Rockport School Committee, Oct. 7, 2026

Good evening everybody. This is the Wednesday October 7th Rockport School Committee meeting We're here in the Rockport Public Library and our meeting is being taped so that folks can watch it from home

At some point in the future. So to begin why don't we start with introductions and we'll start on my right Nicole Altieri school committee member Mark Loran's vice chair Amy Oakes school committee chair. Good evening. Mark Franco superintendent Tammy ten of them school committee member Jessica Delisi school committee member Savannah Hopkins student advisory council member Lucy Flanagan student advisory council member

We are really happy to have our student advisory committee representatives with us tonight, so thank you for joining us We're gonna move on to the approval of the minutes from September 16th. Those were in our shared Google Drive Hope you've had a chance to take a look at them. Were there any suggestions or modifications?

Hearing none. I would seek a motion to approve the minutes So moved second all in favor. I thank you public comment I Do not see any so we'll move right on to correspondence and I think we do have one item from the superintendent We do in your drive. You should see that we were CC'd on an email From miss Janisha Christensen about the hockey program as we had talked about last year our co-op program has shifted It's the same team same program, but instead of Rockport being the facilitating school district Manchester Essex is now taking the lead on that I had already met With this parent over the phone in the summer and then our athletic director miss muzzi has also recently met with her

And we value your participation, and we appreciate that you come out and do this so thank you very much And I just want to point out because I know she's sitting up front hoping to knock it on camera That miss Tara Viverska from the high school one of our counselors is here and none of our Activities and groups like this would be possible without great staff members, so thank you for being an advisor this year All right that brings us to unfinished business dr. Branko. I don't think we have any we do not all right moving right on to new business

We're going to begin with some words about inter district professional development So we have talked about these professional learning communities a few times

But we're really excited about an extra opportunity. We had this year And we were able to host the first two sessions So These are the groups that are involved in our professional learning community And those are all of the areas that we're covering they all have two plcs per year and

Due to a board member from the KPM Museum helping to have a set up with an exhibit that was down there We were able to host an extra third visual arts plc this year at KPM Museum And those were a couple pictures from when they came together And it was a great experience. They put together an actual professional development opportunity the links in your drives do go to the agendas if you want to check those out and Just on the 28th we hosted the first PE health and wellness we had about 15 8 to 18 teachers from all of those four districts come to Rockport and they were led by Amanda Jilka who has shifted into supervisor of students, but is still dipping her feet into the health arena To help us run these plcs, so I just wanted to give you a little update on that

And before the school committee asked any questions or makes comments I just want to point out you know Jody's you know not spending a lot of time on this tonight because a brief update But it takes a huge amount of work for Jody and her colleagues from these other districts to coordinate I've been studying professional development for way longer than I'd like to admit and one of the things we always talked about is how do we leverage?

Local school districts to learn from each other and grow with each other And we talk about aligning half days and full days, and it rarely rarely happens But this is a way that it can happen three four five times a year in all of these disciplinary areas is really Fantastic, but it does take coordinators across these districts to pull that together and leverage time and really convince teachers who? Desperately want professional development, but also don't love being out of class To kind of give up some time and make this work So thank you to Jody and her colleagues across the area yeah this year some of the teachers who might have another Something else going on in their lives on the days. This is happening. I'm really not happy

They're like oh no. I hadn't planned personal day that day, so I can't attend so it's been it's been great They're in there really enjoying it It's amazing to see the the spread to see Georgetown participating is really great great I think it'd be really interesting to hear maybe at some point in the future You know what sort of you know maybe takeaways that? Come from these Collaborations with the other communities with these PLCs Yeah What are we learning from them? What are they learning from us just a couple key takeaways it might be really interesting to hear that if you want to heads up on That if you want to check out those two agendas I don't think I've shared anything like that with you before

And you can see where the focus area is those agendas were built off of the work They did last year, so it's continuing moving forward, but after we get through the first round of all of those groups I can definitely gather that information for you those are both hyperlinks in there So they're both hyperlinks in your slide deck you should have access to those

Okay, Jody. I believe you're gonna stay with us for a little while here. You're the new business all right favorite Time for MCAS and accountability release Schedule you're gonna give us an overview of this the overview is all of these dates have passed so Just giving you the update of when Certain items were released to us what we have had access to We really haven't had the accountability and final results for a long time yet as a matter of fact with MCAS I'm still downloading and collating the reports teachers have access to the preliminary data still but by next week They should have access to everything to start analyzing Just knowing we've talked about it before but the family portal was open so it does have multiple years of data

We really haven't had a lot of outreach from families yet except asking for the registration codes to be able to get in there

so tonight We'll focus on accountability and next time We'll focus on the MCAS data when we've had more time to really break that down Okay, so with accountability just so you're aware as well I did give you our accountability 101 little tutorial about what accountability was and what it was about and how it was calculated So I didn't want to do that again For you since it's kind of boring but accountability is really put together You know based on legislation that have come out over the years But it's supposed to tell us how are we doing and what kinds of supports do we need? So in terms of this sheet, I just want to make sure that we point out we are not

talking about Actual MCAS results when we talk about meeting or exceeding or declining We're talking about the targets that the state sets for us in accountability So they look at how our results came out last year with these overall average scores Scaled scores, and then they set a target for us for the next year so when we're talking about that, this is all of The improvements or the declines or the areas that are about targets. It's not about the percentage who met and exceeded expectations

