{"citations":{"019e2f9a-94fe-7cd8-8728-35d6ffba65cf":{"num":1,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-90bb-7e6d-aefd-75de8629ed80":{"num":2,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-90d5-7862-9e13-f339dea6e95b":{"num":3,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-90dd-716e-b2f6-190abaa3f4d3":{"num":4,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-90e7-7a79-96e0-f0a955e347e0":{"num":5,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-9156-7bf7-bedb-085478fb9856":{"num":6,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-9175-7acc-af1e-964464f042af":{"num":7,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-9182-7b96-8545-f9819bb3378e":{"num":8,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-9123-7268-ac9f-e81b757b9847":{"num":9,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-91c0-710b-a1e5-7aad770ba274":{"num":10,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-9108-7cc6-92bd-7e8a2e99f45c":{"num":11,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-9238-78e4-9bf2-fbc53f998d9a":{"num":12,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-9269-724b-a211-ab70d2261940":{"num":13,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-92c6-7c9d-a9f2-b558c4e2c927":{"num":14,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-9219-75bc-b08c-f6c3d8090a7e":{"num":15,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-9242-7a8e-bf16-ce1b496325b3":{"num":16,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-9255-7e5a-b375-a587fd908d87":{"num":17,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-92e2-7f9f-bc5c-53386043dac3":{"num":18,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-94bc-7846-a999-aac115fd8c4a":{"num":19,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-953d-7d99-8729-a24ced189ac4":{"num":20,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-9563-76fe-bd6b-15fa1b155bed":{"num":21,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-94f4-77a1-8b8e-3f74d969f63f":{"num":22,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-94ea-7a92-8fc7-ef1428a68cbd":{"num":23,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-93c9-74d8-bcd6-57747ae65768":{"num":24,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-94e3-78b0-8afa-b087119a24a3":{"num":25,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-90a3-75b9-a3ad-7a48451d6621":{"num":26,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-9546-7226-aa94-27aed6fb16a0":{"num":27,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-907c-78eb-9217-170712303995":{"num":28,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-9099-74ea-895f-719ca3d1cbbe":{"num":29,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"},"019e2f9a-92fb-7c36-a6c7-78a974d5702f":{"num":30,"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a"}},"sources":{"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a":{"sourceItemId":"019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a","title":"School Committee — 2026-05-14","videoUrl":"https://dkjpoal1tejoa.cloudfront.net/sites/a1000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001/source-items/019e2f60-7772-7717-8d07-f3171997a53a/School_Committee_Meeting_-_May_14_2026.mp4","chunks":[{"id":"019e2f9a-906e-794f-a078-e25f6cd86156","content":"Speaker 1: \n\nSpeaker 2: Good evening. Uh, tonight's meeting of the Arlington School Committee is being conducted in person and through the use of Zoom. This meeting is being simultaneously broadcast on A CMI, and the meeting is being recorded because do we expect, um, any Mr. Schleman to be remote? No, I have not heard. Okay. Well, right now, all members are present, so votes will be taken by voice unless a roll call is required. Um, persons wishing to access the meeting using Zoom may find information on how to do so on the town's website. The posted agenda and supporting materials for this meeting are also available on the town's website. Due to open meeting law restrictions, the committee cannot participate in or access Zoom's chat function. While everyone is welcome to observe this meeting, active remote participation requires advanced notice. All participants are asked to activate their camera and shall provide their full name.\n\n","timeStart":0.085,"timeEnd":76.445,"chunkIndex":0},{"id":"019e2f9a-907c-78eb-9217-170712303995","content":"Speaker 2: In the interest of developing a record of the meeting, four members of the public who wish to address, address the committee, there will be 20 minutes of public comment. If you would like to sign up or speak either remotely via Zoom, or in person, you must email Elizabeth Diggins by 6:00 PM Thursday. The date of the meeting, depending on how many people sign up time allotments may be reduced, but will not exceed three minutes each. Um, we have tonight just two seventh graders from the Addison Middle School, Sona Mc, McEwen McOwen, and Matilda mc McGrath. You guys can come up and sit with those microphones. Are you both speaking? Okay. So, um, I'm going, I'm gonna give you six minutes total between you. Is that, does that, usually you'd get three minutes each, but if you're speaking together, um, and you need to tell us your name and address for the record, give me one second to pull up my timer. Um, go ahead. Oh,\n\nSpeaker 3: Um, Matilda McGrath, 29 Addison Street,\n\nSpeaker 4: Um, soda mc QN 110 Robbins Road. Um, so, um, we're here today because we want to do, um, a fundraiser for the Jimmy Fund at Sison Middle School. Um, so the Jimmy Fund raises money for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. This money is used to help fund research for cancer care, which impacts numerous lives. Also, the money raised will help improve patient care and will go towards a variety of support services for patients and their families. Some quick facts about the Jimmy Fund are that they run over 750 fundraisers each year. Also, they have curated almost 50% of all cancer medications used around the country today.\n\n","timeStart":76.905,"timeEnd":189.965,"chunkIndex":1},{"id":"019e2f9a-9084-7831-92ec-f0ad8c4d03f8","content":"Speaker 3: Um, we're here to ask, um, about prizes for our fundraiser of, as of right now, it states that we cannot have prizes for a fundraiser. Um, and being in middle school, we can see that middle schoolers are, uh, very motivated by prizes, unfortunately. Um, and we, um, wanna make sure that, you know, we get as much, um, donations to this cause as we can because it, again, accounts for numerous lives. It's a really important thing that I think more middle schoolers should care about. And I think prizes would be, unfortunately, the way that helps middle schoolers donate and also learn a bit more about this cause.\n\n","timeStart":190.905,"timeEnd":230.285,"chunkIndex":2},{"id":"019e2f9a-9091-7a64-80a4-ca14e1bd0187","content":"Speaker 4: So we are planning an in-school fundraiser that would be done during, like, our aspire time for, and it would run for like a total of like, one to two weeks. And it's called Change for a Cancer Cure. And it would ideally be run in like late May, but probably like early June. And basically each aspire would get a jar container and students would change, or like dollar bills in with the goal of raising the most money, the top three aspires that raise the most money will get a prize at the end of the two weeks. The money will be counted in collecting by our fundraising group, and a hundred percent of all the money will go to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute every Friday for two weeks. There'll be different like, challenge days that will keep the fundraiser exciting. For example, we could have days where students could sabotage another class jar by putting in like silver coins, so like quarters, nickels, or dimes, which would take points away from that. As far as jar, another challenge could be double points day, where the value of each coin or bill would be doubled when it's put in the aspired drops. So, for example, quarters would be worth 50 points, or like a dollar bill would be worth 200 points and like, so on.\n\nSpeaker 3: Thank\n\nSpeaker 4: You. Thank you. Thank\n\nSpeaker 2: You all. Can I, I'm gonna, um, break with protocol and ask one question. What kind of prizes were you thinking about? Just so we can know that?\n\n","timeStart":231.065,"timeEnd":312.325,"chunkIndex":3},{"id":"019e2f9a-9099-74ea-895f-719ca3d1cbbe","content":"Speaker 4: Um, it really like depends, but we would probably do like either like toys, games, like, or like gift cards of some sort. Um, we're still trying to like figure that out a little bit, but probably something of that sort. Thanks.\n\nSpeaker 2: Did\n\nSpeaker 4: You wanna,\n\nSpeaker 5: Um, so I explained that we typically don't interact with public comment. Um, and we had run into a challenge because they had reached out to me about the possibility of doing this. And we, so I went and looked at school committee policy and we do have a policy that says, um, that sort of individual prizes or prizes in general, like competition base for fundraising is not allowed. And so I said that the school committee policy, so they wanted to talk to the school committee and wanted to do the fundraiser at some point in June. So I will follow up with you all once I've had a chance to discuss the policy with, um, the school committee a bit and to figure out what we might be able to accommodate given that the competition piece was so important to the two of you. Okay.\n\nSpeaker 2: Okay. Thank you. Thank you for coming. Um, next on the agenda, do we not have an a EA representative tonight? She's on her way. Okay. Um, let's go to the a HS student representative Sophia Dees. Did I get it right? Yes,\n\nSpeaker 3: That was, that was good. That was good. You guys are, you guys are catching on quick.\n\nSpeaker 2: Wow. .\n\n","timeStart":312.705,"timeEnd":395.445,"chunkIndex":4},{"id":"019e2f9a-90a3-75b9-a3ad-7a48451d6621","content":"Speaker 3: Okay. Um, we have our April citizen of the month. This is Sylvia. She is an awesome sophomore. She's a leader in both the Jewish Student Union as well as the Best Buddies program. And she's really just an awesome student who reaches out to everyone who tries to get involved in everything and is like an inspiration. And she's doing this at like, she's very young. She's a whole year younger than me, so I can really say that, you know, and, you know, I'm inspired by her and everything that she does. And then for our staff, the month we have Ms. Benson, she is one of the favorite counselors. I don't have her myself, but I do love her. This is an awesome, awesome picture of her on a hike, you know, cresting the, the peak and everything. But she is a super supportive counselor. The seniors have had a blast using her to their advantage and helping with college apps and everything.\n\n","timeStart":396.315,"timeEnd":450.885,"chunkIndex":5},{"id":"019e2f9a-90ab-71e4-88b5-89eab4efa09c","content":"Speaker 3: And she just really cares for everyone in the school and tries to make a positive impact on everyone. Then for the normal updates, um, we had teacher appreciation last week and it went very well. I've heard from teachers, I hope that there was nothing bad to hear, but I've heard from teachers that they had a lovely time at the breakfast and that the baskets went very well. Um, we have our student government elections coming up very soon, which is very exciting. So hopefully I'm still here next year. We'll see. Um, we have a student teacher basketball game on Monday to raise funds for mental health as it is Mental Health awareness month. Um, and we're trying to get a lot more participation in that. We have, um, only one more meeting of like a student council meeting with our seniors and then they go and then they're all gone and they have their finals coming up very soon and the aps are coming to a close. Thank God. ,\n\nSpeaker 2: Thank, thank you. And congratulations on that. Thank you. Um, so we have a number of presentations tonight. Um, the first one, oh, Ms. Keys, did you wanna speak? Talking in, but hi, we skipped two. I didn't know if you had anything you wanted. I got nothing. Okay. Um, so our first presentation tonight is from the food services department.\n\nSpeaker 6: Hi. I'll\n\n","timeStart":450.885,"timeEnd":543.125,"chunkIndex":6},{"id":"019e2f9a-90b3-7958-96bc-72b2a62d09b2","content":"Speaker 7: Steer slides for you, so just tell me, alright, we ready for the next one. Okay. Thank you for having us. I feel like you're so far away. I know. Um, you can go closer. Um, thank you for having us. I'm Denise Biche. I'm the director of food, um, food services, food nutrition services, sort of the new, um, tag. Um, and I'll let Alexa introduce herself. Yes, I'm Alexa Downs. I'm the Assistant Director of\n\nSpeaker 6: Food services.\n\nSpeaker 7: So basic agenda you guys can see, we'll go through the, um, the different things, introduction, um, some wins, some challenges, some initiatives, um, some next steps, and then a final thought as well as questions. Um, so we have an amazingly diverse team, um, 52 member team who serves over 4,000, um, meals a day across 11 schools, which includes the preschool. And we are incredibly thankful that the preschool is now located at Arlington High School. 'cause it makes serving and preschool so much easier. Um, we operate under what's called a National School Lunch program, which is, um, it's federally funded, um, assisted meal program. And we also are so lucky to be in Massachusetts where we have permanently free, um, meals, breakfast and lunch since two, uh, 20,000, 2022 to 2023. Um, so this has been a huge, huge, huge impact on Massachusetts as well as families in Arlington.\n\n","timeStart":543.215,"timeEnd":619.605,"chunkIndex":7},{"id":"019e2f9a-90bb-7e6d-aefd-75de8629ed80","content":"Speaker 7: Um, families. Um, just, they don't have to apply. Uh, they automatically can get, um, breakfast and lunch. I distinctly remember, um, prior to COVID and prior to this being, um, instituted where we would have families come in and apply for free and reduced lunch and they would be slightly over, um, the limits. So you have, you know, a very strict guidelines like this is how many people in the household, this is what their income is. And I think there were a lot, there's a large group of that in Arlington. So this just makes it so much easier, um, for families to get some of the services they need and be able to eat breakfast and lunch at school.