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6.22.2026 Fall River School Committee - Special Education, Alternative Education & Early Childhood
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June 22nd, Special Education Alternative Ed and Early Childhood Subcommittee.
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Mr. Das here.
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Mr. Cory here.
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Miss Stewart here. Salute the flag.
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I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
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Pursuant to open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of the public meeting and may transmit the meeting through any medium. Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible. Any citizens in No.
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Okay. Discussion 301 is update start and end times for Okay. Um so we are proposing a staggered start in time.
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Just um just want to ask a quick question. So for the agenda today um we have two new items on here and just want to get just get on the same page with the backup. So for 3-1 am I looking at this right here and I'm looking at cuz we got that we got ours on Friday.
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Okay.
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Got his today. All right, we're just talking about starting end times.
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Okay, thank you.
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The first of you got that right, Mr.
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Das.
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Perfect.
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So, yes, we are looking for staggered start and end times that allow for more flexible scheduling options for students at each of the pathways that are proposed at 290 Rock Street. So for Evolve Academy, um our start time aligns with Derpy High School. It's 7:55 and that's so students can have the option to take a period one elective and we also align with their end time at 2:50 so they can also take a last period
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elective. Um and that model has worked really well for us this year. So we're going to maintain those same school hours. Uh the ascend virtual school will have the hours of 9 to 3:30. And also for the newly designed RPA, we're looking at a 10:30 to 5:25 start and end time. And again, it's to um support the separation of the three different pathways so that they have some unique programming options that are very
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specific to the needs of each particular type of student that is attending um each one of these pathways. So again, it could be for any kind of needs or obligations outside of school, students who struggle getting up in the morning, who need a later start, um, and are missing half of their day when we don't offer that. So um, we're really looking to establish these staggered start and
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end times. And, um, it can be noted that the language in the current CBA with the FRA um, supports the staggered start language.
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Um, so that is what we're looking to do with the times for start and end of school. So, as we're meeting with families, um we're hoping to convey that these are the new times that we'll be looking at.
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So, I want to reiterate my position at the last school committee meeting. I'm um in honor of what all the hard work that you guys put into these plans. I really support these plans wholeheartedly. I want you to understand where I'm coming from. uh you know given my past experience with kids in in the sense of belonging and connection and that's why I I was advocating so uh vehematly that we keep our PA kids
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there. I'm happy to see that you guys are working out a viable plan. I want to support it wholeheartedly. I want you to understand where I'm coming from. Those RPA kids need a sense of belonging as we all know and uh that's as long as we can accomplish that and they could continue on the spectrum. I'm not even going to get in the way of design of what you guys may have for future designs as
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alternative education because I think that uh the virtual school and evolve represent progress for alternative education. It's we you're looking into the future and these are future trends and these are really good future trends.
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I support them and I'm just very happy that we're going to be able to take care of the kids at RPA. That makes me much more satisfied with this whole thing.
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The next question I have is are we going to be able to secure the building in such a way that we could limit interaction?
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Is there any chance that Yeah, we're going to be sharing those updates with you. We've already taken a tour um as of last week with members of district staff and the staff that are in the building. So, we've today Jan and Stacy were able to draft up some plans that we're going to be sharing with the superintendent. And so, as all of those plans emerge, she'll be able to share with you floor plans that very clearly
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spell out what we're thinking and what we're looking based on student enrollment as well as having taken a walk of the building and recognizing some of the needs with facilities and operations. Yeah. as well as strategizing. So, we'll be back in touch with periodic updates, but that's one of the first ones as we begin meeting with kids and families. These are some of the logistics that we need to have
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clearly spelled out for those meetings as well, which is why we're looking to just give you an update right now on some pieces and then we'll be bringing the rest of the pieces forward periodically throughout the summer and then with the stakeholder group as we move forward.
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That sounds great, Dr. Brun Hod. And uh my last request is if you see any need that uh I would be able to accompany a walking tour when you guys are doing that on any given day just just once uh I went to high school there. I'm still very uh sentimental about that building you know and um just to see that you guys are working on some progress there and in and uh infrastructure and
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facilities it makes me happy. So thank you very much. I yield.
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Thank you. So I just read through the document which I received for the first time at 4:30.
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My first question is when reading this the times the the school committee recently approved um start and end times for RPA and that's not before us right now for backup. Is this in line with what the school committee approved?
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What are you I'm sorry. I'm not What are you reading? Believe the school committee recently approved start and end times for all the schools at our last meeting.
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Uh I believe it was April.
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Yeah, it might have been the April meeting.
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It it was a a recent meeting. Does this here align with what we approved? Did this have to go back before the committee?
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The superintendent was requesting that we share an update. Um and so if you feel that this needs to be referred to the full committee for a vote, um then we could make that move. But when when we discussed with the superintendent who's just not here right now, she recommended that we provide an update.
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She did not recommend that we necessarily elicit a vote. Right.
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Do we know what time it said on that what we approved to April?
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It must have been the traditional time right now, which is 8:30. Correct. So, we might need it might be safe to refer it to the full committee. Um, we again the superintendent's not here, so we were following what her guidance was and she asked that we provide an update. Um, and so we could still put it on the July school committee meeting, wherever that lands, but we wanted to be able to
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provide an update knowing that we need to be communicating with kids and families in advance of the July school committee meeting, and we didn't want to hold up that key piece of information because we knew that would sway um potentially families and students decisions for enrollment.
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That just so hasn't been sent out to families. No, the time I just know it's been since I've been on the committee precedent that we have approved the start and end times um for each and every school. It's just been precedent since at least I've been on the committee and I'm not sure this is going to have an effect on transportation as well. I'm not sure if we had a conversation with um facilities on how um
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well the majority of our high school students do not receive transportation in the same way that our younger students receive transportation. And so we are right now, just so you know, we are meeting with SERTA and we have a meeting on the books with SERA because there are public transportation routes that are within the perimeter of the 290 Rock building. And so we will still be
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relying on SERTA transportation and it will be through direct communication with families as to the locations that students will be able to pick up and get on and off the bus that is separate to that of the terminal down the street.
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So, I do know that between North Main Street and High Street, there are locations for the bus stop that will keep this transportation alive for students, but those meetings are up and coming uh so that we can spell all of that communication out simultaneously.
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We already um hashed out the time that students will be dropped off at the 290 Rock building for Evolve. We're just waiting for confirmation that this could be um the start time for the newly designed RPA to work with Sarda to make sure that they're dropped off at that time as well.
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Are you wait one second? My only question that I guess I have is is the parents will you let it so you haven't talked to any parents yet about the 10:30 to 5:30, but it's been out there.
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Yeah, we've been communicating not how they how would they respond back with the 10:30 to 5:30 time. It's been meeting it's been meeting the needs of the students that are looking to stay in the RPA program. And keep in mind the 10:30 start is for the schedule for the RPA students. That does not mean that some of their internship and work placement opportunities would not start sooner than that.
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Yes.
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Um and so that's for the physical in the building coursework. But to speak to that that would be exactly when all kids start. We really are trying to personalize for all of the students that are enrolled in RPA and beginning with again internships and work readiness and work development um would be what might offset in the morning hours more specifically.
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And how about teachers?
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We are in the process of communicating that and following the collective bargaining agreement as we speak.
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Okay.
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To follow up on the workforce um development idea, a couple years back, we we fixed a room up in that building and it was set up uh in it was supposed to be set up as an office with the people from the community doing work workforce development. Um, back in the 90s, I was um when I was first hired as a counselor, I was a we had a grant between the Florida River public schools
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and Bristol County Training Consortium and uh uh both agencies paid half my salary uh as a counselor at Dery High School working um toward workforce development. So, we had we had pre-data and we had post data. We did all of those tests. We tried to find out where killed where kids skill sets were. It was a it was a wonderful program and we had to prove to BBC BCTC that um you
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know we were actively working in this sense of direction and it was a great program. Then the grant ran out. Uh but as far as workforce development will that become a strong component in the vision of this of that building?
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That is our intention and that is our goal. you know, would we work with other agencies like community development, recreation?
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Uh, probably starting with Mass Hire, really focusing on our relationship with Mass Hire, which is right now the central youth um hiring agency within the community. And so, building upon the strengths of that agency and that partnership that is already an established partnership with the district um to be able to really learn about the interest and needs of our kids, particularly our juniors and
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seniors at RPA. Yeah.
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To get them placed first. Um and then working with our freshman and sophomores on age appropriate and location appropriate spaces as we continue to get to know those students and and meet their needs simultaneously. But yes, they'll be building a sense of direction, you know, and it could help it it could help them in big big ways.
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Um to address my colleagues concern about uh transportation, uh all those ideas are going to be updated then you're just going to present them to us again once they are updated and finalized right?
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Thank you. Then I yield.
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No sir.
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Um, actually have one last question on the virtual school. I'm assuming the 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. That's just more of the time for staff within the building. Is there any Not sure like the specific program for this? Is it some asynchronous classes? There's some classes where they have to be live like on a computer.
