1:43:31 approve the um school improvement plan.

1:43:35 So anytime that I start this work,

1:43:37 anytime I come before the school

1:43:38 committee and the community, I start

1:43:39 with gratitude because I am extremely

1:43:42 fortunate to be the principal of this

1:43:43 incredible program and as I said to work

1:43:46 in this incredible district. And so I

1:43:48 have to give thanks to the BE educators,

1:43:49 the teachers, the par professionals, the

1:43:51 specialists, the nurses, the social

1:43:53 workers, the team facilitators, everyone

1:43:55 in the program who works daily on behalf

1:43:57 of students and families. They are an

1:43:59 amazing staff of humans and as Vanessa

1:44:00 pointed out, they are the boots on the

1:44:02 ground as the term used today. They do

1:44:04 the work, hands in the in the in the

1:44:07 actual work. I have to thank the people

1:44:09 at the Driscoll School, Gabby and her

1:44:10 team. They make the breakfast and the

1:44:12 lunches for all of the beef classrooms

1:44:14 at Lynch Beacon at Potterham every

1:44:16 single day. And it is a quite a task. So

1:44:18 I I much appreciate her and a lot of

1:44:21 thanks to both Aaron and Rachel for for

1:44:23 our collaborative work together for our

1:44:24 distributive leadership which I could

1:44:26 not do without them. 23 classrooms

1:44:28 across across seven locations is

1:44:30 sometimes an impossible feat and without

1:44:32 them it would not be possible. And

1:44:34 thanks to Stacy and Saladine and of

1:44:36 course always to the parents who share

1:44:39 their children with me.

1:44:42 Okay, so you all have to come over to

1:44:43 the Lynch Center because by some miracle

1:44:46 um we had a renovation over the summer

1:44:48 and in three months from June, July and

1:44:50 August the place was completely

1:44:52 transformed. New floors, new carpets,

1:44:54 new walls, um new sinks, new cabinets,

1:44:56 new new um new countertops. It looks

1:44:59 utterly amazing. And I have to thank the

1:45:01 people that are listed here, Charlie

1:45:03 Simmons and Karen King and Ed Clancy and

1:45:05 Joe Albuquerque and Andrea Shutler who

1:45:07 was the SLP who worked on an internship

1:45:10 with me and created the capital

1:45:12 improvement plan that led to the

1:45:13 improvements at Lynch. So please come

1:45:14 over and see the building. You won't

1:45:16 believe it if you have been there most

1:45:18 recently.

1:45:21 Okay, so these are just a couple of the

1:45:23 highlights. I'm not going to go over all

1:45:24 of them, but I wanted to just focus

1:45:26 really on two of them. Last year, if you

1:45:27 recall, we did some rearranging and some

1:45:30 um redistributing of staff and we had a

1:45:32 new teaching model in beat. We had a

1:45:34 combined rise prek rise preschool

1:45:37 teaching model where we were doing much

1:45:39 more inclus inclusion by sharing staff

1:45:41 in a different way. That first year is

1:45:43 behind us. That first year was extremely

1:45:45 successful led to an incredible amount

1:45:47 of inclusion, a lot of reverse

1:45:49 inclusion, very intentional work around

1:45:51 that piece. And I am extremely proud of

1:45:53 the educators who made that model work

1:45:55 and happen. So I just wanted to point

1:45:57 that out and I wanted to point out that

1:45:59 we had a professional learning community

1:46:00 which we called grow the good and there

1:46:03 were six educators that joined me once a

1:46:05 month to work on the social emotional

1:46:06 well-being of adults because one of the

1:46:08 things that we know in education

1:46:10 particularly in early childhood is the

1:46:12 well-being of adults matters

1:46:14 tremendously for the outcomes for

1:46:16 students in the future. And so we worked

1:46:17 monthly on different topics around

1:46:19 well-being in the classroom, outside of

1:46:21 the classroom and how to take care of

1:46:23 themselves as educators. It was very

1:46:25 successful and we're trying to figure

1:46:27 out how to make it go happen this year

1:46:29 again and to grow that capacity and

1:46:31 other educators as well.

1:46:35 Always budgetary considerations are

1:46:37 extremely important part for us at beep.

1:46:39 These are the things that we think about

1:46:40 a lot. We look at the revolving fund. We

1:46:42 can moni constantly monitor the revenue

1:46:44 and the expenses. We're considering the

1:46:46 cost of being part of this prism too and

1:46:48 what will that mean for us as we if we

1:46:50 want to purchase new curriculum. We're

1:46:52 always looking at the leases and trying

1:46:53 to bring beep classrooms back into PSB

1:46:56 spaces, public school or Brooklyn

1:46:58 spaces. And so what does that look like

1:46:59 and what is that going to take? And then

1:47:01 also we're looking at our technology

1:47:02 needs because we do need to upgrade some

1:47:04 of our iPads and computers that we use

1:47:06 to track data for our students that are

1:47:08 in the RISE program. So those are some

1:47:09 of the things that we're thinking about

1:47:10 for the upcoming school year.

1:47:14 Okay. So, as Bella indicated, we we were

1:47:17 we we've been thinking a lot as a

1:47:19 district about our school improvement

1:47:20 plans and aligning them with the goals

1:47:22 of the district and the and the

1:47:24 superintendent school goals. And so,

1:47:25 you'll see three goals here in our in

1:47:26 our beep school improvement plan. The

1:47:28 first run around MTSS.

1:47:31 The second one is not about culture and

1:47:32 climate, but about spaces and and and

1:47:34 facilities because I I felt we cannot

1:47:36 have a school improvement plan for BEP

1:47:38 without talking about spaces and

1:47:39 facilities. And the last one will be

1:47:41 about equity. And so we are really going

1:47:43 to focus this year in beep as we have

1:47:45 for the last couple of years on tier one

1:47:47 instruction because when you think about

1:47:49 multiple multi multiple tiered systems

1:47:51 of support that's really just a fancy

1:47:53 way of saying how do students get what

1:47:55 they need every day in the way that they

1:47:57 need it right and that means really

1:47:59 solid really impactful tier one

1:48:01 instruction right so over the next year

1:48:04 we are going to spend that year really

1:48:05 continuing to strengthen our tier one

1:48:07 instruction and in beep that is very

1:48:09 specific it means a high quality quality

1:48:12 nurtured in classrooms, researchbased

1:48:14 core curriculum, what is the content

1:48:16 that you're teaching students and

1:48:18 positive supportive relationship

1:48:20 building. Our data will look very

1:48:22 different than the data that you see in

1:48:25 the elementary schools, but it will

1:48:26 drive the conversations of about what

1:48:29 our tier one instruction looks like.

1:48:34 I just threw this slide in because I

1:48:35 felt it was really important to point

1:48:37 out the ways that MTSS is a little bit

1:48:40 different in early childhood in pre-K

1:48:42 and really you should think about

1:48:43 kindergarten as well, right? Universal

1:48:45 design for learning, developmentally

1:48:46 appropriate practices and diversity,

1:48:48 equity, inclusion, culturally responsive

1:48:51 practices are at the core of MTSS and

1:48:53 early childhood. And so you should keep

1:48:55 that in mind as we think about what this

1:48:57 looks like for us in the early childhood

1:48:59 sphere of the public schools of

1:49:00 Brooklyn.

1:49:03 So, our first goal is around tier one

1:49:04 instruction and these are the these are

1:49:06 the the desired outcomes for us as a as

1:49:08 a school and how we're going to monitor

1:49:10 them and and follow along as students

1:49:12 do. And one of the things that that is

1:49:15 challenging for us being spread out over

1:49:17 23 classrooms um in seven different

1:49:19 locations is creating a master schedule

1:49:22 that allows teachers to have

1:49:23 collaboration time, consultation time,

1:49:25 and time with supervisors and

1:49:27 evaluators. And then when you do the

1:49:29 research on on MTSS and on the

1:49:32 implementation of it, you have to have a

1:49:34 solid master schedule. So we have been

1:49:36 working really hard to figure that out

1:49:39 and to build in capacity for us to do

1:49:41 the things that need to get done. And so

1:49:43 you will see that we created a sort of a

1:49:44 time on learning in the classrooms and

1:49:46 that we are going to adapt the data

1:49:48 protocols that um Joelle and Matt um and

1:49:52 the rest of the MCSS district team made

1:49:54 to fit BEEP so that we can use those

1:49:57 data protocols in our classroom

1:49:59 consultation meetings to fit for the

1:50:01 data that we that we collect in BEAP.

1:50:04 Data around social emotional learning,

1:50:06 data around the pyramid model, and data

1:50:08 around inclusive practices. And as

1:50:10 Superintendent Wong um said before,

1:50:13 having a clear professional development

1:50:14 plan around that is very important. So

1:50:17 we are looking at this professional

1:50:18 development plan that's actually from

1:50:19 DESIE and it's around job embedded

1:50:22 inclusive practice professional

1:50:24 development and we're going to can work

1:50:26 on that for this year hoping to get

1:50:28 through the first two modules as we

1:50:30 continue to build the capacity of

1:50:31 educators in that regard.

1:50:35 Okay, our favorite conversation around

1:50:37 be always involves facilities and space.

1:50:39 And so we in 2022 we did a presentation

1:50:42 to the school committee. Some of you

1:50:43 were on the school committee then many

1:50:45 of you were not. I included a link to

1:50:46 that presentation here in the slides

1:50:48 tonight. We are at that final slide that

1:50:51 2027 slide where we're talking about

1:50:53 moving into Pierce and thinking about

1:50:55 the future. And our goal is to

1:50:56 reestablish our beep inclusive

1:50:58 classrooms in public school spaces. We

1:51:01 have loved our partnership with the um

1:51:03 Trust Center for Early Learning. We love

1:51:05 our partnership out at Temple EMTTH. And

1:51:07 we know that those leases are costly and

1:51:09 impactful to the budget across the town.

1:51:11 And we are working to figure out how to

1:51:13 reestablish our classrooms in public

1:51:15 school spaces.

1:51:19 And so here's just that goal sort of

1:51:21 outlined in your very two simple terms.

1:51:24 And those conversations will begin this

1:51:26 week when I meet with superintendent um

1:51:28 Karen Schmuckler and with Aaron Osborne

1:51:30 to talk about what we're going to think

1:51:31 about as we move towards opening Pier

1:51:34 Pierce in 2027 and what else where can

1:51:37 we find other spaces within our public

1:51:40 schools for other beep classrooms.

