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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-06-07-SC-minLEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday, June 7, 2022 Conducted by Remote Participation Meeting Minutes CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME: 6:35 P.M. SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Sara Cuthbertson, Chairperson Deepika Sawhney, Vice -Chair Kathleen Lenihan, Clerk Eileen Jay Mr. Freeman did not attend this meeting. STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE Sara Mei SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS PRESENT Dr. Julie Hackett, Superintendent The minutes were taken by Julie Kaye, School Committee Meeting Recording Secretary. The School Committee convened in person in the LPS Central Office and on Zoom. Members of the public can view and participate in the meeting webinar from their computer or tablet by clicking on the link provided with the meeting agenda. Please note that this meeting is being recorded and that attendees are participating by video conference. This evening's meeting is being broadcast live and also taped by LexMedia for future on -demand viewing. All supporting materials that have been provided to members of this body are available on the Town's website unless otherwise noted. CONSENT AGENDA Ms. Jay moved to approve: Payroll and Accounts Payable Warrant Approval a. June 3, 2022 - Payroll in the amount of $4,381,247.20 b. June 10, 2022 -AP Warrant in the amount of $1,775,707.65 Ms. Sawhney moved to approve: International Field Trips JK 06/07/22 - DRAFT a. lJdate to the Lexington Flih School International Field Trip to Antony, France that was approved on January 24. 2022 Ms. Jay moved to approve: Minutes a. February 1, 2022 b. February 15, 2022 Ms. Lenihan moved to approve the entire consent agenda, Ms. Jay seconded, approved 4-0. SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS AND LIAISON REPORTS Ms. Lenihan attended a meeting about the Town -Wide survey On October 17th, the results will be presented at a joint meeting of the Select Board, School Committee, and Planning Board. She added that a full Special Town Meeting will be on November 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Ms. Lenihan thanked Julie LaLumiere for her work planning graduation, as well as all of the parents who worked on the All Night Graduation Party. Ms. Jay announced that on May 30th, three School Committee members and Dr. Hackett went to the Memorial Day event for AAPI Heritage Month. Three members and Dr. Hackett ran the 5k Run n' Walk race. Dr. Hackett asked Ms. Jay if the AAPI represented all people in AAPI groups and not just CAAL, this is a question that came from the community. Ms. Jay responded that there were a lot of events and they were sponsored by various groups. Lexington High School students worked together to plan a month's worth of activities. The 5k was also a collaboration of a number of different AAPI groups. Ms. Jay added that June is Pride month and LexPride is having a picnic on June 12th and an event on June 24 called "Our Heros and Impacts." Ms. Sawhney also thanked everyone for helping with the graduation night party. She reported that on May 31st there was a working group for the high school and center recreation that did a walk-through of the High School and the recreation fields to see where the Town and School boundaries are to get a better idea for the new High School. Sara Mei announced that the LHS Senate organized an orientation for the newly elected senators; they also elected new leadership for next year. She is also working on some things for Step Up Day which is on June 10th, this is when all of the middle school students come to the high school. Ms. Cuthbertson also echoed the big thanks for everything that went into graduation and the All Night Graduation and she congratulated all of our graduates. COMMUNITY SPEAK JK 06/07/22 - DRAFT Bronte Abraham, Hudson Rd: She thanked LexMedia for broadcasting graduation and announced that Thursday is LABBB's graduation at the National Heritage Museum, she asked if Lexington will be represented. SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT • Kidsborough Update Dr. Hackett introduced the Kidsborough Owner, Christeen Rohwer. Ms. Rohwer spoke about Kidsborough. Her son Jacob, who is also an employee of Kidsborough was also present at the meeting. o Ms. Sawhney asked what the children eat at Kidsborough, Jacob replied that they offer a crunchy grain snack, fresh fruit, and vegetables. They rotate their menu, they also have alternative options for picky eaters. Ms. Rohwer added that they are going to reach out to Whitsons. o Ms. Lenihan mentioned the possibility of before -school care, which is something that is standard for Kidsborough in other towns. They also have a summer program. o Dr. Hackett brought up DEI and asked how they are diversifying the staff. Ms. Rohwer replied that they are looking at barriers that were created in their own program. She is changing the required degree to a preferred degree for employment. Dr. Hackett extended an invitation for Kidsborough to attend any of Lexington's Professional Development. • Congratulations and Celebrations o Dr. Hackett spoke about how she attended the prom at Gillette Stadium. o She also congratulated the Class of 2022, there were 571 graduates! o AAPI 5K Run 'n' Walk was mentioned previously in the meeting. • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion o A group of students formed Student Voices, a Lexington chapter of Diversify Our Narrative. They met with the Directors of Elementary and Secondary Education, Caitlin Ahern and Jennifer Gaudet, and the