The Fall River School Committee held a special meeting on Wednesday, March 29th, 2023, to discuss the Fall River Public Schools fiscal year 2024 budget. Superintendent and Mr. Almeida had previously presented the draft budget on March 20th, and rationales for additional positions were shared on Friday. The meeting adopted a new format, foregoing individual principal presentations in favor of a school-by-school question-and-answer session with principals and department heads present to clarify budget items. Key discussions revolved around staffing needs, particularly in social-emotional learning (SEL), special education, and English Language Learner (ELL) support. Concerns were raised about chronic absenteeism rates across the district, especially at Mary Fonseca School, and strategies to improve attendance were discussed, including the role of community facilitators and attendance officers. Specific schools like Cuss Middle School and RPA faced questions regarding teacher vacancies, particularly for licensed special education teachers, and the adequacy of support for students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). The committee also touched upon the need for more licensed professionals in therapeutic schools and the potential for a Deputy Superintendent position to address administrative needs. The meeting covered budget proposals for numerous schools including Mary Fonseca, Green, Letourno, Sylvia, Spencer Borden, Tansey, Watson, Doran, Stone, Cuss Middle, Morton Middle, Talbot Middle, RPA, and Durfee High School, as well as departments like Art and Music, Health, Nurses, and Physical Education. Dr. Barnhart from Henry Lloyd and Cindy Kudo from Pace Early Childhood were noted as absent but would be available at the next meeting. The committee adjourned to continue the budget discussion on the following Monday, April 3rd, at 5:15 PM.
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okay I'd like to call to order the Wednesday March 29th special meeting of the Florida school committee um Deb would you please call the roll Mr Agnew here Mr Bailey Mr harp here here Ms Pereira Miss Roderick here mayor Coogan here let's salute to the flag United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all
0:51pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium 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 we have no citizens input tonight so we'll go straight to the committee of the whole
1:15discussion on the far Public Schools fiscal year 24 budget I'd like to turn it over to the superintendent to discuss the format thank you Mr Mayor as you know on March 20th Mr Almeida and I presented the draft budget to the school committee as a whole you've had some time to review the budget hopefully we also on Friday shared with you all the rationales for additional positions that
1:42principals put together what you have which you also had time to review obviously the process this year is a little different we're changing the format based on feedback from the committee we are not going to have principals come to the podium and present and advocate for their schools individually I will say that the process has happened internally with us as it has in the past every single principle
2:10in department head met with me and our senior staff as we we viewed their school reviewed their asks and and then you know acted accordingly whether we supported those positions every position that was asked for was based on data and based on school needs so we have all of our principals and department heads here tonight as was discussed at a previous meeting my recommendation would be that
2:40we would start with principles they are available to us for you to ask any questions clarify anything and then we move over to the Departments if time allows tonight so with that I I turn it over to all of you uh Miss laravey yes Madam superintendent uh do you think we should just follow school by school as it is uh in the binder start with Fox if there's any questions for fontska yes no and then
3:10move on right you think I think that um there might be some questions for some schools and not for others so certainly we can give everyone an opportunity if they have questions fine that principal is here I will um let me just preface by saying I notified you uh Dr Barnhart is not here they have parent teacher conferences tonight she will be available next week at the meeting to
3:32answer any questions and also from Pace uh Cindy Kudo is not here she's at a conference so she will be available next week to answer any questions other than Dr Bernhard all the other principals are here as well as all other department heads but I would say yes we could go school by school and ask if anyone has any questions or clarification and then if they don't then we move on to the next school thank you
3:56okay anything further before we get going okay so I believe we'll start with Mary fonsica obviously Mary fonzica is a school off of Bedford Street and I'll take any questions anyone has for Mary Fonseca
4:18when I look at it I think some of what is different this year than in the past was we've actually been adding things throughout the year so um some of the things that I would typically want to know would be how does um their Administration compared to the other schools so I would ask a general comment or suggestion to get us that uh printout that shows us all that I don't
4:45know if it's in there or not I might have missed it but that's going to answer some of what would be my questions but when I look at Fonseca I know we spent a lot of money there and I know that's a level for our school just looking at the new programs you only have four um positions there so I'm taking from that that you and the principal and the leadership over they think that that's
5:08all they need to turn that school around right am I wrong for that or is that what no that's actually accurate I I agree that um the thing is you know that we've had funding available to us so we have made it a point that to add positions to any of the schools as needed principals have come before this body and advocated for their schools based on what their needs were so the
5:30structure of that building is already because they're level four we already had created a structure for Success we are adding more positions to support the needs the current needs of the school but I'm confident that that is a structure that is in place that is needed at this time thank you and Mr almir I'm assuming you're going to tell me it's in here I yeah buried somewhere but yeah it's in the it's actually just
