The Fall River Public Schools Instructional Subcommittee convened on Thursday, March 6th, to discuss and refer two key items and receive an update on a third. The first item involved a proposal to expand the international teacher partnership, utilizing a consultant for recruitment, visa processing, and teacher support. This initiative, costing approximately $5,000 per teacher for 10 teachers, aims to bring native Spanish speakers and potentially other language specialists to Fall River schools, particularly for dual language and critical need areas like math and science. The committee voted unanimously to refer this proposal. The second item focused on piloting the "Catch Health Educational Journeys" curriculum for grades 3-5, replacing the outdated Botvin Life Skills program. This digital, cost-effective curriculum, costing just over $4,000 for all 12 elementary schools, was also unanimously referred by the committee. Finally, the subcommittee received an informational update on the 5th through 8th grade social studies curriculum, highlighting the no-cost "Investigating History" and "Democratic Knowledge Project" platforms, which emphasize applied learning and civic engagement.
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yes not okay welcome everybody uh today's Thursday March 6th we're here for the instructional subcommittee at the administration building uh Deb can I please get a roll call Mr Das here M lar here M pero here uh salute to the flag please I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with libery and justice for all
0:36okay uh open meeting law uh 1.3 uh pursuant 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 medium attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or UNP perceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible thank you uh is there any citizens inut
1:04Deborah no thank you we will go on to discussion 31 uh discussion to vote and refer the international teacher uh partnership who is presenting I can start and then I'll have Lisa zagarella jump in so um we currently have um a group of international teachers uh working in the fall Public Schools um and that's been a really powerful ful partnership we have some teachers in our dual language
1:32program who are native um Spanish speakers and so um what we're looking to do is build off of the success we've seen and expand um this partnership this proposal um is really you know uh for a consultant who does the work around identifying screening interviewing hiring they take care of all the Visa um end of the work that needs to be done um and it's it comes out to about uh $5,000
1:59per teach this proposal is specifically for 10 teachers um and so I can have Lisa maybe talk a little bit about um you know the day-to-day some of the other support that um this particular organization provides for us right now I met one of those teachers right across America when I went to did had a great conversation with okay Lisa y so just to be clear you can see it's broken down
2:20into 3,00 and um 2,000 on your uh draft there that 3,000 specifically goes it's almost a pass through payment it goes for the um the Visa so that's just required that does not go to the consultant that's to pay for the Visa the appointment with the embassy and the 2,000 that you see that does go to the consultant really um in addition to the recruitment that Brian spoke of also once the teachers get here
2:50there's a a lot of adjustment that needs to take place they need to get bank accounts they need to get Social Security numbers they need to get housing they need to get Transportation um so he's Fielding a lot of those 2 a.m. phone calls of um my apartment fell through I don't know where to go and and providing that kind of on the ground support as well as um working with them for professional
3:12development in understanding ways in which our education system may be different from the education system in Colombia or the whatever country they are coming from um additionally there are opportunities long range to expand this partnership because it's meant to be cultural exchange two-way two way right so there could down the line we are exploring an option of us visiting Colombia and learning from their schools
3:36as well so um it's a chance for teachers to come here contribute to our school system bring back what they learned to Colombia um and then for us to also learn from them as well we also um have gotten some I have the opportunity to visit one of the parent cafes at um the Dual language program and um the person who's supporting us with this work work is also doing a lot of extensive support
4:02as Lisa mentioned with PD but was really there presenting bilingual for families it's pretty powerful experience um just around what um you know what the topics are they have a monthly Cafe and the turnout was pretty strong um and you know this particular one I was at was really around like what is dual language education really giving folks an overview of what a student's day is like
4:22um so that's essentially what the you know what the partnership looks like any questions yes Mr yeah I know it seems like a very good program and I'm really happy to give my support to it just have a few questions um I know you mentioned something about um how they're coming here from different countries and we we don't understand any for Public Schools teachers abroad no that's
4:48something we would ever consider that's exactly what so so that's exactly what um Miss sag was describing what I'd like to do long term is think about an opportunity where it's even a learning experience for our teachers where this could be paired with some work at a university maybe they even take a course there around um you know understanding that culture different perspective so I
