8.21.2023 Fall River School Committee - Parent & Community Outreach Subcommittee

we'll call to order the August 21st 2023 meeting of the parent family community outreach subcommittee meeting um Doug Community please call the role Mr Bailey here Mr Hart yeah Ms Rogers here hello salute to the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands foreign

pursuant to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video report meeting or may transmit the meeting through a medium attendees are therefore advised that's just supporting us or Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpreceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible any citizenship so first order or first discussion is we are looking at our out of school hours support

start so I guess we'll I just you know welcome to the team this is my first go around with this meeting um and taking the lead of with with our district team um I know the team has been in place all year working with schools um and we'll get at the different ways um that we have been collaborative in working with our schools and in some forward planning as we think about where we're headed and how

um our intentions are to build our team to be more inclusive of building-based leaders so that we can have true touch points in schools and really infiltrate some of our programming so it's not just coming at the from the district level down um partnering with the buildings and partnering with all of our SEL support staff particularly in schools as we know we've been paid some heavy investments

in these staff across the last couple of years and so we want to capitalize um on their membership in our schools and Leadership with our families and the connections that they make day in and day out so just jumping into this part of discussion I don't know if it's helpful I think it is helpful if we just do introductions of who is part of that scale team so families who might be

watching some of this at home I have an understanding of who actually is part of that um School of support um so building principles you know the first priority in every building leading the charge we then have Vice principals um serving underneath them and a capacity of SEL support as well as then we think about our third tier our guidance counselors our adjustment counselors in addition to that you know

the next tier is our Behavior therapists our SEO Liaisons some schools are utilizing instructional support Liaisons in that way so there are a range of job titles in our schools but all servicing and you know helping to support the climate and culture and meeting the needs of our kids and Families for the Public's purpose people at this team oh and then you can introduce yourself

kind of just followed up on some of the um discussions that uh we missed an introduction oh oh sorry yeah sorry yeah right Dr B uh Amy Brown hot assistant superintendent of student services um following up on some of um pretty much the pyramid that you just named do we have any do we have that visible anywhere for families um but we actually are creating the Oregon charts Ferry Department we have

we've started that that group has grown tremendously so we've had to redo the New York charts but every department is actually creating because every department has added new positions yeah yeah I think that's just posted on our website under Dr B and her on her page all of us that's great there isn't any other questions on out of school hours support so I'm thinking about how to school hours support um you

know we consider ourselves to always be open um often all summer long you know we've been in communication with families whether it's students that have attended our summer programs families that have been in need of different everything um through the parent Center as well as building based Outreach to our buildings so you know folks getting emails even from students I'm in need of this I'm in

need of that support also partnering with mass hire you know you'll hear about some of those outcomes this summer so we've had some real tight networks of support um and even if it wasn't students having direct contact to our staff lots of kids have been involved in programs all across the summer and those adults have then been connected back to the Florida Public Schools I can think about the

basketball work that was going on all summer you know up at Derpy as well as in Kennedy Park with some of the work that Bobby led the enrichment program for kids and families who choose to participate and then also 21st century program that ran at every single building so we also this year and now come up to you know we also this year ensure that every building had either an adjustment counselor or a guidance

counselor on a part-time or a full-time basis for all summer programs um and then we created a little Network across the summer program so that if anything came up that anyone didn't feel as though they were already equipped to respond to they had a network of peers across the district who they knew they could reach out to get support so we ensured this year that all programs across the district

CL support and folks that knew how to hand crises and should they come up or any student needs or family needs as we know the needs evidence below even throughout the course of the summer so that's some of the steps that we took in collaborating with the former police department there were a few instances this Summer that a couple of our students got themselves caught up in some things in the community and the

former police department was readily in contact with us as well at the district level to make sure that we could filter that information back to the buildings and get the information in people's hands that needed it um so that is some of the work that we did in relation to the out of school hours support specifically

so jump back just a little bit this meeting was supposed to have been settled when he wrote Because of illnesses and family emergencies and lots of different situations this got pushed back so right now I think we are recapping a lot of what we had hoped to capture what our plan to work who are the summer but right now we're kind of doing a little bit bit of backtracking

to look at what we did to do and then hopefully bring something we can do in the future so hopefully you can get on a better schedule moving forward so there's no other questions topic which is some engagement what did that look like for us this summer so we had programs all across the city um we partnered with 21st century which is our after school and before school in some cases um

programming extracurricular and um enrichment programming as well as we supported our ell students specifically this summer with an ell summer program really focusing on language needs of our kiddos and really digging deep on the focused academic piece for our English language Learners which is different than that of our students in the enrichment and 21st century program we also took advantage

of the Durfee pool there were a number of swimming lessons that went on all summer long um a number of our 21st century students were also able to participate in those programs and get those experiences lots of field trips I can tell you you know every kiddo that I ran into just could not stop talking about all of the different field trips Fonseca also you know partnered with Frac and they were doing some kindness

rocks um Zoo tricks ice cream days at esy right that was another big program turn out over there as well but they took the mobile on to our esy program so those we're finally getting back to some of our more traditional projects as compared to where we've been over the last few Summers and you could definitely get that by um through all of the photos that we took if anyone's following us on

