1.3.2024 Early and Special Alternative Education Subcommittee

for all the special ed alternative Ed and early child subcommittee to order please call the RO Mr here Mr Perera here M rodri here and so the flag please allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all person to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video

recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any media attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible do we have any citizen input we do not no citizen input um can I make can I make a motion if we can go out of order and move the

3.51 the update just because I know there was some confusion and these ladies thought they were going to be here tomorrow so if we could move them up and I'm sure the kind principal Riley will be here for the full State any I'm not seeing 35 I believe right depip update 36 3 oh is it 36 yes is it not 35 online am I losing my l oh this the other one that's the this okay 36

sorry I was looking at the other one I was looking at the sorry 36 sorry 36 yeah so you want to talk about all those together are you ready talk about that 306 has the regiment People Inc academic trors and Workforce is that all yeah that's all start with people so we're going to turn it over to princial Riley 3.06 update all right thank you um I'm going to uh also ask

for some support from our people's Inc and of course feel free to join us at the table if you'd like thank youve good thank you can you please uh just introduce who the people are just so we know sure um I'm Emily Martins I work in the CC and do the Workforce Development and I'm Kelly mean I'm the vice president of for children's services at people in thank you so Emily's on site quite a bit um

supervising the tuts that work with our students um they were fortunate enough just recently to hire a retired for teacher to be a math uh tutor and have an fander who's been at the school for some time uh still continue to be an English tutor who's certified in English so we have some really good um uh people in place that uh kids are touching in with and they're pushing into the

classrooms to sport teachers uh it seems to be working and it's more of a on a one to one one to two small group basis um we actually had a meeting today just talking about their services and how they could really impact a short-term solution for a student who's trying to get themselves to dery uh and so I think they play that role for us quite a bit um some of the other pieces I'll let

them share but we talked a a little bit about second half of the Year second semester U working with the middle school and high school on groups um that would look something like our school adjustment counselors last period of day would do um two groups family service do one group with our Middle School they um people's Inc would be working on job skills um with our high school group right after lunch so

that's usually uh majority of our kids are there till in the high school there till fifth or sixth period so we tried to go through the process of um uh Urban Youth Urban Youth thank you uh Urban Youth they registered nine of our kids um got going on it our kids just weren't ready for it quite frankly so it shifted gears uh you picked up kids at the high school

uh in their place and that's where kind of this came from was we need those soft skills for kids before they get into that program they need to know you know how to write a resume how to talk to people how to communicate uh and so we're going through that piece with them starting up in January 22nd Jo it so I think if we go backwards a little bit though we we did start you know once

once we secured the contract with people L can knew that we were moving forward we surveyed all of our students um I don't know M if you'd like to talk a little bit about the survey and what the outcome of the surveys yielded for us to be kind of up to you

sure um I think you know originally we had come to the committee looking for a CNA route and um a uh a route for culinary as it looked at Workforce investment and after looking to recruit for urban youth which was an immedia available opportunity and for folks that are not familiar with please you know Urban Youth is um an internship that people Incorporated offers for um students to work for People Incorporated

and get skills in our residences working with our um individuals so lots of opportunity for our kids to be trained provided the skills and the tools within their toolbox to then become hired by people link and employed by people link when we began to embark on that work we realized really quickly that we hadn't done the pre-work and the pre-employment skills with the kids and we needed to

that work with our kids before they were ready to really enter into the workforce of people in um and so simultaneously we were also collecting data on Career interests among the kids at RPA and that was where we got a little bit of an aha moment to recognize the health care and and not necessarily working with other individuals was exactly where the kids wanted to be um and so we've been doing

if you kind of speak to the survey and whated us that way we had a survey that went out to all the students and as you can see on the first page culinary and Hospitality was the first one that they all went for then um cosmetology moving over to Pet Care Child Care construction and other which was trades and um other random businesses that they were interested in but um working in human

services wasn't one of them so we kind of want to Pivot to those basic foundational skills and then work up from there and you know offer these other Pathways for them So currently now um we are working with um our our currently right now um Ken Pico and his team uh we are re rehabbing one of the culinary rooms to a culinary room because there is some transition with equipment from the

kitchen at RPA that we're going to be able to leverage upstairs to really create a room at RPA um to begin diving into the culinary piece end of January semester 2 which is on track with where our plans were back in September and October um in addition to that we are looking um working with people in um around the cosmetology entry points petare entry points and believe it or

not there are you know with pet care and pets as service animals there are many ways in which we can get our kids some soft skills around getting connected with the world of pet care and the multitude of ways in which um animals are being connected to the world in which we live um so these are pieces right now that we are working with people in to respond to the student data

and working with some local area businesses to see what type of certifications we can bring into people link um going into the semester 2 schedule which is our current plan to attend to the needs of the kids in the interest of the survey right right can ask how many kids are surveyed um 38 so where does that fit in the the overall uh it seems low when I was looking at the plans

after high school it's only is that because it's only the seniors like what were what was like who was actually it was Juniors and seniors that were surveyed and there's only 38 yes that participated that participated in the surve right that's sort of my question is why don't how many do we have total 80 in 11th and 12th grade so half the kids particip what do the other half do refus did they like I probably

weren't in to be very honest with you because that's another piece we need to talk about is attendance has been horrible it's been somewhere around 50 to 60% um our suspension to be up and that's something that we need to work on and we realize that so it doesn't surprise me if we had 80 kids in 11 12th grade that at 40 took the uh it's about what's been attendance on an average

yeah I just and I'm not being critical it's just it's very evident because of the numbers they add it up if you're going to give a survey to think about what all the kids need and make decisions after that I would assume that we would have a higher percentage than 50 not like was this just a one- day survey so if there's only 50% on one day okay and that was it run that survey

again I would say yeah that happened but I'm sure that you had multiple times to get like so if she didn't come to school today but tomorrow she comes to get the C like I would be curious what the number we did some pretty active recording over a week so we did some Outreach we went into classrooms we had um teachers kind of refer kids down to the community engagement Center uh so I

think that we did a lot of Outreach without forcing kids to um fill out the survey um so I think 50% is a pretty good indicator and if those were the kids that were interested in engaging with us those are the kids we want to focus on so and ATT attendance is just been a major issue too which is it's on it's on the it's on the agenda I don't

mean to just my person opinion is I don't think it was high enough personally but is there any questions on the survey are you done with the yeah any questions from the committee we could talk a little bit about the um the not just the career Readiness but also the tutoring um we had a lot of one-on-one tutoring we do it in the community engagement Center we do it in classrooms as needed with

teachers either with individuals or with small groups of students so that the tutors are kind of aware of the context and can help them um develop skills our primary focus is mcast completion so we're working with guidance to make sure that we know who are the kids that need to be prioritized for services um and working on very specific skills um the great thing about um the culinary

program too and uh Sue who's our new math tutor really wants to be uh very um very contextual in the way she teaches math and she sees culinary as a way to also uh help students engage in math you know a lot of times students have a narrative that they're not good at math they're never going to be good at math so why even try um so if we can really

normalize it um and make it part of daily life I think that's even better so but we've had a lot of touch points with uh students in in the in the process of doing um tutoring and just to know on the tutor piece so um the ELA tutor Ann has been there from the very beginning because she's been on board since um the math tutor is coming on board now as of

January um prior to break we also met as a team to discuss a very focused um use of the tutors because they are not there to be Paris they are not there to just be a second set of hands in the classroom um and we talked as a team about very being very explicit about what their role is as we looked at some of our mcast data um and knowing the

need for our kids to be confident and build up some self-esteem and self-confidence on attending to the open responses in math as well as Ela we are going to put a push on working with the office of instruction to partner with the tutors so that we have a prescribed support mechanism to help get the kids over the hump and feeling more confident in their writing ability as it relates

to attacking open response questions in both math and Ela um so we feel that that's a great place to leverage the tutor strength um so that they have a focus and they're not just walking in mcast tutoring um for anyone that knows you know mcast tutoring is a pretty broad spectrum um and we want to be certain that we've got tangible outcomes and um evidence of student work that we

can show from beginning to end of how the tutors have supported kids in their writing development of open response writings particularly connected to mcass um so that was that was some of the takeaways that we came away with right before the holiday break knowing that an is um excuse me that the second tutor will be coming in and we will have a math and Ela counterpart um and Sue is a

former certified teacher so she's not coming in as just a math knowledgeable person um but she's been on the educator side of the house and understands what our kids need to be successful um so that's going to be the approach that we take um of both you know educating the tutors on what they need to do to be supporting our kids in that vein I would also add right before we did the survey