5:08think there really is an opportunity for some Global Learning that's something that we would carve out as we continue to grow the program um for comparison to I do want to name I think it's important I did meet with we've been working with this particular consultant I also met with another organization um it was 12,000 per teacher 12 or 13,000 per teacher right and so this is at this
5:28cost with that with with the VISA it the comparable service the same thing that we're really getting but a much higher cost just cuz I wanted to explore different organizations and see what else folks have to to offer so oh that's great I really like the vision now what countries right now uh the majority of our candidates this particular person has really strong Connections in Colombia but the majority of our
5:49candidates are from Colombia and Spain to my knowledge different partnership with Spain okay um and that's but this particular person could expand let's say as an example right now we have a growing population of students from Brazil right so I think we could utilize Global education Solutions and start saying hey we'd love to get some teachers from Brazil right and so he will do that leg work for us and start
6:11to think about how do we recruit some teachers who are native Portuguese speakers Brazilian Portuguese so there's a lot of could be keep right there are a lot of different so this would really be an opportunity that's the leg work they would do as we continue to name what our need is here in the district so oh sorry go ahead I forgot you have the floor no and um I guess my last question was
6:32going to be the spec like who would be the decided superintendent would be who decides where the teachers go or are you going to right we do place them so um we do try to place the teachers together right in in you want sort of have to have a cohort in a building because this is a um you know a major shift they're moving from a different country I think
6:56where we find success is when we have a pod of three four five teachers together right so right now we have for instance a pod at the Veris what other schools do we have FICA fonsica Morton Morton um we have a couple at dery dery that's right yep but we we not really placing them like let's say in a oneoff because uh just that support that you're going to get from a colleague who's also moving
7:21has this you know this sort of international experience um but we really determined based on need so right now we have teachers in the the Dual language program we have teachers who are ESL teachers by expanding this partnership I do think we have the opportunity to maybe get a math teacher or a science teacher or even a special education teacher we would need to decide internally where do we have
7:43openings where we could potentially cluster some folks um and meet the needs of that building and what I was trying to get at if um you have like a preliminary idea where you would send new clusters if we get to 10 you want um so I mean we are looking to build this partn ship out at dery particularly um especially because there is a need we've had some luck recruiting internationally for Math and Science um
8:08outside of the ESL program so that is definitely a place where we're looking to expand um green is a place where we certainly could expand they have a couple right now as Brian said we definitely do not we're not looking to do one-offs and it's also up to the principle right like we don't we don't just say you are now taking these people um it has to be a partnership and they
8:31have to understand um some of the support requirements because it really is a cultural moving from a warmer climate to a colder climate moving away from their families in this particular partnership um they do not bring families or spouses for the first couple of months so that they can really focus on learning about our schools and dedicating themselves to acculturating themselves professionally before they
8:57they do have an opportunity after I believe it's 90 days to bring over family members if they would like to they don't have to so there's also that piece um that they often transition without their families and their families come later so it it really depends on who feels comfortable doing that level offf I appreciate that my last question my absolute last question sorry um what is there like a timeline
9:22if we approve this um either next month or month after is there's work that's going to begin right away or something that's going to begin in the summer yes so um you know the the you know this would be a discussion a vote to refer tonight so let's say that this goes forward Monday and gets approved um we would want to start recruitment right away this is the season so that's the reason we're putting bringing this
9:43forward now is because let's say that this did get approved on Monday we would already start in March and April our recruitment efforts um typically what happens is as um the this this organization is finding viable candidates then there will be virtual interview setup that's usually the process um there's sometimes we're even looking at um videos of them teaching many of these teachers the other benefit
10:06is these are folks that have teaching experience typically abroad already so they've been teaching and so um you know it just we would want to I wouldn't want to wait too long because this is where this is where the recruiting starts to happen right now for reference Dr pasz is traveling abroad right now he does meet with candidates uh face to face so he is in bulata right now meeting with
10:29with candidates um we were the first person to partner with this particular organization the word is out so no no it's not that the it's not that I mean other districts it's that other districts who now will want this same candidate pool that we're trying to pull from and so the longer we wait the the more options there are for say another District to jump in and take the top tier teachers that we would be looking