So this is basically the overview from all of the different reports that they give us giving us the classification across the board that we are not requiring assistance or intervention and the accountability percentile compares us to Similar schools with similar grade levels and then remembering that those scores are a weighted three-year average It's not just what happened last year So those are percentile rank out of 1 to 99 and then the progress towards targets is that giant formula with all the different pieces

Put together and now that one's a two-year average And that is our progress towards our targets. So in every school and at the district level where we're making moderate progress

The areas are you can meet You can have substantial progress. You can have moderate progress or you could have limited to no progress and then in turn on top of that you end up in Meeting requiring our assistant you could be from 0% to 80% and still need assistance Because it could be based on one area in there I just 48% of the districts in Massachusetts were in meets or substantial Progress 48% of districts were in moderate progress So we're in a large group there But I can tell you that we are certainly not Excited about where this progress is and we would like to see that higher moving forward if you want to ask questions

It probably is easier while we're going through instead of going back Can you just repeat about the accountability percentiles there? we The 72 and the 42 you said that is arranged from 1 to 99 to 99 It's a percentile rank 1 to 99 so for RMHS that would be compared to similar schools who have grades 6 through 12 And then for the RA RES it's compared to similar schools who are doing the 3 through 5 testing And we say similar schools are you talking about? Region in the in this region or you talking about in the state in terms of size in the state in the state the the

the middle high school Percentile rank is actually not bad if we look at that historically it was lower in 23 and 24 bumped up in 25 it has come back down some in 26 Looking at those reports if you go into the DESI profile page you can go right in you can see all of the data That I'm sharing with you, but it's really hard to bounce back between Those different things and then our yes has been a little bit of a decline and a decline and decline So we are looking at what we need to do to help improve these moving forward So this is the overview Overall page of all of the data smushed together in one for the elementary school

So when you look at this if you remember zero points means we declined based on last year's outcome

One would mean we made no change two would mean we improved over our last year's set target Three means we met the target they sent for us this year and four would mean that we exceeded the target They set for us this year So when you look at the elementary school if we compare to last year in achievement Last year we declined in all of the achievement area So there is some progress there and then in terms of our math with our lowest performing student group There is some progress there from you last year as well And then just remembering that our lowest performing students group our students who have been with us for two years have taken an MCAS With us for two years in this district Does not include first year eels and then it isn't if this is the weirdest part of it. It's an overall

Average of the ELA and math scores together So when we get that identified group, it is actually math and ELA squished together We have to be able to look at them both look at them separately and then work with them from there And then remember if there's nothing reported if we have less than 20 students Then we won't get a report for that subgroup no matter what subgroup it is And that happens a lot here since our class sizes are so small I think the biggest highlight here is the chronic absenteeism. We got four we exceeded our target Our target last year we were nine point eight percent Our target was eight point three and we ended up at only seven point four. So that was really good Even though that's the overall you can see the lowest performing not as much

They they maintained but our overall all students did a really good job there

questions on the slide I Think this one this slide better sums up the data for you and this is when you go into there You can look at each one of these subgroups separately and looking at this I Would have to say, you know right off the bat that the achievement decline for science ST science technology engineering is is it is disappointing we We have done much better in the number of students who meet and achieve meet and exceed in that area And just so you know, we did still do well in the number of students who met and achieved met met and exceeded

I'm sorry, but having us not meet that target is disappointing seeing that we did meet that target in In both we didn't meet the target, but we improved in both the LA and math. I think a second area to look at is When we look at the bottom when we look at our low-income students and our students with disabilities Remember those are our two target areas that we were looking to close the gap. So we are seeing some Improvement and achievement and growth but remember again, this is not the MCAS outcomes. These are improvements towards our targets that were set by the state

in terms of The ELA achievement and growth declining for the students with disabilities. I think that's a real key area that Mrs. Lester and I will be taking a look at in terms of what are our delivery models? What are our instructional methods? What's happening with those students with disabilities to have that area decline? Can you explain a little bit? about What the growth Means and then a little bit about achievement What's the difference because it's a little confusing to me with like for instance in the distance the students with disabilities math growth improved but math achievement declined which I find interesting I get every single one of those areas

Different target set right so they look at them separately and this is it is based on MCAS outcomes But it's it's growing or improving or exceeding towards that target they set so every single area is looked at differently and then it's looked at overall all students and Lowest performing and those two groups put together make up those Final outcomes of how many points we receive so every single one could be different I had the exact same question when I first saw this slide and when we talked about the data And what's hard to comprehend is when we look at? Student growth and achievement data in two weeks. There's obviously a direct correlation between achievement and growth Right if growth takes care of itself so to speak if students achieve because there's a related the targets are set separately

Right so makes it it's it's a Separately but they're set separately So when in two weeks when we're talking about actual student achievement and student growth as we all know at this table achievement equals growth right and individually and in cohorts And again each one of these groups is a different subgroup of friends So we're looking at here so those the targets that are set I guess I'm that's I'm a little confused by how those targets are set are they Is achievement is the target for achievement is that more of a raw score? No, it's a scaled score, and they tend to be and this is gonna sound really small But when you take into consideration all the different variables they tend to be about a half a percent higher