\n\nSpeaker 7: So, um, we briefly, I just talked a little bit about how it's funded. So, um, the federal money covers the students that qualify for, um, free and reduced based on certain criteria. Um, some of those criteria are things like receiving snap living in a household that has, um, tanf, um, foster care unhoused or part of a migrant education, um, program. And then Massachusetts then takes up the, the rest of, um, those that don't qualify based under those programs or based, um, financially. Um, and then this is kind of a, one of those strange things, I should have put this at the beginning, but I find this fascinating that, um, the National School College program was enacted in 1946, and the biggest thing was, uh, world War ii. And they had these young gentlemen that were coming up into the military and they weren't passing the military physicals, um, based on their nutrition, they're poor and their lack of nutrition.\n\n","timeStart":620.185,"timeEnd":707.525,"chunkIndex":8},{"id":"019e2f9a-90c3-7bca-9493-902f1480def1","content":"Speaker 7: So this is when, you know, Truman decided, all right, let's pass this act and, and get this moving forward. Um, so up here too, it also, I skipped a little bit, but what makes a school lunch? So in order for us to get a reimbursement, we have to follow some very strict standards. We have to follow, um, calorie limits. We have to follow saturated fat limits, we have to follow sodium limits, we have to follow added sugar limits. Um, and for each lunch, a student has to take three out of the five components that are, that are listed there. And for breakfast, in order for us to get reimbursed, they have to take three out of the, um, food items. And they also have to take a vegetable, I mean, um, a fruit. And at lunch they have to take a fruit or vegetable in order for us to, um, get reimbursed.\n\n","timeStart":707.625,"timeEnd":747.365,"chunkIndex":9},{"id":"019e2f9a-90cc-7158-a816-b00d3ef8ab03","content":"Speaker 7: So, so at first when I was doing the slide, I kind of was, um, laughing to myself and going, is this something that I really wanna like put out there? And just sort of, um, but I'm so excited that we're fully staffed. So I don't know if people can appreciate this. I'm sure you can, teachers can probably appreciate it from when we were going through this stage after COVID where we really, we couldn't get staff, or we had staff for two days and they would leave. And it was very common in the service industry. It was very common in food service. It was common across the state. So we are so incredibly thankful to finally be at a stage where we are, you know, um, fully staffed. You know, no matter what we had to serve lunch. There was no, you know, putting two classrooms together and putting a teacher to cover both classrooms no matter what.\n\n","timeStart":752.545,"timeEnd":789.885,"chunkIndex":10},{"id":"019e2f9a-90d5-7862-9e13-f339dea6e95b","content":"Speaker 7: We had to serve lunch at all the schools. And we did. It was very trying. It was very hard. Um, but we did it. And here we are. So now we're at the point where we are fully staffed, so we can now move forward, um, and start doing some of the things that we've actually been, we've been implementing this year, which has been, um, pretty amazing. I touched upon universal free meals too. Um, that again, is huge for everyone in all the students in Massachusetts. It removes the barriers. It allows more students to participate. More students participate. The more, um, funds come in, the better our program is, the better food that we can serve to these kids. Um, so as you can see, breakfast growth was huge. Lunch expansion was huge. And we are really hoping to sort of continue that. We will talk about some barriers a little bit further down, but, but for now, um, things look pretty good. .\n\n","timeStart":789.885,"timeEnd":836.565,"chunkIndex":11},{"id":"019e2f9a-90dd-716e-b2f6-190abaa3f4d3","content":"Speaker 7: So in addition to everything that Denise has mentioned so far, um, part of our strategic plan, um, this year, um, has been to enhance our meals for the students by providing them with more culturally responsive menus. Um, so we provided our staff with a training through the John Soccer Institute. Um, it stands for crisp, it stands it is also stands for Culinary Culinary Resources Inspiring School Professionals. Um, so essentially what this program was, we brought in a chef for 12 weeks at our high school, and our chef worked with our manager to help her navigate some, um, difficulties that she was experiencing in the kitchen and just providing her with that confidence to assure that she was able to provide these wonderful meals for the students. Um, so as we have highlighted on our slides here, we have some beautiful photos from World Language Week at Arlington High School.\n\n","timeStart":838.385,"timeEnd":894.405,"chunkIndex":12},{"id":"019e2f9a-90e7-7a79-96e0-f0a955e347e0","content":"Speaker 7: This past March, um, we worked with the world language director and the department to see if we could provide the students with some meals relevant to some of the languages that are taught throughout the high school. Um, so our first dish that we had, it was a French inspired dish. Um, it's chicken pron call. It was very delicious. Um, the second dish that we had was more of an Asian style Dan Dan Noodle Bowl. Um, our third slide that we have photographed is a street Taco bowl with, um, chicken tacos with locally sourced, um, corn tortillas, which was also really cool. We've been working on enhancing our menu options by providing a lot of local, um, fruits and vegetables to the students as well. Um, and our last photo is a Cal Pepe, which was more of an Italian style, um, inspired dish. Um, and we received tons of magnificent feedback from that, and the staff had a wonderful time putting that together too.\n\n","timeStart":894.795,"timeEnd":951.085,"chunkIndex":13},{"id":"019e2f9a-90ef-71c9-b151-06e68f6e3ba8","content":"Speaker 7: So, culinary excellence, we've really been trying to give, as you see, we've really been trying to give our team and our managers some amazing training. Um, some of our managers went to this intensive five day culinary bootcamp in the summer. They drove down there. It was, where was it? In Dover Sherburne. It was one of Dover. So it was quite, it was a hike for them, but it was able for them to get, gain some really hands-on scratch cooking experience, trying some new culture, diverse menus and recipes that they could taste, test with everyone there and bring back to their teams. Um, really develop some leadership skills. Um, and I think they feel empowered to then come back and share these skills with, you know, their teammates and also us investing in them. They feel valued and everyone knows that. It always, obviously when you feel valued and, um, people are are, are putting effort into you, um, you, it just makes you feel better when you work and you come back and you can share that, um, with your coworkers.\n\n","timeStart":953.465,"timeEnd":1001.245,"chunkIndex":14},{"id":"019e2f9a-90f8-7db8-b30f-b483ae9f6d9c","content":"Speaker 7: So, um, so with that being said, we are highlighting another food and nutrition services win. Um, we got a state state recognition award for, um, our terrific tray, which was a program put together by Mass Farm to School and, um, the DSI department, the, the Office of Food and Nutrition Programs. And this was something that they have created for school nutrition programs to highlight what they are really doing for their schools and what they're really doing for their students and how important it is to make sure our students are sourced with, um, local fruits, local vegetables, and how we're working with farms and making sure that the farms are getting that recognition as well. Um, so this dish that we have that is provided, um, it is a Cambodian style kamai curry. Um, it was also inspired by our high school kitchen manager as well as our lead cook in at Arlington High School. Um, and it featured sweet potatoes, um, carrots, cauliflowers and donut peaches, all locally sourced from farms that we use on a regular basis.\n\n","timeStart":1001.465,"timeEnd":1065.885,"chunkIndex":15},{"id":"019e2f9a-90ff-7697-925c-ccf1a1396a8f","content":"Speaker 7: Um, in addition to that, we also received a National Achievement Award at Arlington High School. Um, it was a healthy Meals incentive award provided, um, by the USDA and these awards, again, were also, um, put together because we want to highlight all of the different varieties that we are providing for our kitchens and for our students. Um, and some of that included some scratch made cooking, um, menu options that we had were Hawaiian poke bowls, chicken curry and butter chicken. Um, we did multiple taste testing at a smaller level before we were able to provide this on our menus. Um, and it's been a wonderful experience and very nice. And again, thank you Dr. Homan for the recognition . We really appreciate that. Um, so some advocacy. So Alexa last year had actually received a first timers grant to attend the legislative action conference. And as a district, we were able to send her again this year, which is amazing, um, where she's able to have direct engagement with lawmakers regarding some regulatory challenges, as well as looking at the new guide dietary guidelines and how that potentially is gonna come down the road and affect the child nutrition program.\n\n","timeStart":1068.695,"timeEnd":1138.165,"chunkIndex":16},{"id":"019e2f9a-9108-7cc6-92bd-7e8a2e99f45c","content":"Speaker 7: So I'll let her explain a little bit. Sure. Um, so it was a very liberating experience for sure, being able to be in Washington DC and meet with, um, I met with Congresswoman Katherine Clark's aide, um, and it was very exciting because, um, she represents the ton of Arlington and I also met with the aides of, um, AANA Presley and Congressman Lynch as well. And it was nice to kind of talk to them and let them know, you know, some of the potential struggles that we may have. Um, we are currently adhering to the 20 20, 20 25 dietary guidelines. However, now that we have, um, phased that out, and we are now expected to follow the 2025 and 2030 dietary guidelines, um, which also includes, um, eliminating or decreasing the amount of ultra processed foods. Um, we're just looking for a clearer definition from lawmakers and what that really means and how that's going to impact our program down the line.\n\n","timeStart":1138.225,"timeEnd":1190.445,"chunkIndex":17},{"id":"019e2f9a-9112-7083-8a54-957d21d71dc3","content":"Speaker 7: Thankfully, it's something that we do not have to really focus on at this point in time, but in the future, it's something that we're going to have to put into focus. It usually takes them about five years for that, for to trickle down to the child nutrition program. So there's time to have that back and forth conversation about what is an ultra processed food, what that means for districts, um, does that mean all a hundred percent scratch cooking? How does that work with kitchen sizes and all that kind of thing. And so we'll see how that sort of plays out down the road. And with that, um, we have been able, for a PS we have been able to reduce, um, our sodium options that we have provided for students. Um, so we were able to make our own seasoning blends, um, make our own marinades, which has really helped a lot with decreasing the sodium that we were providing for students in prior time. Um, we've increased protein options as well, specifically at breakfast time, but providing more, um, nutrient efficient foods for the students. Um, and we've also reduced sugar options as well,\n\n","timeStart":1190.535,"timeEnd":1250.045,"chunkIndex":18},{"id":"019e2f9a-911a-74fd-bbf3-66684e330cf2","content":"Speaker 7: So some more wins. So, um, working with Rachel Veri for the sustainability coordinator for the schools. Um, we were able to secure, um, the ma a Mass EP re reduce reuse, repair micro grants. So, um, the goal with that is obviously we're trying to reduce, um, single loose items, especially like plastic utensils in the district. We were able to transition from the compostable tray trays to the reusable stainless steel trays, um, at the Gibb school. They actually have a decent setup that we were able to do that at that school. Um, but also moving from, um, the plastic disposable, um, utensils to the, the stainless steel flat, we are, we're at three schools, almost five, by next week there'll be five schools. Um, and moving towards using the single use condiment dispensers versus packets and whatnot. Um, and working with the rethink, um, disposable of a case study that really is examining, it's kind of amazing how much waste when you start adding up the tonnage. It's like mind-boggling. Even just like the compostable trays or the packets for the, for the ketchup. Um, so we're really hoping that moving towards next year, that we can transition some more. And again, there's some challenges with space and whatnot in the schools, but we're actually looking at, there are companies that will come in basically like linen service, take your dirty stuff, give you clean stuff, and exchange it out. So that's something that we're looking at possibly for next year, obviously, depending on many factors. So,\n\n","timeStart":1253.345,"timeEnd":1330.365,"chunkIndex":19},{"id":"019e2f9a-9123-7268-ac9f-e81b757b9847","content":"Speaker 7: Okay. I hate, it's like always challenges you hate sort of bringing up your challenges or airing, you know, the not dirty laundry, but, um, sort of any challenges that you might be having. So for us, the biggest thing is space and space in our kitchens. Um, especially you look at the bishop kitchen or you, we, we have such incredibly higher numbers now, and we're serving, you know, more kits and we're serving, um, different foods and a variety of foods and cut out fruits and cut out vegetables, and you need the space to do that, and you need the storage space to store more food. Um, so we look at the bishop and we look at the hardy and we're like, okay, how can we, what, how can we problem solve now? So we're really looking at sort of how can we efficiently use that space?\n\n","timeStart":1334.275,"timeEnd":1372.125,"chunkIndex":20},{"id":"019e2f9a-912b-7a34-ad7f-e46add0c0142","content":"Speaker 7: What can we do sort of moving forward? Also looking at some of the, the aging equipment that we have in some of these schools. Can we re remove some of the obsolete stuff? Can we get equipment that does more than one thing? Um, so really trying to look at the space now, now that we have a full crew of staff, we can really focus more on sort of the actual physical facilities that they are actually working in to try to produce these meals, um, for the students. So that has been sort of a challenge. Training can be a tricky one too with, with our schedules. And as far as, um, getting the whole team together, we don't have sort of half days. We feed, we feed kids on half days. We, we, you know, it's hard. A lot of our kids, uh, a lot of our parents are work, they are parents, I'm sorry, employees are parents, so they have young kids in the school, so they have to get home right after school to get their kids. One of the great things though the administration has done for us is on, um, the November professional development day. We are not serving lunch, so that's a great time for our team. Yeah, we get together and we are able to do our, um, big trainings and also we're trying to do them in little smaller like pieces, little, little sort of micro trainings and try to, um, to do it that way. So again, it is a challenge and we're working on some solutions. So.