10:56for so um and this you know obviously he's he's a free agent he can partner with it's not even necessarily Massachusetts but he has shared with us that Massachusetts does offer um pretty competitive packages to these candidates so it is a desirable place for them to come okay so that that was my question the package that we offer these people so they're coming here we're paying Global what do we how we taking care of
11:26the teachers I when I say package I mean like our compensation package in terms of medical benefits and the same that any other teacher would get but if you know um the the 2000 North Carolina pays it doesn't Massachusetts is much more competitive right so so who's the other company that we use you mentioned the other company the Spain so the other company we have a partnership with the
11:49Spanish Embassy that's not a direct partnership that actually is a partnership through desie so desie covers the $3,000 um but we are then on the hook for providing a lot more support to the teachers who come from Spain cuz there is not a consultant who works with them so that has been a challenge for us I will but there's also no fees either right there are no well so there's
12:15always a visa fee always a visa fee desie is paying that but that also means that desie gets however many candidates they get okay and they might say to us hey you can have one this year that that's what's available to right or they might say you can have five and then the lift is on us internally to try to support with all these things that the consultant supports with for the 2000
12:38right so that's the difference whereas you know this particular consultant can say okay I'm going to work on the housing I'm going to support you with that like you know that that really is a full-time especially as we continue to expand this right um I mean I don't know if you feel comfortable but is it worth using the desie one yes we continue to we do and I I did just have a
13:02conversation with Mr L and Human Resources the other day about what is our ongoing plan for it's a heavy lift it is 100% a heavy lift in terms of finding housing and and that's why we wanted to bring this to 10 now and say let's expand it a little bit to 10 let's continue to nurture this but maybe we can continue to grow potentially right let's see what happens when we when we
13:25expand the scale of it I'm I'm so my bra I'm going to say something that I cannot like I don't know desie yep correct I don't know what where what des's funding source is okay to bring the teachers here so can I speak to whether or not desie how much longer desie will be able to fund that that program I can't yeah so who does the left heavy lifting here
13:50for these um people in in our district in our state in our city it has largely Fallen to the MLL department and large Fallen um it was Tyler Ry and now largely falling to Jessica P so it's another lift that's not in my opinion right you have this important work to do around student achievement teaching and learning and so that's why you know I think partnering with an organization
14:16like this that can take that piece of the work away um because it does take human energy and effort even in a job description no okay I think the willingness was born out an opportunity should do this while yeah we'll support it because we really want to make it happen and um but it is it is overwhelming and revisiting and the whole kitten poodle this far um so a couple of the things were kind of
14:50questions I had were kind of answered a little bit along the way so it says 10 teachers here what if it's when all said and done is it a possibility we get five instead of 10 so this number may be lowered so this is the maximum amount we would spend for we get if we can get 10 if they're 10 qualified but if they're on he's not just going to give us 10 to
15:11give us 10 correct okay um and these teach we talked about our teachers going over there obviously these teachers come here um they become our employees so now we're paying them and all that when our teachers go there who's paying them well we were looking for this is very preliminary conversation but if we would have build this out I think the intention would be how do we continue to
15:32build the global um you know the the capacity of our teachers around just understanding you know Global education so the vision would not be that we're permanently sending teachers there to teach it could be though what does this a summer experience look like what does a two week experience sort of look like um that's not something that's on the table right now and that's something
15:53we'd have to package and come to you with a proposal um but that's not something I was just asking if what you were thinking preliminarily we thinking potentially maybe like a you might want to make a real nice package for that one I won't be here by then but I trust you'll need one um okay so let's see what else and then I wanted to make sure that we have the ability to sort of and
16:16I hate to use the word veto when we're talking about human beings right but the ability to just say well I'm glad you think this person was super qualified but we looked at ABC or we had an interaction we we inter there's no all this cuz it seems like it said here that's why I'm I'm asking because it seems like they're doing the identify screen interview and hire so if they're
16:37doing all that we getting them M they're doing an initial interview around what you know their language proficiency right to work here their areas of strength they're then presenting us a pool of candidates that's essentially how it works and then we're doing the interviewing on our end from that pool that's already been pre-screened and determining we also have access to that interview it is filmed okay when so we