Than what they were last target They're not necessarily what they were for the outcome it my analysis looks at it's about a half percent higher And it's a scaled it's an average scaled score, so we're looking at those 453's 457's yeah, and it's it's you could have a 457.1 and a 457.2 and that's improved. It's not a lot of improvement And then the growth piece of it is really is that that's another target is that based kind of just on the the SGP or is that growth for the accountability growth in other areas as well It's the sgp, but the target they set for us for where that's going How does the state set the target that's a question I'd have to look into the manual again

I do think there's probably a specific formula that does that There is a giant manual you can read there are webinars. We do the webinars here there and everywhere We do know what those targets are we don't know what those targets are until February and the tests start in March But now I mean analyzing the past few years of data. I can predict what the targets going to be I just won't be exact and Again trying to reach that target when we're talking about every single student in grade six through eight together in the test is You know we need to read what we need so accountability data is Harder to really do anything with when we are able to go into the MCAS data

We're able to look at the standards were able to look at the domains were able to look at the students We're able to look at these lowest performing students compared to what their outcomes are and we have a better idea of Where our areas of need are and what we need to do to improve? so while there isn't No correlation between growth and achievement when it comes to accountability points. There is clearly correlation between Student performance and moving the needle in accountability, right? You don't you don't move an accountability needle without our students getting better at what they're doing So that's gonna be that's clearly the hyper focus this year. That's why it's at the top of the SDI

That's why we're gonna talk a lot about it in two weeks. It's why we've already met as a leadership team and curriculum coordinators to talk about it so You will see changes here in a positive way when you see changes and in the boots on the ground

My last question then is those targets you mentioned they come out in February do they Are Those targets based on either the two previous years for the accountability or three years for the progress Are those also based on those two or three years or are they based on just the previous one year? They're based on the three years usually and that's why it's hard to see, you know Some would be that half percent some will be, you know a little bit higher a little bit lower I just want to be sure I understand I

Students took this test When between March and June, yeah but Our system didn't know the targets until February, right? they took the test between March and June and as the school committee we It's October April May June We're six to seven months past this test and We won't know the targets for the next test until February so clearly PLC's are not using targets as

The basis of the conversation for what they want students to know not at all We we talk about accountability at the district level but at the teacher level We're talking about growth and achievement student performance students by name and bystanders matter Thank you, and we have our beginning of the year data To supplement this data. We don't do all of our Planning based off this one outcome. That's why we have our benchmarks and our diagnostics to be able to help us support those students moving forward

But yes, this this data We do we discuss it in coordinators. We share it We make sure that teachers and staff understand as much as we all can understand but we need to look at that MCAS data to do anything with it and And this year they came out pretty much on the exact same day I think on the 22nd everything was released The accountability data was only really out on the 17th before you know for us that was embargoed and the same with the MCAS for the final results and At the middle and high school level again now you have to look at this in terms of non high school on the left is grades six or eight high school on the right is our grades nine and ten and then they do the lowest performing

Student groups and then they do their math magic and put it all together to give us a score in here There is not a ton to really highlight except for in The extended engagement rate for our lowest performing students. That is the five-year graduate graduation rate So the number of students who enter in ninth grade and graduate within five years that was we exceeded the target there

The the graduation rate itself remember the classes are so small One student can tip the scale there as to whether we meet our target or not That doesn't mean we had a terrible graduation rate It just means we did not meet the target which if they're increasing the target every year and we're already only one student off That's a harder piece of data to be able to do anything with and I think in terms of chronic absenteeism Where it went It's it's not great. We've declined in both areas. We had approximately four percent more students with chronic absenteeism overall in both groups

Can I ask a question about that absenteeism? It's interesting that at the

Elementary school level they met the well, they exceeded the target. They got off the four points. So they exceeded it But at the middle high school level, I mean so there are there wondering yeah There's a lot of variables that are different than an elementary school versus middle and high school I mean arguably you could say a child five through eleven years old is Going to go to school when a parent puts them on a bus or drives them to school That variable changes drastically when they hit middle school in particular they hit high school whether they're walking driving e biking or whoever else it happens and The world is complex when it comes to Why and how kids get to school? And so that you know, we're gonna be working

Diligently on that and we know that we can't do anything if they're not here with us and they're not ready to go And we did have a couple of grade levels who I will not out on camera but that had significantly higher chronic absenteeism than others Which really brings the whole overall down and we have our supervisor students and assistant principal digging in hard. They're meeting regularly They're looking at this data every single morning. We've actually asked we have a teacher in the room We've asked for attendance to be as early as possible We've made shifts in our protocols and how quickly we get attendance in so that we can address these issues So we've already been responsive And we do we do anticipate seeing seeing these numbers change and this year in in addition to the letters that go out by law

And by policy and the phone calls and the outreach there out there will be attendance improvement plans in place Which has been a struggle in the past but we have two people dedicated to this now and better systems to track it We're exploring home visits a lot of other strategies So I did break this down between six to eight and nine ten because they are different targets in different areas and the data is sorted You know just to start right off the bat when we look at Overall, you know on the right It's it's it's really not great to see that the ELA achievement declined across the board for everybody six or eight All subgroups and the all student group and more students were chronically absent across the board