1:51:41 Right? So this is going to be a big part

1:51:43 of our conversation over the next couple

1:51:44 of years. It was part of that original

1:51:46 plan. I think we probably need a new

1:51:47 five-year plan for beep spaces as well.

1:51:54 And then as um Superintendent Wong um

1:51:56 shared and as as um as Vanessa shared

1:51:58 like equity is at the heart of

1:51:59 everything that we do, right? Equitable

1:52:01 outcomes for all students, universal

1:52:04 design for learning, providing different

1:52:06 means of representation, expression, and

1:52:08 access. That is what equity is about

1:52:10 early childhood, right? It is grounded

1:52:11 in playful learning. It is grounded in

1:52:14 developmentally appropriate practice. It

1:52:15 is grounded in in the in the principles

1:52:17 of the National Association for the

1:52:19 Education of Young Children. If you have

1:52:22 solid core tier one instruction, you

1:52:25 know what everyone's getting across the

1:52:27 board in your school, it is based, it is

1:52:30 antibbias, based in research, based in

1:52:32 standards, then you're going to have

1:52:34 more equitable outcomes for students.

1:52:35 Right? So, one of the goals that we're

1:52:37 have this year is to participate in this

1:52:39 curriculum council through DESIE to do a

1:52:42 real look at our curriculum, not just in

1:52:43 literacy, because an early childhood

1:52:45 curriculum is not just about literacy.

1:52:47 It's the whole child. It's about it's

1:52:49 about literacy. It's about math. It's

1:52:51 about social studies. It's about

1:52:52 science. And it's about social and

1:52:54 emotional learning, which is really at

1:52:56 the core of everything that we do in

1:52:57 BEEP and in early child education.

1:53:02 So, you'll see on this slide, I've put

1:53:03 some links and re um and resources

1:53:06 connected to the curriculum council.

1:53:08 Right? We are going to through our work

1:53:09 with our curriculum council, through the

1:53:11 work with DESIE and the Prism Grant, we

1:53:13 are going to create a shared

1:53:15 instructional vision for BEA that is

1:53:17 grounded in these principles outlined

1:53:18 here because we know that shared

1:53:20 visions, right, common language, common

1:53:23 practices, equitable practices, and

1:53:25 measurable outcomes lead for long-term

1:53:27 out better outcomes for students and

1:53:29 really for families as well because you

1:53:32 engage families in the process early

1:53:33 enough and they have a better

1:53:35 understanding of what their children are

1:53:36 learning and how they're learning. doing

1:53:38 that this prism prism grant opportunity

1:53:40 is one that I did not actually think we

1:53:42 would get. I didn't think they would

1:53:43 actually give us the grant. Um it was a

1:53:45 very late submission. I was surprised

1:53:46 and happy. We spent three hours on the

1:53:49 high quality instructional material

1:53:50 network meeting today. So if my brain

1:53:52 seems a little frazzled, probably it is.

1:53:54 But it was it was wonderful. There were

1:53:56 so many districts there and we learned a

1:53:57 lot about really thinking about what the

1:53:59 next steps are in this process. So, it's

1:54:01 a great opportunity for the district.

1:54:03 And I will say that if there was a fish

1:54:05 tank in prek, we would look for that,

1:54:07 but they don't offer that. So, we'll

1:54:09 work with Kristen and we'll work with um

1:54:11 with Robin and with Joelle to really

1:54:13 think about which of the curriculums

1:54:14 that we might choose align best with the

1:54:17 practices of the district because for

1:54:19 the last few years, we've been doing

1:54:20 that Foundation's second step. Those are

1:54:23 all fully implemented in all B

1:54:25 classrooms and they carry over into the

1:54:27 elementary schools as well.

1:54:31 And this is just a great um bulletin

1:54:33 board that was out at our Partam

1:54:35 location last year. Mayor Rousin's class

1:54:37 did this. Thank you, Amu. Is a wonderful

1:54:38 book. If you don't know it, you should

1:54:40 definitely go get it and read it. It is

1:54:42 a terrific book for pre-K, but it's also

1:54:43 part of the fish tank um curriculum, and

1:54:45 they you read it in kindergarten. And I

1:54:47 was present last year at a couple of

1:54:48 times when kids were exploring the

1:54:50 topics in this book, the vocabulary in

1:54:51 this book, and the ideas of community

1:54:53 that it represents. So,

1:54:58 there you go. There you go. Um, if I

1:55:00 might, so you have a presentation from

1:55:02 another excellent educator in the

1:55:04 district. Um, I just want to point out

1:55:07 that Margaret is a singleton um, as the

1:55:10 principal of our preschool and she I've

1:55:14 had the privilege of working with many

1:55:16 talented preschool educators who take

1:55:19 what the district goals are and they

1:55:22 make them developmentally appropriate

1:55:24 for their students. And you've just seen

1:55:26 a really compelling argument for

1:55:28 Universal prek. Can you imagine if there

1:55:31 were Margarets multiplied

1:55:34 and every

1:55:34 or Rachel or Eron? Yeah.

1:55:36 Yeah. And so students would be able to

1:55:38 have this. So one of the things about

1:55:39 the learnings from Finland and Estonia

1:55:42 is the investment in early childhood.

1:55:44 Students don't actually start formal

1:55:46 education until first grade. But many of

1:55:48 them are reading and they're starting

1:55:50 with a level playing ground. And that is

1:55:52 the notion. But if you can imagine

1:55:54 Margaret multiplied over and over um but

1:55:57 She's amazing um member of the team and

1:56:00 anyway but just

1:56:02 that's kind of you. Thank you. It's kind

1:56:04 of you to say

1:56:06 thank you. Thank you. Are there any

1:56:07 questions?

1:56:09 Please I'm happy to answer any questions

1:56:11 about the grant if you had any more. I

1:56:13 knew you had some questions about

1:56:14 I was just going to comment and

1:56:15 congratulate you and thank you for that.

1:56:18 like I love which was why I was asking

1:56:21 about it in finance and I was grateful

1:56:24 to hear about it from Robin today just

1:56:26 to hear

1:56:27 that you had like the the the initiative

1:56:32 to apply for this grant and to you know

1:56:35 be so um enthusiastic about tying in

1:56:39 what BEP is doing to this initiative

1:56:42 that's so important to the district

1:56:43 right now. So, um, thank you for

1:56:46 applying and congratulations on getting

1:56:48 it and, um, that's just really great.

1:56:52 Um, um,

1:56:54 and

1:56:55 yeah, that's it. That's just a comment.

1:56:57 Thank you.

1:56:58 Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I

1:56:59 appreciate the the support of Ashley

1:57:01 Sullivan in the um, finance office. She

1:57:03 really helped me get it going because we

1:57:05 only had like two days to submit it when

1:57:08 we finally realized we could. So, I was

1:57:10 grateful for the support of the district

1:57:11 and getting that work done as well.

1:57:13 Suzanne Fetterfield.

1:57:15 Thank you, Margaret. Thank you for all

1:57:17 your work. I'm so glad that the Lynch

1:57:19 Center got an upgrade.

1:57:20 Oh my god. It doesn't it doesn't it's

1:57:22 the you you have to come. All of you who

1:57:24 came last year, you must come.

1:57:26 Yeah, I looking forward to that.

1:57:28 It's amazing. I am so appreciative of it

1:57:30 and so are the families. We're kids are

1:57:32 going to make notes for everybody and

1:57:33 send it to the building commission.

1:57:34 Oh, that's great. Well, it's an old

1:57:36 building, so it needed a little love.

1:57:39 It got a lot of love.

1:57:41 Great. I noticed that you mentioned in

1:57:43 facilities perhaps going to the high

1:57:45 school with the classroom. I believe we

1:57:47 had

1:57:48 she didn't mention high school. She said

1:57:50 we were going to find places in the

1:57:51 schools. So

1:57:53 she I isn't No, it says something about

1:57:55 high school.

1:57:56 Oh

1:57:56 yeah. I think I think you know that's

1:57:58 always my hope, right? That we would

1:58:00 have high school spaces mostly. I have

1:58:03 to tell you because of the opportunity

1:58:04 to work with the high schoolers,

1:58:06 right? like not only that is wonderful

1:58:09 but the opportunity to work with high

1:58:11 schoolers they come to our program they

1:58:12 interned all year last year um the A

1:58:15 students come at the and they do

1:58:17 community service and it's a great

1:58:20 pathway and it's not a pathway that

1:58:21 involves you know it's a human pathway

1:58:23 it's human intelligence at its best um

1:58:26 I think we were at the high school at

1:58:28 one point weren't we or was

1:58:29 yes we for a long time we had

1:58:31 that's what I thought now

1:58:32 we'll see what happens I'm going to work

1:58:34 with the superintendent so it

1:58:35 takes a lot with facility I vote for it.

1:58:38 So,

1:58:38 it's not the superintendent you have to

1:58:40 worry about.

1:58:43 I had one more uh question. Could you

1:58:45 just talk a little bit about your

1:58:46 curriculum council?

1:58:48 Yeah. So, I um I'm happy to share I'm

1:58:50 not sure if I put the link in this in

1:58:52 the slides, but the curriculum council

1:58:54 is composed of the word stakeholders in

1:58:57 the process. So, there's teachers,

1:58:58 there's specialists, there's par

1:59:00 profofessionals, there's administrators.

1:59:03 Right now the only thing the only per

1:59:04 the only member that we don't really

1:59:06 have is like a parent or and or and or a

1:59:08 community member and we meet monthly and

1:59:11 review um what is curriculum what is

1:59:13 high quality in instructional materials

1:59:15 what is our vision and be what are we

1:59:17 currently doing how does it align with

1:59:18 the district and then once a month four

1:59:21 or three or four of us meet with the

1:59:23 high quality instructional material

1:59:25 network that is run by Desi and that was

1:59:27 the first meeting that we had um today

1:59:29 that was three hours so it's once a

1:59:30 month for three hours on on a Wednesday,

1:59:32 but the curriculum council will meet.

1:59:34 We'll look we'll break up into small

1:59:36 groups. We'll it requires around 10

1:59:38 additional hours of work per month to

1:59:40 look at the different components of the

1:59:42 implement MA process. But it really you

1:59:45 need to have a diverse set of voices

1:59:47 involved in the curriculum council and

1:59:49 Kristen Gray is going to join us in the

1:59:51 second phase of the curriculum council

1:59:53 um when we're looking at we're actually

1:59:55 exploring that different curriculum. So,

1:59:56 we're still working on composing some of

1:59:58 the elements of the council, but we have

2:00:00 a good solid council right now of

2:00:01 educators, par professionals,

2:00:03 specialists, and administrators.

