of minutes followed by teaching and learning highlights and i know we have a lot of special guests in the audience tonight for our teaching and learning highlights we will speak about the town meeting and do a brief update about how the town meeting went from the school's perspective and also a reading of the school committee annual report that goes into the in your town report we're going to have amendments to the by county collaborative member agreement followed by a curriculum review cycle update we then have first reading  policies wellness and internet acceptable use followed by a monthly budget statement that will address other matters and then the committee tonight will be going into executive session for the purpose of discussing go shooting strategies with union personnel specifically tonight custodians and secretaries we also are going to be reviewing some collective bargaining language related to the new massachusetts educator evaluation system so that's the purpose of our executive session and  will not be returning to open session tonight so let's begin with school committee reorganization and just before we do i want to just take a moment to thank my four other members of the what i think was just a terrific year we welcome the new superintendent won't go into all the things you did because we're going to cover that later in the agenda but i just personally want to express my thanks especially to all of you if you all have been here in service to this  suggested that you know when something is moving it's more of labor camps we would like to consider it some time to him the chairperson stayed two years in the city rather than rotating because it is it can be hire a superintendent oversee the budget set the policies for the big district and the responsibility is to maintain stability by supporting this so superintendent  and that was the same listen just went on so i feel like you're more than one year we in the fall we hired a new legal team to work with us she had to learn to work with the chairperson in january is another change we acquired a new business manager in july we will have a new food service manager we will also have a new high school principal we will have a new elementary school principal that's already up to nine and we will have a new facilities manager which is number ten in september now that is a lot major change within one district in just a little more than one year i'd like to mention a couple of remarks that were made by the supervisor of the mentoring program he sauces a highly functional school committee softest on student achievement and instruction and he also made no  observations of the chairperson he listened carefully summarized well each member's thoughts he noted agenda items bringing them to closure before moving on and i happening in the running processes fast here that we should consider perhaps somebody having to turn over two years for a term and if not i would recommend you know the normal rotation to move to the chair which while i would like to see actually the holes slightly forward to help the slowness in the adjustment of all the new things that will be facing within the next few months a point anyone else have any comments or any other nominations well i just like to make the comment that i think what we've done and some of the time that i've been on th committee is that we have had the vice chair move into a chairman's position and then i know there was one occasion i think when mark to do directly the chairmanship but i do like the process of your vice so i would just throw that out to to the committee to to ponder and we decide what if we just have the right if we don't want to do it to a year rotation at this time i think we should follow the pro respect each other we all appreciate each other we all do a great job and we have as i said this time last year any number of us could do any of these jobs and doing very well so you know not each one of us that's one vote we just so i think we should do the order and this is a roll call vote and we need a majority of the members so we're going to begin with those in favor of cake taking over the share mar no kate no katie yes yes yes and i will vote yes so we have a new chairman by virtue of majority vote and that is ms moore so i'm going to turn the proceedings over thirty and i'm going to switch seats with that mr gardner noted that the money would be returned to the town due to the lower bids received on these items and he refers where the location is of that statement refers to the bid for paving and ceilings and i think that was if my recollection serves i think i was a general comment regarding all of the business and that was our intent to do our best and committee has talked about this too to return money to the town so i would just ask them if it's alright with the committee that that that schools could after to see to educate a poster or a pool for a whole school effort and we are so happy to announce that we had several award winning students from fox so right now i would like to invite the third and fourth graders from the bullying you just should never bully anybody because i just feel like some people still get the point of it even though we still have a lot of discussions and talks about it and people really understand be that a lot of kids get bullied and that's not ok and if you see you're from bullying someone you need to tell them that it's not ok because if you don't they could like it could like well they could keep doing it and they would realize like it's not ok and then they get in a lot of trouble and a lot of kids get bullied and like a lot of the country and like it hurts really bad when people sarah grace morris and livia tell bally and they won first place in the fourth grade poster that if you see a friend bullying someone you should tell an adult and if there's no adults then just stick up for the target and say to the person who is bullying questions for the younger yes but i will say that when you stand up you make a very big difference because every time you stand up you are changing your world and the rest of the world so keep bad great job it would be nice so we started putting it together and we had several clip on cameras and and us on cameras