\n\n","timeStart":1372.195,"timeEnd":1439.325,"chunkIndex":21},{"id":"019e2f9a-9135-782e-824c-846b85787e5f","content":"Speaker 7: Okay. So as far as, um, next steps, we really want to sort of expand on a lot of the things that we've already started on. We really wanna be our culture responsive and representative menus and food items, and really work with, you know, excellent access and opportunity, um, department. I've talked to Margaret, I've talked to Kate, um, and how we can engage, you know, students and student affinity groups and get feedback and continue our staff training on the importance of why it's important to recognize other cultures, other foods, um, that you may not be familiar with. So it's important that we, we train our staff, um, to be cognizant of that. Um, as well also to increase, uh, we talked about scratch cooking, it's lower sodium, lower, um, lower added sugar when you can make your own seasonings, when you make your own sauces, when you're, um, when you're, when you're scratch cooking, um, and using taste tests and refine the recipes, um, and working with students and, and having them give feedback to be able to, um, sort of make those, um, to put those into our regular rotation.\n\n","timeStart":1442.955,"timeEnd":1501.365,"chunkIndex":22},{"id":"019e2f9a-914d-743c-a144-a5daa89d18ee","content":"Speaker 7: And also, again, to continue to assess the current facilities and the feasibility and, and even just working with the facilities department who's been great or like saying, oh, I really wanna put this in there. Um, is there enough electricity? Are we gonna blow fuses? Are we going to, so, you know, really making the, the, the effort just to work with the other departments too, to make sure that we can do some of these changes to some of these facilities. Um, and also we talked about, um, looking at companies to outsource some of the stuff, the, the cleaning and, and like, like I mentioned, the linen type of dishware exchange. Um, so those are the things that we're, we're really working towards in, in the next use and we'll continue to work on. So one final thing I could, I would be remiss if I didn't put this in here.\n\n","timeStart":1501.905,"timeEnd":1541.385,"chunkIndex":23},{"id":"019e2f9a-9156-7bf7-bedb-085478fb9856","content":"Speaker 7: So I actually started here, it's almost 20 years ago, which blows my mind. So when I started here, remember talking to Janet and she actually, I used to work at the board of health, so I knew Janet A. Little bit more than 20 years ago, and I would inspect the kitchen and, and I, and I met her through that way. And then I remember already started working with her and I said, I can't imagine how she was there 30 years at the time. How can you do anything for 30 years? Like, how can you do? And I'm here I am 20 years later, right? And she's 50 years. Like, it's, it's mind boggling. And not often does a department get to have the institutional knowledge or the honor, the privilege to have someone in their department like this. Um, obviously it takes an amazing person. I mean, she continues to grow and learn.\n\nSpeaker 7: She doesn't say stagnant, she doesn't say status quo. She doesn't say, well, we used to always do it this way. This is how we always did. I mean, she does sometimes , but, but most of the time, and she's trying new foods, she's expanded her palate. She doesn't just eat, you know, the Italian and the Irish food that she's been used to. So it's truly amazing to, to watch her grow. Um, but it's also a testament to the town and a testament to this district because people don't stick around and work where they don't wanna be. So it is a testament to this district that she is still here 50 years later and out there doing the register and talking to the kids and whatnot. So, but anyway, thank you. Thank you. Thank\n\n","timeStart":1541.725,"timeEnd":1615.885,"chunkIndex":24},{"id":"019e2f9a-9161-7b26-9253-64c969229a4d","content":"Speaker 8: You. Did you have anything you wanted to say before questions?\n\nSpeaker 5: Only that it is so impressive to me how much your team has embraced the work of the strategic plan. You have been, you were in the working groups, Alexa, it has been a joy to have you on the team. Thank you. Um, and really it shows in the work that you're doing in the meals the kids are getting in the fact that more and more of them are opting to have their lunches and breakfasts at school. Um, and in the dedication that you've shown to providing, I, this is the only district I am aware of that provides the before care for free to families with the breakfast and with like, it wrapped into the service model of school system. And when we talked to you about that, you were all in right away and knowing that we have a team that's dedicated, I mean, this is why Janet's been with us.\n\nSpeaker 7: Well percent, I mean, yeah.\n\nSpeaker 5: But your leadership is also a testament to all of that too. So thank you. Thank you.\n\nSpeaker 8: Any questions from the committee, Mr. Thalman?\n\nSpeaker 9: Yeah. Great. This is a great presentation. I didn't realize we have all these good things going on, . Um, could you say more about the space constraints or the constraints in the high school? You tell\n\n","timeStart":1615.885,"timeEnd":1685.965,"chunkIndex":25},{"id":"019e2f9a-916a-7039-8374-3737696b38e1","content":"Speaker 7: Me. Well, so this is the thing when we first started planning the high school, right? So they look at the numbers way back when, right? Right. They look at the numbers, they make projections, they make the kitchen built on a certain size of a projection of what you're going to serve or how many students you're going to serve. Then lunch became free. So it expanded. Then they do such an amazing job here. It expanded, definitely could use more room, but trust, they make it work. It's still a little small. Um, but it's, um, it's, they make it work. They make it work. Um, it's more, it's more to, to bring some of the things that we're doing at the high school into the lower levels. It's a lot of the space issues that are in the smaller schools. And it's just really trying to figure out sort of the best way to move forward with that. Okay.\n\nSpeaker 9: But, okay. Well it's good. Good to hear. So the high school kitchen could have been bigger. It could\n\nSpeaker 7: Have been. Yeah.\n\nSpeaker 9: Aren't they doing anything about it now? ?\n\nSpeaker 7: Exactly. But you know, kind\n\nSpeaker 9: Of a little issue there, but that's good to know. And\n\nSpeaker 7: We, we've, we've taken over a little space in the, we, we, yeah,\n\nSpeaker 9: I have a question about, um, portions for the students. Yep. Like how do you, how do you, uh,\n\n","timeStart":1685.965,"timeEnd":1745.325,"chunkIndex":26},{"id":"019e2f9a-9175-7acc-af1e-964464f042af","content":"Speaker 7: So we have guidelines. Yeah. And then we have like, sort of serving utensils, um, that correlate to that. So in each school, in each grade level, it's based on sort of a calorie content. Yeah. So that's, yeah. Yeah. So the younger kids, obviously it's smaller portions where the high school kids, it's bigger portions. Yeah.\n\nSpeaker 9: I was one of those kids who needed seconds.\n\nSpeaker 7: I know. And it's, I know exactly. I know. Trust me, we have that, that would be Janet behind the counter, like, here you go. There you go. But yeah,\n\nSpeaker 9: Don't tell anyone.\n\nSpeaker 7: Yeah. Get their fruits and vegetables, lots of fruits and vegetables. We don't limit that. And actually the high school kids are amazing with their, they, they have no problem getting their fruit and vegetables, so,\n\nSpeaker 8: Okay. Thank you Dr. Allison.\n\nSpeaker 10: Thank you for this. Um, so a couple things. Sure. One, it'd be great if we could make this into something that's short and digestible for parents to read because it, it's like they should be hearing, I mean, this, this is like a shining star and I don't think hardly anybody knows, right? So I'm not sure what the best way is to make sure they actually see it. Mm-hmm . But, so that's one thing. Um, and I also had the question about whether the high school kitchen was adequate in size because we're talking about another building project, and I wanna be sure that we right size that one. So\n\nSpeaker 7: A hundred percent that one will be much bigger. . Okay.\n\n","timeStart":1745.905,"timeEnd":1828.405,"chunkIndex":27},{"id":"019e2f9a-9182-7b96-8545-f9819bb3378e","content":"Speaker 10: Um, and then finally, I'm wondering how does the timing, how's it working out in terms of timing for all the kids that get their food and have time to eat it?\n\nSpeaker 7: So that was gonna be one of my challenges, but I wasn't sure how to Exactly. So lunchtime, in an ideal world, these kids would have a longer lunch period at every single school across the board. I know there's logistics, I know there's time on learning. I know there's, um, there's all sorts of issues with that. Um, high school kids, um, ideally, I mean, we have three lunches. Ideally, if we could have four lunches to spread them out, we would have more kids. I bet even participate. Um, Gibbs school currently has two lunches, which I know an, uh, Andrew's looking at next year because I, we have a lower counts at that school, which I know we would have much higher counts if it was spread out more and the kids had more time and didn't see the lines to come through. Um, elementary in the beginning of the year is always tricky, but we, we always look at it, it's like four to five minutes for the kids to get through the line. Um, and that's, it's, it's fairly quick. Um, and then they have about the 15 minutes to, if they sit down quietly, you know, if they come down on time, you know what I mean? If they sit quietly and eat in our, you know, the kindergartners are doing whatever. But, um, yeah. So ideally in an ideal world, we would love more time. And I know that's sort of probably, you probably hear that from a lot of people. .\n\n","timeStart":1829.065,"timeEnd":1902.085,"chunkIndex":28},{"id":"019e2f9a-918d-76d6-b71b-ddb66bbe709e","content":"Speaker 10: Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you\n\nSpeaker 8: Ms. Hans Copper\n\nSpeaker 11: Chor. Uh, yeah, I was really, this was an excellent presentation. Um, I was curious how often you're able to provide the culturally responsive meals, and is there, like, are there more resources needed if you aren't able to provide them as often as, as you'd like?\n\nSpeaker 7: Well, I think it's, a lot of it has to do with, with training, um, and making sure that we are, we're really trying to hard trying hard to represent as many different cultures as possible without inadvertently missing, um, certain ethnicities or cultures or, um, groups. And we do, we're not perfect, you know what I'm saying? And we do want to be able to, in an ideal world, to do more than, you know, one a month or two a month. So that is our goal, and that's where we're starting sort of, I would say small and, and, and moving to be able to do, um, a lot more. So, and that's where we're talking too about with the vinegars. We wanna really look and see what, what are some of these kids actually eating at home too? Like, we wanna be more, you know, genuine in our representation of, of what we serve. So, mm-hmm . Thank\n\nSpeaker 4: You.\n\nSpeaker 7: Did you have any,\n\nSpeaker 2: Um, did you see Mr. Slick joined? I, I saw Mr. Slick joined. Yes. Um,\n\n","timeStart":1902.595,"timeEnd":1976.245,"chunkIndex":29},{"id":"019e2f9a-919d-7b1a-bd70-5df61adbcb6b","content":"Speaker 4: Um, so first of all, just thank you so much for this presentation. I can't remember the last time that we heard from you and I, um, I think it's so important, as Dr. Allison Ampy said about the community hearing about the, the really important work that you do feeding our students every single day. Um, you know, students are not able to access learning if they are hungry. And so having the opportunity to eat at breakfast at school, um, and then lunch to make sure that they can make it through through the day is so important. So thank you for the, for that information. I think it's, it's really important. Um, some of the things that I was thinking about you mentioned, but I just wanna, um, reiterate, you know, I appreciate the things that you talked about, the locally sourced, um, foods, and I'm glad to hear that that's sort of something that's, that's increasing.\n\nSpeaker 4: Um, and also the PD opportunities, not only just continuing your training, but as you said, it helps to, to make staff feel, um, you know, feel like they belong and they're important in the role that they play. Um, it is as important as, as the teachers and mm-hmm . The paraprofessionals and everyone else that's working in our schools. Um, and then the last thing is a question, and it's sort of a, it's a wondering, um, I know some districts have made moves towards like meatless Monday or something like that mm-hmm . I'm just curious, is that something that you\n\n","timeStart":1977.145,"timeEnd":2060.645,"chunkIndex":30},{"id":"019e2f9a-91b5-7a9e-b8b2-1e565db91f72","content":"Speaker 7: Have? We have. We, we've done it before and we have talked about it and yes, yes, we have. We actually, especially at the high school, we accommodate daily. 'cause we have a, a, they have a varied menu that's beyond what actually is being, they serve way more than what's actually sort of on the menu. Um, and, but we haven't advertised it per se as, you know, a meatless day. But yes, no, that is definitely something that,\n\nSpeaker 4: Yeah, no, I mean, I think I, I'm looking at 'em a menu now, and I think from a, like providing that opportunity for a family that does, chooses not to eat, you know, eat meat, um, but also from a sort of sustainability, um, piece of it, sort of like a district not Right. Contributing one day a week.\n\nSpeaker 7: Yep. No, it makes sense.\n\nSpeaker 4: Just curious. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.