5:52to point it out it's in the tab called FY 24 budget summary and it's right near the back of that tab it's the page looks like this thank you very much sir appreciate it thank you further on Fonseca thank you no it's just I just have one question so when I'm looking at the rationale for some of the positions right it's all around social emotional learning and special education in MLS supports which
6:18we know is kind of where I live right but I do have a question about how how are we going to support attendance there because we ended the school year at a 45 chronically absent rate and we currently are at a 44 so I don't see it in the rationale but if there's some way to explain like what are we doing to support that and do those positions need to remember that we have a new
6:44assistant superintendent um for social emotional learning and student services that is coming on board as a district we need to have some uh uh an aggressive uh plan in regards to supporting School attendance uh District wide as well as individual schools I agree those numbers are there's very little difference we have um you know our attendance officers and our every single School this year has
7:13we're finally fully staffed with community facilitators that have done work with that as we transition as you know there's going to be some transition at Fonseca that will be prioritized as because if we're going to turn that school around our that 45 of the kids need to be in school yeah we've seen I I was looking through them and we have some pretty good positive changes for the other ones but
7:37Fonseca stood out to me that it really has kind of stayed flat yep I agree would you I can speak to specifics uh regarding what's in place at Fonseca now and continue will continue to be that will support some of this uh the Fonseca school has an attendance team that meets weekly with the attendance officer that team includes the school adjustment counselors the vice principal the school
8:01nurse the the parent worker the school secretary the school paraprofessional that works in the office she's Portuguese speaking so she is active on the team as she communicates with a lot of the families excuse me and we have a a system in place where there's different tiered supports at fonsica so students we do some proactive stuff that will continue to support the students that are in
8:31person each day that are showing up on time recognizing them with Awards and then when we get into like sort of that tier two students that may be either approaching The Chronic Mark there are letters that go home there's parent phone calls that are made and everything's logged and documented what we did see when we kind of do a root cause analysis during some of those meetings to look at the students that
8:55make up that chronic at the beginning of the year there were some challenges with our mckinney-vento students and so there were some students that were not attending school for several weeks due to Transportation okay uh I'm not sure specifically how many of students but I know for a fact like there was at least one set of siblings so that would add two you know two students um on top of you know the others that
9:21may be sick or out of school with covid uh at fonsicle we also do see an uptick in uh parents taking their children on vacation many of the parents will take their children out of the school for a week or two at a time to go visit family whether it's for vacation and or emergencies out of the country uh and so that right there will be five ten days on a student and that's not including if
9:46that student does fall sick or ill that year so we really do look at a case-by-case root cause analysis basis and there's a lot of structures and supports in place so I think you'll see that on the flip side where the average daily percentage is up a little bit hopefully you know we'll start to see The Chronic go down but I think that some of what I had presented to you just
10:08now is because is a cause of that thank you for that thank you and uh Mr Hart thank you Mr Mayor and thank you for explaining that because I I agree with Mr rodericks I was looking at the um attendance rate in the chronically absent rate and they are district-wide uh pretty alarming at certain points and the fact that you're meeting with your group um is did you say on a monthly monthly a
10:34weekly basis the attendance team meets okay yep that's very good and I just I would just maybe also want to know if the um the other schools are doing that as well I'm sure they are I'm assume I assume they are because it's it's something that we have to deal with and also too just a quick question I'm on the subcommittee for the parent engagement and Mr Roderick shares it
10:51with Mr Bailey as well and how is that at the school and I guess it's a question for the other schools the parent engagement as it uh pertains to the class the two attendance is that being um looked at as well in regards to the parents coming forth and meeting with the staff to discuss student attendance Maybe not maybe not that it's not that so much but that actually wouldn't be a
11:12bad idea but I'm thinking maybe um as far as uh you know the attendance officer has that has that uh affiliation with with the families right so there's ongoing communities is that something that is constantly uh daily daily I would say regularly yes between the attendance officer and the community facilitator the two of them are actively reaching out to parents and families the
11:36families will reach out to us we've had and we had piloted the parent worker at Fonseca several years ago as a part of the turnaround and we've had the same worker and it shifted over to the community facilitator role and so she's established a lot of positive relationships with the community overall it with Fonseca and so she does a great job with communicating with the families ahead of time
11:57um you know if we do know that they're going to go on vacation we will give them a little work there's nothing that we can really do to penalize the parents and families in an active way without really you know going the court route and sometimes that's a little bit of a challenge because we want to have those positive relationships with the families we want to honor the fact that they you know are
12:16have a family in other countries that they do need to go back to for different reasons so the families do work with us we work with the parent worker but the attendance officer really collaborates well with the school and is active on a daily basis not just when she's there she's always available by phone communication so if we need children to be picked up she's always there and available and as far as attendance
12:40officers for your school you have one I have one and that's that's enough you think I mean it would be great to have that one available at Fonseca on a regular basis to be a part of you know the parent Outreach I know the community worker with our population and just trying to stay on top of the daily phone calls and reaching out to the parents and families you know she does a great