Emily was a driver with Brian cabola guidance consultor on career day uh it was pretty successful want to talk about that at all it was um we had over 40 kids attend we had um trades from metal sheet metal which was a big a big interest for a lot of our kids The Culinary Hospitality um Primo's Hospitality came and they did a presentation and the kids were early into that um military State Police and

everybody attended they were engaged and it was It was a great can you explain the um numbers here on the the sheet where it's October 53 November 89 December 46 like sure just the fluctuation of that is um that was how many kids we had met with in a group setting or one to one during those um during those months so the first one is Ela mcast that's an and she met with

um 53 in October 89 students in November and 46 in December Workforce um I met with 80 kids in a group setting we did career day we did People Incorporated came down and did a presentation for them um and that was in November and then December um and then the works off development touch points where I was meeting with kids um for urban youth informational meeting the career day and

the um career Pathways so when when you when these numbers are written what is that what is the population that you're looking at um this was high SCH high school high school 10 11 and 12th grade which is more than 80 like you said 80 for the juniors and seniors is there yeah it's on sheet exactly what the number is there but so 103 so if the KN and when you say MCAT

so I'm assuming that's is that is anybody because they 10th graders haven't taken it yet is there anybody that passed it out of the population that therefore would not necessarily need mcast tutoring yeah they could be but I mean it certainly is math tutoring or English tutoring so it's going to feed them well to the courses they're in as well um I don't know that they go about it in a

way that is um dictated by mcast it's more of a general response open response more like a general like as I'm reading it mcast I keep seeing mcast doing M so my mind's going to purposeful because of the mcast that's why you know and maybe that's kind of skewing my mind a little because it sounds what Mr Riley saying it's just general educational toting or in English but I I i' pull

that back a little bit to say yeah it is specific to open response because we know we need that across the board right so we know that's going to affect mcast across the board there are um things that they toor with I'm speaking for you but things that they tutor on within the curriculum that supports the math and English classes and when you say touch points or like Le looking at Ela October 53 that means 53

students were yes touched you know not touched but you know what I mean participated with participated with our Tor yes and what would that mean does that mean she sat with them for one day and said we you know you have a a quiz coming up a test you know what does that mean when we say we have tutoring as far as the volume or the time is it

is it just an hour is it VAR spased on student need so that student need is you know uh convey to the tutors by the guidance staff and by the classroom teachers so as I said before sometimes the tutors are in the classroom because they're working with one child student they're working with multiple students on a particular concept there's a gap um kids who are missing time and need sort

of uh to catch up with their coursework uh will come into the community engagement Center um so it varies you know sometimes it's more effective to work with students oneon-one um but we can give you the data that shows you know frequency if that's what you're looking for we looking for happy to provide that because just looking for ways to figure it out so we can support it and that's basically what I'm and

when you say 53 in October 89 in November and 46 in December my mind goes to that there's there is the 89 include the 53 so now they get a little of everybody but then in December it went down to 46 so now I'm reading that to mean half the kids didn't need it now in December that was it's not necessarily need based um and it's based on uh when

when students are in school how many uh calendar days there are in the month that are available for tutoring too so um we can add that is that time like when when would a kid go to student go to the tutoring is it your schedule Broken Out In a certain part of the day are they not missing core instruction to go is this a yeah so they get pulled from a non academic or non major subject

but I think to add on to what you just said was like an for example is doing English tutoring with them she would go into Mr Cent's class and she would push in and support kids in small group she'll identify kids that need more support than that and she'll set up a time for them to go back to the CC and work with them one-onone or 2on one whatever it Tak so I think it it varies

on how we find the kids that need what they need I think also we keep going back to that attendance piece if 50% of the kids are coming in and the kids who just miss three days is coming back in and need some support that they you know they can't pick up where they left off CU it's three days later yeah makes sense questions so these these numbers are overlapping then this is these

numbers basically are just we served 89 in November but one of those could have been the same that was then again served in December so I think what we're saying is if this is set up to like quantify um by student it's it's it's difficult to read it that way because maybe you know in October you only serve as 53 students but maybe more hours were invested in that who knows we don't know

so I think that's what he's saying it would be a little different if we could quantify it but you know clearly you're doing work it's unfortunate we can't bring the attend up so that um I'm sure that would these numbers would be higher if we had yet just read my mind yet sorry um of course yet um but yeah we can break down that data and get I think that's what we're getting at

right more yeah how many hours of right exactly bringing up a point of tier two and tier three so targeted intervention is a kid going to tutoring three times a week right same time three times a week and sometimes we push in in in real life teachers doing an English lesson and a small group gets pulled in that's tier two right so I think there's a little bit of both of that happening we just

need to break that down to say these students we're servicing these students in outside of the regular classroom couple days a week and then these students are getting it you know in real time um during uh regular instruction CU to your point you could have 53 kids across four classrooms and your tutor went into those four classrooms three times during the week but service those 53 Kids versus she spent all of that

time oneon-one so it's important to just kind of I wasn't following exactly what you were saying that's why I was quiet for a while which is unusual but um that I think that's where you're room what does that actually look like yeah and it also the meeting that we had where before we actually approved the financing was about taking a good hard look this year at what do we like so we

put a dollar figure to what we offered then we have to say next year do we have to Det whether that is worth it to continue or do we say we could do it with hiring a people less you know so by asking these questions and getting more solid data is going to help us absolutely later on so it's not to give anybody a hard time I think you're trying it's very difficult population I

understand all that so my questions are only in that ve so that we can say in May and June this was worth it maybe it was worth it now to go more to go less so that's all any else and how um these soft skill workshops how are they going to be incorporated um we actually just met on that today um we're trying to set up like a group setting where it's

schedule it's in their schedule so they'll meet with me um and we're literally starting at Foundation communication how to have a conversation write a resume eventually you know um but they need those core things so it's going to be like small group settings or one-onone it's going to BEP small group setting yes to that point um I'd arguing that they're not soft skills like those are

the skills just skills those are the skills get them through so we're all saying those because if they don't have those they're not going to be able to do anything else and I would agree that um like doing them in small group just makes way more sense because kids get really good at ining one-on-one with an adult but apply that to other peers or other adults it goes out the window the only suggestion that I would

make is when you write when you write Urban Youth I didn't know what that meant yeah and then when you explained it it seems like that's the internship program within people link it is it's one track it's just one of the tracks but maybe putting some kind of word in there that it makes it like I didn't know what it was and then somebody said so if it said like Urban Youth uh uh Pi

internship internship or something it would have made more sense um and you have to change with the what the kids need you know for sure and we're going to get into more things about the system but no other questions but on the Pet Care um I know of a couple of places that have been working with other organiz to get kids for internship different different but similar population so if

you want I have those names I can get them that they've already been willing to do it with one group so absolutely awesome and these are paid internships I want to be clear that you know we recognize students we don't want students to sort of invest time when there's not a return for them so we're trying to sort of use that as the hook um you would think it would be a

better swing I think internships one of the things I would ask is that you're just very transparent and honest with the committee on some of the challenges and we had know that we have children there sometimes that have unable to pass a quy or whatever to to be even eligible I don't think it's fair to give a number and make it look like we have so fewer kids if we have a population that's not

even eligible so rather than I just would rather have truth and advertising if we got 80 kids and 40 of them have a record or 30 of them you know they can't pass a Corey right right now then just tell us that so it it makes it look like you're being more successful with the population because if you had 80 kids let's say and you told me you had 10

kids in a paid internship I want to say you have 10 out of 80 but if it's really only 10 out of 40 because the 40 of them are not eligible for whatever reason just articulate them so we can give you credit for making an impact with the ones that we came I mean I don't even just to be clear I don't even believe that came up within the first round of