\n\nSpeaker 2: I have a question. I remember hearing some discussion when we first started having the universally universal school meals. Um, the, are you are there if the federal government is subsidizing the people who've sort of are eligible mm-hmm . Um, but we don't, and I think this is great. We don't actually make people apply anymore. How I, I've seen in the materials, like you're encouraging people to apply because there are other benefits they get. But is that a challenge in terms of the way that the funding streams come down? Like in terms of participation, in terms of whatever percentages you are able to report of these people are eligible mm-hmm . And we're serving another however many percentage. Um, how is is is that a challenge?\n\n","timeStart":2061.115,"timeEnd":2156.805,"chunkIndex":31},{"id":"019e2f9a-91c0-710b-a1e5-7aad770ba274","content":"Speaker 7: I would say moving forward, that is something that we could probably push more and ask more people to apply if they're not already getting benefits, if they're not getting, you know, um, some of those ones that I listed that are automatically directly certified. Um, okay,\n\nSpeaker 2: So those people you have, you have that,\n\nSpeaker 7: Okay. Correct. Correct. Okay. Yes, yes.\n\nSpeaker 2: Okay. That's great. And I just wanna say that, um, I, my, I, I haven't made school lunch in a long time because of you all. And my children know that if they don't find something on the menu that they like, then they have to make their own lunch. Oh. Um, so they haven't, they don't do that that often. But one thing I really appreciate is even when my kids don't make the choice to try something new, which I, you know, I, I see something on the menu, I'm like, oh, like look at this thing that's never been on the menu before. Just seeing the item on the menu and seeing that some of their classmates are choosing that I think has like, this, like incremental effect on the way they see food and the way they, you know, view their, their classmates. And so even if you don't have like, huge take up rates on the butter chicken, right. Like , like, or,\n\nSpeaker 7: But they're going up because students are seeing other students enjoying it. Exactly. So you're, yes.\n\n","timeStart":2157.685,"timeEnd":2233.245,"chunkIndex":32},{"id":"019e2f9a-91ca-7a6d-8824-00c23c0506e7","content":"Speaker 2: And they trust their friends way more than they trust me Yes. Than adults. Me. Yes. So, um, so yes, so I just wanted to say that I we're here, you know, my third and fifth grader are appreciating it, and therefore I am . Thank\n\nSpeaker 7: So much. Thank you. It's nice to hear.\n\nSpeaker 2: Thanks. Um, anyone, Mr. Schleman, did you have any questions?\n\nSpeaker 12: I have one comment is that when I hear that you don't wanna talk about the challenges, that's exactly what I wanna hear about. That's the thing we can do something about. You're doing great work and if you're running into issues, we're here to help.\n\nSpeaker 7: Thank you. Appreciate that.\n\nSpeaker 12: Mm-hmm .\n\nSpeaker 2: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you both for being here tonight. Thank you. Thank\n\nSpeaker 7: You. So\n\nSpeaker 2: Thank you. Uh, next up is the CPA report, Elizabeth McWhorter and Ann Weisman.\n\nSpeaker 13: Thank you. Um, before we jump in, can I just clarify how much time we have? I can't tell in the new agenda format presentation,\n\nSpeaker 2: And we do have library here. 12 minutes for the presentation. Great. We do have two more, uh, two more items on the agenda after you.\n\nSpeaker 7: Yep.\n\n","timeStart":2233.705,"timeEnd":2313.255,"chunkIndex":33},{"id":"019e2f9a-91d4-7228-86c5-b9ed5b976b25","content":"Speaker 13: Okay, great. I will, um, be brief and some of this is repetitive from previous presentations, so that's great. Okay. Um, so my name's Elizabeth Horter. I'm the co-chair of the Arlington cpac, which is the Special Education Parent Advisory Council. Um, and we're here to do our, now it's biannual because we came on October report out to the school committee. So we can flip to the next slide. So first I wanted to kind of reframe how we think about the population that we care most about. Um, so we talk a lot about students with disabilities. We talk about students who have IEPs or 5 0 4 plans, but when, when we, as the CPAC board and the CPAC membership are thinking about this, we're thinking about all students who, who are diagnosed or not diagnosed, who have learning differences, who have challenges engaging with the school district without additional support and help.\n\n","timeStart":2313.285,"timeEnd":2362.125,"chunkIndex":34},{"id":"019e2f9a-91dd-7de9-8a3a-80e149d82155","content":"Speaker 13: One statistic that always sticks in my mind is projections that within the next 15 years, 40% of our workforce will self-identify as being neurodivergent. So that means that 40% of the kids that are in our classrooms today at some point, either have or will be identifying as neurodivergent. So that means that when we're talking about the population that we most care about, we're actually talking about almost half of the student population, if not more. Um, we can flip to the next slide. So first, a couple of celebrations. So one, um, just wanted to give out all the kudos to everybody in this room for everything that you did to make the override successful. This directly benefits all of the kids that we care most about. Um, and so thank you for everything that you've done. Um, the process that you all went through, the amount of time that you dedicated to community engagement, selecting feedback.\n\n","timeStart":2362.825,"timeEnd":2418.405,"chunkIndex":35},{"id":"019e2f9a-91e5-788d-b792-53a4328569c7","content":"Speaker 13: The last time I sat here, I was giving feedback on how things were positioned and it really went a long way to building trust with parents, with families, because we saw that you all were listening and making changes and being responsive. Um, so thank you for the amount of time and dedication that went into that. That is no small feat and we wanted to call that out explicitly. Um, we also wanted to congratulate ourselves a little bit for a moment, . Um, we've seen an increase in, um, engagement from families, um, with the cpac. So we've seen over 10% social media growth. Our newsletter subscription is now 300 plus subscribers, and we have a 50% open rate, which is very, very, very good . Um, so it shows that those that we're engaging with is grow, are growing, and that, um, they value what we're bringing to the table.\n\n","timeStart":2418.425,"timeEnd":2470.765,"chunkIndex":36},{"id":"019e2f9a-91f1-763c-a811-4c81cddd017d","content":"Speaker 13: Um, we're also deepening our engagement, um, with other parts of the school district. So I want to give a huge thank you to Alison Elmer, who has spent countless hours, talking to me, explaining things to me, answering my questions, um, and thinking about how we can deepen our relationship, um, as the CAC and, um, the administration. Also a huge thank you to Liz Exton for joining us at the beginning of the year, um, the school year. That is, um, to talk about what it means to meaningfully advocate and engage with the school committee that really set a foundation for how we think about our role today. So thank you so much for doing that. Um, and then we're looking forward to deepening our relationship with the ML pac, which, um, as I'm sure you all know, there is significant overlap between those that the ML PAC represents and those that the CPAC represents.\n\n","timeStart":2471.585,"timeEnd":2517.405,"chunkIndex":37},{"id":"019e2f9a-91fb-7367-b1e5-0e35c961e0b2","content":"Speaker 13: Um, uh, and then, um, the other thing that we're paying attention to, um, is movement on state legislation. Um, in particular to bills that have been, um, making their way through the legislative process that are focused on, um, fair process, um, for, um, kind of rethinking how dsi and, um, families come together and, um, figure out what's best for kids. Um, and also, uh, the ways that, and then a separate build that's really thinking about and policy that's thinking about how do PACS and parents actually engage more deeply with, um, with policy makers at the local level. Um, so next thing we wanted to celebrate is we've kicked off, um, what we're calling our ppac shoutouts. Um, so these are kind of like the stars that we give out to teachers and staff every year, but this is focused on those who, um, who really stand out from a parent's perspective.\n\n","timeStart":2518.145,"timeEnd":2577.885,"chunkIndex":38},{"id":"019e2f9a-9219-75bc-b08c-f6c3d8090a7e","content":"Speaker 13: Um, parents are nominating, um, for really going above and beyond or, or doing things that make a huge difference in their lives. So our inaugural shout out recipients we're announcing tonight are, um, two OMS staff members, Leon Carr and Andrea Lab. Um, these, um, staff went above and beyond with, um, a particular kid who was kind of at risk of, of kind getting lost in, in their middle school experience. And they spent a lot of time engaging building trust, both with the child and the family and the other teachers in the learning community. Um, and that kid is, is coming back. Um, and those kinds of experiences are the things that can make the difference between a child getting through their school experience and thriving as they move into adulthood and those who get lost in the shuffle. Um, so these will be accepting nominations on a rolling basis and are really excited about this because there's amazing things that are happening every day, um, in Arlington public Schools.\n\n","timeStart":2578.065,"timeEnd":2641.685,"chunkIndex":39},{"id":"019e2f9a-9223-7f6b-9ca0-e12cc5ca7ee9","content":"Speaker 13: We can Thank you. Um, so wanted to give, um, a quick overview and a reminder of some of the key data points as we look back on the survey that we completed last spring. So a year ago, we have opted not to redo the survey this year. It's an enormous, uh, amount of effort in particular that goes into analyzing the, like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of open responses that we get. Um, and so we did some consultation with, um, with other CPACs, um, and, uh, leaders who have done this more often and their advice was to do it every two to three years because that's really where you're going to see more significant movement that you can kind of make assessments on. And we had already seen that data hadn't really changed significantly between the last two years that we administered it. Um, but we wanted to lift up a couple of things that we think are still really important to, to hold center.\n\n","timeStart":2642.505,"timeEnd":2699.885,"chunkIndex":40},{"id":"019e2f9a-922d-776c-95db-98ad509c94f5","content":"Speaker 13: Um, so one is around service delivery and progress. Um, and when we say progress, we mean progress for an individual child. Um, so there, the key message here is that, um, parents report positive perceptions of individual service providers. So they remark on the amazing experiences they have with like those OMS educators. They talk about specific investments that schools are making in Orton-Gillingham instruction for dyslexic students. Um, they call out the specifics. Where we tend to have disconnects and we hear this consistently and anecdotally, is when you start to get into the minutia, the paperwork and the reporting and the data and that. So, so we're seeing this opportunity to really dig into like how do we take what's happening at that relational level and use that to better understand what is creating challenges around progress measurement and then the progress itself that parents are reporting, um, having significantly less positive perceptions of, um, we can flip to the next slide.\n\n","timeStart":2700.585,"timeEnd":2773.205,"chunkIndex":41},{"id":"019e2f9a-9238-78e4-9bf2-fbc53f998d9a","content":"Speaker 13: The next piece that I wanted to remind us of, because we talked quite a bit or you all talked, we also talked quite a bit about what are the challenges of things like fees. Um, and we wanted to lift up the fact that special education parents and families are also carrying a significant financial burden when, um, they are having to, uh, to pay for additional services outside of the school building when they are required to obtain the assistance of advocates or legal counsel in some cases, um, 96% of those who responded to the survey, uh, said that they had paid for private evaluations of their child in addition to the evaluations that were provided by the school. So we would be remiss in not highlighting the significant financial investment that families in Arlington feel that they need to make in order to successfully navigate special education and special education services for their children to be successful. And we, we are concerned in part because that means that there are going to be students who are missed because their parents can't access that kind of support. And so the question that we continuously come back to is how do we ensure that we can mitigate those barriers and the financial requirements to engage effectively in many cases in particular for those who can't afford to do so. Um, we can flip to the next slide.\n\n","timeStart":2774.305,"timeEnd":2861.405,"chunkIndex":42},{"id":"019e2f9a-9242-7a8e-bf16-ce1b496325b3","content":"Speaker 13: So, um, one piece that we wanted to lift up is you all asked last October, what's happening at Gibbs? There's new leadership . So we asked, um, and here we have, um, a pretty good story of some positive movement. Um, so, uh, for providers and staff, there was 100% positive feedback. Everybody, it was a small amount of people who responded to the survey, but everybody had good things to say about providers and staff. Um, communication and transition areas continue to be something to watch. We know this, this is consistent with what we've heard in the past. We've talked about this great deal. Um, we did see some positive shift here. Um, but it continues to be a significant difference between that providers and staff. A hundred percent good, down to 33%, 43%. So I think that's a place that we can continue to work on, but we feel kind of cautiously optimistic there. Um, we can flip to the next slide.\n\n","timeStart":2865.015,"timeEnd":2920.195,"chunkIndex":43},{"id":"019e2f9a-924b-7595-8a19-f68a27a5be6b","content":"Speaker 13: Okay. So, um, we, we wanted to now kind of zoom out for a moment and go from that survey data to what have we actually seen happening, um, and what have we heard about over the last year? So what's kind of the anecdotal data that we're collecting? Um, and we wanna talk about this in two categories. So we've got grass tops, so decision makers, folks like you who are driving change from a policy level, um, and then grassroots. So what are the things that are happening on the ground in our school buildings that, um, that make a difference? And the reason why we wanna pair these things together is because the missing middle oftentimes in innovation, which is what this is, is how do you carry up the grassroots to the grass tops? And we think that that's, there's a valuable opportunity for the school committee to actually help illuminate some of those things that should be lifted up and ask questions and prioritize time for ensuring that those grassroots efforts are also lifted up to the grass tops conversations so quickly.