Brookline School Committee Meeting - October 14, 2026

18:21 turned it into a moment of genuine

18:23 connection.

18:24 There was no audience, no recognition,

18:27 just a principal and his child and a few

18:30 minutes in which that child had his

18:31 principal's complete attention.

18:34 When I sat down to write my moment of

18:36 inspiration and thought about how to

18:38 describe it, I thought of a verse in

18:40 Proverbs from the Hebrew Bible about

18:42 righteousness, integrity, and what we

18:45 pass from one generation to the next. In

18:48 Hebrew, it reads

18:50 a

18:53 righteous person walks in his integrity

18:55 and fortunate are his children after

18:57 him.

18:59 I think sometimes people of

19:00 extraordinary character are recognized

19:02 not through grand acts, but through the

19:05 small things they do when they think

19:07 they have when they have no idea anyone

19:09 is watching. Rick Rogers probably had

19:12 hundreds of moments like that with

19:14 hundreds of children. I happen to

19:15 witness one. How fortunate all those

19:18 children were to have been touched by

19:20 this extraordinary and yet ordinary man.

19:24 More than a decade later, I still

19:25 remember a little boy who likely

19:26 struggled in his classroom running

19:28 around the Lawrence field and a

19:30 principal standing there watching every

19:32 step. Thank you.

19:36 Thank you, Donna.

19:39 Next up, we have the

19:40 [clears throat and cough] Excuse me.

19:42 Next up, we have the consent agenda.

19:44 Fairly long. Are there any comments

19:45 before we vote to accept the consent

19:48 agenda? Yes, Carolyn. Um I think I have

19:51 a question and this is bringing forward

19:53 something that came up in finance when

19:55 we looked at that. Um so in 2H the um

20:00 prism grant for beep um

20:06 literacy

20:07 curriculum I think like study and

20:11 purchase. So um

20:14 I think there was just curiosity be

20:17 curiosity given that we've been engaged

20:20 in purchasing and rolling out a new

20:22 curriculum literacy curriculum just like

20:25 how does this align with

20:29 fish tank and that work?

20:34 Okay, great. Thank you.

20:36 Thank you Carolyn. Thank you Robin.

20:45 Hi. Um, so I I watched the subcommittee.

20:48 I know you had some questions about the

20:50 Prism 2 grant. So, this is a sim we had

20:54 a similar grant for part of our fish

20:56 tank um adoption that supported some

20:59 professional learning and supported the

21:01 purchase of some of the materials. Um,

21:04 for this Prism 2 grant, it's specific to

21:07 um preschool. So it's only a preschool

21:10 grant. It's a in a preschool cohort. And

21:13 so what they are going through, they

21:15 already use some materials that are

21:16 aligned with what we use at the K8. Um

21:20 but they do not have they're looking

21:22 for, you know, to make a more robust

21:24 literacy curriculum for our our beep

21:27 students. Um so part of the grant funds

21:30 the work of the committee through their

21:32 se their selection. They are part of the

21:36 Massachusetts implement

21:38 um cohort for imp uh for for the um

21:43 selection for the investigate and

21:44 selection as well, but it's one that's

21:46 targeted again specifically to

21:48 preschool, but it follows the same

21:49 framework. Um so this fall they'll be

21:52 engaged in some vision setting with

21:54 their committee um which includes um a

21:57 number of stakeholders on educators.

22:00 around February, they'll be um reviewing

22:04 curriculum and beginning to look at

22:05 that. At that point, they'll also bring

22:07 in Kristen Gray, who's our K8 literacy

22:10 coordinator to help with that alignment

22:12 and also to be another member of that um

22:15 of that committee after they've created

22:17 their vision. Um really what they're

22:19 looking at think they are looking at

22:21 materials are based on playful learning.

22:23 So, it's it's age appropriate. It's it's

22:25 aimed at middle at preschool students.

22:28 Um it's really to provide tier one

22:30 instruction for all students involved

22:31 that are participate in BEEP. Um I think

22:34 one of the questions you had because it

22:36 does support the purchase um the

22:38 potential purchase of curricular

22:40 materials and it covers a portion of it.

22:42 So I think you asked the question around

22:43 like what would be the um what PSB would

22:46 have to contribute. Um my understanding

22:48 from talking with Margaret um our

22:50 principal and you'll hear from her

22:52 tonight as well for her school

22:53 improvement plan um potential to be f

22:56 what the the gap between what is funded

22:59 by the um grant and what might need to

23:02 be provided for purchase could

23:04 potentially be [clears throat] part of

23:06 the paid for out of the revolving fund.

23:09 It may require some thoughtful you know

23:11 planning for us as part of the budget

23:13 process but that um that's something

23:16 that It's it's a small amount. It's

23:18 really it's not as uh as large a

23:20 purchase obviously as a as a K literacy

23:23 program. We're talking about a much

23:24 smaller um ask from the from the get-go.

23:28 Um and the grant does cover a good

23:30 portion of that. So um it's to yeah so

23:34 it's to to support beep with early

23:37 literacy to build on resources and align

23:39 with ones that we already have and also

23:41 bring coherence with the K8 selection.

23:44 Thank you Robin. Any other questions on

23:46 the consent agenda?

23:49 By the way, is Val online?

23:52 Okay.

23:54 If there are no further questions on the

23:56 consent agenda, I ask for a motion to

23:59 accept the consent agenda. Suzanne makes

24:02 the motion. We have a second.

24:04 Seconded.

24:05 Jesse seconds it. Laura, how do you

24:06 vote?

24:07 Yes.

24:07 Sarah, how do you vote?

24:10 Yes.

24:10 Carolyn, how do you vote?

24:11 Yes.

24:12 Donna, how do you vote?

24:13 Yes.

24:13 Liza, how do you vote?

24:14 Yes.

24:16 Yes. [clears throat]

24:16 Suzanne,

24:17 yes.

24:17 Val,

24:19 yes.

24:19 Bob, yes. Unanimously approved the

24:21 consent agenda. Thank you very much.

24:25 Item [clears throat] number three, on

24:27 November 5th, the Brookline High School

24:29 Innovation Fund will have their annual

24:32 Gailorama fundraiser at the high school.

24:35 And so I need to entertain a vote to

24:37 authorize Brooklyn High School the

24:39 innovation fund to serve beer, wine, and

24:42 hard seltzers during the annual gayama

24:45 on November 5th. Um to be held in the

24:48 STEM wing lobby from 7 o'clock in the

24:51 evening until 10 o'clock in the evening.

24:53 Do I have a motion?

24:54 So move that. Jesse moves it. Suzanne

24:57 seconds it

24:59 yes

25:00 Jesse

25:01 yes

25:05 Sarah

25:06 yes

25:06 Laura

25:07 yes

25:07 Val

25:08 yes

25:09 Bob yes unanimously approved

25:11 congratulations Brooklyn High School

25:13 have an amazing gayama on the 5th of

25:16 November okay moving right along we have

25:19 a student report let's go

25:22 hi everyone I hope everyone's doing well

25:25 I think if you asked most to the

25:27 students at the high school, they would

25:28 say they're doing really busy. Um, but

25:32 we started off the month with our annual

25:34 back to school night, which was guided

25:36 by the Brooklyn High School Ambassadors

25:38 program, which is the student body who

25:41 assists in helping parents find their

25:43 students classrooms and get to meet and

25:45 greet the teachers and also the advisory

25:49 junior and senior keepers acted as

25:51 guides during this night. It was really

25:54 great as I heard from my mom as well as

25:56 many of my teachers. Um, a couple other

25:59 things. Uh, the interim progress reports

26:02 were released on October 8th and that um

26:06 is a normal occurrence halfway through

26:08 each quarter and the only change is that

26:11 attendance this year has been slightly

26:13 shifted due to the new schedule. we have

26:15 longer class periods and as a result um

26:18 there is a lower quota for um the amount

26:21 of attendance that you have to fulfill.

26:24 Um so you cannot be absent um as many

26:26 days as you could in the past and if you

26:29 did um exceed those absences that would

26:32 have been mentioned on your IPR.

26:35 Um, as for this week, we began the week

26:38 with the day off for Indigenous People's

26:39 Day, and there was a celebration that

26:42 was hosted at FRR that several high

26:44 school students attended. Um, and this

26:47 Saturday at 7:45 a.m. there will be the

26:51 PSAT administered at the high school,

26:54 which I will be in attendance for. Um,

26:58 in other note, student government has

27:00 officially began its year at the high

27:02 school with legislature, our student and

27:04 faculty branch hosting the elections for

27:07 a student and faculty chair as well as

27:09 student council elections being

27:11 completed. We now have a full student

27:13 council and we'll be proceeding with

27:16 student council business very soon. Um,

27:19 and lastly, on a very positive note for

27:21 both the staff and the students of the

27:23 high school, our studentr run

27:25 restaurant, the Tap and Green, is

27:26 officially in operation for the school

27:28 year.

27:29 Thank you,

27:30 Anukica. Great job. Does anybody have

27:32 any questions for Anukica Bonerjee, the

27:34 amazing student rep. We do have some

27:37 questions. Sarah,

27:39 mine's a comment. Um, I wanted to say

27:41 that this year when I went to back to

27:42 school night at the high school, there

27:43 were a couple of teachers that decided

27:45 to not only present who they were and

27:46 their backgrounds, but they also sort of

27:49 unveiled a little bit the way that they

27:50 teach by sharing something that they

27:52 taught with the parents and it really

27:55 felt to me like a highlevel conversation

27:58 about how they approach education and I

28:01 really enjoyed that. So,

28:03 thank you Sarah. that Caroline,

28:06 I just have to do my annual I love back

28:09 to school night. I guess this was my

28:11 seventh. Um, it's talk about

28:14 inspiration.

28:17 It's just amazing. Um, and my husband

28:20 feels the same way. We just leave

28:23 pinching ourselves saying, "How could we

28:26 be so lucky to be able to have our

28:30 children at a school with teachers who

28:33 are so dedicated, so smart,

28:37 so enthusiastic,

28:39 um so love last one and I will also say

28:44 a couple of the teachers um commented

28:47 specifically that they're really liking

28:50 the 70 minute period. period. They

28:52 really are feeling like that's giving

28:54 them an opportunity to like switch up

28:57 what they're doing, really dig into the

28:59 material. Um, so that was a positive

29:02 note, too.

29:03 Thank you very much, Laura.

29:06 As the mother of a ninth grader, this

29:08 was my first VHS back to school night,

29:10 and I want to echo what was said. I was

29:12 incredibly impressed by the passion and

29:15 intelligence of the educators, the the

29:18 care they put in into how well-run it

29:20 was. In addition to giving shoutouts to

29:23 high school for back to school net, I

29:24 also want to give shoutouts to our uh

29:26 middle schools that are also welcoming

29:29 parents in as well. I had the

29:30 opportunity to attend uh the parent

29:33 openhouse at Driscoll, which was also it

29:37 I left feeling very confident about my

29:39 son's education and knowing that the

29:41 students were in very capable hands and

29:44 I think that was a really lovely thing

29:46 to be able to attend as well.

29:53 Anukica, thank you so much for your

29:54 student report. I was hoping you might

29:56 um give some feedback on this on the new

29:59 six day schedule and if you feel like

30:01 you're falling into a routine and how

30:04 others are experiencing that.

30:06 Absolutely. So, I'll speak for myself. I

30:08 do really enjoy it. I think the idea of

30:10 having fewer classes in a day is really

30:12 beneficial especially given the homework

30:14 load and that just allows students who

30:17 play sports and have other

30:18 extracurricular activities to balance

30:20 their life slightly better. I think the

30:22 key challenge is just planning out.

30:24 Normally you would say on Mondays I

30:26 would have this activity on Tuesdays I

30:28 would have this activity and the idea of

30:30 there being a day one through six does

30:32 challenge that slightly. And I think for

30:34 teachers as well, I've talked to a

30:35 couple and just being able to set office

30:37 hours on a consistent schedule. I think

30:40 that's the the main difficulty with the

30:43 schedule, but otherwise people are

30:44 adjusting. And originally we they tried

30:48 to introduce brain breaks, which is a

30:51 middle school concept that many of you

30:52 might be familiar with. Um, and I think

30:55 we've slowly been weaned off of those,

30:57 so I think we're getting somewhere. But

30:59 yeah, overall pretty great.

31:01 Thank you.

31:03 Okay, I just [clears throat] want to say

31:05 I I fondly remember back to school night

31:08 at Brooklyn High School and when we were

31:10 lucky enough to have the Red Sox in the

31:12 playoffs during that time. You know, the

31:15 format is the parents come and they

31:17 follow their students schedules

31:18 throughout the throughout the night. And

31:20 during passing time, I would announce

31:22 the Red Sox scores

31:25 and cheer the Red Sox on when they were

31:27 doing really well. Anyway, thank you

31:29 Anukica very much. Thank you everybody.

31:33 Okay, public comment. We have four four

31:37 people making public comment tonight.

31:38 You have three minutes. Betsy is the

31:40 timekeeper. She's brutal.

31:44 So take take your take your three

31:47 minutes and let's get going.

31:49 Uh Yasmin Sharif, you're first. Got to

31:52 hold it right up to you.

31:54 Hold it right up. Okay. Good evening.

31:56 How are you? Uh, my name is Yasmine

31:58 Sharif and I'm a sixth grade teacher at

32:00 Baker School and I'm here to share my

32:02 concerns about how recent changes to the

32:04 library program are affecting our middle

32:06 school students and their access to

32:08 books. In previous years, sixth graders

32:11 had a bi-weekly library period that

32:12 included a short lesson and an

32:14 opportunities to select books. Between

32:16 scheduled visits, students could also

32:18 stop by the library during the school

32:20 day as their schedules allowed to return

32:22 or exchange books. Last year, our sixth

32:25 graders checked out more books than any

32:27 other grade at Baker School. Many of our

32:29 students are enthusiastic, voracious

32:31 readers who genuinely love books.

32:34 Fostering that enthusiasm is something

32:36 we should be actively encouraging,

32:37 especially as students get older and

32:39 develop lifelong reading habits. Within

32:42 days of the school year beginning, my

32:44 new group of sixth graders were already

32:45 eagerly asking when they could go to the

32:47 library to get new books. I had to

32:50 explain that access to the library would

32:51 look very different this year. Under the

32:53 current program, there are no

32:55 opportunities for students to

32:56 independently visit the library during

32:58 the school day to select or exchange

33:00 books. Instead, they will have access to

33:02 the library just 15 times over the

33:04 entire school year. For many students,

33:07 this is a significant disappointment and

33:09 a real barrier to their reading habits.

33:11 Some devour books at a rate of one per

33:13 day, meaning they may finish several

33:15 books. Oh, sorry. My phone just rang and

33:18 then it disappeared. Oh no, my time.

33:20 Hold on.

33:21 [laughter]

33:22 Um,

33:24 instead they will have access to type

33:25 15. Okay. For many students is a

33:27 significant disappointment and a real

33:29 barrier to their reading habits. Oh no,

33:30 I read that. Shoot, hold on. Although

33:32 the library is open for 10 minutes

33:34 before school and 10 minutes after

33:35 dismissal, these brief windows are not

33:37 practical for many middle schoolers who

33:39 need time to prepare for the school day

33:40 or have family responsibilities and

33:42 other commitments after school. These

33:44 limited hours are not an adequate

33:46 substitute for access during the school

33:47 day. The school committee policy itself

33:50 supports the importance of providing

33:51 students with flexible needs-based

33:53 access to library resources. With only

33:56 15 20-minute periods available to my

33:58 sixth graders for this entire school

33:59 year, they should at minimum be

34:01 permitted to visit the library during

34:03 the school day to return books and

34:05 select new ones when they finish

34:06 reading, provided their schedules allow.

34:09 Unfortunately, due to changes in the

34:10 library program this year, this is not

34:12 possible. At a time when children are

34:14 spending increasing amounts of time on

34:16 technology and screens, we should be

34:18 creating more opportunities for them to

34:19 engage with books, not fewer. Unlike

34:22 many elementary classrooms, middle

34:24 school classrooms typically do not have

34:26 extensive classroom libraries. For many

34:28 students, the school library is their

34:30 primary source of books, and restricting

34:32 access makes it harder for them to

34:33 sustain their reading habits. If our

34:36 goal is to foster a schoolwide culture

34:38 of reading, reducing access to books,

34:40 particularly for students who are

34:41 motivated and eager to read, is

34:43 counterproductive, a more flexible

34:45 library schedule would also benefit

34:47 teachers and students who need library

34:49 resources for research assignments and

34:51 special projects. I respectfully ask

34:53 that the current library program be

34:55 reconsidered and that middle school

34:57 students at minimum be given

34:58 opportunities to access the library

35:00 during the school day on an as-needed

35:02 basis. Our students have demonstrated

35:04 that they want to read and we should do

35:06 everything we can to support their

35:07 interest by ensuring they have

35:08 meaningful, consistent access to books.

35:10 Thank you for your time and

35:11 consideration. [applause]

35:14 Thank you.

35:16 Next up,

35:19 Amanda.

35:22 Hi, Amanda.

35:28 Good evening. My name is Amanda Crutchar

35:31 and I am here speaking tonight on behalf

35:33 of our K8 school librarians. I have been

35:36 the Pierce K8 School Librarian for the

35:39 past 17 years. Just one year ago, I

35:42 stood up here as your CVLY award-winning

35:45 teacher. I spoke of the power of books,

35:48 the joy and effectiveness of true

35:50 collaboration between school librarians

35:52 and teachers, and the value of our

35:55 school libraries as the hearts of our

35:57 schools. Unfortunately, I am standing

36:00 here tonight just one year later,

36:02 reeling from the cuts that were made

36:04 last year to our educational technology

36:07 teachers, our high school librarian, and

36:09 the 50% budget cuts to our school

36:12 libraries. Now, I am asking you to

36:15 reconsider our district's decision to

36:18 use our K8 school libraries as K8

36:21 teacher drop off specials like art,

36:24 music, or PE. This K5 dropoff model will

36:28 not only deprive students of their

36:30 access to information and books, but

36:33 erode our school's cultures of reading

36:35 that the public schools of Brooklyn has

36:37 always valued. Historically, our school

36:40 libraries have had flexible schedules

36:42 where teachers attended library class

36:44 with their students so we can

36:46 collaborate, co-e, provide readers

36:48 guidance together with the teachers

36:51 knowledge of student needs and the

36:53 librarian's knowledge of books. Students

36:55 could come to the library whenever they

36:57 needed a book, even when we were

36:58 teaching a class since there was always

37:01 multiple adults in that space to assist.

37:05 We could reschedule missed classes,

37:07 manage our fabulous collections, and

37:09 developing program, develop programming

37:11 and instruction based on student and

37:13 teacher needs. This flexibility is what

37:16 made our school library programs so

37:18 successful. We were told that this

37:21 disruptive change to our school library

37:23 programs was due to the need for the

37:24 implementation of the multi-tered system

37:26 of supports model known as MTSS.

37:30 The district's response to DESIE

37:32 directives instead of thoughtfully

37:35 strategizing how to find time for

37:37 teachers to do this work, hiring

37:39 additional staff to implement this model

37:41 effectively or implementing a slow roll

37:44 out to determine the value of this

37:45 model. The district has instead rushed

37:48 through a major shift in our already

37:50 understaffed and underfunded K8 school

37:52 libraries

37:54 without even officially telling us.

37:57 There were no department meetings where

37:59 we could strategize there plan a

38:03 schedule that made sense that could work

38:05 well. None of that. Our neighboring

38:08 school districts who use this model of

38:10 library as a drop off schedule are K5

38:14 schools with separate middle school

38:16 buildings that have full-time certified

38:18 school librarians and flexibly scheduled

38:20 library programs. in Brooklyn. This

38:23 fixed drop off model will not only take

38:25 away from all K8 students ability to

38:28 access library resources on an as-needed

38:30 basis, but it'll obliterate our middle

38:33 school library programs since the focus

38:36 has to be on those K5 fixed classes.

38:40 While most of our schools have multiple

38:42 art, music, and PE teachers to provide

38:44 services to all KA classes, we continue

38:47 to be the only school librarian in each

38:49 building. Whether our enrollment is at

38:51 400 or 900, teaching all KA classes,

38:55 working with every teacher, managing our

38:57 wonderful school libraries that are

38:59 resources for all becomes impossible.

39:02 Decades of research across more than 30

39:04 states link strong library programs to

39:07 higher reading and math and writing

39:09 scores with the largest benefits for

39:12 low-income students, English language

39:14 learners, and students from historically

39:17 marginalized identities. Those are the

39:19 very groups this district has publicly

39:22 committed to serving better. The drop

39:24 off model removes every one of those

39:26 researchbacked ingredients at once in

39:28 exchange for a cheap scheduling

39:31 convenience.

39:32 I understand the goal. Teachers need

39:35 time to review data and the district

39:37 wants instructional consistency. Those

39:39 are legitimate goals, but this

39:42 particular solution was designed for a

39:44 district structure that we don't have.

39:47 and it quietly closes the school library

39:50 to the students who need it most. Thank

39:52 you.

39:54 [applause]

39:59 Thank you, Amanda. Next.

40:11 Uh, good evening. Uh, my name is Eric

40:14 Lauraniano and I live next to Potterham

40:16 uh, golf course and I want to speak a

40:19 little bit aside from education about

40:21 the proposed lighting bylaw coming up

40:24 for a vote. The proposed lighting bylaw

40:27 specifically names Potterham and

40:28 Potterham Woods as sensitive areas and

40:32 where lighting will not be permitted.

40:35 We're asking the school committee and

40:36 town meeting members to request an

40:38 amendment to the bylaw to remove

40:40 Potterham and Potterham Woods from that

40:43 list or vote no on the proposal

40:45 altogether. As written, the bylaws will

40:48 prevent prevent Potterham from adding

40:51 compliant shielded uh lights to the

40:54 driving range. Without these lights, the

40:56 driving range cannot operate during the

40:58 fall and the spring days of daylight

41:01 savings time. It just gets dark very,

41:03 very early. We can operate from 4 to

41:06 about 8:00 PM at night. Those few hours

41:10 will mean about $160,000

41:13 in lost revenue to the golf course,

41:16 which is important to maintain and

41:18 improve the golf course. Butam is more

41:22 than just golf. We have October Fest. We

41:25 offer a sprint festival. We do uh movies

41:28 for families on the fairway. We um also

41:31 have um concerts and many other

41:34 activities. Uh not to mention Potterham

41:37 Woods, which is a great walking trail.

41:40 The driving range and golf course

41:42 welcomes people from everywhere. I've

41:44 met people there who are retirees,

41:46 firefighters, police officers, students,

41:49 uh kids from the neighborhood, dads and

41:51 moms with their kids. It's just a great

41:54 diverse place and we need places like

41:56 this in the growing uh communities of

42:00 Brooklyn and I think it's so important.

42:02 We do have to be aware of the

42:05 environment and sensitive to uh wild uh

42:08 to wildlife. The proposed lights are

42:11 very modern. They're very limited in

42:13 where they shine. They will be directed

42:16 directly on the um driving range. So,

42:20 they're not going to be lighting up and

42:22 they're going to be very, very minimal

42:24 where the golfer stands and up to 150

42:28 yards where they can see the ball

42:29 flight. Beyond that, there will be no

42:32 lights and the driving range is 250

42:35 yards. All of that other area will be

42:37 entirely dark. I have here

42:41 [clears throat] a map that I um gave to

42:44 the committee where it shows that

42:46 Putterham is not itself a wetland. There

42:50 are several small wetland in and around

42:54 Putterham and those orange areas there

42:57 are the ones that are wetlands.