Instagram or follow us our Facebook page Deb sardino was out and about all summer long I've actually linked into the agenda a host of different photo albums so by all means you know click through and it'll certainly make you smile for days as we just will get all the fun that kids had across the city this summer and all of the adults who showed up for our kids this summer we had

record-breaking applications for summer work adults wanted to be present and part of the work this summer which has been a nice shift over the last couple of challenging Summers um so it was really nice it has been nice to see things get back to a more tempered expected place from K to eight from pre-k through 12 rather how many um how many students I don't know that exact number but we'll get that number

now that all the summer programmings are coming to an end and um but we served you know when we get to numbers the mass higher alone we gave we supported young students with over 300 jobs this summer in the city um from ages 14 and up um and Fall River Public Schools has been a key sight and host for this work we started this work back in the spring um Tina sharet was you know doing

presentations at all of our middle schools and really helping to get kids recruited I know that uh the schools were heavily involved with also providing the work permits to make sure that they could get their jobs and helping you know the counselors and support staff at buildings helping to put paperwork together making sure we could help kids get eligible to cut through some of the paperwork process

for families and kids and so we really saw a lot of success um across all programs so you know I would say we probably served about a thousand students this summer um if not more than that as we look at the range of programs the different populations of students we served in special programs and then some of our larger programs that even if we were partners with it was our kids and we

were helping get those programs mobilized across the city it actually has shifted from being a quiet time in the summer to being a very busy time right so the more options it's there are a lot of people and the good part was we also had summer programming where last year we were struggling to hire staff to um you know to run those programs this year most programs were run completely by our

staff so it feels good that we're getting ourselves back into the routine Summer's a busy time but really you know it's different kind of busy but it is a very busy time in addition Drew I'm not sure if you want to speak a little bit so the coaching for change summer program um you know that that is our during the school year college Mentor after school program that we won typically at our

middle schools more specifically um coaching for change again in this summer ran summer programs at our school sites we served over 200 students in coaching for change programs across the city this summer um and some of those kids might have been enrolled in dual programs right coaching for change in the afternoon and maybe you know the morning um academic piece but that partnership continues to grow

as we look to expand our partnership with that organization as well absolutely so we we had 12 college students serving as mentors across our five Middle School sites and essentially they all had a teacher as a support person that they were paired with they can they connect you know in the classroom so they served as a variety of role including supporting the 21st century program into the enrichment program and

then also some of the the credit recovery program that we offered at our middle schools um and then you know one additional piece this summer I know that the pace team has really just I think it's really important that we just recognize the work that's going on at PACE this summer we are yet again as everybody knows going back to ask the next two um but for Pace this is not the same

transition back to Aspen um at like it is for many of us because prior to this if we remember we did not use Aspen registration it was Gateway registration so for Pace this is year two of a major overhaul um at one point down a pace this summer we were literally doing paper applications because we were in between two systems um so there's been a lot of work that's

had to go on at PACE you know on demand in the moment but then also a lot of backtracking and following up um so it's been a challenge to just get the needs met on the ground and boots on the ground in the building let alone making our way out to community events and Pace has been on the go with registrations on the go if anybody came to the after you know before school

block party that we just were gracious to be part of this past weekend pasted over 50 student registrations in some way shape or form there were large numbers at the PACE Center um so there was you know a front and center Presence by uh Cindy's team down at pace so Cindy I'm not sure if you want to give a little info as to what goes on the go registrations look like

yeah so we just bring iPads out into the community with um you know all the paperwork that's needed so families can just register wherever they're at in the community they can then just drop off any necessary paperwork that they may not have on them or email it to us so we just becomes super convenient family family especially those with multiple children it's just it's it's been really grownness over the

years so we really look at each each years we're accepting on the go and that number has really increased back to the year so it's definitely something that we are going to continue in it's very meaningful from you know both our families and and again it's fun to be out there you know who knows rafting so it's a pleasure to do that it's also an opportunity to bring the services to where people are right I

think we always expect them to come to us and I we talk about parent engagement that's one of the things that we need to do more of right we need to meet we say we want to meet our kids where they are we want to be our teachers where they are we need to be our parents where they are too and bringing that service because people can't get to us for many different reasons

and it just takes away that obstacle so anytime we can do that it serves both you know us as well as we should probably do that more often go out into the community

so we do go out to um Community daycares as well and that happens back in February so we start really early in the year so that going into the Summer where you know kind of higher number of Cape registrations um you know to really really be so yeah that's that's something that would just keep building on every year how's the traffics in the at the center is it yeah so right now it's still

everything this is the punched so there are lines out the door over 100 families so it's it's a lot so I can see it as our provider who's gone with families to government register their children um just taking off that cocaine hat for a second and it's it's not a difficult process but it does take some time to get the kids registered even though it is a very streamlined process there's a

lot of information that needs to to put in that system so even though they have it down to a team line can start to get together there's still only so much that you can get through you know it took it it takes a good chunk of time to go through that within things even you know kind of filter through all the complex means that family might have to really look at

what is documents and all the documents that we have like on average what what how long does one student take it depends if a family has pre-registered online it you know can just take maybe 10 minutes tops right but if they haven't or if they're you know struggling registering online and we sit with them I mean it could take you know an hour or more it depends on how much information you know they need or you

know for example if a family is missing some documents and say medical they can sit with a nurse there who will call the doctor's office to try to streamline that as well and help them get that information so it it all depends on the family you need yeah pre-registering is the way to go it really streams my name is I haven't said that about the time frame I will tell you about any family that