\n\n","timeStart":2922.295,"timeEnd":2986.345,"chunkIndex":44},{"id":"019e2f9a-9255-7e5a-b375-a587fd908d87","content":"Speaker 13: Grass tops category. Um, MTSS is enormous. We're really grateful for the continued implementation there and the dedicated resources that are happening. Um, training and universal design for learning and the changes to the dcap are huge steps forward. So we're very grateful for that. Um, we have also noticed, um, that there has been a significant prioritization of special education experience in hiring, um, in particular in leadership positions at school buildings. So I know that the, um, assistant principal position at the bracket school, all three finalists have, has started their careers in special education. And one of the things that we had been very concerned about is that we, we hadn't seen that happening from a principal or assistant principal level previously, which means that they don't have the insights, they don't have the lived experience in the same way to be asking the questions that they need to ask as school leadership to drive change.\n\n","timeStart":2986.395,"timeEnd":3039.085,"chunkIndex":45},{"id":"019e2f9a-925f-712e-8f5b-ef4edeab4db7","content":"Speaker 13: So we're really grateful for that as well. Um, the other thing that I wanted to name explicitly as a grass top strategy is kudos to Dr. Homan for all of those hours listening in particular to special education parents. 'cause I know that those are the ones who mostly showed up to your listening sessions because that gave enormous, that was an enormous trust building activity. And so thank you for spending the time doing that, listening and building those connections because it shows that there's actually an open door and a listening ear, which is a really, really important move from a parent perspective. Um, from the grassroots. And I've completely lost track of time, so I'm so sorry. All minutes. Okay. So I just wanna give two things. Um, we are hearing lots and lots of things that are little positive points of change. And I want to call out one, which is this picture, which is our difference, make us shine like stars.\n\n","timeStart":3039.105,"timeEnd":3090.685,"chunkIndex":46},{"id":"019e2f9a-9269-724b-a211-ab70d2261940","content":"Speaker 13: This is currently up in the bracket hallways. And I might cry for a minute because this is a really big deal. I have two dyslexic children. I have one who's currently enrolled at bracket. I have another who we had to pull from bracket because he had made no progress in four years when he was in first grade. And we said, there's something else wrong here. They said, oh, do you think it might be dyslexia? We don't talk about that here. There is now a poster up on the wall that doesn't just talk about dyslexia, but it talks about dyspraxia, it talks about dyscalculia, it talks about a DHD, it talks about autism and it positions those as strengths. So the fact that in six years in one school building, you were able to take it from a place where we didn't talk, we didn't name things to a place where my child comes home pitching a fit because she and her classmates are fighting over what's dyspraxia and what's dyscalculia and what's dyslexia and which one implicates math is in dorm mess.\n\n","timeStart":3090.995,"timeEnd":3152.465,"chunkIndex":47},{"id":"019e2f9a-927d-7c15-bd35-6dc7d0b4f420","content":"Speaker 13: And that is the kind of change that we need to continue to be focusing on. And then I just wanna close it out with one more minute. So if we could flip to, um, the two slides. There are a couple of things in there that we can talk about later, but I just want to this one. So I wanna name that as the cpac, we spend a lot of time on what I think of as naming the elephant, which is naming the thing that is deeply uncomfortable, bringing it up to the surface because it's already there, it's already present. And only when we talk about it, only when we say dyslexia can we actually have meaningful conversations about it. And we are very aware that in three years we'll be talking about another override. And we are very aware that special education is a significant cost lever within this community.\n\nSpeaker 13: And so we want to be part of conversations now that will help us understand how we can think about things like red redistricting or reorganizing or what it means to deploy staffing in a way that allows us to ensure that schools as small as pierce, where we do not have enough specialists focused on reading to support the population of students that need it. And student and, and schools as large as Addison Middle School and the high school have what they need so that we're being smart about how we serve every single student regardless of what building they happen to be sitting in. That's it.\n\nSpeaker 11: Thank you. Sorry\n\nSpeaker 13: I went over time.\n\n","timeStart":3154.035,"timeEnd":3250.925,"chunkIndex":48},{"id":"019e2f9a-9287-71a0-9c8f-6e36551b5183","content":"Speaker 11: No, it was, it was worth it. . Okay. , um, questions for, or did you wanna speak at all?\n\nSpeaker 5: Thank you for such a thoughtful presentation for naming things that are specific and big that we've worked on. I really appreciate it. It actually wouldn't mind like a list of some of those small specific things so that we can happy\n\nSpeaker 13: To share those things. Highlight\n\nSpeaker 5: That. Yep. Um, and I'm, that reminds me that we need to have another meeting at some point. Yes. So we would love to. Um, also, the, the listening sessions were an absolute joy for me too. So I, it reminded me, um, how wonderful it is to talk to folks in a small setting. Yeah. And so I'm already thinking about how to do some more of that next year, but we welcome that. I enjoyed it very much. And, um, you're welcome and thank you\n\nSpeaker 11: Questions doc, Dr. Alice Maney.\n\nSpeaker 10: So thank you very much for this. It's, it's really helpful. Um,\n\n","timeStart":3251.265,"timeEnd":3307.125,"chunkIndex":49},{"id":"019e2f9a-9290-7990-b73a-9f9c06601555","content":"Speaker 10: I'm thinking about all the things you've said and, but, uh, just one comment in terms of the survey, I wonder, I, I realize it's a big amount of work, but I wonder if you could just alternate years with written responses and years where it's just nuMe, you know, you don't get a chance mm-hmm . To put a response, a written response. Yeah. It's just, and you tell people that this is, we're doing it for this reason. We're not trying to, you know, you'll get your chance to write something next year, but that way you'd have something that mm-hmm . So you could see progress over time. And I don't know, it's just, it's helpful to me to have things that can continue. Sure. And but it wouldn't be nearly so much work for you. Yeah. And, uh, maybe you'd get more people doing the written responses. 'cause they're like, well, I didn't get say anything last year. So .\n\nSpeaker 13: Absolutely. I really appreciate that suggestion. Okay.\n\nSpeaker 10: So thank you. But I appreciate everything you've brought to us and it's really helpful. Thank you. You,\n\nSpeaker 11: I have a quick question. Mm-hmm . Go ahead. On, on the, um, multilingual lingual learners. Mm-hmm . And, and this cost of slide in terms of like being paying for private evaluations. Like how do, how do those parents, uh, receive support that you're hearing from are like, are they also in part of this number that's reflected through your survey work or,\n\n","timeStart":3309.145,"timeEnd":3397.285,"chunkIndex":50},{"id":"019e2f9a-92a9-772a-8c84-27f5488a7c4d","content":"Speaker 5: I just wanna note that we're gonna talk about this in my update. I think. Um, but the move, the consolidation of departments in central office, uh, means that Dr. Thomas will be sort of acting as liaison, like the welcome center. Mm-hmm . Had been acting as liaison, uh, for both the ML PAC and the cpac. Great. And so that's a Okay. A point of connection there potentially. Um, and we're working directly with the ML PAC to surface kinda what their plans are for next year. Mm-hmm . And they've had a little more steady leadership over the last couple of years. Yeah. Which is helpful for collaboration between the two groups. Um, so we're getting there. Yeah. We'd\n\nSpeaker 13: Love to have a similar conversation\n\nSpeaker 5: Working with them. Yeah.\n\nSpeaker 6: Uh, Dr. Snay,\n\nSpeaker 10: Is there anything we could supply to help with translation? Any resources?\n\nSpeaker 5: So\n\nSpeaker 6: Would you like to speak to this? I know you\n\nSpeaker 15: Manage a lot of it survey on the right for your\n\nSpeaker 13: I think so.\n\nSpeaker 10: Oh,\n\nSpeaker 5: Did you mean survey? I'd have to go back.\n\nSpeaker 10: No, I meant, I meant when they're doing their one-on-ones for\n\nSpeaker 5: Meetings and stuff\n\nSpeaker 10: For meetings and stuff.\n\n","timeStart":3569.805,"timeEnd":3639.085,"chunkIndex":53},{"id":"019e2f9a-92b4-7a3a-807f-c84b92ebcddf","content":"Speaker 5: So we have vendors who we can contract. It is, this is a major cost to the district translation interpretation. And we, in certain circumstances, we must have a human translator. In other cases, we do not necessarily need to. Mm-hmm . If you were to have someone reach out and there was a language barrier, you should definitely let us know because we have tools that you can use. We had somebody call the office today, um, and speak to us in Portuguese. And we were able to quickly pivot to have a interpretation device help us with the conversation. Um, only to learn that they spoke enough English to get us through the conversation. Uh, but it still worked out because we were able to figure that out in Portuguese with a little device. So we do have some tools that help with things like this. They can be harder in like a larger meeting. And so we would just have to plan accordingly because the second you involve a human interpreter, the cost goes up pretty quickly. Right. And we have to reserve some of that fund for regulatory requirements for\n\nSpeaker 10: Interpreters. Yeah. No, I was just, I knew that we had, we've been working, having Yes. We've been working on that. Some other options and I wanted to be sure that you understand that they're out there. Yeah. And that you have access to them and how we get that access.\n\nSpeaker 13: I appreciate that. Thank you.\n\nSpeaker 6: Anybody else? Mr. Schleman? Okay. Thank Oh,\n\n","timeStart":3639.585,"timeEnd":3721.685,"chunkIndex":54},{"id":"019e2f9a-92be-7753-9726-aa0f4173a4c7","content":"Speaker 15: Oh yes. Ms. McCorry mentions, you know, she and I, or closely we meet monthly, at least monthly, at least more than that. . Um, and I worked with, um, Ms. Leman as well as, I, I would just wanna say Crossy, but I was gonna say . Is it not working\n\nSpeaker 6: Closer to, I think, is\n\nSpeaker 15: It now? It doesn't sound like it's reverberating like everybody else. Um, so we have, um, there was a change in leadership two years ago. And so we have been each year, I think working together more closely and looking forward to continued partnership. I know we just recently had, um, another board member participate in, uh, administrative search that we are conducting. And Ms. McCarter is on the visioning, um, committee for OMS. So just wanted to thank you again for that partnership.\n\nSpeaker 6: Yeah. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next up we are going to hear from the library team. Thank you for your patience. Of course. They brought, they brought their props. , Rashmi travels with them. . Thank you. Um,\n\nSpeaker 16: Next slide. Thank you.\n\n","timeStart":3722.585,"timeEnd":3829.965,"chunkIndex":55},{"id":"019e2f9a-92c6-7c9d-a9f2-b558c4e2c927","content":"Speaker 16: Oops. Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for, um, giving us an opportunity to speak. We are the library and the digital learning team. Um, I just wanted to quickly introduce, we have Stacey Kites, our a HS librarian and K 12 lead library teacher. Stacey is, um, Stacy has laryngitis, so she had a very long part in our presentation. So we are gonna try to manage, um, thank you Stacy for trusting us. Um, we have Chrissy, um, Christine Collins. She is our Stratton librarian. We have Jennifer Lachlan, our Gibbs librarian, and Melissa Maldonado, our Dallen librarian. So we are excited to be in front of you talking about our library program and how it's evolving. We also have, um, a huge, huge thank you to all of you. Um, today we can very proudly say that Li um, all K 12 schools across a PS have a certified K 12 librarian in the school. And that's because of you. You've supported us. It's, I think it's 20 years, um, uh, in the making. And it, it has happened. So we are very grateful. And I just want to hand say thank you and hand it over to Chrissy\n\nSpeaker 6: . Alright. So, uh, the library team has been able to conduct more\n\n","timeStart":3831.915,"timeEnd":3916.765,"chunkIndex":56},{"id":"019e2f9a-92e2-7f9f-bc5c-53386043dac3","content":"Speaker 13: In depth instruction in library skills research and media literacy, while leading reading promotions and hosting events to foster a deeper love of reading. The library team has also provided professional development to other staff and assisted with resource curation. As a result, circulation of physical materials is at an all time high, as well as increased use of digital content on soa. Our database usage from early elementary through 12th grade has been increasing consistently year to year as our professional library staffing has increased.\n\nSpeaker 11: Next slide.\n\nSpeaker 13: Alright. So research shows a correlation between student achievement and fully staffed and funded library programs in effect, which is even stronger for our most vulnerable learners. Library programs lay the groundwork for informed civic participation, a love of reading, and a path to lifelong learning. They promote critical thinking, cognitive rigor, and curiosity. They expose students to multiple perspectives and create opportunities for flexible thinking. They provide safe spaces. They set the bar for instructional collaboration. And, um, if you have time after the meeting, please click through this document and the infographics on our appendix slide at the end for more information\n\n","timeStart":3916.865,"timeEnd":4010.795,"chunkIndex":57},{"id":"019e2f9a-92ea-7fe8-8598-5524f1975cd3","content":"Speaker 11: In the role of Stacy , um, we continue to be so grateful to the Arlington community for our new library, which offers beautiful and flexible spaces to meet diverse student needs. The Student Library advisory Committee known as Slack, is active with poetry, open mics, professional guest speakers, library card drives and more. The intergenerational book club was recently featured in American Library's Magazine and Stacey's tireless work on the a HS library website was recognized for excellence by the Massachusetts School Library Association. Last week, the library held their first book swap at the a HS Eco Fair. Next slide. Library instruction takes place throughout the a HS campus, including online tutorials, professional development for staff, co-teaching in the library and the classrooms, and supporting a culture of wellness, inclusion and lifelong learning. Next slide.