13:03job in the school club but she's not always there she's had another school she's at another school but like I said she's always able to be reached by phone if needed but to actively be at the school and meet with parents that would be a different game changer if she was physically within the building to be able to hold those meetings but she's done things virtually with parents over
13:22the phone she's gone out and done home visits as well so she's very active and just Madam superintendent do you think that's something that we could look at as far as having more attendance officers rather than have them go to Once to go to each I don't know how I don't know how they I think what I want to attendance office has like two or three schools that they do right it
13:41depends on the size of the school this is the first time I'm hearing this but um we did add the community facilitator to do the work to do that sort of work and every school has a student support team attendance belongs to everybody in school it can can't just belong to the attendance office the tennis officer has to do the tier three so certainly I think that right now we need to
14:04um have solid systems in place in every single school first before we because adding a position is not necessarily going to fix the problem we have to get to the root of that problem and put systems in place certainly that's something that we can explore to see if that's something we need additionally but um I think that we have to yeah and I'm not saying that that's that's the
14:25the answer to it all but I'm just trying to yeah no no look at it look at it and it's chronically throughout the district so I agree something's got to change and I hope it'll be this year I I think it is going to be this year I agree with you we're we're rebounding from the bad habits of kovid um certainly I'm not saying that that's not necessarily down the road but I what
14:45I'm saying is like what we said was we wanted the community facilitator to build those relationships with families we we deployed one to every single school to do some of that work because because some of that work day-to-day work needs to happen in the school every day that's not necessarily day-to-day work that an attendance office is going to do they're going to do the tier three
15:06work yeah for the most chronic students I think I think that what you did started this year for is gonna definitely exactly so at the end of this year or even next year it could take that a little longer but um just any ideas that can be helpful to help it out so I yield thank you anything for fonzaga okay thank you Miss Lisi um next in our agenda is the green
15:33school do we have any I mean obviously when you look at the attendance across the district as Mr Hart and Miss Rogers pointed out it's very very similar so I gotta believe we're going to hear a number of the same answers attendance across the state is in in a very tough spot so I hope that the habits of the students that thought it was okay to stay home start to get themselves in
15:56it's very important for the district and for our scores anything further on the Green School hearing none will go to the laterno school if we could just skip over Mr Simpson thought that the meeting was at cuss he's on his way so if we could go to the next one we'll go back uh we'll go to the Sylvia School any questions on the Sylvia School Mr agya the various lead teachers is
16:32that to make it similar to other schools is that what the seven is because of they didn't have any at this time so they're going to add them to the grade levels and to the subsequent program well that's where you get to Seven because otherwise it's not seven right minutes the um I would say the same question and I've been looking at the chart that Mr Almeda talked about just it's just begging the question which I
17:00think we can have discussion offline or maybe just look at it to when you there's some that have a lot and some that don't maybe at one page because if I look back to what is in the one pager here it doesn't necessarily explain why they might be less so rather than ask that same question over and over I think between meetings if we could say you and your team go through it and look and say
17:20yeah it makes sense like okay this school has one of those tansy school I think has one position there's a rationale for that if we could just get a one pick up a little paragraph on each of them I think it'll just help us to thank you our yield I'm gonna make the assumption that because we have three sacks that we're about to sort that we're looking at okay yeah that's it thank you anything further on
17:47Sylvia School hearing none Spencer Borden Spencer Borden
18:02hearing nothing on Spencer Borden we'll go to the tansy any questions on the tansy school in their budget go right ahead there miss rodericks so why don't we have an scl liaison at tansy so we've got I know we have two sacks there um we know how I feel about the skl liaison positions and so that's always the question that's going to come up so I presented that to my sax and at this
18:34moment we feel like with the two that we have we're good we are entertaining it possible for the future but with this being my first year we're going to see how it goes for right now sure thing it's always going to be my question we asked um for that yes okay I yield thank you thank you I'm Mr aggia I just want to just want to follow up on that uh suggestion
19:00I understand that the principals would ask for things and not ask for things and sometimes I've asked this in the past that people don't necessarily always sit when they meet with the superintendent and others to see exactly all the pieces to miss roderick's point every school should have a sele as a minimum that's a minimum in my opinion so if we have a school with 700 kids with three sacks
19:24they should have three SEL Liaisons that's a system and I know it's not going to be perfect but when we have a school with with what do they have there one sack now but to you know we just should look at what is it what is the rationale for that so at that school we have 275 kids or whatever the number is 276 students we have two School adjustment counselors now we all know the school adjustment
19:46counselor is the certified person whatever at 276 students with no SEL liaison maybe the rationale should be when you've got 276 students who have one school adjustment counselor and one SEO liaison or potentially two SEL Liaisons for very similar dollars it's just more bang for your buck when I'm looking at the um in that regard but we have tansy at uh 2.3 million and then if I go down to uh the Watson