of let that go well i was getting ready to be their challenge was harder because they didn't they didn't do a poster or they had to do a public service announcement so they actually had to script things well we had to like the was we had to pretend that we are writing a letter to the president and telling him how bad the belaying and everybody has been going on and how like  reaction but people still do it everyday stays with me just because you forget doesn't mean  is special and perhaps we could make sure that this is also broadcast on fox for cable network i think our our community would love to see this and that wonderful c salinger mr jerry royd who you all get to know is at home jumping up and down because our high school did a premium video and now you turn down the gauntlet to be at the high school before you know it and you'll be doing great things ye so this is the report of the foxborough school committee in the end you will town report for two thousand and eleven the school committee has continued to see a period of stability in its membership after katie adair and martha slattery were reelected in uncontested races in two joining eddie for her first year as the second student representative is junior class member mr macon carver the committee stability helped welcome in a completely new school leadership team in two thousand and eleven the committee completed a lengthy search process then selected and hired former assistant superintendent ms debbie spinelli to succeed retiring superintendent dr christopher markus dr any birdhouse was then selected from a similar search process to replacement spinelli as assistant superintendent finally mr bill you know was hired at the end of the year to succeed retiring school business administrator mr paul jackson shortly after completing the contracts for misspelling dr bird of the committee successfully completed negotiations for a new teacher contract for the school district the new two year contract recognised many of the needs of the dedicated teaching staff while holding down the cost of the town this contract ratification was followed by the successful negotiation of several other contracts including school bus drivers custodial workers secretaries education assistance food service workers and crossing guards the completion of these contracts in a cost effective manner will play a strong role in helping the town move forward in a relatively strong financial position considering the challenges of the economic times in july two thousand and eleven school committee a new leadership team met and conducted its annual workshop to set their annual district goals goals for the year build on recent priorities including communication community relations student achievement financial management policy development and evaluation of the superintendent's performance the new strategic plan was approved in may two thousand and eleven and will help guide the work of the district over the next several years new for the two thousand and eleven two thousand and twelve school year is an increased emphasis on the quality of teaching and learning this is commonly referred to across the district in a theme the leaders are referring to as great to greater thanks to much hard work from custodians and staff schools are ready for their s reopening thirteen new teachers join the foxboro staff in place of retirees or other departures foxborough is rated number thirty six of school districts in the state by boston magazine which weighed a number of its own factors high school and it third year of its renovation project which continued to proceed under budget and on schedule foxborough high school was busy with other activities demonstrating its commitment to its students success the guidance program instituted a new grade point average policy to better mirror that which colleges expect it also enhanced its capability for electronic submission of college requirements new classes were approved by the school committee for english forensics health wellness music in a p u s history the warrior huddle was also introduced as a program that pairs teachers and students to provide formal and informal support networks the committee recognized a number of other teaching and learning highlights throughout the year these included the her middle school peer mediation program kindergarten number sense across the three elementary schools the foxboro high school national honor society program and an i pad pilot project in special education several professional development days for staff were conducted focusing on such things as strengthening student comprehension and interrogating text to create lifelong thinkers the state wide and cast test results while only one measure of student performance were reviewed in detail in the fall foxborough outperform the state average in sixteen out of seventeen tests categories good growth from one year to the next was evident at most cohort levels areas for personal improvement were identified including writing across the curriculum a number of fox teachers gave of their own time to make of course but to choose me to take a course on how to help the school district make better use of the data the school committee completed a review of the english language arts curriculum and the wellness program it approved a new more detailed report card for kindergarten it also completed a review of the three elementary schools the middle school and the high schools school improvement plans continued support for professional development days in current budget levels were cited as essential forward the school committee also reviewed the school district's audit of its one thousand instructional initiatives this review looks at three year progress from two thousand and nine to two thousand and eleven areas reviewed included emergency planning wellness differentiated instruction and enrichment and challenge offerings other activities supported throughout the year include an internet safety night but district wide technology night a tour of the foxboro high school repair project a survey of the community on their level of understanding around the district's strategic plan which was very strong support selection of new legal services for the school district