43:00 This map also shows that there will be

43:04 lights added to West Roxbury Parkway to

43:08 light the new bike path and road. Um,

43:12 also we have lights across the street um

43:15 at night at Skyline Park. The fire

43:18 station is lighted. The parking lot for

43:21 Potterham is lighted. There is a deck in

43:24 the patio that is lighted. The public

43:27 works building is lighted. So, we think

43:30 we can just add a little bit of lighting

43:33 to the beginning of the driving range so

43:35 that Potterham can continue to flourish.

43:38 Thank you very much.

43:41 Thank you very Next up,

43:45 Andrew Porter, please.

43:53 Good evening. My name is Andrew Porter.

43:55 I live on Waverly Street and my daughter

43:57 Sophia attends Driscoll. I'm here today

44:00 to ask you to reinstate a flexible

44:02 schedule at the Driscoll Library that

44:04 affords middle schoolers the opportunity

44:05 to visit the library throughout the day

44:07 throughout the week. I understand that

44:09 K5 teachers need planning time, but

44:11 meeting this requirement should not

44:13 compromise Driscoll Middle School

44:14 library access or special programs. This

44:17 is the second year I have volunteered

44:19 weekly in the library, and I'm

44:20 witnessing the effects of the current

44:22 policy. What was once a community space

44:24 is now a room with books in it that

44:26 students must now enter like any other

44:28 classroom. I grew up in Florida in a

44:31 working-class family with a father and a

44:33 big brother who both failed fourth grade

44:40 and a grandfather who held only a sixth

44:43 grade education, which is the grade my

44:45 daughter Sophia is now enrolled in at

44:47 Driscoll.

44:48 I knew that if I was going to get out of

44:50 Florida, education would be my way out.

44:52 My high school did not offer an advanced

44:54 placement curriculum. So when I entered

44:57 11th grade, I made an arrangement with

44:58 my teachers. Instead of attending class,

45:01 I went to the school's library and

45:03 taught myself AP.

45:05 Sorry, [laughter] sorry.

45:08 I [clears throat] scored high on three

45:10 tests, went to college and graduate

45:11 school, and now my daughter Sophia

45:13 attends Driscoll. If my school had a

45:15 policy like the one now in place at

45:17 Driscoll, I and my daughter Sophia would

45:19 not be here. I know the comparison is

45:22 not exact, but the stakes, I would

45:24 argue, are no lower for our middle

45:25 schoolers. Middle school means more

45:27 independence and responsibility.

45:29 Restricting library access robs

45:31 Driscoll's middle schoolers of a space

45:33 to exercise that newfound freedom and to

45:35 access that part of learning that is not

45:37 about instruction and fact retention,

45:39 but curiosity and discovery. Driscoll

45:42 students need an open library in a way

45:44 that your spreadsheets and schedules

45:45 cannot quantify or capture. An example

45:48 of the loss that results from the

45:50 recently adopted schedule is the end of

45:52 the library's participation in the Zoo

45:54 New England hatchling turtle program.

45:56 For the last two years, Driscoll

45:58 students had the awesome responsibility

45:59 of raising

46:01 threatened turtles over the course of

46:03 the school year. The Turtles brought

46:05 together students from across the

46:07 student body, from kindergarteners to

46:09 almost freshmen, from avid readers to

46:10 self-p profofessed non-readers, with the

46:13 library serving as the nexus for this

46:14 shared obsession with these tiny,

46:16 adorable, utterly dependent creatures.

46:19 If you want to understand what you lose

46:20 when you adopt a fixed schedule for the

46:22 library, the next time you see a

46:24 Driscoll dragon, ask them about the

46:26 turtles.

46:28 The school library should be open always

46:30 for everyone. The current fixed schedule

46:32 means that this is not the case,

46:34 especially for Driscoll's middle

46:35 schoolers, and I urge you to find a way

46:37 to correct that. Thank you for hearing

46:38 from me. Good luck.

46:41 [applause]

46:47 Thank you very much. That concludes

46:49 public comment for tonight. Next up,

46:52 exactly on time, 6:40 according to the

46:55 agenda,

46:57 Superintendent Bella Wong will have her

46:59 superintendent report. Thank you, Hash.

47:01 So, pressure pressure to stay on time.

47:04 Anyway, thank you. Um, so I want to

47:08 thank the committee um for for

47:12 approving um last week's leave to be

47:14 able to go to Heleni um Talon and Tartu.

47:18 So I returned um from Estonia on Monday

47:23 evening and so this is probably my 12th

47:26 experience of being part of an educator

47:29 tour to other places to visit for the

47:32 purpose of visiting schools. This is the

47:34 fourth tour that I've led and um and so

47:37 we we spent some time in in Helsinki. We

47:41 visited two schools there, one school in

47:44 Talon and then three schools in TU.

47:47 Well, in Tartu, we were 25 kilometers

47:50 from the Russian border. Um, Finland

47:53 also has the largest shared border of

47:56 any other European country with Russia.

47:58 And so, geopolitically, it's a very

48:00 interesting place to be and to visit.

48:03 Um, we had 18 educators visiting the

48:08 schools and I feel we had some really

48:10 important takeaways, a very productive

48:12 trip. um just and so Finland has been

48:17 well known for their PISA scores.

48:19 They're not as high as they were before,

48:21 but interesting with Finland, they never

48:23 thought it was about their PISA scores.

48:25 Um what's appealing about Finland is um

48:29 the schools across the country have very

48:32 narrow gaps from each other. So they

48:34 have this equity across the way. Um and

48:37 there's a strong focus on students,

48:39 whole child and support, social

48:41 emotional supports. Um and also in

48:44 Estonia. Estonia interesting is now

48:47 number one and two in their PISO scores.

48:50 um they are ahead of us in technology

48:53 and we um we learned we were exposed to

48:57 a lot of frameworks about AI that might

49:00 be helpful for us and um and also their

49:03 personalization their strong sense of

49:05 social emotional supports and their

49:08 focus on students being able to be

49:10 comfortable in their environment and

49:12 thriving. We also visited so we visited

49:15 K12 schools and vocational schools. So,

49:19 um, hopefully we might be able to share

49:21 some of those takeaways later al

49:23 together.

49:25 Um, the other thing I'd wanted, so I was

49:28 asked to update on where we are on my

49:30 superintendent's goals. Betsy might be

49:33 able to put the goals up on the screen.

49:35 Thank you. And so, just as um, just as a

49:39 reminder. So the first was that is the

49:41 student learning goal decreases

49:43 disproportionality for PSB students so

49:46 as to no longer be identified by DESIE

49:48 as dis disproportionate. And so that is

49:51 tied um to our our goals around MTSS.

49:56 So MTSS launched last year but really

49:59 more robustly this year and across the

50:02 K5 and also um also in our middle

50:07 school. And so where we are right I said

50:09 all these schools have their MTSS teams.

50:12 Um there have been a couple faculty

50:14 meetings focused on the implementation

50:16 of MTSS.

50:18 I would say just about now teachers are

50:22 being able to look at um data um al

50:25 together. So it took a little while for

50:27 us to um get our systems up and rolling

50:31 to be able to do that. I think next year

50:32 we'll be able to start sooner, but I

50:34 would say it wasn't until October that

50:36 we were be able to really have the data

50:38 to look at. Um, so that's where we are

50:41 right now. Um, I've talked with the

50:44 leadership team about making sure we

50:46 establish our base metrics um to be able

50:50 to measure growth and so to select what

50:52 what metrics that we'll be looking at.

50:55 The second goal, professional practice

50:57 goal was is working towards achieving

51:00 100% EV valuation of all unit AB and

51:04 unaligned administrators to sustain high

51:06 quality instruction

51:08 um and implement an evaluation system

51:11 for a pair of professionals. This work

51:13 actually began um in the summer and um

51:18 as the district review report notes that

51:20 when Robin Benoy presented at the last

51:23 meeting um the district had been on the

51:27 2012 rubrics for teacher evaluation and

51:30 so through summer. Um, and also in in

51:33 communication with um, BEu leadership,

51:36 we asked if maybe we could look at the

51:39 2024 standards, but um, narrowing and

51:42 focusing on the critical indicators that

51:45 we wanted everyone to focus on as

51:47 opposed to just adopting all of the all

51:50 of the um, 2024 standards. and we picked

51:54 the ones that were tailored to support

51:56 our work around MTSS and supporting high

51:59 quality instruction. Um, so I am very

52:03 appreciative in the communication we had

52:06 with principles and all our

52:08 administrators and also with the

52:10 leadership to support this entry to 2024

52:13 standards. So we are well underway on

52:17 that. At this time is when educators are

52:21 doing their self assessments to pick

52:22 their goals for the year. So they also

52:24 will be picking professional goals,

52:26 student learning goal and also other

52:29 goals that they might that will be

52:32 aligned to the SIPs of which you're

52:34 going to hear two tonight and you're

52:36 going to hear more of the um reports on

52:38 the SIPs through December

52:42 um to align with the SIPs which are also

52:44 aligned with our priority district goals

52:47 which are aligned actually with the

52:48 goals that I set out um for um 2627.

52:53 So I think we we've made um a really

52:56 good start and we're well underway on

52:59 that goal.

53:01 The other So then there are four

53:02 district improvement goals. The first

53:04 one evaluating the grade configurations

53:07 to improve scheduling and staff equity

53:09 across the K8 schools. You will receive

53:12 an enrollment report um in no I could be

53:16 the end of October or the start of

53:19 November. We we're still working on that

53:21 timing. Once we have our enrollment set,

53:24 we will we will lean into looking at the

53:27 grade configurations moving forward. Um

53:30 so that's that's where that is. So we're

53:32 just waiting for enrollment numbers

53:35 updated and then we'll so we haven't

53:37 started looking at we haven't done any

53:39 work looking at grade configurations um

53:43 yet.

53:44 The next district improvement goal is

53:46 establish equity leadership team and

53:48 develop a strategic equity plan as

53:50 required by the state. Um so the state

53:56 um has had a diversity educator act but

53:59 it's been updated to be the leads leads

54:02 act and that was um signed in

54:08 I should say so it's not this year but

54:10 actually before this year and part of

54:12 the there are many parts to the leads

54:14 act and one part is to ensure that every

54:18 district has a plan for recruiting ing,

54:22 hiring, retaining um diversity of staff

54:26 um within the schools. And so that has

54:30 also um been extended to make sure that

54:34 there is training for to ensure cultural

54:38 proficiency um for staff and also it is

54:42 now just generally being expanded to

54:45 ensure that we have um practices of

54:49 antibias and um

54:52 to support belonging inclusion in our

54:54 schools. And where we are on on this is

55:00 um over the summer just to determining

55:04 how we were going to build the plan. And

55:06 um the state requires that you either

55:08 have a

55:10 DEI officer or you have a team

55:13 designated. The SLT senior leadership

55:16 team is assuming the responsibility of

55:18 being that equity team. So, it's on top

55:21 of the other things that we're doing for

55:22 the district. Um, we also engaged um

55:28 Darnisa Amma Jackson to be um consultant

55:32 with us in building this. And so, she

55:35 actually worked um with us and was

55:37 introduced to the administrators on

55:40 August 28th. So, the admin the larger

55:43 group of administrators, so six between

55:45 60 and 70 educators for the district.

55:48 And um so we'll be working with her on

55:51 creating the plan. So that's where we're

55:52 at where we um have identified this as a

55:56 priority goal and we have engaged with a

56:00 consultant who will be working with us.

56:02 The next step is the selection of a

56:04 screening committee um that will work

56:07 with SLT and also just laying out some

56:10 of the professional development. We have

56:13 already done some professional de

56:15 development during the summer

56:17 particularly on the August 28th date and

56:19 we have also plans for the PD day um for

56:23 in November and um and so we just and

56:26 then we also continue to be a member of

56:29 ideas and so there's a conference coming

56:32 up and actually we're really excited

56:34 because um when we've made the offerings

56:37 the number of people who are asking to

56:39 be um part of the that are offered

56:42 through ideas has exceeded the a lotment

56:45 that we had set aside. So, we're going

56:47 to see if we can do some more funding um

56:50 through our title two grant. So, but

56:52 that's great because we we were within

56:55 our spots last year and we've exceeded

56:58 just for the interest um in the

57:00 district. So, so that's where we stand

57:02 on on um district improvement goal

57:06 number two. The third district

57:09 improvement goal was a placeholder to

57:11 address concerns identified by the

57:13 district curriculum assessment report,

57:15 the district review report which Robin

57:17 presented. And so they highlighted for

57:20 us concerns around supervision

57:22 evaluation

57:24 um development of a articulating a

57:26 professional development plan um also

57:30 MTSS

57:31 and the development of an equity plan.

57:33 So actually those things are already

57:35 incorporated in the goals and the

57:37 priorities that we had set for

57:38 ourselves. I do want to say that even

57:41 though MTSS is encouraged by the

57:44 district report, we actually believe in

57:48 the premise of MTSS and what it wants to

57:51 do. It's not merely a mandate. It's

57:53 something that we endorse as good for

57:55 all students in the district. The fourth

57:58 district improvement goal was sort of a

58:00 compendium. Um so it's about related to

58:04 use of facilities, maintenance and

58:06 repairs, work order systems, emergency

58:08 response, security and safety and

58:10 transportation practices. So there are

58:12 bits and pieces of this that we've been

58:15 addressing. Um so I checked in with um

58:19 is it Anakah? Anukica Anuka because the

58:22 high school had a major

58:25 yes evacuation drill and so the district

58:29 really wasn't doing the drills. um prior

58:32 to last year and we started doing them

58:34 last year. Um the high school is is our

58:38 most complex evacuation drill. Um there

58:41 are several buildings that are involved

58:43 and um and the area is quite tight and

58:46 so I know I don't know if they timed

58:49 your evacuation drill.

58:52 Okay. So that's kind of a theme where we

58:54 do we time and see how we got everyone

58:56 out. So um anyway, so so I'm really glad

59:00 to hear that. I heard it went well and

59:02 that there were also some takeaways. So

59:04 doing the drills is really important

59:06 because you find out

59:08 obstacles to getting out of the building

59:10 and how how you deal with that. Um so

59:13 that so I just want to give kudos to um

59:16 Joe Albuquerque who's been lead working

59:19 with the town in working with um each of

59:21 our schools and in improving our drills

59:24 and evacuation.

59:25 Um so we are still in evaluation process

59:29 um related to the use of the facilities

59:32 um just just um collecting information

59:36 about who's using the buildings whether

59:38 they're renting the buildings or they're

59:40 not renting the buildings but they're in

59:41 the buildings. So that's still in

59:43 process the collection of that data. Um

59:47 and I I think that's that's just where

59:49 we stand right now. So, so even though I

59:52 guess we're we're in the second month of

59:54 school and so I think making good

59:56 progress. Um the other thing I just

1:00:00 wanted to highlight before um going on

1:00:04 to the next topic is we did send out um

1:00:08 a school calendar survey or a survey on

1:00:11 school calendar. It went out to all our

1:00:12 families and it's gone out to all our

1:00:15 staff. That survey will close on Monday

1:00:18 and so we'll send another out um on on

1:00:22 the school calendar and so we're seeking

1:00:24 input on what we will recommend for the

1:00:27 year forward and for for perhaps years

1:00:30 after that. um

1:00:34 just and so

1:00:37 I I I think it's okay to share um

1:00:42 very early even on the weekend we had

1:00:45 already achieved 50% rate of return from

1:00:48 staff and so we're going to hopefully

1:00:51 get more and more but that actually is a

1:00:53 really positive beginning and um for

1:00:56 families it was um at 17% on the weekend

1:01:01 which may sound low but actually for

1:01:03 family surveys that sometimes 17% is

1:01:06 where you are at the end. So there's

1:01:08 high interest and so my saying this is

1:01:11 to encourage everyone who got a link to

1:01:13 to do that survey. It's really important

1:01:16 I think um school calendars are

1:01:19 different by community and it should

1:01:21 reflect um input from the community on

1:01:24 on on that. And that's it for my report

1:01:29 today. Thank you.

1:01:31 I don't know if you have questions.

1:01:33 Oh, questions. Sarah,

1:01:36 are we open to discussing the um goals

1:01:39 or do we want to kind of is that a

1:01:41 presentation this time and we'll discuss

1:01:43 them more later?

1:01:45 I think it was an update. So, it's just

1:01:47 giving you a snapshot, but definitely I

1:01:50 don't

1:01:50 at a later date we'll have more of a

1:01:51 discussion.

1:01:53 I I don't think it precludes a

1:01:54 discussion. I'm guess I'm looking to the

1:01:56 chair. I It's an update and you can

1:01:59 Tonight was an update and of course

1:02:02 there are possible questions that you

1:02:03 might have. Go.

1:02:06 I would go. Okay. All right. Um the

1:02:09 first one isn't really about you. It's

1:02:11 just about any new superintendent. Um

1:02:13 I'm surprised in the setting of goals

1:02:16 not to see a real emphasis on getting

1:02:18 out into schools. And so I would love to

1:02:21 I think that your your goals are great

1:02:22 as they are. I would love you to flesh

1:02:24 out in some way um you know more time

1:02:28 with people in the buildings to know the

1:02:30 programs to know the educators to

1:02:32 especially know the K to8 um buildings

1:02:34 absolutely so these are the goals that

1:02:36 were presented in June at a group by

1:02:38 school committee um but I am I've

1:02:41 actually cycling into two schools a week

1:02:44 right

1:02:44 and so I'm cycling through schools I

1:02:46 think I'm actually starting my second

1:02:48 round already

1:02:50 okay so I guess what I'm saying is I

1:02:52 would love to see that somewhere written

1:02:54 in just because I think it's so

1:02:56 important is is knowing the schools. But

1:02:59 um but we're not updating these at this

1:03:01 point. So maybe maybe my

1:03:02 but I guess I'm saying that actually

1:03:04 that that I'm

1:03:05 that goal of yours.

1:03:07 Yes, it's happening and and and sort of

1:03:10 I don't know if it's um it should just

1:03:13 be part of regular practice and so last

1:03:15 year was difficult for me um to get out

1:03:18 into schools and so um

1:03:22 last year was just difficult. Yeah.

1:03:24 And so it should be actually part of

1:03:26 one's regular practice. So again, I'm

1:03:28 already starting the second cycle.

1:03:30 That's great.

1:03:31 Yeah. I had I had more. Um I was also

1:03:35 wondering um when I hear you speak about

1:03:38 so where you said evaluation of grade

1:03:40 configuration to improve scheduling and

1:03:41 staff equity across the K to8 schools. I

1:03:45 feel like as I hear you talk in these

1:03:46 meetings that idea has um become more

1:03:51 and more about the overenrollment of our

1:03:53 largest K to8 school. And so I wondered

1:03:55 if that might be something to rewrite at

1:03:58 some point is it seems to be a goal of

1:04:01 yours to address.

1:04:03 Um, it is not the primary reason for for

1:04:09 that goal.

1:04:10 Okay.

1:04:10 Um, when I arrived when I arrived in

1:04:13 Brooklyn, there had been a middle school

1:04:15 study on the concern about the 8 to9

1:04:19 transition. Um, that students in the 8

1:04:22 to9 transition were getting different

1:04:25 minutes of instruction per subject. And

1:04:28 so that's really what that is

1:04:30 addressing. Um,

1:04:33 the we have 8K8 schools and we have

1:04:36 schools that are sectioned from two to

1:04:38 five and um practically speaking when we

1:04:41 allocate staffing particularly around

1:04:44 specials it's really challenging to um

1:04:49 it's really challenging to schedule them

1:04:51 across schools in a in a way that's

1:04:53 equitable and it's fair that when

1:04:56 teachers need to go from one school to

1:04:58 another that there hasn't been an

1:05:01 allowance travel. So I don't know if

1:05:03 people realize it's a generally a 0.1

1:05:05 FTE. So if a teacher is already

1:05:08 scheduled

1:05:10 to point 8 and they need and they tr

1:05:13 it's they almost can't travel because by

1:05:15 the time they get to the other school

1:05:17 the allocation of time they can teach is

1:05:20 is not what is needed. So then we have

1:05:23 teachers who are assigned.8

1:05:26 but they are 1.0 know and that's not

1:05:30 necessarily fair across all staff that

1:05:34 situation. So um and then also the way

1:05:38 scheduling is happening when students

1:05:41 graduate

1:05:42 from grade eight and enter grade nine

1:05:45 the difference of minutes. So it's so

1:05:47 they're looking is there a way we can

1:05:49 look at our grade configurations to

1:05:51 alleviate that disparity when they go to

1:05:54 8 to 9. It's not about one one school.

1:05:59 It's about how all the schools the the

1:06:02 allocation of minutes

1:06:04 are are different.

1:06:07 Understood.

1:06:08 Yeah. But it's good to ask the question.

1:06:11 Yeah.

1:06:13 Carolyn, do you have any

1:06:16 Thank you. Just super quick, when we did

1:06:18 the um when we pushed out the calendar

1:06:21 survey, I just want to ensure it went

1:06:22 out to out of district families because

1:06:24 I know sometimes

1:06:26 they're not always that there's certain

1:06:28 hiccups in in some of our um platforms

1:06:31 and pushing information out to them.

1:06:34 Absolutely. I'll have to double check

1:06:38 um because it would affect it would

1:06:40 affect them as well.

1:06:43 Suzanne, thank you. Thank you, Bella. I

1:06:46 wonder if Bella if you could just spend

1:06:47 a few minutes talking about the work

1:06:48 that you envision for Denisa and the

1:06:51 equity plan. Um can you tell me a little

1:06:54 bit about what what her goals might be

1:06:57 or what your goals with her are or

1:06:59 what's the work?

1:07:01 So we so administratively we're lean I

1:07:05 so we have three deputies and and myself

1:07:08 and then there's not that much

1:07:10 infrastructure in the next level. So um

1:07:13 it's so having engaging Darnisa is to

1:07:17 help supplement

1:07:19 um and based on her experience with

1:07:21 other districts and her work. So she is

1:07:23 ex she's been part of she's has been and

1:07:27 still part of Harvard Graduate School of

1:07:28 Education. She's been part of different

1:07:32 um

1:07:33 means of organization to work with

1:07:35 schools. She has um she's worked with

1:07:38 the MECO program. She's presented to the

1:07:41 superintendents through the MASS

1:07:42 conference several times. Um and so and

1:07:46 she's worked with other districts. I

1:07:48 have known her over time. So we're

1:07:50 somewhat familiar. I she actually was

1:07:53 she actually had a contact with NAK. So

1:07:56 when I was in NATC, I got to work with

1:07:58 Disa then. Um, so it's really having her

1:08:03 holding us to like a to to start to

1:08:07 finish and um and then also consulting

1:08:12 with our steering committee on ideas

1:08:14 around how to do training and um

1:08:18 challenges overcoming obstacles getting

1:08:21 like how do you how do you get people to

1:08:24 be able to do this with limited time on

1:08:27 on other things?

1:08:29 Um, but it's really leaning in on her

1:08:33 experience.