17:02can see their first interview and then we do our own as well right yeah because they may be more all right so then wait a minute I had one more question as an example last year as a principal I interviewed some people that I chose to move forward with and I interviewed other people that I didn't so I mean it's it's the same thing in terms of our process exactly now the last question I
17:22had is did did you this is kind of piggybacking off of uh what my colleague said but did you say for example say You' like 10 teachers we would we need three Math teachers like you looked at opening said we need three math three you didn't just right because we haven't even got I we haven't gotten that far yet because we're initially looking for your approval to say hey could we potentially recruit 10 The Next Step
17:45would be if this got approved on Monday is we go back and say these are our areas of me these are our critical areas right when you're looking at your initial pool could you please send us candidates that have a background in science or math or whatever it is and we will just just so you know our process we usually do prioritize our dual language openings first sure cuz we absolutely need bilingual cand for that
18:06and then we as as Mr Poo said we move into like areas of critical need um and I've already pre-canned schools because we the Spanish inter the interviews from the Spanish consulate will be coming up and so schools have already given us an idea of um of what the the needs might be okay so thank you MH I I have is thisly just for teaching positions or are there other opportunities for
18:35translation uh say psychologists um sax is it just teaching right now this is just teaching we haven't discussed potentially expanding to other areas and I don't know if this oration does this I don't know um so what I will share with you is that when spouses do come over they often do get work vises and they so they actually do become like we have one candidate right now whose wife has just
19:02come over and she is eligible on a work visa that we do not pay for but she could she has asked what is in the school system that could be available for me so sometimes an extra benefit is that we are we are able to recruit translation par professional it depending on what that person's background might be um I mean and there often are very highly qualified qualified spouses that come over one is
19:27a pediatrician and her native country so um you know it sometimes becomes some opportunities opportunities yeah mhm thank you did you have something else yeah that's one that's one last question I thought of when it comes to terms of of compensation and knowing that we um pay Educators depending on certain factors experience um education level um how's that apply to um potential Educators
19:55coming over for from this program I think it's that we would use the same process so they would at at the point of HR they would review if there's let's say previous teaching experience they would consider that previous teaching experience just like they would if they were here they review transcripts from their education level that sort of thing so if it's um say if they received some
20:15sort of Ma I I don't know if this is the case or not in the past say they received some sort of Masters or um some sort of doctorate programming or just coming over here for some experience um what's like the and it's fine we don't have the answer today but what's like the formula to determine all right this this an accredited University from this school outside the country they come
20:36here this is acceptable for this does that make sense yeah they actually they follow the same process yeah salary scale University recognized University regardless of where it is someone has earned a master's degree and they have three years experience they're in the Master's column and step four they'll give them three years credit and then they'd be on step four when they arrive I just within that 3,000
20:59of the embassy appointment um there is a very rigorous transcript analysis so they have to be qualified to even come here so there is a very very rigorous transcript analysis that they have to go through to ensure that they that it that they are a candidate who can come and teach in the United States so that happens even before it comes across our desks so that cuz I hear what you're
21:25saying you're asking like is it an equivalent of an American University and so there is a very rigorous process that each candidate has to go through even prior to being allowed to enter this j1x program right I just want to make sure um they're being paid as a just level as everyone else no absolutely they are y so I'll make a motion to refer question I just had one more question um
21:51I can second though if you we got a second D okay um when you when we were just touching basing out I saw okay license license sure now before they come here this is part of the process where they make sure they have their whatever uh bachelor's degree or whatever they need and they already have the teacher test or do they come here and do that how does so because it's a
22:13teacher Exchange program they are they do not have to acquire Massachusetts lure they're licensed to teach Under The Exchange program if for any reason they were to there's also they cannot stay they can teach for three years they can extend for two more years and then with most countries they are required to go back um and because this is an exchange program this is not like a permanent