and preparation for a parent information night on the human sexuality curriculum the school committee also revised and completed two new policies and trance age for kindergarten and first grade and the prevention and management of head injuries and concussions in extra curricular athletic activities future priorities for the school committee include the hiring of the next foxboro high school principal as mr jeffs the atos retires the committee is also focused on preparing its two thousand and twelve two thousand and thirteen budget request which will call for a level services while being creative in holding down costs in closing the school committee values the support of the foxboro community without a strong community our schools cannot achieve all that they are capable of our supporting foundation faces which stands for foxborough a community enriching schools and our partners such as invensys y m c a and the craft organization continue to enable our teachers through a number of grants and support our students continue to make us proud both academically and in extracurricular activities examples of our extracurricular offerings include music and athletic programs which continue to be very competitive and represent our community with character and integrity we wish to also acknowledge our outstanding employees and parents who work together with us to drive excellence across all of our packs p t o s and parent leader advisory council help our schools thrive and increase our communication to the community they provide valuable support in our contributors to the school district initiatives and goals parents will continue to play a pivotal role in our educational success there is a direct correlation between outstanding parent involvement and an excellent school system we are grateful for the time and effort that our parents invest daily to make a one in active membership when a voting representative of a member school district has not attended five scheduled meetings of the board of directors within one school year the member school district will automatically become an inactive member without further action of the board of directors or the member school district the presence of a designee at a meeting does not affect the operation of this rule and an active member shall forfeit benefits of membership such as member to a charade but not the right to vote the determination of a quorum shopping made without reference to any in active member in extenuating circumstances as a term and solely by the board of directors the rule concerning automatic interactive status due to the absence of a voting or percentage of a member community can be waived and an active member may return to active voting status or receive all of the member benefits after submitting a letter to the board of directors in which it states it indicates a desire to be an active member and its attendant at a minimum minimum of five scheduled meetings of the board of directors within one school here so that is the first active membership they i guess they have had experience with one one that i know a school district where i wasn't active participation on the board of directors and so i guess it's been an issue me being new to the boys been issue over the last couple of years that they want to really address that concretely so that there aren't districts who receive the benefits of membership to reduce tuition rates without actively participating on the special education teachers classroom teachers and it's the end of this year we will come out with recommendations for what what's ideal and making sure that we're meeting in the best interest of our children so we want to look at those supplemental services for our students and make sure that we're doing what's in the best of friends for them so that's what we're doing this year and next year we're slated for map and with the new curriculum framework it's perfect timing there's a lot of curriculum work that's been taking place this year and that will be taking place over the summertime actually as we're realizing the curriculum in the way and map based on the new curriculum framework so a lot of work by a lot of doctors and it's exciting to see what's taking place with those standards the changes that are there and how we're really really diving deeper in areas where we think about map as an example being very bright and majesty the new curricul and really focusing on fewer standards at different grade levels so we can really build a conceptual understanding at a greater that and what's currently in the free market and those are based on and incorporate the common core state standards so we have a common today is that one small area of wellness is i messed up so after you look at the changes that they've looked at been you can speak to it i'll let you know what that is and this is the first reading if the subcommittee wishes to look at that one little other section debbie thank you very much and actually we don't miss much but this just goes legs equal the people in as to why this came up in order to apply for grants we need to make sure that our language is in compliance with both the federal government then to apply for wellness grants on that in the federal and at the state level so that will we if you notice on page believe that speech three thank you we are the lines through the other two the first paragraphs that is to indicate we are deleting that and now that paragraph will read schools will not use physical activity or the withholding of recess or other physical activity as a means of punishment or is one of discipline exceptions to this policy may only be made when behavioral behavior rewards or discipline are part of a student's individual i e individual education program  people and we had gone from a wellness policy that didn't have much in it to this which had a lot in it so the transition we felt that using words like discover it was enough but in fact what's come to our attention recently is that discouraged isn't enough because discouraged just means you can put him through it want to and so it's not strong enough to apply for some of the grants that we're looking at and regardless of grants it's also not strong enough period so the other thing that i missed