1:08:36 So, I have worked with her in the past

1:08:38 as well. Um, and uh, but that was a

1:08:42 while ago. So, I don't I don't quite

1:08:43 know where she is today in her thinking.

1:08:45 And is it a a lot around cultural

1:08:47 competence or we're

1:08:50 going beyond that now? No, she so um

1:08:53 when she presented at MISS um her focus

1:08:58 is partly on academic

1:08:59 okay

1:09:00 and so driving educational equity

1:09:02 through academics. Um so she so she in

1:09:07 with in terms of um inclusion and

1:09:10 belonging. She would say that diversity,

1:09:14 inclusion and belonging are building

1:09:16 blocks to equity that you have to master

1:09:18 those building blocks to be able to

1:09:20 achieve equity. And so I really like the

1:09:22 idea that she considers building toward

1:09:24 equity a developmental process like

1:09:27 organizationally.

1:09:29 And um so sometimes I think that

1:09:32 it can be it's like sort of um one time

1:09:35 things and so she really emphasizes um

1:09:41 how these are discrete things that you

1:09:43 need to master to be able to get to

1:09:45 equity. Where she's where she has now

1:09:49 evolved um with that still in place is

1:09:52 saying that um

1:09:56 tiered intervention supports must be in

1:09:59 place. So, MTSS, but she also advocates

1:10:02 for UDL un Yes, universal design. And

1:10:06 so, she leads with um making sure that

1:10:10 all students are getting what they need

1:10:11 academically

1:10:13 within

1:10:15 an environment that's culturally

1:10:17 supportive. Right? So she leads with the

1:10:21 academic part um but also within a

1:10:25 environ if a student doesn't feel safe

1:10:27 to learn they're not going to learn as

1:10:28 well but she feels um that anyway so

1:10:33 that's that's Disa so she's a good

1:10:36 partner for us um and working with MTSS

1:10:40 we have introduced we've mentioned UDL

1:10:43 but you know UDL will come but we're

1:10:46 focused right now on MTSS

1:10:49 Okay, thank you. I appreciate

1:10:51 anybody else.

1:10:54 So,

1:10:56 I want to commend Superintendent Wong

1:10:58 for being a really longtime leader in

1:11:00 organizing these international trips for

1:11:03 educators where they visit places that

1:11:06 do things perhaps differently um and

1:11:09 well and learn from the international

1:11:12 community of educators and um the fact

1:11:15 that that Superintendent Wong leader in

1:11:18 this and has been for a while. To me,

1:11:20 that polishes the mystique of Brooklyn

1:11:21 public schools as because she's a leader

1:11:24 way beyond Brooklyn and I just want to

1:11:26 commend you for that. You use some

1:11:28 terminology like Pisa that we well some

1:11:31 of us know but I think the the viewing

1:11:34 audience probably doesn't know some of

1:11:36 these terms. PE is like the

1:11:37 international achievement test um that

1:11:40 measures achievement in reading and

1:11:42 writing and mathematics internationally

1:11:45 and then they rank nations on how well

1:11:48 they're doing. So Bella went to Finland

1:11:51 and other and Estonia. Finland was

1:11:54 historically the highest PISA scorer in

1:11:57 the world as she said. and now they're

1:11:59 probably number five, but Estonia, where

1:12:01 she visited, is now the number one PISA

1:12:05 nation in the world. So, I just want to

1:12:07 commend you on being a part of that um

1:12:10 international exploration of education

1:12:13 throughout the world. Thank you.

1:12:16 Also, the term SIP, which we're going to

1:12:18 learn more about tonight, school

1:12:20 improvement plan. So, we're going to

1:12:21 have every school leader present their

1:12:24 school improvement plan, which is an

1:12:26 annual thing, but Sometimes we use

1:12:28 acronyms that that viewing audience

1:12:31 probably doesn't know. So I'm going to

1:12:32 try to do the best I can to clarify what

1:12:34 these things mean. MTSS, we've talked

1:12:37 about that. Okay. So having said that

1:12:42 and having no more questions, we move on

1:12:45 to the first SIP, school improvement

1:12:48 plan presentation by Lawrence School

1:12:50 Principal, Vanessa Bale. Vanessa,

1:12:52 welcome to the podium. Thank you.

1:13:15 You can if there's an error, you can

1:13:16 just let us know.

1:13:17 Okay. Sure.

1:13:18 Yeah.

1:13:19 Okay. Um, hello.

1:13:24 Sorry, I'm so used to not using a mic

1:13:26 even at Lawrence. Greetings. Nice to see

1:13:28 all of you. I'm Vanessa Bellow. I'm the

1:13:30 principal at the Lawrence School. This

1:13:31 is my fourth year in Brooklyn. Um, after

1:13:35 quite some time away. I started here as

1:13:37 a special ed per many, many moons ago at

1:13:40 Lawrence School and have returned to

1:13:42 hopefully stay and finish my career here

1:13:44 in Brooklyn. So, I'm very happy to be

1:13:47 joining you all today. Um, my school

1:13:50 improvement plan is in a little bit of a

1:13:52 different place than some of my

1:13:53 colleagues because we are finishing out

1:13:55 our plan this year. So, this is the last

1:13:56 year of our plan. Um, the districts that

1:13:59 I've worked in, unlike um,

1:14:01 Superintendent Wong, I come from

1:14:03 districts where most plans are two or

1:14:05 three-year plans mirroring a strategic

1:14:07 plan cycle. And so, we are just wrapping

1:14:10 up our plan this year. Um, what right,

1:14:13 I'd like to give thanks to our new

1:14:16 school council. We've just started with

1:14:18 our new school council team who's up

1:14:20 there on um the slide right now and I

1:14:24 believe you've all seen our school

1:14:25 improvement plan. So you've seen how

1:14:27 that iteration is that this is the final

1:14:30 year of our plan. So what this school

1:14:32 council will be doing this year is

1:14:34 monitoring our goals how we do in this

1:14:36 last year of this cycle and we are going

1:14:39 to be working on crafting our next goal

1:14:42 um as a one-year goal per superintendent

1:14:45 Wong's um direction. So starting next

1:14:48 year we will be in a one-year plan

1:14:49 cycle. All right. So thank you to my

1:14:52 former team who helped me develop this.

1:14:55 our previous school council just rolled

1:14:57 off after two years and so that is a new

1:14:59 team that's joining us. Um we always

1:15:02 like to put down what our budgetary

1:15:04 impact is. We are a public school and we

1:15:06 are thankful to the Brookline um

1:15:08 taxpayers who have done so much to

1:15:10 support our schools over the years which

1:15:12 is why we have the high performing

1:15:14 schools we do. certainly our parents and

1:15:16 caregiver community, um dedicated

1:15:19 educators, and when I think about our

1:15:21 budgetary impact at at Lawrence, um it's

1:15:24 certainly our highnee students that

1:15:25 drive our needs. Um there's no doubt

1:15:28 about that. Right now, we are sitting

1:15:30 around 44% high need students at

1:15:33 Lawrence School. What we have seen is a

1:15:36 little drop in our population. I talked

1:15:37 about this last year. We've seen

1:15:39 international students at Lawrence go

1:15:41 down. We've actually see seen our

1:15:43 lowincome students um rise quite

1:15:46 significantly and you won't see this yet

1:15:48 until SIMS projections I believe that

1:15:51 will come out in the next month or so.

1:15:53 Um but we've always sat around 11%

1:15:56 low-inccome at Lawrence and this year I

1:15:58 believe we're running closer to 15 or

1:16:00 16%. So we've seen less international

1:16:02 students. Um but our EL population still

1:16:04 continues to drive a lot of our

1:16:06 conversations as well. We sit around 16%

1:16:08 of our students that are EL at Lawrence.

1:16:11 Um, one of the numbers that's actually

1:16:13 dropped in addition to our overall

1:16:15 population is our percentage of special

1:16:16 education students. We have been working

1:16:19 really hard on MTSS already at Lawrence

1:16:22 and we have seen a shift in um, as we've

1:16:25 implemented those initiatives in MTSS.

1:16:28 We've actually seen our population of

1:16:31 special education qualifying students go

1:16:33 down. So, we are sitting right now um,

1:16:36 around 13 and a half% special ed. when I

1:16:40 came in um three and a half years three

1:16:42 a little over three years ago now we

1:16:44 were sitting closer to 17% which is

1:16:46 about what a lot of the schools in

1:16:47 Brooklyn are at but we are we have

1:16:49 dropped down in that special education

1:16:51 um eligibility area but overall we

1:16:54 continue to be about 44% high need so

1:16:56 when we're talking about MTSS and you

1:16:58 see these um threads of MTSS and equity

1:17:02 throughout my plan and um that's because

1:17:05 as the Lawrence team likes to think

1:17:07 about it we see that as embedded in the

1:17:09 work. MTSS is at the heart of what we

1:17:11 are doing and have been doing. So, we

1:17:13 started really um as I came in focused

1:17:16 on PBIS, positive behavior intervention

1:17:19 systems and supports. And that was our

1:17:22 precursor to preparing Lawrence for MTSS

1:17:25 work. And over the last year and a half,

1:17:27 we've really been already forging ahead

1:17:29 with that work, believing that um as we

1:17:32 were implementing our new literacy work

1:17:34 that all of this was the heart of the

1:17:36 work that we need to do as educators.

1:17:38 All right. So um I know you've had a

1:17:41 chance to look at our goals already.

1:17:43 What I'd really like to focus on and so

1:17:45 is sort of telling the story of where we

1:17:46 are sitting right now and what we see

1:17:48 the work to do if that makes sense to

1:17:50 all of you. All right. So our first we

1:17:52 have three SIP goals. Our first is

1:17:53 literacy. Our second is math based and

1:17:56 our third is social emotional learning.

1:17:59 And um so in terms of our literacy goal,

1:18:03 we're really looking to use our um

1:18:06 strong highquality instructional

1:18:08 practices and our curriculum it woven in

1:18:12 with our MTSS framework to meet the

1:18:15 needs of all students. And when I look

1:18:17 when you look at the overall goals that

1:18:19 we've set, you'll see that I use that

1:18:22 percentage of 85%. 85% of our students

1:18:25 meeting or exceeding. And this is this

1:18:27 runs through all of those goals in terms

1:18:30 of what we're looking for. We always

1:18:32 know we're going to have outlier

1:18:34 students at Lawrence. One of the big

1:18:35 drivers we have is an incredibly

1:18:38 transient population. And so I did the

1:18:41 math. Um, you know, in the last year,

1:18:43 last year we had 91 students unenroll

1:18:46 from Lawrence. So we have about 17 to

1:18:48 20% turnover of students at Lawrence in

1:18:51 a given year. That's not counting

1:18:52 kindergarten. That's not counting 8th

1:18:54 grade. Um, and so that's an incredibly

1:18:56 high number for a school. That makes it

1:18:58 really challenging to set goals because

1:19:00 the students you're looking at in the

1:19:01 fall and our cycle at Lawrence is

1:19:04 unusual. Um, partially driven by our

1:19:07 international population. We have a huge

1:19:09 influx of students usually February to

1:19:13 May. And that's very unusual to from

1:19:15 most schools. And then we also have our

1:19:18 apartments that lead to a lot of

1:19:20 enrollment very late into the summer and

1:19:22 into September and October. So our

1:19:24 numbers are a little different in that

1:19:25 way. Um but so we have seen a as I

1:19:29 mentioned a drop in a little bit in our

1:19:32 special education population. Our high

1:19:34 needs have stayed the same but our e

1:19:37 population continues to be one of the

1:19:39 populations we really want to focus on

1:19:41 as well as looking at our

1:19:42 disproportionality.

1:19:44 Um and so that would be our students of

1:19:46 color and then also how of our how are

1:19:49 our special education students doing?

1:19:51 So, as we go into these goals, you'll

1:19:53 see that we have goals. Um, the

1:19:56 benchmarks and objectives are really

1:19:58 looking to see, can we hit 85% of our

1:20:02 students at Lawrence, meeting and

1:20:03 exceeding, and that includes our EL

1:20:05 students, our special education

1:20:06 students. And we're also always looking

1:20:09 for growth percentiles in the average

1:20:12 range, which is 40 to 60 for all of our

1:20:14 measures. I know you've heard this if

1:20:16 you've heard presentations on MCCAST. I

1:20:18 know there's going to be an MCAST

1:20:19 presentation. I'd actually like to focus

1:20:21 on some of the other data and I know

1:20:23 I've put all of them in here, but I know

1:20:25 there's going to be an MCAST

1:20:26 presentation soon. So, I'm going to

1:20:27 focus on some of our other data sets um

1:20:30 so that you can see those. So, if we can

1:20:32 skip ahead, Betsy, to a couple. Um, so

1:20:35 when we're talking about our goals, so

1:20:37 we're talking about SGPS on things like

1:20:40 um both STAR and MCCAST, but also for

1:20:43 our earliest learners, our foundational

1:20:45 literacy skills with M Mc Mlass, also

1:20:47 the Dibbles assessment, which we know is

1:20:49 a mandated one from the state. So those

1:20:52 are our K3 students. And woven through

1:20:54 all of this work, so my initiatives are

1:20:56 all in there. I know you've had a chance

1:20:58 to read those. Um, we are mid work here.

1:21:01 And how are we doing? Well, the MTSS

1:21:04 work, as I mentioned, last year,

1:21:06 Lawrence really embarked on this journey

1:21:09 already. We started having regular data

1:21:11 conversations that were driving

1:21:12 instructional changes. Um, Betsy, if you

1:21:15 can flip to the next one. If um, sorry,

1:21:18 two more. So, we're really thinking

1:21:20 about tier one and tier two. I'm sorry,

1:21:21 two slides back. Sorry, little too fast.

1:21:25 I'm looking for the MTSS one. It's in

1:21:28 there. There we go. Okay. So, as I

1:21:31 mentioned, we're in year two of

1:21:33 implementing MTSS at Lawrence, and these

1:21:37 are the areas that we're really thinking

1:21:38 about. One, articulating our tier one

1:21:41 instruction and ensuring that all

1:21:42 students at Lawrence are receiving that.

1:21:45 And also defining designing tier 2 and

1:21:49 tier three interventions that will

1:21:50 support all of our student learners,

1:21:51 whether they're an EL student, special

1:21:53 education student, or not yet um

1:21:56 identified, or students who just require

1:21:59 a little more support. Again, lots of

1:22:00 high need students. How do we meet those

1:22:02 needs? Um, and using data to inform our

1:22:06 decisions, decision-m has been integral

1:22:09 to everything that we do. We are having

1:22:11 regular professional learning

1:22:13 communities, we call them CPTs here in

1:22:15 Brooklyn. Um, especially K through five

1:22:18 that's focused on this. Our literacy

1:22:20 specialists, our math specialists at

1:22:21 Lawrence have been integral to this

1:22:23 work. And as a leadership team, we meet

1:22:25 with them regularly to plan this work.

1:22:28 and what are our data cycles going to

1:22:30 look like using now the um district data

1:22:34 protocol.

1:22:36 All right. So now we can skip ahead.

1:22:38 Let's look at some data. So how are we

1:22:40 doing at Lawrence? I mentioned that we

1:22:42 are really looking to see 85% of our

1:22:45 students meeting exceeding

1:22:47 on different assessments. and I talk

1:22:49 about our subgroups and again our L's at

1:22:51 Lawrence are a really important um group

1:22:54 for us to identify and look at and in

1:22:57 depth and the first part here what

1:22:59 you'll see is um Desi's reporting in

1:23:03 terms of how are our students who take

1:23:05 access testing which is the EL

1:23:07 assessment doing in terms of moving

1:23:10 towards um flap status which would mean

1:23:14 that they have left EL services and as

1:23:17 you can see we are exceeding meeting our

1:23:19 targets in this way. How are we doing

1:23:21 that? Especially with such turnover of

1:23:23 students coming in, newcomers all the

1:23:26 time. We have made an incredible effort

1:23:29 and if you look back into those goals is

1:23:32 ensuring that every student sitting in

1:23:34 tier one instruction. So, Heaggerty

1:23:37 Foundations, every single single student

1:23:40 at Lawrence has been in those classrooms

1:23:43 and we have put an incredible emphasis

1:23:45 on co-eing e teachers pushing into

1:23:48 classrooms, special educators pushing

1:23:50 into tier one instruction and then

1:23:52 figuring out what are the additional

1:23:54 supports above and beyond that. We've

1:23:56 also implemented a win model all um from

1:23:59 last year. Scheduling is essential with

1:24:01 an MTSS framework. And so those graphs

1:24:05 which are hard to see on the screen

1:24:07 here, but I know you have the

1:24:08 presentation, we have seen really

1:24:11 dramatic growth of our ELS over the last

1:24:13 couple of years at Lawrence um since we

1:24:16 have made this move to say we're not

1:24:18 going to pull L students out of that

1:24:20 quality um tier one instruction. They

1:24:23 need to be in the classroom. And so if

1:24:26 you look at where our students have

1:24:28 started and um so in terms of the dots

1:24:31 here, we have made over the last two

1:24:34 years dramatic growth of our L students

1:24:38 and particularly the the second column

1:24:40 and the third column are in decoding and

1:24:42 phmic awareness. Decoding is directly

1:24:44 tied to foundations. Phemic awareness is

1:24:47 directly tied to Hegrity. And if you

1:24:49 look at those charts, it's hard to tell

1:24:51 right here in the colors. Um, but over

1:24:53 the last three years, we've seen

1:24:54 phenomenal growth in this area, which

1:24:57 really sets our students up for success

1:24:59 in terms of literacy. So, if you go to

1:25:01 the next slide, Betsy, on this slide,

1:25:03 what you'll see is our overall student

1:25:06 percentage on Dibbles. So, kindergarten

1:25:08 through third grade students take

1:25:09 Dibbles three times a year in Brooklyn.

1:25:12 As I mentioned, we were looking to shoot

1:25:14 for 85% by the end of these goals. We

1:25:17 hit um 87 two years ago and we just hit

1:25:20 almost 90% for our kindergarten through

1:25:22 third graders at Lawrence. That includes

1:25:24 every single L student. That includes

1:25:26 every single every single special

1:25:28 education student. As a matter of fact,

1:25:30 at first grade, we didn't have a single

1:25:32 student, including first including

1:25:34 special ed or EL that was below grade

1:25:37 level on Dibbles. That sets us up for

1:25:39 tremendous success. So, we've actually

1:25:41 already met that goal. We have to

1:25:43 maintain it. Um um but we are

1:25:46 tremendously proud of that work and um

1:25:50 again literacy specialists, our K3

1:25:53 educators, all of them have been deeply

1:25:55 involved in this work and we're really

1:25:56 proud of it. So I wanted to highlight

1:25:58 that because that really is the building

1:26:00 blocks of all of the rest of our work at

1:26:02 Lawrence. All right. So um I also wanted

1:26:08 to put in a few slides about those

1:26:09 subgroups. And so while we're not there

1:26:12 yet, as you can see, we've really had

1:26:15 some tremendous grow growth in our

1:26:17 subgroups as well. And this is something

1:26:18 we monitor carefully as well. So two

1:26:20 years ago, we were at 69% for our black

1:26:23 and Hispanic subgroup K through three.

1:26:26 And that has risen to almost 74% now um

1:26:30 as of the end of last year. So we are

1:26:32 again, we need to monitor our overall

1:26:34 student growth and achievement. We also

1:26:37 need to look at that subgroup really

1:26:38 carefully and dive into where are the

1:26:41 students that need a little bit more.

1:26:43 All right. And same thing, the next

1:26:45 slide shows our special education

1:26:46 subgroup. And again, you can see there's

1:26:49 been tremendous work by my team. Um, we

1:26:52 are fully committed in special education

1:26:54 at Lawrence to do as much co-eing as

1:26:56 possible. And I believe that is a huge

1:26:58 part of this. But we've also invested a

1:27:00 lot of work to um look at interventions

1:27:03 and match what we're giving each student

1:27:06 in terms of their specially designed

1:27:07 instruction in special education with

1:27:09 what their needs are. And I think we are

1:27:13 um we're really proud of the progress

1:27:15 that we've made in special education at

1:27:16 Lawrence.

1:27:18 All right. So, the next two, and I'm

1:27:20 going to go through these quickly, but

1:27:21 what I do want to point out is in STAR

1:27:24 and MCCAST, where we're really looking

1:27:25 third um for MCCAST 3 through 8, and for

1:27:30 STAR, we're looking at fourth through

1:27:31 8th. I wanted everybody to see the real

1:27:35 close alignment between STAR and MCCAST

1:27:37 data. So, this is our fourth through 8th

1:27:40 grade STAR from the spring. You can see

1:27:41 we were sitting at about 73 74% of our

1:27:45 students meeting and exceeding on STAR.

1:27:47 So again, this is higher level literacy.

1:27:50 We still have some work to do in the

1:27:51 comprehension. Fish tank just rolled out

1:27:53 last year. Um, so that's where we're

1:27:55 sitting. If you see that's at 73.5%.

1:27:59 Next slide, Betsy. So this looks at how

1:28:02 are our students doing MCCAST in the

1:28:06 spring. So third through 8th grade, we

1:28:07 hit 73%. Um, which again is the highest

1:28:10 that we've been at Lawrence. So we're

1:28:12 proud of that. We still have a lot of

1:28:14 work to go when you think of that 85%.

1:28:16 The part that I really wanted to

1:28:18 highlight though is, you know, we've

1:28:20 talked about fish tank. I know you've

1:28:22 heard presentations on it. There's a lot

1:28:23 of questions about what that does. What

1:28:25 I saw that being incredibly important

1:28:27 for is our writing instruction. And if

1:28:30 you look at um so that 2023 spring data,

1:28:33 so that's right before I arrived at

1:28:34 Lawrence. And then our data from this

1:28:37 last spring, where you will see the

1:28:39 largest growth is in essay and writing.

1:28:43 And to me, that right there is the story

1:28:46 of the power of fish tank. And it is

1:28:48 already showing to be a pretty

1:28:50 significant boost in our students

1:28:52 writing. We've seen that. We have, as I

1:28:55 mentioned, piloted the district data

1:28:57 protocol. We actually did that with some

1:28:59 of the writing assessments from fish

1:29:00 tank last year. But when you look at

1:29:02 those essay and writing scores from 2023

1:29:06 at Lawrence to 2026 and again this

1:29:08 includes most of our L students do take

1:29:10 that um pretty significant growth in

1:29:13 those two areas of MCCAST. Great to see.

1:29:16 All right. So that's goal number one.

1:29:18 You can flip through.

1:29:21 Um our next goal is in math and um

1:29:25 Lawrence we've been working hard on math

1:29:27 since for many many years. You know that

1:29:29 math our adoption is a little ahead of

1:29:32 ELA, right? Fishtank is a newer

1:29:33 adoption. Foundations has been here a

1:29:35 couple more years. Heard is a couple

1:29:37 years in, but our math adoption was

1:29:39 several years before that in terms of

1:29:41 investigations and Desmos and um but we

1:29:46 still are hit we were setting that goal

1:29:48 again of 85% recognizing we have

1:29:50 different learners. If you flip through

1:29:53 our goal in this area has been really to

1:29:56 work on differentiation. So how are we

1:29:58 meeting the needs of our highest

1:30:00 students through our math workshops and

1:30:02 how are we meeting the needs of the

1:30:04 students who need a bit more. So you'll

1:30:06 see similarly we're looking for our

1:30:09 subgroups to have growths in star and on

1:30:13 MCCAST of at least 55. So remember we're

1:30:16 looking for 40 to 60 but if we need to

1:30:18 close gaps we need to be above that

1:30:20 average of 50. Um

1:30:23 so similar types of goals. Let's go

1:30:26 right to how are we doing?