20:16with 242 students is 2.2 million so looking at the big picture I you know I've said that before about the how much more money can we put into uh the Watson but when I look at it in this regard I say the little tancy's only got 2.3 million so this food for thought it those are the kind of questions that come into my head with that I yields anything further on tansy um
20:45um Mr Simpson came back okay Mr Simpson okay we'll go um uh thanks guys Mr Simpson's here now if we have any questions let's go back to laterno any questions on laterno okay thanks for rushing here first year no questions I feel obligated to ask one I can uh can I ask a question I don't want them to feel bad starting to feel bad he's here to help before you came Mr
21:19Simpson I was asking about the uh some things have been added to the schools during the year and I believe that you had a couple of scles on set the last meeting okay am I correct on that uh one it was added uh at the last meeting so my quick question to you is with the what you have here for five or six positions you have one more is that enough for you
21:42in the school or is it that um you feel like that there's things that you need that you didn't ask for no I I think for me I'm taking an approach um with labor the way that it is right now I'm trying to take a more staggered approach to positions where I can it's a new position for us at the school we really want to learn from Mike I want to learn from my colleagues how they've
22:05leveraged the position successfully um and then be able to build hopefully I can onboard one person prior to the end of the year this year get them trained get them in into our school at another in July have those two for next year and then reassess based on where we're at and when you add a position like that if you have people in houses that's a priority typically we we would um
22:33obviously go through we're starting a hiring committee we're identifying qualities that would we would want to see in order to meet the job description we're setting um because we do have a lot of internal candidates so it's important to us to make sure that each of them are interviewed and we have a strong process that leverages internal candidates and external candidates yeah that's all I
22:56was asking is that if you have if you've been help if you've been not grooming but like getting people ready to work with the children in the in-house to me that makes the most sense but and I think that's what you're saying too with that ideal thank you sir Mr Hart thank you Mr Mayor um Mr Simpson nothing into the school budget or anything for your school but uh curious to know what any updates with the
23:17traffic pattern that how's that working out going yeah you know I I appreciate all of our our neighbors um and their support it was a big shift for the community but it's a ship for the positive um obviously we know in inclement weather is when we really feel a challenge and of course this year it doesn't snow at all but we'll be prepared um we have a great team of crossing guards uh support staff that
23:42help to get the 650 students in and out of the building but um in my informal surveys with the bus drivers monitors uh local the parents neighbors uh it's generally a positive impact on the the school in the neighborhood environment okay thank you can I just add to that anecdotally so on a positive note I drive that way just about every day in the morning as school is starting and then usually in the
24:10afternoon around like 3 3 15 and I can tell you that it's a dramatic difference positively from what it's been in the past so whatever's happening is working um at least like speaking as someone who goes in that direction every day I'd like to get this fist pump on the record please thank you Mr Simpson um vavaris do we have any questions for the faveris you do Miss larvy where's she way up top yes
24:57you can probably predict what I'm going to ask you right no just the uh the the challenges that you discussed in the first part with the MLL coach and we reset sorry for my voice not feeling that great but um the we we discussed this what like three months ago the subcommittee meeting and just an update um can you just get into a little more detail on what some of those challenges
25:22are and what you think this is going to look like with only maybe one MLL coach in there what do you think with those 12 classes how like what do you think you'll be asking later down there or is this something we should start with now it's hard to First see especially it's not something we've done before right um and just like any new program you know we're discovering as we're going
25:45what needs to be tweaked and you know what would help us and what would benefit us and the addition of the MLL coach would be definitely a step in the right direction as to supporting those teachers because let's face it we've never done Spanish instruction before in Fall River for elementary students so having that Spanish Immersion class they need a little bit more support than we're able
26:06to give them right now so with the addition of that position it's going to be not solely for our dueling which also for our foundational classrooms but it'll be a big added support for them right okay I was I mean all right I yield for now okay if anybody else has a question anybody else have anything for viveris hearing none uh we'll go to Watson Watson um I do want to comment I was in there
26:41the other day for reading day and I want to tip my hat to Kenny and the crew of the maintenance Division and the facilities like you can see that school coming together uh the additional bathrooms on the second and third floor uh make the school much more livable for the kids I think you know once we get done there that's going to be very similar to one of the old small Showplace schools it's
27:06uh it's got a nice climate and uh the kids seem like they were really engaged while I was there so I was very pleased to see progress on that building anything further on Watson hearing none we'll go to Doran um anything anything on Dorian okay as as the superintendent said Henry Lloyd is um going to do a presentation at the next one so we'll go to Stone School anybody have a comment on the stone school
27:48I just want to comment oh Mr aggia the question I just have is on the um I believe we have one school adjustment Council now there for the first time
28:07yes we have one school adjustment Council and then I know we talked about this in the past but like the five behavior therapists or whatever the position is called has there been any turnover in those hooks or no I I would just think that the um the therapeutic Day School should have more licensed folks in the building in my opinion on the on the mental health needs and the social emotional