I've brought over has never once had a concern about how long it took because they've always they always come back and said that the staff have been really helpful but it just does from there on it does take a while to get all that information just depending again on what what the situation yeah and this week and next week is yeah you know just our crunch time so you know it's it is long wait

if you're coming later in the day this week and next week but you know first thing in the morning we're able to process very quickly so I would suggest morning right it's hard as public transformation running first thing in the morning so for a lot of families that becomes a barrier it's all of these elements that cling into that which they're like a thought superintendent type like

satellite locations too well I mean as I'm sitting here I'm thinking about uh even those evenings in the park who are very well attended throughout the city I think that's something for us to look at for next year if we could set up shop that because they go through all the different neighborhoods right and set up and have them they were all very well intended a lot of families there we set up a shop

there and we take registration if we publicize that we're going to be there yeah to do that that is yet another opportunity for people to to get that work done and I I do think we need to explore different options for going out into the community and setting up shop at an afternoon here and afternoon there where we know the areas that are frequented by our families that would later

yeah I mean just the fact that there were 50 at the weekends that's a big number and we've gone into Sunset Hill yeah so we've done that as well throughout the summer the Tomato sector had an event where we our registered families a little receive here so we try to get out I've never and that works out well when you go out there too absolutely yeah that's true I

think the more we do it the more we publicize it the more people will know and then hopefully we become proactive instead of reactive so we can go and get different child registered early because it is for some people it is difficult to navigate through right

yeah before we move on to cleaning Partnerships did we get everything or do we have any other questions so on to Community Partnerships so we are continuing to look for ways to partner with our Community Partners um you know we've had some District focused efforts and then as we know the building Focus efforts often reach out to our Community Partners to leverage needs as they realize a need and then

also a resource is available right um claudy did a great job last year recruiting on a larger District scale to get some programs up and off the ground for school to be able to just take advantage of I can speak to you know the mindfulness karate it with a total hit at Henry Lord you know when I was there as principal and the resource was great because Gloria but the resource that it

all set up and it was literally like a turnkey situation at the building level um so quoted you want to speak about some of those pieces so we're actually offering that's great because a lot of our students in our elementary schools were coming into school with these anti-bullying pledges and I'm like that was the message we were giving in our schools but the community was doing it as well too so um

and I know that your child support my daughter's school as well so it was just it was nice when you kept connecting with the Sensei video and said you're giving them the same message we're giving our students um he was then he went to five or six of our schools last year and through that wrote he's coming back again and we're off against some of our elementary school um we also reached out to one of our

larger agencies to provide mental health counseling to our schools so a lot of that plan went towards that so they started at all of our schools last year not the high school all elementary and middle schools and they're still offering it to a course in this school year as well so meeting with our God tomorrow so to those Hospital work groups and what the schools need as well too so we want

to make sure that wherever we're giving the schools what they need based on students but we've always communicated and we've got great Partnerships with our community whether it's a student or family members we've built great Community Partnerships with it with our local agencies to say hey we have this need can you help us find a way to raise the support of this family what is students so that's

something that we continue to do and I'm happy see that continue to grow because they know that we're going to tap into them for the support and we might not have an answer right away but we know that the communities is worse to being back on the variety piece so again my daughter was one of those kids I brought in one of these pledges I had nothing to do with the mindfulness

karate it's nothing to do things that she brought in this this pledge as well um but one of the nice things that he did was he invited all of the kids down so after he did these sessions at the school you can invited them down to the video to do um you know six weeks worth and I gotta tell you the dojo was packed so we had tons of kids from Fox about we

had we had tons of kids from where each school had a night that they were invited to come down so that Julia wasn't inundated and they showed up um at one point there were about 60 kids I YouTube the video they're working with like 60 kids that weren't just kids that were earning enrolled these were additional kids that had come from so you know I think that it helps from both sides because they're providing a

service to people to the school but also you know it promotes their business as well so it's a really winning situation you're getting the support and the business is getting the support I'm really hopeful that that career is called as possible because I'd love to offer more opportunities for our students and families that might not have those otherwise you can bring it into the school and find a way like how do we

teach some of these FPL skills and competencies to our kids while they're doing something that's fine um if they'll enjoying so I'm really hoping that and what you don't know and what you haven't been exposed to you just don't know so to your point right like we're not if our kids and families don't know about this opportunity it's not something they themselves ever experience growing up um