recruitment kids just self- selected out it wasn't even a I want to be part of this but I physically can't because of my past record yeah that hasn't come up yet I was going to say that hasn't come up yet my point is it's going to come up all right yeah I get that I just want to be clear for the purpose of right now I'm like I'm just checking myself that

hasn't come up yet but you know moving forward the more something to look at because if we can't forget the past people have worked there a long time there's people there that know the stories and the and the pitfalls so if we have kids that we know automatically are not going to get it then why would we be discussing with them to have something that they can't get you know

what I mean it's just being honest about it but then I would also argue what other option oper do those kids have but that's why I think diversifying our Industries is important that Human Services is heavily reliant on uh clear Corey um and other Industries are less relying on that yeah so I was just going to say I don't think cosmetology they required to get a Corey check right

probably Steel Workers I'm imagining so and I it looks like healthcare is where they don't want to be Human Services unfortunately um but yeah that would be the one that they would definitely need Cory's for or maybe something in Billing or Child Care Child Care you need a Cory yeah so yeah it's good that we have options for everybody yeah I don't want to make it seem like all of these kids or half of

our kids record right but do the kids know that like what a quy is are they aware of what those barriers might be if they if they did have a record and are we having those conversations with them cuz some of them may be opting out because they just don't know that they're even El I think that was a lot of the push back was that piece you know and doing these small group settings

where they're going to learn about all these what aor is and whatnot will really push them and help them out because most adults don't really understand Abol you know I know I still have questions when certain things come up so I can't imagine that the kids know I'm certainly if you have any kind of level of anxiet xiety about new things that would also be a deterrent so I think that class approaching not just

communication but what going to work looks like what engaging with people for the first time you know that maybe are not of your age what that looks like so I know certain things meet me anxious and in high school that would have been um you know much more thank you very much appreciate it yeah thank you for all the work you do very work we're going to move to 3.01 on the agenda um

we're going to I'm going to ask that we just postpone that a little to discuss the rest of the stuff because this might Aid Us in the decision so 3.02 turn over to Mr

R you all understand that the addition position but we're going to talk about all thank you for the adjustment sorry

just an update cuz I'm the front of the agenda I got it coming both ways so so this is update updated oh thank you I'll take Mr Ry you're up yeah I I think I'd prefer to start with attendance and where we are with that because um before I say anything else uh we're not satisfied of what we are um we talked about some uh internally about some highs and I was like oh you can't

celebrate that even though you want to cuz you moving um we got to be consistent with it uh I think um the next things I say I hope don't sound like excuses that's not where I am I'm not happy where we are um I think having a lot of open positions to start the year some um positions not filled at the administrator side due to medical conditions or things like that um have

really um left us bog down a little bit um with dealing with issues right away which turned into something else um I I think we're seeing our school really change um I was saying I was out of the building for a meeting today and didn't get a call at all I know I'm not supposed to say it but uh it it's a very different feeling from September or October when I really felt like and uh

Maria will tell you that I uh didn't go to a couple principal meetings in a row just cuz I felt like uhoh I I don't feel like it's safe for everybody in the build if I'm out there um that has changed um and now we have to really focus on our attendance piece of bit um I think all these things that we talk about people's in we talk about you know

doing groups and doing these things are an important piece of that we have to give kids things that they are going to feel are um value to them um we have to justify why they didn't make it somewhere else and they're going to make it with us and we know who our kids are our kids are a lot of times have a criminal pass have an attendance pass have a credit pass whatever the thing

was um that's um sent them to RPA and we need to pick that up from there we know what our task is we know we're never going to be at you know 100% attendance but we do know that uh being 50% is never going to be a place that we want to be and stay um so I I think some of the positions um both the school committee has supported new positions and the superintendent supported me

making decisions on hiring people you're feeling the impact right now um Dr bronhard and myself had had a long conversations about attendance and we really wanted to be somewhere different in September October and it just because of those things I talked about already we just couldn't get there um as a school um I've included and I'm pretty open to say this I've included my own evaluation and go on attendance that I

will meet with X Y and Z monitors and I will um have those conversations every week because I think it's that important if our kids out in front of us they're um not getting what we can provide them but they're also could be in trouble somewhere else and so we want to make sure they're in front of us so a big piece of that is uh making sure that we have those same touch points we were

talking about with people's Inc that we do have those uh addition to a sack that we did hire that I'll go into later um we're feeling the difference of break that down now to making sure we're meeting kids' needs right away um the seal position we've interviewed for we haven't put anybody on yet but that's another position that really gives us an opportunity to hit touch points right

from the when the kids walk in the door uh and make sure that they're getting supports they need out in the community as well so um I think all those things are important um we the AP position seem to be one that was been a tremendous struggle um for us just for one reason or another and they are like there's three or four different reasons for different U things you finally hired

somebody it didn't work out um all this time getting into that and all a sudden didn't work out so we stopped back over again um again I I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses I just want to say that I feel like the school's in a better place I think some of the things we're doing are really working and the kids are being successful um that are

coming in now we have to um go through the pieces that we've talked about in the program we talked about making sure we're monitoring for success I don't know if you want to add anything to that no I think that summarizes it um and I think it's a matter of putting the systems in place for personalizing attendance um which has been a big Drive of my work in the district with all of

our schools uh we will be taking like phase two of the work um with principles and really digging deep around the kids that are still struggling to come to school on a regular pattern of attendance um but even getting that system established at RPA is going to be the first part of the work uh now that we do have a team that's more stable a few of these additional positions are

are there um and now it's just a matter of no excuses and digging in and getting out to homes and knocking on doors and having home visits with kids and families to figure out what's getting in the way and then if we can't meet their needs figuring out how we meet their needs in a different way if RPA isn't isn't the way or isn't the place um but we will have those individual

conversations with kids and families as they arise um but making sure that kids know we want them in the building and that the building is ready to respond to their needs um will be the message going into the new year as we recruit both kids who have dropped out and shows not to return the first half of the year as well as the kids who are still on the roles and on the records but are not

showing up with consistency so therefore they won't gain credits and they won't move forward as we need them to um so we will we are going to be personalizing that work um as part of our plan moving forward around attendance I think part of that personalizing too there are kids that um come to us and not ready to be there and we had those conversation about these other great programs in the

city and how can we help you get in there and meet your needs a little better because being at school 7 hours a day like you have been for the last X number of years hasn't worked and so the answer might be something different right now so we had those conversations and we're fortunate enough to put kids in programs that work for them um and I think just to kind of bridge the

conversation it might be somewhere else on here but around the semester 2 scheduling um because of the low attendance record we do have some classes that are scheduled with adults that are not necessarily kids showing up for those classes so how do we repurpose the schedule to have adults available to help meet the needs as broadly as we can um and have class sizes be within a range that meets the needs of kids but

also doesn't have teachers assigned with you know four or five kids for a section um where we could get a different use of that teacher um in the building particularly looking at Credit Recovery opportunities for kids who have not been successful um either previously or even first semester at RPA um so really thinking strategically around how the m schedule and the live teaching

opportunities um can help get kids where they need to be help lift up some of the access to Edgenuity that is the virtual platform that we've been using across the district um that we recognize our kids need support in being successful with right our kids at RPA um are not necessarily independent Learners so we need to leverage the platform with an adult um and leveraging the master

schedule with adults that are already there in the building to create these Flex schedules for kids that will give them what they need um and still meet the attendance threshold of 4 hours a day through desie um so we're trying to build all of these pieces into the schedule for the second half of the year as we think forward to next year around alternative programming and a few other

veins a little bit different and not just a One-Stop shop um at RPA but that'll be for another conversation down the road think some of the I'm sorry I was just going to say I think some of the attendance numbers too you really got to dig deep as and was saying and and look at him today I I just looked cuz I I heard again there was a kid child under 16 on the run and nobody

knows where they are and I was like geez that's that's a kid who's not coming in not attending but what do we do about that how do we do it and at some given point in time there were six of those under 16 years old and so you think that 163 or whatever the number is and take those six off right away so you're not getting those six in no matter what you