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Yep. There will be live teaching. There will be live teaching. students will have access to some of the um online curricula through egeneuity but more so for electives but as we've grown and learned from our virtual pathway currently at RPA uh we really do need to enhance what we are providing for core instruction and to be able to leverage the teachers I think the piece that we've mentioned but I do think it's
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important to restate is that right now we do not have teachers who are only part of the virtual school they are going between in person and virtual instruction and to be able to meet kids virtually and engage kids virtually.
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That is a completely different skill set and approach to teaching and learning.
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And so our goal will be to have teachers fully committed to the virtual world so that the school itself functions like a virtual school um with teachers and staff that are fully committed to the virtual school. Uh to be able to create all aspects of intervention and support and academic followup and office hours that could also be similar to that of like a college course so that kids can
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opt in. But there will be live instruction that kids will be expected to show up daily to participate in for the virtual program we have currently. Is that what we're we're currently seeing?
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We're currently using egenuity and the challenge has been that kids are at many different levels and many different places within the curriculum. But with teachers owning the development in the materials and leveraging our current high-quality instructional materials, we will be able to also access the expertise of our district directors who will be able to help support the teachers and the department head so that
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the curriculum does reflect what is happening at Dery and at RPA in the in-person programming. also so that if kids don't find success in the virtual school, there are options for them to fall back into in person and it will not be a completely different world. It would be a continuation just in person and obviously a different school of what they were experiencing virtually.
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Sure. I guess my one the reason I I bring up the question, my one concern is and I'm sure there's like a myriad different reasons why a student might choose virtual. I'm assuming some of those will be work commitments during the day. Um maybe some physical barriers as to why they can't make this 9:00 a.m.
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to 3:30, which is why I asked if there's any synchronous like how is that going to look? I just want to make sure if we're approving a 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
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that students are going to be able to make that we feel confident going into Yeah, I think we'll make exceptions to the rule for every student to make it work for them. um if students don't fit the mold which I would say we do in all of our schools right now right so um I there will be a schedule and a structure that students will be expected to follow and then if and when a student is
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unsuccessful in that schedule or structure we will make those accommodations as needed certainly yep as far as virtual school goes they can attend any clubs and everything that is that dery or no if you're in a virtual setting can Can you still be a part of a school? Meaning, can you still be a part of the sports? Can you still be a part of a group?
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The short answer would be yes. Um, and we would need to figure out what that looks like because we have not had students historically from the virtual pathway looking to take part in that.
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So, we will begin further exploring what that looks like and where and how kids want to get connected.
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Yes.
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Yep.
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in the virtual school itself. Another goal would be that the virtual school itself does begin to generate enrichment in in activities. Just because a student chooses the virtual world doesn't mean they want no interaction with staff and students. And so I think it will be about learning who our community is and getting feedback from our community so that as we develop as a school, we will
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be able to bring in those resources and connect kids to those extras whether it's in the community or connected to another school in the district.
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Okay. or develop it for that school itself. And I used to say that that school itself wouldn't be a school that has its own track team on the weekends or um it's small to start. Obviously, right now it's small school to start.
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Um but certainly doesn't mean any of that is off the table because it is a single district, but it is a ver, you know, a single district school similar to that of Jury of RPA and whatnot. So, okay, that would be the goal.
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Thank you. Are we referring this or are we all set?
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I'm all set.
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We were Are we going to refer it?
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Yeah.
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For a vote.
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Sure.
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Somebody I'll make a motion.
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Motion.
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You second it.
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I'll second it.
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Are there any questions or hesitations to not support the time the start times?
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I guess that's just my ultimate question. If we're not able to support it, the second motion just um if I may go.
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Thank you. Um just want to follow back up on Evolve. What's been the typical time for Evolve to start and end?
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So we've been following Dery's um start and end time of 7:55 to 250 and students have the option to engage in an elective period 1 with Dery or period 6. Um we don't have a great deal of students that partake in those. We have about 15 kids that take an optional elective. Um otherwise students have the opportunity to just come in and do a personalized learning in the morning. But the first
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class that we have that is a project based course starts at nine o'clock and that is also to accommodate students who they can't get to 7:55 start time for that elective.
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There's there's no um extended learning to like 5:00 ever.
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We do. So, we also have a flex program um that we actually just uh reapplied for our student learning time waiver that we had approved last year with the department of ed. And for with our student learning time waiver, we are able for this year to have 30 students um on our case load who have not been meeting this 990 traditional learning.
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So, those students can have a hybrid flex schedule. Some of them come in for part of the day, some stay until 5:00.
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So from 3:00 to 5:00 we have optional tutoring for students so they can stay after. Um or we just have students that they want to come in and log in to a Google meets from 3:00 to 5:00 and that's Monday through Thursday after school as well. So we do have that flex hybrid pathway as an option for kids but it's not for all students because we only have a limited number of seats that
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we receive from the department of ed regarding um student learn. So my concern so that my main concern is from this document we just received at 4:30 today the start and end times that are being applied for is till 250 if there is a student that is so do you plan on bringing that that same model forward into this year with with the extended time that you just explained.
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So this year these were our start and end times that we had even from last year. So, and we've been offering this flex option. It's not necessarily considered part of the full school day for students because it's an optional pathway within Evolve, not necessarily a required start and end time for all students, if that makes sense.
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But it even though it's not on the official start and end time, that's going to continue.
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Yes, that is going to continue.
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Okay. Um, the only reason I'm not going to support this, I think as a committee we should, this should have been on the agenda at least two days before the agenda was modified today and which I believe brings up some open meeting law concerns. I think we should have had more time to evaluate this so we can research further. So for that reason, I'm not going to support referral for the later two and I advise
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that we shouldn't vote on this because of that reason, but um, it's up to the committee. I'm okay with voting on it.
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You okay with voting on it?
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I'm okay with voting on it. Roll call.
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Mr. D, what are we voting on to bring it to full committee?
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This we're voting on referring start and end times.
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Start times. Yes.
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And this is also the graduation.
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Nope. No. Just no.
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Mr. Corey.
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Yes.
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M. Yes.
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Okay. 3.2.
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Okay. So um we are also looking to align our graduation requirements to offer a minimum 80 credit graduation requirement for students in Evolve and that is to align with the other pathways that are um right now going to be housed at the 290 Rock building. Um and really that's just to honor the current students at RPA who are choosing to opt into Evolve.
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They right now have 80 credits as a minimum for graduation. So we also want to honor that as well. And again, it wouldn't be 80 is the max. It's really just the minimum. So, we would still retain the 70 core credits that are required right now. And we would have a five credit capstone, which is our post-secary planning. Um, it's a course that all students need to take in Evolve, plus another additional five
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credits for wellness. So, students would have an 80 minimum credit requirement.
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What what what's capstone? How do you define capstone? So, our capstone is an add-on class, but it's also infused in the TLE's that we have, our transformative learning experience courses.
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Is it based in mastery?
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It is mastery based, and it's also it's basically a portfolio of many different types of artifacts that show your readiness for postsecary.
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That's what I wanted to hear. That's like setting up that's like setting up their own portfolio, which would lend to their resume, which would help them to take the next step after graduation.
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That's exactly and and and 80 credits makes inherent sense to me because that's the current structure. It appear that I fought vehematly for throughout this whole struggle for those kids to be able to remain at an 80 credit threshold and not put them up at the high school and make them get that 100 credit threshold. I was really concerned about that and so were many faculty members. So that makes inherent sense
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and I just think it's important to note that the core academic requirements are consistent at the 70 credit mark and really where we're coming off is that at Dery to earn the 100 plus as we know many kids graduate with more than 100 credits because there are a number of credits built in that give kids essentially the opportunity to fail a little bit along the way if things don't
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work out and they can still graduate on time. So really what we're removing is the demand for kids to earn that elective credit because recognizing that as kids are transitioning to some of these pathways, it's because they have struggled to meet the mark at the previous place and so they have struggled or have failed a couple of classes along the way and we don't want to penalize kids for that. And so it
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really is only in the place of elective credit that we are removing the requirement. The core academics remain the same just as a point of information.
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And my last question is in in regard to the capstone piece. Uh I know that our former mayor Ed Lambert is really promoting that entire um concept in in his role uh in administration. Are there any grants tied to that in any way? So we have had the bar foundation supporting our work over the past eight years now and one of the major pieces of this grant has been postcary readiness
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in the curriculum to support postsecary readiness. So in that capstone like you were saying they have um a resume cover letter they have to fill out financial aid whether they're going to college or not just to see what's available.
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It's focusing them.
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They need to give a presentation that defends their next steps beyond. They have to do a budget for life beyond graduation. They have to do a vision statement. Um, look at their strengths inventory, skills inventory.