is back on page two or four and the other place that we use discovered is under the food section the third paragraph from the bottom where it says birthday celebrations must be food free throughout the district that's been implemented food rewards are also discouraged in the classroom that section that whatever and we don't want to interfere with that but i miss that were discouraged over talking about using food as reward so that would be the section if you ladies don't mind coming back in to talk about or just give me a call and we can talk about oh how are you want to handle it because i feel that i've added to your time in a crown but is that we can do that here if you are sorry whatever the elisabet i won't speak for you but i think we're very committed to making sure that our language is aligned so we can move forward and apply to four more nutritional wellness grants and this is not a surprise in that we need to have that consistency and so the stronger worded and we're happy to meet with you but i think having discussed it everybody will be on board you know they're  so if we want to get that thirty five thousand dollars we're also changing our language ok that you know we're going to scale in order to get the rate discount so that we just took a line through the title so there was clarity as we went and went back and the new paragraph will read the school district will educate all students about appropriate online behavior including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites this is similar to what we had before but now we're saying as required under state law that we will in fact be doing so i think that makes sense and that also we're doing anyway but we have to our language must be consistent with what the state has mandated so we can continue to get that degree reimbursed but it's not enough if you can see when you read on it the policy says what students should not do but the new language says we're responsible for thousand in the c i p the actual call came in at two hundred twenty thousand eight hundred however we did note that one thing we missed was there is a small area in the very front just like in the basketball court we picked up the one in the back but for some reason missed the one in the front and i did speak to the contractor already which would be about fifteen thousand more to do that properly so that we think it's it's like the seven far as potential trying to do something more with tables and chairs in this media center here and we have some ideas we're going to try to see what we can do for that the second issue was to resolve some other some open issues within the district  maintained under service contracts or you have to basically be willing to pay to have each one of those upgraded i have found a group that will do it through a service contract is twenty five units and it's about seven thousand dollars that's not in this year years ago when the preschool moved into the borough they had used some classrooms for storage for a lot of the preschool materials whirled around the district and now it was all concentrated in one area and the only way they could handle all the little you know big wheels and the carts and some things kids go play with with and put in a storage container so that pretty ugly big storage container behind a building to point out which unfortunately is not very good shape it leaks we lost a lot of stuff inside it from mold and stuff so what forensic studies within the school and one of their big items that they really wanted but from a financial point of using the outside the reach and again most of these items are all because over the past five years you have been able to get additional funds into the expense accounts so you know what we've been able to do managing that has kept a tight but in this particular case it's the comparison microscope because i don't know if there had been really want to try to see if they could get into the program just to go back to the boat from a real concern there but with the parking if we're going to redo the the blacktop i don't know if you have got up there for my grandchildren i pull in right at the top and they have those areas that true as you know we were going to be converting one of the classrooms that used to be the weight room into wellness center so one of the other things we need obviously is some additional classroom for and we don't have that so again that would be under one of the open and resolved issues  and depending on where our finances end up at the end one of the things i would like to do is redo the paving at the entrance to the admin area which oh ok talk about that when you first come into  grades as you know faces started off by the interactive whiteboards that started at the upper levels and started moving down and at this point we you know i think the principles of the very well year after year trying to add to that but you know what we feel at this point we need to basically bring that to full circle and there are a few classrooms in one building that don't have them where i know the similar grade and the other buildings do have it so i would like to address the white board kind of equity issue and get that resolved  bring all this up to snuff when i can actually believe that money was that the a lot of the issues here are his shoes relative to the fact that the expense measures have been kept where they are so when you do have an opportunity which doesn't happen every year when you have an opportunity you best well get those things taken care of and move forward and like you said that's where you may not have a chance to do it again next year so you have to seize the moment for me i also give my all i want to give the prince was a lot of credit too because i think a lot of the reason we have this money because they are extremely progressive in their thinking on how they get stuff done and so they will hold and hold hoping that they can do some of these things to make  in order to be efficient you have to look at how you do things and we are always devolving and improving in the light of continuous improvement a question i have i don't call jackson would go jump through hoops and it makes me mad to work to do a budget mostly recent years ago we felt that