1:30:30 Um, again, we've had a lot of an a work

1:30:32 to create a model over the last couple

1:30:36 of years and schedules drive all of that

1:30:39 work. A model of math instruction again

1:30:42 that's tier one. Our math specialists

1:30:44 are pushing into classrooms. They are

1:30:45 pulling out almost no students. Our

1:30:48 special educators are pushing in. So

1:30:49 this allows us to really create a true

1:30:52 workshop model where we are

1:30:54 differentiating and we are continuing to

1:30:56 work on that. So again I like to point

1:30:59 out how star really is very good

1:31:02 indicator of how we're going to do on

1:31:04 MCCAST. This year you can see over the

1:31:06 last couple of years on that right how

1:31:08 we have steadily gone up and we just hit

1:31:11 80% third to 8th grade in terms of

1:31:14 students at Lawrence meeting or

1:31:15 exceeding in math MCCAST which is um

1:31:19 really exciting to see. The other thing

1:31:21 I like to point out about this is if you

1:31:24 look at that graph you will see that

1:31:25 exceeding group continue to grow. So if

1:31:29 you look all the way over on the MCCAST

1:31:31 and you look at the dark blue bands

1:31:34 continue to grow. Again, this is the

1:31:37 power of really having a differentiated

1:31:40 classroom supported by our math

1:31:41 specialists. Thinking about what every

1:31:43 child needs in that classroom and that's

1:31:45 the heart of MTSS.

1:31:47 All right, you want to hit go ahead to

1:31:49 the next one? Okay, so how are our

1:31:52 subgroups doing? Well, we still have

1:31:54 growth to make. as you can see um our

1:31:57 special educ special education subgroup

1:31:59 and our black and Hispanic subgroup but

1:32:01 again we have some really good trends in

1:32:04 the right direction. If you look at that

1:32:06 our number of students who are well

1:32:08 below has gone down pretty significantly

1:32:10 as we've done this work to improve um

1:32:15 how we deliver math instruction and what

1:32:17 it looks like. All right.

1:32:21 All right. So, um, this is just

1:32:24 something from Desessie as they're

1:32:25 putting together and we did

1:32:27 exceptionally well this year in our

1:32:29 accountability from the state. We hit

1:32:32 98% and our math growth over these last

1:32:35 couple years is certainly driving some

1:32:38 of that um, performance because as you

1:32:41 can see we are exceeding that typical

1:32:42 growth across the board in almost every

1:32:44 single subgroup at Lawrence. Thank you

1:32:48 Betsy. You can go on. Okay. Our last

1:32:49 goal is really our social emotional

1:32:52 learning goal and this is really

1:32:53 thinking about student belonging and

1:32:55 this is a really tricky one in a school

1:32:56 with so much turnover um in terms of

1:32:59 students. We have students arriving

1:33:01 every single day from different

1:33:02 countries um newcomers with very little

1:33:05 English or no English and helping our

1:33:08 students that come in throughout the

1:33:10 year feel part of belonging of our

1:33:12 community has been an important part of

1:33:14 our work. I mentioned we started with

1:33:16 PBIS a couple years ago. We've really

1:33:18 moved our work in terms of belonging

1:33:20 into our middle school setting. Um

1:33:22 really taking to heart a lot of the

1:33:24 things that our middle schoolers need to

1:33:26 have a robust opportunity at Lawrence to

1:33:29 be school leaders and really building on

1:33:32 the idea of the K8 model and how we use

1:33:34 our students there. So a lot of our work

1:33:36 here is two-prong. One, making sure our

1:33:39 students feel like they belong in our

1:33:41 community through PBIS and our middle

1:33:43 school initiatives. And the other part

1:33:45 is really close monitoring of our

1:33:47 attendance data. Attendance, I know Dr.

1:33:49 Dubois comes and talks to you about

1:33:50 attendance data, but it is something we

1:33:52 regularly look at. So our goals in this

1:33:54 area are those two areas.

1:33:57 Um, in terms of how are we doing, we saw

1:34:01 tremendous growth last year in our

1:34:03 attendance data and this year it's

1:34:05 stagnanted a little. And so as an admin

1:34:08 clinical team, which includes our

1:34:10 counselors, um our special education

1:34:12 team facilitator, the building

1:34:14 administrators, and our school nursing

1:34:16 team, we are looking at attendance data

1:34:20 every single week. Who are our students

1:34:22 coming to school who are not? It is

1:34:24 really challenging to hit benchmarks in

1:34:27 terms of students coming to school

1:34:28 regularly in such an international area.

1:34:30 We have a lot of students who struggle

1:34:33 with coming to school regularly for a

1:34:34 variety of reasons, mental health, um we

1:34:37 have students who travel regularly, but

1:34:39 all of those really do hit in terms of

1:34:42 our ability to get school regularly and

1:34:45 that impacts learning. We know that. And

1:34:47 so, how do we help families understand

1:34:50 that importance of getting to school

1:34:51 regularly? Um they have to feel like

1:34:54 they belong in order to want to come to

1:34:56 school. Number one. Number two, we have

1:34:58 to work with families regularly. K

1:35:00 through eight, it's really a family

1:35:02 dynamic often and that's a big part of

1:35:05 our work. And again, our subgroups are

1:35:07 the ones that we're most concerned with

1:35:09 when we look at some of this attendance

1:35:11 data. So, if we go a little bit further,

1:35:13 Betsy,

1:35:15 we have several areas and ways of

1:35:17 measuring how our students feeling in

1:35:20 terms of culture. We have our panorama

1:35:22 data, which again, I know Dr. Dubois

1:35:24 comes in and talks you through. Um, and

1:35:27 we also, as I mentioned, have attendance

1:35:29 data. So, we can just flip ahead. So,

1:35:33 our belonging data as a as a school has

1:35:36 grown a little bit over time. As you can

1:35:37 see, we've continued to rise up in that

1:35:40 area. We do see a lot of those students

1:35:43 who are new to our school struggling.

1:35:45 And so, thinking about ways to make them

1:35:48 feel that they belong and integrate in

1:35:50 the community as quick as possible is

1:35:51 one of our biggest goals. I did want to

1:35:53 highlight if we skip ahead Betsy to the

1:35:56 next I'm sorry flip keep going one more

1:35:59 oh this is oh okay there sorry these are

1:36:01 the ones I did add some in terms of some

1:36:04 of our subgroups what I did want to

1:36:06 point out is um I did do a little bit of

1:36:09 dive into two subgroups that are

1:36:11 important um in terms of struggling with

1:36:13 attendance we have our steps to success

1:36:16 program which is a pretty large program

1:36:18 at Lawrence and a couple of years ago we

1:36:20 were hovering really around 50% % of our

1:36:23 students feeling a high level of

1:36:24 belonging in that subgroup. We have hit

1:36:26 80% this last year. So we have seen some

1:36:29 really tremendous growth in that. The

1:36:31 other one that's even more striking um

1:36:33 the year before I arrived so 22 23 our

1:36:36 MECO student sense of belonging was at

1:36:38 42% which is really concerning. Um we

1:36:42 hit 85% in the spring. So this focus

1:36:46 that we've had on building a sense of

1:36:49 community that goes from everything from

1:36:50 us being now the Lawrence Leopards and

1:36:53 having an identity, the PBIS work, we

1:36:55 have a spotted ticket program. Um we

1:36:58 have we have students who earn spotted

1:37:01 tickets and you can see the one on the

1:37:02 left there, principal of the day with

1:37:04 me, principal Khloe. Um, we also have

1:37:06 started a leopard pack, the principal's

1:37:08 advisory council, which is our version

1:37:11 of a student council and students are

1:37:13 selected to be on that for sixth or

1:37:15 eighth grade. They serve on a term and

1:37:18 we launched that in the spring and it's

1:37:20 been a tremendous um boon for our middle

1:37:22 school. So, those are some of the things

1:37:23 we're really working on building overall

1:37:25 belonging at Lawrence School. But um we

1:37:28 have our new leopard mascot. That's Lori

1:37:31 there in the middle um with one of our

1:37:33 pack members in the spring, our

1:37:34 inaugural pack. So that was an eighth

1:37:36 grade student now at BHS, but he was our

1:37:39 leopard at our last community meeting in

1:37:42 the spring. So wanted to end on some

1:37:44 happy leopard smiles and open it up for

1:37:47 any questions you have.

1:37:49 Thank you, Vanessa. That was great. Um

1:37:52 questions go.

1:37:53 Hard to be the first one, you know. I

1:37:54 was just going to congratulate Vanessa

1:37:56 on being the first one. So So um

1:37:59 traditionally the SI SIPs have been

1:38:02 presented to curriculum subcommittee and

1:38:05 and so I ask that the principles come to

1:38:07 the school committee as a whole. So

1:38:09 because everyone in the community can

1:38:11 see and also while I think the most

1:38:14 important interaction is between teacher

1:38:17 and student um in the district that the

1:38:20 the next most important um educator is

1:38:23 the building principal and you can see

1:38:25 they're the ones that make it happen.

1:38:26 Anyway, so Vanessa,

1:38:28 any questions? Happy to take them. I

1:38:30 know Margaret's waiting patiently at

1:38:31 home. Hi Margaret.

1:38:34 I'm sorry.

1:38:37 Um, hi Margaret. We'll get to you. Donna

1:38:41 question.

1:38:42 Thank you. First of all, I want to say

1:38:43 thank you so much. That's an incredibly

1:38:45 impressive presentation, but more so the

1:38:47 work that you've undertaken

1:38:50 is just is is um

1:38:53 incredible. I had a couple of a couple

1:38:55 of questions. First of all, a really

1:38:56 quick one. Is there a space at Lawrence

1:38:59 where the K8

1:39:01 um community can come together or No,

1:39:04 we're too big. Okay, that's what

1:39:05 so we do K through five meetings. Um the

1:39:08 other part of having this the pack the

1:39:10 leopard pack um though they're not pack

1:39:12 animals which is ironic but the the pack

1:39:15 they really said we needed to have

1:39:17 community meetings for the middle

1:39:18 school. So we just started those this

1:39:20 fall. We've already done our first

1:39:21 cycle. We do we did grade level meetings

1:39:23 and so we're starting to do middle

1:39:25 school meetings as well. But we do not

1:39:26 have a space as you all know we have the

1:39:28 smallest cafeteria so we this year we're

1:39:30 running five lunches. Last year we had

1:39:32 to run six. Um, so space is always a

1:39:35 challenge at Lawrence. Some of those

1:39:36 other spaces didn't expand when they

1:39:38 added those extra classrooms. So, yeah,

1:39:40 we do not have a space that's large

1:39:42 enough. The one um time when we do all

1:39:45 come together is um Dr. Dominique, our

1:39:48 K3 princip assistant principal, she

1:39:51 helps organize our annual Halloween

1:39:52 parade. And um starting last year, we

1:39:55 did come all together for a community

1:39:57 meeting out on the tennis courts

1:39:59 outside. So, as long as we can do it

1:40:01 outside, we did actually have everybody

1:40:02 come together. And that was a really

1:40:04 special time that hasn't happened since

1:40:06 Lawrence was much, much smaller.

1:40:08 I was lucky enough to see your first

1:40:10 my K5 one.

1:40:11 It was pretty amazing because it was

1:40:13 early in the year.

1:40:14 Yeah.

1:40:14 It was

1:40:15 our our PBIS work has really like we our

1:40:18 students understand, be safe, be

1:40:20 respectful, be responsible. The

1:40:21 kindergarteners can um name it. We give

1:40:24 out spotted tickets. When I have a

1:40:25 principal of the day, they I had one

1:40:27 today. she was out giving out those

1:40:29 spotted tickets. So, there really has

1:40:30 been that community sense. We started

1:40:32 with K5, the pack, and all of these

1:40:35 efforts with our middle school has been

1:40:37 this second leg. And I'm really excited.

1:40:39 It's it was great to have our first

1:40:40 meeting with the pack. And um you know,

1:40:43 they're focused on service

1:40:45 um spirit. So, they pick our spirit

1:40:47 days, they're picking our service

1:40:48 projects for the year, and they also are

1:40:50 going to be coming and help run the K5

1:40:52 meetings and um showing up as Lori. So,

1:40:55 it's really exciting. So, we are finding

1:40:56 other ways to infuse that cross.

1:40:59 Thank you. That's really great to hear.

1:41:01 And I just think that's actually another

1:41:03 another um it even makes it even more

1:41:06 impressive that you're able to build

1:41:07 this sense of, you know, the sense of

1:41:09 community in a space that doesn't even

1:41:11 have a a community space. I wanted to

1:41:14 ask about one of something you mentioned

1:41:17 um around pullouts. Um, am I did I hear

1:41:21 you correctly when you said this isn't

1:41:23 my question, but did I hear you

1:41:24 correctly when you said tier 2 happens

1:41:27 in the classroom or maybe

1:41:29 for the most part? Yes. Okay.

1:41:30 So, when we were working with our

1:41:32 educators last year and rolling out the

1:41:33 MTSS framework, um, we really have to

1:41:36 think flexibly. But even in terms of

1:41:38 specially designed instruction for

1:41:40 special education students,

1:41:41 traditionally there's always been in

1:41:43 Brooklyn a learning center model or our

1:41:46 intensive programs and um even those

1:41:50 students really should be in. So we have

1:41:52 students who are working on specially

1:41:53 designed instruction for math which

1:41:55 would be or or reading and that's above

1:41:58 you know even beyond if they're already

1:42:00 on an IEP but we see those students are

1:42:02 in the classroom. They might be looking

1:42:04 doing something slightly different or

1:42:06 they might be doing exactly what their

1:42:07 peers are doing. But this is the power

1:42:10 of co-eing and it's the same thing. We

1:42:12 have foundational L's now that are

1:42:14 sitting in fish tank and um Mari Kale,

1:42:17 one of our educators, is pushing in as

1:42:19 an EL educator into the classrooms and

1:42:22 and we're seeing some pretty phenomenal

1:42:24 growth in those students because they're

1:42:27 getting that exposure to that rich

1:42:29 high-quality instructional materials

1:42:31 with the supports to ensure that that

1:42:34 they can access it. That's really

1:42:36 incredible, Vanessa, and I want to

1:42:37 commend you on that because I do think

1:42:39 that um our I mean, our learning centers

1:42:42 are invaluable, but I do agree that like

1:42:44 missing out on tier one instruction is

1:42:47 really tough for students and um

1:42:50 sometimes um that creates an additional

1:42:52 deficit. And so I wonder when you were

1:42:55 talking about the the the shift in the

1:42:57 numbers for special ed students. I'm

1:42:59 wondering if some of that is coming just

1:43:01 from the fact that um they're in the

1:43:03 room for the tier one instruction.

1:43:05 Absolutely. And sometimes it's looking

1:43:06 and seeing okay these children are

1:43:08 rolling around during heity and so we

1:43:10 need to find and that this would be a

1:43:11 tier 2. This kid needs a double dose of

1:43:14 heity. So we're going to have a parah

1:43:15 pull them so they get it a second time

1:43:17 later in the day oneonone but they are

1:43:19 then getting it twice. That's a good

1:43:21 example of a tier 2 intervention that

1:43:23 can happen right in the classroom.

1:43:25 Doesn't need to happen somewhere in a

1:43:26 literacy room. Um, but it also, I am

1:43:30 hopeful, will help with our sense of

1:43:31 belonging for our special education

1:43:33 students because if you are constantly

1:43:35 going into the learning center for every

1:43:37 instructional block, you cannot bond

1:43:40 with your classmates. In the same way,

1:43:42 if we have our L's sitting in an L

1:43:45 classroom all day, they don't get to

1:43:47 build those relationships with their

1:43:48 peers. So I mean that's the other piece

1:43:50 that I do hope will go up as we really

1:43:53 continue this effort to do as much as

1:43:56 possible in a workshop model in the

1:43:58 classroom.

1:43:59 Thank you.

1:43:59 Y

1:44:02 Suzanne,

1:44:05 thank you Vanessa. I know how much hard

1:44:07 work this is to even go up a couple of

1:44:09 percentage points. So you've made

1:44:10 terrific progress in many areas. it it

1:44:13 is the educators at Lawrence and they've

1:44:15 been committed as I said even before our

1:44:17 district really um was able to have the

1:44:19 structures in place to support MTSS. Um

1:44:22 Joel Peterson and Dr. Matt Dubois have

1:44:25 really supported me in this drive to

1:44:28 really um forge forward with this work

1:44:31 and I am hopeful that it'll help build

1:44:32 some structures now that we have we

1:44:34 tried the data protocols last year at

1:44:36 Lawrence and now all of the schools are

1:44:38 rolling them out. So, I'm really hopeful

1:44:40 that um the willingness of Lauren's team

1:44:44 to trial this and get a little messy

1:44:46 this last year is hopefully going to

1:44:48 benefit all Brooklyn,

1:44:49 but we know without strong leadership it

1:44:51 wouldn't h happen as well. So,

1:44:53 congratulations on that work. I wonder

1:44:55 if you could talk for just a minute

1:44:57 about um this is your goal three. You

1:44:59 were doing early on some good

1:45:01 educational equity work. Yep. And a

1:45:04 number of times you have office of

1:45:06 educational equity was closed. We know

1:45:08 that because of budget cuts. I wonder if

1:45:10 you could talk about how your work is

1:45:12 continuing. Sure.

1:45:13 How you're doing that without the

1:45:14 budget, I mean with with the cuts. So, a

1:45:17 lot of the work we did um alongside with

1:45:19 Christy Hernandez, who originally was

1:45:21 part of the Office of Educational

1:45:22 Equity, and she's obviously now an

1:45:24 assistant principal over at um Pierce,

1:45:27 but she worked with our middle school

1:45:29 team a lot in terms of improving our

1:45:32 advisory program and looking at

1:45:34 incidents of harassment and hate speech

1:45:37 and how do we address those period

1:45:39 places of harm in our communities and

1:45:41 using our advisory better in the middle

1:45:44 school setting. So we did all of that

1:45:46 work with her. Um in addition to that,

1:45:50 we had a culture and climate team at

1:45:52 middle school level. So one of the

1:45:53 things that you all fund is stipens for

1:45:56 what's called our culture and climate

1:45:57 teams, our student intervention teams,

1:45:59 and MTSS teams. This is critical work

1:46:02 for educators. And our culture and

1:46:04 climate team at the middle school was

1:46:06 really looking at our grading for equity

1:46:08 practices, which um predated me at

1:46:10 Lawrence, but that's an integral part of

1:46:12 our grading practices. and we wanted to

1:46:14 look at that in terms of our grading.

1:46:16 And so if you look at some of these um

1:46:19 strategic initiatives that we have in

1:46:21 here, it is looking at our grading

1:46:23 practices specifically at middle school.

1:46:25 One of the things that they did when we

1:46:27 moved away from um moving into grading

1:46:30 for equity is we stopped using the old

1:46:33 um behavior and effort codes for middle

1:46:36 school on reporting. However, what we

1:46:38 saw is we still have a lot of students

1:46:39 in middle school who parents are looking

1:46:41 for that information. How are my kids

1:46:43 doing? We're looking to transform and

1:46:45 use both grading for equity language and

1:46:48 the resources from there and also castle

1:46:50 language. I believe Dr. Dubois has

1:46:52 talked to you about castle um frameworks

1:46:54 for social emotional learning. There are

1:46:56 whole rubrics that we can look at which

1:46:58 are much more strategic and designed to

1:47:01 measure specific areas of competencies

1:47:04 for social emotional learning in a way

1:47:07 that effort and behavior grades can

1:47:09 become biased. And so this is again this

1:47:12 is a way of equity being embedded in the

1:47:14 work. It's um and the other piece of

1:47:17 this is obviously this push for co-eing

1:47:19 and making sure highquality um

1:47:22 instruction is available to all students

1:47:24 in the classroom. So I hope that answers

1:47:26 your question. Yeah,

1:47:30 Carolyn,

1:47:33 thank you for this Vanessa. Um I have a

1:47:36 quick question.

1:47:36 Sure.

1:47:37 And then a question.

1:47:40 Well, it might be for Bella and maybe

1:47:43 it's for to to sort of flag for later.

1:47:46 Um, and it's not directly from your

1:47:49 presentation, which I super enjoyed and

1:47:52 studied before the meeting. Um, you

1:47:54 mentioned that you it is necessary for

1:47:56 you at this time to be running five

1:47:58 lunches.

1:47:59 Yes.

1:47:59 Can you please tell us what your first

1:48:02 lunch?

1:48:03 We start at 10:30 in the morning. We

1:48:05 finish at about 1:40. So our seventh and

1:48:09 eighth grade that has to tie to the end

1:48:11 of the day because again we have a lot

1:48:12 of short you know school days and since

1:48:15 seventh and eighth grade have less of

1:48:17 those. So our schedule at Lawrence is

1:48:19 100% driven by conservatory when we have

1:48:23 that and also the lunch schedule and

1:48:26 because of how big our school is like

1:48:29 again we talk about that enrollment we

1:48:30 dropped a little and it was really down

1:48:33 in June and so I was able to do five

1:48:35 lunches. we have been creeping creeping

1:48:37 up and so it it's a little tight in some

1:48:40 of those lunches at five. We really

1:48:41 should be at six but staffing it's very

1:48:44 challenging. Um

1:48:46 so yes, it's a real it is a real

1:48:49 challenge as I mentioned they they added

1:48:51 on to the school classrooms but that did

1:48:54 not add well parking spaces. We've been

1:48:57 working on parking over in the Lawrence

1:48:58 region. Um they it did not add to our

1:49:01 cafeteria size. It did not add to our

1:49:03 music or gym spaces. So, we have to get

1:49:05 really creative as you've seen coming

1:49:07 over to tour where we're doing art in an

1:49:09 extended day classroom where we're doing

1:49:11 music. We have to be really creative

1:49:13 thinking about spaces for sure, but the

1:49:15 cafeteria is the biggest challenge for

1:49:17 sure.

1:49:18 Thank you. Yep. Um,

1:49:23 and then my other question,

1:49:26 I think I don't want to put you on the

1:49:27 spot, but maybe so you were talking

1:49:29 about grading practices in middle

1:49:31 school. You're using a model called

1:49:33 grading for equity.

1:49:35 Yep.

1:49:35 Um I guess I want to maybe I don't know

1:49:39 if you need to answer, but I'm wondering

1:49:41 if as we're are do we have

1:49:46 consistent

1:49:48 grading practices across our middle

1:49:51 schools? Like do we have districtwide?

1:49:54 I can share a little bit if you want.

1:49:57 Um so in terms of common assessments,

1:50:01 they're moving towards that. So in fish

1:50:02 tank, we're moving towards that. Desmos

1:50:04 and math have common assessments. So

1:50:06 students are graded on a percentage

1:50:08 basis in middle school. So from that

1:50:10 perspective, yes, we have common

1:50:11 practices. Grading for equity um is

1:50:14 really looking at proficiency based. So

1:50:17 we look at our standards. And so it is

1:50:19 taking a standardsbased approach and

1:50:22 establishing that through really strong

1:50:24 rubrics. And I mentioned that we've been

1:50:27 really examining this over the last year

1:50:29 because what we wanted to look at were

1:50:31 our grades aligned with MCCAST's

1:50:35 indicators. And what we actually found

1:50:37 is there was very good consistency. So

1:50:39 concerns about grading for equity maybe

1:50:42 elevating student um performance and not

1:50:45 being in line with where they actually

1:50:47 perform. We are actually seeing very

1:50:49 tight alignment. So that was part of our

1:50:51 work on our culture and climate team.