\n\nSpeaker 11: And now in the role of me , uh, with a full-time librarian at me, I'm sorry. Full-time certified librarian at Gibbs. For the first time this year, all sixth graders are receiving consistent in depth research instruction through partnerships between the librarian and the content area Teachers. Teachers appreciate the support in curating research materials for students' needs and interests. Participatory library displays, book award programs, contests and more keep our students interested and eager to come to the library and visit Bob Leeka. Our book Drop Monster. Next slide. Research instruction continues at sison, where students also have the opportunity to participate in a library podcasting elective. Combining research skills with content production, both schools strive to cultivate a culture of reading at a critical age where research indicates many students stop reading for pleasure. OMS has had many author visits and interactive programs this year to cultivate student engagement.\n\n","timeStart":4015.855,"timeEnd":4153.545,"chunkIndex":58},{"id":"019e2f9a-92f3-7a99-8ecc-e0d046c0b578","content":"Speaker 4: Next slide, please. The elementary library team provides excitement and information to students in an incredible variety of experiences. Students celebrated reading by dressing up like their favorite book characters and reading books in flashlight for forts. They also learned how spiders make webs by way of a toilet paper cannon and hung out with hermit cab crabs from the a PS Animal Lending Library. They exercised their judgment as readers by voting in our town wide mock caldecott and other book award programs. Next slide, please. Students also completed makerspace challenges, scavenger hunts and escape rooms. They curated library displays for their peers. Students across the district are celebrated for reaching reading milestones. For example, over 45 students, one trophies for reading over 100 books in one year. They created podcasts and wrote books and visited book fairs. Several collections were reorganized with front facing bins to make browsing more accessible for our youngest readers. Next slide please. This year we conducted a successful pilot, which we call the digital learning Teachers in library residency. All students in grades three, four, and five had one quarter with a digital learning teacher, which focused on robotics and computational thinking standards. They included Ozobots, these tiny little guys here. Uh, and that was for grades three and four fins, grades four and five and code.org curriculum in grades three through five. Some schools also piloted BBOs in grades K and two. Next year we'll be integrating DLCS instruction in the library schedule for all elementary students.\n\n","timeStart":4155.655,"timeEnd":4260.425,"chunkIndex":59},{"id":"019e2f9a-92fb-7c36-a6c7-78a974d5702f","content":"Speaker 16: Thank you, Melissa. Um, what we are looking at now is, um, our implementation plan for next few years. Um, as Melissa mentioned, during our this year's DL residency in library pilot, the DL specialist lead taught the DLCS curriculum to our grades three, four, and five with library support. Um, and for this pilot, we also designed, um, the initial curriculum for grades 3, 4, 5 with, um, eight interdisciplinary robotics units. Um, so that sort of gave the library team, uh, uh, perspective on what the curriculum is and what the tools are or the robots are. Um, so next year, um, in 20 26, 27, uh, we, we are going to pivot, uh, change to the library teachers taking the lead teaching role in doing both the DLCS and library instructions during library classes. Uh, we'll have the DL specialists supporting the library teachers during that instruction. And this will allow us to reach, the best part of it is allow us to reach all K five kiddos, um, in our elementary, which, which is one of our dream come true.\n\n","timeStart":4261.915,"timeEnd":4330.445,"chunkIndex":60},{"id":"019e2f9a-9303-7b9f-b97e-1fce1ae6219a","content":"Speaker 16: So hopefully we will be achieving that next year. Uh, the 20 27 28 is more for us to sort of look at what our student assessment tell us, what our teacher feedback is, what our units look like, and revise it. So we'll go through a revision cycle, we'll iterate our curriculum. Um, and then we also notice that there are a lot more, um, newer technologies and newer, um, content standards that are emerging. So we want to align our curriculum with that with some consistency. But we are also hoping to achieve efficiency with, um, the DLCS content being integrated with library so that it's not, uh, it's more interdisciplinary as opposed to, you know, um, just one, uh, type of curriculum, which would be robotics or computational thinking. So we wanna make a effort to connect literacy with our, uh, DLCS curriculum. Um, and then 2028 and beyond is more for us to sort of go into, uh, the space of deeper integration, deeper responsiveness to our learner needs. Um, and then the interdisciplinary focus, uh, we'll have ongoing professional development, but the library and the DL team will engage with the classroom teachers so that we can have more, um, content based integration that's, um, more meaningful and is aligned with the content standards.\n\nSpeaker 5: I'm gonna put you on the spot. Sure. 'cause I think it's helpful to paint a picture of the, what the work you all are doing. Can you give an example of a way that you integrate a robot into how students are learning about a content? Like something in the content?\n\n","timeStart":4330.505,"timeEnd":4423.245,"chunkIndex":61},{"id":"019e2f9a-930b-799e-829c-9ad94af0d16b","content":"Speaker 16: Absolutely. So we recently had a, um, project that happened, um, at one of our wonderful elementary schools with, um, pollinators. And we have book uh, projects. We have books that they are reading about pollinators. And then we used OBA's pollination unit to integrate that. They looked at the data, they also created pollinators. So we have some images that, uh, we can share with you, which is just lovely, uh, to see. And then we had families come in where the, um, students were actually, uh, presenting about their pollinators, what their habitat is, what, how they are, uh, creating the pollinators, what the data they're collecting. And it was, it was lovely. We got a parent talking about, um, how their child was connecting with the content and robot as their pollinator, which is, which is ideal. But we also look at novel engineering, which is one of the, uh, ways in which we can teach, um, literacy, engage them with the books, and then, uh, solve a problem that's been described in the book with the medium of either robot or constructing some kind of a, a device to solve that problem. So that's sort of an approach that we hope to take as well as we evolve our curriculum.\n\nSpeaker 5: Thank\n\n","timeStart":4424.085,"timeEnd":4499.905,"chunkIndex":62},{"id":"019e2f9a-9312-764f-8c19-5596cfe42991","content":"Speaker 16: You. Yeah. Um, I just wanna quickly take at my notes because sorry. Um, challenges, we've all sort of, we are emerging out of, uh, uh, challenging budget season, but we, we've, and we have had some impact on our library paraprofessionals and our DL specialists. But, um, we, we wanna be really, um, thankful that one our library team is together. We have 2K 12 DL specialists and we are really excited about implementing K five, uh, DLCS and library curriculum across for all our a PS kiddos. Um, we recognize that the rapid evolution of technology, be it ai, um, you know, makes information literacy, media literacy, computational thinking, and digital citizenship, all the more essential. Um, and just to say this, um, it really helps to have a strong digital learning and a library program because it plays such a vital role in preparing our kiddos for today and tomorrow.\n\nSpeaker 16: Um, we are really, again, we just wanna say we are super grateful to you. Um, without your support, we wouldn't have the kind of support we have. We wouldn't have the library team that we have right now, or the 2K 12 DL specialists. We, we are really looking forward to implementing the plan that we shared with you and more, um, and the excitement that the kiddos see, uh, you experience when the kiddos are engaged in this sort of meaningful, interdisciplinary learning, it, it's a reward that is just way beyond. So thank you again. Huge. Thank you for supporting us. Thank you. We, we'll take some questions. That's, that's our lovely library team. Did you wanna,\n\n","timeStart":4499.905,"timeEnd":4609.225,"chunkIndex":63},{"id":"019e2f9a-93ae-74ab-9679-1e6f8126423c","content":"Speaker 18: And even from town to town, we might have been higher or lower. There was nothing that significantly stood out to me as were significantly higher or lower than a peer. Uh, one of the things that did stand out to me though, from looking at all the other towns, was that their rental sheet was a lot clearer and concise. Um, not that ours was extreme, but especially that page two that broke up the building rentals was previously 32 lines and it was very repetitive for the same price, similar location, just a different school. So you'll see here just one changes on page two is it's a lot more condensed and it really just breaks out those key areas of classroom, library, gym, um, auditorium and cath. And it really only presents those escalators when you look at the ossan and the high school for some of those bigger and or newer, uh, spaces.\n\n","timeStart":5527.545,"timeEnd":5569.365,"chunkIndex":78},{"id":"019e2f9a-93b6-7860-b745-9aada542d3bd","content":"Speaker 18: So I hope you find that to be, uh, a little bit of an improvement and it's more in line with what I saw from some of our communities. Um, I think one thing, just kind of building off of this presentation, some work that we still have to do, I think there's still some cleanup we could probably do on this document and subsequently on our website to be a little bit more clear in clarifying exactly what that charge might be. Right now it's a little time heavy both on the renter request, but also my team, uh, to kind of give quotes. If you put in, uh, the rental permit request, uh, you might go back and forth and kind of give an initial quote of what that cost might be. I think it might be helpful here on this sheet as well as on the website to be a little bit more clear of particular examples.\n\n","timeStart":5569.425,"timeEnd":5606.685,"chunkIndex":79},{"id":"019e2f9a-93c0-758c-8487-3a5d4e69f449","content":"Speaker 18: So it's a little clear before you even submit that permit. You might have an expectation of what cost you might incur, both for your rental time, but then also for the custodial. And I think in particular to the rent sheet or the rate sheet, when you're looking at those rates for a classroom or for a gym that's based on group three. So that's the full cost. But as you might recall from the prior pie chart, only about 5% of our rentals were actually being charged that full rent. Um, so I think I might try and revise this document, maybe have two columns where there's the group three rate, but then also the non-profit or the, the, the discounted rate for the local, uh, community. So, uh, I think there's still some continued work we can do, um, over the next couple weeks to, uh, set expectations and update our website.\n\n","timeStart":5606.905,"timeEnd":5645.885,"chunkIndex":80},{"id":"019e2f9a-93c9-74d8-bcd6-57747ae65768","content":"Speaker 18: Uh, for the weeks ahead, just reviewing the rates here, you'll see that for the preschool, for transportation, and then for the facilities rentals, it's a 5% proposed increase. This falls in line with how we budgeted for FY 27. And as I kinda spoke to before, the plan offsets we have within to these accounts, um, we're insured that we're covering the contractual increases for the custodian. So that is mentioned here. And then lastly, I just wanna note that for the outdoor fields at this time, I'm not proposing any rate changes. When I was doing the peer analysis with other communities, we were actually in line with a lot of 'em. Uh, especially if they had a, you know, athletic field and fair lights for local communities. Our pricing was pretty terrible. But I think two, I think as we're now entering in our first full year, FY 27 will be the first full year with all three of the fields.\n\n","timeStart":5646.065,"timeEnd":5691.645,"chunkIndex":81},{"id":"019e2f9a-93d1-77f5-b4d7-6636e2206fc6","content":"Speaker 18: Um, I, I think I'd like another year of analysis of really seeing what, what's being used, how it's being used, what kind of groups we're attracting into those spaces, as well as then kind of maintaining that we're in comparison with some of our peer communities. So at this time, I'm not proposing any rate increases for the fields. And then lastly, before I hand it off to the superintendent on the next slide, is the next steps for the outdoor fields. I think we're gonna continue to look and refine, uh, the way our schedule is blocked off to ensure that we have access for our own teams. Um, right now we kind have a blanket block on both the new turf two and turf three fields for baseball and softball. If there's a game day, they generally are creeping up to that 6 37, 7 30, and we might not have access to rental, but if it's a known scheduled practice day, that might be something that we can try and relinquish that hold for Arlington Athletics and maybe try and get another rental opportunity or open up the public space for an hour or two in some of those evenings.