Those again are not our actual MCAS Outcomes those are declined as from where they were. This is not just didn't meet the target They declined from where they were last year Amy looked like she was gonna ask questions

in terms of the science Achievement grade six through eight are our target area for curriculum review this year. It will be six through twelve We will be researching high quality instructional materials And be able to have something in the hands for a couple of new science teachers who will be moving forward with those grade levels That is our number one place that we're looking at moving forward for this year and again looking at Low income and students with disabilities that those who are our targets groups based on the Student Opportunity Act So there is some progress there in what we're doing and in terms of like I said We really need to do more analysis with the actual MCAS data because that will let us look at domains

That will look let us look at standards that will let us look at question types We do have all of the essays We have one essay per student in this grade span so that we can actually analyze their writing And you know, we do spend a lot of team and department time doing that like if they have not done that yet So I should be able to give you more information moving forward in these areas I think it's important to also say as you know, dr. Oakes is pointing out the timeline concerns coming from the state that while we're presenting this date in October That doesn't mean we haven't already started working with children. We started working with children out of the gate And so we have wind blocks we have acceleration programming

We have new staffing and new programs as well. And so we have used that preliminary data to already place And especially in these grade levels We use the preliminary MCAS data and the end of the year benchmark data from last year to place them in their wind blocks But either math or e la or both and we created a system where they could have both this year And then if someone needs to intensify that support we are able to do that this year as well So while the this feels like a slow burn to do a public presentation I just want to make sure everybody here announced the community understands it from day one. We were we were moving I think It's interesting to me that the you know, this data just came out

very recently, but a lot of this is addressed in the SDI especially in the First priority with the academic excellence. I mean reading some of those key performance indicators The language is almost exactly the same language in terms of the accountability and achievement So so I think that's great that it's in the SDI For a three-year plan, right? I I totally appreciate you pointing that out because we did a lot of data Analysis to build our rationale to write those goals last year and I'm kind of that actually kind of leads me into the next question which I you might not be able to even answer this but

That was my question is is the thought that you put into the SDI If we met those key performance indicators for the academic excellence, you know increasing achievement By the 5% or reducing the gap by the 5% How would that translate to the accountability report? Would that like I guess in that kind of ties into your previous question about those

Those targets are so can be so small the differential they can we met if we meet that SDI

Perform syndicators. How's that gonna translate? It should translate into improved performance But that's also in one of the reasons we wrote it as a three-year plan Yeah, because over the three years we should be able to see a More significant gain. I mean based on either that and these outcomes Yeah, if you read those actual Steps in there. Those are specific targeted areas based on specific data And those are the data that help inform what we think this data is going to look like, right? and then again, I I wish we didn't give the I guess I wish it with the order of events was different when we present this information But if there's a reason to present that accountability data first it comes out quicker. It's analyzed quicker

And that's the state's picture What's most important to us? Is that student data that we're going to discuss in two weeks that we have been discussing for months and months and months with preliminary data And looking at our in-house assessments prior there was a lot of correlation between our progress monitoring data And then what we actually received from the state so one we were prepared to write a better plan now We're better poised to implement the work in the schools and if we move student growth and achievement a little bit each year and

Hopefully more for certain students the accountability data actually takes care of itself Half a point or three-quarters of a point and those goals Aren't focused just on MCAS Grade levels which is another difference you know our our data our beginning of the year data is all collected our cohorts for title one Support our cohorts for acceleration support are all identified there. The title one night is in a week or two So parents will know that their students are getting that support as well and those kids are getting have been getting support since the first day of school So despite this coming out later But and I mean I know you know you know the preliminary data is not really that useful

You've got your your you've got that raw score. You've got that maybe scaled score. You don't have student growth percentile

so Can I ask again is this some looking at high school ELA achievement decline math is that that's three years of data or two years

Together when you're talking about the achievement data The achievement data part is the two years of data Not averaged equally And This one is We have some significant areas that we need to examine more deeply I know there are every grade level would give different reasons and different needs that they might have I think that looking at ELA and math at these grade levels is something that we really need to do a deep dive into What are our primary and secondary resources? What are our curriculum acts actually covering in regard to what the standards are how the standards are written? you know same as I said for the

Six through eighth grade. You know we will be able to look at more detailed test questions how they're written

What type of question it is where we're where we're performing well where we're not performing well In 10th grade we actually get all of the test items released and two essays So we have more data to look at there, which is kind of not great because now they're done You know if we had more data at the third fourth and fifth grade that would help us prep more going forward This science achievement and growth decline. I can tell you I did double check this It's like despite the fact that we declined Towards our targets we did have more students meet or exceed in that physics test last year You know and I that's where I started analyzing the different targets and looking at it It goes up about that point five percent each year and again if we go down then it will

Come down, but still go point five up, but this this to me is It's this is the ninth and the tenth grade. They're really done with MCAS at this point There's not as much we can do to help them improve but this is still data that we really need to focus on because It clearly what's happening in the grade levels earlier are what's leading to these outcomes in the entire grades And we can take the data from the ninth and tenth and help teachers who are teaching juniors and seniors Right and just teach right to the end and just recognize that those students still aren't maybe where They should be from the state's perspective and then do everything we can before they graduate Is there so I know there's like sort of talking about different things that we're doing wind blocks and all those kinds of things

Is there a way to correlate like which of those things correlate to increased achievement like let's say like in high school