do CU you don't even know where they are and so there's some of those situations too unfortunately that um we really got to dig in with DCF and some other agencies to say um how can we support that better um and I think it's personalizing I think it's building relationships for me on a personal note I think uh September October were months that I had to make relationships both with staff and kids

uh now when the kids come in and I'm outside every morning they're high-fiving me as opposed to look looking at me like I get three heads you know so I can attest to that CU I've driven by in the morning and I've seen you outside like high-fiving kids and some of them you know they're they're too cool cuz teenagers but sometimes I'm too cool too I've never been cool they just need to welcome in the

door every day and I I just make a point to be that person because it's the best part of my day to be honest with you is it's the year morning seeing them come in so any questions on attend you may have already said this um but has there been an understanding yet as to where these kids what's the barrier I know you said like we have to dig deeper to have a better

understanding of it but do we have any kind of General sense of what's going what's happening that they're not coming in I think the ones that are like heavily chronic um are really just um I don't want to say lost it's such a lousy word I really just not used to that piece in their system for a very long time now um and I I I do think they'll come in and we also have other

situations um that are similar that kids come in once and then they're out for 9 days and they come back on a 10 days so we don't drop them but they can also you know the family receive some services for that or whatnot so there's a lot of other pieces to it that um that are within the system and so they may be someone who will drop or go to a high

set but the family wants them to come in uh so as long as they come in enough um it it supports the family there's some real stuff here and I don't mean to go too deep into any piece of that but there's some real stuff here that um works against these kids and uh needs of families come first so that's always my question is like what's the barrier and I know like

we're trying to find out what that is and that might look like you know 163 different barriers um but is there a general consensus like we know that basic needs are the issue we know that transportation is an issue we know that this is an issue so that's all I was asking for yeah and and the other side of that alog together Drew and I looked at some numbers today just cuz I was

like geez we can't have that many kids chronic you know like I I see these kids a lot there was about 40 kids that um were very good attendance and we're going to celebrate them more in front of every you know like we can't just look at the kids want there we got to celebrate those kids we have some kids actively ready to go back to their sending schools um we've made that like

make sure they do everything right to get there we want that to be successful on our way there and the same thing with school sending to us we want to be successful we don't want to dump kids either way um and for a kid who's doing everything right RP be the right place for them that's why it's going so well other kids are dying to get back and let

send them you know so it's it's a very piece what was the number Drew 40 around 40 40 kids that were I don't know if they were they were either right or they were over 85% close to 90% attendance probably about 20 or so over 90% and our highest time we about 180 something kids and so like the other side of that are some kids we've never met they were on

our roster and so again not excuses but there are these kids here that are killing it there's these kids I've never met before if you said their name I wouldn't know who they are really um that have been drop sent or whatnot and then it's that other piece in the middle we really got to work on um being successful with my only question is on this the sheet here with all the people

that uh put um input into into the computer journal entries or something sh is the number of attendance coded journal entries by staff I see people I don't know that they work at RP is that one name that tried mein and Maria Kennedy as that's because they do work at RPA so Maria Kennedy is the attendance officer at RPA Kevin wh is as you know in the court so they do

they do go into X2 they do try they put notes in the journal and all that so they are updating records that's what that is messaging it just here that's why I'm asking just I'm just looking at the thing I thought you know was Geraldo I'm likeo but Jerry Li that might have been a student that was sent from Dy and he was their VP at that time what it was we

we've talked about these numbers to Mr a that um you know you see the first number that's 87 was that's a lot of the high school just by one person but we're not happy with the rest of the numbers either we that's my job to get on them and make sure they're if they're calling great make sure they're making an entry cuz I believe they're doing the work but they

got to make those entries so we can track it better than what we're doing so when you're seeing numbers of one two three uh that's really not acceptable right now yeah that's yep well said I couldn't said it better myself that was what my concern was as I'm looking at it I'm seeing PE the roles of people in I'm saying there's no way that if you're in a you know 187 kids and I work in a

position in a support position Administration whatever I shouldn't have one or two uh you know so much my fault is their fault so I'm I'm sitting there assuming things are done and I I need to be on it better so but I think it begs the question it doesn't beg the question it states I've said at this me at these meetings that we had a lot of good things happening in the alternative end

and last year it went backwards instead of forwards so I want to put that on the table that you're coming into a new thing everybody here and things that we're working you're now trying to bring back and it pains me to say that that I've been here but we failed when we didn't say how are we going to allow the good things that were happening to know Flex scheduling uh Credit Recovery all these options I

sat at this Dam table for months and said this isn't happening why is that not happening why is that not happen so internally you got to look at your systems and say we can't allow that to happen again I don't think it's happened I think you're doing a good job but we allowed that to go backwards and it really is frustrating cuz I've sat here for a number of years seeing the money

that we spent the consultants and everything and I'm like why are we not doing what we said we were going to do so just in as side you know if I'm critical it's that's why it's because I think it's frustrating more than anything the next one is um what was 323 I don't have the agenda front update yes Mr yeah I would just say with the cesi update it was a good

segue what you just said we're hiring these people from outside I think they're doing the work with us um I really feel that we stay in pretty good communication they come down for uh at least um once a month for two days some months it's more than that but they are on call anytime we need them uh as we talk about positions um they come back and say hey I'm at the school to uh

superintendent ponts and um a security gu good example like they really do need those for security guards it's a problem a safety issue um it it put it on the table for us um we agreed we put in a system with them uh that makes a lot of sense it has calm down behaviors quite a bit that one piece of it that's not all that's happened to calm down behaviors

but that's a piece of it so consistently now we do have those four security guards um it's bigger than that and I'm just using a small example but s's done a good job of coming in and putting together um a professional development every month when they're here uh as you know Wednesdays um students are all out at 1:48 uh staff gets together at 2 um from 2: to 3:30 we um if Zess is here we

do PD with them uh when they're not here we supplement with other PDS and we have a PD um list in the packet somewhere um we talked as a as a whole and uh really talked about deescalation for our staff and thought that was a big piece like how how we getting kids to be in a place that um they're being successful uh every staff member should have the escalation we've had that conversation

Amy and I quite a few times and so that's in place and can be done internally now which is great we're trying to figure that out and it seems like we have enough trainers here in the former public schools that we're not going outside for another consultant to do that work we're doing it right here uh and that's about to start up was going to start up today uh it's going to

start up in a two weeks so that'll be there Wednesday so we're shifting um some of the pieces around sesi at when they come but it's easy shifting CU we do a lot of sock meetings uh and we call them sock meetings I know it's a funny name but I interviewed someone that we didn't hire who came up with that uh in our interview and I kind of like that it's student of concern meetings and so

we break down to middle school and high school and um really talk with uh administrators to teachers what's going on with this student how can we better serve the student uh is has anyone called home this week for the student like what's going on and so those conversations happen on a regular basis if we do one hour PD then we leave a half hour for that at the end of of it

if we make sock meetings the most important thing that we do um that meeting then we do an hour and a half of it um and we really talk about every single kid that we can any questions on sesy this this is just yellow and green for the heck of it right I really like those no I thought one was completed one wasn't but then I was reading through some of the green says completed and

yeah so green is completed yellow is um in process basically but got there was some that were blank and we decided we weren't going to do them then we turned around and said you know they make more sense we should do these things so we've gone through each piece of it um and these are recommendations from sessie after being in the building when they come in just so you know um they come in they

stand outside with me greeting kids we go in right after that meet in my office we talk about what's been going on uh they actively go in the hallways and support kids and staff they sit in classrooms they really make an effort when they're there so uh it's uh so this one here where it says create uniform language around worky calls to ensure Clarity of support needed per situation

and then deci side to develop during 10-11 visit but then you have in progress what does that mean it means we should probably shifted that PD for that day um we had something else that was more important um so we still plan on doing it but we haven't like so that's going to be like a PD that'll take place during some professional development yeah so we have those Wednesdays which