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This the kind of stuff that's been missing in the in the alternative piece forever. You know, that whole lack of sense of direction to be able to move forward and try to get these kids, you know, directed in their endeavors to earn a high school diploma. So, that all sounds really good to me and I want to support wholeheartedly.
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You're all set.
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I'm all set. Thank you.
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Um just had one question just because we haven't received an update since the last meeting. I'm kind of going in between the one we just approved but ties in. Um RPA work the administration's plan is to keep RPA currently at Rockre to this time.
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Yes, I yield. um won't be supporting it for the at the subcommittee level for the same reason I just mentioned. Just so the public's aware, we received this item, this backup document at 4:30.
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Can I just clarify something? You've said that three times, Mr. Das, when I updated and revised the agenda this morning, I did include the backup that Dr. Brownhot provided in diligent. So everybody have the um document, the backup document prior to this meeting at 4:30 authority. You requested that I give you a paper document because you couldn't get it on diligent and I provided you with that, but it was
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provided on diligent earl just just to clear the record. It's not no one's saying that it was because it was a lack of you providing or anyone else. You you set the agenda. No one, you don't control what get puts gets put on the agenda. To no fault of your own, we had an agenda that was modified within 48 hours of the open meeting law this morning with two items that weren't
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on the original agenda. Members of this committee, speaking for myself, had work today, so I did not have the opportunity to check diligent on my computer. So with that being said, this is why we should and this is not this is more of the administration. This isn't something that's on you. This is why we should if we have items we wish to present to subcommittee, we should give members the respect and the time of
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posting an agenda within 48 hours, which is what's required under the law. And it just makes sense. It's something we discussed as a committee.
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That's right. that we should be getting back up ahead of time so we have time to review and ask questions ahead of time.
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So the fact I don't understand why the agenda was even modified within 48 why the administration would ask the for the agenda to be modified within 48 hours because it really appears to me that this is items that could have been presented well in advance. So to get items related, the RPA sent to us last second is not on you, Miss Cabra, but it's on the administration is disrespectful as one member to receive items
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the same day of a meeting.
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When I spoke with the superintendent on Thursday, she said that this would probably be this would be the best place to bring it up since it was a special education alternative education subcommittee.
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So that's why it came forward. It was originally being requested for the July meeting. The superintendent wanted to put it on the subcommittee meeting to get ahead of the July meeting. Yes. So that was why it got put on. We were talking about it on Thursday and because there was no school on Friday, I think that's where the time lapse came into play. Correct. But because these also
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both of these document both of these um items were already shared with the school committee in all of the documentation around the alternative pathway design over time. So this is really us bringing it back. the 80 credits and the start and end times were all part of the last one pager that was shared at the last school committee meeting. So none of this information is brand new. We brought it through the
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subcommittee so that we could have a conversation about it to bring it forth to the full committee. But under no certain terms is any of this information brand new. So I just want to be able to point that out that all of this information was shared at the last school committee as the backup to the alted pathway stuff.
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You also right but I just want to finish my point. This could have whether it was discussed Thursday or not, the administration could have put this on the agenda earlier.
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It just makes absolutely it didn't happen. We're gonna have let's just move on.
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And just and just just to um finish to close my point and then we can move on again. If we're going to update the agenda, the administration could consult should consult with the chair of the subcommittee. Were you notified that the the agenda was going to be changed?
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29:32
No.
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29:32
That's something we need to work on. And again, if the superintendent and deputy were here, that's what I would be saying to them right now. Um, but we just need to do better going forward with getting back up. I Okay. So, so in regard to that point, I I couldn't disagree more. Um, we've been working on this concept now since the spring. Couple of subcommittee meetings, couple of regular school committee
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meetings, and we're almost we're ready to like finish the whole conceptual picture of moving and integrating these two extra wonderful programs into the current RPA. And so it's it's a very complex thing. There's a lot of moving parts that that I know you guys have been working really hard on. And today's presentation I thought was very clear and and very easy and and to my experience uh I could easily look at
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this update and say yeah this is really good. These ideas are going to work out and they're going to be practical and and we're going to help the whole picture move forward. And if the superintendent gave her blessing to move this to the subcommittee meeting, I wholeheartedly accept uh putting these on the regular agenda for school committee moving forward. I yield.
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30:55
Go for it, please. We don't want to take this out.
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30:58
Oh, I understand, but I I just have to respond. And I I agree with my colleague. This this has been something we discussed for months on end. So there's absolutely no reason that the that the administration directed that the agenda be moved be amended the day of a meeting.
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31:18
It's against the It's not It's against the law first and secondly, it doesn't give us time to ask to research further ask questions. Even though I understand we discussed the issue before, it just makes sense that when you add an item on here to have allow me to go back, research minutes, etc. to have questions prepared.
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31:39
You can vote no. It's fine. We just need to move on from this. We've been Thank you. I know. I'm trying to stop you both. Are we going to Are you going to vote?
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31:46
Make a motion.
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31:47
Motion second.
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31:49
Roll call, please.
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31:51
Mr. Das, no.
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31:52
Mr. Corey, yes.
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31:54
Mr. Stewart, yes. Okay. 3.3 discussions cartwheel contract. Awesome. So, before you you should see our cartwheel, which is a summary of data that was actually also shared at the last school committee meeting. It was updated to um reflect the most upto-date data that we've been able to see so far for this year. Uh Brookline and Cartwheel and Brookline Center is our partnership with the Department of Public Health also
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32:23
offsetting some of the funding to be able to bring to us teaalth uh counseling opportunities to our students and families as well as a range of webinars and professional development for our families. Uh it should be noted that Fall River Public Schools has one of the highest utilization of those webinars. We've partnered with um Deb Sardina and Brookline to be able to promote those webinars monthly and Fall
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32:48
River saw on average um upwards of 50 families joining webinars with a sense of regularity. Um, and so we were really happy to see that participation and the topics would range from month to month and families could opt in andor receive the recordings of those trainings and found it to be a great benefit to our students families as well as counseling staff. But most importantly, our
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students were able to receive counseling both in English andor in their native tongue. There was no wait list to the counseling that our students also received as well as um morning and evening appointments on the weekends and as well as evening appointments through the course of the week. In addition to that, Brookline and uh Cartwheel have expanded the program to include um an attendance avoidance program. Oh wow.
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And the attendance avoidance program um includes a pretty hefty parent participation component. and we have seen upwards of 33 families take advantage of the school avoidance program. Um, as well as with the partnership comes pro bono seats that we were able to receive for students who were uninsured and were not eligible for insurance. And so Claudia, who is our district seal coordinator, has been my
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co-pilot in helping to get this program out to our teams, promoted across our families, and ensuring that we are reviewing all of our proono utilization to make sure that there's nothing we could do to get kids insurance before they utilize one of those seats. And it it should be noted too that, you know, a couple of times throughout the course of the year, we sent out the parent referral protocol for families to
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request the service. And more recently, this past spring, we saw upwards of 25 families reaching out for services before we went into the summer months.
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And so, um, over the last couple of years, we've we've differed in our, um, contracts with Cartwheel. The very first one, uh, was a 50 student contract back in 23 24.
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From that utilization, we grew to a 150 seat contract as you can see on the bar graph in 2024.
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And then in 2025, this year we grew um to 150, but it was moved up to 200 because cart rail has been great in the sense that any unused seats from last year, they rolled them forward and so they will be doing that again with us this year. Um, but as we've looked at the need, as we've looked at the demand for the cartwheel and really the flexibility and the language as well as
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the attendance avoidance program, we are requesting 151 to 200 seats going into next school year um to be able to meet the growing demand and also um to be able Did you say you wanted you said 101 to 200 which would align with what we were on we are on track to utilize this year without rolling any forward from last year. Um, and so you'll see those data the data points in front of
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you. Um, and again hoping to be able to continue this contract as we've seen great utilization and you know I think Claudia would also add that we're we're seeing that our families are trusting of the program. I think that's also a reason why we're seeing increased utilization because word spreads the program is effective and my with our students finding great success our families are continuing to engage in the
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platform and with the resource and the services are we what grades is most this mostly being used in we know um so for the younger grades K one and two it's parental guidance that families can choose um and for it I don't have an average of the grades that we're using it in.
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36:34
On average, 20% of our seats were utilized by Dery High School students last year. Um, then we see a trend of our middle schools being typically utilizing the seats most often, anywhere from a range of 10 to 14% of the seats being utilized are at our secondary schools. So, it is certainly a a program utilized by the majority of our older students, but also our upper elementary students, our families are taking
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advantage of.
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37:00
Okay. And then part of this is paid through a grant. Through a grant, correct?
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37:04
I'm sorry.
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37:05
Is part of it paid through a grant?
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37:06
Um it's offset through uh the Department of Public Health as well as the Brookline Center, which I had shared with you guys as backup. Um the the two pricing categories that were we were looking at that was on the original backup from the first school committee meeting.
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Um to be able to purchase 101 to 150 seats, our contribution would be 73,125.