1:50:53 And what we saw was actually our

1:50:55 students performance academically again

1:50:57 we've been sitting at 80 up to 90% in

1:51:00 terms of our eighth graders meeting or

1:51:02 exceeding on MCCAST and our grading

1:51:05 practices are aligned. So we have been

1:51:07 doing that work to ensure that part. The

1:51:10 part that's been missing in middle

1:51:11 school as I mentioned is really those

1:51:13 other competencies that are tied into

1:51:15 how students do. And again, so a

1:51:18 homework is not counted quite as much in

1:51:21 a grading for equity, but if you're not

1:51:23 getting that practice work in math, you

1:51:25 are not going to be as proficient as

1:51:26 your peers. So, how do we communicate

1:51:28 that necessity to parents while not

1:51:31 penalizing a student who may not have

1:51:33 the resources and supports at home? That

1:51:35 is really the basis of grading for

1:51:36 equity. I I don't know if that fully

1:51:39 answers it, but I I'm happy to talk

1:51:41 offline or in another time because I

1:51:43 think there is um a really strong need

1:51:46 for this in terms of our equitable

1:51:48 practices. Grading at middle school

1:51:50 there's a lot and high school can be

1:51:52 very um

1:51:56 not as discreetly based other than math

1:51:58 on how a student's doing. There's a lot

1:52:00 of subjectivity to it, right? And so the

1:52:03 better and more clear your rubrics are

1:52:05 and defined the better it will be

1:52:08 aligned with learning outcomes.

1:52:10 So also um you asked you were asking

1:52:12 about middle school but I believe our

1:52:14 progress reports were just updated for a

1:52:17 K K5 right. So there so yes so we always

1:52:21 have a mind for alignment. Um, but I

1:52:24 will also say that Vanessa in terms of

1:52:28 her adoption of MTSS and Fish Tank is

1:52:30 ahead of some of the other schools

1:52:32 because she was piloting and so so the

1:52:35 reflection of the data is is actually

1:52:38 not just um from one or two years like

1:52:40 she's they've embraced it there. Um any

1:52:44 but that's good because it's something

1:52:45 that can be modeled for the other

1:52:47 schools.

1:52:48 Thank you

1:52:49 Laura.

1:52:51 Hi

1:52:52 this is really impressive. So, thank you

1:52:53 and congratulations to you and your team

1:52:56 at Lawrence. Um, one of the questions I

1:52:58 had, so I know that I think it was your

1:53:00 second uh goal had to do with

1:53:02 mathematics and and trying to, you know,

1:53:05 get all of your students up to was the

1:53:07 85% proficiency rate.

1:53:08 Correct.

1:53:09 And I believe you mentioned that one of

1:53:10 the programs that you rolled out as part

1:53:12 of this was Desmos. Am I remembering

1:53:13 that right?

1:53:14 Desmos is the sixth to eighth grade

1:53:15 math. Yes. So, I guess one of the

1:53:16 questions that that I have about Desmos

1:53:19 is, you know, there's so much that's

1:53:20 good about it, but one of the things

1:53:22 that I've noticed as as a parent is that

1:53:24 it's computer- based. And so, now my kid

1:53:26 is doing mathematics on the computer as

1:53:29 opposed to, you know, taking notes on

1:53:31 paper. And so, I'm wondering like have

1:53:34 you noticed any

1:53:37 is it is it more difficult for students

1:53:39 to sort of show their work to find their

1:53:41 errors? I mean, it's wonderful having

1:53:43 edtech, but there's downsides, too. and

1:53:45 I was wondering if if you had

1:53:46 experienced some of that.

1:53:48 Um, so I think Desmos is incredible and

1:53:52 it's not just the program, it's the

1:53:54 educators doing it. And I know prior to

1:53:56 my time here, I've talked to Charles Dy

1:53:58 who is one of our seventh grade but our

1:54:00 eighth grade math teacher and um, we've

1:54:03 had a lot of conversations back in the

1:54:05 day before a lot of budget cuts. There

1:54:07 were math coaches in the district and he

1:54:09 talks about the math coach working with

1:54:10 him in terms of individual conferencing

1:54:12 and working with students. Um, I would

1:54:15 urge any of you to come and watch some

1:54:17 math lessons in the classroom because

1:54:20 yes, it is computer-based, but it is

1:54:22 also incredibly differentiated which

1:54:25 allows students who are ready to again

1:54:27 have extension enrichment um in a way

1:54:31 that another program cannot. And so I

1:54:33 think there's incredible advantages. Um

1:54:36 I happen to have a child who just

1:54:37 graduated from um Cornell in STEM and I

1:54:40 have another one at Harvey Mud who's

1:54:42 embedded in engineering right now. And

1:54:44 so as you know they've gone through

1:54:46 schools recently very heavily

1:54:48 computer-based middle school and high

1:54:50 school programs. And they said this is

1:54:53 what's prepared them for that STEM

1:54:55 setting in college. Um what it looks

1:54:57 like now as an engineering student. Um

1:55:00 my youngest says, you know, she

1:55:02 constantly says a lot of people my age

1:55:05 because I'm old of course at 51. Um

1:55:08 really think that everything has to be

1:55:10 pencil paper. Um but she said we're

1:55:12 really embedded in the mathematical

1:55:14 thinking and you can do that through

1:55:17 computer-based. It's they're they're

1:55:19 just wired differently than our

1:55:20 generations were. I think most of most

1:55:22 of us sitting in the room and how we

1:55:24 learned math. That being said, there is

1:55:27 still an incredible amount of

1:55:29 manipulatives

1:55:31 in the middle school level Desmos. You

1:55:33 see those digital manipulatives, but I

1:55:35 was just in a kindergarten classroom

1:55:37 today. They were counting actual bags of

1:55:39 materials, right? So, it has to be a

1:55:42 balance and um and there will always be

1:55:45 a balance. So, I don't think it's

1:55:46 impacting our students. I think they are

1:55:49 growing up as digital natives and so

1:55:52 it's just a different way of learning.

1:55:53 But I think it's allowing them to focus

1:55:55 on the mathematical thinking and the

1:55:57 processes and the problem solving.

1:55:59 Okay. Sorry.

1:56:00 Looking at the clock and Vanessa,

1:56:02 I could talk about these things forever.

1:56:04 I'm happy to come back.

1:56:06 I I loved reading

1:56:07 or come come visit come see math at

1:56:10 Lawrence.

1:56:10 Your report was amazing. The data was

1:56:12 amazing. The progress is amazing. That's

1:56:14 a reflection on you as as well as your

1:56:17 team. Thank you very much. Let's move on

1:56:18 to

1:56:19 Margaret. Margaret Beep. Margaret um

1:56:22 from beep. I Margaret correct me if I'm

1:56:25 wrong. I think beep is perhaps the

1:56:27 earliest the first early school systems

1:56:31 early childhood education program in the

1:56:34 country. Maybe BT White.

1:56:35 It's one of the oldest ones. That's

1:56:37 correct. It's from 1972. So it's you

1:56:39 know um a lot of years old now. And it's

1:56:43 one of the most early inclusive early

1:56:45 childhood programs certainly in the

1:56:46 Commonwealth for sure.

1:56:47 Yeah. Okay. Margaret Everheart peep go.

1:56:49 Well, I want just want to say thank you

1:56:51 to Vanessa for her presentation. Um, I

1:56:54 work with the most amazing principal

1:56:55 group. I work with the most amazing

1:56:57 administrators in the Commonwealth and I

1:56:59 feel very honored to be a part of this

1:57:01 school district and the public schools

1:57:02 of Brooklyn and I just wanted to cong

1:57:04 congratulate Vanessa on her presentation

1:57:06 and the hard work at at her school. I've

1:57:08 spent some time there. I've I've

1:57:10 actually witnessed that co-eing fish

1:57:12 tank um uh lessons and they're pretty

1:57:15 amazing and powerful. So, thank you

1:57:17 Vanessa for the presentation. Thank you

1:57:18 to the school committee for inviting me

1:57:19 this evening to talk a little bit about

1:57:21 beep. You will see that our school

1:57:23 improvement plan looks very different in

1:57:26 some ways from the school improvement

1:57:27 plans that you will see from the

1:57:29 elementary schools and from the high

1:57:30 school. So I'm happy to start going.

1:57:35 Yeah, I love there's we don't have a

1:57:37 mascot and be

1:57:40 um these are just some pictures from the

1:57:42 classroom some of the um the posters

1:57:44 that um teachers have done. Um I don't

1:57:47 think know if this is the most updated

1:57:49 version um Betsy since the slide in the

1:57:51 front looks a little different but we

1:57:52 can go ahead and see. Okay. So I want

1:57:55 you all to know that our first BEP

1:57:56 school council membership meeting is on

1:57:58 October 22nd. You will know that a half

1:58:01 a beep rolls over every year and we have

1:58:03 all new students and all new families

1:58:05 that start with us. And getting our site

1:58:07 council up and running takes a little

1:58:08 bit longer because half of the school is

1:58:10 new and we have to recruit new families

1:58:12 to be on the site council. So we will

1:58:14 have our first meeting on the 22nd and

1:58:16 this proposed school improvement plan I

1:58:18 will present to them and we will work on

1:58:20 it based on some of the work we've done

1:58:22 in the last few years and we will at the

1:58:24 first site come up council meeting elect

1:58:25 a chair and a co-chair and then begin to

1:58:27 approve the um school improvement plan.

1:58:31 So anytime that I start this work,

1:58:34 anytime that I come before the school

1:58:35 committee and the community, I start

1:58:36 with gratitude because I am extremely

1:58:38 fortunate to be the principal of this

1:58:40 incredible program and as I said to work

1:58:42 in this incredible district. And so I

1:58:44 have to give thanks to the beep

1:58:45 educators, the teachers, the par

1:58:47 professionals, the specialists, the

1:58:48 nurses, the social workers, the team

1:58:50 facilitators, everyone in the program

1:58:52 who works daily on behalf of students

1:58:54 and families. They are an amazing staff

1:58:56 of humans and as Vanessa pointed out,

1:58:58 they are the boots on the ground as the

1:59:00 term used today. They do the work hands

1:59:02 in the in the in the actual work. I have

1:59:04 to thank the people at the Driscoll

1:59:06 School, Gabby and her team. They make

1:59:08 the breakfast and the lunches for all of

1:59:10 the be classrooms at Lynch Beacon at

1:59:12 Potterham every single day and it is a

1:59:14 quite a task. So I I much appreciate her

1:59:17 and a lot of thanks to both Aaron and

1:59:18 Rachel for for our collaborative work

1:59:20 together for our distributive leadership

1:59:22 which I could not do without them. 23

1:59:24 classrooms across across seven locations

1:59:26 is sometimes an impossible feat and

1:59:28 without them it would not be possible.

1:59:30 And thanks to Stacy and Saladine and of

1:59:33 course always to the parents who share

1:59:35 their children with me.

1:59:38 Okay, so you all have to come over to

1:59:40 the Lynch Center because by some miracle

1:59:43 um we had a renovation over the summer

1:59:45 and in three months from June, July and

1:59:46 August the place was completely

1:59:48 transformed. New floors, new carpets,

1:59:50 new walls, um new sinks, new cabinets,

1:59:53 new new um new countertops. It looks

1:59:56 utterly amazing. And I have to thank the

1:59:58 people that are listed here, Charlie

1:59:59 Simmons and Karen King and Ed Clancy and

2:00:01 Joe Albuquerque and Andrea Shutler who

2:00:04 was the SLP who worked on an internship

2:00:06 with me and created the capital

2:00:08 improvement plan that led to the

2:00:10 improvements at Lynch. So, please come

2:00:11 over and see the building. You won't

2:00:13 believe it if you have been there most

2:00:15 recently.

2:00:18 Okay, so these are just a couple of the

2:00:19 highlights. I'm not going to go over all

2:00:20 of them, but I wanted to just focus

2:00:22 really on two of them. Last year, if you

2:00:24 recall, we did some rearranging and some

2:00:26 um redistributing of staff and we had a

2:00:29 new teaching model in beak. We had a

2:00:31 combined rise prek rise preschool

2:00:33 teaching model where we were doing much

2:00:35 more inclus inclusion by sharing staff

2:00:37 in a different way. That first year is

2:00:39 behind us. That first year was extremely

2:00:42 successful led to an incredible amount

2:00:44 of inclusion, a lot of reverse

2:00:45 inclusion, very intentional work around

2:00:47 that piece. And I am extremely proud of

2:00:49 the educators who made that model work

2:00:52 and happen. So I just wanted to point

2:00:54 that out and I wanted to point out that

2:00:55 we had a professional learning community

2:00:57 which we called grow the good and there

2:00:59 were six educators that joined me once a

2:01:01 month to work on the social emotional

2:01:03 well-being of adults because one of the

2:01:05 things that we know in education

2:01:07 particularly in early childhood is the

2:01:09 well-being of adults matters

2:01:10 tremendously for the outcomes for

2:01:12 students in the future. And so we worked

2:01:14 monthly on different topics around

2:01:16 well-being in the classroom, outside of

2:01:18 the classroom and how to take care of

2:01:20 themselves as educated. It was very

2:01:22 successful and we're trying to figure

2:01:24 out how to make it go happen this year

2:01:26 again and to grow that capacity and

2:01:28 other educators as well.

2:01:32 Always budgetary considerations are

2:01:34 extremely important part for us at beep.

2:01:36 These are the things that we think about

2:01:37 a lot. We look at the revolving fund. We

2:01:39 can moni constantly monitor the revenue

2:01:41 and the expenses. We're considering the

2:01:43 cost of being part of this prism 2 and

2:01:45 what will that mean for us as we if we

2:01:46 want to purchase new curriculum. We're

2:01:48 always looking at the leases and trying

2:01:50 to bring beep classrooms back into PSB

2:01:53 spaces, public school or Brooklyn

2:01:54 spaces. And so what does that look like

2:01:56 and what is that going to take? And then

2:01:58 also we're looking at our technology

2:01:59 needs because we do need to upgrade some

2:02:00 of our iPads and computers that we use

2:02:03 to track data for our students that are

2:02:04 in the RISE program. So those are some

2:02:06 of the things that we're thinking about

2:02:07 for the upcoming school year.

2:02:11 Okay. So, as Bella indicated, we we were

2:02:14 we we've been thinking a lot as a

2:02:15 district about our school improvement

2:02:16 plans and aligning them with the goals

2:02:18 of the district and the and the

2:02:20 superintendent schools. And so, you'll

2:02:22 see three goals here in our in our BEP

2:02:24 school improvement plan. The first run

2:02:25 around MTSS.

2:02:27 The second one is not about culture and

2:02:29 climate, but about spaces and and and

2:02:31 facilities because I I felt we cannot

2:02:33 have a school improvement plan for BEP

2:02:34 without talking about spaces and

2:02:36 facilities. And the last one will be

2:02:38 about equity. And so we are really going

2:02:40 to focus this year in beep as we have

2:02:41 for the last couple of years on tier one

2:02:43 instruction because when you think about

2:02:45 multiple multi multiple tiered systems

2:02:48 of support that's really just a fancy

2:02:50 way of saying how do students get what

2:02:51 they need every day in the way that they

2:02:53 need it right and that means really

2:02:56 solid really impactful tier one

2:02:58 instruction right so over the next year

2:03:00 we are going to spend that year really

2:03:02 continuing to strengthen our tier one

2:03:04 instruction and in beep that is very

2:03:06 specific it means a high quality

2:03:08 nurtured in classrooms, researchbased

2:03:11 core curriculum. What is the content

2:03:12 that you're teaching students and

2:03:14 positive supportive relationship

2:03:16 building? Our data will look very

2:03:19 different than the data that you see in

2:03:21 the elementary schools, but it will

2:03:23 drive the conversations of about what

2:03:26 our tier one instruction looks like.

2:03:30 I just threw this slide in because I

2:03:32 felt it was really important to point

2:03:34 out the ways that MTSS is a little bit

2:03:36 different in early childhood in preK and

2:03:38 really you should think about

2:03:39 kindergarten as well, right? Universal

2:03:41 design for learning, developmentally

2:03:43 appropriate practices and diversity,

2:03:45 equity, inclusion, culturally responsive

2:03:47 practices are at the core of MTSS and

2:03:50 early childhood. And so you should keep

2:03:52 that in mind as we think about what this

2:03:53 looks like for us in the early childhood

2:03:56 sphere of the public schools of

2:03:57 Brooklyn.

2:03:59 So, our first goal is around tier one

2:04:01 instruction and these are the these are

2:04:03 the the desired outcomes for us as a as

2:04:05 a school and how we're going to monitor

2:04:07 them and and follow along as students

2:04:09 do. And one of the things that that is

2:04:11 challenging for us being spread out over

2:04:13 23 classrooms um in seven different

2:04:16 locations is creating a master schedule

2:04:18 that allows teachers to have

2:04:20 collaboration time, consultation time,

2:04:22 and time with supervisors and

2:04:23 evaluators. And then when you do the

2:04:25 research on on MTSS and on the

2:04:28 implementation of it, you have to have a

2:04:30 solid master schedule. So we have been

2:04:33 working really hard to figure that out

2:04:35 and to build in capacity for us to do

2:04:38 the things that need to get done. And so

2:04:40 you will see that we created a sort of a

2:04:41 time on learning in the classrooms and

2:04:43 that we are going to adapt the data

2:04:45 protocols that um Joelle and Matt um and

2:04:49 the rest of the MCSS district team made

2:04:51 to fit BEEP so that we can use those

2:04:54 data protocols in our classroom

2:04:56 consultation meetings to fit for the

2:04:58 data that we that we collect in BEAP.

2:05:00 Data around social emotional learning,

2:05:02 data around the pyramid model, and data

2:05:05 around inclusive practices. And as

2:05:07 Superintendent Wong um said before,

2:05:09 having a clear professional development

2:05:11 plan around that is very important. So

2:05:13 we are looking at this professional

2:05:15 development plan that's actually from

2:05:16 Desi and it's around job embedded

2:05:19 inclusive practice professional

2:05:20 development and we're going to work on

2:05:23 that for this year hoping to get through

2:05:24 the first two modules as we continue to

2:05:27 build the capacity of educators in that

2:05:29 regard.

2:05:31 Okay, our favorite conversation around

2:05:34 be always involves facilities and space.

2:05:36 And so we in 2022 we did a presentation

2:05:39 to the school committee. Some of you

2:05:40 were on the school committee then many

2:05:41 of you were not. I included a link to

2:05:43 that presentation here in the slides

2:05:45 tonight. We are at that final slide that

2:05:47 2027 slide where we're talking about

2:05:49 moving into Pierce and thinking about

2:05:51 the future. And our goal is to

2:05:53 reestablish our beep inclusive

2:05:55 classrooms in public school spaces. We

2:05:57 have loved our partnership with the um

2:05:59 Trust Center for Early Learning. We love

2:06:01 our partnership out at Temple EMTTH and

2:06:03 we know that those leases are costly and

2:06:06 impactful to the budget across the town.

2:06:08 And we are working to figure out how to

2:06:10 reestablish our classrooms in public

2:06:12 school spaces.

2:06:16 And so here's just that goal sort of

2:06:18 outlined in your very two simple terms.

2:06:20 Those conversations will begin this week

2:06:22 when I meet with superintendent um Karen

2:06:24 Schmuckler and with Aaron Osborne to

2:06:27 talk about what we're going to think

2:06:28 about as we move towards opening pier

2:06:30 Pierce in 2027 and what else where can

2:06:33 we find other spaces within our public

2:06:36 schools for other beef classrooms.

2:06:38 Right? So this is going to be a big part

2:06:39 of our conversation over the next couple

2:06:41 of years. It was part of that original

2:06:43 plan. I think we probably need a new

2:06:44 five-year plan for beep spaces as well.

2:06:50 And then as um Superintendent Wong um

2:06:52 shared and as as um as Vanessa shared

2:06:55 like equity is at the heart of

2:06:56 everything [snorts] that we do, right?

2:06:58 Equitable outcomes for all students,

2:07:00 universal design for learning, providing

2:07:02 different means of representation,

2:07:04 expression, and access. That is what

2:07:06 equity is about in early childhood,

2:07:07 right? It is grounded in playful

2:07:09 learning. It is grounded in

2:07:10 developmentally appropriate practice. It

2:07:12 is grounded in in the in the principles

2:07:14 of the National Association for the

2:07:16 Education of Young Children. If you have

2:07:19 solid core tier one instruction, you

2:07:22 know what everyone's getting across the

2:07:24 board in your school, it is based, it is

2:07:26 antibbias, based in research, based in

2:07:29 standards, that you're going to have

2:07:30 more equitable outcomes for students.

2:07:32 Right? So, one of the goals that we have

2:07:34 this year is to participate in this

2:07:35 curriculum council through DESIE to do a

2:07:38 real look at our curriculum, not just in

2:07:40 literacy, because an early childhood

2:07:42 curriculum is not just about literacy.

2:07:43 It's the whole child. It's about it's

2:07:45 about literacy. It's about math. It's

2:07:47 about social studies. It's about

2:07:49 science. And it's about social and

2:07:50 emotional learning, which is really at

2:07:52 the core of everything that we do in

2:07:54 BEAP and in early child education.

2:07:58 So, you'll see on this slide, I've put

2:08:00 some links and re um and resources

2:08:02 connected to the curriculum council,

2:08:04 right? We are going to through our work

2:08:06 with our curriculum council, through the

2:08:08 work with DESIE and the Prism Grant, we

2:08:10 are going to create a shared

2:08:11 instructional vision for BEA that is

2:08:13 grounded in these principles outlined

2:08:15 here because we know that shared

2:08:17 visions, right, common language, common

2:08:19 practices, equitable practices, and

2:08:21 measurable outcomes lead for long-term

2:08:24 out better outcomes for students and

2:08:26 really for families as well because you

2:08:28 engage families in the process early

2:08:30 enough and they have a better

2:08:31 understanding of what their children are

2:08:33 learning and how they're learning. in

2:08:34 that this prism prism grant opportunity

2:08:36 is one that I did not actually think we

2:08:38 would get. I didn't think they would

2:08:40 actually give us the grant. Um it was a

2:08:41 very late submission. I was surprised

2:08:43 and happy. We spent three hours on the

2:08:45 highquality instructional material

2:08:47 network meeting today. So if my brain

2:08:49 seems a little frazzled, probably it is.

2:08:51 But it was it was wonderful. There were

2:08:52 so many districts there and we learned a

2:08:54 lot about really thinking about what the

2:08:56 next steps are in this process. So, it's

2:08:58 a great opportunity for the district.

2:08:59 And I will say that if there was a fish

2:09:01 tank in prek, we would look for that,

2:09:04 but they don't offer that. So, we'll

2:09:05 work with Kristen and we'll work with um

2:09:08 with Robin and with Joelle to really

2:09:10 think about which of the curriculums

2:09:11 that we might choose align best with the

2:09:14 practices of the district because for

2:09:15 the last few years, we've been doing

2:09:16 that Foundation's second step. Those are

2:09:19 all fully implemented in all BE

2:09:21 classrooms and they carry over into the

2:09:24 elementary schools as well.