is great it doesn't need to be on a Wednesday but I think at one point they switch from Friday to Wednesdays they tell me the history of it CU attendance was poor on Fridays when it was a shortened day um but those Wednesdays are crucial for us to really um talk as a staff and make sure that everybody has the information um part of part of my other goals uh through Dr brart suggestion is

really getting a newsletter out to staff um and I want to do that with kids and with adults to make sure that everyone has a voice and we're hearing all the same things so that Wednesday is a big help for us um because we are a little different than everybody else in the district you know like when PD happens in the district it applies to us but some of it doesn't quite apply

perfectly to us so how do we bridge that Gap with our teachers and make sure they're supported the U my question on that is this a one year right now it was you wanted to see the success of the program or the the services that they provided um before we made any decisions of and want to see where RPA was at the end of the year but we need to do just like

we're doing with the other sesi programs that are in the district of collecting that data and then going to present a recommendation I've already talk to the superintendent about when what is the um what's the objective like what are what are we looking for to say are we able to just take their info and their guidance and systems and hand it off and be done with it what is the timate goal

right so I think the ultimate goal of this first year was getting them to support Kyle and our PA in putting the structures and systems in place so that the culture of RPA is conducive to learning right they have other goals about instruction and all these other pieces but the culture of RPA being conducive to learning meaning who's welcoming the kids in the you know what is our system for cell phones and

sweatshirts and hoods and all of those pieces and then forming those relationships with staff and kids so that they can actually do the professional development around how they're communicating with kids what messages they're sending so I think the first year this particular year was those routines structures procedures what is our vision for RPA right what is if I'm a teacher and Kyle's my principal

do we share that Collective vision and are we both working towards it because it seemed like previously um in my limited experience with RPA last year that everything was peace meal right it might be a pocket over here and a pocket over here and a pocket over there but there wasn't anything uniform and that's what SS's assessment when they first came down noticed so the way that I am

going to work with these guys on whether or not it's effective is saying okay we talked about the culture of RPA what what data do you have to show me that the culture of RPA is more conducive to learning than it was last year maybe there's a decrease in fights maybe there's a consistent system for cell phone use or you know um walking in the hallways kids not being able to sneak

into different stairwells like those are all successes in my um opinion of putting structures and systems in place if you don't have that the instructional piece can't happen so it's not as qu Reon I ask is what I think we need to put a timeline yeah on it and then have a meeting scheduled now when we're going to talk about so what I don't want to have happen is well a lot of times we do

is like at the last minute we're getting something say oh we're going to do this and then not have it run through the subcommittee so if you say like April it's already sched the meeting in April now because I just don't want to get caught up in no and I agree with you are and actually cesie was supposed to be here but one of them was sick with the flu so they had to reschedule so that

was the initial discussion that was going to happen when were they supposed to be a December right DEC yeah and now it's bumped out to January January so that's the initial piece cuz I'm going to say to them what information are you going to bring to me so I can bring it to you guys right same thing with our IND District classrooms at talet we I'm meeting with them next week what data

are you showing me to determine what's my recommendation going to be to the superintendent and ultimately to this subcommittee great I would just definitely let us know ahead of time oh yeah absolutely I think some of those structured pieces are important to like when we just briefly talked about groups in the afternoon like we sat down over about 3 hours to talk about groups and you have to win an alternative school

right so what are we putting an incentive together how we going to do that how we going to rotate it and then how we going to deal with if we did in the whole Middle School the kids who don't want it where are they going how are we supporting them and so there's all these catch basins that we set up to make sure that it's successful and I think they've done some of that and

we've done some of that ourselves of um putting together let's think this out to the end not just oh let's have groups it'll be great uh there's going to be kids who get in trouble that day there's going to be kids who miss a group will be incentivized if they didn't show up for two days you know like there's all these pieces to it so I think they've done a good job of supporting that

work any other questions on that move on what's the next item Bud sta allu okay so we're in the the midst of um interviewing uh assistant principles so that started this week um we interviewed Eternal uh we going to external now I have one lined up for tomorrow already um we uh it talked a little briefly today Dr Brad and myself about maybe putting that back up um to the top of the advertisement so we can

see if we can get some more candidates um but so far some good candidates and um I think that that kind of moves the moves needle for us having uh the three assistant principls in place we just haven't had the luck of having two assistant principls and myself in the building at the same time it just hasn't happened uh our assistant principal who I think is doing a great job right now

had a baby so he was out for weeks um uh and some other stuff's happened so it was just I don't want to say comedy eras but there was just things that were happening that didn't allow us to have a full admin team um so having those on board I think is going to be huge uh I said a little earlier that the seaon position is something we've advertised for it's um we recommended someone at

this point um but we have a couple of good candidates for that as well feel strong about that and power professional we start started um interviewing for those positions uh had one yesterday have two tomorrow so um looking at a p special but we have candidates which is something in September we didn't be quite Frank with you as I was trying to put people in place um I think there was like 13 openings and we really

struggling to get candidates not just good candidates for candidates so and I think one of the things and Kyle correct me if I'm wrong that um cesy helped Kyle do from the very beginning one of the first observations they made was Kyle's it everybody goes to the principal for everything and there was no kind of system of communication and not everything needs to go to Mr Riley who are like what's kind of the chain of

command for lack of a better word but where's the communication pieces who do I go to for what so they put together this organizational chart number one and the responsibilities of each role in this organizational chart to Kyle's point about not having the all of the um assistant principles in place or all the key players it's hard to implement that it's hard to teach staff about the roles and

responsibilities and follow through with that until he got everybody up on board with his leadership team but I think that this is another piece that we need to see kind of Come Alive come to fruition right but um thanks for that I think that's absolutely true I just and some of that I do myself and just yep come see me I'll take care of that for you I'll take and you get to that point that you're

overwhelmed and you're not doing as good a job as you can do because you're trying to be 100% for everybody and you're not um we had just recommended and they should be starting any any time two history positions um we had two history teachers leave we hired one the beginning of the year um she moved closer to home and uh we had a history teacher that had another opportunity in

another district and took it but we were able to find two really good candidates that we move forward on those so those both be starting next week as well um we had two ESL positions that were open uh we filled both ESL positions we're excited about that and a week later um one of them uh I got a family situation uh who can't continue as that but as as it is um one person can cover our

ESL needs right now because of our attendance um so it would be something I'd hold off on now uh I maybe advertise it to see what comes out there but it's something i' hold off on for now there's no need to add somebody we don't need them any questions on the elra no I just had a couple of questions so I personally like it something like this I think we need it for I've been saying

this for years from every school every department so we know what the roles are but as I'm looking at this the bottom where it says reports directly to guidance counselor which is the facilitated Family Support people link can anybody explain the rationale for that I'm not sure i' ever seen that I my take away from that is that um people Inc is doing uh quite a bit with guidance for scheduling um the kids as

they use them for tutoring uh people incs involved in the career day they did that with guidance because it made sense because they were bringing in the um bodies together um the Family Support Specialists really is a position that um was in our intake office we haven't had intakes we've really slowed that down because of getting under control again um and so we haven't had very many at

all this year so it didn't seem like that position need to stay in the in the intake um position so we've used her throughout the office um and for social media pieces actually to kind of change our brand a little bit um but she works right out inside the guidance office so um to l point before we're breaking it down that they all don't report to me or report to vice principal so we can do

our work in the classrooms um a few of them have gone right to the guidance yeah and I don't I think the word report might be confusing it's more about the communication so if I'm a community facilitator and or um you know family support specialist and I have a question or I need to report something who's my go-to the this group of Staff should be working closely with the guidance team

because that is the kid the people that are most in touch with the students right and the families so I think the the plan for um when they develop this chart with Kyle was to talk about the communication so that's the first people they should be communicating with they notice something at home they notice something when they're talking with families they notice whatever people's Inc has something to share they go to

the guidance counselors first from there the guidance counselors take it to the next piece if it needs to get there or they facilitate that communication whatever the feedback is but I don't think it's a reporting just it doesn't look like it's in the right place to me yeah and then when you look at it structurally we just talked about like having those meetings that you talked about for the students of of concern