28:36learning and all that stuff so it's not I'm not asking you to comment on it now I'm just giving you my two cents is that I think that moving forward we need to have more licensed folks in there however we do it we I think we need to uh to get it done because it was spending the money but I don't necessarily know that we have those not to say the other people aren't qualified but
28:55when you're a therapeutic school you should have more licensed people would be my consension with that ideal thank you anything further for stone hearing none custom Middle School next time I think that's the ladies uh didn't you say cuss was okay because Middle School anybody have any questions for cuss hearing none yes I have a question Mr agya
29:38hi good evening good evening so my question is just on the um there's a few positions only that are listed but looking at the vacancies I think there's a lot of vacancies at your school and I don't know if that I don't know the rationale and I don't have a easy solution to it but it begs the question of how many people are non-license that are working there and do we have the right supports in place
30:05for that at your school um if you could just comment on shorts on that yeah we do have we do have a number of vacancies both um teacher vacancies and paraprofessional vacancies in the last few weeks we've actually been seeing um quite an uptick in the number of applications we're getting so I think that that's a good sign and we've hired a number of paraprofessionals over the last month our teacher vacancies are
30:32primarily in the areas of inclusion special education and I think that that is a challenge this year across the district a special education positions and then also ESL positions so all of our foundational ESL classes are fully staffed but the level three and above ESL students we have struggled to find ESL teachers for for those students so obviously Staffing is a major priority going into the summer and
31:08into next year filling those positions I think that teacher hiring across the board and across the country has been a real challenge this year but in terms of the support for new people coming in and those who came in not licensed or emergency licensed we do have the benefit this year which we have not had in the past of an Ela interventionists slash instructional coach that is working especially with
31:38our new English language arts teachers and that has been extremely helpful to support them observing in their classrooms and doing coaching Cycles with them we unfortunately have not been able to have the same level of support for New Math teachers this year because while we do have a math coach and she's incredible she's a coach interventionist she is actually feeling a vacant math
32:04position right now her teaching load is slightly lighter than a regular teacher's schedule so she is spending um some time with new teachers who really have the need but hopefully next year she will be able to devote her time to her true coach interventionist role and support those Math teachers in that way but next year um you know and I I think the the priority is filling the ESL teacher
32:31roles even before we bring in an ESL coach obviously we need to have the teachers but next year the idea would be that we would also have an ESL coach to support our new teachers in that area so how many special education inclusion teachers do you have in your school right now uh in our budget or in your school in the budget whatever like it's one of the same so in our
32:57school right now we have we have two sixth grade inclusion teachers one for ELA and one for math those positions uh are filled and are we're and and so those students are getting uh all of their services in um in eighth grade we have an Ela inclusion teacher that started with us a couple months ago we were glad to bring her on uh we do not have a math inclusion teacher in eighth grade right
33:23now uh however we are fortunate that one of our Math teachers is do a licensed in special education she used to be a special education teacher she's dual licensed with math and special education and so she is providing the services and accommodations for our eighth grade math students and we have a similar situation in seventh grade right now in seventh grade we don't have any inclusion
33:49teachers hired we do have an Ela teacher that is dual certified with special ed and so she is servicing our special education students for English in seventh grade yeah so what happens when that if you don't have a teacher so what services do the kids get and right um so we do we have um other people who are like paraprofessionals in some cases or our ISL who are pushing into classrooms to support our inclusion
34:20classes those are not licensed special Educators but they are providing the more individualized attention and support that is needed and then we're going to be looking at some programming that we're going to need to do during the summer and things like that in order to give more time and attention and a small instruction to students that need it we also do have an intervention block
34:44throughout the week so students who have those extra needs are getting smaller group instruction through the intervention block that they go to yeah and it's not easy to fill I get it I understand it you know I've gotten a couple complaints from parents about not getting the services that the children need in their IEPs from your school and I think when we don't have anybody we it
35:07at some point it becomes a problem and then what do we do and then if we look across the district I'm assuming everybody else is having it but if we have Middle School teachers that are if other schools are filled in and have them I don't know why we couldn't move some people but ultimately we shouldn't have any grade without special education I'm not telling you that anything that
35:30you don't know but I can tell you that I've gotten complaints about it and that's why I'm raising the concern bill but with that Ayo thank you for the info anything uh further for us okay thank you um next up is Morton Morton Middle School anything on the Morton Middle School budget question Mr aguir see ya I see the vice principal and I think that's the rationale is to do like uh the other
36:02schools with one one for each grade I'm assuming and the I believe Morton has a little more students or around the same as Talbot or whatever they're actually the highest um right now they're actually the highest uh enrollment of the three middle schools certainly last year if you recall we uh you know uh added a third VP to cuss um certainly that's been a good addition we've been able to create grade level