Director of Equity and Student Supports, Johnny Cole, about ways in which we can incorporate student voice into the curriculum review process. We are currently working with the students to develop a menu of options from which curriculum leaders can select that provide them with valuable student input on how they are experiencing our various curricula. These options will include student surveys, exit tickets, bulletin board prompts, roundtable discussions, and student working groups; as departments experiment with different formats for engaging students, more ideas and options will be added to the menu of options. Going forward, the expectation will be that all curriculum reviews incorporate student engagement and feedback as part of their evaluative processes. JK 06/07/22 - DRAFT o Dr. Hackett spoke about partnerships with community groups that help promote historically marginalized identities. Most recently, the Diamond Middle School 7th grade Team Tenacity created Museum of the Korean Peninsula as part of their project -based learning work. The museum is a six-week, student -directed project designed to answer the question: How is the culture of the Korean peninsula impacted by its history and environment? Teachers partnered with KOLex in planning this unit and the organization provided our students with authentic artifacts from their own homes, as well as the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea. Additionally, KOLex members participated in interviews with students and organized a catering experience for all interested students. Since last month, students have been working in three classes daily (English, Science, and World Geography) to research Korean culture, religion, ecology, and climate, read literature by Korean and Korean -American authors, and study the engineering design process. Between now and June 10th, all students are building more than 19 exhibits featuring handmade artifacts, displays, and museum -grade plaques. This will culminate in an opening night gala for special guests at 6:00 pm on Friday, June 10th. The museum will open to other LPS visitors at 8:00 am on Monday, June 13th. o Dr. Hackett would like to get email addresses for each group to help with better communication. • LPS COVID-19 Update o Dr. Hackett had a lovely end -of -year celebration with the Nursing team. They discussed the possibility of offering the Shingles vaccine at our vaccine clinics. They also gave the update that there are limitations on sanitary napkin supplies at the same time they are introducing a bill to make them mandatory at schools. o Masking is still strongly recommended but optional. o There was communication with the Board of Health about masks. • Leadership Updates o Update that was sent out on Thursday, June 2, 2022. The CO leadership team is working to hire diverse and non-traditional candidates, they have approached the hiring process differently with reduced licensure. Dr. Hackett brought up how some people found out about positions through a memo, and that it is unfortunate that it happened that way. A letter of apology went out. • Curriculum Audits o There are four phases of the process: Audit, Research, Development, and Implementation. Each phase lasts roughly one year, with the exception of Implementation. After conducting the full Review, departments remain in Implementation for five years before launching back into the Audit phase. The LPS Curriculum budget supports each phase of the work by paying for educator stipends to work after school hours and over the summer; purchasing books, JK 06/07/22 - DRAFT materials, and curricula to review, pilot, and/or implement; engaging consultants, paying for professional development, or supporting educator attendance at key national conferences; and in other ways to ensure the Review is thorough and effective. o The Research phase allows the team to dig into the questions that surface in the audit. It is during this phase that each team will seek input from the community. At the end of the research phase, departments should have a clear understanding of what priorities we need to address in our current program. o In the Development phase, the team creates or procures the products needed to address their focus areas. They might write or purchase curricula to address gaps or alignment issues, update policies/procedures to reflect new research, or conduct focused pilots. By the end of this phase, departments should be ready to implement all the programmatic changes identified through the process. o The implementation phase, which is unique in that it is intended to span several years (5 -year time frame). Departments engage in ongoing professional development to support educators to implement curricular changes; leaders and teams look at the data to make revisions or adjustments to products of the Review. After several years of "living with" (but more accurately, tracking, monitoring, revising, and sharing) the curricular changes, teams will enter the Audit phase again, and by conducting a close examination of the program, identify the new focus areas for the next Review. School Committee Questions/Comments on the Superintendent's Report Ms. Sawhney enjoyed hearing the comments about community partnership and the focus on DEI. She is wondering if it could be possible for us to model our values and maybe create a policy about it. Dr. Hackett reiterated that it would be good to have a policy that states our expectations for diverse hiring practices. Dr. Hackett has also been thinking about how to engage the community in the hiring processes. Ms. Sawhney and Dr. Hackett also discussed having information translated. The full Superintendent's report can be