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But because we're seeing the trend is already over that number being utilized this year, we wanted to to kind of grow as we're seeing the usage grow. And that commitment is a 97,500 for us to stay committed. Overall cost would be 150,000. Uh where the Brookline Center grant to your point um is a 52,05 contribution for one and a 33,000 for the other depending upon the number of seats you purchase.
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37:55
Perfect. So I was um back to the attendance avoidance program. I wanted to ask Claudia uh just in your not even data points just in your overall feel of how cartwheel affects because when we were working before these virtual programs it was we always had to be there. we can only catch so much uh you know when we're in inside the building but but this has given kids and parents a chance to work virtually
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through social emotional issues and and together and especially the attendance avoidance piece where we really need parent backup and and as we well know working from the former attendance task force we we utilized doctor's offices in the city we utilized any resource else we could to try to help us understand why are kids not coming to school in more numbers you know so it's been
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everybody's been scratching their heads for a long time so but just even aside from the attendance avoidance program how would you say cartwheel is functioning overall it's great having immediate ser access to services and for some of our families the wait lists are long depending on the insurance depending on the language that they need and we have cartwheel who um they offer I haven't had one
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language request that they weren't able to meet.
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39:21
That's awesome.
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39:21
Which that's huge.
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Even Arabic I have not had one language request that they haven't been able to meet yet.
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39:29
Um the other part of it too is they have psychiatry as well too which is huge. Um we've had unfortunate situations where um even through a cartwheel session there was something of concern that came up. there's immediate notification and contact with us and with ascending schools. So it triangulates the support for that kid which is huge. Um so they you know even though it's could you say that slowly and it
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triangulates the support for that kid.
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39:56
So those are the scaffolds that we talk about around the case that triangular support. Go ahead.
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40:03
So it's like the outside clinician they're connecting with the school and with the family. So all the partners who have the child's best interest are working to support that kid which is huge as well too.
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And and they all communicate through the computer.
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So they're all communicating through computer but they we also um our contact through cartwheel I feel like she's my friend. She like I I've met her in sess in in training sessions before but she's just a quick phone call um with anything that comes up whether it's a question in regards to a referral or whether it's you know someone having an issue with the referral process whether it's um a
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session um something happened with a session she is picking up that phone every single time that I've called her u which it feels like they're right here with us which is great so so in since this program's inception to this point, you guys feel really really good about it.
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41:00
I I do I mean our virtual counseling is not for everyone, but it does work for the kids that that you know that it also involves parents who can't always come into school at any given moment, you know, so it lessens disruption and it also increases parental uh you know support throughout the whole thing. No. Attendance avoidance. Have you guys noticed any uptick in attendance as a result of it
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for individual students?
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41:26
Yes.
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41:27
Um.
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41:30
Yes.
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41:30
Yeah. For the individual students that are involved.
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41:32
Yeah. I mean in in a you know in a limited way uh what in a rel I should say in a relative way. According to this program there has been a slight uptick in attendance. But if we increase the numbers and you know the price that we're paying for this 975 out of our out of our budget that's the cost of one counselor and yet how many kids does this service we have 150 spots.
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You getund so potentially 150 clients for the price of one counselor and that works out very well across a very broad schedule of access.
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Yeah, I think that's the other part that is just important to note between the weekends um as well as the evening hours and as we know transportation we talked about it earlier is a challenge when it gets dark in our community you know living on in the east and in Northeast um early you know daylight savings we know it gets dark in the middle of the winter and whatnot. So for families to
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not have to leave the home to still get the services that they need. Do kids have to qualify for this or or can they just opt in going through insurance and those pieces? But all those pieces because I'm noticing an uptick of bad behaviors at the elementary at the first, you know, the primary level in school. But when we say that cartwheel affects mostly kids at the secondary level, well, the psychosocial needs of a
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kid from seventh grade on up, of course, those demands increase tremendously from seventh grade on up. You know, uh what I've experienced in the past with kids at the primary level, a lot of that kind of stuff is uh you know, you can take care of it when it presents itself in school and you can redirect the kid. You know, of course, you always inform the parent when something ticks up with
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their with their child, but those uh I should say those could be triaged uh more successfully at the primary level, but at the secondary level, it needs more followup.
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43:31
I think the other piece of it too is we do suicide screening at the secondary levels as well, too. So just having this readily available if we need it in a referral quickly and it meets the need for that family and that student and the language capacity that is huge.
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43:46
Yeah, that's huge. Thank you.
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43:48
Um I I fully support the program and I'm going to um vote for it here and at the full committee. Just had a couple of um clarifying questions for the families that are registered. when we're getting families registered for the webinars.
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What are what are they going over with the families?
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44:08
So, it's different topics that uh Brookline offers. For example, uh one of them could be understanding um mental health, um understanding depression and what that looks like. So, it's a varies of topics they usually have out. Um we can send you the list of all them that we just um just seeing like um two that's a lot of families that registering. So, are we tracking like completed like
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webinars or are we just tracking them registering for just signing up there? If they sign up, they get the uh recorded version of the training so they can access it as if it was on demand.
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44:43
Virtual.
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44:44
Yep. Yep. Um last my last question this main concern is this is definitely short-term a very good program for students um to get into the obviously we all know therapy the weight list to get into any different for a clinician or for psychiatric services is through the roof I guess what is the plan I'm not sure if this is on us or this is on cartwheel there's a collaborative partnership here
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45:12
if a student is referred to services for cartwheel. Knowing that this is a short-term program, many students are going to need longerterm support. Do we have the data on or I guess what will be the the process we refer a student to cartwheel? Are they starting that um search for a longer term therapeutic services right away or we are we doing that? How does that work? So, just like
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45:39
any referral to any clinical agency, they're there for two to six months, right? And at the end of those six months, they're assessing. If that student needs more continuous support, they'll they'll add them on for another cycle. If they feel they need a mentor, they'll connect with us as well too to look for resources to add additional supports in addition to what they're offering. Um,
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so it's it's a student by student situation.
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As well as just to add to that too, if they feel that a student would benefit from in-person counseling, they will work with us to find an in-person counselor and then support in the handoff. So, it really has been to to Claudia's point, it really has been personalized. Once a student is in cartwheel care, they work with us until the student ends the in in a healthy place at the end of that cycle or if we
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need it for continued care, they work with us for continued care depending upon what that needs to look like for that student.
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46:38
Okay. So, but no one ever expires in their cartwheel experience essentially.
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Okay. So, if a student needs um longer term services, they're either referred to like an in-person clinician or psychiatric services. No student at the end of cartwheels going without services.
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Correct.
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That if they need if they need it. Okay. Thank you. My last question is and I thank you for providing this is just on the cost because it's not in the services agreement at least. I could have missed it. But um so you're looking for the 101 to 200.
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47:12
Yeah. The not that one that you have the other one.
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47:16
The 101 200, right?
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47:18
So this is old and this is the newer one. I was sharing back when I first brought it to the committee what the two options were, but we are recommending the 151 to 200.
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This came before the committee was referred to.
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47:29
Correct. Y I got it. Okay.
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47:31
Um and the the grant and stuff, did we accept the grant yet or do you need our approval for the grant?
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47:37
It's all embedded within our our contract. It's an automatic grant in order to get us the contract rate that we pay.
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Okay.
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47:46
So um that wouldn't on like I guess a technical question on the agenda we won't see this grant.
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47:51
No, it would just be the contract because we end up paying the contract.
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47:54
Motion to refer.
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Motion to refer.
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47:56
Second roll call.
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48:00
Mr. D.
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48:01
Yes.
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48:01
Mr. Cory.
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48:02
Yes.
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48:02
M. Stewart.
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48:03
Yes.
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48:05
Okay. 3.04. You got all set. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
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48:09
Thank you.
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48:11
Yeah. I'm Thank you guys. I'm wondering if you would mind staying when we get to and if you want you can ask the committee to take it out of order for the regulated classroom piece.
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48:23
Which one?
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The regulated classroom. Claudia and I have been in communication.
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We'll take it out. Right. So, we'll do 3.05 right now.
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48:30
I'll make a motion to uh to move that agenda item forward.
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48:34
I don't think we need it, but second.
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48:36
All in favor? I. Okay.
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48:44
So I'm asking um the committee to support the proposed contract with the regulated classroom or for the regulated classroom. Um this contract gives us 25 train the trainer seats. So, our district um seal staff, some of our special education staff, as well as district administrators in collaboration with both Amy and Claudia will be trained as trainers um in late August if approved to be trainers of the
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regulated classroom. We are targeting, and Mr. Cory, thank you for bringing it up earlier. PreK to grade 2 because we see a lot of disregulated students not being available to learn.
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So I want people to understand that the regulated classroom is not a specific strategy, is not a specific curriculum.
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49:40
It's a framework. It talks about ensuring kids feel safe and connected before they can access any curriculum, whether it be our SEAL curriculum, whether it be our academic curriculum.