\n\n","timeStart":5692.145,"timeEnd":5745.525,"chunkIndex":82},{"id":"019e2f9a-93d9-7fb5-b5f9-e2840f7c4b64","content":"Speaker 18: Um, so we'll be working on refining that schedule here for the end of this school year. But then also as we get into fall and kind of set that as a new expectation, uh, we'll continue to review our field usage. I think one of the benefits of this spring, but now as we're getting into fall is we're starting to bring some of our teams back from public fields to the high school. Uh, to an extent that means then we might be opening up some of those public fields back to the public. Um, so they can use those as public spaces and or engage with the recreation department and maybe seek opportunities to, to find rental opportunities there. And then lastly, I think especially as we're entering in, um, the fall for the first time and, and a full year with the fields is how do we continue kind of, um, you know, engaging with some organizations that have expressed interest, uh, maintaining some sort of longer term partnership that's predictable for them and their organization, but then also could be, um, administratively and financially predictable, uh, for us as well. Um, so I think there's a lot of work we still have to do, um, and excited for that work to come here into the next school year. And now I'll hand it off to the superintendent before we open up for questions.\n\n","timeStart":5745.785,"timeEnd":5804.685,"chunkIndex":83},{"id":"019e2f9a-93e1-7f07-9928-486866f23b95","content":"Speaker 5: So one of the major groups, uh, to a couple of the major groups that we, um, charge rent to one is our afterschool programs. Um, and I'm gonna have a more complete, like a full afterschool report for you in one of the next two meetings. I forget exactly which date that is. Um, but I be, because afterschool is involved in some of the rental rate, um, and offset work that we've been doing. I also wanted to preview some of what I will talk about more when we do the afterschool report. Um, I'm hoping that we can do some auditing of programming across the sites in the year ahead. Um, potentially contracting somebody to do some part-time or maybe explicitly contracted project work to assess the extent to which our afterschool programming models are meeting student and family needs, what the cost is to families, um, as well as what the cost is to schools.\n\n","timeStart":5805.145,"timeEnd":5858.925,"chunkIndex":84},{"id":"019e2f9a-94a3-77a2-8235-b64ef688460a","content":"Speaker 5: Yeah. Whenever anyone, so I'll just share an example. We had somebody contact us about town day and doing a blood drive for a organization that's an in town organization, and they have someone willing to do the blood drive and they wanted to know if they could do it at the high school, 'cause that's where they're gonna have the space. Um, looked at the rent the sheet and reached out and asked a question about is there any way that we could qualify for a break on this, because we don't really have a budget. Um, they're talking to Mr. Schweitzer about what we can do to pare it down to just the custodial detail because they are an in town group, a nonprofit trying to do a good thing for the community on town day. Um, I, I think Mr. Schweitzer and I can work on how we make clear, clearer, and more encouraging to reach out and ask the question.\n\n","timeStart":6803.715,"timeEnd":6849.765,"chunkIndex":99},{"id":"019e2f9a-94aa-7361-bf01-f711aa7a351c","content":"Speaker 5: I was pleased that they thought to ask the question, but how do we make it more obvious without creating a situation where we're haggling over each rental, um, that groups that are attached to our mission are in Arlington, um, are encouraged to talk to us about rates, and it's clear that there's a reduced rate for them. Um, but I wanna do that without confusing the form anymore than it already is or the rate sheet. Uh, and we can work on that perhaps over the summer months and come back in the fall with a revised version of this so long as the, uh, rates work. And we can also take a look at some of the larger spaces at the high school and see if they seem fair up against similar sorts of spaces in the area.\n\nSpeaker 10: The, yeah, so the other thing is, if we are having to pay custodial services for three hours, is there a way for us to capture the work? No, I'm serious. Someone's being paid for three hours. Um,\n\nSpeaker 5: That's a more difficult thing to operationalize, probably mm-hmm . Um, I'm not sure contractually if that would work or not, but I, we would have to take a look at the contract.\n\nSpeaker 10: Okay.\n\nSpeaker 11: I have, uh, sorry. Um, go, go ahead. Yeah, sorry. Could, uh, I'm in thinking of the PTO question. Could, if A PTO is only meeting for one one hour of the three hours, could three PTOs, you know, uh, submit one rental to save the cost? Or does it have to be per group?\n\n","timeStart":6849.885,"timeEnd":6958.065,"chunkIndex":100},{"id":"019e2f9a-94b4-7bae-b775-bf9776baf133","content":"Speaker 2: I think that where PTOs wanna meet in their home schools mm-hmm . So Yeah. It's hard to, I'm not sure logistically how that could work.\n\nSpeaker 11: Yeah. I'm just thinking like, say they rented the high school 'cause they want to want to, you know, like, and they wanted to have a meeting. They could all come to with one central place, maybe save money. But I, I see what you're, I'm just thinking like, is that even possible? Or a nonprofit group that says they wanna meet for one of the three hours, can we split it with another two non, you know, entities that would fall under group too? Is that possible?\n\nSpeaker 5: Maybe. But the larger the group and or space demand, the more custodial support the group might need. Mm-hmm . So it may end up coming out in the wash. The other thing I'll say is there's often set up for a group, like we're putting the tables in a particular way. So that's, that happens before the hour long meeting. And then there's put it all back the way you found it. That happens after the hour long meeting. So, so even if it's, if it's an hour long meeting, it's not an hour long detail kind of regardless. Um, but we do have the contractual minimum and if we post a detail, we can't post it for an hour and a half. So we're eating the cost if we give somebody the reduction.\n\nSpeaker 2: Mr. Thaman.\n\n","timeStart":6958.905,"timeEnd":7040.535,"chunkIndex":101},{"id":"019e2f9a-94bc-7846-a999-aac115fd8c4a","content":"Speaker 9: Yeah, I think just hearing all this, what it would be good for the, all the different music groups that, you know, kind of reach out to the district, um, from PTO sports, uh, teams, clubs, whatever, nonprofits to kind of get a, to get a presentation on all of the constraints that we have and all the opportunities that we have. Um, and then to just kind of let people talk and get some input from them. I think there's a need for that, that discussion at some point after we get through the spring. And I think it would be good to have between the end of the school year and the be begin before the beginning of the school year. So all the groups kind of get a say or, or get to hear the message how we've come to the, to where we are and hear from the groups. And then if the school committee has work to do in terms of revising a policy or whatever, they may have to do it, but I would think we should talk with them and hear from them first. Because there's a lot of different groups that have been, that are talking to us mm-hmm . That are not in the room.\n\nSpeaker 2: Ms. Keys, did\n\n","timeStart":7040.535,"timeEnd":7097.565,"chunkIndex":102},{"id":"019e2f9a-94d0-749e-89cf-1f043319e8eb","content":"Speaker 17: You I was just to answer Kirsty's question a little bit about like, the scope of work that's doing. Um, I've been in, some of these groups have rented out spaces or like been into a school on a Saturday with the custodians there in a detail with like a student group or something. It's not like their job, but they're sort of our eyes and ears on the building, especially when it's a group coming in that has no direct connection to the schools. So they're not just unlocking the door, sitting around what, playing on their phone and then taking out the trash when it's done. Like they are making sure that group stays where it needs to be. Sort of making sure that everyone's taking care of our equipment and our spaces. So like that, even if it's not a lot of setup up and clean up, like they're, they're keeping our spaces safe by being there. So I just don't want that to get lost in the, the list of tasks.\n\nSpeaker 10: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I wasn't, I know I'm saying I know if they're only doing that for one hour and we're paying them for three mm-hmm\n\nSpeaker 2: .\n\nSpeaker 10: That's,\n\nSpeaker 5: I understand your question. Yeah. Yeah. It maybe , I'd have to go look though. I don't wanna,\n\n","timeStart":7097.565,"timeEnd":7162.525,"chunkIndex":103},{"id":"019e2f9a-94d9-7fd1-9e57-52d6cddae5a0","content":"Speaker 2: I mean, my, my guess and presume, and is that the, for the larger spaces, three hours is less likely to be a stretch for how mm-hmm . Long people are in need of them. I, I'm more thinking about, you know, a Girl Scout troop or a PTO wanting to use the library. They're going to sit at the tables the way they were arranged when they walked in there, talk for an hour and leave. And if it's contractual, like that's a separate sec. But I just, we've had, my experience is we have not had an in-person meeting since COVID. There is a movement to try to get people back in a room together. And if the, if it has a financial cost, that's gonna be a really easy no for people. So we just have to think about what we're getting out of letting people use our space. Yeah.\n\nSpeaker 4: Can I just ask a procedure, is there an expectation at some point that we're\n\nSpeaker 2: Voting on these fees? Yeah.\n\nSpeaker 5: So in order for us to charge them, yes. Um, if the committee wants us to make revisions and come back, we can do that.\n\nSpeaker 4: Yeah. I'm, I'm not ready to do that tonight, but I wanted to add out that that was the expectation.\n\nSpeaker 2: Okay. Mr. Seaman,\n\nSpeaker 9: When are we gonna, we have to vote these soon, right?\n\nSpeaker 5: Mr. Schweitzer, what was your goal,\n\nSpeaker 18: Uh, tonight? If there was, is this for\n\nSpeaker 5: FY 27?\n\n","timeStart":7163.085,"timeEnd":7246.625,"chunkIndex":104},{"id":"019e2f9a-94e3-78b0-8afa-b087119a24a3","content":"Speaker 18: If there was a pre, a pre, uh, priority list? It was more so on the preschool only because we're anticipating putting out letters. Yeah. For the families that we currently have that are still with us or new families for next school year. The preschool one was more that aligns with letters that go out normally at the end of May. For the other ones, we can probably wait another meeting or two, but that was the one that was that of mind.\n\nSpeaker 9: The next meeting's on the 28th. Right. So, yeah, I mean, we could treat this as a first reading and then, and then vote on the 28th. Is that enough time, Chris? Or not enough time.\n\nSpeaker 2: We, we come back. Go ahead.\n\nSpeaker 4: I, I move approval of the Manon preschool tuition rates and the transportation fees as presented.\n\nSpeaker 5: That would be very helpful. Okay. Second.\n\nSpeaker 2: Thank you. Thank you. Uh, we have a roll call vote 'cause we are not all here. Ms. Hans Horne? Yes. Dr. Allison. Ey? Yes. Mr. Theleman? Yes. Ms. Ton? Yes. Mr. Schleman? Yes. And the chair votes? Yes. So that is 6 2 0.\n\nSpeaker 9: Is that Yes. How are we gonna handle the rest of the fees? What's the time? What's the, what's the process?\n\nSpeaker 5: Why don't we take a look at the questions that have been raised and the formatting, um, and we will bring back for a second, read a revision either at the meeting on the 28th of May or the 11th of June. 'cause these are for FY 27. Yeah. So they wouldn't go into effect until July 1st.\n\nSpeaker 2: Yeah. So it has to be,\n\n","timeStart":7247.085,"timeEnd":7328.995,"chunkIndex":105},{"id":"019e2f9a-94ea-7a92-8fc7-ef1428a68cbd","content":"Speaker 5: So we'll bring a revision for second read based on the feedback we got. Okay? Okay.\n\nSpeaker 2: Mm-hmm . Thank you. Thank you. Um, thank you Mr. Schweitzer. No, thank you. Um, the next thing on the agenda is the senior award letters. And I'm realizing that I, I don't know, do we just take a vote without saying Yes? Yes, yes. That's all we, that's all we do. That's all you. So I just need a motion to approve the senior award letters. Second, um, uh, Ms. Shorn? Yes. Dr. Alice Npe. Yes. Mr. Neman? Yes. Ms. Ton? Yes. Mr. Schleman? Yes. And the chair votes? Yes. Thank you. And, um, Ms. Ton will be presenting those awards because it's also the Pierce Chorus concert. Okay. So\n\nSpeaker 5: Enjoy the concert.\n\nSpeaker 2: Um, superintendent's update.\n\n","timeStart":7329.055,"timeEnd":7384.295,"chunkIndex":106},{"id":"019e2f9a-94f4-77a1-8b8e-3f74d969f63f","content":"Speaker 5: Alright. So I would like to begin by thanking an incredible student at Arlington High School. Kamara Rodriguez is an Arlington High School, um, senior and member of the METCO program. She was recently honored with the 2026 Achiever of the Year Award from Friends of the Children, which is a Boston organization, um, that provides youth with, uh, mentors. And it is primarily targeting youth who have experienced obstacles in early in their lives, um, and may experience some barriers to education or achievement, um, or leadership opportunities. Kamara joined the Arlington Meco program in sixth grade. She's been connected to Friends of the Children Mentors ever since, um, first grade over the years, uh, Arlington Meco and friends of the Children have worked to make sure that she received strong academic and social emotional support. We're very proud of her demonstrated leadership and her spectacular accomplishments at a HSI do have the speech. I did not, I was going to send you the video, but it wasn't Open Link opened. So if I get the permission to share it with all of you, um, I will do so. I have the text of the speech. I could send it to everybody, um, after the meeting. But congratulations to Kamar both on her graduation, um, and on winning achiever of the year.\n\n","timeStart":7384.965,"timeEnd":7459.055,"chunkIndex":107},{"id":"019e2f9a-94fe-7cd8-8728-35d6ffba65cf","content":"Speaker 5: Also, some really exciting news that literally came in today. It was, the press release was published. Um, Arlington has been awarded a $2 million, uh, green School Works Grant from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. Um, that grant is one of several competitive grants that we applied for, uh, and shared with town meeting actually on Monday as offsets to the cost after the MSBA reimbursement of the Hardy Electrification Project. So the press release, uh, came out earlier today. I sent that to the committee, and the award letter is in your materials in one meeting. Um, but this is an additional offset on top of the MSBA offset and on top of rebates that we'll be able to get. Um, and this was the largest competitive grant that we were applying for, so we weren't sure if we were going to get it. We're very, very excited to hear that we will have an additional 2 million taken off the cost of that project. Um,\n\nSpeaker 2: Can we, can we announce that? Can someone tell town meeting this on Monday?