2:09:28 And this is just a great um bulletin

2:09:30 board that was out at our Partan

2:09:31 location last year. Mayor Rousin's class

2:09:33 did this. Thank you, Amu. Is a wonderful

2:09:35 book. If you don't know it, you should

2:09:36 definitely go get it and read it. It is

2:09:38 a terrific book for pre-K, but it's also

2:09:40 part of the fish tank um curriculum and

2:09:42 they you read it in kindergarten. And I

2:09:44 was present last year a couple of times

2:09:45 when kids were exploring the topics in

2:09:47 this book, the vocabulary in this book,

2:09:48 and the ideas of community that it

2:09:50 represents. So

2:09:54 there you go. There you go. Um, if I

2:09:57 might, so you have a presentation from

2:09:59 another excellent educator in the

2:10:01 district. Um, I just want to point out

2:10:04 that Margaret is a singleton um, as the

2:10:07 principal of our preschool and she I've

2:10:10 had the privilege of working with many

2:10:13 talented preschool educators who take

2:10:16 what the district goals are and they

2:10:18 make them developmentally appropriate

2:10:20 for their students. And you've just seen

2:10:22 a really compelling argument for

2:10:24 Universal PreK. Can you imagine if there

2:10:27 were Margaret's multiplied

2:10:30 and

2:10:31 or Rachel or Eron? Yeah.

2:10:32 Yeah. And so students would be able to

2:10:35 have this. So one of the things about

2:10:36 the learnings from Finland and Estonia

2:10:38 is the investment in early childhood.

2:10:41 Students don't actually start formal

2:10:43 education until first grade. But many of

2:10:45 them are reading and they're starting

2:10:46 with a level playing ground. And that is

2:10:48 the notion. But if you can imagine

2:10:50 Margaret multiplied over and over. Um

2:10:53 but she's amazing um member of the team

2:10:57 and anyway but just

2:10:59 that's kind of you. Thank you. It's kind

2:11:01 of you.

2:11:02 Thank you. Thank you. Are there any

2:11:04 questions

2:11:05 we have?

2:11:06 Please I'm happy to answer any questions

2:11:08 about the grant if you had any more. I

2:11:09 knew you had some questions about

2:11:10 I was just going to comment and

2:11:12 congratulate you and thank you for that.

2:11:14 like I love which was why I was asking

2:11:17 about it in finance and I was grateful

2:11:20 to hear about it from Robin today just

2:11:23 to hear

2:11:24 that you had like the the the initiative

2:11:29 to apply for this grant and to you know

2:11:32 be so um enthusiastic about tying in

2:11:36 what BEP is doing to this initiative

2:11:38 that's so important to the district

2:11:40 right now. So um thank you for applying

2:11:43 and congratulations on getting it and um

2:11:46 that's just really great. Um um

2:11:50 and

2:11:52 yeah, that's it. That's just a comment.

2:11:54 Thank you.

2:11:54 Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I

2:11:56 appreciate the the support of Ashley uh

2:11:58 Sullivan in the um finance office. She

2:12:00 really helped me get it going because we

2:12:02 only had like two days to submit it when

2:12:04 we finally realized we could. So, I was

2:12:07 grateful for the support of the district

2:12:08 and getting that work done as well.

2:12:10 Suzanne Feders,

2:12:12 thank you Margaret. Thank you for all

2:12:13 your work. I'm so glad that the Lynch

2:12:16 Center got [laughter] an upgrade.

2:12:17 Oh my god. It doesn't It doesn't It's

2:12:19 the You You have to come. All of you who

2:12:21 came last year, you must come.

2:12:22 Yeah. I'm looking forward to that.

2:12:24 It's amazing. I am so appreciative of

2:12:26 it. And so are the families where kids

2:12:28 are going to make notes for everybody

2:12:29 and send it to the building commission.

2:12:31 Oh, that's great.

2:12:32 Well, it's an old building, so it needed

2:12:34 a little love. [laughter]

2:12:36 It got a lot of love.

2:12:38 Great. I noticed that you mentioned in

2:12:40 facilities perhaps going to the high

2:12:41 school with the classroom. I believe we

2:12:43 had

2:12:44 She didn't mention high school. She said

2:12:46 we were going to find places in the

2:12:48 schools.

2:12:49 So, she isn't No, it says something

2:12:51 about high school.

2:12:52 Oh, okay.

2:12:53 Yeah. I think I think you know that's

2:12:55 always my hope, right? That we would

2:12:57 have high school spaces mostly. I have

2:12:59 to tell you because of the opportunity

2:13:01 to work with the high schoolers,

2:13:03 right? like not only that is it

2:13:06 wonderful but the opportunity to work

2:13:07 with high schoolers they come to our

2:13:08 program they interned all year last year

2:13:11 um the A students come at the and they

2:13:14 do community service and it's a great

2:13:16 pathway and it's not a pathway that

2:13:18 involves you know it's a human pathway

2:13:20 it's human intelligence at its best um

2:13:23 I think we were at the high school at

2:13:25 one point weren't we or was

2:13:26 yes we for a long time we had thought

2:13:28 that's what I thought now

2:13:29 we'll see what happens I'm going to work

2:13:31 with the superintendent

2:13:32 takes a lot with facilities I vote for

2:13:34 it. So, uh,

2:13:35 it's not the superintendent you have to

2:13:36 worry about.

2:13:40 I had one more uh question. Could you

2:13:42 just talk a little bit about your

2:13:43 curriculum council?

2:13:45 Yeah. So, I um I'm happy to share I'm

2:13:47 not sure if I put the link in this in

2:13:48 the slides, but the curriculum council

2:13:50 is composed of the word stakeholders in

2:13:53 the process. So, there's teachers,

2:13:55 there's specialists, there's par

2:13:57 profofessionals, there's administrators.

2:13:59 Right now the only thing the only per

2:14:01 the only member that we don't really

2:14:02 have is like a parent or and or and or a

2:14:04 community member and we meet monthly and

2:14:07 review um what is curriculum, what is

2:14:09 high quality in instructional materials,

2:14:12 what is our vision and be what are we

2:14:13 currently doing, how does it align with

2:14:15 the district and then once a month four

2:14:18 or three or four of us meet with the

2:14:20 high quality instructional material

2:14:21 network that is run by Desi and that was

2:14:23 the first meeting that we had. Um today

2:14:25 that was three hours. So it's once a

2:14:27 month for three hours on on a Wednesday,

2:14:29 but the curriculum council will meet.

2:14:31 We'll look we'll break up into small

2:14:32 groups. We'll it requires around 10

2:14:35 additional hours of work per month to

2:14:37 look at the different components of the

2:14:39 implement MA process. But it really you

2:14:42 need to have a diverse set of voices

2:14:43 involved in the curriculum council. And

2:14:46 Kristen Gray is going to join us in the

2:14:48 second phase of the curriculum council

2:14:50 um when we're looking at we're actually

2:14:51 exploring that different curriculum. So,

2:14:53 we're still working on composing some of

2:14:55 the elements of the council, but we have

2:14:56 a good solid council right now of

2:14:58 educators, par professionals,

2:15:00 specialists, and administrators.

2:15:02 So, Margaret, I noticed the word play on

2:15:05 one of your

2:15:06 slides. I just want you to say it again

2:15:08 how play is so important for

2:15:10 preschoolers.

2:15:11 And when when um when Karen Schmuckler

2:15:13 came to visit and she and I toured a

2:15:15 couple of the beep classrooms recently,

2:15:17 we talked about the importance of that

2:15:18 piece and all of the curriculums for the

2:15:21 high quality instructional material

2:15:23 network. They're based in play based in

2:15:26 play that with measurable outcomes. And

2:15:27 I think that's the hardest part for for

2:15:29 some people to wrap their head around.

2:15:31 But the play is the work of children.

2:15:33 Children learn through play. They learn

2:15:35 through manipulating material. They

2:15:36 learn through trial and error. And they

2:15:38 learn through guided play. And the

2:15:40 guided play is the key. Teachers putting

2:15:42 out intentional material, really

2:15:44 thinking about what am I trying to get

2:15:45 the kids to think about here and then

2:15:47 guiding them to to learn from that and

2:15:49 then following up with some from

2:15:51 conversations and some post assessments

2:15:53 as well. But play is the is the work of

2:15:55 children. And I think, you know, I think

2:15:57 that we've moved away from that in some

2:15:59 of our um upper younger grades, but it

2:16:02 is essentially the work of early

2:16:03 childhood.

2:16:04 Thank you. I really appreciate it's like

2:16:06 music to my ears. Thank you.

2:16:08 Me too. Me too.

2:16:09 Margaret, how hard is it to supervise

2:16:10 multiple sites?

2:16:12 So, the hardest part for me is that I

2:16:14 have to know everyone and then and like

2:16:16 I must know all 250 students and beep

2:16:19 like I need to know them for my own

2:16:21 sanity because they're they're beep

2:16:23 students. They're beepers as I call to

2:16:25 them. And so, you have to really be

2:16:26 intentional in planning and thinking

2:16:28 about who you're when you're going to

2:16:30 visit, how you're going to go, how

2:16:31 you're going to interact with the

2:16:33 teachers, with the par professionals,

2:16:34 with the specialists. It's hard, but you

2:16:37 know, I will say it's there's a there's

2:16:38 a real momentum to the work. You get you

2:16:40 get to move around a lot. You get to see

2:16:42 a lot of different I get to go to

2:16:44 Driscoll, Ridley, Wrl, and Hayes. I

2:16:47 mean, that's pretty amazing, right? That

2:16:48 I get to go to all those places and

2:16:50 interact with all those principles and

2:16:51 all the different people that work in

2:16:52 those schools. Sometimes it's tiring,

2:16:55 but um it's worth it every minute of it.

2:16:57 And Rachel and Erin are amazing. We

2:16:58 split the responsibility of supervision

2:17:00 and evaluation and we meet once a once a

2:17:03 week as an administrative team and then

2:17:05 another time with our team facilitators

2:17:07 um to make sure that we're really

2:17:08 capturing all the things that we need to

2:17:10 capture.

2:17:11 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank

2:17:13 you.

2:17:13 Thank you so much. I had a lovely time.

2:17:14 Thank you for inviting me.

2:17:16 You're welcome. Come back.

2:17:18 I will. Thank you so much.

2:17:19 Okay. Moving along. So in November t at

2:17:24 November town meeting there will be two

2:17:26 warrant articles 12 and 13 that have to

2:17:28 do with lighting in the town and we've

2:17:33 David Pollock is here who is uh the

2:17:35 former chair of the school committee I

2:17:37 believe.

2:17:38 Yeah among his other accomplishments

2:17:43 stresses. So David you're the sponsor I

2:17:46 think or co-sponsor

2:17:48 of the articles. Come on up and talk

2:17:50 about them. So the school committee will

2:17:53 only make a decision if there's an

2:17:56 impact of these two warrant articles on

2:17:59 the public schools of Brooklyn. So we'll

2:18:01 pay attention to you and then Kyle

2:18:03 Williams is here who's the athletic

2:18:04 director at the high school and maybe he

2:18:07 can make some comments about the impact

2:18:09 of these two articles on the public

2:18:12 schools. Okay, David.

2:18:15 Yes. Hello. Uh hello school committee

2:18:18 members. Um yeah, uh fun to be back in

2:18:21 in um uh the uh James Walsh uh school

2:18:26 committee room. David Pollock, uh town

2:18:29 meeting member from precinct 11, member

2:18:31 of the uh Brooklyn uh advisory committee

2:18:35 to town meeting. I chair the land use

2:18:38 zoning and sustainability subcommittee

2:18:40 of town meetings advisory committee and

2:18:43 I also have chaired since um last year

2:18:47 the moderators committee on outdoor

2:18:49 lighting and I'm joined by Julie Jetty.

2:18:52 Come on up Julie. Uh and Alisa Plazanda.

2:18:55 Uh we are three of the nine members of

2:18:58 the moderators committee that has worked

2:19:00 since January to uh bring to town

2:19:03 meeting two warrant articles that will

2:19:06 uh regulate and improve outdoor lighting

2:19:09 only outdoor lighting in Brooklyn. And

2:19:12 uh I spoke with the chair uh a month or

2:19:15 so ago and we both agreed that it would

2:19:17 be good for school committee at least

2:19:18 have a high level understanding of these

2:19:21 articles and their fiscal impact or or

2:19:24 you know not so much fiscal impact on

2:19:27 the school facilities uh as a you know a

2:19:30 matter of of uh information. So we're

2:19:33 going to start with Alisa who's going to

2:19:35 you know quickly run us through our

2:19:36 highle slide deck.

2:19:39 Yeah. Um thank you David. So, um I I

2:19:42 know you had the deck. So, uh David

2:19:45 mentioned we had nine members of the

2:19:46 committee, very diverse committee, and

2:19:48 we've been working for the past 10

2:19:50 months to develop the articles that are

2:19:51 before you now. So, light pollution is a

2:19:54 growing issue with a lot of negative

2:19:56 impacts. And while Brooklyn has made

2:19:59 some progress towards trying to address

2:20:01 light pollution, the most recent two

2:20:04 efforts stalled, which brings us to

2:20:06 where we are today. Um, so in brief, a

2:20:09 light pollution is bad for humans, even

2:20:12 worse for wildlife, and it unnecessarily

2:20:15 contributes to climate change. If you're

2:20:17 interested in the science behind um the,

2:20:20 you know, the negative impacts here, we

2:20:22 provided links in the explanation

2:20:24 section of article 12.

2:20:27 So through our research, walking tours,

2:20:30 and testimony from a range of

2:20:31 stakeholders, we identified four

2:20:34 categories of excessive lighting in

2:20:35 Brooklyn, and they're shown here. So,

2:20:37 poorly shielded and poorly aimed

2:20:39 fixtures, bright white or blue white

2:20:42 LEDs that are particularly disruptive to

2:20:44 both humans and wildlife, lights that

2:20:47 aren't, um, serving a a use, and light

2:20:51 that is left on when it's no longer

2:20:52 needed.

2:20:54 So, um, what we're proposing are two

2:20:56 articles to address these issues. One is

2:20:59 a slight revision to the existing

2:21:00 regulations of glare and light trespass

2:21:03 in the zoning code. And these are

2:21:05 largely clarifications. That's warrant

2:21:07 article 13 and a new general bylaw

2:21:11 section under part 8 of public health

2:21:13 and safety that sets out the five

2:21:16 guiding principles that you see listed

2:21:18 here and provides corresponding outdoor

2:21:20 lighting standards in line with these

2:21:23 principles. So the requirements and

2:21:25 standards are straightforward extensions

2:21:27 of the guiding principles. You know in a

2:21:30 nutshell fixtures need to be shielded.

2:21:32 Lights should be turned off when they're

2:21:34 not um you know when they're not in use.

2:21:36 Um so we have curfews and with some

2:21:39 exceptions bulbs should be warm white in

2:21:42 color of having a color corrected

2:21:44 temperature of 3,000 Kelvin or less.

2:21:47 There are a range of exemptions um you

2:21:49 know for safety and and and and so there

2:21:52 as well. So, for the curfews, these

2:21:55 curfews um align with existing town

2:21:58 curfews, uh including the signed bylaw,

2:22:02 and and they're not absolute. There are

2:22:03 there are exceptions. So, businesses can

2:22:05 have their lights on if they're open

2:22:07 later than the 11 p.m. curfew, and

2:22:09 residents can continue to use their

2:22:11 outdoor lighting if they're outside

2:22:13 late. So, that's not an issue. And then

2:22:16 for recreation use for both town fields

2:22:18 and private fields, uh lights have to be

2:22:21 off by 10 pm unless there's an earlier

2:22:24 cut off that's um dictated by existing

2:22:26 policy. And this is consistent with

2:22:28 what's already in place um with the

2:22:30 town. So these requirements would phase

2:22:33 in over time with a compliance time

2:22:36 frame tiered according to the cost and

2:22:38 difficulty of making the indicated

2:22:41 changes. So easy fixes need to be

2:22:44 completed within a year. More complex

2:22:46 changes, complicated changes need to

2:22:48 happen within 5 years. So that's for

2:22:51 private property. For the town, the town

2:22:54 needs to have a plan and be underway

2:22:56 starting to come into compliance by year

2:22:59 five and then be fully compliant by year

2:23:02 10.

2:23:04 So, the town also has uh excuse me, the

2:23:06 the bylaw also has uh additional uh

2:23:09 restrictions on outdoor lighting for six

2:23:11 key wildlife habitat areas while

2:23:14 allowing uh safety lighting around

2:23:16 buildings, parking lots, and walkways

2:23:19 and paths. And all of the properties

2:23:21 that are listed here are cited for their

2:23:23 habitat value in the 2025 open space and

2:23:26 recreation plan. So, the reason that um

2:23:29 protecting these nighttime habitats from

2:23:32 light pollution is so critical is

2:23:34 because while some wildlife has adapted

2:23:37 to human presence and our lights that

2:23:40 come with humans, many species have not.

2:23:43 And for them, even low levels of

2:23:45 artificial light disrupts the cycles

2:23:48 that they depend on for survival, for

2:23:50 reproduction, for feeding and

2:23:52 navigation. So it's um extremely

2:23:55 detrimental

2:23:57 from a cost perspective. Um in crafting

2:23:59 our article, we were trying to get the

2:24:00 most bang for the buck. So focused on

2:24:03 you know the changes that would have

2:24:06 more impact um and trying to you know uh

2:24:09 make it very economic.

2:24:12 So also avoiding the fiscal shock to

2:24:15 both property owners and the town. So

2:24:17 that's the reason for you know the one

2:24:19 year versus 5year for private property

2:24:21 and then the five to 10year for town

2:24:24 owned property. So this shows this slide

2:24:27 shows um potential costs for different

2:24:29 types of things that might need to be

2:24:31 corrected. And as far as the schools are

2:24:34 concerned, we think that the newer

2:24:35 schools are likely to already be in in

2:24:39 compliance because the requirements of

2:24:41 this article are completely consistent

2:24:43 with current best practice lighting

2:24:45 standards. Um, and for those lights that

2:24:47 don't conform, having that 10-year

2:24:49 compliance time horizon would allow

2:24:51 changes to be made as part of the

2:24:53 regular CIP process. So, I'm going to

2:24:56 flip it back to David to add anything

2:24:58 further and then happy to take your

2:25:00 questions.

2:25:05 Um, are there any questions? Sarah?

2:25:08 Um, well, I did want to have the

2:25:10 opportunity to ask Kyle if he thinks

2:25:11 that this impacts um, sports in any way.

2:25:14 Kyle, there's a request for you to come

2:25:16 on up and respond to that question. Will

2:25:19 there be an impact on our school

2:25:20 programs?

2:25:22 And thank you for being here.

2:25:26 Thank you for having me. I'm Kyle

2:25:28 Williams, director of athletics at the

2:25:29 high school. Um, I also started my

2:25:32 career as a pair professional at

2:25:33 Lawrence like Vanessa. Um, and as it

2:25:36 relates to the War Articles, I want to

2:25:37 thank the moderators committee, uh, Mr.

2:25:39 Pollic for it seems like they've been

2:25:41 responsive to some of the feedback

2:25:42 throughout the process in terms of the

2:25:44 sites that were originally excluded or

2:25:46 or protected areas um as they might

2:25:49 impact recreational users. So, I

2:25:50 appreciate that. Uh the 10pm cutoff is

2:25:53 not an issue. It's consistent with

2:25:54 current practice. It's consistent with

2:25:56 trying to get kids home to their

2:25:57 families and to do homework. We're we're

2:25:59 happy with that. Um where I wanted to

2:26:02 present today was about capacity as a

2:26:03 whole. Um and so we've grown uh prior to

2:26:07 my coming group about 25% and then the

2:26:09 10 years before that we've grown another

2:26:10 30% in the past um four years. And so

2:26:14 that's great and our facilities are our

2:26:16 biggest constraint at this point. Um and

2:26:18 we have plenty of partnerships with

2:26:20 recreation, with private schools, with

2:26:21 everybody uh in the area that we can. Um

2:26:24 but we see there are four ways to

2:26:26 increase capacity. um that's acquiring

2:26:28 acres of land, which um I don't think is

2:26:31 something that necessarily the town is

2:26:32 going to be doing anytime soon to push

2:26:34 towards recreational athletics. Um

2:26:36 there's lights, synthetic turf, and uh

2:26:39 partnerships and pilots. And so lights

2:26:41 being one of those, I just wanted the

2:26:43 committee to understand that as we think

2:26:45 about future capacity for athletic

2:26:47 growth, active recreation growth, that

2:26:50 um

2:26:51 facilities, in this case, the one

2:26:53 facility that's still included would be

2:26:54 the golf course. how that impacts the

2:26:56 high school is uh through boys golf in

2:26:59 the fall, girls golf in the spring, and

2:27:01 potentially Nordic skiing in the winter.

2:27:02 And again, this is forward thinking.

2:27:04 Currently, our Nordic ski group goes to

2:27:07 Western, the Western Ski Track. Um, and

2:27:09 that's a bit of a limiting factor in

2:27:10 terms of access and equity. That group

2:27:12 has grown from seven students uh pre-

2:27:15 pandemic to 21. Now, we see it as one of

2:27:17 our biggest growth opportunities of a

2:27:18 low skill, low commitment um to continue

2:27:21 getting kids engaged in sports. Um, golf

2:27:24 has grown from 33 students pre- pandemic

2:27:26 to 64. Um, and we're really starting to

2:27:28 stress the um, relationship with

2:27:31 recreation, relationship with the folks

2:27:32 who are there in that 3 to five window.

2:27:35 Um, and so the golf course is is one

2:27:38 area where having additional capacity,

2:27:42 what that looks like, what they would do

2:27:43 with lights, I don't I'm not necessarily

2:27:45 aware of specific plans, but additional

2:27:47 capacity for high school use would be

2:27:48 beneficial. The other area where lights

2:27:50 are particularly impactful on high

2:27:52 school users is this time of year. Um I

2:27:54 just left the high school and uh our

2:27:57 permit goes till 5:30. At 5:15 there

2:27:59 were seven youth soccer teams, probably

2:28:01 about 80 students ready to get on the

2:28:04 fields uh using the fields, the lit

2:28:06 fields. And when we get to next week, we

2:28:09 start having games that are impacted,

2:28:11 experiences that are impacted because of

2:28:13 darkness. Um we're not able to host

2:28:15 playoff games in on Brookline

2:28:17 facilities. soap soccer, boys soccer,

2:28:19 girls soccer, football, field hockey, we

2:28:21 can't necessarily host. If we do, we

2:28:23 have to host at 2 p.m. Uh we have to get

2:28:25 kids out of class to be able to host

2:28:26 before darkness. Um and so it's not

2:28:29 necessarily about the warn article

2:28:30 itself. Um except beyond perhaps the

2:28:33 golf course. Um but it's about future

2:28:35 capacity and making you aware of the

2:28:36 impact of those potential those four

2:28:38 growth areas, the acquisition of land,

2:28:40 lights, synthetic turf, and uh

2:28:42 partnerships and pilots. and the

2:28:44 partnerships and pilots. One to mention

2:28:46 um I haven't spoken with them but is uh

2:28:49 Northeastern uh specifically because

2:28:51 they are our partner they're our venue

2:28:53 that does have lights so we try to use

2:28:55 them. We've rented from BEu but they're

2:28:57 not uh in Brooklyn so this wouldn't

2:28:58 apply to them but Nor Eastern's impact

2:29:01 and on that 5-year horizon of upgrading

2:29:03 their lights. I don't know exactly

2:29:04 whether that would be required of them

2:29:06 if they could be expanded out or if

2:29:07 they're even aware necessarily of this

2:29:09 work. Um so I would just name that as

2:29:11 one of our partners that might be

2:29:12 impacted. That was all super helpful.