found here. NEW BUSINESS A. Supt's End -of -Year Evaluation Dr. Hackett announced that this is her 15th year as a Superintendent. She also spoke about the return to school from the pandemic. She also wrote about her Team and how iit can be hard to work through differences of opinion and perspectives. Dr. Hackett loves her job because we invest in each other and she is very proud. She also states that we have a highly talented administrative team. We had an end -of -year celebration with Joint Council, and the Cookie Monster food truck came. People came together and laughed and ate ice cream. Dr. Hackett also wrote about how we've communicated our shared values so successfully (Core Values and student voices are very important). She also mentioned what needs attention the most; she is JK 06/07/22 - DRAFT thinking about culture, getting trapped in a "negative spiral", and working on retention of staff. Dr. Hackett added that a point of pride is our invitation to eligibility [into the MSBA program for the high school project], which started with the School Committee. B. Fair Share Amendment Ms. Cuthbertson read the Fair Share Amendment. Ms. Lenihan made a motion to support the Fair Share Amendment. Ms. Jay seconded. Passed 4-0. C. Review Draft 2022-2023 SC egtiin Dates The School Committee discussed changes in their meeting dates during Town Meeting season and having meetings around them as placeholders. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. K -S Literacy Follow-up Questions The Literacy Department Head, Kathy McCarthy, and the Director of Elementary Education, Caitlin Ahearn, were promoted to panelists to answer any follow-up questions from the presentation that was given at a previous meeting. • Ms. Lenihan asked what we do to make sure students who are having trouble decoding are still engaged. Ms. McCarthy replied that students are reading throughout their day and the goal is to create readers out of students who don't choose to read. Our solid literacy program includes reading, writing, word study, decoding, and phonics. Ms. Lenihan understands that children are being exposed to many different ways on how to decode texts. Ms. McCarthy also added that thanks to the LEF, classrooms have libraries that have books of all interests and reading levels as well as decodable levels. • Ms. Sawhney asked about changing trends and what Ms. McCarthy has seen in her 14 years of work in Lexington. Ms. McCarthy replied that when she retires, she will be leaving behind the most amazing team of literacy specialists who have collective knowledge. She reflected on the last two years of the pandemic and students were really missing phonemic awareness, there was no curriculum for it until this year. In the last 14 years, there has been the idea that everyone deserves a coach because we all get better with support, we have gotten a bit away from this due to the pandemic. The coaches have been doing a lot of onsite professional development and she hopes we will get back to that. • Ms. Jay was looking at the presentation and she would like to know if there are any updates on the phonics pilot. Ms. McCarthy replied that we have made a recommendation to Dr. Hackett. Ms. Jay would also like to know if the current phonemic awareness program would stay in place, Ms. McCarthy replied that they will "coexist." Ms. Jay asked what is the difference between the phonics program and phonemic awareness? Ms. McCarthy stated that phonemic awareness is the ability to understand and manipulate sounds in our language. Decoding is how English actually works, what JK 06/07/22 - DRAFT the parts of words are, so they are separate but equally related components of foundational skills for reading. • Ms. Cuthbertson asked how do you use the Literacy Assessment information from the different types of assessments done throughout the year? She gave an example of a Kindergartener in January taking the AIMSWeb and being flagged in the phonemic portion, what would be done for this child? Ms. McCarthy explained that a literacy specialist would be put into that classroom and we have a few programs that are used for intervention. Ms. Ahern added that we track students' progress and use different assessments along the way. Then we look at the data to see if the student is making the progress we would like them to make or if they are still flagging. If the student is still not making progress the team would reconvene and look at how to best serve that child. • Dr. Hackett brought up how hard it is to capture progress monitoring. Designing a system or a data dashboard is pretty complex because it is ever-changing and fluid. Ms. Ahern explained that we have all the data but it is housed in many different spreadsheets, we would love one tool that would pull all of the data together. Ms. McCarthy added that we are working on what information to pass on to other teachers. • Ms. Cuthbertson asked if classrooms are being looked at if they don't have any kids flagged? Do you use data to decide who to observe? Ms. McCarthy responded that she worries about comparing classrooms to each other because children are so unique and different. Ms. Ahern spoke about how pre -pandemic we did lab sites where you go and visit a classroom and see a lesson modeled. Then a teacher would use the skills that were modeled on a small group of children and would be given feedback, we would like to get back to doing this. COMMUNITY SPEAK Dr. Lewis, President of the Lexington Education Association: She thanked the School Committee for endorsing the Fair Share Amendment (FSA) tonight. ADJOURNMENT Ms. Sawhney made a motion to adjourn at 8:47 P.M. Ms. Lenihan seconded. Passed 4-0. JK 06/07/22 - DRAFT