conc so logically the way it always was when I worked there and I always thought was like you had a middle school assistant principal then you had a guidance counsel for the that group and a adjustment counselor and you know like sort of they would fall under the assistant principal for that because now you hold the assistant principal responsible for the continuity of that whole everything that happens with grad

seven eight and N if you look at it though too the guidance Council does still go to the assistant principal so again it's more about the communication piece it's still a linear piece again I I didn't build it with you so I could be speaking out of term but that's the way that I understood it it wasn't the assistant principal inherently still is overseeing those staff members but the the

communication piece starts with guidance and them and the guidance C bring it to the assistant principal so that it's more clear that's absolutely right and I say the administrative team that's all Sachs guidance department head Vice principles myself meet every single Tuesday um just because of some of the needs of our um our administrators either dropping off a kid in the morning

or need to be somewhere after work we rotate that 7:30 in the morning um on a Tuesday and then we do a 3:30 the following Tuesday and we rotate back and forth so uh if everyone can't beat to every single one at least they can definitely be the ones that um fit their schedule better after school so we meet every Tuesday we disseminate everything that comes through these offices uh about where we're moving

next you know add the new people it kind of makes sense because then you know we just keep on voting for new positions and it helps to know I'm looking on here there was a controversial vote for the guidance counsel for the center intake Center and I think somebody was appointed if I yep remember where is that person so I think this was done early on it may not have been a no we have an

intake guidance is not is that family support specialist no no it's Lisa canel's job yeah I do not see it here so yeah your plain truth and advertising yep I was adamantly opposed to it and I support the heck out of the school because we don't need it and I said that when we were presenting it Mr Riley just told us they haven't had any intakes I can I don't have to tell you

how that makes me feel with what I suggested and nobody wanted to listen and we still hired the position so that's why sometimes I think but that position was last year just I just want to be clear that intake guidance Council was last year's position when they had an influx way too many now we don't we that our intakes we purposely we purposely paused because we needed to be sure that Staffing and hiring was in

place the data showed the data at the time showed that with the number of students that we had we didn't need the third guidance Council Point Blank we hired it anyway now the data is showing even worse that we don't need it so it begs the question of what are we doing with that person so for instance that happened and then I advocated and I not backing off on it to add a school

adjustment counselor and a um scazon I also advocated that another Vice princip so in my mind me personally I've been advocating for these things and then now we have a guy so what does that person do all this time and then is do we look at restructuring some things to say we're paying a person's salary to do that can they pick up the need of some of this other piece rather than say you

know I'm the guidance counselor for I got hired to be the guidance counselor for the intake and there's no intakes so I sit at my desk I'm not saying she does but you know what mean but my point is is that we say we have a position did that we need to get the information to say we repurpose that person to do whatever home visits or you know something like that because I was going

to mention that we need home visits we need this but we've got staff that aren't doing one thing so are we how many home visits are we doing are we using the vehicle are we going to pick kids up so long and short of it is if we can just update this I think it'll be great int telling for us as far as new positions um and I think this was early

enough on I see two Vice principles here and the that's why I'm doing my own notes of what needs to get changed on it but it was early on and the other thought I have on the vice principal PC we had we were told that we had a person who was ready to go as you know when you mentioned so I had advocated for if we already had a person

we already had all the jobs filled that we were going to get rid of the intern which is an easier position to fill and hire this person and apparently I'm understanding now that that didn't happen and we no we did we hired that person as a VP I'm saying we don't we didn't know that it didn't work out we did we we told you right there was only last very short time okay it was very

brief yeah I I was aware that but my point is when I was advocating to get rid of the intern piece was for the reason of we had a person that you said was qualified so I think you should look at revisiting a potential intern because you're allowed to you're able to get somebody build somebody up recruit somebody into a position like that more so than an experienced person to come

down but if you have candidates great but Eiffel one wouldn't be opposed to if you had a person that was looking to sort of get themselves into the admin role you might be easier to get a person who has passion about alternative Ed just doesn't have the paper to do it to to put them in um yeah we went about advertising thinking to fulltime as we did it so we certainly can look at that

as well um but right now it's advertises to F and you can't have four well you you don't have two you have one buddy we already talked about this right still have somebody out you might need somebody temporarily potentially yes which is also another reason why an intern might make the most sense in that regard to like you know position kind of like put them in to do it I mean I think

you need the support so we could and that also leads to the other item of the the accountability manager whatever we call that the new position that got referred at the same time so we can um thoughts on that um based on current Staffing what's the recommendation what would that person be doing are we ready to move with it do we want to wait do we want to repurpose some people what what

what are their thoughts and I'd actually refer to superintendent on this one because I was at the meeting when we were talking about all these positions and I recall very clearly that the superintendent was in favor of this because we were we had and other places and we were talking about the needs of those positions so I just want to get your take on it because Mr Riley's in only one school

but you have all schools so how does that if we add one here not does somebody else need one more like how does that fit in and that's where I'm asking you instead of Mr I know Mr Riley requested to meet it so right he's requesting based on his school's needs based on what he believes is his need I I'm I am not one to say just because we have four Sams at dery

we need to have Sams everywhere because fair is not equal I've said this many times I think it it's based on the need of the school a Sam um is someone we utilized I think very appropriately at the high school they are working with the vice principal doing some of the low-level conduct chasing Cuts meeting with students um meeting with students Etc I Mr Riley and I have had this discussion

initially um when uh he advocated for the position he wanted this person to help with paperwork in regards to um uh suspensions um you know he was short-handed want to that's not the role of the Sam uh and it's also it's also not a clerk right um and that's exactly what I said if you need a clerk tell me you need a clerk or um but uh uh Sam is

not able to do um the legal part of suspensions Etc so does he need a Sam I I want to be respectful of my principal when they advocate for a position do I would I put a Sam automatically in there right now I personally think that we we have a lot of moving parts right I'd like to see um the new vice principal in place I'd like to see theal the aison in place the sack

that just started all these positions working and seeing okay so if we have all of these positions working let's look look at how they're all working together and then let's assess give it a month or two months and say okay you know what all of them are we all know their roles and responsibilities while all working through them but I think we still there's one missing part that same

needs to be in place and then I I and I'll say yeah that's what we need I I I'm just very hesitant and I I will say that with every principal when they advocate for a position show me why right and you know let's look at you know know we have to make sure that everybody's working at optimal optimally um to make sure that it that's the right need because it

could be after all of those pieces are in place it could be that it's something totally different he might need another scle Aon or you might need something to say h i need it but I need it for this I thought I needed it for that so I would like to wait another month or two to see um how all those other positions are working together thoughts I think it's a pretty

good assessment what it is I I was very honest when I um talked to superintendent about not knowing exactly what a Sam was but feeling like we were missing the smaller stuff and so everything was becoming bigger and it could be just that we didn't have the other positions in I I think it's okay to to ride this out and see what um the people that we're putting in place now

are good um I'm kind of excited about the team we're building and I think that's not a bad assessment and saying let's wait a month or two and see where we are then um I think it's fair I really do any thoughts on that what what does the the Sam do what we what was in your mind you needed versus what they actually do um you want to say what the Sam does

you want me what what you thought I really thought um as I kind of asked around a little bit about uh and I called Matt desmar said what do your Sams do up there like I'm curious because I was going front the school committee the next couple days I wanted to make sure I was asking for what I thought was right and really a description of um the tarding and the small detentions and and things like

that and I felt at the time um and I'm not minimizing what the job is but I thought at the time really that uh we were just missing so many small things that everything was turning big uh and it sounded like a position that could really catch those small things for us and um I do think the addition I said this before the meeting started the addition of the sack is huge cuz we're

breaking down kids now with smaller numbers and we're getting to more kid that may meet our need right now uh and again I I don't disagree with the superintendent think in the sense of uh let's make sure this is what we need and I I don't mind yelling for what I need I'm not shy um but if it's not the right thing then I'm also not the person who

spends money if you know me at all I'm very tight so um I think it's worth and just a touch back on the the guidance Council who was hired for intakes what is she doing now what is her role now she's feel a lot of gaps for us a big one uh is she's still doing intakes for kids who were RPA left the area and coming back in we're taking those kids