2:29:14 But can you just be very clear? Um if

2:29:17 this were to pass this um not thinking

2:29:20 about the future, just thinking about

2:29:21 current, it wouldn't change anything

2:29:23 that you're able to run currently.

2:29:25 Uh it it should not. No.

2:29:27 Okay. And one more thing because you

2:29:29 might be more in touch with this than I

2:29:30 am or maybe somebody else around the

2:29:31 room is. Um, what do we think about just

2:29:34 lighting and or might be for you guys

2:29:36 for kids that kind of congregate

2:29:39 different places that aren't necessarily

2:29:41 playing sports but you know might go

2:29:43 find a basketball court or someplace to

2:29:46 see each other? I'm not really in touch

2:29:48 with that population myself. So, is

2:29:51 anybody around the table think that

2:29:53 we're going to be turning off lights

2:29:54 that would offer an opportunity for

2:29:56 people to get together safely?

2:29:58 No, because Oh, yeah. Sorry. I guess

2:30:02 that question is for David and Julie,

2:30:05 but my understanding I think from the

2:30:07 presentation is that the curfew is 11

2:30:11 p.m. So I mean after 11 p.m.

2:30:17 And I guess that's always kind of the

2:30:22 Thank you, Julie Jetty, town meeting

2:30:24 member, precinct 16 drilled into my

2:30:26 head. Um I um [clears throat] Thanks. Um

2:30:31 the uh parks and wreck has its own um

2:30:35 curfews for park

2:30:38 locations and those are usually dusk. Um

2:30:40 parks are most of our parks that are not

2:30:42 already lit are closed from dawn to

2:30:44 dusk. So that's um the case already

2:30:47 there. And uh one of the exceptions that

2:30:50 we uh made sure to make in the art in

2:30:52 the article was um lighting of pathway

2:30:55 allowing lighting of pathways um for

2:30:58 walking or cycling. So those are other

2:31:01 areas maybe kids would be hanging out,

2:31:03 but I don't think this is this affects

2:31:06 that.

2:31:07 Laura,

2:31:09 kind of building off of Sarah's question

2:31:12 and and sort of building off um your

2:31:14 presentation, Mr. Williams, you know,

2:31:16 thinking about play future capacity. If

2:31:18 there was a park in Brooklyn that we

2:31:20 wanted to light a field so that we could

2:31:22 play soccer later into the evening,

2:31:25 assuming it wasn't one of the places

2:31:27 that was listed here, like Horse

2:31:29 Sanctuary, there wouldn't be anything to

2:31:31 preclude putting in lights as long as it

2:31:33 complied with the new regulations.

2:31:36 Correct,

2:31:38 Ella?

2:31:39 Um, this is a followup to Sarah's

2:31:43 question. It it it has actually been on

2:31:46 my mind if there could be maybe a

2:31:48 catchall exception

2:31:51 if an if lighting would improve safety

2:31:54 in a certain area

2:31:57 if if if something

2:32:00 like we don't not about current but if

2:32:03 if something were I don't know factors

2:32:06 can change and maybe

2:32:09 yeah there's there's very little

2:32:11 prohibition of lighting

2:32:14 anywhere in the articles. What it really

2:32:18 says is light should be shielded.

2:32:21 Uh so dark sky and also not shedding,

2:32:24 you know, away from where they're

2:32:26 supposed to light. They should be no

2:32:28 brighter than necessary for the task.

2:32:31 And um they should be turned off when

2:32:34 not needed. And then except perhaps for

2:32:38 sports lighting they should be maximum

2:32:42 warm white. Uh but there are the um the

2:32:48 general bylaw also references

2:32:51 uh the uh illumination engineers

2:32:54 society's

2:32:55 uh best practice publications which

2:32:57 there are many of for different kinds of

2:33:00 uses. And so, for instance, when you

2:33:02 look at the sports field lighting um

2:33:05 recommended practice document, it says

2:33:07 that it's better to have uh somewhat

2:33:10 higher color temperatures because you

2:33:12 get better color rendition and so you

2:33:14 get better visibility and when you have

2:33:16 large people racing around uh running

2:33:19 into each other, increasing visibility

2:33:22 is good for that use. So, even that is

2:33:24 allowed as an exception. So, you can put

2:33:27 lights basically wherever you want. They

2:33:29 just need to be according to current

2:33:32 best practice of how we want to light

2:33:35 our environment and not light the night

2:33:36 sky.

2:33:38 Right. And and if I can just add and I I

2:33:39 I pulled this slide up and I I went

2:33:41 through it very quickly just in the

2:33:43 interest of I know your meeting is

2:33:44 running long. Um but we do have a number

2:33:46 of exceptions for the curfew. So

2:33:48 entryway and egress lighting. Um safety

2:33:50 lighting is allowed to be on whenever

2:33:53 it's needed. So um

2:33:55 yes, I see that. I I missed it before.

2:33:58 Thank you. The safety lighting. Yeah.

2:34:01 Yeah. Sorry I went very quickly.

2:34:04 Um Carolyn,

2:34:06 um thanks for this and as a town meeting

2:34:10 member

2:34:11 it's helpful that we're talking about

2:34:13 the buildings. um

2:34:17 this kind of I I appreciate I think also

2:34:20 for our purposes as a school committee

2:34:22 um the environmental impacts of lighting

2:34:24 are really was sort of the genesis of

2:34:27 this um and in other presentations we've

2:34:30 heard about the impacts on wildlife and

2:34:34 reproduction and habits. So, um, really

2:34:38 important for us, um, from an

2:34:41 environmental perspective. Um, and just

2:34:44 for context, David or Julie, can you

2:34:46 just quickly tell us like other boards

2:34:49 and commissions that have heard this and

2:34:53 what the

2:34:53 So, four boards have already uh had

2:34:57 public hearings and voted. Um, the

2:34:59 advisory committee met last night and

2:35:02 there was a couple of abstensions. Um

2:35:05 otherwise it was 20 whatever in favor

2:35:08 and none opposed. The select board

2:35:10 unanimously supported. Uh and then

2:35:13 yesterday morning or Tuesday yesterday

2:35:15 yesterday morning the small business um

2:35:19 uh uh

2:35:20 oh okay

2:35:22 uh uh de development committee uh voted

2:35:26 to recommend and also the economic

2:35:28 development advisory board recommended

2:35:30 to. So on all four votes there there

2:35:32 hasn't been a single uh negative uh

2:35:35 voice.

2:35:36 Great.

2:35:36 So far. So

2:35:38 awesome. Thank you,

2:35:39 Suzanne.

2:35:42 I'm just curious about the MBTA the

2:35:46 stops.

2:35:46 They're the the the state uh properties

2:35:50 are just exempted,

2:35:52 right? They're they're very bright.

2:35:54 [laughter]

2:35:54 I'll say that. But

2:35:55 we also can't really make rules for

2:35:57 them, so we didn't try.

2:35:58 Just thought I'd check. Thanks

2:35:59 Jesse.

2:36:01 Yeah. Um my question has to do with the

2:36:04 regulation. So what is your thinking

2:36:07 about how to follow up assuming that we

2:36:10 in town meeting precinct 14? Um um uh

2:36:16 past the two warrant articles. What

2:36:18 would the towns uh what's the setup for

2:36:21 the town to go you know what block by

2:36:23 block, street by street? what how how in

2:36:26 the long term similarly to how trees

2:36:28 have sort of maybe worked maybe not

2:36:30 worked with for preservation um for

2:36:32 protecting the lighting outdoors very

2:36:35 important to all of us how would that be

2:36:37 regulated and you know I know I know I

2:36:39 read through the entire presentation

2:36:40 there might be some fines if people

2:36:42 don't do it over a long period of time

2:36:44 but what is the plan I mean so that it's

2:36:46 equitably administered across the entire

2:36:49 town

2:36:49 it's completely complaintbased okay

2:36:53 and on a broad spectrum across the town.

2:36:55 So if your lights aren't maybe your

2:36:58 light isn't strictly compliant, but if

2:37:01 nobody, you know, uh calls the building

2:37:04 department, there is going to be no

2:37:06 surveys, no going block by block looking

2:37:09 for lights that aren't compliant.

2:37:11 Perfect.

2:37:12 Up until this point, uh complaints about

2:37:14 lighting have always gone to the

2:37:16 building commissioner. Um and going

2:37:19 forward the general bylaw actually um

2:37:23 also brings in the uh uh commissioner of

2:37:26 public health the director of public

2:37:29 health. So it's sort of both andor their

2:37:32 design.

2:37:33 Thank you.

2:37:33 To do uh to do compliance to

2:37:36 Donna. So, I want to um like hone back

2:37:40 in on the um impact this might have on

2:37:44 the schools since that's the only thing

2:37:46 within our jurisdiction. And so, Kyle,

2:37:49 can you first of all, I want to I want

2:37:51 to say that I appreciate your sort of

2:37:53 forward thinking. And could you say a

2:37:56 little more about the northeastern part

2:37:58 of it? Your concern. I want to make sure

2:38:00 I'm understanding what your concern

2:38:02 might be. Is it accurate to say that

2:38:04 you're thinking that if they have to

2:38:07 comply with this regulation, they might

2:38:09 no long

2:38:12 offer the field anymore? Like they might

2:38:14 not even use the field or is that sort

2:38:16 of what you're thinking and then we

2:38:17 wouldn't have access to it.

2:38:20 Um I don't want to speculate necessarily

2:38:23 on what Nor Eastern might do or not do.

2:38:25 I don't even know about their awareness

2:38:26 level of this warrant article or its

2:38:28 impacts on their property. What I'll

2:38:30 share is that our usage there is um

2:38:34 we're we're very grateful for it and

2:38:36 it's really limited. Um they rightfully

2:38:39 prioritize their usages and their usage

2:38:41 has grown um in years as NCA uh

2:38:44 compliance has grown the number of out

2:38:46 ofseason hours they could participate.

2:38:48 And so um the short answer is yes. I

2:38:50 worry about it damaging the relationship

2:38:53 um and then impacting our access there.

2:38:55 Um, and our access there is already

2:38:56 limited in such a way that each of the

2:38:58 last five years we've had to lose uh or

2:39:01 move uh to another facility, a football

2:39:03 game each year. So 10% of our our

2:39:05 football games have had to go to uh

2:39:07 either an away venue. So we've gone to

2:39:08 Newton South, we've gone to Watertown,

2:39:10 we've played a home game at Newton

2:39:12 North. And so it's in a difficult

2:39:15 situation as it is. Um, and so any sort

2:39:18 of um

2:39:21 any sort of negative uh impact on them

2:39:23 would be I worry about the downstream

2:39:25 effect.

2:39:25 Okay, I think I understand that better.

2:39:26 But they can sorry but they can light

2:39:28 the field until 9:00 p.m. 10 p.m. 11

2:39:33 p.m.

2:39:34 Consistent with the bylaws, I think it

2:39:36 they actually the they actually have an

2:39:38 agreement with the town to uh turn off

2:39:40 the lights at 9:00 p.m. Nor Eastern does

2:39:42 for the field just because it's so

2:39:44 embedded in the neighborhood. That's

2:39:46 idiosyncratic. But the way this general

2:39:48 bylaw is written, it's 1000 p.m. or if

2:39:52 there's [clears throat] something else

2:39:53 in place, which would be 9:00 p.m. for

2:39:54 So it doesn't sound like this would

2:39:56 impact.

2:40:00 I guess the lights that are there are

2:40:03 not compliant.

2:40:04 Okay. So over the course of 10 years,

2:40:07 they might have to

2:40:08 five I think would be for the private

2:40:09 property.

2:40:10 Okay. And then sorry could you just say

2:40:13 a little on the for the golf course

2:40:16 the students would be more limited in

2:40:19 their access or they would not?

2:40:21 No the golf course um point was twofold.

2:40:24 one around golf is that there's a lot of

2:40:28 it's a it's a very busy time in the

2:40:29 afternoon and so any capacity that the

2:40:31 golf course can expand into the evening

2:40:33 uh the driving range especially would

2:40:35 open up opportunities for our students

2:40:36 in the afternoons because you wouldn't

2:40:38 see that that uh concentration of users

2:40:40 right after school

2:40:41 uh right before dark uh and then the

2:40:43 Nordic ski was just I think wishful

2:40:45 thinking the the golf course the

2:40:46 recreation department's been done an

2:40:48 awesome job working towards that they

2:40:49 don't have and I don't have know any

2:40:51 plans that they have for snow making or

2:40:52 otherwise Um, but where we compete now

2:40:54 is on a golf course. It's in in Weston.

2:40:57 Um, and so the opportunity to maybe do

2:40:59 that in the future um in Brooklyn would

2:41:01 be great.

2:41:02 Okay, that makes sense. Thank you.

2:41:04 Let me say something first, Carolyn.

2:41:05 Okay.

2:41:06 Um, so I'm [clears throat] trying to

2:41:08 understand if it my understanding is

2:41:11 that with the curfews,

2:41:13 the nine, the 10, the 11, um, it doesn't

2:41:17 feel like there's any impact on the

2:41:19 athletic program or recreational

2:41:20 programs for the school system. Is that

2:41:22 true? I mean,

2:41:25 nobody's we're not we're not practicing

2:41:26 at 10 o'clock at night.

2:41:29 Um, it's the the backing up of

2:41:32 programming. So, if if we didn't have

2:41:34 users stacked one after the other, um, I

2:41:37 could expand and and go, you know, a

2:41:38 varsity practice at 3:30 and a JV

2:41:41 practice at 5:30 and go to 7:30, but

2:41:43 right now there's youth teams coming on

2:41:45 and then adult teams until the lights go

2:41:47 off. Another example is we're hoping to

2:41:49 implement uh inter mural programming.

2:41:51 And it would be great to be able to have

2:41:52 the inter murals go from 3:15 when

2:41:54 school gets out to 4:30 and then run

2:41:56 varsity practices, but our permits need

2:41:58 to end at 5:30 because we're working

2:42:00 backwards off of constrained capacity

2:42:02 due to darkness or due to uh 10 p.m.

2:42:05 which I think is totally reasonable. I'm

2:42:06 not asking for that to go later.

2:42:09 So, I still need clarification. Will

2:42:11 there be an impact on our athletic and

2:42:13 recreational programs through this

2:42:16 warrant these two warrant articles?

2:42:17 I think there'll be a future impact at

2:42:19 the golf course because I think of in

2:42:21 terms of their uh revolving fund and and

2:42:24 the amount of use that gets there and

2:42:26 our desire to grow our use there. So I

2:42:29 think I think there'll be an impact

2:42:30 there and I think there will be an

2:42:32 impact on our partnerships. So

2:42:34 specifically Nor Eastern and the cost

2:42:35 that will be required for them to

2:42:36 upgrade their lights. So, the golf

2:42:38 course, they they want to they propose

2:42:40 to put lighting on the driving range.

2:42:42 We're not playing golf at 9:00 at night.

2:42:44 They're not putting lights on the golf

2:42:45 course,

2:42:46 right? But the drive the driving range

2:42:48 is is one of our big teaching tools. Uh

2:42:50 it's where we can actually find

2:42:51 capacity. We're not getting for our

2:42:53 girls JVB golf team. We're not getting

2:42:56 uh you know, eight more tea times at

2:42:58 3:15.

2:42:58 So, we're at the potentially the golf

2:43:00 course at 9:00 at night.

2:43:02 No, it would be pushing users. It would

2:43:03 spread the users out. Uh

2:43:05 okay. We are we're playing hockey till

2:43:07 11 o'clock at night, so it's not

2:43:08 unreasonable, but no, I don't plan on

2:43:10 putting girls JV golf at 9:00 p.m. at

2:43:12 the golf course.

2:43:13 Do you support these two warrant

2:43:15 articles?

2:43:16 Um, that's a loaded question. Uh, as as

2:43:20 written, it would be help. Go ahead.

2:43:24 I'm just

2:43:27 um I'm gonna run cover for Kyle. I I

2:43:30 appreciate that Kyle's here and um that

2:43:34 that the articles as written doesn't

2:43:38 directly impact um our athletic program,

2:43:42 but he but we by the nature of where we

2:43:47 are and we're in a concentrated space.

2:43:50 We are dependent on partners and so

2:43:52 Kyle's just making us aware that there

2:43:55 that there's that I appreciate. Yeah.

2:43:57 Yeah. Okay. Carolyn,

2:44:00 thank you.

2:44:03 This is the toughest issue we've ever

2:44:04 had.

2:44:05 It's it actually I don't think it's that

2:44:07 tough based on my under knowledge of it

2:44:10 from sort of where it started. So I

2:44:12 would like to move for all of the

2:44:14 reasons that David and Julie and Alisa

2:44:17 explained. I would like to move for us

2:44:19 to support this these two warrant

2:44:22 articles as written.

2:44:25 Seconded.

2:44:28 conversation.

2:44:32 I'm conf Go ahead.

2:44:34 Oh, thank you. Sorry. I'm going to be

2:44:36 honest. I'm a little bit confused about

2:44:37 why we need a motion if it doesn't have

2:44:39 a direct impact on the schools. So,

2:44:42 um,

2:44:44 well, Kyle said there might be an

2:44:45 impact. Well, not it's not only on

2:44:47 athletics, but if there were any school

2:44:49 buildings through a survey that had

2:44:51 poorly shielded lights or too cool a

2:44:53 temperature or were left on

2:44:55 indiscriminately without timers,

2:44:57 eventually we would have to uh do that

2:45:01 R&M work maybe with Charlie Simmons's

2:45:03 group in order to remedy those things.

2:45:05 So we don't know at the moment

2:45:08 necessarily that there are any buildings

2:45:10 the school buildings which are really

2:45:11 town buildings but school buildings that

2:45:14 don't meet the requirements already but

2:45:16 if there are this this is why we want to

2:45:20 adopt these best practices.

2:45:24 Thank you.

2:45:26 I just I had

2:45:27 I had a process question. I'm sorry. So,

2:45:30 is are these the only two articles we're

2:45:32 looking at for the upcoming

2:45:34 um town meeting?

2:45:36 The only two that were proposed.

2:45:38 Okay. Okay.

2:45:39 That have an impact on this.

2:45:41 Okay. Because that was that was vetted

2:45:43 by a group a sub government relations

2:45:47 subcommittee or

2:45:48 Well, there's been a lot of discussion.

2:45:50 I reached out to David because I thought

2:45:52 that and Kyle because I thought there

2:45:54 might be an impact on the schools. So, I

2:45:56 thought it was important for us to talk

2:45:57 about it. um wasn't committed to making

2:46:00 any motion, but there now is a motion on

2:46:01 the floor and it's seconded. We're in

2:46:04 the middle of a conversation and we have

2:46:06 to vote at some point

2:46:07 and it does sound like it has impact on

2:46:09 our athletic pro programs. I mean um so

2:46:13 I I kind of um didn't think that I would

2:46:16 be at this place in this conversation,

2:46:18 but I am hearing Kyle say that you know

2:46:21 football plays already um in you know in

2:46:25 Newton instead of in Brooklyn. I we you

2:46:27 know um we do have to think about what

2:46:30 we're able to offer.

2:46:31 Football doesn't play in Newton.

2:46:34 Occasionally games are in other

2:46:37 locations um across different sports for

2:46:41 the reasons that we don't have a lot of

2:46:43 fields and we rent our fields to private

2:46:46 schools.

2:46:49 Okay. Um I personally am a little

2:46:52 confused about what how to vote here,

2:46:54 but we have a motion. We have it

2:46:56 seconded. And so I'm going to call the

2:46:58 question and let's vote starting with

2:47:00 Laura.

2:47:01 Uh, yes.

2:47:03 Sarah,

2:47:03 no.

2:47:05 Carolyn,

2:47:06 yes.

2:47:06 Anna,

2:47:07 no.

2:47:08 Liza,

2:47:09 no.

2:47:10 Jesse,

2:47:11 yes.

2:47:11 Suzanne,

2:47:12 yes.

2:47:13 Val,

2:47:14 yes.

2:47:16 Bob,

2:47:17 no.

2:47:22 Counted.

2:47:23 I think it's 54.

2:47:25 54. What?

2:47:26 54. Yes.

2:47:29 Okay. 54. So, the school committee

2:47:32 supports both 12 warrant article 12 and

2:47:35 13 for town meeting. Okay. Thank you

2:47:36 very much.

2:47:37 Thank you.

2:47:39 Thank you for your patience too.

2:47:42 Uh remember I sat in this room for a lot

2:47:45 of years.

2:47:46 Um I just want to you know put the word

2:47:49 out. I I totally agree with the four uh

2:47:52 opportunity d you know uh vectors for

2:47:55 expanded capac field field capacity and

2:47:58 in my own personal analysis lighting is

2:48:01 the least costly to get more hours of

2:48:04 you well turf maybe but turf's a maybe a

2:48:07 more difficult uh in Brooklyn um you

2:48:11 know uh political issue but I just want

2:48:14 to sort of either reassure remind you

2:48:17 all that there isn't and um anything

2:48:21 anywhere in these articles that would

2:48:23 prevent uh any existing ball field of

2:48:27 any kind from having lighting to have

2:48:30 extended hours. So then that's an

2:48:33 advocacy opportunity for you to try to

2:48:35 get into this pick the fielder hill or

2:48:39 any other of the unlit fields and start

2:48:42 trying to get lighting on those fields

2:48:43 into the um into the CIP because there's

2:48:46 there's nothing against that in these

2:48:48 articles.

2:48:49 Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you.

2:48:55 Okay.

2:48:57 That scrambled my brain.

2:49:00 All right. Turn the lights off.

2:49:04 We are now on budget development

2:49:05 guidelines discussion and possible vote.

2:49:09 Who's up for this?

2:49:15 Well, I I I will start Yeah, I'll just

2:49:16 start off by saying that we reviewed

2:49:18 this document that was um um scheduled

2:49:21 by the superintendent to be ready in

2:49:24 early October and we we thank her for

2:49:26 having her and her team for doing that.

2:49:29 uh when we discussed it at finance and

2:49:30 capital um we felt that it first of all

2:49:33 as a one-pager it really captures a lot

2:49:36 of information and signals a um a real

2:49:41 um the sort of dedication to the core

2:49:43 principles that we're guiding towards

2:49:45 and we um unanimously unanimously

2:49:48 recommended that it brought be brought

2:49:50 to the next school committee meeting for

2:49:52 you know a discussion.

2:49:57 So who's presenting these budget

2:49:59 guidelines?

2:50:05 Who's Erin?

2:50:06 Are you presenting?

2:50:10 Someone [snorts] should present.

2:50:10 It is it is

2:50:26 Yes.

2:50:36 mic. Yeah. Thank you. Is it on?

