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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-10-10-SC-min LEXINGTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING Tuesday, October 10, 2023 Meeting Minutes AGENDA: CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME: 6:13 PM SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT Sara Cuthbertson, Chairperson Deepika Sawhney, Vice-chair Kathleen Lenihan, Clerk Eileen Jay Larry Freeman SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS PRESENT Dr. Julie Hackett, Superintendent The minutes were taken by Julie Kaye, School Committee Meeting Recording Secretary. The School Committee convened at the School Committee Meeting Room at Central Office and remotely. Members of the public can view and participate in person or 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. Ms. Cuthbertson asked for everyone to take a moment of silence for Peter Rowe, former LPS Interim Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations, who passed away a few days ago. CONSENT AGENDA Ms. Sawhney read the following consent agenda items: • Payroll and Accounts Payable Warrant Approval a. September 22, 2023 - BMO Warrant in the amount of$48,763.24 b. September 22, 2023 -AP Warrant in the amount of$1,216,501.75 c. September 22, 2023 - Payroll in the amount of$4,780,395.32 d. October 6, 2023 -AP Warrant in the amount of$1,599,160.97 e. October 6, 2023 - Payroll in the amount of$4,805,781.44 Mr. Freeman read the following consent agenda items: • Donations a. A $1,500 donation to the Performing Arts Department from Lexington Bicentennial Band to purchase a new rack and music stands for LHS JK 10/10/23 -APPROVED b. An anonymous donation of$2,000 for the LHS Wind Ensemble Washington DC Musical Festival Trip Ms. Lenihan made a motion to approve the entire consent agenda, Mr. Freeman seconded. Passed, 5-0. SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS AND LIAISON REPORTS Mr. Freeman announced that Navratri/Bollywood Night will be on October 21st at Harrington Elementary School, 5:00 PM - 9:30 PM. He also mentioned the event "Breaking Down Stigmas about Mental Health, Neurodiversity& Less Visible Disabilities" will be on November 1st at the LHS Science Hall, and Indian Americans of Lexington are having a Diwali celebration on October 29th from 5:00 PM to 9:30 PM at LHS. Ms. Lenihan gave a liaison report from the Recreation Committee. They met last week and discussed the FY 25 renovation request for Bowman. Ms. Jay gave reminders of the Human Rights Committee meeting tomorrow, October 11th, and the full board meeting of Cary Library on October 18th. Ms. Sawhney announced that the Finance Subcommittee met on September 28th, she will be sharing the memo/minutes from that meeting with the School Committee. She also mentioned the Ad Hoc Transportation Committee presentation that will be discussed later in the meeting. Ms. Cuthbertson attended the Back to School Night at LHS and the Finance Subcommittee meeting. COMMUNITY SPEAK Jennifer Elverum - 3 Penny Ln (in person): She is speaking tonight as a concerned parent of three Lexington elementary school students. She has a fourth child that is dyslexic who attends the Carroll School so she knows how the brain learns to read, what the science shows about learning to read and what the data tells us. She spoke about other districts implementing high-quality literacy programs. "Lexington continues to use Units of Study as the reading and writing curriculum throughout elementary and middle school. This curriculum has been found to be ineffective, at times harmful, rated inadequate by Ed reports and deemed low quality by the State of Massachusetts. It teaches children ineffective reading skills like guessing the word based on the first letter, or looking at the picture. This doesn't provide children with any skills to read unfamiliar words, leaving them with no strategies when they get to fourth and fifth grade and are reading books without pictures. The lack of phonics and the connection between letters and sounds leads to poor readers but also poor spellers. And this stays with them well beyond graduating from Lexington schools. I'm now seeing the negative consequences of the Units of Study curriculum in two of my children. My fifth grader is not a fluent reader, and a very poor speller because she was never given any phonics. My second grader is a year behind in reading.) thought he was one of the lucky ones because he got phonics last; however,just yesterday his JK 10/10/23 -APPROVED teacher sent me a graphic on how to read tricky words. It recommended looking at the picture using context, and when all else