There's some kids that are taking advantage wind blocks and some who don't And you know it's not as sort of standardized It's it's more of a flex block there and that's based on if a teacher Identifies that you have a need they will request that you come into there They will kind of force you to come into their middle school. It's sort of it's they don't have a choice So is it I don't know if it's possible to sort of pull like which one we're getting new Curriculums we're doing wind blocks doing all these sort of different things and which things this is the exact question We've been having we just had this conversation is now that we have all of these places Right, you know we've we've many of us have had this conversation about structures and strategies and programs and schedules

It's time to It's time to execute and see growth and achievement change So we this year we need to be able to put our finger on that say hey the wind block In certain grades was more effective than others how come and how did this work differently? Which high quality resources are working in which aren't and why is it an instructional concern or is a resource concern? So on top of student Results data We are having conversations We've been having them for a couple weeks and how are we going to collect that other data so that we know what we're doing is Working and if it's not we either get rid of it or we tweak it So the hope is yes during the school year or by the end of the year We'll be able to come back to you and say here are some of the things that we feel factually are working

Well at least with our progress monitoring data with our map assessments and of course assessments And then ultimately we won't have the MCAS results until next summer The other thing I think would be is interesting is does the MCAS data Match up with our own internal data, and I wonder if there's any sort of effect of the MCAS no longer being a graduation requirement Well You're having the same conversation so but that is also For everybody in the state who takes There are there are I'll give you some answers now But this is actually gonna be a much deeper presentation conversation in two weeks around that answer, but the short answer right now is Across the state we're not seeing the lack of a graduation requirement impact anything at the elementary the middle school level

There's no real way to prove that or correlate that It's difficult to say a definitive yes at the 10th grade level When we are privy to all of the results across the state and there are plenty of schools across, Massachusetts who are doing well So how come their kids Karen ours don't? And I'm okay saying that on camera That's the question, so I'm not okay making an excuse for that Whether whether it counts or not is not the question It's what are we doing to make sure that kids understand the importance of demonstrating what they can do what they can't do and if other Districts across the Commonwealth are able to successfully do this There's no question is it statewide? How does that look?

So what you're saying is yeah, there are plenty of places statewide. There were declines in 10th grade in math and eLA we are not

Near where we need to be compared to the state If they put it that way tonight, I don't want to go much deeper than that Yeah, not only where we need to be but where we want to be. Yeah. Yeah No, I think there's one more slide And this is the this is the overall picture for the whole district when you look at non high school now We're talking three through eight High school is still nine and ten You know, there's a lot of Stability you don't see it but the growth For English and math for all students three through eight is you know, we am we improved we improved last year as well So a lot of this is the same Highlights are the same as they were before but looking at this, you know historically speaking, you know in 24 and 25

We were pretty stable and this year there is a decline There is a significant decline in my opinion When you pull all of this data together in one any other

Comments or thoughts from school committee just one quick comment. I just I think it's important to note that you that

You know, especially when we start talking about comparing to other schools We're also just looking at you know a couple tests and some some you know It's a piece of it for sure but there's a we all know there's a lot more going on in the school than just Preparing for a math or an ELA or a science test so I think it's important to also, you know, remember that it's the whole child and and Not just this test only that is our focus as we go through the school They appreciate that input as well I appreciate the time it takes to put the data together and to come in and to share it with us and I

Understand it it it's not probably any more comfortable for You as administrators to present this data than it is for us as school committee members to receive it

Just listening tonight folks at home who might listen to this in the future might agree when I say

It is indeed an extremely complex Accountability system that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in its great wisdom has put together for our teachers and students and families and school leaders and It's easy to Torture ourselves over these results and it's easy to spend enormous amounts of time Trying to understand what happened last April or last March or last May What happened for kids who knew that the test wasn't going to count toward graduation What happened in classrooms where teachers knew that the test wasn't going to happen What happened at the dinner table when families knew it wouldn't happen wouldn't wouldn't matter

It it's it's very hard to go back and understand exactly what happened And we have a limited amount of time We can spend an enormous amount of time trying to understand exactly what happened and we can also spend a lot of time Trying to understand the minutia of this system, which I must say is very it's disheartening and it's also very very technical

It's not that this doesn't matter It's that this information is six months old and it represents what happened for students on one or two days Maybe they didn't try hard enough Maybe they didn't take it seriously enough or maybe it had to do with curriculum that wasn't really aligned with the assessment Maybe it had to do I don't know with how many changes we've made in our system changes that are really really important to make

Right when we changed the the grade alignments when we create a wind block when we adopt new curriculum materials It's an enormous amount of change that our system has seen and all of that change has been necessary and I don't want people to Lose sight of the good work that's been done As you look at these results I think If you have two hours in a meeting at this point You might really consider spending the two hours talking about how you're gonna go forward as opposed to how you're gonna go back the very most important person in the classroom is the teacher and Everything we do to support grade instruction aligned with our assessment is what's best for students

And so it's not that I don't care about this I do and I'm it makes me uncomfortable to See the numbers and I I suspect it does make all of us uncomfortable and probably Staff as well But time is short and The kids need us to focus on them right now and what's going to happen going forward and how we're going to do better So so I appreciate the report I urge you to do everything you can to bring joy and goodness and optimism And to do everything you can to do better every day and to help teachers in classrooms do better Every day right our job is to support and encourage make sure teachers have what they need to do their job