how they know what it can be for their kids so if the schools can be a place where the kids get introduced to it and then it can also extend out to be that connection for families um I think that's a beautiful thing right for everybody involved so those are a few of the things that we took on at the district level um and you know looking to partner more deeply was schooled at the building

base level this year so that we can expand upon these Partnerships in meaningful ways to make needs of all the different School communities

so I think last week when I said we had 90 agency from I think I'm at 17 or 18 as of this morning um you know and I personally felt involved local agencies not fly anatomy in the Orange is hey we would love to showcase the core that we have our students so that's happening um this week for all of our school adjustment Council to communities

not everyone's from Fall River that works in Fall River but just maybe I'm aware of what's out there but you know we are almost rich without being sent to their face for the neighborhood of agency as well too um the hope is just getting more resources and connections you know students any other questions of who made Partnerships one of the questions about groups that I have what how many groups were they running

agencies so our schools were all running groups we have almost 60 people adjustment Council which I say that and we're proud foreign

how do they help us fit that need as well too um I I will get a number how many groups that we want in each of our schools to be good information to just really share our business yeah I think it's good information because I know that the the stacks the sele is on the guidance counselors I know that they are jam-packed and so if we are Outsourcing some of the group work you know that's

not necessarily a bad thing I think that's a good thing because then that gives our sacks our select our guidance more time to be one-on-one with the kids because they're you know are these are the folks that are really licensed to do this work so they're the ones that are you know mental health trained they're the ones that pull that license that should a crisis arise or even be able to

be proactive I mean your work is meant to be proactive so if we can Outsource some of that you know that's wonderful but really our counselors are our clinical clinical work belongs to really in that not even in so much our scles worlds because really they're the ones that most of them are the ones are the worst licenses right I'm not talking about your your destiny licenses typically your social work license

because even your emergency help but even your placements as a health counselor licenses social workers are able to assess the section if necessary Mental Health Counselors so they're really the ones that hold that liability so that's why I'm saying like we're the ones that really have to be facing those situations so we can Outsource some of that even train some of our sales exons to run some of those

groups that would be RCL Liaisons are triage right they're that tier that middle so before so that that that's exactly why you all found the funded our scle liaison position we created it I should maybe more of them you know how I feel about it I know we'll have 60.

no worries everybody yeah I am meeting with them again this week we have we have a nice SEL library of food curriculum to to share to meet as a group to share our resources and ideas as well too so that way they're able to run groups again they were doing that already last year so the hope is they're going to be continuously different kind of groups like you said there's tears yep so we

have to make sure we match the means to the appropriate adults but a lot of that works yourself to be able to do that before we proactive well the more we do that work the less reactive we need to become right the goal would be to have those groups as a proactive measure so we don't get to that tier three High needs I'm not saying we will never we will always have it we're always about that

need that triangle should be it should be there's a reason why that's at the top it should be much smaller than the bottom that's what really happened on that too once right you know how I feel about doing something for everyone it's not because I'm talking about this all the time it's looking after that so you have any other questions on um Community Partnerships there's a good segue into the connection

between Staffing and SEO there's a point there's a method to my madness um so in the agenda you'll notice um I drew a few hyperlinks in because I wasn't sure if you know if anyone to have a chance or the opportunity um absolutely really asking schools to kind of showcase the work that they have been able to do over the course of the year um because as we know right like we

support certain elements of the work and then the buildings you know go off on their own sort of angles and leverage you know some of their more historical programs you know the annual things that everybody does that brings community and family together um so in you know there's a you know a slide deck you know that everybody kind of went through um where we just talked about the month

to month things that schools were able to accomplish and there's different stuff happening at all of our schools um and I think it's just exciting to see that across the district there's a lot of great stuff going on at every school even though that stuff might be different um but really looking for ways to bring the community together and build the climate and culture of the schools and you can see that um

schools capture it differently and showcase it differently absolutely right but there's a lot of great work going on across all of our communities from literacy nights you know we'll focus on academics and academic achievement celebrating Student Success and student outcomes and in a good old typical you know trunk of treats where everyone's eating tons of candy and we send them

home with family with bags full of candy to our annual Thanksgiving events and recognition of that to a lot of you know other Springtime events that bring our families back back to the table at the end of the year um it's in preparation for the summer and marketing of Summer programming right so I think there's a nice blend what's going on you know our goal will be to continue to expand and grow

sharing of best practices I don't know that we do enough of that when it comes to some of this community building work a lot of great things in some cases might be happening at one school and it's going to be our goal next year to create systems through this SEL Pipeline and buildings where Vice principals and community facilitators are really reading that work because the community

facilitators come together Cindy has led that group all year long there's been so much good work that they have really you know been the brains behind and Innovative about and then it you know certain things have really excelled in certain schools so we're looking to create a forum where we can share ideas so that we're not recreating the wheel at every turn I think we all work a lot

hotter sometimes than we necessarily need to and if we can build these communities of sharing of resources and materials and ideas I think people will stay energized they'll stay committed to the work a little differently and give opportunities for putting a fresh look on certain things um that might not be getting results we used to get right and so how do we think about meeting families where they are