2:00:06 So, Margaret, I noticed you the word

2:00:07 play on one of your

2:00:09 slides. I just want you to say it again

2:00:11 how play is so important for

2:00:13 preschoolers.

2:00:14 And when when um when Karen Schmuckler

2:00:17 came to visit and she and I toured a

2:00:18 couple of the beep classrooms recently,

2:00:20 we talked about the importance of that

2:00:22 piece and all of the curriculums for the

2:00:24 high quality instructional material

2:00:26 network. They're based in play. Based in

2:00:29 play that with measurable outcomes and I

2:00:31 think that's the hardest part for for

2:00:33 some people to wrap their head around.

2:00:35 But the play is the work of children.

2:00:36 Children learn through play. They learn

2:00:38 through manipulating material. They

2:00:40 learn through trial and error. And they

2:00:42 learn through guided play. And the

2:00:43 guided play is the key. Teachers putting

2:00:45 out intentional material, really

2:00:47 thinking about what am I trying to get

2:00:49 the kids to think about here and then

2:00:51 guiding them to to learn from that and

2:00:53 then following up with some from

2:00:54 conversations and some post assessments

2:00:57 as well. But play is the is the work of

2:00:59 children. And I think, you know, I think

2:01:00 that we've moved away from that in some

2:01:02 of our um upper younger grades, but it

2:01:05 is essentially the work of early

2:01:07 childhood.

2:01:08 Thank you. I really appreciate it's like

2:01:09 music to my ears. Thank you.

2:01:11 Me too. Me too,

2:01:12 Margaret. How hard is it to supervise

2:01:14 multiple sites?

2:01:16 So, the hardest part for me is that I

2:01:17 have to know everyone and then and like

2:01:19 I must know all 250 students and beep

2:01:22 like I need to know them for my own

2:01:25 sanity because they're they're beep

2:01:27 students. They're beepers as I call to

2:01:28 them. And so, you have to really be

2:01:30 intentional in planning and thinking

2:01:32 about who you when you're going to

2:01:33 visit, how you're going to go, how

2:01:35 you're going to interact with the

2:01:36 teachers, with the par professionals,

2:01:38 with the specialists. It's hard, but you

2:01:40 know, I will say it's there's a there's

2:01:42 a real momentum to the work. You get you

2:01:44 get to move around a lot. You get to see

2:01:46 a lot of different I get to go to

2:01:47 Driscoll, Ridley, Wrl, and Hayes. I

2:01:50 mean, that's pretty amazing, right? That

2:01:51 I get to go to all those places and

2:01:53 interact with all those principles and

2:01:55 all the different people that work in

2:01:56 those schools. Sometimes it's tiring,

2:01:58 but um it's worth it every minute of it.

2:02:00 And Rachel and Erin are amazing. We

2:02:02 split the responsibility of supervision

2:02:04 and evaluation and we meet once a once a

2:02:06 week as an administrative team and then

2:02:08 another time with our team facilitators

2:02:10 um to make sure that we're really

2:02:12 capturing all the things that we need to

2:02:13 capture.

2:02:14 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank

2:02:16 you.

2:02:16 Thank you so much. I had a lovely time.

2:02:18 Thank you for inviting me.

2:02:19 You're welcome. Come back.

2:02:21 I will. Thank you so much.

2:02:23 Okay, moving along. So in November town

2:02:27 at November town meeting there will be

2:02:29 two warrant articles 12 and 13 that have

2:02:32 to do with lighting in the town and

2:02:36 we've David Pollock is here who was uh

2:02:38 the former chair of the school committee

2:02:40 I believe.

2:02:42 Yeah among his other accomplishments

2:02:46 stresses. So David you're the sponsor I

2:02:50 think or co-sponsor

2:02:51 of the articles. Come on up and talk

2:02:54 about them. So the school committee will

2:02:57 only make a decision if there's an

2:03:00 impact of these two warrant articles on

2:03:02 the public schools of Brooklyn. So we'll

2:03:05 pay attention to you and then Kyle

2:03:06 Williams is here who's the athletic

2:03:08 director at the high school and maybe he

2:03:10 can make some comments about the impact

2:03:13 of these two articles on the public

2:03:15 schools. Okay, David.

2:03:19 Yes. Hello. Uh hello school committee

2:03:22 members. Um yeah, uh fun to be back in

2:03:25 in um uh the uh James Walsh uh school

2:03:30 committee room. David Pollock, uh town

2:03:32 meeting member from precinct 11, member

2:03:35 of the uh Brookline uh advisory

2:03:38 committee to town meeting. I chair the

2:03:40 land use zoning and sustainability

2:03:43 subcommittee of town meetings advisory

2:03:45 committee and I also have chaired since

2:03:49 um last year the moderators committee on

2:03:52 outdoor lighting and I'm joined by Julie

2:03:55 Jetty. Come on up Julie. Uh and Alisa

2:03:58 Plazanda. Uh we are three of the nine

2:04:00 members of the moderators committee that

2:04:03 has worked since January to uh bring to

2:04:06 town meeting two warrant articles that

2:04:09 will uh regulate and improve outdoor

2:04:12 lighting only outdoor lighting in

2:04:14 Brooklyn. And uh I spoke with the chair

2:04:18 uh a month or so ago and we both agreed

2:04:20 that it would be good for school

2:04:21 committee at least have a high level

2:04:22 understanding of these articles and

2:04:25 their fiscal impact or or you know not

2:04:29 so much fiscal impact on the school

2:04:31 facilities uh as a you know a matter of

2:04:34 of uh information. So we're going to

2:04:36 start with Alisa who's gonna you know

2:04:38 quickly run us through our high level

2:04:40 slide deck.

2:04:42 Yeah. Um thank you David. So, um I I

2:04:45 know you had the deck. So, uh David

2:04:48 mentioned we had nine members of the

2:04:50 committee, very diverse committee, and

2:04:52 we've been working for the past 10

2:04:53 months who developed the articles that

2:04:55 are before you now. So, light pollution

2:04:57 is a growing issue with a lot of

2:04:59 negative impacts. And while Brooklyn has

2:05:02 made some progress towards trying to

2:05:04 address light pollution, the most recent

2:05:07 two efforts stalled, which brings us to

2:05:09 where we are today. Um, so in brief, a

2:05:13 light pollution is bad for humans, even

2:05:15 worse for wildlife, and it unnecessarily

2:05:18 contributes to climate change. If you're

2:05:20 interested in the science behind um the,

2:05:23 you know, the negative impacts here, we

2:05:26 provided links in the explanation

2:05:28 section of article 12.

2:05:31 So through our research, walking tours,

2:05:33 and testimony from a range of

2:05:35 stakeholders, we identified four

2:05:37 categories of excessive lighting in

2:05:39 Brooklyn, and they're shown here. So

2:05:41 poorly shielded and poorly aimed

2:05:43 fixtures, bright white or blue white

2:05:45 LEDs that are particularly disruptive to

2:05:48 both humans and wildlife, lights that

2:05:51 aren't um serving a a use, and light

2:05:54 that is left on when it's no longer

2:05:56 needed. So um what we're proposing are

2:05:59 two articles to address these issues.

2:06:01 One is a slight revision to the existing

2:06:04 regulations of glare and light trespass

2:06:06 in the zoning code and these are largely

2:06:09 clarifications. That's warrant article

2:06:11 13 and a new general bylaw section under

2:06:16 part 8 public health and safety that

2:06:18 sets out the five guiding principles

2:06:20 that you see listed here and provides

2:06:23 corresponding outdoor lighting standards

2:06:25 in line with these principles. So the

2:06:28 requirements and standards are

2:06:29 straightforward extensions of the

2:06:31 guiding principles. You know in a

2:06:33 nutshell fixtures need to be shielded.

2:06:35 Lights should be turned off when they're

2:06:37 not um you know when they're not in use.

2:06:40 Um so we have curfews and with some

2:06:42 exceptions bulbs should be warm white in

2:06:45 color having a color corrected

2:06:48 temperature of 3,000 Kelvin or less.

2:06:50 There are a range of exemptions um you

2:06:53 know for safety and and and and so there

2:06:56 as well. So, for the curfews, these

2:06:58 curfews um align with existing town

2:07:02 curfews uh including the signed bylaw

2:07:05 and and they're not absolute. There are

2:07:07 there are exceptions. So, businesses can

2:07:09 have their lights on if they're open

2:07:10 later than the 11 p.m. curfew. And

2:07:13 residents can continue to use their

2:07:14 outdoor lighting if they're outside

2:07:16 late. So, that's not an issue. And then

2:07:19 for recreation use for both town fields

2:07:22 and private fields, uh, lights have to

2:07:24 be off by 10 p.m. unless there's an

2:07:26 earlier cut off that's, um, dictated by

2:07:29 existing policy. And this is consistent

2:07:31 with what's already in place um, with

2:07:33 the town. So these requirements would

2:07:36 phase in over time with a compliance

2:07:39 time frame tiered according to the cost

2:07:42 and difficulty of making the indicated

2:07:44 changes. So easy fixes need to be

2:07:47 completed within a year. More complex

2:07:50 changes, complicated changes need to

2:07:52 happen within five years. So that's for

2:07:54 private property. For the town, the town

2:07:57 needs to have a plan and be underway

2:08:00 starting to come into compliance by year

2:08:02 five and then be fully compliant by year

2:08:05 10.

2:08:07 So, the town also has uh excuse me, the

2:08:10 the bylaw also has uh additional uh

2:08:12 restrictions on outdoor lighting for six

2:08:14 key wildlife habitat areas while

2:08:17 allowing uh safety lighting around

2:08:20 buildings, parking lots, and walkways

2:08:22 and paths. And all of the properties

2:08:24 that are listed here are cited for their

2:08:26 habitat value in the 2025 open space and

2:08:29 recreation plan. So, the reason that um

2:08:33 protecting these nighttime habitats from

2:08:35 light pollution is so critical is

2:08:38 because while some wildlife has adapted

2:08:41 to human presence and our lights that

2:08:43 come with humans, many species have not.

2:08:46 And for them, even low levels of

2:08:49 artificial light disrupts the cycles

2:08:51 that they depend on for survival, for

2:08:53 reproduction, for feeding and

2:08:56 navigation. So it's um extremely

2:08:59 detrimental from a cost perspective. Um

2:09:02 in crafting our article, we were trying

2:09:03 to get the most bang for the buck. So

2:09:05 focused on you know the changes that

2:09:08 would have more impact um and trying to

2:09:12 you know uh make it very economic.