fails, guessing at the word." She went on to further explain how Units of Study is confusing for students and how families are having to pay for extra support outside of school for their children. She encouraged the school administration to quickly implement an evidence-based, structured literacy curriculum and urged the district to provide additional instruction to existing students in K-12. SUPERINTENDENT'S REPORT Dr. Hackett reviewed her Su2edntendenfs Report with the School Committee. The highlights from her report include: 1. Congratulations and Celebrations o Citizen University Youth Collaborative Program o National Custodial Workers Recognition Day! o Kalea Foo Advocates to Stop Private Jet Expansion at Hanscom o Another LHS Graduate Wins a Nobel Prize o Tedtalk o Clarke Drama Program o New England Chinese Language Teachers Association Conference o LHS Jazz Combo 2. We All Belong o Community Religious & Community Observances o National Hispanic Heritage Month 3. School Building Committee Update 4. Review of AP & Honors Enrollment for Student with Disabilities by Course 5. School Committee Monthly Reporting Calendar 6. October 1 Enrollment Update 7. MCAS Results School Committee Questions/Comments: Ms. Lenihan stated that she should have mentioned in the member announcements that she and Mr. Freeman had a meeting to discuss a calendar working group. A notification will be going out to everyone announcing who was selected to participate, the group will be made up of twelve people. Ms. Lenihan was thankful for the follow up on the School Committee action item, Summary of AP & Honors course enrollment by student IEP status. She is wondering if there is a similar breakdown by ethnicity or other demographics. Dr. Hackett replied that this could be included in the reporting outline. Mr. Freeman asked where our Latino and African American students are landing with MCAS results and if we have a goal that we are trying to reach with the percentage of students with ISPs. Dr. Hackett explained that this is complex and it may be too soon to have this data. Dr. Kavanaugh added that in the way that this data is set up, you would want the proportion to mirror what they are in the whole population. She gave the example that if special education enrollment is roughly 12-14%, we would want to see the statistics to line up for each course and JK 10/10/23 -APPROVED department to be around that same percentage. Ms. Sawhney spoke about percentages. Ms. Lenihan reiterated Dr. Hackett's comment about not being able to close gaps overnight. Ms. Cuthbertson requested that when we have the Systemic Barriers report, could we talk about what is working well in these courses where we continuously see students with disabilities hit those targets, and what kind of accommodations are we looking at, are we adding things to IEPs? She also spoke about having enough staffing to support students. Ms. Cuthbertson also asked about Honors for All; she would like to know if there is an increase in enrollment in the classes that have honors as an option. Ms. Cuthbertson also looked at enrollment and noticed second and fifth grade, she asked if this is something that was lower last year and then grew unexpectedly or if these sections are reasonable sizes? Dr. Kavanaugh responded that we do have two large cohorts progressing through the system. Dr. Hackett added that we have been keeping track of this and looking at Estabrook in particular. Ms. Cuthbertson and Dr. Kavanaugh also discussed the number of sections and over-max aides, Dr. Kavanaugh explained that if enrollment increases, a section could be added which would lower the number of students in a class. Dr. Hackett added that there were discussions last year about Middle School class sizes, and we are planning on team sizes going down. PRESENTATION: WAS RESULTS Dr. Kavanaugh, Director of Data and Strategy, presented the 2023-10 Annual SC MCAS Accountability Report. School Committee Questions/Comments: Mr. Freeman asked about the data on the spreadsheet: "Are those students also counted in another category? Like what if I am Black and I'm economically disadvantaged, am I in both places?" Dr. Kavanaugh replied "you are in both" She explained that the State does include a statistic for students who fall into multiple high needs categories. Mr. Freeman wanted to make sure that he understands that only 24% of Black/African American students are meeting or exceeding expectations, Dr. Kavanaugh confirmed. Ms. Sawhney asked about the 24%that Mr. Freeman was referring to and asked about what grades take the MCAS. Mr. Freeman pointed out the drop in the percentage between middle and high school under the Special