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It gives teachers an opportunity to co-regulate with students because a lot of what we've heard from our teachers is that they've exhausted a lot of tools in their toolbox and the tools that they have, they're not seeing the changes in the kids, what you say behavior, but it really is. And Claudia can certainly attest to that because we've been in schools together, a fightor-flight
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response and they're not able to access the cognitive pieces of their brain. And Claudia has a great example she can share with you to be able to use traditional approaches. Let's talk about your coping skills. Remember, you're going to go take a break. All of those pieces that are great strategies and supports um meditation they need to be out of a fight and send in, yeah, fight or flight mode
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in order to access those pieces, right?
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So, the regulated classroom is built around um research, research showing that self-regulation and academic achievement go hand in hand. um co-regulation, the research supports that our littlest guys need the support from an adult or even a peer to help them go through that process. Um again, trauma informed um practices which again we know many of our kids are coming into school every day with stress and trauma
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at a very young age that they can't vocalize. It's not like traditional talk uh therapy or a a teacher really just taking them over and talking to them is going to work. Um so one of the things I had you know looked into was the regulated classroom which came recommended um by other special education directors as a tier one approach to setting up a student's day particularly in the younger grades so
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that they are ready to learn and it's embedded throughout the day so that as students they might be if I know that returning from recess is extremely difficult for you then I we can do a co-regulation activity before we start learning again in order to be able to ensure that we're not seeing that dysregulation continue into the learning environment. I had Claudia pull some data for me. I mean this year
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alone we had 187 students in our elementary school. Now to be fair, this data is K through four and not only preK to two, but 187 students who had met the criteria for a a crisis referral. Again, in elementary school, not unique to special ed. This is for everybody. And out of those 187, some of them, 40 students actually met the um inatient level of care. So they receive some type of hospitalization due to this um
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regulation.
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52:48
40 how many?
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40 out of 187.
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52:54
And that's what we know about, right?
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That's what we know about. Um, so we um what we know is that our students need a consistent adult to be able to help them return to the young to the learning environment when they're this young. If I leave the classroom, somebody has to help me come back in and integrate. I can't do that independently. So the goal like all of our inclusive opportunities getting kids to stay in the classroom again regulate
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and then continue with the learning so there's less time off learning. It does not um take the place of any of our great uh social emotional curriculums that we have our positive action, our calm classroom, any of those zones of regulation. This is all beforehand because those curriculums really rely on the um the thinking part of the brain to be activated. But Claudia, I'd love for
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you to share for the public your um explanation because it made complete sense when I heard it. So um so this actually um it was one of the trainings that came from zones of regulation. They talk about like the brain as the upstairs brain and the downstairs brain. The downstairs brain is your fight or flight, right? It's just I'm in danger. Um I need to get help right away. upstairs part of your
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brain is your language is your thinking and just you know what happens when we're disregulated there's that ladder and that ladder that goes between the two is not there. So the co-regulation is really bringing that ladder back in so the two can speak to each other and the kid can you know can regulate. It's hard to ask a kid what's going on when they're in that fight or flight mode,
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54:33
right? And so people forget that. Like that's the part of the brain that, you know, you want them to talk and think and rationalize. They can't.
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54:40
Are you talking about the downstairs brain?
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54:41
Yes. Go ahead.
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54:42
Yeah.
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54:43
Go ahead.
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54:43
So just the co-regulation is really over that ladder to help kids and and communicate what is going on. And when we look at journal entries, we see elopement and aggression as the two biggest behaviors which show us in our little guys that is that fight or flight um response that they are having.
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Elopment and aggression.
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Aggression. Boy, that's hitting it right on the head.
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55:15
Colin, um just and I apologize. I missed um if you said it already, I missed it. So, we're sending 25 trained to get individuals in the district to get trained.
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They're going to come to us. The trainers are coming 25 and then we're going to train 25.
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55:32
Yeah. Of our seal um staff and special education and administration, a combination of all three groups because again, this is not just a special ed initiative. It is really impacting everybody. Um, so we want all the different uh pieces of staff to be represented or completed.
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55:52
Yeah, I support that. Um, just just want to um, so it's going to be basically most individuals like in your department in the SDL department.
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56:01
I think if we one person from each school is how you had it.
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56:04
Yep. We were trying to come up with again we talked to I talked to Amy about some VPs that are responding a lot. It's the kids that respond. I mean, it's the staff members that are most often responding to or supporting the teachers that we want to be trainers because then they'll have the most um in-depth understanding of the program in order to be able to coach in the moment, right?
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56:23
Because you can teach anybody anything outside of the moment. But when something is happening and a student is disregulated, we need the uh trainers to be available to staff to coach and mentor. So that's why we would choose members from each of our elementary schools and prek and um yeah no fully support this. I think this is going to be good. And just in terms of um implementation of the
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professional development who's who would be the point person in the district is making sure see and that staff are I know it's like the they're going to come down and train but I don't know who would be like the responsible parties.
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56:58
So I think it will have to be a combination of a lot of of a lot of us.
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57:03
So with Claudia, myself, Amy, and then the building principles are the ones that have to own this work, right?
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57:10
Because they're there every single day.
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And we need to make sure that teachers are implementing these this framework if we want to determine if it's something we want to expand past second grade, if it's something that is meeting the needs of our students. But we're not there.
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57:26
None of us are in the trenches every single day with them. So, realistically, the day-to-day work will be on the um the building principles, but there's got to be some kind of um smaller group of us looking at the data across the district and making sure that it's meeting the needs of students.
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57:45
And yeah, you there's two sixour days.
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57:48
That's how Oh, for the train the trainer sessions.
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57:51
And so, yeah, we're proposing when the administration administrators are back the week before everybody else comes back, it would we're looking to solidify dates during that time and then we would talk to principles about what makes the most sense as rolling it out to the teachers.
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58:07
Okay. Um, that was a great explanation and uh I agree. I think it's it's a definite step in the right direction. um you know people in opposition on on the uh school board. Uh we're always in contact with um um all our principles and teachers throughout the district and I clearly understand that there's been an uptick in disregulation especially at the primary level. Uh there has been
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58:35
more trauma reported incidents in in in our elementary schools than I've ever known. Even back when I was working, I never and I worked at the elementary. I worked at the green school for three years. I certainly understood the trauma that I worked with and and the cases I worked with, but right now it just seems to be even more so. I'm going to say it just for the public satification, not
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for this school board, but I really think that these are all postcoid a effects in in regard to uh isol isolated behavior due to the device which which happened in those 18 months of voided time that a kid was not in the classroom and then coming back having to try to regain you know uh level ground in public education. I think it's been a real struggle for our schools to to to
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get level ground. That being said, I love this idea of 25 train the trainers.
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59:34
I love the idea of you're targeting your SEAL staff. I love the idea that school principles need to drive this program and and treat this program uh uh for what it deserves, and that's uh you know, really close watch and support.
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That being said, my my one oppositional question, um, back when when Department of Education, um, well, excuse me, it was Department of Justice study a few years back and they brought in the concept of restorative justice. And that's because they were concerned about so many suspensions from school, especially being in inordinately uh, you know, racial, you know what I mean, and that kind of thing. It was basically a
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1:00:21
demographic study. Uh uh we've all we all understand that problem and everything. The problem with restorative justice, and I supported it wholeheartedly when it came through, but I'm seeing some cracks in the practice right now, is that sometimes kids are turned back into a regulated classroom too soon before their issue is completely understood or resolved on any given day. So, it's not been properly
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1:00:51
triaged before they have to like get back in the classroom to try to function intellectually again. Um, there's a lot of pro problems I have with restorative justice now where I think disciplinary action needs to also be looked at in a way that could help a student really understand a sense of consequence when there's trauma or dysregulation going on in the classroom. I hope you guys would
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1:01:19
just keep your visions on a sense of consequence as well as restorative justice. I'm I'm in favor of restorative justice to a degree. I want the public to understand that about me to a degree.
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1:01:32
But I also feel that when kids are really over the edge and not regulating time ca case after case after case after case then I really think consequence needs to be a big part of that equation as well. uh as well for the parents to understand and I'm speaking to the parents directly for the parents understand the consequences of their child's action uh in dysregulation and to to really work with the school staff
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1:02:02
to try to do you know whatever is needed on behalf of that child. Thanks. I I'll make a motion to refer with a quick question.
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1:02:11
Second.
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1:02:12
Oh, sorry. Second.
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1:02:13
Yes, second. um this um very quick um very two quick very quick I agree with my um I agree with my colleague at the end and I think as um a policy um subcommittee is something we need to look at I want to look at is um the policies around student behavior and consequences especially when it comes to the um safety of students and um holding students accountable when there are um
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1:02:40
behaviors that are to an extreme degree.
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1:02:42
Um just one last um comment just on the implementation of this is just um just want to make sure it doesn't all fall on on you Miss Casa and implementing this.