2:09:16 So also avoiding the fiscal shock to

2:09:18 both property owners and the town. So

2:09:20 that's the reason for you know the one

2:09:22 year versus 5year for private property

2:09:24 and then the five to 10year for town

2:09:27 owned property. So this shows this slide

2:09:30 shows um potential costs for different

2:09:32 types of things that might need to be

2:09:34 corrupted. And as far as the schools are

2:09:37 concerned, we think that the newer

2:09:39 schools are likely to already be in in

2:09:43 compliance because the requirements of

2:09:45 this article are completely consistent

2:09:47 with current best practice lighting

2:09:48 standards. Um, and for those lights that

2:09:51 don't conform, having that 10-year

2:09:53 compliance time horizon would allow

2:09:55 changes to be made as part of the

2:09:57 regular CIP process. So, I'm going to

2:09:59 flip it back to David to add anything

2:10:02 further and then happy to take your

2:10:03 questions.

2:10:08 Um, are there any questions? Sarah?

2:10:11 Um, well, I did want to have the

2:10:13 opportunity to ask Kyle if he thinks

2:10:15 that this impacts um, sports in any way.

2:10:18 Kyle, there's a request for you to come

2:10:19 on up and respond to that question. Will

2:10:22 there be an impact on our school

2:10:24 programs?

2:10:26 Thank you for being here.

2:10:29 Thank you for having me. I'm Kyle

2:10:31 Williams, director of athletics at the

2:10:32 high school. Um, I also started my

2:10:35 career as a pair professional at

2:10:36 Lawrence like Vanessa. Um, and as it

2:10:39 relates to the war articles, I want to

2:10:41 thank the moderators committee, uh, Mr.

2:10:43 olic for it seems like they've been

2:10:44 responsive to some of the feedback

2:10:46 throughout the process in terms of the

2:10:48 sites that were originally excluded or

2:10:50 or protected areas um as they might

2:10:52 impact recreational users. So, I

2:10:54 appreciate that. Uh the 10pm cutoff is

2:10:56 not an issue. It's consistent with

2:10:58 current practice. It's consistent with

2:10:59 trying to get kids home to their

2:11:00 families and to do homework. We're we're

2:11:02 happy with that. Um where I wanted to

2:11:05 present today was about capacity as a

2:11:07 whole. Um and so we've grown uh prior to

2:11:10 my coming we grew about 25% and then the

2:11:12 10 years before that we've grown another

2:11:14 30% in the past um four years and so

2:11:17 that's great and our facilities are our

2:11:19 biggest constraint at this point. Um and

2:11:22 we have plenty of partnerships with

2:11:23 recreation, with private schools, with

2:11:25 everybody uh in the area that we can. Um

2:11:27 but we see there are four ways to

2:11:29 increase capacity. Um that's acquiring

2:11:32 acres of land, which um I don't think is

2:11:34 something that necessarily the town is

2:11:36 going to be doing anytime soon to push

2:11:37 towards recreational athletics. Um

2:11:40 there's lights, synthetic turf, and uh

2:11:42 partnerships and pilots. And so lights

2:11:45 being one of those, I just wanted the

2:11:46 committee to understand that as we think

2:11:48 about future capacity for athletic

2:11:50 growth, active recreation growth, that

2:11:53 um

2:11:55 facilities in this case, the one

2:11:56 facility that's still included would be

2:11:58 the golf course, how that impacts the

2:12:00 high school is uh through boys golf in

2:12:02 the fall, girls golf in the spring, and

2:12:04 potentially Nordic skiing in the winter.

2:12:06 And again, this is forward thinking.

2:12:08 Currently, our Nordic ski group goes to

2:12:10 Western, the Western ski track. Um, and

2:12:12 that's a bit of a limiting factor in

2:12:13 terms of access and equity. That group

2:12:15 has grown from seven students uh, pre-

2:12:18 pandemic to 21 now. We see it as one of

2:12:20 our biggest growth opportunities of a

2:12:22 low skill, low commitment um, to

2:12:24 continue getting kids engaged in sports.

2:12:26 Um, golf has grown from 33 students pre-

2:12:29 pandemic to 64. Um, and we're really

2:12:31 starting to stress the um, relationship

2:12:34 with recreation, relationship with the

2:12:36 folks who are there in that 3 to five

2:12:38 window. Um, and so the golf course is is

2:12:41 one area where having additional

2:12:44 capacity,

2:12:46 what that looks like, what they would do

2:12:47 with lights, I don't I'm not necessarily

2:12:48 aware of specific plans, but additional

2:12:50 capacity for high school use would be

2:12:51 beneficial. The other area where lights

2:12:54 are particularly impactful on high

2:12:55 school users is this time of year. Um, I

2:12:58 just left the high school and, uh, our

2:13:00 permit goes till 5:30. We had 5:15.

2:13:02 There were seven youth soccer teams,

2:13:04 probably about 80 students ready to get

2:13:07 on the fields, uh, using the fields, the

2:13:09 lit fields. And when we get to next

2:13:12 week, we start having games that are

2:13:14 impacted, experiences that are impacted

2:13:16 because of darkness. Um, we're not able

2:13:18 to host playoff games in on Brookline

2:13:21 facilities. So, soccer, boys soccer,

2:13:23 girls soccer, football, field hockey, we

2:13:25 can't necessarily host. If we do, we

2:13:26 have to host at 2 p.m. Uh, we have to

2:13:28 get kids out of class to be able to host

2:13:30 before darkness. Um, and so it's not

2:13:32 necessarily about the Warren article

2:13:34 itself, um, except beyond perhaps the

2:13:36 golf course. Um, but it's about future

2:13:38 capacity and making you aware of the

2:13:40 impact of those potential those four

2:13:41 growth areas, the acquisition of land,

2:13:44 lights, synthetic turf, and uh,

2:13:45 partnerships and pilots. And the

2:13:47 partnerships and pilots, one to mention,

2:13:49 um, I haven't spoken with them, but is

2:13:52 uh, Northeastern uh, specifically

2:13:54 because they are our partner, they're

2:13:56 our venue that does have lights, so we

2:13:58 try to use them. we've rented from BEu,

2:14:00 but they're not uh in Brooklyn, so this

2:14:02 wouldn't apply to them, but Nor

2:14:03 Eastern's impact and on that 5-year

2:14:05 horizon of upgrading their lights. I

2:14:07 don't know exactly whether that would be

2:14:09 required of them, if they could be

2:14:10 expanded out or if they're even aware

2:14:11 necessarily of this work. Um, so I would

2:14:14 just name that as one of our partners

2:14:15 that might be impacted.

2:14:16 That was all super helpful. But can you

2:14:18 just be very clear? Um, if this were to

2:14:21 pass this, um, not thinking about the

2:14:24 future, just thinking about current, it

2:14:25 wouldn't change anything that you're

2:14:27 able to run currently.

2:14:29 Uh, it it should not. No.

2:14:30 Okay. And one more thing, because you

2:14:32 might be more in touch with this than I

2:14:33 am, or maybe somebody else around the

2:14:34 room is. Um, what do we think about just

2:14:37 lighting and or might be for you guys

2:14:40 for kids that kind of congregate

2:14:42 different places that aren't necessarily

2:14:44 playing sports but you know might go

2:14:46 find a basketball court or someplace to

2:14:50 see each other? I'm not really in touch

2:14:52 with that population myself. So, is

2:14:54 anybody around the table think that

2:14:56 we're going to be turning off lights

2:14:58 that would offer an opportunity for

2:14:59 people to get together safely?

2:15:01 No, because Yeah,

2:15:04 sorry. I guess that question is for

2:15:06 David and Julie, but my understanding I

2:15:10 think from the presentation is that the

2:15:12 curfew is 11 p.m.

2:15:15 So

2:15:17 I mean after 11 p.m.

2:15:20 And I guess that's always kind of the

2:15:26 Thank you. Julie Jenny, town meeting

2:15:27 member precinct 16 drilled into my head.

2:15:30 Um I um

2:15:34 um the uh parks and wreck has its own um

2:15:38 curfews for park

2:15:41 locations and those are usually dusk. Um

2:15:44 parks are most of our parks that are not

2:15:46 already lit are closed from dawn to

2:15:47 dusk. So that's um the case already

2:15:50 there. And uh one of the exceptions that

2:15:53 we uh made sure to make in the art in

2:15:56 the article was um lighting a pathway

2:15:59 allowing

2:16:01 um for walking or cycling. So those are

2:16:05 other areas maybe kids would be hanging

2:16:06 out, but I don't think this is this

2:16:09 affects them.

2:16:11 Laura,

2:16:13 kind of building off of Sarah's question

2:16:16 and and sort of building off um your

2:16:18 presentation, Mr. Williams, you know,

2:16:19 thinking about say future capacity. If

2:16:22 there was a park in Brooklyn that we

2:16:23 wanted to light a field so that we could

2:16:26 play soccer later into the evening,

2:16:28 assuming it wasn't one of the places

2:16:30 that was listed here, like horse

2:16:32 sanctuary, there wouldn't be anything to

2:16:34 preclude putting in lights as long as it

2:16:37 complied with the new regulations.

2:16:40 Correct,

2:16:42 Ella?

2:16:43 Um, this is a followup to Sarah's

2:16:46 question. It it has actually been on my

2:16:49 mind if there could be maybe a catchall

2:16:53 exception

2:16:54 if an if lighting would improve safety

2:16:57 in a certain area

2:17:00 if if if something

2:17:03 like we we don't not about current but

2:17:07 if if something were I don't know

2:17:09 factors can change and maybe

2:17:12 yeah there's there's very little

2:17:15 prohibition of lighting

2:17:17 anywhere in the articles. What it really

2:17:21 says is light should be shielded.

2:17:24 Uh so dark sky and also not shedding,

2:17:28 you know, away from where they're

2:17:29 supposed to light. They should be no

2:17:32 brighter than necessary for the task.

2:17:34 And um they should be turned off when

2:17:38 not needed. And then except perhaps for

2:17:42 sports lighting they should be maximum

2:17:45 warm white. Uh but there are

2:17:49 the um the general bylaw also references

2:17:54 uh the uh illumination engineers

2:17:57 society's

2:17:59 uh best practice publications which

2:18:01 there are many of for different kinds of

2:18:03 uses. And so, for instance, when you

2:18:05 look at the sports field lighting um

2:18:08 recommended practice document, it says

2:18:11 that it's better to have uh somewhat

2:18:13 higher color temperatures because you

2:18:15 get better color rendition and so you

2:18:17 get better visibility and when you have

2:18:19 large people racing around uh running

2:18:22 into each other, increasing visibility

2:18:25 is good for that use. So, even that is

2:18:28 allowed as an exception. So, you can put

2:18:30 lights basically wherever you want. They

2:18:33 just need to be according to current

2:18:36 best practice of how we want to light

2:18:38 our environment and not light the night

2:18:40 sky.