And what you guys need to do your job. So thank you for bringing this out tonight takes courage to do this Thank you all for being supportive and encouraging and asking thoughtful questions, and I think just keep going Don't lose heart just keep going keep at it Thank you. Yeah, Chody. Thank you very much

That brings us so this has been an ongoing discussion. Yes, so I I'm assuming the chair wants the discussion finalized tonight

well, I Yeah, I mean I think The Commonwealth requires us to set a goal correct and at the end of this year We need to evaluate ourselves on the goal that we set nobody else does it we do it You don't give us a grade we do yeah, okay So we're gonna set the goal and then we're gonna grade ourselves on our own goal. I would propose that our goal match our strategy for district improvement and Always in the past our goal has been to support the work of the administrators as they implement the strategy for district improvement That's always been our first goal in past years. We've also added a goal around advocacy community advocacy On behalf of students and the system Making clear our support for the long term viability for Rockport schools

I might suggest that this year we might focus on goal number one of the strategy for district improvement and that our goal might

Simply be to support and encourage our administrative staff and to receive regular updates about the academic achievement and growth of students

And that we might ask to see updates that are really regular Perhaps it would be the most recent wrap, you know math scores and what we've done with that or but but To make this our priority as we ask the staff to make it their priority So that that would be my suggestion to focus on goal number one as a first goal I'm flexible, but when I think this is a huge plan and I would support that I like that idea

I was trying to wrap my head around how the school committee could have a goal supporting that first one so I like how you said that about the You know The regular updates I guess, you know to me the updates wouldn't just be about you know, the numbers but also about

Maybe you know With like what we talked about tonight with the the PLCs and just all of it all of it put together You know, it's all a puzzle and all those pieces. So I think that's a great idea. I definitely support that goal So two thoughts when you look at the way we laid the SDI out we were purposeful

There is him more purposeful than we had been with the first versions of it where we bucketed those anticipated action steps So when we talk about the how and the other things other than the numbers, right? We could be talking about through a professional development curriculum review data driven instructional practices How our MTS and sports are going how our attendance work is going all of those things Those are the drivers that we feel are gonna make us successful in meeting and achieving our goals around achievement The other thing it'd be interesting for you just to know is we did have a long District leadership teaming NASA last night. We were all so busy that I booked the meeting at 4 o'clock

So we had a meeting last night and we talked a lot about maintenance mode vs Implementation mode when it comes to strategic planning and how some of this work over the years It has to shift in the maintenance mode and we really felt like we were there when it came to the communication work and some of The structure and strategy work, but what we need to put into implementation now is around instructional practices high quality resources and Understanding how what we've put in place is working well so I just wanted you to be privy to those those two variables that we talked about maintenance mode and Implementation mode and we are making the entire district leadership team's focus priority one as well

I'm interested to hear from other school committee members about a goal. I agree

I just am not sure I'm still trying to wrap my head around how we how we've I Guess in the past how we've structured our goal. We haven't really done the smart goal Sort of thing have we or I mean, I don't know I agree that a goal supporting this would be great So with the sort of action step be receiving regular updates is that I'm looking at this. I'm just looking at all of this all of the you know when I think about setting a goal I think about all that we're taught about staying in our lane as the school committee We are not to implement stuff. We're to supervise and hire and supervise the superintendent oversee the Finances of the district right? So how do we set that goal while?

Well, I noticed nobody came to check on us last year and I was Ask our administrative team to help us by planning regular updates about their work on their Action steps so that at the end of the year we would be able to say whatever we had 16 reports

focused just on this we the the the You know the bulk of our time was spent hearing a I don't know. I don't know how you quantify it I just have the sense that I Think the conversations. I think I've said this to you before if not on camera. I think the conversations at this table Are rich and are purposeful and while I love the fact that it understands the lane concept It doesn't mean I am your one employee It doesn't mean you can't ask those questions and you can't say to us Can you come to us with regularly porting when we do that just like tonight you ask thoughtful questions? It allows Jody and I to take some notes and go back to our offices. So there is

There's an appropriateness there and and we do that work together and we all agree that this is an area You know, this is a really great place to live in a great place to send your kids to school We need evidence that we are putting kids out into the world with their strengths leaning forward and We want to be proud of everything we're doing for our students and in every way in it And if you're gonna share that by having updates and conversations, I think that's appropriate I also think we should keep that communication advocacy goal. I think so too. I think that's always gonna going to be our job

Mark I'm sorry. No, I was gonna I I agree and it makes me think You know if we go along with You know the district focus of having a maintenance and an implementation mode It's similar for the school committee, too so the you know having regular updates on the action steps for the achievement is sort of like the implementation and the The communication piece is sort of our maintenance one. That's something that's been ongoing So I'd like that Very much. Yeah I mean I could go into the weeds and brainstorm a whole list of academic updates including Data on non-attenders and efforts around our new elementary assistant principal who's working directly with families

to Make a difference in student achievement Perhaps we would hear about map testing Beginning and end Percentages of students who make Their expected growth on map. I mean there are all kinds of measures that your team knows how to bring us separate from

this particular MCAS measure which is one point in time of perhaps not very high level And the results of which at least from an accountability framework point of view are hard to discern But there are things that matter a lot to students like what the grade distribution looks like on report cards The number of days excused or unexcused Map scores, I think those things matter a lot to students I think student attitudes matter as well, and I I don't imagine students understand this data or and I don't Know whether parents will understand this data but staff will understand this data and We