22:39citizenship program um they're they're working under sort of that if after this program ended so I'm participating in the program I'm not required to have the license Massachusetts license um my the program ends but I'm I'm loving it here I'm doing a great job my Visa is continued you know and I'm going to continue teaching I then have to go take the Massachusetts test they would
23:01actually generally have to go back live in their country for 2 years and then they would be applying for a totally different a totally different work visa that would be so j1x is strictly in extreme understanding depending on the content area that they teach there are certain um visas that that are a little bit longer right some of Sciences I believe can stay a little bit longer that may be true i' have to i' have to
23:26verify that with M sh but either way if they ended up staying longer like MIM just said if they got married if they whatever a circumstance occurred that they stood you know they thought whatever life happen then they're no longer on that thing so they would then be required to do whatever yeah all right I just wanted to the reason I was asking that was to I wanted to see
23:46because I think if I was an educator here who didn't have my teaching license yet or I was working and had I'm just thinking from there but that sounds fair and appropriate and sounds like a great program and you have a second and I will tell you one more thing they cannot extend without ours and the principal's approval so they are subject to the same educator evaluation system that are so
24:07they're not like exempt from any of that right that's just Mr D yes M lar yes Miss per yes thank you uh 32 discussion discussion and vote to refer uh grades three uh to five Health curriculum pilot uh with Mr Fitzgerald so we'd like to Pilot the catch Health um educational Journeys for our 3 to five um currently we have the botvin life skills which we replace at the U Middle School last year um that
24:47curriculum came out in 2015 2016 hasn't been updated since all workbook teacher manual um a lot of them have been you know lost and Transitions and things of such um a lot of the materials without a subscription um we don't have access to for example The Vaping unit um it still has us under bot V have you teaching like smoking um we've asked for like vaping materials um and they said that
25:17we don't have a current subscription with them therefore um they could not share that with us um four of our schools from our Wellness teachers use Quaver so we'll look into phase that out and to roll us out across the board for all of the 12 elementary schools which include the two k to eights um some notable school districts that are similar to us that are using it at Boston Public Rivier and New Bedford um
25:45it's the benefits of this it's an oir just like we have at the middle school um High School the online instructor resource so everything's digital um our PE health teacher Wellness teachers you know push into different classrooms um so therefore like they could have all those materials on their Chromebooks with them when they go um so you're not worried about copies and everything else
26:10like that um another benefit of this um it's 349 uh $349 per school so you can have several users on it whereas a lot of other programs charge you per user which is I just want to name too that the um cost cost is um a little over $4,000 for all schools right now with Quaver we're paying about 7200 I was going to say over 7,000 for only four schools so we would actually be able to
26:40put this all 12 elementary schools for you know less money official yeah correct they give us access K to 8 we don't only want the K to five but we're approved for the 3 to five but our Wellness teachers if um some schools decid to keep them on they would have that full access to it um this will also cut out any teachers like Soul source and information that way they're
27:05all teaching the same thing across the board so now they have um you know a platform going into the middle school high school um again like Mr Rosa just said the cost of it I included the current cost of Bot fin if they were to renew it it's uh hyperlink in the price list uh but it's 23 $235 for a set of 30 student guides and a teacher manual um that's if we stayed with the bach
27:37that's if we stayed with B that cost versus 349 for the whole school yeah um des's been pushing this out to a lot of districts um no no no the other one yeah yeah catch Health Journeys so it's um made their uh comprehensive list of Health curriculums that they recommend and you've re reviewed I've met with them I've met with catch I met with Elementary teachers when I go through our bi-weekly
28:05plc's um we talked about it in our last PD meeting um Monday we would have our scheduled after school meeting and I've um allowed them to uh take that hour or so to review it any questions that they would have but it it's pretty user friendly um is that that feedback so far yes correct most of our schools are rolling out um trimester 3 for for health I've also sent um the scope and
28:38sequence that we use with bot fin um to catch Health that way like they could kind of U align as best they can um what our teachers know so that way they're not kind of jumping into a um you know something that they're not so familiar with so it's a better curriculum we're saving money yeah there's no catch include all the schools no no
29:12intended roll Deb M yes M Larin yes M yes thank you everybody uh on to just an update from uh Mr dear with the 5 through 8th social studies curriculum 8 is also discussion no Health was vote to oh sorry yeah this is just a discussion upate God thanks for having me tonight pleasure thanks for coming I just wanted to share information with you regarding uh the curriculum that that's available to us