2:18:41 Right. And and if I could just add and I

2:18:43 I I pulled this slide up and I I went

2:18:45 through it very quickly just in the

2:18:46 interest of I know your meeting is

2:18:47 running long. Um but we do have a number

2:18:49 of exceptions for the curfew. So

2:18:52 entryway and egress lighting. Um safety

2:18:54 lighting is allowed to be on whenever

2:18:56 it's needed. So um

2:18:59 yes, I see that. I I missed it before.

2:19:02 Thank you. The safety lighting. Yeah.

2:19:05 Yeah. Sorry I went very quickly.

2:19:08 Um Carolyn,

2:19:10 um thanks for this and as a town meeting

2:19:13 member

2:19:15 it's helpful that we're talking about

2:19:16 the buildings. um

2:19:20 this kind of I appreciate I think also

2:19:23 for our purposes as a school committee

2:19:26 um the environmental impacts of lighting

2:19:28 are really was sort of the genesis of

2:19:30 this um and in other presentations we've

2:19:33 heard about the impacts on wildlife and

2:19:37 reproduction and habits so um really

2:19:42 important for us um from an

2:19:44 environmental perspective um and Just

2:19:47 for context, David or Julie, can you

2:19:49 just quickly tell us like other boards

2:19:52 and commissions that have heard this and

2:19:56 what the

2:19:57 So, four boards have already uh had

2:20:01 public hearings and voted. Um the

2:20:03 advisory committee met last night and

2:20:06 there was a couple of abstensions. Um

2:20:08 otherwise it was 20 whatever in favor

2:20:12 and none opposed. The select board

2:20:14 unanimously supported. Uh and then

2:20:17 yesterday morning or Tuesday yesterday

2:20:19 yesterday morning, the small business um

2:20:22 uh uh

2:20:23 Oh, okay.

2:20:25 Uh uh de development committee uh voted

2:20:29 to recommend and also the economic

2:20:31 development advisory board recommended

2:20:33 to. So on all four votes there there

2:20:36 hasn't been a single uh negative uh

2:20:39 voice.

2:20:39 Great.

2:20:40 So far so

2:20:41 awesome. Thank you,

2:20:42 Suzanne.

2:20:45 I'm just curious about the MBTA and the

2:20:49 stops.

2:20:50 They're the the the state uh properties

2:20:53 are just exempted,

2:20:55 right? They're they're very bright. I'll

2:20:58 say that.

2:20:58 We also can't really make rules for

2:21:00 them, so we didn't try.

2:21:01 Just thought I'd check. Thanks,

2:21:03 Jesse.

2:21:05 Um my question has to do with the

2:21:07 regulation. So what is your thinking

2:21:11 about how to follow up assuming that we

2:21:14 in town meeting precinct 14 um um uh

2:21:19 past the two warrant articles what would

2:21:22 the towns uh what's the setup for the

2:21:24 town to go you know what block by block

2:21:27 street by street what how how in the

2:21:29 long term similar to how trees have sort

2:21:32 of maybe worked maybe not worked with

2:21:34 for preservation um for protecting the

2:21:37 lighting outdoors is very important to

2:21:39 all of us. How would that be regulated?

2:21:41 And you know, I know I know I read

2:21:43 through the entire presentation there

2:21:44 might be some fines if people don't do

2:21:46 it over a long period of time, but what

2:21:48 is the plan? I mean, so that it's

2:21:50 equitably administered across the entire

2:21:52 town.

2:21:53 It's completely complaintbased. Okay.

2:21:56 And on a broad spectrum across the town.

2:21:59 So, if your lights aren't maybe your

2:22:02 light isn't strictly compliant, but if

2:22:04 nobody, you know, uh, calls the building

2:22:08 department, there is going to be no

2:22:10 surveys, no going block by block looking

2:22:13 for lights that aren't compliant.

2:22:15 Perfect.

2:22:15 Up until this point, uh, complaints

2:22:17 about lighting have always gone to the

2:22:19 building commissioner. Um and going

2:22:23 forward the general bylaw actually um

2:22:26 also brings in the uh uh commissioner of

2:22:30 public health the director of public

2:22:32 health. So it's sort of both andor their

2:22:35 design.

2:22:36 Thank you.

2:22:36 To do uh to do compliance to

2:22:40 Donna. So, I want to um like hone back

2:22:44 in on the um impact this might have on

2:22:48 the schools since that's the only thing

2:22:49 within our jurisdiction. And so, Kyle,

2:22:52 can you first of all, I want to I want

2:22:54 to say that I appreciate your sort of

2:22:56 forward thinking. And could you say a

2:22:59 little more about the northeastern part

2:23:02 of it? Your concern. I want to make sure

2:23:03 I'm understanding what your concern

2:23:05 might be. Is it accurate to say that

2:23:08 you're thinking that if they have to

2:23:11 comply with this regulation, they might

2:23:13 no long

2:23:16 offer the field anymore? Like they might

2:23:18 not even use the field or is that sort

2:23:20 of what you're thinking and then we

2:23:21 wouldn't have access to it.

2:23:24 Um I don't want to speculate necessarily

2:23:26 on what Nor Eastern might do or not do.

2:23:28 I don't even know about their awareness

2:23:29 level of this warrant article or its

2:23:32 impacts on their property. What I'll

2:23:34 share is that our usage there is um

2:23:38 we're we're very grateful for it and

2:23:39 it's really limited. Um they rightfully

2:23:43 prioritize their usages and their usage

2:23:45 has grown um in years as NCA uh

2:23:47 compliance has grown the number of out

2:23:50 ofseason hours they could participate.

2:23:52 And so um the short answer is yes. I

2:23:54 worry about it damaging the relationship

2:23:56 um and then impacting our access there.

2:23:58 Um, and our access there is already

2:24:00 limited in such a way that each of the

2:24:01 last five years we've had to lose uh or

2:24:04 move uh to another facility, a football

2:24:07 game each year. So 10% of our our

2:24:08 football games have had to go to uh

2:24:10 either an away venue. So we've gone to

2:24:12 Newton South, we've gone to Watertown,

2:24:14 we've played a home game at Newton

2:24:16 North. And so it's in a difficult

2:24:19 situation as it is. Um, and so any sort

2:24:21 of um

2:24:24 any sort of negative uh impact on them

2:24:27 would be I worry about the downstream

2:24:28 effect.

2:24:28 Okay, I think I understand that better.

2:24:30 But they can sorry but they can light

2:24:32 the field until 9:00 p.m. 10 p.m. 11

2:24:36 p.m.

2:24:37 Consistent with the bylaws. I think

2:24:39 it it they actually the they actually

2:24:41 have an agreement with the town to uh

2:24:43 turn off the lights at 9:00 p.m. Nor

2:24:45 Eastern does for the field just because

2:24:47 it's so embedded in the neighborhood.

2:24:49 That's idiosyncratic. But the way this

2:24:51 general bylaw is written, it's 1000 p.m.

2:24:54 or if there's something else in place,

2:24:57 which would be 9:00 p.m. for

2:24:58 So it doesn't sound like this would

2:25:00 impact

2:25:04 Oh,

2:25:05 my guess is the lights that are there

2:25:06 are not compliant.

2:25:08 Okay. So over the course of 10 years,

2:25:10 they might have to

2:25:11 five I think would be for the private

2:25:13 property.

2:25:13 Okay. And then sorry could you just say

2:25:16 a little on the for the golf course

2:25:20 the students would be more limited in

2:25:23 their access or they would not

2:25:24 No the golf course um point was twofold.

2:25:27 one around golf is that there's a lot of

2:25:31 it's a it's a very busy time in the

2:25:33 afternoon and so any capacity that the

2:25:34 golf course can expand into the evening

2:25:36 uh at the driving range especially would

2:25:38 open up opportunities for our students

2:25:40 in the afternoons because you wouldn't

2:25:41 see that that uh concentration of users

2:25:43 right after school

2:25:45 uh right before dark uh and then the

2:25:47 Nordic ski was just I think wishful

2:25:48 thinking the the golf course the

2:25:50 recreation department's been done an

2:25:51 awesome job working towards that they

2:25:53 don't have and I don't have know any

2:25:54 plans that they have for snow making or

2:25:56 otherwise Um, but where we compete now

2:25:58 is on a golf course. It's in in Weston.

2:26:00 Um, and so the opportunity to maybe do

2:26:03 that in the future um in Brooklyn would

2:26:04 be great.

2:26:05 Okay, that makes sense. Thank you.

2:26:07 Let me say something first, Carol.

2:26:09 Okay.

2:26:09 Um, so I'm trying to understand if it my

2:26:14 understanding is that with the curfews,

2:26:17 the nine, the 10, the 11, um, it doesn't

2:26:20 feel like there's any impact on the

2:26:22 athletic program or recreational

2:26:23 programs for the school system. Is that

2:26:25 true? I mean,

2:26:28 nobody's we're not we're not practicing

2:26:30 at 10 o'clock at night.

2:26:32 Um, it's the the backing up of

2:26:35 programming. So, if if we didn't have

2:26:38 users stacked one after the other, um, I

2:26:40 could expand and and go, you know, a

2:26:42 varsity practice at 3:30 and a JV

2:26:44 practice at 5:30 and go to 7:30, but

2:26:47 right now there's youth teams coming on

2:26:48 and then adult teams until the lights go

2:26:50 off. Another example is we're hoping to

2:26:52 implement uh inter mural programming.

2:26:54 And it would be great to be able to have

2:26:55 the inter murals go from 3:15 when

2:26:58 school gets out to 4:30 and then run

2:27:00 varsity practices, but our permits need

2:27:01 to end at 5:30 because we're working

2:27:03 backwards off of constrained capacity

2:27:05 due to darkness or due to uh 10 p.m.

2:27:08 which I think is totally reasonable. I'm

2:27:09 not asking for that to go later.

2:27:12 So I still need clarification. Will

2:27:14 there be an impact on our athletic and

2:27:17 recreational programs through this

2:27:19 warrant these two warrant articles?