\n\nSpeaker 5: I will, yes. I'll talk to Mr. Feeney about making sure that we reinforce that with town meetings. Yes. We're just there looking at the grid of different costs because there were more\n\nSpeaker 2: Questions about the Hardy than there were about the Addison. There were\n\nSpeaker 5: Yeah.\n\nSpeaker 2: Which I found fascinating. Yeah.\n\n","timeStart":7460.915,"timeEnd":7532.765,"chunkIndex":108},{"id":"019e2f9a-9506-783e-ad3b-4849c863e51e","content":"Speaker 5: HX good and complicated gets people, um, confused. But this was super exciting news this week. Um, I wanna say congratulations to our retirees. Uh, we had an amazing staff appreciation event last week, and, uh, we had a record number of retirees. We have 28, um, educators and staff members retiring from the Arlington Public Schools this year. And there are their names. We will miss them very much and all of the knowledge and expertise that they bring to our schools every day and to their, uh, interactions with students every single day. There are a lot of folks on this list, I'm so sad to say goodbye to, uh, but we're really excited for them and all of the adventures they're gonna go off and have, um, in retirement. And we know that, um, sometimes people retire from the Ellington Public Schools and then reappear the next year as a sub or, um, welcoming students at the front desk.\n\n","timeStart":7533.165,"timeEnd":7582.965,"chunkIndex":109},{"id":"019e2f9a-950d-7f3c-9d13-aa17d30357c3","content":"Speaker 5: It, it happens. So we're pretty sure that it's only farewell for now, and we'll see them again. Um, we, like I said, had our staff appreciation event, thank you to the members who were able to attend and celebrate with us. Um, we celebrated, like I said, 28 retirement, 39 honorees. Were earning professional status this year. 13, we're celebrating 20 years with Arlington Public Schools seven we're celebrating 25 years. Uh, we had one honoree celebrating 30 years, and as we discussed, one honoree celebrating 50 years with a PS. Um, and this picture right here is from the standing ovation. She received all the way up to the front to receive her award and all the way back to the, uh, cafeteria because we had some amazing food that we were also served by our incredible, um, nutrition staff. Also, after that celebration, we went to the discourse lab at the high school, uh, for a dedication of that space to Dr.\n\n","timeStart":7583.065,"timeEnd":7634.085,"chunkIndex":110},{"id":"019e2f9a-9515-7f8c-a639-8becd49f8f99","content":"Speaker 5: Bode, uh, former superintendent of the Arlington Public Schools. Uh, we had former building committee, former and current building committee members, and that's pictured there in the bottom right. Um, as well as former administrators, uh, who were here when the project started, participated in the development of the educational plan. Uh, it was really wonderful to have a little mini reunion and to celebrate Dr. Bode and her contribution to the Arlington Public Schools Discourse Lab is a perfect space to name for her, um, because it's about community and it's about connection, and that's what she's about. So, uh, it was lovely to have her there to dedicate the space. And at some point, um, when you have a moment, you should go check out the plaque that's, um, right outside the door. The students, um, design created, made it, uh, and we also gave her a copy of it, the sort of prototype that we had done, um, to take home. So she has a copy of the plaque as well.\n\n","timeStart":7634.275,"timeEnd":7686.885,"chunkIndex":111},{"id":"019e2f9a-951e-7ad6-9964-0feb86eabe66","content":"Speaker 5: We have rescheduled our District Pride event, uh, which the Rainbow Task Force puts on every spring to June 13th, because it was a very rainy day on the day that we were originally going to have it. So we thought people might not like to sit outside in the rain. Um, and that will be on June 13th. So there is the flyer. Um, if anybody would like to scan the QR code and learn about what's going on and let us know that they will be there. We also recently received the 2025 Special Education Determination. Um, we received this determination regularly. It was determined that we meet requirements, um, under that designation. And so we were pleased to learn that we were meeting requirements, um, under the IDEA regulations. And, uh, we have a number of planned school committee program updates, and the full list of presentations that we're planning for next school year for our school committee meetings is included in your materials.\n\n","timeStart":7689.465,"timeEnd":7741.045,"chunkIndex":112},{"id":"019e2f9a-9534-71af-86f3-26f5f9c6701c","content":"Speaker 5: Um, for tonight, or I actually forget whether or not I sent it to you, Ms. Diggins. I know I have sent it to the school committee as a separate attachment. We'll make sure it's in the materials if it's not there right now. Um, but just a little bit of a preview of some of the things that we have planned. Um, the Arlington Education Foundation has confirmed that they'll come give us an update. Uh, we will have a special education update, science multilingual learner. We'll have the ML PAC come as well, but we'll also do a program update with the ML director. Um, wellness will be here to talk to us. Uh, digital learning team will come back to talk about ai. Um, and then SEL and counseling. And then we have more scheduled. So if you have any input on the topics that are there, or specific topics that you want to drill down on in any one of the programs we've been trying to get, um, as opposed to like a large broad overview, really give a picture of some of the specific work happening in the schools when we're doing the presentation.\n\n","timeStart":7741.385,"timeEnd":7791.805,"chunkIndex":113},{"id":"019e2f9a-953d-7d99-8729-a24ced189ac4","content":"Speaker 5: So if there are specific things in any of these areas that you're interested in hearing more about, please let us know. Of course you don't know what you don't know about what's going on. So, um, hearing none will come up with something that, uh, is good for the committee to know is going on so that you can speak with specificity about what you know is happening in the schools. And we have a few administrator hiring searches going on. Um, we heard about the bracket AP search. The finals were this week. Announcements are coming soon. The Dalan assistant principal search, uh, finals were yesterday. The announcement's coming soon. The gi there's a Gibbs AP search underway. I just wanna clarify that this vacancy is actually because of other vacancies. So, um, the interim principal at Pierce had rights back to assistant principal position at Gibbs, um, because she was interim at Pierce.\n\n","timeStart":7791.825,"timeEnd":7839.165,"chunkIndex":114},{"id":"019e2f9a-9546-7226-aa94-27aed6fb16a0","content":"Speaker 5: And so we filled that position with an interim, and that individual has decided to go back to the classroom and teach again. So that's why that vacancy is there. Um, and so sometimes when you have an interim, you have a bit of a domino effect when it comes to vacancies, which is why we have AP vacancies at Pierce. We have a search launching soon for assistant principal, um, that will be led by the incoming, uh, permanent principal, Mr. Vander Lane, uh, and have support from interim principal Dr. Woods. Um, I also want to say congratulations to Dr. Thomas. Um, we sent, and there's included in your materials, an announcement about various central office position postings, um, and appointments that we made today. And this helps other groups get clear about who's gonna go where in some of our reorganizations. Um, so, but I wanted to explicitly, um, congratulate Dr. Thomas, who will be our executive Director of Access Engagement in 26 27.\n\n","timeStart":7839.305,"timeEnd":7892.925,"chunkIndex":115},{"id":"019e2f9a-9550-7dfb-818c-99ece503ac53","content":"Speaker 5: Uh, that includes some pretty significantly expanded role responsibilities, uh, from compliance with regulation to district communication, um, initiatives to oversight and support of inclusive teaching and professional development. Originally, when we had talked about this position, um, we weren't really sure about wrapping the communications. And into that, we have decided to have a dual reporting on the communications specialist and enrollment specialist role. And she'll work directly with the community engagement team and Dr. Thomas, uh, as part of this expanded scope for her role. So more updates are included in one meeting. If you wanna know more about the other appointments in the central offices. Uh, and we'll have more announcements at the school levels as we keep sorting out, um, sort of where everybody lands. But we're pleased that we have enough openings that everybody who wants to stay here can stay here for the most part, um, particularly for our staff who have been here for three or more years.\n\n","timeStart":7893.505,"timeEnd":7948.325,"chunkIndex":116},{"id":"019e2f9a-9559-7d4f-875f-012e7829ac7a","content":"Speaker 5: So that's a positive, um, positive thing. And then in your enrollment updates and projections, um, we have, I, I've done some adjusted out of district projections and I need to, um, double check those because we're pulling directly from PowerSchool and I know that we have, um, other ways of projecting some of that. So I just wanna name that caveat that those projections might be slightly off and I'm cross-checking them right now with the special education team. Um, so stay tuned. It's possible that those numbers will adjust slightly. We're not seeing the decline in enrollment yet. We kind of were anticipating that we might see about a class A section's worth a classroom's worth fewer students next school year. Um, but it could manifest as students withdraw in the summer as they move or relocate. So they're still in the system right now, and they're sort of, we're matriculating them by default. It's possible that as we have some move outs, that the numbers sort of calibrate and we start to see some of the, um, enrollment reduction, but it's not showing up in the projection right at the moment. I'm happy to take any questions that anybody has.\n\n","timeStart":7948.465,"timeEnd":8013.885,"chunkIndex":117},{"id":"019e2f9a-9563-76fe-bd6b-15fa1b155bed","content":"Speaker 2: Thank you. Mm-hmm . Um, moving on to the consent agenda. All items listed with an asterisk are considered to be routine and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the committee, so requests in which event the item will be considered in its normal sequence. Warrant number 2 6 2 7 5, dated five 12 2026 amount, $625,294 and 86 cents. Regular school committee meeting, regular school committee meeting minutes March 26th, 2026, draft school committee meeting minutes April 9th, 2026, draft school committee organizational meeting minutes April 9th, 2026,\n\nSpeaker 9: Move approval.\n\nSpeaker 10: Second,\n\nSpeaker 2: Uh, Ms. Hans Hor. Yep. Dr. S Nappy. Yes. Mr. O Thiel. Yes. Ms. Exton. Yes. Mr. Schleman. Yes. And the chair votes? Yes. Um, subcommittee liaison reports and announcements. Uh, budget. Dr. S Nappi\n\nSpeaker 10: Budget does not have any updates, but I wanted to mention that the superintendent gave the presentation for the schools at town meeting last Wednesday, not yesterday, but a week ago, and did an outstanding job. Um, I think it was the best speech that I've heard for our budget and our, uh, finances, um, with, with Mr. Schweitzer's help, um, that we've ever had. So, and I think it was reflected in how few questions there were. And how\n\nSpeaker 2: Am I correct that it was a unanimous vote? Was that one of them? There was. I watched. I think there was, there was several. It\n\nSpeaker 10: Wasn't just, it was, we can't take all credit for that though, because\n\nSpeaker 5: It was the full town budget. Everybody's\n\nSpeaker 10: Budget. Full town budget\n\nSpeaker 2: There. Well, no, but didn't they vote? They\n\n","timeStart":8017.815,"timeEnd":8138.115,"chunkIndex":118},{"id":"019e2f9a-956d-7b49-9367-ae7a61f4d53a","content":"Speaker 5: Don't, not just on the\n\nSpeaker 10: School. No, they don't vote this separate budget. They just, you\n\nSpeaker 2: We still get credit.\n\nSpeaker 10: It's still a little bit the fact that there wasn't,\n\nSpeaker 2: I've never seen that .\n\nSpeaker 10: No, exactly. Exactly. Anyway, I just wanted to give a shout out that, that really, she did an excellent job. And, uh, it was, I think that helped. And I think it enhances the confidence that the town has in the schools and the money that they're giving us. And when we come, because we need more money because we're not decreasing our enrollments, it helps. So,\n\nSpeaker 2: Uh, community relations. Mr. Thalman,\n\nSpeaker 9: We are meeting on June 2nd, uh, and there's right now three things on the agenda. One is, um, uh, an appointment to the Human Rights Commission. There's one person interested. Uh, second is, um, the, uh, rainbow Coalition appointment. And the third is a conversation about how we set the calendar in the district. Dr. Home is gonna make a presentation,\n\nSpeaker 2: Uh, curriculum instruction, assessment and accountability, Ms. Ton. Uh,\n\nSpeaker 4: We are meeting next Wednesday, May 20th, uh, to see the district goals,\n\nSpeaker 2: Uh, facilities. Mr. Th\n\nSpeaker 9: Well, I'm gonna talk to the superintendent to get some, to figure out what, what's the best way forward.\n\nSpeaker 2: What policy and procedures, Mr. Schleman.\n\n","timeStart":8138.115,"timeEnd":8225.115,"chunkIndex":119},{"id":"019e2f9a-9575-7af6-808b-7e8fbe1ceeb0","content":"Speaker 12: Yeah. We just got a, um, detailed list of, uh, regulation changes from MASC that we need to fold into our, uh, policies. Uh, many of these we've already taken care of to some extent, so we changes will be fairly minor, but, um, we might have a meeting before the end of the year to, to set up, uh, at least the first read before we go away to a summer.\n\nSpeaker 2: Thank you. Arlington High School Building Committee.\n\nSpeaker 9: You know, we're actually still in business. We have a meeting on, uh, Tuesday the second. June 2nd, yeah. June 2nd to consider a couple of things,\n\nSpeaker 2: Uh, liaison reports, announcements, or future agenda items. We have no executive session this week, so I welcome a motion to adjourn. So moved.\n\nSpeaker 4: Second.\n\nSpeaker 2: Uh, Ms. Hans Hor. Yes. Dr. Alice Nappy. Yes. Mr. Thalman? Yes. Ms. Ton? Yes. Mr. Schleman?\n\nSpeaker 12: Yes.\n\nSpeaker 2: And the chair votes? Yes. Thank you.","timeStart":8225.865,"timeEnd":8297.705,"chunkIndex":120}]}}}