back cuz they were our kids so she still does intakes with those kids she's um kind of the liaison to all the programs that we're trying St there so if there's a program that's going on with CD r with family service or anything else she's that point person for all those um which works really well for us if we have a guidance counselor out we had one guidance counselor out who his wife was

uh going for a surgery for a couple weeks she filled that role for those weeks U so she's been busy um I can say that about her if she's she doesn't sit and say I have nothing to do she comes to my office and say what do you need me to do uh and so we she supports the hallway she supports you know kids and behavior issues or whatever so we're utilizing

her it looks like you were really looking for a gap filler at that point at the point that you were asking for a scam so to shift back to that for a second but it sounds to me like by putting all these other positions in place the positions that really would have filled those gaps that makes more sense and so it makes sense to put that on hold for right now but it looks like

you were looking for a gap filler I think so and I think um like putting on hold not kill it and put it on hold because it might be the exact thing we need once we do all this but it could be to your point it could be a clerk who's just you know uh administrates to tie down with paperwork and they could be doing X Y and Z then we need another

clerk but I think that's that's a good assessment as well like at the time I want to be successful every single day I walk in the building there's not a day I go in there and say it's going to be miserable um we were this kid just suspend I'm dealing with that hearing and then two more we're ready to get suspended I'm not getting so we're shifting everyone all over the place and

I think if we had the people in place to have those conversations for those kids prior to them doing that act we could have got them and they wouldn't have been spent they wouldn't have done the next thing they did or they would have fought that day and it really feel like we weren't um getting the touch points we talked about before U we weren't getting those early on because of lack

of lack of adults um and lack of positions and some of that's correcting itself now well I think you have a couple of a lot of things that are playing out where things had been going well we had a year or so of some sort of unraveling without that without the support that you really needed now you're coming in and trying to put these things back in place and it is a

question of what do I actually need M I don't know I don't know what I need because I don't know what I have but now that you're starting to fill in those positions with what you actually what we think you need right then you can better assess later on I think the other point too though about attendance is it sounds to me like there has to be more of a proactive piece before the kids even are

referred to RPA that part of the issue is that they're coming in historically without a educational exper no they're not looking at RPA as a viable option for an education they're looking at RPA is like okay I got kicked out of where I was and off I go so if we do a better job that's not that's not a Mr Riley thing right that's a entire School District thing if we do a better job on

the proactive side right how do we use RPA appropriately what are the things that we put in place and I think that's some of the work that's been trying to happen um but if we do a better job in the on that piece then I think your attendance does go up because those kids aren't seeing it as okay I got dumped here because nobody else wrong as me I think there are a lot of important

conversations that School of principal you know with district office um like what interventions did you try what's the criteria to get here and same thing for us back we can't just say yeah the kids ready no no no we did X Y and Z the attendance is here the grades are there there's been no discipline um stuff so just making sure we're constantly having that conversation I when I call at this

Mars we have great conversations about a kid and uh there's a couple kids I want to send that semester break he's like sure I know you're supporting that I'm I'm good with it get everybody else on board kind of thing so uh and I know those kids that need to come my way that have been really put on hold uh it'd be good to have that systematic piece um that oh systemic across the district

that everybody's tried XYZ interventions this is what we have it's on paper we're ready to go uh to your point I think it's going to help in the last couple years that hasn't happened so like let's be honest about what that would that actually is I I'm going to respectfully because I think that our Middle School principles and the high school they don't send kids with without multiple meetings without interventions

in place no no no that's not what I'm saying that's not that's not what all that's not what I'm saying just before they get there like those interventions may have been in place but maybe that kid needed to be Ascent earlier oh right so that's sort of cces you're absolutely right circumstances at times like right now he's right we haven't sent a lot of kids there are kids that should be there

but we were trying to support RPA and getting systems in place and those principles have held on to those students and put try to different things in place put different things in place still necessarily finding right wasn't trying to say that either let me be clear I'm not saying that nobody they have to like we have to do legally we have to have an intake process and they have to follow it everybody has to

follow no I I'm not so let me back up I'm not suggesting that where that Middle School and High School principles are dumping kids in there not no I I agree I just want to make sure people out there know that there has to be a system because we can't leave it just to somebody say okay I'm going to kick them out and then because that's where you get

that that's been and I think in the last couple of years that communication between all of the schools has not been as consistent for a variety of reasons but now I think you're trying to rebuild that communication process and that's going to be key to getting some of that attendance up because then you know those kids know that there's a warm hand off to hey Mr Riley is going to greet

you when you come outside this is what this is going to look like and that's what I'm a good way to put a warm hand off well that's kind of what we need right because it's like okay Kevin's my student I'm the principal here Kevin's my student I'm sending him over to RPA we need to do a better job of that warm hand off which I think in the past maybe

we've done but there's been a lot of circumstances that have led to we haven't done that in the last couple years so if we can firm that up then it looks better right it feels better and then kids want to be there cuz I have driven by in the morning and I've seen you outside with the kids right and they're there and they're engaged and you know they they look content I mean I

don't know exactly what's going on but I've been stuck in traffic over here and they they look like they're content walking into the building right so that speaks it's about creating a culture where a kids feel y it's your way ship and culture got who teaches the seventh grade that's better do you have seventh grade teachers like how does how does your your classes 7th e8th and n9th all

in one so no no they're not multiple grades so who teaches seventh grade well teachers teach seventh things in ninth grade but not together right but seventh grade is a separate seventh grade separate not to get into individual kids CU there's so few of them I don't want to but I'm looking at the enrollment and part of this was like the enrollment so I somewhere I saw there's four seventh graders MH in the

whole school so if we have a teacher teaching only four kids like and then we say we stop the enrollment process like you I know you said there's a system it's supposed to be a system but then we also said we stopped the system that's not right either right but we didn't have it wasn't right to they didn't have staffed they weren't staffed so they have positions but they weren't staffed it

was not right to send kids into a school that wasn't staffed so we held the kids in their sending until he filled his position we didn't have any teachers teaching the four seventh grade saying that's not was saying no what what I'm saying and I was trying to do it in a different way but we do have students APS that are um substantially separate um classrooms at times right but if I'm

only looking at the enrollment data I know what you're saying so when you look at the enrollment data and there's only four seventh graders but we have teachers teaching seventh graders now I understand that they're in a different program but that would mean we have none of the regular kids like so my only concern is that we are affecting the Middle School like if there's kids that

have done things or whatever and they should have gone through the system to be created here I'm finding out now in January that we haven't taken any of those kids what is the effect on the middle schools which we have a major problem with our middle schools overall like how what what are those kids staying there how are they affecting the middle school and now I just don't I just don't see it the

numbers maybe get some the numbers maybe I got the numbers wrong but well you might be I I don't want to do an identifying thing right but you might be looking at students who are in a a a specialized classroom or whatever so so we have no reged in seventh grade are we clustering sub separate classrooms like is it a cluster of seventh and eighth grade or 78 and N or some separate no I

would say that we have such a small number uh without getting into individual children we don't have any seventh graders who require for classroom at RP so this so what I'm looking at is this chart right here9 says grade seven enoll four that's what I'm talking about so if we which if you look see where it says down below that we are looking to restructure the schedule because of exactly that enrollment numbers that

don't warrant the schedule that was built at the beginning of the year cuz yeah you've got a you've got a seventh grade English class with four kids in it that's what you're asking right so if we're not going to combine those with eighth graders we don't have the ability but we we're not saying we're not now we're saying as we move into second semester so that we are prepared oh yeah that is that is part of

the semesters to that was written in there SU former special ed director really saying like I don't want to identify kids uh and there are kids in that small small group that have specialized Services the the moral of the story is I'm just looking at the data that you present so these are the questions that get begged if anyone looks at this and says we only have four without any further explanation it's begging the

question of how why do we have a a pause on kids that are and we just heard it from multiple people that we've had middle school and high school people but I'm more worried about the Middle School piece here that would have normally sent somebody but we stopped it right that's what I because they couldn't they weren't ready to accept more students they didn't have systems in place they