36:33teams with administrate administrative teams we would like to replicate that at the other two middle schools also there are significant needs every school has subgroup larger subgroup populations and I think that they need the support so that's why the yeah I 100 support that and it's not necessarily you don't need to answer sir I just want to make a point that I've gotten a lot of
36:59complaints also about the order in the building and discipline in the building and that like so I don't need you to answer I understand there's two sides to every story but when I see this here it looks like we need to do do it but we also need to make sure everybody's holding the kids to the same standards and they if you don't have the three people I get it but as far as I'm
37:18concerned when I see that we have three Vice principles we should have order and discipline in the school and a lot of times again I know I understand you know but I've been hearing this for several years that that school's changing like this so I'll tell you right now I support more discipline there and more structure as far as laying down The rules but thank you very much are you
37:38okay any uh further questions for Morton hearing none we'll go to Talbot The Talbot Middle School any questions on Talbot's budget proposal hearing none um anybody have any questions on RPA if I could just um the principal was running a little late she's on her way in so if we could skip over and bring her up after at the bottom it's fine okay we'll hold that one next up is Durfee Durfee
38:12High School anybody have any questions on Durfee uh just a comment question Mr agya there's a lot of positions here it's hard to go through all of them but um my concern is looking at how many um the ratio you know the needs are higher we've added and added and added to the adjustment Council I see one another one here we have them Specialists and and the like the um and I think the rationale maybe Mr
38:51Damaris can answer but I think the student support specialist one is is that for the one per grade like each year you've been adding one so right now we do have one per grade this would be specific to the ESL program the the high needs that our students are coming in from from offshore or or other points on the globe okay a lot of the students coming in I have a major uh adjustment
39:14period where where they're adjusting to a new school a new climate a new country many of these students have experienced trauma or witnessed some things along the way on their Journey if they're coming from especially Central America um so we we feel that this support piece is critical to getting our students settled in and welcomed and the adjustment counselor on the the um the additional one you already have
39:41one for ESL right so I have a guidance counselor who is also licensed as a sac in that role um and her the the we had over 100 kids come in this year and and again like I said uh with the support Specialists um the need for counseling is intense so looking at these two particular positions we're looking at someone with language capacity as well um so that you know if the trilingual
40:05would absolutely be uh the ideal that if they spoke Spanish Portuguese and English so that's the service the ESL population is the cheat that I'm looking at with the summary doesn't have that that's why I I wasn't exactly sure but the other my last question for you is on the um I believe we talked about this at the special education subcommittee you're adding a few autism teachers
40:29and can you just tell me again what the um leadership isn't within that population and you're building the leadership in the special education so we've got a high school supervisor and then we also have two cluster coordinators which is the new term we're using right one focused on ASD and one focused on our community-based program that program is growing the students that that turn 18
40:57are staying with us longer so one of those rooms one of those ASD rooms they're adding is for the 18 to 22 year olds and then three of the rooms are based on need of students rolling up from the Middle School so they're covered Osiris yeah it's a separate division of of that yes you're not dealing with it all no we have we have people that have focused on these programs so they kind of sit under
41:21the umbrella of the special education supervisor and then those two individuals the ASD coordinator and the community-based coordinator uh the other boots on the ground folks that are in there handling stuff every day yep I'll just say the same I mean if you have a lot of students in there and a lot of needs and we're also giving you a lot of positions and a lot of money and you
41:39know what that comes along with so I'm looking forward to seeing the positive results thank you thank you okay um I see that uh principle of RPA has joined us so we can jump back up to that one does anybody have any questions for RPA any questions for RPA hearing none yes oh I'm sorry I'm sorry I didn't see you go ahead uh Miss Brooks
42:15and then good evening good evening so I see that you all you're only adding one position correct according to this so that would tell me that you feel like you're 100 uh what you need in order to make the gains over there that we need yes we reviewed it carefully and we just came to that determination do you have any vacancies right now uh in any of your teaching positions still are they all
42:41filled I know we asked this before um we do not have a vacancy but we do have some people who are covered on uh waiver yep similar to my last comment to the uh teacher how about the special education program at your school we now we since I've spoken with you last we do we did hire two new hires who um who are working with the supervisor of special education for the district and
43:08um for my school and they are working on making sure that everything is in place for the students who have needs as dictated by their IEP so you hired licensed people since the since the last meeting those two teachers are not hired they're not licensed in special education which is why they're working closely with the supervisor of special education so I missed that those two teachers are
43:32not licensed in special education but they are working closely with the supervisor of special education to make sure that the students needs are being met so how many licensed special education teachers do you have in your building we have two and what do they do are they in substantially separate classes they are in they are the instructional support teachers yeah that that concerns me it concerned
44:00me at the last meeting concerns me again about how are we servicing the kids I think I read in somewhere in your narrative that 100 of the students have special needs it was like I think the first sentence in the narrative 100 I thought I read something like that was like a a good number like it was pretty high yeah that wasn't 100 it was a high number yes