2:27:21 I think there'll be a future impact at

2:27:22 the golf course because I think of in

2:27:24 terms of their uh revolving fund and and

2:27:27 the amount of use that gets there and

2:27:30 our desire to grow our use there. So I

2:27:32 think I think there'll be an impact

2:27:33 there and I think there will be an

2:27:35 impact on our partnerships. So

2:27:37 specifically Nor Eastern and the cost

2:27:39 that will be required for them to

2:27:40 upgrade their lights. So, the golf

2:27:42 course, they they want to they propose

2:27:43 to put lighting on the driving range.

2:27:45 We're not playing golf at 9:00 at night.

2:27:47 They're not putting lights on the golf

2:27:49 course,

2:27:50 right? But the drive the driving range

2:27:52 is is one of our big teaching tools. Uh

2:27:54 it's where we can actually find

2:27:54 capacity. We're not getting for our

2:27:57 girls JVB golf team. We're not getting

2:27:59 uh you know, eight more tea times at

2:28:01 3:15.

2:28:02 So, we're at the potentially the golf

2:28:03 course at 9:00 at night.

2:28:05 No, it would be pushing users. It would

2:28:06 spread the users out. Uh

2:28:09 okay. We are we're playing hockey till

2:28:10 11 o'clock at night, so it's not

2:28:12 unreasonable, but no, I don't plan on

2:28:13 putting girls JV golf at 9:00 p.m. at

2:28:15 the golf course.

2:28:17 Do you support these two Warren

2:28:18 articles?

2:28:20 Um, that's a loaded question. Uh, as as

2:28:23 written, it would be help. Go ahead.

2:28:27 I'm just

2:28:30 um I'm gonna run cover for Kyle. I I

2:28:34 appreciate that Kyle's here and um that

2:28:38 that the articles as written doesn't

2:28:41 directly impact um our athletic program,

2:28:46 but he but we by the nature of where we

2:28:50 are and we're in a concentrated space.

2:28:54 We are dependent on partners and so

2:28:56 Kyle's just making us aware that there

2:28:58 that there's that I appreciate. Yeah.

2:29:00 Yeah. Okay. Carolyn,

2:29:03 thank you.

2:29:06 This is the toughest issue we've ever

2:29:08 had.

2:29:08 It's it actually I don't think it's that

2:29:10 tough based on my under knowledge of it

2:29:14 from sort of where it started. So I

2:29:15 would like to move for all of the

2:29:17 reasons that David and Julie and Alisa

2:29:20 explained. I would like to move for us

2:29:22 to support this these two warrant

2:29:26 articles as written.

2:29:29 Seconded.

2:29:32 conversation.

2:29:36 I'm conf

2:29:38 Oh, thank you. Sorry. I'm going to be

2:29:39 honest. I'm a little bit confused about

2:29:41 why we need a motion if it doesn't have

2:29:42 a direct impact on the schools. So,

2:29:46 um

2:29:47 well, Kyle said there might be an

2:29:48 impact. Well, not it's not only on

2:29:51 athletics, but if there were any school

2:29:52 buildings through a survey that had

2:29:54 poorly shielded lights or too cool a

2:29:57 temperature or were left on

2:29:59 indiscriminately without timers,

2:30:01 eventually we would have to uh do that

2:30:04 R&M work maybe with Charlie Simmons's

2:30:06 group in order to remedy those things.

2:30:08 So we don't know at the moment

2:30:11 necessarily that there are any buildings

2:30:13 the school buildings which are really

2:30:15 town buildings but school buildings that

2:30:17 don't meet the requirements already but

2:30:19 if there are this this is why we want to

2:30:24 adopt these best practices.

2:30:27 Thank you.

2:30:29 I just I

2:30:31 had a process question. I'm sorry. So,

2:30:33 is are these the only two articles we're

2:30:35 looking at for the upcoming

2:30:38 um town meeting?

2:30:39 The only two that

2:30:41 Okay. Okay.

2:30:42 that have an impact.

2:30:44 Okay. That was that was vetted by a

2:30:48 group a sub government relations

2:30:50 subcommittee or

2:30:51 Well, there's been a lot of discussion.

2:30:53 I reached out to David because I thought

2:30:56 that and Kyle because I thought there

2:30:58 might be an impact on the schools. So, I

2:30:59 thought it was important for us to talk

2:31:01 about it. um wasn't committed to making

2:31:03 any motions, but there now is a motion

2:31:05 on the floor and it's seconded. We're in

2:31:07 the middle of a conversation and we have

2:31:09 to vote at some point

2:31:11 and it does sound like it has impact on

2:31:12 our athletic pro programs. I mean um so

2:31:16 I I kind of um didn't think that I would

2:31:19 be at this place in this conversation,

2:31:21 but I am hearing Kyle say that you know

2:31:24 football plays already um in you know in

2:31:28 Newton instead of in Brooklyn. we, you

2:31:30 know, um, we do have to think about what

2:31:33 we're able to offer.

2:31:34 Football doesn't play in Newton.

2:31:37 Occasionally, games are in other

2:31:40 locations um, across different sports

2:31:44 for the reasons that we don't have a lot

2:31:46 of fields and we rent our fields to

2:31:49 private schools.

2:31:52 Okay. Um, I personally am a little

2:31:55 confused about what how to vote here,

2:31:57 but we have a motion. We have it

2:31:59 seconded. And so I'm going to call the

2:32:01 question and let's vote starting with

2:32:03 Laura.

2:32:04 Uh, yes.

2:32:06 Sarah,

2:32:07 no.

2:32:08 Carolyn,

2:32:09 yes.

2:32:10 No.

2:32:12 Isa,

2:32:13 no.

2:32:14 Jesse,

2:32:14 yes.

2:32:15 Suzanne,

2:32:16 yes.

2:32:16 Val,

2:32:18 yes.

2:32:19 Bob,

2:32:21 no.

2:32:27 54.

2:32:29 54. Yes.

2:32:30 54.

2:32:33 Okay. 54. So, the school committee

2:32:35 supports both 12 warrant article 12 and

2:32:38 13 for town meeting. Okay. Thank you

2:32:40 very much.

2:32:40 Thank you.

2:32:42 Thank you for your patience too.

2:32:45 Uh remember I sat in this room for a lot

2:32:48 of years.

2:32:50 Um I just want to you know put the word

2:32:53 out. I totally agree with the four uh

2:32:55 opportunity d you know uh vectors for

2:32:58 expanded capaca field capacity and in my

2:33:02 own personal analysis lighting is the

2:33:05 least costly to get more hours of you

2:33:08 well turf maybe but turf's a maybe a

2:33:11 more difficult uh in Brooklyn um you

2:33:14 know uh political issue but I just want

2:33:17 to sort of either reassure remind you

2:33:20 all that there isn't n't um anything

2:33:24 anywhere in these articles that would

2:33:27 prevent uh any existing ball field of

2:33:31 any kind from having lighting to have

2:33:34 extended hours. So then that's an

2:33:36 advocacy opportunity for you to try to

2:33:39 get into this pick the fielder hill or

2:33:42 any other of the unlit fields and start

2:33:45 trying to get lighting on those fields

2:33:47 into the um into the CIP because there's

2:33:49 there's nothing against that in these

2:33:51 articles.

2:33:52 Thank you very much. Okay, thank you.

2:33:59 Okay,

2:34:01 that scrambled my brain.

2:34:04 All right, turn the lights.

2:34:07 We are now on budget development

2:34:09 guidelines, discussion, and possible

2:34:11 vote.

2:34:12 Who's up for this?

2:34:18 Well, I I I will start Yeah, I'll just

2:34:20 start off by saying that we reviewed

2:34:21 this document that was um um scheduled

2:34:25 by the superintendent to be ready in

2:34:28 early October and we we thank her for

2:34:30 having her and her team for doing that.

2:34:32 uh when we discussed it at finance and

2:34:34 capital um we felt that it first of all

2:34:36 as a one-pager it really captures a lot

2:34:40 of information and signals a um a real

2:34:44 um the sort of dedication to the core

2:34:46 principles that we're guiding towards

2:34:49 and we um unanimously unanimously

2:34:52 recommended that it brought be brought

2:34:54 to the next school committee meeting for

2:34:55 you know a discussion.

2:35:00 So who's presenting these budget

2:35:02 guidelines?

2:35:08 Who's Erin?

2:35:10 Are you presenting?

2:35:13 Someone should present.

2:35:14 It is it is

2:35:29 Yes.

2:35:39 Mike.

2:35:40 Yeah.

2:35:43 So, these come directly from uh the

2:35:46 superintendent's priorities to enact her

2:35:49 vision. Um the notes at the bottom come

2:35:53 down there. We felt that these were

2:35:56 simple enough that we could work

2:35:57 together and um meet all of these. Um

2:36:01 they also focus on uh the work that that

2:36:04 I believe we're already doing. So around

2:36:07 MTSS equity um ensuring that class sizes

2:36:12 are reasonable um and consistent with um

2:36:16 uh with history and uh school committee

2:36:19 guidance. So fairly simple one page as

2:36:23 Jesse shared

2:36:25 and uh yeah that's it.

2:36:28 Donna questions comments. Donna

2:36:31 I just want to say thank you um for this

2:36:33 work. I think um actually this one pager

2:36:36 does um it resonates for me and I

2:36:39 appreciate the sort of like more

2:36:41 simplified structure or architecture of

2:36:44 the document. Um, and I'm happy I if we

2:36:49 were to take a vote and make a motion, I

2:36:51 would make a motion to approve this, but

2:36:55 I can wait.

2:36:56 I'm going to make that motion then.

2:36:58 Let's go.

2:36:59 What's your motion?

2:37:00 To adopt the the draft budget. Hold on.

2:37:06 FY28 budget development guidelines.

2:37:08 Is there a second?

2:37:10 A second.

2:37:11 Carolyn seconds. Carolyn. But I do have

2:37:14 one little comment which I expressed at

2:37:16 finance too. So this is great. I love

2:37:18 it. This is just like I just like feel

2:37:20 the need to put this out into the

2:37:24 atmosphere on the B ensure class sizes

2:37:27 at the high school support equitable ac

2:37:29 access to academically rigorous program

2:37:32 lots of words. Um we talk a lot with our

2:37:36 K8 about sort of specific number

2:37:39 guidelines. I know the high school's

2:37:42 much more complicated because it's like

2:37:44 a whole district within just as a

2:37:48 I would love us to I would like us or

2:37:51 the district over time to sort of maybe

2:37:55 talk in more numbers and real guidelines

2:37:58 which might even actually be in I don't

2:38:00 know um about the high school because we

2:38:03 all love to keep our classes as small as

2:38:05 possible but um that's just like a a

2:38:08 wish. Thank you, Carolyn.