didn't have the right Staffing in place in order to take on new students addition to that in addition to that in our communication with Middle School principles about the pause we also did not receive any let's just say like red flags we need your help we need kids that need a different spot because in a few circumstances that we needed to have individual conversations with kids and

uh families and those principles we've made exceptions to the lodger but we were not in a position at large across all of the grade levels and as a building to be adding more students over the first first semester of the year I think it's a little bit of looking at it from a different I see what you're saying there's four kids in classroom we have a teacher that's only teaching for

kids but when I I look at it from the perspective of this is the RPA and safety's first right and if the building is not staffed correctly it doesn't matter if there's only one teacher taking English to four kids it becomes a safety issue um because um behaviors can happen at any point in time it can happen in a room with four kids especially if one maybe is struggling

with some more needs so I feel that if the reason that we did not add more kids to the school was for um for safety purposes of the school before we could get before you know principal Riley could get everything in place I'm very comfortable with that because it has to be safety first for our students and for and for the faculty who work there especially if you if we want to keep

them I didn't hear I didn't hear anybody prior to what you just said say that the reason why it was because of safety well I just said that's how I'm assuming that's what it is cuz we're talking about hear from well she said the what she said was School wasn't staffed appropriately and was not ready to take on students I know she's not talking about the four kids in the English class

so she's saying the school as a body was not ready to take on more students cuz they were not staffed appropriately my mind immediately goes well that's probably a safety issue because we're dealing with our per where we have behaviors where we have issues where we have to pull kids to go to guidance or do this or do that and it's a very move move around situation so I don't look at

it as you know I took it immediately as she's meaning it was not a safe situation to bring more kids into because we don't have they did not have the systems in place to make sure everything was kind of functioning properly now that we're working there then I'm assuming that was my next question was when are we going to be when do you feel we're good enough to be lifting and stop and taking these kids

right we' met with our principles we knew they knew that we were going to we wanted to make sure he had hired he had a lot of openings he had a lot of openings this year we wanted to make sure he was staffed like as he said his you had one VP in one VP out one VP in one VP out um so we needed to put you know systems in

place where we felt comfortably that the kids that were sending there are going to be supported appropriately so that they're going to be set up for Success CU I think honestly the worst situation would be to take a child who maybe needs RPA services but pull them and put them into a situation that is less stable than what they were in that's just pushing them back so it needs to be like

s was saying this needs to be a try to make it a better experience when they're moving over that everything's in place and they're going there and they're being welcomed and everybody's ready um with that being said I'm glad that we're now moving forward into that cuz clearly this is a a situation that needs to move quickly can I ask uh how many at all of our schools talking about attendance

don't we have a an attendance power at every school didn't we make that as a recommendation for when we were going over the um this was several years ago now when we talking about attendance policy and the like that we actually hired attendance poers at all the schools no I don't believe so and I I'll be honest I wouldn't recommend that um you know we're at a place that attendance needs to be a communicated

personalized approach having one person focus on any large amount of kids who are not coming to school is nothing is just not the way that we're going to respond to the needs of our our kids and families um so I you know an attendance par at a building um that isn't one might be around search that because I'm quite certain it was to make phone calls to help make to assist in that

specifically my only concern with that is when you talked before about not fair is not equal I disagree with that because what I think is there needs to be a structure at each school for certain it's like a skeleton a basic piece so if we have hired in the past in attendance power which whether they're using cuz we used to hire them we hired them keep the principales hired them and

we told we're going to use them for certain things which we thought was attendance help them make the phone calls not being the sole person but to make that then we found out that no they're using them in other ways sub classes and do all this other stuff that is a problem systemwide so my question was because I'm not seeing anybody here in the office except for a clerk and we

talk about a Sam and then we talk about guidance and we talk about records and we talk about this and that so that begs the question that we need somebody else office par yeah Mo most schools have an office par most schools have an office par and when you research that when you research it back but when you research it back yes you're right it was going to see the records that it was said based

on attendance we're going to do this so then I said a year and a half later how are we making out with it then when we asked that question the attendance task force went out and then we said what about the office par doing well the subn classes and people in the buildings talk to us and tell us what is happening somebody's hired as a attendance par in the office it may be doing attendance at

one school the other school's using them to do this Duty and that Duty so I think you need to look at what it is and look at potentially separate from the sand piece having a second person in the office so that like if for instance the clerk's out what happens at that school who answers the phone who helps to manage the meetings and if for a a shorter amount of money than a higher

person having the second person or a building do you have a building sub uh we have yes or no so we have someone who came on as building sub but she can only work Monday Wednesday and Fridays so time I think adding something like uh that would help like did just say we need even if it's a pause like I were saying we're going to pause until you're ready adding an extra person as a sub to

be there to help with some of these things as you getting this up and running is also well every building is supposed to have a building sub but as you know every building is short people you're right if we could only get them but I'm saying you have a budgeted line item yes we do for that so if he's using one right now for 3 days a week he should have the ability to call in just

another person on Tuesday and Thursday if that's the case it's something just you need to have coverage and I'm thinking I'm looking that there's a missing link here but if we as a committee a couple years ago voted to say we want an office attendance power at every school but if we but if we did that right two years ago he should have had one the last principal should have had

them he should have had them if we we made a motion to say we're going to give an office power to everybody we made a motion as a group to say for elll we were going to have a a par in every Foundation classroom so that would mean that's like a blanket you should have one so if we made a motion to say in the budget we're going to have an attendance

bar at every school I I'll look to see why they didn't or when that stopped and if if that's the case then um he'll post for one I I'll look to see why they don't have one I have I I mean since I've been I've never seen one there but we will look to see what they had there used to there used to be two people in theice day we had like a clerk and then

you had an office power that help to be remember when I got any other questions on this so what are we doing 31 are we just tabling it how does that for right now I think I think so motion to table it motion made table second all in favor I so voted any other new business R you have anything you want to add that we didn't maybe glost over or

no I mean I talk a a little bit about um one of the programs that seems to be very successful is we hired a former um employee uh through our Shannon Grant to do uh MMA um Brian Rosa one of our um principles talit generously um lets us use his gym um through Shannon we pay joggen de Castro who is a former security guard at high school to work

with our kids doing MMA uh kids love it uh it's it's one of those carrots that we use to say not today buddy but we're doing it 4 days a week so maybe Thursday is your day just let's be here the next two days and whatever the conversation is uh seems to be working pretty well um and it hasn't gone in front of the school committee because it hasn't happened yet but I think they'll be

donating um five bags to punch of bags to be able to do it right at RPA at the end of the day so we'll include those for the kids and they won't have to travel cuz I do think even though the systems been very good to us about Transportation um we want to go at a time that couriers are at a bad spot either picking up things and they fit Us

in every single time so it's not a negative it's actually a positive and we have a space for this at RP like where these we do so we have the um Regular gym where the basketball court is right behind it there's another room it's a workout room we have some workout equipment there that needs to be put in it okay um but it sounds like at least from jgen that they're willing to donate

some bags on top of it so that will come front of the school committee to take that donation if you accept it and uh I think we'll be able to do things in the house a little better good and they go what time do they go during the school day yeah they go after lunch so uh if they we try to get the middle school out like 11:15 uh and so they eat lunch at

like 11:00 so if they're late um we say bad lunch when you come back and we have that prepared for them when they come back they eat uh then 12:00 first lunch we have the kids go at like 12:10 so if they didn't get a chance to eat bag lunch when they come back U with whatever they had so I would I would look into the the vehicles that we purchased for the district that's kind

of the point of of us being able to do that with a license you know like it's Insurance all that stuff so because it is hard to get transportation and it's costly but if we can use our own people to yeah that's who we are using just so I'm clear that's who we are using and I'm saying we're probably taxing the system where we might not have to

because we can do it right in house so I really want to get to that place that you're paying for it use it somewhere else if we don't need it if we can do it at home we'd rather do it at home anyway cuz if it's going to be snow next week do I want to send kids in The Courier van out to a regimen we just cancel

probably that day so if I can get him to come to us it makes more sense for everybody I think anything else any other new business motion to adj second second all in favor IED thank you all have a great night thank you