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1:02:52
Of course we have um other positions and job descriptions which um speak to the implementation of um professional development for leaison. So I just want to make sure we have a good plan in place in terms of the implementation.
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1:03:05
But I'm excited to support this at the full committee and I'm ready to vote.
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1:03:11
Mr. D. Yes, Mr. Cory.
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1:03:13
Yep.
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1:03:13
Mr.
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1:03:14
Yes.
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1:03:16
Thank you.
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1:03:17
Thank you. This is really Thank you, Claudia.
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1:03:21
Discussion to vote to refer a job description for Lee BCBA.
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1:03:26
Good luck. So, um, as part of the last negotiations with FRAA, there was an agreement, um, that we would have a lead BCBA um, position. We've never had one in Fall River to my knowledge. Similar to we have a lead psychologist position.
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1:03:49
they are in the same unit in FRAA that was negotiated on uh this past time. We did not bring a job description forward at the time. At that time, the superintendent had just asked that we hold off. Um then around January, I was asked or given the go-ahhead to move forward with drafting a job description.
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1:04:10
So between January and most recently May, I've been working with FRAA um uh leadership to come up with this job description. So it really does mirror what a lead psychologist is doing, but in a BCBA world primarily, you know, responsible for the supervision and evaluation of our BCBAS because again they have that lens. Um professional development. our BCBAS are not able to earn um their CEUs through
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1:04:39
DESIE because their license isn't through DESIE. So, it's always on myself or someone on our BCBA team or uh Jim Sullivan to try to scramble and find what can give them CEUs, right? Because we are responsible to be able to help them keep their lensure. Um the whole question about RBT certification and oversight of RBTs because now the um BCBA world has switched who can supervise an RBT. It must be a BCBA. It
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1:05:10
used to be a BCBA or someone that was trained but now and we had some psychologists that were trained but now it's strictly a BCBA. Um again they help with coordination of our ESY program. So we ask our BCBAs to use some of their summer hours to support our ESY program because kids are typically outside of their typical school, right? And then they're all together. So we could use
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1:05:35
some support with the behavior. So those are the key pieces of um what this lead job description does and it is a stipen.
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1:05:45
So the person still has the full responsibility of being a district BCBA and then takes on the additional role of leading the group. We have about 11 BCBAs right now. Mr. D, thank you. Um I guess um guess going backwards. So the committee approved this in our last negotiations and this was what was the time frame again.
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1:06:11
This was 2024, late 2024.
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1:06:17
2024.
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1:06:18
Well, it just got just got ratified last year expired in 24. It was 25, 26, and 27 is the contract, right?
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1:06:27
Correct.
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1:06:27
So, yeah.
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1:06:28
Yeah, it was in 2025. I just don't remember if it was the beginning of 2025 or like when that happened.
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1:06:34
And um so, doc, so when we the committee approved this, we approved the um collective bargaining agreement with this lead BCBA position in there.
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1:06:45
You were advocating at the time to post the position.
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1:06:49
Um yes. I mean, I would say that anytime that something's included in a contract and is a position, I'm going to advocate to post it, but I wasn't part of all the discussions um during the collective bargaining. Um, right. But once this was approved, we this is after the collective bargaining.
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1:07:06
We approved this and you're advocating for this position to be as rightfully so. This should be um to be fulfilled. Did um Dr. Curley give a reason at the time as to why? No, honestly, she just said we were still in negotiation with other unions, but she just said to pause right now and so does it seem like it was a financial issue or I honestly Mr. Das did not question it
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1:07:29
and I just said okay and the union didn't bring it up again until fe uh January of this year either. So I don't know where that disconnect was or why.
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1:07:39
Right. I think this is something that um it's a long time coming and and just say I hopefully this will solve some of the um be careful my words unfortunate issues that have taken place over the past year in terms of the evaluation of BCBAS. So hopefully we um this improves the um systems that are in place going forward.
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1:08:04
So I yield.
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1:08:06
Okay. Yeah, I just want to I I fully support the concept of a lead BCBA.
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1:08:11
Um the social emotional needs are being proven year after year in public education that they're as important as intellectual education because as uh social emotional learning supports intellectual development and they need all the supports in the world. So yes, I support this. My question is is you said it's going to be a stipen. So it's going to be a current BCBA that we have now or a new p new new person.
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1:08:42
Um so we would post it to our current BCDAS. I would hope that someone that has experience in Fall River in our schools would be the ones to step up. We have two open positions right now that we're in the process of hiring for. If nobody on our own team um current existing BCDAS applied for this, I'd be surprised. But if they didn't, then we would, you know, ask one of our new
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1:09:04
people if they were interested.
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1:09:05
Yeah, that's good. So So the the current BCBAS have their salary structure, and this is going to be a stipen above that salary.
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1:09:13
It's $4,000 stipen that's in the contract.
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1:09:15
Yeah, that's that's a no-brainer, you know, for a step in the right direction, a yield.
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1:09:20
Motion to refer. Just have very quick questions.
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1:09:23
Very quick question.
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1:09:24
Um, how many going into next year, how many openings are we projected to have? for BCBAS.
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1:09:32
Well, we have two people in the middle of interviews right now, so hopefully zero, but um you never know what the summertime will bring.
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1:09:43
Um second, he he made a motion. I second a motion.
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1:09:48
Mr. D.
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1:09:49
Yes.
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1:09:49
Mr. Corey.
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1:09:50
Yeah.
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1:09:50
M Stewart.
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1:09:51
Yes.
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1:09:52
3.06. Discussion request to school at day school.
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1:09:58
Um I think we've talked about this in different venues but um one of the you know we've had the our stone therapeutic day school for several years in Fall River and it has met the needs of a lot of our students and allowed us to keep our students in district.
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1:10:15
What we're seeing is there is a growing need for what I would consider a level three student with a student with autism level three. So, our more severe and profound students with autism and the population is growing in our own schools. We are doing our best to try to meet their needs in our own substantially separate programs, but sometimes just that school environment is too much for a student with a high uh
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1:10:47
you know level of need and our out of district placements. They are not accepting students as quickly as they usually do because the same pro problem that we face they face, right? They don't have the staffing. They are maxed out with students already. The need across the Commonwealth is growing. So, um it's taking some of our students one to six months to even get into a place and sometimes even longer. The other
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1:11:14
thing I hear from parents all the time is that the bus ride for some of these students is extremely long and some of them are is they're um the bus is adversive to them, right? It's the noise, it's the waiting, it's taking too long. Um we see some self-injurous behavior happening on our vans. Um so we have not to my knowledge ever explored a couple things. How can we meet the needs
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1:11:42
of a stu of students um who present with either medically fragile complex issues or level three autism in district as far as a public day school program goes. The application through Desi is the same as um a stone uh application. Um so we're asking that we're able to conduct a feasibility study. That's all I'm looking for right now is approval to conduct a feasibility study. Again,
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1:12:11
where I'd like to explore it is our PACE building because we're not putting preK there right now. Um, and it has the structure as far as space for a playground, uh, exit and enter from the building. It is one level for our students, right? And so we can bring students back to district and potentially down the road tuition in neighboring district so that kids aren't having to go to Rhode Island over that
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1:12:36
195 bridge or up towards Boston in that 24 traffic every single day that we can bring them here. I gave you a brief um I asked our audit district coordinator to look at our case loads of students and out of the current students that are audit district we could potentially bring back 30 students 20 students with ASD and 10 students who are medically fragile. Again, we're talking about our
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1:13:02
younger students. I'm not going to disrupt a student who is in a high school program, has been there their entire career, and now say come back to us or a young adult program yet. The hope would be to either meet the needs of our in district kids who are on the referrals to go out of district or take back our elementary school kids. And we need to look at like the cost of what it
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1:13:25
would look like at pace, the staffing um needs and if we could financially knowing that tuition is um I gave you guys a quote anywhere from 100 to $160,000 savings per student per student. And that's just the base.
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1:13:40
If they need a onetoone support, that's extra for a district. um if they need uh speech and language and the out of district programs don't have it, our you know we have to provide extra funds and then transportation is you know the lowest it will ever be is like $87,000.
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1:13:57
So you're talking for just um the currently the district spends $2.6 million annually sending our students to Dave pro programs. the day programs are great, but I do believe that we can do a great job here if you know we're able to um to do it well, right? If the feasibility shows that we are we can do this and maybe it is a partnership with some of our collaboratives to see what
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1:14:22
Smeck or South Coast could offer if they partnered with us for a day school.
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1:14:28
Yeah.
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1:14:29
Yeah. I I fully um support the direction that we're going in and I think it's something that's bold and can not only help students but also help lower costs in the district. I think just some of the things when we're doing a feasibility study that we have to look out for is can we recruit staff to to um uphold with these services? Do we um facilities wise is the space there? I
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1:14:56
know there's um it was recently it was a point of contention on moving students to the PACE building. So if there's any work that needs to be done definitely looking at the um structural needs in a feasibility study as well and just seeing um if there is um interest from families to want to take part. I'm not sure. I mean, I don't think a lot of it comes not necessarily choice, but um just seeing that there's
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1:15:24
the community support, like parent support and all those different things, I think this is um something that will be instrumental when this gets referred to the committee. I'm assuming we're going to I don't know if we even have to go out to bid, but we're going to get a contract, I'm assuming, to approve referring this up.