how do we leverage whatever opportunities we can to ensure that you know we understand that parent engagement is Broad right it's not just you know but we can't just measure power engagement and you know you said this before Sarah you can't just measure power engagement by the families that show up at open house right it's way bigger than that um and we need to be able to recognize

those families that are going to show up and then the ones that show up in a different way for their kids um to show that they're involved and they're part of the equation um and so we'll be looking to continue on that work and expand upon that work again this year saying constantly that it would measuring family engagement that I would be a disengaged parent because I don't typically show up

to school events but by no means am I investing the engineering my work schedule doesn't allow for it all the time and there are a multitude of reasons why useful event maybe a sibling might or maybe mine that's my mind but it's unlikely that I'm able to do it doesn't mean I'm just an age it just means that aren't there are other things that I'm going to do behind the scenes well and

parent engagement is beyond that too right so I mean this last week this week a lot of parents crawling a woman child's fear when my child there and they all start off by saying I'm sorry you're bothering you or whatever I'm like no we we want you to be engaged like we want you to care and care enough to that's you're advocating if you're not gonna advocate for your child who is

right so parents advocating for their children parents supporting their child you know reaching out and saying Hey I want to make sure because my child needs this or this or this that's an engagement right so it's not just the activities it's really parents taking an active role in their child's line that's what we need to focus on we don't want parents to feel bad because they can't

go to an activity we want parents to feel good that to they took part in something their child was doing they're asking questions that's okay you should you're supposed to ask questions nobody knows everything I might not have the answer but I'll get the answer for you it might not be today but I'll get the answer for you but it's okay do continue to do that because you're engaging connection with their kids

whatever that might work I say all the time my comfort family my parents did not show up to all of those events partially because of a moment barrier partially because they didn't know too right it wasn't something they they valued education there was no question about that but they didn't know that that was their role to show up because that's not how things were done there their work

schedules didn't unlock for it either so there's a million or one reasons why families or maybe assumption that they're not my age because you don't ever see them well it's creating that culture where they feel safe to say I can't go to that but I want to know about this you know so we have to create that culture in every single building so that our parents feel safe and don't feel intimidated by

approaching someone and asking them questions is there like a I mean with everything that was mentioned tonight um as far as the community engagement and getting out there in the community and increasing hopefully more parents getting involved in their child's education and in the community and everything that we've been doing for the past year I guarantee that there's more parents getting involved there's no

question about it but is there like a gauge to see what how how much it's improved yeah we would have to um get because it most certainly has there's no question about all the work that everyone's done at this table but I'm just curious well I think you know the question I would have is you don't want to underestimate and you don't want to overestimate yeah but at the same time how do we measure engagement

right it looks different at different points around different events it looks different four different people right I feel like you know and we can certainly look into this as we continue to move forward with you know conditions for learning surveys and other and other Outreach the data but I think the families be able to say that I believe in my school I believe that I that it's a safe place that I can go

like you know just even thinking about a simple form like I feel accepted in my school I feel like being right like something that's right leverage it and think about you know I think because if there's no question that like I said before with everything that's been going on for the past year and with this committee there's definitely the increase in for parents getting involved has increased I just I'd be curious as

to how much but I think we have um I'll be honest I mean personally I feel like we have a long way to go yeah right I do think that we have made strides um taking away some barriers I do think that if we really create that culture and um really engage with our families we engage with our families also we're going to create that relationship attendance will tell the story right

students will show up that will be one of the indicators that will show us that our kids are engaged their families are engaged they're encouraging kids to go to school and we're going to see output there so there are multiple ways for us to to gauge our success it's not necessarily going to be one indicated but we there are multiple ways that we can yes parent-teacher conferences are important first

I think that we opened up doors and now we have some of them we have virtually because some parents can't leave the home for one reason or another that's another way for us to engage our families right so we get to open up opportunities that allow parents to engage not just in the traditional ways that we've been used to we have multiple systems able to measure that sense of belongings

are going to listen to what you have to say that they speak your language so there's multiple pieces and I think attendance tells word piece of the story because I think it was him a word that had um we had a very low attendance rate and then it jumps it's still it was still low but when you look at them I don't know I want to say it was but when you

look at the difference and where it was to where it was a significant jump they decreased their chronic absence right that's what it was okay so it was a significant jump in a really positive direction right so is it is it where it should be no but you can't discount the incredible games that were made there right so it's the attendance will tell a story but it's not going to tell the whole story