Want Staff to understand we see the data it concerns us we support them. We hope it's a really productive year We look forward to hearing about that work I guess that's what I would say as because there are many many things that we could focus on in this

And we're not going to know We're not gonna know what the most important thing report out of is right now of course on our side until The other thing I would say is You you won't see academic achievement if you don't have a safe and supportive school if you don't have a welcoming school

If you don't have these other things in place It's the bottom of the pyramid right and the bottom of the pyramid has to be in place in order for students to achieve

I just think about the amount of time we've spent talking about all of the work that the adults are doing it I would propose that we focus a little bit more on results for students this year and I don't know how to write that

Oh, the superintendent said he would draft it I think for a school committee goal keeping it Like you said you could get into the weeds too much so keeping the top level simple Does that feel okay Does that feel okay Tammy does that feel okay? Okay Dr. Branko, would you take a shot at writing some? Yeah, two goals that would be great Also, this might be a time to admit that I will not be at the next school committee meeting Mr. Lorenz will be chairing the committee and so Can you wait until I come back so we can talk about that goal one last time or does it have to be approved next?

Yes I'll see it if I don't understand it. I'll call you up and take your time right And is that okay with everyone else if we come back meeting after next to finalize the goal? All right Okay, that's a lot of new business. Thank you all and Jody. Thank you again. That's a lot really appreciate it. All right June

Time for some financial news. We do have end of year End of your detailed budget overviews I will ask you to look at you have both of them in your drive clearly on the screenshot That was just for the stage presence of the screenshot So if you want take a look at the three pager with the colors do the highlights on it. That's the the detailed budget a little bit And so June if you don't mind just stepping us through some of the bullets that we put on here and sure as every year we always fully expend our town appropriation and Use the budgeted revenue sources to fully execute our budget The district did not have to utilize the town special ed Reserve Fund for fiscal 26

That remains very for two years in a row now. Yes, so That's very fortunate and it allows a healthy reserve that the town does have available for us in case of need

The district was able to charge all North Shore ed consortium Tuitions to circuit breaker That is due to extra funds above and beyond what we anticipated That we received so we were able to charge an entire category of tuition off to that which helps our reserves in the end

The other important thing I should say about student services for the second year in a row are outside evaluation needs are in decline and That is if anybody would like me to elaborate on what an actual outside evaluation could be it's outside contractors

Your occupational therapist physical therapist your legal services if you might need additional psychological or assessment specialists

And that can be due to many different things It could be the needs of our out of district students are different than what they were in prior years It also could be credit and I think some of it should be given to the credit of our student services department

Structure of how much we do in-house now as well so that's a huge savings that also allows our reserves to remain healthy and then another area was the Even though it did seem like a cold winter We did save in I know in our oil usage a sunny winter And even though it's cold uses less oil than a cloudy winter as well as all the things we've done over the years to improve our

efficiencies With other utilities like electrical even though your cost per kilowatt has gone up We don't need it. We've been able to save money, which is just wonderful And the great thing about that was that all that savings was able to cover all of those maintenance and capital

Outlay unanticipated costs that I spoke about over the year in full So that also saves money and so at the year at the end of the year our reserves Which is circuit breaker and school choice combined is sitting at 2.9 million as of June 30th So I do want to thank June for her work I want to thank Ann Marie on the student services side for really her diligence in taking a look at how we're how we're servicing students and how we can be most efficient and effective and You know that 2.9 million allows us to do a lot of things, you know It allows us to take a look at facilities upgrades We can only I came to you about a month ago to talk about CI PC the capital improvement plan

That's a piece of the pie that we share with all of the other departments We're never no department in the town is ever going to get the full amount of money They really truly need to take care of their facilities So we are in a healthy place where we can make some decisions To use some of some money appropriately if need be so if we want to upgrade something for example So we are gonna put I know Monty sitting in the back tonight The tech department has spent a large amount of money helping us with the library project We'll be able to actually support the library project as well to finish some of that off In other areas of need that could pop up. We're looking at the completion of our Univentilators at the elementary school and our systems will still have some fan upgrades to do

related to the univental air project, so That healthy reserve allows us to make some good decisions Around how to run the district whether it comes to teaching and learning or it comes to facilities and operations While still being conservative and making sure we have some money in that account. So thank you any thoughts Are there questions from school committee? I have a couple that

Curious about some of the When you look at the percent spent column on some of them some of them that are like the hundred and thirty percent like for example

professional development is one of them so when you And then another one is the transportation for the special ed expenses And then another one is middle high school instructional Staff That was not 130% but in terms of the the money Expended over the budget is that it it seems like some of those are I guess how when you when you budget some of those items how what's changing between what's actually expended and what's budgeted for those

Those seems like they might be more sure well like the transportation for example if you look on the final page we were able to charge

176,000 to a grant for transportation so You know Things change as far as placement you go out to bid every year. We all know with the rising cost of fuel

We've tried to partner with North Shore We Just had a meeting today yesterday all these days are blurring together this week We just had a meeting recently to talk about our systems and finishing off that Univental air project the quotes that we had last year when we budget for this kind of work Because we didn't do the full project within that calendar year you get the new cost and it's already inflated So some of it just relates to inflation costs over time when you budget is The is it is that a contract for a year when you make a like a translation? So it's a contract for a year, and then if gas prices go up is that passed on For example North Shore was required just had to yeah