2:38:11 No further comments. Let's take a vote

2:38:13 on develop on approving the budget

2:38:15 development guidelines. Laura,

2:38:17 yes.

2:38:18 Sarah,

2:38:18 yes.

2:38:19 Val,

2:38:20 yes.

2:38:21 Um, Carolyn,

2:38:22 yes.

2:38:23 Donna,

2:38:24 yes.

2:38:24 Liza,

2:38:25 yes.

2:38:25 Jesse,

2:38:26 yes.

2:38:26 Suzanne,

2:38:27 yes.

2:38:27 Bob, yes. Unanimously approves

2:38:30 budget guidelines. Thank you.

2:38:31 Thank you, Erin.

2:38:33 Thank you. Um, next up, uh, removal of

2:38:36 philosophy statements, section 14 except

2:38:40 for 4B and 4 E1. Second reading,

2:38:44 possible vote. Suzanne,

2:38:49 we had the conversation in our last

2:38:50 meeting. That was first reading. I think

2:38:52 we had discussion at least some point.

2:38:55 So, um, yes, I would, uh, move to, uh,

2:39:01 remove the philosophy statements,

2:39:04 uh, except for 4B and 4E1.

2:39:10 Is that right?

2:39:10 There a second.

2:39:11 I would second.

2:39:12 Okay. Can you briefly describe what

2:39:15 we're doing? Well, so the in instruction

2:39:19 and teaching and learning there's the

2:39:21 instruction section of the policy state

2:39:23 policies. Um there are a number of

2:39:27 philosophy statements

2:39:30 before particular sections and they tend

2:39:34 to be very old. 1960s is the and and

2:39:37 some have been updated a little bit but

2:39:40 it's not really the place to put them.

2:39:42 It's it's a philosophy, not a policy.

2:39:46 And so we are suggest we meaning the

2:39:48 policy subcommittee voted four to zero

2:39:51 to bring this to the full committee and

2:39:54 we recommend that um we remove these

2:39:57 these philosophy statements.

2:40:00 Jesse, just as a um clarity for me, what

2:40:04 we have in printed copy here has no

2:40:07 philosophy statements in it, right? Or

2:40:09 are these the only two that still have

2:40:11 it and everything else?

2:40:12 No, section they've been taken out

2:40:14 except for these little subsections,

2:40:17 right? Okay.

2:40:18 Yeah.

2:40:19 So,

2:40:20 so there is no there is no philosophy

2:40:22 statement for uh student school

2:40:25 technology.

2:40:27 Say that again.

2:40:28 No, I thought that this was an exception

2:40:29 and that this is a philosophy philosophy

2:40:32 paragraph and that everything else in I4

2:40:34 doesn't have it.

2:40:36 Yeah, this is what we had.

2:40:37 Oh, this is the section. Thank you very

2:40:39 much. This is great. So, so you're

2:40:41 saying, for example, Suzanne, that 4A,

2:40:44 computer education,

2:40:45 right,

2:40:46 or gifted and talented, those philosophy

2:40:48 statements are all going away, and the

2:40:50 only ones that'll be left are I4B and I4

2:40:54 E1.

2:40:54 Correct.

2:40:55 Okay.

2:40:55 And the reason they're going away is

2:40:58 they are very, very old and outdated.

2:41:00 They're outdated. They say things that

2:41:02 and they aren't even up to the standards

2:41:05 from 1993.

2:41:06 Okay.

2:41:08 If may I speak? I also want to just add

2:41:11 on to another reason that I believe they

2:41:14 need to go away and I think I touched on

2:41:15 this last time. Um, as an avid user of

2:41:19 the policy manual, it actually um adds

2:41:23 to the confusion when you have

2:41:25 philosophy statements sort of scattered

2:41:28 throughout the the policy manual because

2:41:31 um as a user, you're thinking that

2:41:33 that's going to live in one specific

2:41:35 section. And so sometimes when I would

2:41:38 go through the policy manual to look

2:41:40 things up, you might have sort of like

2:41:42 an alternate sort of philosophy later in

2:41:45 the section or scattered in different

2:41:47 places and it's hard to

2:41:50 um when you're trying to research an

2:41:52 issue or whatnot. Sometimes you're

2:41:54 getting it's it makes it a little bit

2:41:56 more difficult to compile

2:41:59 um the information you need in one

2:42:00 place.

2:42:00 Right. any what you're saying is the

2:42:03 philosophy statements from the 1960s

2:42:05 um are in the context of a very very

2:42:08 different technological technical

2:42:11 environment and they have very little to

2:42:13 do with what's going on today. That's

2:42:15 why we're doing this.

2:42:16 Correct.

2:42:16 Okay, that's good.

2:42:18 Oh, hi.

2:42:19 Hi. Yes. So, to me the way it works is

2:42:23 that we have a philosophy then that

2:42:25 leads to a policy and the policy leads

2:42:28 to action plan. So to me it's like if we

2:42:32 are putting philosophy there that means

2:42:34 we have tied our policy and our action

2:42:37 to that philosophy

2:42:40 and and so my philosophy could differ

2:42:42 from yours but we may have the same

2:42:44 policy and I think when we have the same

2:42:47 policy uh that that brings people

2:42:50 together. Uh philosophy is usually is

2:42:53 where people differ from each other. So

2:42:55 I think having a policy manual just

2:42:57 stick to policy is a better approach

2:43:00 than having philosophies embedded. So

2:43:02 that would be my reasoning.

2:43:04 Okay. Any other comments?

2:43:06 Jesse.

2:43:07 So I guess in I4 E1 selection of books

2:43:10 and AV equipment under library. You're

2:43:13 saying that Roman numeral one here. You

2:43:15 can just look here if you want. Roman

2:43:18 numeral one is like a philosophy

2:43:19 statement that's being kept where it's

2:43:22 being removed from all the other I4s as

2:43:26 Betsy noted in here.

2:43:28 Yeah. I don't believe this is a

2:43:29 philosophy statement. This is

2:43:31 okay.

2:43:31 Uh this is a separate

2:43:34 uh piece about selection but it's not

2:43:37 about

2:43:37 okay great

2:43:38 the philosophy

2:43:39 of how we're going to select how we're

2:43:40 going to

2:43:41 select books.

2:43:42 So those items you need a policy on. So

2:43:47 you wouldn't want to exclude the whole

2:43:48 thing. And so

2:43:49 Oh, I'm not I'm not saying to do that. I

2:43:51 just wondered whether

2:43:52 there's there's another whole section

2:43:55 just on philosophy.

2:43:56 Perfect. Okay, great. I got it. Thank

2:43:57 you.

2:43:58 We're trying to

2:43:58 Okay, so we have a motion and a second

2:44:01 to remove the philosophy statement

2:44:02 sections I4 except for 4B or E1.

2:44:06 Fisa, how do you vote?

2:44:12 Yes.

2:44:13 Thank you, Jesse.

2:44:14 Yes.

2:44:17 Uh, Donna,

2:44:18 yes.

2:44:18 Caroline,

2:44:19 yes.

2:44:19 Sarah,

2:44:20 yes.

2:44:20 Laura,

2:44:21 yes.

2:44:22 Yes.

2:44:23 Bob, yes. Unanimously approved that.

2:44:25 Yay.

2:44:26 Okay. Um,

2:44:29 we're actually doing okay on time, not

2:44:32 disastrous. Um, we have, what do we have

2:44:35 now? Subcommittee and liaison reports.

2:44:38 And I want to announce first of all that

2:44:40 Jesse, who's on finance and capital, is

2:44:42 now our liaison to the building

2:44:44 commission. So I want everybody to know

2:44:46 that. Thank Jesse. Thank you so much.

2:44:48 Thank you.

2:44:49 Important. So do we have anything from

2:44:51 curriculum Carolyn?

2:44:53 No, we have not met and we have not been

2:44:56 able to um schedule a meeting yet, but

2:44:59 hopefully we will.

2:45:00 Okay. Uh Sarah, diversity, equity,

2:45:02 inclusion, justice.

2:45:03 No, we haven't met again.

2:45:04 Finance, capital projects. Jesse.

2:45:06 Uh yes. Do you want the building

2:45:08 commission one at the same time or you

2:45:09 want to

2:45:10 go for

2:45:10 I'll go for both. Okay. So um finance

2:45:13 and capital met. We had a very extended

2:45:15 discussion about the Driscoll School

2:45:17 playground. Um it ended basically with a

2:45:22 um the fact that there's a $200,000 plus

2:45:25 dollar option and a $300,000

2:45:29 option and no money at the current time.

2:45:32 Um so there's going to be more work done

2:45:36 and more discussions. Um we we got a

2:45:40 great uh report update from Aaron on the

2:45:44 mini CIP. One of the things that our

2:45:46 committee had asked was that we'd add

2:45:48 another column that tells us just the

2:45:50 simple status. Is it in play? Is it

2:45:52 complete? Is it not going to get done?

2:45:54 And that was added and just about

2:45:56 everything is was complete over the

2:45:58 summer. So like huge win for for

2:46:00 everyone. Um you saw the grants and

2:46:02 gifts that came through our consent

2:46:04 agenda today. budget guidelines came

2:46:06 through and in new business there were

2:46:09 two items that came up. One was that um

2:46:12 we would like the subcommittee to get a

2:46:15 future presentation about projected and

2:46:17 actual operating expenses for the newer

2:46:19 buildings. That would be like FRR

2:46:22 Driscoll and then looking ahead at

2:46:23 Pierce in terms of what the actual

2:46:25 operating expenses are. Um um and so

2:46:29 that was a uh a new business item. We

2:46:31 haven't moved past it yet, but uh it's

2:46:34 something that it's in in in the

2:46:36 long-term view for us. And u Okay. And

2:46:39 then that led to the building commission

2:46:40 part. Um actually I was at the meeting

2:46:42 yesterday and the um besides all the

2:46:46 stuff about the fire stations on the

2:46:48 pier school side um there's we're about

2:46:51 52 53% through the budget um of the 211

2:46:55 million for the project there's 103

2:46:57 left. And so, um, they're completely on

2:47:00 track, actually a little bit under

2:47:02 budget, but completely on track to, um,

2:47:05 get a certificate of occupancy by

2:47:07 October 29th, 2027. So, that would be,

2:47:11 you know, moving things in and then

2:47:12 starting in, you know, after in summer

2:47:14 28, which is which is which is really

2:47:16 good. Um, they um the the other thing

2:47:20 that I wanted to talk about just very

2:47:21 briefly then is that um, or two things.