I think our community facilitators you know that's the next bullet point that we brought up and identified the community facilitator position has been really essential um to that Family Outreach right when there was a person in the building who in many cases can speak your language you know so we're not navigating translation services but it can be personable it can be repetitive it's

predictable we know who that person is I think we've begun to start to get some really nice traction with that position um across collaboration across collaboration of those of those folks as well uh and so we're going to continue to look to push the folks that are in those positions to continue to be the face of schools and helping some of the triaging um of support as families needed and as

they they know to call the school for that person to be there and then they are knowledgeable of the who to your point earlier Bobby right like who I put them in touch within the building if they don't already know to solve this problem um and it goes back to engaging right I think one of the ways we're going to also gauge it is when we when we see a decline in families reaching out to the

district level because the schools are meeting their needs right people don't feel like they need to call the superintendent if the building-based leadership is meeting their needs um and that's a range of different reasons why people call right or feel as though their needs are not getting met by the building um so I think you know that will be our goal to have fewer and fewer of those

calls to the superintendent's office because the buildings are able to triage the need and respond to families as needed in a way that meets the needs of families to get accomplished what they want not necessarily always necessarily giving a family a yes to something that's not what I mean either right but if families understand the why behind the know and if our teams are strong in our patient and take the time to

communicate um I think we can continue to make improvements from that angle as it relates to families understanding um whatever the situation might be that they're in and then how we're going to help support them to either get out of it or fix the problem so that we can all agree and move on to continuing doing business together um in the community facilitators will be Central in in that work with us as they

continue to grow on our teams um and then also just thinking about some of the SEO programming you know it today was another beautiful day up at Derby high school we welcome for the first day of three our new teacher orientation so all of our new teachers um upwards of about 110 new teachers about 144 and 136 the mentors um but so yeah we don't have just about 150 new staff members

um up at Derby today and one of the elements of their training um who's also the leadership program well they just teach it was just uh um

but I know Drew and Claudia um were sexual in today's work with the secondary folks um supporting teachers with an exposure to The Advisory curriculum that we invested in last year the leadership program I'm not sure if you guys want to speak a little bit to what that yeah so this is a year or two for us with the leadership program so we're super excited last year um administrators and teachers trade

multiple points during the year but we wanted to grab the new teachers as part of their trading The Anthem academic and instructional training but also learning about this new curriculum as many of them are going to be advisors in the classroom so we had the TL up gtlp trainers from New York come down and run the teachers through two mile lessons that they would be doing with students

in the fall so they could get a sense and give you some of the anxiety about What It Is by doing unless it looks like so give some information just about their curriculum and how uh kind of the flow of the curriculum typically starts with an opener or an activator there's there's an activity which is usually fun for the students and then there's a lot of discussion questions where a lot of the learning

lesson so so it's a lot about conflict on resolution building leadership skills self-awareness those types of skills that are aligned to pass so that the curriculum builds in there's a separate curriculum for middle schoolers and that's very similar to a responsible classroom one meeting is the advisory in elementary where they have that to be and how this consider it's all about building those

relationships right whether you're in middle school high school or Elementary that's key to having sometimes you can gauge well most of the time right you can gauge how students can be for the day based on how you agree that child and how you you know get first interaction with them and so that was the elementary work that we did um you know Drew and Claudia were working with the secondary

folks and then we were able to recruit two of our vice principals who lead this work in our buildings Melissa Hummel over at Sylvia and Kate Arsenal um from Henry Lord they both teamed up and they LED an SEL workshop and really thinking about academic routines and how the importance of having strong academic routines um really create a safe space for kids in our classrooms and that that work

looks very different from kindergarten through fifth grade so it was a very action-focused PD that all of our K-5 elementary teachers went through today really thinking thoughtfully around you know what are your big goals for the year how are you going to get kids to set their own goals for the year and how do we create a safe space for all kids to transition into with tight routines

so everybody knows what's expected and time on learning is capitalized on right that we're not wasting time figuring out how to get paid pass out papers and get pencils sharpened and and get computers to go right like making sure that the goals and routines are set tight um so that work has already started with our new teacher as prioritizing um the work of responsive classroom you

know this whole committee this summer has put some substantial commitment to responsive classroom training we've received such positive feedback from our staff who attended it over the summer as a matter of fact people were pulling us apart at the park telling us hey I got to go to that training it was so good um so I was really pumped that we were able to give that as an opportunity to people

and we're going to continue to invest with responsive classrooms we've got some folks in the district that want to be part of attorney the trainer program so that we can defray some costs to get all of our teachers and to keep all of our teachers current in the training so we've got some big ideas as it relates to developing some internal modes to keep the training alive so that we don't

end up in a place where we are now currently with more new staff on on board that don't know the training than who do um so a little bit of a catch-up point right now but the optimist is there the excitement is there the principals are very much receptive to wanting to invest in the training and create the time for teachers um so we're going to continue to do that work um

across buildings and then really focus in on some of the buildings that are our priorities for different reasons and Fonseca will be one of them we're working with responsive classroom to really think about a whole school reset at the Ponca Elementary as principal Cobb has hired a number of new staff down there and just a way to reculture and reset the building so that staff is also excited for that opportunity as

well so get energy yep yep so we want to keep that momentum rolling at the same time I know some have previously didn't have some of it yes we we have some we've turned lower steps yeah at one time and we still have some staff at willing to so we're but we're going to try to run cohorts throughout so that we can get to that point where most staff in all buildings

because then they can also serve as Mentor teachers and supports you know in plc's and whatnot this work can also live um as we think about coaching and mentoring teachers who maybe haven't been formally trained but have enough staff in the building have been um we can help replicate some of those best practices

yeah yeah he was just kind of a no-brainer model and it's a lot of common sense stuff when you're when you're looking at it but maybe it's such a tremendous job and just breaking them down that's our four day training that's very confident so they do a phenomenal job they say no-brainer in the sense where you hear it and you're like oh my gosh yes of course like why was I not important I

was trained way back in elementary and then when I went to the middle school we was training middle school but it is it really is culture changing yeah during when we it was part of our turnaround work everybody in that building was trained in response to classroom and I believe that was a major Catalyst for reculturing that building and so then just extending upon some of the workshops that we also ran in