Yes, because they're actually run by all the dis remember districts, so there was no choice It's just sometimes Students are going especially in Rockport where we have children just one off You don't have four or five children going to the same school You could have a certain child being placed in one school, and then you know 20 different transportation routes they can't physically be combined And year-to-year it changes. We were just very fortunate though that That off that overage was covered by the grant by the grant which was explained on the very last line So it almost was a wash yeah, so that's it. That's great that we had that Ability to take that the I think you were mentioning the staffing

One is over and one is under and it's the same school. It's just whether they were special ed Student services you might have changed and adjusted that's gonna Focused on we had planned for them to be focused on a regular ed Group of students and maybe there was a need and we've shifted them and for state purposes. I report them in the correct

Category and I think you had another one that you had mentioned No, I mean I Yes, so I think what I mean it makes sense to me well how you're explaining Yeah, how things when you it's fluid things change and things are adjusted as you go on and students Needs are changing constantly and we have to address those needs and it's great whatever way Flexibility To be able to make those changes for the best of the students what's best for the students and yet still remain fiscally Responsible and actually ahead of our our goals I think it's great to be ahead of our goals for the benefit of people who might not know what lies behind these numbers

I'm just a couple of questions These numbers include the salaries that we pay to our employees. I think yes, but not insurance costs

And insurance is covered by the town by the town and we're also not actually out of our budget paying Contributions to our employees retirement systems. Is that correct? so there are some other expenses health insurance and Retirement pension system contributions that we're not seeing correct. Okay, the other thing There was another thing if only I can remember what it was Oh, I know I think it might be possible to look at the reserve which looks kind of healthy and think well, why don't we just increase salaries?

Can you talk about the difference between ongoing money and reserve and why when you have a reserve? You don't just automatically increase salaries. I Mean it would be like why don't we just pay everybody a lot more? Why why doesn't that work? So if you explain quickly that the reserves are made up or do you want to explain? I think it'd be a good idea to explain that because reserves are made up of two major components. Yes school choice and circuit breaker circuit breaker is from is Money coming from the state to us to cover for high needs students and it's not really ours to play with us

It's sort of designated. It's very designated. Yeah direct student services for special ed Yeah, so that reserve looks great But but some of it is really earmarked for very a very specific part of our population Yeah, school choice money similarly choice money. Yes, that's other districts that send their children to us It's the base of 5,000 plus any additional services there's it's a very complex formula, but that money also must be used for direct student services for the general ed population as well as our student service special ed students You cannot use it to all of a sudden replace your roof

Or buy a new school bus or or pay health insurance or pensions I think it's worth it to to talk about that because it it looks like there's free money

Just sitting there, but I think the fact is it's not free money It's it's designated and we're lucky that it's there in the event that we have unanticipated costs

for very specific students, but but it's I Think at times it's been viewed for some people as like slush This is our checking account and it and and that is a savings account and and you know in our house We can if I have enough of my savings, I can pull it out and take that family vacation or build the deck That's not how this works. Right very very controlled. Yeah, and occasionally we sit here and we have financial updates and and we talk about

Well, we've got this unanticipated cost and it'll probably have to come out of the reserve and I always go Oh, how do you do that? I think what I heard you say is those unanticipated costs actually didn't come out of the reserve This past year because you found other ways to pay for them. Yeah, it's great I just think it's important in this environment for us to understand what that reserve really is It's not a slush fund and it's not a savings account for us to do whatever we want with. Thank you June, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, and thanks to Henry Luster and everybody in the system who made those numbers come out that way

Great. Thank you. All right. Gosh that leads us to school committee discussion

I would thank everybody who attended the Training provided by the town of Rockport about open meeting laws and conflict of interest. I think it was excellent Quite a lot of information for all of us And I'm sure that if we have any questions about that training we can contact the superintendent or we could contact The town administrator and I know he would put us in contact with the town council if we had any questions But thanks to everybody who was able to get to that. I think it was quite good other topics Jess In You know speaking of things that are unanticipated My daughter is in third grade and her classroom had a leak and I just want to give big props to the third grade team

I don't think she's ever been so excited coming home from school. She was like mom you wouldn't believe it We got to spend our day in the gym and we still got to do math and we still got to do all these things In the gym. So just shout out to the third grade team working through Whatever problems were had Thank you. Is there anything else? I Will be a guest at the Rockport Rotary tomorrow So we'll be talking about the SDI and all things Rockport Public Schools Can you maybe? Find time to mention how great it is that Rockport host exchange students Has a strong history of that to do that Yeah The Rockport Rotary has been very supportive of that with the Rockport International exchange program

And it's something that I I would love to see continue And I think it those students bring a lot to Rockport and we've had several students Take advantage of it and also go other places and I think it's a really rich Enriching program. I will do that. Thank you. And I noticed we have an exchange student in this year And you've succeeded in finding housing. I'm presuming as far as we know. We're not short Yeah, they're here I remember last year we had three separate homes and we were making sure we were covered that's great Anything else? Alright, we do have a need tonight For executive session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining

We will adjourn from the executive session and will not reconvene in open session. This requires a roll call vote

Miss Altieri Altieri. Yes Lorenz. Yes. Oh yes Yes, delicius Alright, thank you very much. This concludes this portion of our meeting. Thank you all for joining us