29:54think you're going to like the sound and that there's no cost to the curriculum all right um investigating history is 5 through 7 and they'll actually be in a pilot phase releasing grades three and four this coming summer um and then the Democratic knowledge project is for grade eight this all spins out of in 2013 the national uh Center National Council for social sciences released the
30:21C3 framework which was the College and Career and Civic life framework that's supposed to that was suggest to guide history and social science instruction desie once that was released in 2013 revised their standards for history and social sciences K through 12 release that document that document has Civic learning expectations throughout from K to 12 with the goal that we have U was strengthening students
30:51understanding and how they make informed Civic choices and they know their roles in a democracy um to strengthen the the ideals of equality Justice and Liberty so at that core um these curricular platforms were created they are applied learning platforms you know it's Project based it's um the work of the student is is through inquiry and investigation it's a very active curriculum so it's
31:18really enlivened the classroom you know if you think about your history instruction you either loved it or you didn't back in the day right yeah um so what what's happened is is um that there's a lot of opportunity for professional development by way of Grant know desie release grants that we've been involved with over the last few years we're not desie ended that grant program and the 18 Foundation is now
31:48funding the grants now probably heard that name before with open sad and stmath and a whole bunch of Applied learning platforms so there's a lot of uh symbiosis across the different curricular platforms so students that are engaged in open sad as they're engaged in investigating history theout the routines and the strategies are either identical or similar so there's a lot of transfer from classro to
32:14classroom in terms of skill set when we talk about the Democratic knowledge project even though it's not wasn't created by desie it's fully endorsed by desie this comes out of Harvard and it's uh in conjunction with project zero which is a learning lab you know they they investigate how people learn and they develop strategies um that Civics curriculum is entirely aligned to State Standards It prepares
32:43the students for the end of course mcast test and it also has the expected Civic project embedded in it so you know as I've had the opportunity to look at this in action in a couple of schools dkp at talb and door and and they're in a cohort this year where they're getting direct support um it's really transformative in the way you see kids discussing learning and then applying so
33:09I'm excited to say that next week we're going to hear whether we're accepted into cohort the training for all of our Middle School teachers 6 through eight now we ask what about five well five is is um is there's going to be a a I I don't want to call it a low spread but you know we have 2K to8 right so at Henry Lord and Doran grade five investigating history is is being
33:37implemented this year a couple of other elementary schools who were able to send teachers to training last year by the grant that we had um they are piloting some parts of it dese's cautioning like go slow here right um they were motivated to create all of this because it didn't exist anywhere high quality instru materials for history and social sciences doesn't really exist outside of
34:02what I'm talking about here and what I really appre appreciate is that they are it's iterative in that they are listening and getting feedback from districts and making changes because they developed these these platforms with districts so um if you come to Civics day May 16th Government Center you'll see it in action but I wanted to provide you with that and there's a potential if you put a dollar on it and
34:29they will but you're talking about $400,000 worth of free PD that that we may be able to access uh we'll know next week as far as the the platform itself it's open source you can all create an account and see it for yourself any cost that we would have would be if we wanted printed copies we could order them and it's at low low D you know if I did a
34:55grade level purchase for dery for a new textbook it would be over $100,000 you know where we could buy all the materials 5 through eight and it would be maybe 50% of that maybe questions concerns Qui um two questions um I heard you mention about um the cfic engagement prepared for the mcast test so we're still doing the mcast tests Within grade mhm yes across all grades even even high school it's
35:32just not a gradu it's passing is not a graduation requirement but every student gr three through eight plus um grade 10 math um Ela science that a state requirement debt still it's still a state requirement that students take it okay and um for any of this because it's changing curriculum you don't need a motion from us to refer this at all no I don't think so I think it was just for
35:59Shar yes okay and we've had some schools who have done some small pilots talet and dorm piloted the investigating history and and Democratic knowledge project so we're just sort of expanding that and this is really just informational as Mr dearis mentioned it's it's open source which is great because it's it's free access so anyone can log on and see didn't Morton do it on eighth grade Civic
36:24project so we shifted to every okay okay I thought it was just sayain a motion second nobody has questions Mr more questions Dev you're up Mr D uh yes m l yes M yes uh new business do we have any to come in front of this committee Oh I thought that was for a journ we oh we didn't Sor it was just discussion oh any business good just