2:47:23 One is that

2:47:26 Helen brought up the the fact that um

2:47:29 based on our experiences now with

2:47:31 Driscoll, the Pierce folks are going

2:47:33 back to left field and Sasaki to talk

2:47:35 about shading in advance for the lower

2:47:38 age students at the new Pierce outdoor

2:47:41 playground. This is not the one on

2:47:43 Harvard uh Harvard Harvard app. This is

2:47:46 the one that's in the nook of the

2:47:47 building. You can look at it outside in

2:47:49 the in the uh architect model. And so,

2:47:52 um, interestingly enough, there was a

2:47:56 part of the presentation that, um, MDS

2:47:59 did last night was that they went out,

2:48:03 uh, into, um, Waltham. And in Waltham,

2:48:06 they were able to put up um,

2:48:08 cantalievered sun shade umbrella systems

2:48:12 that rely only on one pole. So, the pole

2:48:15 is there and then the shade sits out.

2:48:17 They are removable in the case of an

2:48:18 orer or heavy snows or in cold weather.

2:48:22 Um the pricing they're going to be

2:48:24 working on right now it's just around

2:48:26 $90,000 for three of them. So these are

2:48:29 really expensive umbrellas. Um and you

2:48:31 know wow. So, um but and they they

2:48:34 actually showed, which was sort of

2:48:36 convincing actually, a um a shade model

2:48:39 in 3D animation that showed as the day

2:48:42 moves on what the um three shades over

2:48:45 three of the key playground elements

2:48:46 would be. And for most for the most part

2:48:49 of the hotter part of the day, they

2:48:50 would be um they would be uh shaded. Um,

2:48:54 I did discuss with them and ask a

2:48:56 question of but what about getting from

2:48:57 the building through the door to the

2:49:00 playground structures if it's hundred

2:49:02 and something degrees out there and they

2:49:03 agreed that that's hot. I mean, you

2:49:06 know, we're not looking if we're going

2:49:07 to shade the entire playground at the

2:49:09 Pierce outdoor one near the

2:49:10 amphitheater. It's going to be, you

2:49:12 know, a huge huge a huge project. And

2:49:15 so, um, there's going to be I'm going to

2:49:17 see if I can actually get out to Waltham

2:49:19 at some point and see what it looks like

2:49:20 just to get a sense of the actual

2:49:22 structure because it's in place right

2:49:23 now. Um, and, um, they're going to

2:49:26 they're going to continue to work with

2:49:29 LAP on, you know, in on on capital

2:49:32 projects to ensure that, um, that's sort

2:49:34 of a one possibility for us. They're

2:49:37 because the project is under budget

2:49:39 right now. In theory, this money could

2:49:41 come out of the building budget as a

2:49:43 change order. And so it would go in and

2:49:46 so um we the the building commission

2:49:48 meets once a month and um uh moved

2:49:51 through a lot of items last night. Um,

2:49:53 one thing I didn't notice, one thing I

2:49:55 didn't fully appreciate is fixing the

2:49:58 fire station on Babcock Street requires

2:50:01 the building of a temporary fire station

2:50:03 in that area like a block away because

2:50:06 residents of that area of North Brooklyn

2:50:08 would need to have um emergency response

2:50:11 commenurate with their with the distance

2:50:13 and the density. So, there's actually a

2:50:15 plan to put uh a fiveperson single

2:50:19 engine temporary fire station either in

2:50:23 a portion of the John Street parking lot

2:50:25 or another portion of the Babcock Street

2:50:28 parking lot. And that would provide

2:50:30 parking spaces for the firefighters that

2:50:32 are assigned to those to one of those

2:50:33 two buildings. So, that's a that's a

2:50:35 work in progress, but um uh it was you

2:50:37 know it was just something I didn't

2:50:39 really consider. I I asked like why are

2:50:41 you putting another fire station up in

2:50:42 it? This is temporary housing to provide

2:50:44 safety for residents in North Workline.

2:50:47 So, yeah. And it and it's funded by the

2:50:49 project under the bond that we took out

2:50:50 for the um in in the uh in what was it a

2:50:55 uh a bond two years ago or something or

2:50:57 something like that for the fire

2:50:58 station. So, it's within budget.

2:51:01 Thank you, Jesse, for all that work.

2:51:03 Appreciate it. Negotiations. We have our

2:51:06 next negotiations meeting will be you

2:51:08 tomorrow five o'clock and

2:51:12 making progress, you know, making

2:51:16 progress. We'll see how long it takes,

2:51:18 but we'll get there, right? Yeah. Okay.

2:51:21 Uh policy Suzanne.

2:51:23 Yeah. We have our next meeting Tuesday

2:51:25 the 20th and um our field director from

2:51:29 MASC, Alicia, is coming and she's going

2:51:32 to give us an overview and help us

2:51:34 figure out how we're moving forward. So,

2:51:36 stay tuned.

2:51:37 Thank you, Susan. Um any reports from

2:51:39 any additional liaison ships Sarah?

2:51:42 So um Jesse did part of Pierce and I'll

2:51:45 do the rest. I'll skip over the part

2:51:46 that overlaps. Um

2:51:48 Pierce rep.

2:51:49 So um they have started drywalling the

2:51:52 hallways and glazing the library since I

2:51:53 went on my last tour there. Um there's

2:51:55 some covering the the glazing on the

2:51:57 library windows. There's some covering

2:51:59 on it that's like little dots and what

2:52:01 that does is it reduces the solar heat

2:52:03 gain. Um MSBA will come through the

2:52:06 toilet project tomorrow. at 11 a.m. and

2:52:10 Kiki um plans to do a mockup of a room

2:52:13 to show the teachers and the principal

2:52:14 what it will be like to be in the space

2:52:17 and the path to the park will open up um

2:52:19 and the rest of the park excluding the

2:52:21 baseball fields will be open by November

2:52:23 11th.

2:52:24 I was just going to add that I'm going

2:52:25 to um Helen and I both be at that MSBA

2:52:28 meeting tomorrow for the tour of the

2:52:30 building. Great status update.

2:52:32 Great.

2:52:34 Um I'm just this is maybe it's sort of

2:52:38 curriculum adjacent. I just want to um

2:52:41 announce and plug that tomorrow evening

2:52:44 at 700 p.m. at the high school in the

2:52:48 MLK room is the um reading event of the

2:52:52 Whipple Fellows. Um and I don't know if

2:52:56 we got an email from Evan

2:53:00 um but I saw it on Facebook. I think it

2:53:03 was in our email actually because that's

2:53:05 how I found out about it.

2:53:06 Okay, good. Okay,

2:53:06 the went to school committee from uh

2:53:09 someone who runs the program. I don't

2:53:10 remember his name. I'm sorry.

2:53:11 And I I missed the email, but I'm going

2:53:13 to try and get over there. It's a really

2:53:15 great event. The Whipple Fellowship um

2:53:17 is a program um that's sponsored by um

2:53:22 um some parents in honor of their late

2:53:25 son. Um, and it gives an opportunity to

2:53:29 BHS students to do a really indepth um

2:53:32 very special writing project um with

2:53:36 with guidance from some of our teachers.

2:53:39 Um, and so then at this event they they

2:53:42 read and it's just one of those BHS

2:53:45 awesome things that makes Brookline

2:53:48 great. So,

2:53:49 thank you Carolyn. That's true. Um, any

2:53:51 other leaders reports?

2:53:54 Yes. you.

2:53:56 Yes, me. Um, I am the school committee

2:53:59 liaison to METCO. So, I have um just a

2:54:01 few announcements. One is um MECO just

2:54:05 published uh Brookline Mechco just

2:54:06 published their annual report. So,

2:54:08 that's available as school committee

2:54:10 members. We all have it in our inbox. I

2:54:12 also want to say that a week from

2:54:14 Saturday, which is the 24th,

2:54:17 um METCO is hosting its career day at

2:54:20 BHS. It starts, I think, at 8 a.m. And

2:54:22 they're always looking for volunteers.

2:54:25 Um I will be there in case anyone wants

2:54:26 to join me. And then Saturday night is

2:54:29 the um it takes a village event um that

2:54:35 is also hosted by Brooklyn MCO. It

2:54:37 traditionally was in the um Golden

2:54:40 Temple space. Yes. So it's in a new

2:54:42 location this year. Um I'm also going to

2:54:44 try to make it to that if I can survive

2:54:47 from 8 am to whatever the start time is.

2:54:51 Um, so if anyone is interested in

2:54:53 joining me, you're welcome.

2:54:56 Thank you. Thank you, Donna. Um, any

2:54:58 other leazison reports?

2:55:01 Okay.

2:55:04 Oh, new business. I'm sorry. New

2:55:05 business. Any new business?

2:55:10 Any new business? Anything new? No,

2:55:12 nothing new. Okay. Then

2:55:17 I need a motion to I need a motion to

2:55:20 meet in executive session pursuant to

2:55:22 mass mass general law chapter 30A

2:55:25 section 21A for the following purposes.

2:55:27 Purpose three to discuss strategy with

2:55:30 respect to collective bargaining with

2:55:31 the Brooklyn Educators Union unit A unit

2:55:34 B paraprofessional unit because an open

2:55:36 meeting will have a detrimental effect

2:55:38 on the bargaining position of the school

2:55:39 committee and the chair so declares.

2:55:42 Purpose three to discuss strategy with

2:55:44 respect to collective bargaining with

2:55:45 the Brooklyn Educators Union Unit A on a

2:55:49 grievance because an open meeting will

2:55:50 have a detrimental effect on the

2:55:52 bargaining position of the committee and

2:55:54 the chair so declares. And purpose seven

2:55:57 to approve the minutes from the

2:55:58 September 30th, 2026 executive session

2:56:01 meeting. Is there a motion to move into

2:56:04 executive session?

2:56:06 Seconded. I move. Oh, second it. Um,

2:56:10 you move.

2:56:10 We will vote. Fisa,

2:56:14 yes.

2:56:14 Come on, Fisa.

2:56:16 Jesse,

2:56:17 yes.

2:56:18 Suzanne,

2:56:18 yes.

2:56:19 Donna,

2:56:20 yes.

2:56:20 Carol,

2:56:21 yes.

2:56:21 Sarah,

2:56:22 yes.

2:56:22 Laura,

2:56:23 yes.

2:56:23 Val,

2:56:24 yes.

2:56:25 Bob, yes. And we are not returning to an

2:56:28 open session. Thank you very much. I

2:56:30 hope the audience appreciated this

2:56:32 exciting meeting. Check in next time,

2:56:35 October 28th, for another exciting

2:56:38 school committee meeting.

2:56:39 Good night. should

2:56:41 Yeah.