2:50:38 Yeah.

2:50:40 So, these come directly from uh the

2:50:43 superintendent's priorities to enact her

2:50:46 vision. Um the notes at the bottom come

2:50:50 down there. We felt that these were

2:50:52 simple enough that we could work

2:50:54 together and um meet all of these. Um

2:50:58 they also focus on uh the work that that

2:51:01 I believe we're already doing. So around

2:51:04 MTSS equity um ensuring that class sizes

2:51:08 are reasonable um and consistent with um

2:51:13 uh with history and uh school committee

2:51:16 guidance. So fairly simple one page as

2:51:20 Jesse shared

2:51:22 and uh yeah that's it.

2:51:25 Donna questions comments. Donna

2:51:28 I just want to say thank you um for this

2:51:30 work. I think um actually this one pager

2:51:32 does um it resonates for me and I

2:51:36 appreciate the sort of like more

2:51:38 simplified structure or architecture of

2:51:40 the document. Um, and I'm happy I if we

2:51:45 were to take a vote and make a motion, I

2:51:48 would make a motion to approve this. But

2:51:52 I can wait.

2:51:53 I'm going to make that motion then.

2:51:54 Let's go.

2:51:55 What's your motion?

2:51:57 To adopt the the draft budget. Hold on.

2:52:02 FY28 budget development guidelines.

2:52:05 Is there a second?

2:52:06 A second.

2:52:07 Carolyn seconds. Carolyn. But I do have

2:52:10 one little comment which I expressed at

2:52:12 finance too. So this great I love it.

2:52:15 This is just like I just like feel the

2:52:17 need to put this out into the atmosphere

2:52:22 on the B ensure class sizes at the high

2:52:25 school support equitable access to

2:52:27 academically rigorous program lots of

2:52:29 words. Um we talk a lot with our K8

2:52:34 about sort of specific number

2:52:36 guidelines. I know the high school's

2:52:38 much more complicated because it's like

2:52:40 a whole district within just as a

2:52:45 I would love us to I would like us or

2:52:48 the district over time to sort of maybe

2:52:51 talk in more numbers and real guidelines

2:52:54 which might even actually be in the

2:52:56 country I don't know um about the high

2:52:58 school because we all love to keep our

2:53:01 classes as small as possible but um

2:53:03 that's just like a a wish. Thank you,

2:53:06 Carolyn.

2:53:08 No further comments. Let's take a vote

2:53:09 on develop on approving the budget

2:53:12 development guidelines. Laura,

2:53:13 yes.

2:53:14 Sarah,

2:53:15 yes.

2:53:16 Val,

2:53:17 yes.

2:53:18 Um, Carolyn,

2:53:19 yes.

2:53:20 Donna,

2:53:20 yes.

2:53:21 Liza,

2:53:21 yes.

2:53:22 Jesse,

2:53:23 yes.

2:53:23 Suzanne,

2:53:24 yes.

2:53:24 Bob, yes. Unanimously approves

2:53:27 budget guidelines. Thank you.

2:53:28 Thank you, Erin.

2:53:29 Thank you. Um, next up, uh, removal of

2:53:33 philosophy statements section 14 except

2:53:36 for 4B and 4E1.

2:53:39 Second reading, possible vote. Suzanne,

2:53:46 we had the conversation in our last

2:53:47 meeting. That was first reading. I think

2:53:49 we had a discussion at least some point.

2:53:51 So, um yes, I would uh move to uh remove

2:53:58 the philosophy statements

2:54:00 uh

2:54:02 except for 4B and 4E1.

2:54:06 Is that right?

2:54:07 There a second.

2:54:07 I would second.

2:54:08 Okay. Can you briefly describe what

2:54:11 we're doing? Well, so the in instruction

2:54:16 and teaching and learning there's an

2:54:17 instruction section of the policy state

2:54:20 policies um there are a number of

2:54:24 philosophy statements

2:54:26 before particular sections and they tend

2:54:30 to be very old. 1960s is the and and

2:54:34 some have been updated a little bit but

2:54:37 it's not really the place to put them.

2:54:39 It's it's a philosophy not a policy. And

2:54:42 so we are suggested we meaning the

2:54:45 policy subcommittee voted 4 to zero to

2:54:48 bring this to the full committee and

2:54:50 recommend that um we remove these these

2:54:54 philosophy statements.

2:54:57 Jesse, just as a um clarity for me, what

2:55:01 we have in printed copy here has no

2:55:04 philosophy statements in it, right? Or

2:55:06 are these the only two that still have

2:55:07 it and everything else?

2:55:09 No section.

2:55:09 No, they've been taken out except for

2:55:11 these little subsections,

2:55:14 right? Okay.

2:55:15 Yeah.

2:55:16 So,

2:55:17 so there is no there is no philosophy

2:55:19 statement for uh student school

2:55:21 technology.

2:55:24 Say that again.

2:55:24 No, I thought that this was an exception

2:55:26 and that this is a philosophy philosophy

2:55:28 paragraph and that everything else in I4

2:55:31 doesn't have it.

2:55:33 Yeah, I know. This is what we had left.

2:55:34 Well, this is the section. Thank you

2:55:35 very much. This is great. So, so you're

2:55:38 saying for example, Suzanne, that 4A,

2:55:40 computer education,

2:55:42 right,

2:55:42 or gifted and talented, those philosophy

2:55:44 statements are all going away and the

2:55:46 only ones that'll be left are I4B and I4

2:55:50 E1.

2:55:51 Correct.

2:55:52 Okay.

2:55:52 And the reason they're going away is

2:55:54 they are very very old and outdated.

2:55:57 They're outdated. They say things that

2:55:59 and they aren't even up to the standards

2:56:01 from 1993.

2:56:03 Okay.

2:56:04 Okay. If may I speak? I also want to

2:56:07 just add on to another reason that I

2:56:10 believe they need to go away and I think

2:56:11 I touched on this last time. Um, as an

2:56:15 avid user of the policy manual, it

2:56:17 actually um adds to the confusion when

2:56:21 you have philosophy statements sort of

2:56:23 scattered throughout the the policy

2:56:26 manual because um as a user you're

2:56:29 thinking that that's going to live in

2:56:31 one specific section. And so sometimes

2:56:34 when I would go through the policy

2:56:36 manual to look things up, you might have

2:56:39 sort of like an alternate sort of

2:56:41 philosophy later in the section or

2:56:43 scattered in different places and it's

2:56:45 hard to

2:56:46 um when you're trying to research an

2:56:48 issue or whatnot. Sometimes you're

2:56:50 getting it's it makes it a little bit

2:56:52 more difficult to compile

2:56:55 um the information you need in one

2:56:57 place.

2:56:57 Right. And what you're saying is the

2:56:59 philosophy statements from the 1960s

2:57:02 um are in the context of a very very

2:57:04 different technological technical

2:57:07 environment and they have very little to

2:57:09 do with what's going on today. That's

2:57:11 why we're doing this.

2:57:12 Correct.

2:57:13 Okay, that's good.

2:57:15 Oh, hi.

2:57:16 Hi. Yes. So to me the way it works is

2:57:20 that we have a philosophy then that

2:57:22 leads to a policy and the policy leads

2:57:25 to action plan. So to me it's like if we

2:57:28 are putting philosophy there that means

2:57:31 we have tied our policy and our action

2:57:34 to that philosophy

2:57:36 and and so my philosophy could differ

2:57:39 from yours but we may have the same

2:57:41 policy and I think when we have the same

2:57:44 policy uh that that brings people

2:57:46 together. Uh philosophy is usually is

2:57:49 where people differ from each other. So

2:57:52 I think having a policy manual just

2:57:53 stick to policy is a better approach

2:57:57 than having philosophies embedded. So

2:57:59 that would be my reasoning.

2:58:00 Okay. Any other comments?

2:58:03 Jesse.

2:58:03 So I guess in I4E1

2:58:06 selection of books and AV equipment

2:58:07 under library you're saying that Roman

2:58:11 numeral one here. You can just look here

2:58:12 if you want. Ro Roman numeral one is

2:58:15 like a philosophy statement that's being

2:58:17 kept where it's being removed from all

2:58:19 the other I4s as Betsy noted in here.

2:58:24 Yeah. I don't believe this is a

2:58:26 philosophy statement. This is

2:58:27 okay.

2:58:28 Uh this is a separate

2:58:31 uh piece about selection but it's not

2:58:33 about

2:58:34 okay great

2:58:34 the philosophy

2:58:35 of how we're going to select how we're

2:58:37 going to

2:58:38 select books.

2:58:39 So those items

2:58:41 you need a policy on. So you wouldn't

2:58:44 want to exclude the whole thing. And so

2:58:46 Oh, I'm not I'm not saying to do that. I

2:58:48 just wondered whether

2:58:49 there's there's another whole section

2:58:51 just on philosophy.

2:58:53 Perfect. Okay, great. I got it. Thank

2:58:54 you.

2:58:54 We're trying to

2:58:55 Okay, so we have a motion and a second

2:58:57 to remove the philosophy statement

2:58:59 sections I4 except for 4B or E1.

2:59:03 Fisa, how do you vote?

2:59:08 Yes.

2:59:10 Thank you, Jesse.

2:59:11 Yes. Suzanne,

2:59:12 yes.

2:59:13 Uh, Donna,

2:59:14 yes.

2:59:15 Caroline,

2:59:15 yes.

2:59:16 Sarah,

2:59:16 yes.

2:59:17 Laura,

2:59:18 yes.

2:59:18 Bel,

2:59:19 yes.

2:59:19 Bob, yes. Unanimously approved that.

2:59:22 Yay.

2:59:23 Okay. Um,

2:59:26 we're actually doing okay on time. Not

2:59:28 disastrous. Um, we have, what do we have

2:59:32 now? Uh, subcommittee and liaison

2:59:34 reports. And I want to announce first of

2:59:36 all that Jesse who's on finance and

2:59:38 capital is now our liaison to the

2:59:40 building commission. So I want everybody

2:59:43 to know that. Thank Jesse. Thank you so

2:59:44 much.

2:59:45 Thank you.

2:59:46 Important. So do we have anything from

2:59:47 curriculum Carolyn?

2:59:50 No we have not met and we have not been

2:59:52 able to um schedule a meeting yet but

2:59:55 hopefully we will.

2:59:56 Okay. Uh Sarah diversity equity

2:59:58 inclusion justice.

2:59:59 No we haven't met again.

3:00:01 Finance capital projects. Jesse.

3:00:03 Uh yes. Do you want to build commission

3:00:05 one at the same time or you want to

3:00:06 go for?

3:00:07 I'll go for both. Okay. So, um, finance

3:00:09 and capital met. We had a very extended

3:00:12 discussion about the juris school

3:00:14 playground. Um, it ended basically with

3:00:18 a um the fact that there's a $200,000

3:00:22 plus dollar option and a $300,000

3:00:25 option and no money at the current time.

3:00:29 Um, so there's going to be more work

3:00:32 done and more discussions. Um, we we got

3:00:36 a great uh report update from Aaron on

3:00:40 the mini CIP. One of the things that our

3:00:43 committee had asked was that we add

3:00:44 another column that tells us just the

3:00:46 simple status. Is it in play? Is it

3:00:49 complete? Is it not going to get done?

3:00:51 And that was added and just about

3:00:53 everything is was complete over the

3:00:54 summer. So like huge win for for

3:00:56 everyone. Um you saw the grants and

3:00:58 gifts that came through our consent

3:01:01 agenda today. Budget guidelines came

3:01:03 through and in new business there were

3:01:06 two items that came up. One was that um

3:01:09 we would like the subcommittee to get a

3:01:12 future presentation about projected and

3:01:14 actual operating expenses for the newer

3:01:16 buildings. That would be like FRR

3:01:18 Driscoll and then looking ahead at

3:01:20 Pierce in terms of what the actual

3:01:22 operating expenses are. Um um and so

3:01:26 that was a uh a new business item. We

3:01:28 haven't moved past it yet, but uh it's

3:01:31 something that it's not in in in the

3:01:33 long-term view for us. And u Okay. And

3:01:35 then that led to the building commission

3:01:37 part. Um actually I was at the meeting

3:01:39 yesterday and the um besides all the

3:01:42 stuff about the fire stations on the

3:01:44 pier school side, um there's we're about

3:01:48 52 53% through the budget. um of the 211

3:01:52 million for the project, there's 103

3:01:54 left. And so um they're completely on

3:01:57 track, actually a little bit under

3:01:58 budget, but completely on track to um

3:02:02 get a certificate of occupancy by

3:02:04 October 29th, 2027. So that would be,

3:02:08 you know, moving things in and then

3:02:09 starting in, you know, after in summer

3:02:11 28, which is which is which is really

3:02:13 good. Um the um the the other thing that

3:02:17 I wanted to talk about just very briefly

3:02:18 then is that um or two things. One is

3:02:20 that

3:02:22 Helen brought up the the fact that um

3:02:26 based on our experiences now with

3:02:27 Driscoll, the Pierce folks are going

3:02:30 back to left field and Sasaki to talk

3:02:32 about shading in advance for the lower

3:02:35 age students at the new Pierce outdoor

3:02:37 playground. This is not the one on

3:02:40 Harvard uh Harvard Harvard out. This is

3:02:42 the one that's in the nook of the

3:02:44 building. You can look at it outside in

3:02:45 the in the uh architect model. And so,

3:02:49 um, interestingly enough, there was a

3:02:53 part of the presentation that, um, MDS

3:02:55 did last night was that they went out,

3:02:59 uh, into, um, Waltham. And in Waltham,

3:03:03 they were able to put up um,

3:03:05 cantalievered sun shade umbrella systems

3:03:09 that rely only on one pole. So, the pole

3:03:12 is there and then the shade sits out.

3:03:14 They are removable in the case of an

3:03:15 oricer or heavy snows or in the cold

3:03:18 weather. Um the pricing they're going to

3:03:21 be working on right now it's just around

3:03:23 $90,000 for three of them. So these are

3:03:26 really expensive umbrellas. Um and you

3:03:28 know wow. So, um, but and they they

3:03:30 actually showed, which was sort of

3:03:32 convincing actually, a, um, a shade

3:03:35 model in 3D animation that showed as the

3:03:38 day moves on what the um, three shades

3:03:41 over three of the key playground

3:03:43 elements would be. And for most for the

3:03:45 most part of the hotter part of the day,

3:03:47 they would be um, they would be shaded.

3:03:50 Um, I did discuss with them and ask a

3:03:53 question of but what about getting from

3:03:54 the building through the door to the

3:03:56 playground structures if it's 10 and

3:03:58 something degrees out there and they

3:04:00 agreed that that's hot. I mean, you

3:04:02 know, we're not looking if we're going

3:04:04 to shade the entire playground at the

3:04:05 Pierce outdoor one near the

3:04:07 amphitheater. It's going to be, you

3:04:09 know, a huge huge a huge project. And

3:04:11 so, um, there's going to be I'm gonna

3:04:14 see if I can actually get out to Waltham

3:04:15 at some point and see what it looks like

3:04:17 just to get a sense of the actual

3:04:19 structure because it's in place right

3:04:20 now. Um, and, um, they're going to

3:04:23 they're going to continue to work with

3:04:25 LAP on, you know, in on on capital

3:04:28 projects to ensure that, um, that's sort

3:04:31 of a one possibility for us. They're

3:04:34 because the project is under budget

3:04:36 right now. In theory, this money could

3:04:38 come out of the building budget as a

3:04:40 change order and so it would go in and

3:04:43 so um we the the building commission

3:04:44 meets once a month and um uh moved

3:04:47 through a lot of items last night. Um,

3:04:50 one thing I didn't notice and one thing

3:04:51 I didn't fully appreciate is fixing the

3:04:55 fire station on Babcock Street requires

3:04:57 the building of a temporary fire station

3:04:59 in that area like a block away because

3:05:03 residents of that area of North Brooklyn

3:05:05 would need to have um emergency response

3:05:08 commenurate with their with the distance

3:05:09 and the density. So, there's actually a

3:05:12 plan to put uh a fiveperson single

3:05:15 engine temporary fire station either in

3:05:19 a portion of the John Street parking lot

3:05:22 or another portion of the Babcock Street

3:05:24 parking lot and that would provide

3:05:26 parking spaces for the firefighters that

3:05:28 are assigned to those to one of those

3:05:30 two buildings. So, that's a that's a

3:05:31 work in progress, but um uh it was you

3:05:34 know it was just something I didn't

3:05:36 really consider. I I asked like why are

3:05:37 you putting another fire station up and

3:05:39 it this is temporary housing to provide

3:05:41 safety for residents in Northwork line.

3:05:43 So yeah, and it and it's funded by the

3:05:45 project under the bond that we took out

3:05:47 for the um in in the uh in what was it a

3:05:52 uh a bond two years ago or something

3:05:54 like that for the fire station. So it's

3:05:56 within budget.

3:05:58 Thank you Jesse for all that work.

3:05:59 Appreciate it. Negotiations. We have our

3:06:02 next negotiations meeting with BEu

3:06:05 tomorrow five o'clock and making

3:06:09 progress, you know, making progress.

3:06:13 We'll see how long it takes, but we'll

3:06:15 get there, right? Yeah. Okay. Uh policy

3:06:19 Suzanne.

3:06:20 Yeah. We have our next meeting Tuesday

3:06:22 the 20th and um our field director from

3:06:26 MASC Alicia is coming and she's going to

3:06:28 give us an overview and help us figure

3:06:30 out how we're moving forward. So stay

3:06:33 tuned.

3:06:34 Thank you Suzan. Um any reports from any

3:06:36 additional liaison shifts? Sarah.

3:06:39 So um Jesse did part of Pierce and I'll

3:06:41 do the rest. I'll skip over the part

3:06:43 that overlaps. Um

3:06:45 Pierce rep. So, um, they have started

3:06:47 drywalling the hallways and glazing the

3:06:49 library since I went on my last tour

3:06:51 there. Um, there's some covering the the

3:06:54 glazing on the library windows. There's

3:06:55 some covering on it that's like little

3:06:56 dots. And what that does is it reduces

3:06:59 the solar heat gain. Um, MSBA will come

3:07:02 through the toilet project tomorrow at

3:07:04 at 11 a.m. And Conley um plans to do a

3:07:08 mockup of a room to show the teachers

3:07:10 and the principal what it will be like

3:07:12 to be in the space. and the path to the

3:07:14 park will open up um and the rest of the

3:07:16 park excluding the baseball fields will

3:07:18 be open by November 11th.

3:07:21 I was just going to add that I'm going

3:07:22 to um Helen and I both be at that MSBA

3:07:25 meeting tomorrow for the tour of the

3:07:27 building. Great status update.

3:07:28 Great.

3:07:31 Um I'm just this is maybe it's sort of

3:07:34 curriculum adjacent. I just want to um

3:07:37 announce and plug that tomorrow evening

3:07:41 at 7 PM at the high school in the MLK

3:07:45 room is the um reading event of the

3:07:49 Whipple Fellows. Um and I don't know if

3:07:53 we got an email from Evan

3:07:56 um but I saw it on Facebook.

3:07:59 I think it was in our email actually

3:08:01 because that's how I found out about it.

3:08:02 Okay, good. Okay. the went to school

3:08:04 committee from uh someone who runs the

3:08:06 program. I don't remember his hand. I'm

3:08:08 sorry.

3:08:08 And I I missed the email, but I'm going

3:08:10 to try and get over there. It's a really

3:08:12 great event. The Whipple Fellowship um

3:08:14 is a program um that's sponsored by um

3:08:19 um some parents in honor of their late

3:08:22 son. Um, and it gives an opportunity to

3:08:25 BHS students to do a really in-depth um

3:08:29 very special writing project um with

3:08:33 with guidance from some of our teachers.

3:08:36 Um, and so then at this event they they

3:08:38 read and it's just one of those BHS

3:08:42 awesome things that makes Brookline

3:08:44 great. So,

3:08:45 thank you Carolyn. That's true. Um, any

3:08:48 other leazison reports?

3:08:51 Yes. you.

3:08:52 Yes, me. Um, I am the school committee

3:08:56 liaison to METCO. So, I have um just a

3:08:58 few announcements. One is um MECO just

3:09:01 published or Brookline Mechco just

3:09:03 published their annual report. So,

3:09:05 that's available as school committee

3:09:06 members. We all have it in our inbox. I

3:09:08 also want to say that a week from

3:09:11 Saturday, which is the 24th, um Metco is

3:09:14 hosting its career day at BHS. It

3:09:17 starts, I think, at 8 a.m. and they're

3:09:19 always looking for volunteers. Um I will

3:09:22 be there in case anyone wants to join

3:09:23 me. And then Saturday night is the um it

3:09:28 takes the village event um that is also

3:09:32 hosted by Brooklyn MCO. It traditionally

3:09:35 was in the um Golden Temple space. Yes.

3:09:38 So it's in a new location this year. Um

3:09:40 I'm also going to try to make it to that

3:09:42 if I can survive from 8 am to whatever

3:09:46 the start time is. Um, so if anyone is

3:09:49 interested in joining me, you're

3:09:50 welcome.

3:09:52 Thank you, Karen. Thank you, Donna. Um,

3:09:55 any other liazison reports?

3:09:58 Okay.

3:10:00 Oh, new business. I'm sorry. New

3:10:02 business. Any new business?

3:10:06 Any new business? Anything new? No,

3:10:09 nothing new. Okay. Then

3:10:14 I need a motion to I need a motion to

3:10:17 meet in executive session pursuant to

3:10:19 mass mass general law chapter 30A

3:10:21 section 21A for the following purposes.

3:10:24 Purpose three to discuss strategy with

3:10:27 respect to collective bargaining with

3:10:28 the Brooklyn Educators Union unit A unit

3:10:30 B parrofessional unit because an open

3:10:33 meeting will have a detrimental effect

3:10:34 on the bargaining position of the school

3:10:36 committee and the chair so declares.

3:10:38 Purpose three to discuss strategy with

3:10:40 respect to collective bargaining with

3:10:42 the Brooklyn Educators Union unit A on a

3:10:45 grievance because an open meeting will

3:10:47 have a detrimental effect on the

3:10:49 bargaining position of the committee and

3:10:51 the chair so declares. And purpose seven

3:10:53 to approve the minutes from the

3:10:54 September 30th, 2026 executive session

3:10:58 meeting. Is there a motion to move into

3:11:00 executive session?

3:11:03 Seconded.

3:11:03 I move. Oh, second it. Um,

3:11:06 you move it.

3:11:07 We will vote. Fisa,

3:11:09 it's gonna be good.

3:11:11 Yes.

3:11:11 Come on, Fisa. Get off.

3:11:13 Jesse,

3:11:14 yes.

3:11:14 Suzanne,

3:11:15 yes.

3:11:16 Donna,

3:11:17 yes.

3:11:17 Carolyn,

3:11:17 yes.

3:11:18 Sarah,

3:11:18 yes.

3:11:19 Laura,

3:11:20 yes.

3:11:20 Val,

3:11:21 yes.

3:11:21 Bob, yes. And we are not returning to an

3:11:25 open session. Thank you very much. I

3:11:27 hope the audience appreciated this

3:11:28 exciting meeting. Check in next time,

3:11:31 October 28th, for another exciting

3:11:34 school committee meeting.

3:11:36 Good night. shed light on things.

3:11:38 Yeah.