that was reported core transparency i wonder given the amount of time that has to go into it it's almost as if we have we evolved to the point where that could be done instead of monthly quarterly because sometimes i think we're forecasting and we're making you go through the motions and you know you really won't know until the end of the koran some of these things and it's just an idea i want to just throw out of the way so i think i got a problem is in order for us to move because it's a another perspective i mean as we review the budget monthly we're keeping the light shined on it and i think that that's important for the community i think it's important for the municipal side as well as ourselves i think it generates conversations it highlights anticipatory budget issues and again i think it's a good vehicle to continue the transparency so i mean if it's not come for  she said galileo but i think i think monthly you know we can certainly keep going monthly but maybe we should we can just agree just as we did tonight that if it makes sense to wait to get your input on something that maybe will go to the next meeting which would be six weeks instead of one oh yeah like we absolutely so with yes flexibility around there would be just yeah that would be just common sense yes i mean but even tonight is bill's talking to us about some of these issues and if someone's at home and they have some ideas or they're and players to go to the trouble details and they also have plans for fundraising for the trip they need to put a deposit this week so they need a vote of the committee to approve the overnight travel because they don't want to go ahead with the deposit or fund raising the booster side if it isn't something the committee would want to entertain so we're requesting that the school committee vote to approve the overnight travel for the boys basketball team for the trees two thousand and twelve to thirteen school year in order for the deposit to be mailed in the fund raising that coach healy is going to be holding a meeting with the parents of the senior basketball players and their sons to go over the travel package and fundraising and that's next story so it sounds like it just really i can't say for principal and you q she is a principal in the public schools so our plans are to have the two candidates as we did for the high school search coming to visit the i go this week on wednesday and thursday so we have a visiting two fifty will be the parents and community segment we want to meet her dates and i will send you their e mail tomorrow c c u and the faculty and staff will be having me greet with the two candidates each from three ten to close to four o'clock on those two days so we're we have a great pool as you know and one of the men dr birdhouse and her screen team they had complete control over screening the fifty four hour choosing who they would interview i think all but one of the  selections were currently elementary principals of the district which shows you the strength of the candidates they had and they forwarded these two people to us i had a chance to meet them last week along with the other central office people very pleased with the two candidates they sent forward so we're going to  that you may be hearing from us as a thank you for your outside of this meeting but we want to make sure that publicly i mean i know for years i've been here it's really been a pleasure to get to know you not just through this venue but in everything you do around the school and can't wait to see graduation application was featured like my experiences on the school committee and my experiences with j barrows which i actually got an internship through miss lord so it featured how those two sure we would enjoy reading yeah thank you very much andy and i am in the middle of renovations my kitchen is down to the smell was right now otherwise i was going to present you with a great big take note megan so you see what happens when you when you go the distance all for you thank you all very much for your continued guns and support throughout these four years i mean like attending these meetings and getting you know all of you on this trip in the highlight of my but the pops concert i went to mother's day and he just can't it's indescribable everyone should go and i must say i greatly appreciate how mr massey recognizes every he was commissioned by the music association to compose a special piece for the junior jazz band for the middle school was in middle school it was pre marriage that night he even think somebody outside the community do that but i very disappointed when i pulled up tonight once again so it still wasn't there they worked very hard to prove that money they believe this town their vote this time they all graduated from here and that's a huge suggested so what has to happen before that is at the next school committee meeting were going to be giving you an overview of the whole educator that he wishes to meet and you know we had a little just so it's fresh in everyone's minds of them clued process for me with the exact  using for me still the whole entire package for me is that it is my responsibility to provide you with documentation on the standards so i i don't think you'll be ready for june fourth but by the second meeting in june you all will have a chance to see the doc working with on june fourth by the second in june i will submit those the rubric to you with the evidence of some of the standards there that you know we're not going to all thirty two indicators but you're going to be working with  evaluations and the chair so the only question is when you want to have the public evaluation here it says by september on if you want to stick it out that's totally up to it was a committee but the your composite this is all new would probably be helpful to me after you get the materials on june fourth and then again after you get the documentation it's so new to all of us that if you have individual questions i can meet with you individually to answer those questions  us and it will be helpful for me to be able to communicate with them which standards were a little bit harder to address with the transition to the new system so i hope be able to be informative next thank you