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1:15:41
No, not really. It depends. So if we're doing it now, if we partner with anybody, partner with somebody, we would.
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1:15:47
But Jess Desessie has a very strict like application piece that um So you're going to do the the feasibility study in house?
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1:15:55
In house.
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1:15:55
And you were looking for referral to the full committee or just as an update?
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1:15:59
Just a discussion.
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1:16:00
Just a discussion and like again is this something because again to do a fe feasibility study, it's a lot of work, right? So I want to make sure that this is something that should it be feasible for us to do this that the committee would request uh would recommend that we bring it to full committee and we would do that you know bring it there.
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1:16:17
I think just to end I think we should refer this stuff and the reason being that maybe we can give at that time if um assistant superintendent needs it a blanket to go out to study to get like a in-depth study if need be but we can approve that at the full committee level. So I think we should just refer it up have a brief conversation and but I think my colleague has
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1:16:39
so I want to follow up. Uh so I want to this was a very secret hope of mine when we began our discussions about taking over the Bishop Conley campus and expanding our prek program there. I knew it was going to open up some space at Stone in understanding the issues that uh we're confronted with um as far as out of district placements are concerned. I've been fighting out of district placements and I've been
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1:17:13
retired now for 14 years. So, let me go back 20 years. Let me go back 25 years.
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1:17:20
um we needed to limit out of district placements then because of the cost factor. It was just so high. And so I don't want to sound like I'm I'm drinking the Kool-Aid or being a marshmallow, but I just want to give uh you two assistant superintendent praise for your diligence in in uh trying to shape a future vision for alternative education and for special needs. Because here you are saying like we want to open
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1:17:54
up, we want to do a a feasibility study on maybe expanding the classrooms at Stone for these purposes. And that was already a secret hope of mine that we would be expanding stone in some way to handle our case load here in the city.
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1:18:10
So it's two different things. So this is going to go to PACE. Stone is on our next item and this isn't even going to go to stone.
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1:18:16
But it's all it's all connected. It's it's all connected. I'm just want you to know. I'm speaking to the greater I'm speaking to the greater concept in the sense of vision that they're proposing to us today, which is like I haven't I haven't heard special needs directors speak for for the most immediate needs that our district is facing as I'm hearing now.
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1:18:41
These are immediate needs as you well know. Yes.
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1:18:44
To your experience as well. Uh so these are speaking to our immediate needs and cost of all the collaboratives that we support around us and the out of district placements that budget's nuts and we cannot control it for the public's edification. You know we we are subject to it. So we need to utilize it.
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1:19:06
Mhm.
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1:19:06
Uh and so this is a way to really uh this is a more costefficient method for us to handle some of the dysregulation and uh emotional needs that we need to attend to within our district. Good work. Good work. Good work. Good work.
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1:19:23
It allows kids to stay connected to the community they live in.
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1:19:27
Yeah. I'm not drinking any Kool-Aid. You guys are doing your homework and it sounds really good to me.
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1:19:32
Share with the public that we did. I just want to say one more thing for the public. Um, we did talk to Desessie about what the application process would look like and they did tell us that Lawrence Public School has a day program for students with autism. So, I do plan on taking a small group up to Lawrence to go see and pick their brains too to see Can I be a part of that group?
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1:19:53
Absolutely.
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1:19:54
Yeah, that's great. That's great.
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1:19:55
I'll make a motion to refer this discussion item up to the full committee.
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1:19:58
Second.
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1:19:59
Roll call.
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1:20:01
Mr. D.
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1:20:02
Yes.
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1:20:02
Mr. Corey. Yep.
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1:20:04
More.
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1:20:05
Yes.
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1:20:05
I have to just excuse myself.
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1:20:06
Oh, you're good. Thank you very very much.
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1:20:08
Thank you guys so much, Lori. Thank you.
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1:20:11
First stone expansion for additional classrooms and staffing.
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1:20:14
So, as we talked about um with preschool moving leaving um the building that Stone is housed in, it opens up some space on the ground floor. And there's been some talk across the district of what could we do with that space. I feel very strongly that we need to build on our stone program especially because the need at the younger grades is huge. Um so like we've talked about the increase
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1:20:44
in mental health needs. This is the first time in my entire 20 plus something career we have had preschool students hospitalized. we have students in you know uh younger elementary school kids staying in hospitals for you know an extended period of time. So we know coming out of those programs the the lack of um returning them back to their uh full inclusion programs or substantially separate uh program in
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1:21:13
their schools just does not meet their needs and as a result same factors come into play. our out of district programs are at capacity, especially K2. Um, and so kids are waiting on weight lists for up to I I think I wrote in here somewhere uh four four months or so. Um because there's just no place to put them. So we want to keep them in district. We want to build upon what
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1:21:41
Stone already has. What you see is just um I took out all the identifying information, but right now there are one two three four five six seven eight, nine students either currently out of district or awaiting an out of district placement that we could keep in district. Um again, cost savings. It's about $80,000 for them to attend an out of district program plus $87,000.
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1:22:07
Um, so I would like to open four classrooms over the uh two classrooms this current school year and two classrooms the next school year. I don't want to get too big too quick. Um, so we take in two years another 32 students could come in uh back into district or stay in district. The other thing we could do is talk about tuitioning in more students. Um, we have student uh districts that call us, again,
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1:22:33
surrounding districts that don't want to send their kids far away or the collaboratives they work with are full.
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1:22:38
So, they're always asking if we have space at Stone um to tuition in kids. I think that we should give some seats to our neighboring districts as an, you know, revenue. Um, but I would see that I would like to consider raising the tuition that we charge. So, right now, and again, I I did ask Mr. Almeida to confirm with me. So, I'm only going by an approximate um because I didn't
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1:23:04
wasn't able to get the confirmation, but we charge about $41,000 to tuition and say a student from New Bedford, let's just say, or from Taton when an out of district um placement is costing us 80. So, and it's costing them 80 too. So, we have to look at um how we could raise the tuition. When I talked to Mich um over at Stone, tuition hasn't been raised in a long time. And I think
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1:23:29
when I was back in the day started my career in Rahobitis, tuition was like 35 $40,000 over 20 years ago. So that is another piece of this is, you know, in order to meet the needs of our students, but also meet the needs of our larger community.
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1:23:45
Do you think our budget can handle something like that? The cost cost rise if we bring the students back. We already have some families that want their kids back.
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1:23:54
Yeah.
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1:23:54
Um so we would if we it would be about $167,000 per student that we would save if we took some of these students. Yes.
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1:24:05
And didn't send them out of That just makes that makes inherent sense. Um I have a question about the overall vision. um some of the kids that are um are presenting with severe dysregulation in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade, would they be open to something like this that you're proposing or would this be part of your discussions?
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1:24:27
Well, they would have So, this would be obviously you'd have to be eligible for special education first. Yes.
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1:24:33
Because this is a therapeutic day school.
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1:24:35
Okay. Um, so again, I go back to like when they're kindergarten, first grade, second grade, it's very hard to know if the dysregulation is a result of a disability or the impact of just a stressed induced situation in school.
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1:24:52
So, not that they wouldn't, but they wouldn't. They would have to go through the special ed process first. And sometimes we do evaluations at STO. When I send a student out for a 45day evaluation, that is a student that we are having a hard time meeting their level of need in the school while doing the evaluation. So, yes, it's possible, but these are really for existing students that have gone through our
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1:25:14
process and we we're saying we've tried everything we can in a least restrictive environment and they need more. And so for the proposal moving forward, um you would have staff training always staff training and then uh as far as recruitment is concerned that we're going to be able to cover it.
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1:25:32
Um again, that's always u my goal, right? But I can't not advocate for a program at the fear of not having a teacher because the kids deserve me to advocate for a program because there's no guarantee the out of district program has a certified teacher. they could be having a power there and either way the student needs something more. So, of course, I hope that's why I think if we
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1:25:53
do two classrooms, it's two teachers, right? It's two paraprofessionals. It's not four right off the bat. Like, let us start with, you know, bringing 16 kids to stone. Um, and save some.
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1:26:06
One more question. Perhaps it might have been better addressed to the seal crew over there, but u are there the is there a therapeutic room at Stone like a Zen type? No, but or a punching bag room?
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1:26:19
Yeah, actually some of the BTS do have those those items, but I do on my needs assessment along with the staffing, we need a couple other things. We need alarms on doors. I did not know that Stone does not have alarms, so if kids leave the building, an alarm will go off. And then the sensory spaces that those areas, yeah, they don't have that right now. The BTS do that stuff in
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1:26:42
their offices, but this would be a space that can be utilized. Again, we're going to go into a reading assignment or a writing assignment. It's going to take a little bit longer. I know the kids are going to get frustrated. Let me go and do something proactive with them.