Education section. Dr. Hackett mentioned Ron Ferguson's work with achievement gaps especially in middle schools. Ms. Sawhney and Dr. Kavanaugh discussed COVID's impact. Mr. Freeman is sad to see that only 19% of 6-8 graders are meeting/exceeding expectations. JK 10/10/23 -APPROVED Ms. Lenihan asked about the bullet point, "LIPS math results for African American/Black students were lower compared to other like-communities in grades 3-8..." She asked if anyone has looked into why this is happening. Dr. Kavanaugh replied that having this data helps us see where we need to focus our attention and resources. She also pointed out that there has been some improvement in this category from previous years. Mr. Freeman added that we are failing our 6-8 grade African American students. Ms. Cuthbertson mentioned the presentations that were given last year about the new math and literacy curriculums. Some of the things that came up during those conversations was looking at gaps, she thinks it will be interesting to see numbers after a year of implementation of those programs. The Illustrative Math curriculum is much more inclusive. She would like to hear from teachers to see if they notice any changes in the elementary level. Ms. Jay took a look at the ELA slide to see if the same thing is happening, and it pretty much is. As with math, ELA scores for Black students in Grades 3-8 are lower than scores for all students in those grades. Ms. Sawhney asked, "How does the high school staff support the students who are on different levels?" Dr. Hackett stated that more of an effort for inclusion could be one explanation. Leaders have also been encouraged to drill down to the student level to figure out what is happening. Ms. Sawhney also spoke about our different assessment tools. Ms. Cuthbertson explained that in the new math program, Illustrative Math (IM), there is clear communication with parents on how students are doing. Ms. Lenihan stated that we are very lucky to have Dr. Kavanaugh, not every district is fortunate enough to have a position like hers. Ms. Jay mentioned the angst and concern at the height of the pandemic about learning loss, and now we have three years of post-pandemic MCAS data. She added that overall, it doesn't look like there is a huge reduction in score, but she would like to know how we compare to the State. Dr. Kavanaugh and Dr. Hackett responded by saying that we had a drop in scores in 2021 but we are rebounding very well overall, other districts that are behind don't have the resources that we have in Lexington. NEW BUSINESS A. Confirmation of Voting and Alternate Delegate for Joint MASS/MASC Annual Business Meeting No vote was taken. The School Committee is still unsure of who will be attending this meeting. Will be taken up at a future meeting. B. MASC Resolutions- Discussion and Vote JK 10/10/23 -APPROVED No vote was taken. Will be taken up at a future meeting. C. Discussion of Recommendations oft e A oc Transportation Co i ee Ms. Sawhney reviewed the recommendations and Dr. Hackett explained more about the bus/transportation issues. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Vote the LPS Wellness Policy Vote to be taken at a future meeting. Vote FY 25 Budget Guidelines Mr. Coelho presented the FY 25 Budet Guidelines. The School Committee and Dr. Hackett discussed changing the ordering of the guidelines as well as some wording. Ms. Lenihan made a motion to approve the FY 25 Budget Guidelines as amended, Mr. Freeman seconded. Passed 5-0. B. SC-Supt Collaborative Goals, 2023-2024- Discussion and Vote Dr. Hackettt reviewed the goals: o Short version o Medium version The School Committee discussed and no vote was taken. POSSIBLE ACTION ITEMS Tabled due to the time. COMMUNITY SPEAK Mona Roy, Bertwell Rd (on Zoom): Ms. Roy has listened to the various data points, seen the MCAS results, and heard about the Boston Globe article about reading curriculum. She gently suggested reaching out to some demographic groups (special education parents or parents of African American children) and really just talk to them about what they see as barriers and to hear about their experiences. Vinnie Alessi, Waltham St (on Zoom: He disagrees fundamentally with a lot of what the School Committee is doing. He made a comment that the meetings need to be tightened up and that the Community Speak times should be earlier. He commented on the quality of the audio and video of the meetings. His last statement was about the lack of discussion on the attacks that JK 10/10/23 -APPROVED are going on in Israel. ADJOURNMENT Ms. Lenihan made a motion to adjourn at 9:44 p.m., Mr. Freeman seconded. Passed 5-0. JK 10/10/23 -APPROVED