Partnership um with our SEO programming I'm not sure do you want to speak to some of the mystery workshops that we sponsored that schools were able to take part in yeah so um we decided last year to really bring the house in the district-wide um workshops where in years past they were more building based and we really wanted to um see how that how the turnout would be so we said invitations out to the whole

district and some that we did with was the Katie Brown presentation parents where as we launched parents where we were able to conduct some parent workshops where we also had people there who would translate for any families and actually that was the majority of the families or Portuguese and Spanish speaking so we were able to work with them get them on parents when it was highly successful so

we hope to do that again this year for any new families that have joined the districts in addition to that we were able to um in partnership with Fred TV create some videos in three languages to support families as well living just go on our website click the link and there's step-by-step guide in the three languages to help families connect with parents where we did a bullying presentation

in person and live stream that they were able to watch it on Facebook live we did baby use misuse and which is also in person in live streams um and and some of the ones that we did at the school level was the new math and understanding so what we did was we created some mini workshops so as families went to the school for let's say um Bingo for books

um they were able to just pop into these quick 15 to 20 minute workshops and get some mini lessons on how they can support their students at home and then we did do parties class at Derby High School which was an amazing and we hope to continue these in more you know as as this year comes upon us did you find that at the building level it was more successful or at the

district level so the building level is definitely more successful so that was um you know a growing pain that we had last year so what we'll do is you know started at the the building level and then offering responsible schools that community 's Workshop yeah well I think it speaks to your point too from earlier right when when families know that there's a connection with people that they know they're going to

be more apt to show up right or more and maybe even think about showing up differently than if I'm just going to a place that I don't know that I'm going to know anybody um and so personalizing it right really um for us we were just talking about this over the last couple of days right really leveraging that building based team um which is one of the biggest pieces of our planning forward for next school year

um and if we if we remember when we we committed to sending a team of leaders Down to Georgia for the SEL conference back in late June um we focused on bringing Vice principals to begin developing this building-based SEL team so that the five individuals of Claudia and Cindy and Drew and Victoria and myself our district is way too big for all of this work to be from us into buildings without having a

main point of contact right even thinking about this Demand on principles they can't be the keepers of all this information um and be expected to keep passing things off to other people so we're going to create a through line um through our vice principles which we have not really developed over but we haven't had any formal development of our vice principal Network they've very much been left to the principles

um in their development and as we know all of our principles are amazing but we all bring different skill sets um so it's a certain skill set of of a team needs to be developed or the vice principal needs to be developed we need to have more hands in supporting those folks and then also to Cindy's Point having that direct building contact so when we do get these great opportunities they can really become part of the

building-based SEL team so that everybody can be aware immediately and begin recruiting and getting families involved to take advantage of um so by building this District SEL team and expanding upon that it's going to be our goal to really leverage their building-based leadership to expand some of these programs

yeah so that you know so as we think about the SEL priority that the district is moving forward with this year really leveraging this building-based team to help us navigate um the defining of this priority how are we going to Define and measure our SEO priority around Paul staff creating a sense of belonging through meaningful relationships and predictable routines so that all students feel valued and are

engaged in their school community in a way that positions them for academic success that's going to definitely be a through line this year you know we're absolutely talking about SEL and service of academic achievement right we want to make sure that everybody is staying focused on remembering the end game for us and meeting kids where they're at and families where they're at in service of

academic achievement and kids coming to school and being successful in addition to that thinking about our commitment to responsive classroom we kind of kind of wrote upon it but that is going to be an ongoing discussion through the course of this year to really build a team at the district level so we're not relying on the responsive classroom but really adopting that train the trainer model

that we've done in a number of different disciplines as it relates to teaching and learning so we're excited to replicate some of those processes um

um Community partner extension you know really and this is where we're starting the work this week on Thursday is really exposing all of our support staff to the Community Partners directly not just through email not just through e-invites but really making that person-to-person connection so that counselors can connect with people who they feel will bring the resources or or have access to

the resources of their specific School needs and then everything else can kind of be part of the buffet of opportunity right um but our support staff know the needs of their schools specifically we want to make sure people know the who in the community to help meet that need and not just relying on our team to be the connector of that right so that will be getting that work at the start of the