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1:26:53
So, in your discussions moving forward, will you talk about sensory spaces in these facilities? Thank you very much. I yield.
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1:27:00
Thank I support this overall just um a few questions. So, just if you could remind me what is the current um um student population at Stone the amount of students there.
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1:27:13
Um there are currently going into next year. Yeah, I think we have currently 80. Oh, I think Marian might have given it to me. 80.
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1:27:27
Current roster is 89.
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1:27:30
Okay. So, we'll round it up to 90 and there'll be you're you're projecting an additional six uh 16 um students.
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1:27:37
So, two classrooms, eight and eight.
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1:27:39
Yep.
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1:27:40
Could you speak to the need for the additional um behavior test?
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1:27:44
So the um Stone one of the the foundations of their program is that a BT supports two classrooms in elementary school because they are in those classrooms all day working with kids.
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1:28:01
So, if we're going to open, if that's the premise that Stone has built their program on, and we're going to open two more classrooms, then the need for the BT is something that this the um school itself has advocated for me with me for um because they feel like again taking one person and spreading them across four very high needs classroom with 40 students, meeting the immediate needs of
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1:28:28
kids is tough when that's the case. Um and they only have currently one sack.
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1:28:32
They might be getting a second sack. Um but that's for overall students.
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1:28:38
Um just so a few um technical question budgetary questions here. So when we send this up, so we're going to refer this this entire packet up. So I guess my first question would be since we already approve this you wanted to start this um for se for this September. I'm assuming we're going to need to um adjust the cost center for stone. So I don't know that's something we should discuss with the finance team.
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1:29:04
So yes, I mean again I think that like as we start to bring staff students back, we have some space available now.
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1:29:12
I just can't have it failed by October because we know what happens through the year. So yes, the I'm requesting this to begin in September, but it doesn't mean we can't start bringing kids back um in September without opening a classroom, finding the teacher, getting the sensory spaces. That's those two don't go together, right? So we can do that with the goal of expanding into two additional classrooms as the need
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1:29:36
unfolds.
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1:29:37
And I guess my last question is just the alarms on the doors fully support that.
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1:29:41
I mean just for obvious reasons but that should be when that comes before us that should come I don't want to give a blanket approval beforehand on like the alarm for the door that should come as a separate contract from facility.
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1:29:53
Yes and and uh Mr. Pico did take part in my initial discussions with that's how I learned about it. Yes I would rely on him to present that information when we were referring this there would be so we should expect a separate contract for like alarms or whatever needs to be done at at the stone school which It might even be on the agenda for tomorrow, but I'll make a motion to refer.
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1:30:15
Rooff, I need it.
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1:30:18
Oh, sorry.
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1:30:19
I went like this. It was peace.
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1:30:20
I did see you number two.
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1:30:22
Peace.
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1:30:23
Mr. Das.
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1:30:24
Yes.
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1:30:24
Mr. Cory.
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1:30:25
Peace.
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1:30:26
Yes. Stuart.
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1:30:27
Yes.
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1:30:30
I thank the committee for supporting both of these. I know you are.
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1:30:33
Absolutely.
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1:30:34
Huge initiatives, but much needed.
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1:30:36
They'll be good.
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1:30:36
Which one are we on?
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1:30:38
We're going 3.08. It's a request to for contract for agency staffing.
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1:30:43
As you know, the past four years we've been here very quickly, we have not been able to fill our vacancies. Typic past practice here has been we hold off and try to recruit as much staff as we can.
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1:30:57
Should have been in the last page. You can use mine now with me. Um we try to keep recruiting staff throughout the month of July and typically I come to school committee in um August to ask to pursue some agency staff. But in speaking with our agencies um they are getting their best candidates now and other districts New Bedford uses them right um other districts are taking those candidates and we don't even get
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1:31:26
to interview them. So instead of bringing it in August, I'd like to have it referred to the full committee for our July date so that I can at least start now interviewing people. It doesn't mean we're engaging in a contract or anything like that, but I need to know that we can move in this direction. We have 141 special ed uh vacancies currently right now.
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1:31:48
Yeah. God bless you. Um, and I broke it down by speeches and um, elementary school teachers, middle school teachers, high school teachers, and paraprofessionals. Um, I'll make a I'll make a motion, too.
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1:32:01
Yeah. Second.
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1:32:02
Just just so we're just very quick comment on this. So, when we're referring this up, this is going to be on our July meeting. We'll prove it assuming at our July meeting that you can get to work.
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1:32:13
Um, do you I see. So, I guess my question is why do you have to wait until um why do you need school committee approval for this?
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1:32:21
I'm trying to understand um sign contract with an agency.
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1:32:25
Yeah, I think that because if I'm going So, if I'm going to reach out to them to say we want to Yeah. We want to partner with you again next year. We want to get a new contract. Right. Um I don't want to start that work and tell them I can't do anything till August because that's too long and they have people waiting.
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1:32:43
So I want to be able to say I went to be ahead of it. I want went to subcommittee. We are going to move forward with the contract. I need you to get me the contract for the July meeting and in the meantime start recruiting resumes for certified teachers. Right.
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1:32:57
Makes sense.
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1:32:57
Speech people and send them to us because that process takes a little while.
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1:33:02
Do you have projections on how many um more staff like agency staff you'll have?
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1:33:07
How many do I want? I No. No. Do you have projections like okay if we do this we could get another 16 17 staff members? The reason I bring it up because at the end of the year when we get the transfers we're going to have less of a transfer at the end of the year for like the vacancies and agency staff when we move money around.
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1:33:27
So there's budgetary components. I support it.
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1:33:30
I understand what you're saying and maybe by July I can give you a better indication of um how how many just prepare the new finance team coming.
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1:33:38
Yeah. If you guys can just break that down just sort of give us some clarifying numbers just right now related services I think we had about 14 people from agencies throughout this year for related services and I want to say we had another like 11 or 12 teachers paras depending on the position from different agencies. Um, so but I wanted to be able to bring to our agency contacts be able to have
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1:34:04
multiple contracts to go forward in July. So we're not saying, "Well, no, you have to stick with this one agency when I know the different agency can get me the same uh staffing.
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1:34:14
You already you did a motion and it's been second."
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1:34:18
Yes.
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1:34:18
I'll second with a question.
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1:34:20
Okay. So my question is wholehearted support on that and and as far as rec recruitment because you got 140 vacancies.
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1:34:31
I was thinking out of the box uh for each one of you in central administration to put together a paragraph that highlights the depth and wealth of the programs that we all support conclusively with uh instruction with special needs with SEAL with all of that and to make a PR presentation through Fred television for recruitment purposes. is and send that video on Google out to all the
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1:35:05
universities around us. Rhode Island, Rhode Island College, Providence College, Bridgewater State, UMass, Dartmouth, and the like. All those supporting schools around us. send out a recruitment video showing the highlights because all I hear I hear so much negative response in social media, but I don't think that people realize the depth and the wealth of the programming going on in all of our schools
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1:35:38
districtwide conclusively. There's a lot of really good stuff.
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1:35:42
I we did we have not done a PR video.
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1:35:46
We're happy to do that. What we did do this year is every single one of my supervisors contacted a college that they have had experience with. We made a flyer. We sent it to them. They want us to use the Handshake app is what all these colleges do, which we go on there, but so does every other district, right?
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1:36:02
So, I agree with you. And then we have been recruiting from other districts when we know there are layoffs. Like I have staff that have come from other districts, right? So, like they have contacts and we're trying our best to Yeah. It's just Yeah, cuz I I feel I feel like we're missing out because we have so many vacancies.
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1:36:22
Those vacancies had a lot to do with our past previous contract. I feel like we've gained lots of ground and lots of momentum uh once we we signed the new contract for for the next three years with our teaching staff. And I'm hoping to be even more attractive down the road. But that's what my best hope is to be able to recruit staff for for the depth and wealth of the programs that we have here.
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1:36:50
Of course, our kids deserve it.
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1:36:52
Um I think when we have our meeting tomorrow, we have a new HR director.
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1:36:56
This will be great.
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1:36:57
It's one of the first things we should work on with HR's recruitment. So that's one of the first things I'll be asking.
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1:37:02
Yes, I second it.
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1:37:04
You roll call, please.
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1:37:05
Mr. D.
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1:37:06
Yes.
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1:37:07
Mr. Cor.
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1:37:08
Yes.
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1:37:08
M.
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1:37:09
Yes.
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1:37:11
Any new business? No business. Motion to second.
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1:37:19
Mr. D.
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1:37:20
Yes.
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1:37:20
Mr. Court.
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1:37:21
Yeah.
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1:37:21
M.
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1:37:22
Yes. Thank you guys very much. Thank you.
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1:37:24
Thank you.
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