Brookline School Committee Meeting - October 14, 2026 (Audio Fixed)
2026-10-14

[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.