Year this week when the administrators return back tomorrow um for the new school year in addition to that um as we know we have been the recipients of The Gleam grant that supported our secondary curriculum purchase um Amplified as part of that work last week we were partnering with the team from lean and there is uh the fifth goal on the plan for the literacy adolescent literacy plan is family engagement so we

met with our literacy leads and our principals last week and began the development of our literacy project and really the focus there is going to be to begin taking a real serious approach to educating our families around what it means to be literate as an adolescent and what families can do to support their children in continuing to develop their literacy skills as we think about

expanding into a new curriculum that is high quality instructional materials and really supporting our instructional priority we want to make sure that families are educated and understand what their kids are experiencing and how they can support at home so we will be directly connected to the green literacy project as well when it comes to family engagement and then the last you know

this past weekend we were able to you know I mentioned get the opportunity to participate again in the annual back to school block party that Amber Burns and a number of Bobby and me a couple of community pilot autonomic Community Partners um who all stepped up you know we distributed I mean I don't want to throw out a crazy number but it was over 1300 backpacks um filled with materials on on Saturday

every single school was represented um we had Banks of Administrators and teachers and coaches and support staff that showed up in the park um it was truly like an energizing and it philosophy surpassed my expectations of what the day was going to be um but we really showed up because we challenged our administrators two weeks ago that we're going to challenge our kids our families and all of the adults

in our community to show up show up differently than we have before you know this really stems from our new take on the attendance red chair initiative right recognizing that wasn't really meeting the needs and the messaging wasn't as strong as we needed it to be but the versatility of this message we felt really good about because really that's what we need our kids to do lifelong and show up for themselves it's

Way Beyond student attendance I can tell you you know a number of student testimonials last year at the end of my leadership at Lord for some of my kids that we were Relentless about their attendance and they were able to verbalize to us how much easier School became when they showed up every day and you know the power in that message the power and what we know that to be that when we show up

every day for ourselves and follow our own healthy routines life takes on a different look for every single one of us right and we need our kids to understand that earlier because for so many of them um the circumstances they're in the chips are somewhat stacked against them so recognizing and supporting our kids to recognize the power they have in themselves we think about being an

influencer right Bobby that conversation came up a number of time and planning you know how do we recognize and bring attention to the kids who are showing up for themselves despite hard circumstances and how do we have support those kids to be the influencers in our community for other kids to follow their leads so we're excited about a great year back we're excited for our show up

sfrps message families are going to hear about it a lot attendance is going to be a a huge priority for our work this year um I will be Unapologetic about attendance this year with our building basically and teams again meeting every family where they're at but we need to take away any concerns any fears any struggles that families might be having with their schools to get kids back in

school more full-time but when kids are not in school we cannot do what we know we do best and not to educate them um and so we're going to work with families we're going to work with principals and support teams to really create that sense of belonging so that no students don't want to show up right they get to that place where they're flipped in the narrative um that they wouldn't ever not show up

because they don't want to miss out on what's going on in our school buildings every day so that's our Big Goal I know it's big but I also know if Fall River does dig and we do big good so we're going to get after it in a big way this year we're going to show up for our building leaders in a way that we haven't had the opportunity to and then

build some solid systems of support when we think about all of the Investments we've made as a district because now we've got the bodies to meet the needs of kids we just need to show up every day to do what we signed on to so that's going to be our big challenge all adults in our community this year

right so I have one question or not question but comment on measuring social emotional learning just want to be careful about how we measure that because it can't be measured in the same way that we measure academics and so when we talk about creating a sense of belonging and what our priority is so that way it positions our kids for academic success I think we have to be really really careful about how we're

going to measure what social emotional learning success looks like that it does not always equal the academic portion success so just because because we have it in here that they're engaged in their school community in a way that positions them for academic success I want to make sure that we're not aligning academic success with social emotional learnings the two are not necessarily

they're not necessarily connected so I'm sure that we're very clear on that our measurement for that priority can't necessarily hold the same data points that we're not even the same data okay because the way it's recorded up there kind of looks like we're measuring them on the scene yeah right you know that's an area that I feel I feel high so that's also I think why we chose positions them not

necessarily and that's why inspiring like I want to make sure that we're not like MCAS data will not be the measuring state for our SEL priority Wonder wonders Benchmark data will not be the measuring state right and neither will attend this correct just because it is showing up every day physically does not mean that they're positioned well in but they are indicators they will be

indicators some suit for Readiness right I'm not saying that they are the end dollar be-all right but if we are doing a good job on that end they they should be serving as indicators of its Readiness to engage in learning and that will look different depending on if we're saying we want to meet our kids where they are that's going to look different for all students right I just want to always keep that caveat just

because a kid might be showing up every day it might be the straight a talk to your student that doesn't mean that they're necessarily the position where they're doing well social emotionally not it may not be at all and so we've got to really use a develop those relationships with those contacts is a lot of times

or any other questions or comments or anything or headings or really long year it's I don't know I kind of like having my kids probably one of the three parents that are like

you know I'm the weird one that's like they didn't they could say we are ready to receive them I guess well thank you

um we can entertain a motion to endure emotionally yes projects yes