44:2236 wasn't it yes it was about that I believe 37 if I'm not mistake I'm just concerned when they're not if we don't have licensed people we can't necessarily provide the services and that poses a problem for I'm sure it was a problem for you too but it definitely poses a problem for me I know we talked in the past about having second shift uh workers so that you know you can get wraparound Services there's any
44:45increases on that or is that status quo you just have where you have can you repeat the question I want to make sure you're asking especially in an alternative school the importance of having workers that work at the time not necessarily until three o'clock when those kids leave we had talked in the past about increasing the opportunities for having people that would work maybe a staggered shift so that they'd be
45:07working till six o'clock at night attendance offices whatever people you know facilitators do you have anybody that is on their daily you know I did discuss that with my supervisor Miss Ponce and we are discussing opportunities for that for next year budget they are covered in the budget covers each of the positions that we need right now but we are working to make sure that some things are staggered next year to
45:35be able to offer students the opportunity for some alternative times in the school and that's going to require bargaining because we can't just change teachers hours so we're going to have to work with the Union in order to do that yeah what I was referring to at the meetings was when we we create new positions like a community facilitator uh if we ever added another attendance officer or things like that to me the
46:04time to do different things like that is when we're adding those folks that's what I was referring to especially at the alternative school maybe you got a position that it's not being as useful because you need to go and visit these kids after school after hours at night then you and the people don't work that way so that's what I was referring to but I'm sure you're going to work with
46:23the superintendent to try to get some more I just can't stress enough that we need to do things differently down there with that yields okay thank you thank you uh Miss Pereira hi just really quick I know you would last year that I had a guidance counselor to help with the intake process so to streamline that process how is that going um is it improved for the students and do you feel you need any more support
46:49there or do you feel it's successful the way it is I it's it's it's going very well she's able to dedicate herself to that it's not split between taking care of the other guidance counsel needs that a typical guidance counsel will have to have and also doing this we're able to do more connections with the parents when um you know following up after the intake process so it has been uh beneficial to us
47:15thank you Miss Brooks oh oh I'm I'm slipping again miss Rodricks have one question on the priority area and I'm just wondering where the nesto the attendance rate where we have the numbers at the top but then down here we have a priority area of increasing the attendance rate by a minimum of 10 from 64 and a half to 74 and a half but where did the 64 and a half come from we got the information
47:44from um Desi from um from Desi that's the daily record so the most schools all schools have um attendance goal and a lot of them it's to increase daily attendance by 10 percent and then reduce The Chronic absence no just comparing that to the two numbers that were up here so that's why I was yep just confused okay oh all right I gotcha okay that and if it needs to be clarified we'll give you that
48:14information okay thanks again Miss Brooks thank you you're welcome okay um next up we're going to take a couple of uh groups together um unless someone objects obviously art and music we have Miss Francisco here for any questions about art and music all right
48:42probably quicker to ask than does every school have an art teacher yes okay I probably should have asked Miss Brooks but does RPA have an art teacher yes okay all right position there I meant to look at it I never did that was going to be coming up I yield thank you who knows what you said any other questions oh any questions about health we have healthier also with us tonight any questions about health um
49:18we have a couple of um smaller groups down the stretch here that if we can clear them up tonight next Monday we will tackle the pieces we don't get you know and I'll just say put a hold on them because I don't believe we invited those people tonight and I don't want to give them any anybody have any questions on the nurses yeah there's no change um how about on the pace Early Childhood
49:47well she's not here she's at a conference yeah but if no one has any questions no okay phys Ed is not here school committee it's not here his head's here oh I'm sorry physical education anybody have any questions about physical education too I meant I should have done that with health having a bad night anybody have any questions about that thank you um I don't think the school committee
50:16budget changed much did it Mr Almeida anybody have any questions on our budget okay so um about well special I'm looking at the big ones we have left special ed there may be Chicago student services does anybody have any questions on student services Mr agya just uh just the point of clarification this superintendent had mentioned that this was going to be about schools only okay
50:42so I just I personally wasn't prepared to ask those but I was hoping it was a couple simple ones but if not you're but I do have a question related to the schools and special education well we got special ed next week but it's related to the school piece so okay if I could maybe ask Mr openchain a question mm-hmm good evening good evening so over the years when we've had meetings related to
51:09the budget one of the things that just doesn't sit well with me is when we talk about inclusion and you heard what I had just asked a few people Michael probably asked that same question to all schools yeah one thing that this doesn't make sense to me and I know that we're spending a lot of money and I said this last year at the same budget time is that when we have children that have
51:29an inclusion IEP we apparently only service those children with special Educators in English and math but not social studies and science is that something that is sort of okay I I mean I it just has never sat well with me so I have people parents you know I've had people in my family the same thing that when they have a need for the English and math and they go to social studies and Science
51:58and there's not a person it just doesn't logically fit with me so right you're new I want to give you the opportunity to say but we're spending millions of dollars in additional funds and I still can't I just can't wrap my head around the fact that we don't have inclusion across the board I agree with you miss dagiar honestly um and I think the principles would too I really being new on this team I really
52:22need to do a deeper dive before I can answer your question I agree their needs don't go away in science in social studies if we have strong inclusion models and strong special education in teachers in inclusion you can service kids through a consultation model you know for example if I'm in in social studies and I need to be able to access the text in a consultation model a strong special
52:48education special education teacher and a general ed teacher should be able to meet that student's needs the reason why they focus on the um the English and the math is because that's the the services on the IEP right because their goals are typically related to reading and writing and math skills those don't go away in the other classes they're an extension of the other classes and I agree that we do
53:13have to look at our inclusion model I think that some schools and again I could be misspeaking just because I haven't had the opportunity to do a deep dive into inclusion yet I think some schools may be able to team um a math person with science and a social an English person with social studies but I do need to look deeper into that I agree with you and I understand what parents would be concerned about
53:37we're not trying to say their needs don't go away because we typically staff the special education teachers in math and English so give me some time appreciate it yeah honestly and I appreciate your answer one thing that I think might we asked the question before and you've said it before it's very difficult to find a certified person yes so logically let's say we can find a certified teacher in social studies and
54:02it's not on their IEP to be certified why wouldn't we just have an extra Social Studies English teacher to service the children that way you know yeah thinking outside the box a little bit I've been saying this for several years so I know you knew and I'm more than willing to give you some time but maybe we give you I agree I feel the same way in our substantially separate classrooms I'd rather have a certified
54:23English teacher in there not a special education teacher certified English teacher and then bringing in some additional special education supports if we can't find a certified teacher I agree we have to start thinking out of the box because the shortage of special education teachers is real it's not going to go away and it's not unique here so we have to do some more creative thinking on how to meet the needs of our
54:47highest needs kids because again it's reading it's writing it's math it's executive functioning all Educators should be able to support students in that way I appreciate your honesty I'm going to be calling a specialized subcommittee meeting in three months so that's I think worthy time to make sure that I'm going to say it right now that I want to inclusion I want this type of
55:09question on the agenda so you have three months and I know you'll be good thank you okay well we're gonna adjourn now um because next Monday oh I'm sorry Mr agne sorry I'm sorry I just wanted to talk about one of the things that I've mentioned to the superintendent in the past related to um the needs in the district the um administrative needs in the district and this the positions of assistant
55:35superintendent superintendent and the like at the time several months ago I broached the subject of the superintendent to to look into considering hiring a deputy superintendent schools across the Commonwealth are going to a model such as this so such that they have almost like a mini superintendent or a person that's above the assistant superintendent level that deals with major issues that has experience in
56:00central office a lot of the things that I think we need here could be serviced by adding a position of Deputy superintendent in addition to our administrative structures we've supported the assistant superintendents all of our people currently I knew superintendent is new I think we should look into and I'd ask the superintendent to check with her team and report back to us on looking at a deputy
56:24superintendent that has experience in central office almost like to be able to help Mentor certain departments and going back 20 years we used to have a model in this District of uh assistant superintendent for administration which was more related to contracts human resources and sort of the non-educational pieces and then we had the assistant superintendent for instruction so we've had a model similar
56:46to what I'm suggesting but I do want to approach the subject that I did mention this to the superintendent years ago I'd love to get her feedback and have her report back on with her team a district with this many kids with this many needs with this many challenges can definitely support a deputy superintendent in my opinion thank you our yield okay can we ask the superintendent just to comment if sure
57:10um yes we have had this discussion um I think when we had some vacancies Etc certainly as we were putting the budget together um I I think that's a suggestion that's worthy of of exploration I personally when we're putting the budget together we were putting a budget that I uh tend to I wanted to make sure that we supported our the needs of our schools put the tools in our teachers hands as well as
57:37our principals Etc we are a high needs District we have two schools that are level four some that are um you know hovering and are in in need of additional support it is heavy lift uh the work that we're doing um I I would like to further discuss this with my team I'm not um uh you know it's like everything else right usually you you try to support all the other departments before I didn't even propose
58:04anything for our department so but I I think that's something for us as we look to the Future and moving ourselves to the next level of work moving ourselves out of level four moving ourselves into a high performing District certainly something that we can entertain and explore as a potential thank you with that I'll entertain a motion to adjourn we'll be a second uh fourth Dev calls roll next Monday right
58:36here again at 5 15.
58:39um the next section of the budget Deb please call the roll yes Mr Bailey yes larva yes yes Miss Roderick sorry yes I'm here and you guys