[Campbell]: Well, happy birthday all around.
[Van der Kloot]: Oh, that's wonderful. Well, so that's why we have to make sure we're ending in the appropriate time because the necessity for me, she lives in Maryland and I have to call while the little boys are awake and singing happy birthday and all the rest, so.
[Galusi]: Yeah, very nice. Anyway, let's see, who else is here? So I do want to say that I just got off the phone with the superintendent who's stuck in traffic. So she's going to try and join via her phone, but I'm just letting everybody know that update.
[Van der Kloot]: OK. I'm just taking a look whether Tanya is here yet. She is.
[Tanya Sullivan]: I am here.
[Van der Kloot]: You're so good. Good. And Alex?
[Alexandra Lauric]: Yes, I'm here. I don't have permission to change my name, sorry. But yes, Alex Roy, I'm here.
[Van der Kloot]: OK, great. All right, terrific. And Jenny is here. And Mia Mustone, who's the other member, said she could not come. Is Paul here yet? Not yet. He's going to be joining us just as someone else, another committee member, today since Mia couldn't make it. Okay. So I have to read this long thing. So let me find out where it went. Hold on. And so if you would, today is November 18th. It's just after four o'clock. We have a meeting of the curriculum subcommittee. Please be advised that on Wednesday from four to 530, there will be a curriculum subcommittee meeting held through remote participation via zone. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss a plan for incorporating disability awareness into daily instruction as a pilot program in the Metro Public Schools. Pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12th order submitting certain provisions of the open meeting law, 301 paragraph 18 in the governor's March 15, 2020 order imposing strict limitations on the number of people that may gather in one place. This meeting of the Medford School Committee will be conducted via remote participation to the greatest extent possible. Specific information and the general guidelines for remote participation by members of the public and or parties with the right and or requirement to attend this meeting can be found on the city of Medford website at www.medfordmass.org. For this meeting, members of the public who wish to listen or watch the meeting may do so by accessing the meeting link contained herein. No in-person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public can adequately access the proceedings in real time via technological means. In the event that we are unable to do so despite best efforts, we will post on the city of Medford or Medford community media websites on an audio or video recording transcript or other comprehensive record or of proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting. The meeting can be viewed through Medford Community Media and it says on Comcast Channel 2 and version Channel 43. However, there was a change to that which I'm going to find in a second. I'll repeat that. Since the meeting will be held remotely, participants can log in or call by using the following link or a call-in number. So the call-in number is meeting ID 950-2877-9285. Or if you want to call in, you could call in to 1-312-626-6799, US. Additionally, questions or comments can be submitted during the meeting by emailing pwloot at medford.k12.ma.us. Those submitting may include the following information, your first and last name, your Medford Street address, and your question or comment. The agenda today is going to be to identify the plan to incorporate disability awareness into daily instruction as a pilot program in the Medford public schools. And we're going to have Joan Bowen and Susanna Campbell present, but we're going to start off with a different presentation first by our SPEDPAC. By the way, today, The meeting can be viewed on Comcast 15 and Verizon Channel 45. Apparently, we've been booted because there's another meeting. So thank you very much for all of that. If I could ask, as is our custom, if everybody could rise so we could say the Pledge of Allegiance. 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 justice and liberty for all. Thank you. Jenny, could I ask you to take the roll?
[Graham]: Sure. Member Graham here. Member van der Kloot? Here. And Member Mustone is absent. And instead, Member Ruseau?
[Ruseau]: I'm here, hello.
[Van der Kloot]: Great, hello. Thank you. So today we're gonna start off with a presentation that I don't know who's the lead person, but Tanya and Alex are going to start off with a presentation at the beginning of our meeting here so we can review the work that they've been doing over the years as part of the PAC.
[Alexandra Lauric]: Alex will be the lead. Yeah, I'm going to present. I'm going to share my screen with you.
[Van der Kloot]: Sorry, I didn't hear that. There we go.
[Alexandra Lauric]: Thank you. I hope everybody is seeing the presentation. My name is Alex Lorik. I am a Medford resident. I am a mother of a sixth grader who has intellectual disabilities and is receiving special education services at McLean. And together with Tanya Sullivan, I am the co-chair of Medford CPAC, at least for the next two hours, because we have elections tonight.
[Tanya Sullivan]: Alex, it's kind of cut off on the left-hand side. I don't know. Is anybody else, it should say disability is natural. Do you see everything? I see ability is natural. So I'm thinking it's cut off a little bit.
[Van der Kloot]: Mine is cut off as well. Maybe I can.
[Alexandra Lauric]: Do you see this?
[Tanya Sullivan]: Yeah, it's cut off on the left a little bit.
[Alexandra Lauric]: There's not really nothing I can do.
[Tanya Sullivan]: Oh, that's better. OK. That's much better.
[Alexandra Lauric]: There we go. OK. Perfect. Thanks. Great. Yes, we want to present to you about the advocacy that CPAC did regarding the adoption of a disability awareness curriculum at four public schools. We have been working on this for a while. We are advocating for roughly 20% of my four public school students who receive some kind of special education services and for their families. We have started This advocacy at school level, particularly at Roberts and at Brooks, but it did become clear that we need a top-to-bottom approach and we need central administration commitment for this. So we met with central administration. We presented CPAC several times. And we do feel that we were heard and there was progress, particularly in September, 2018, when the special education subcommittee was created. The focus that year, 2018-2019, was on disability awareness curriculum and on community participation. So a lot of the ideas that I'm presenting today emerged from those discussions. And also, in terms of progress, Susanna Campbell created and delivered in May 2019 disability awareness training for teachers and for administration. And we do hope that this initiative is going to be the foundation for the Disability Awareness Curriculum for our students. The purpose for a Disability Awareness Curriculum is teaching students to develop understanding and respect for fellow students with physical, sensory, and developmental disabilities by providing accurate, age-appropriate information that highlights the unique perspectives and strengths people of all abilities bring to our community. We really want to emphasize the fact that such a curriculum will have benefits for all students. It will engage their natural curiosity. It will open their minds to different perspectives. It will teach them kindness. The students will gain knowledge about a range of disabilities and chronic medical conditions. They will develop understanding and respect through hands-on learning. it will expand the perceptions of how all people are different and they are the same and students will become more comfortable talking and reaching out to peers with disabilities. They will be less likely to engage in or tolerate bullying and they will learn how to be allies. In terms of the implementation, obviously we are parents and this is going to be done by teachers and other educational professionals. But these are ideas that emerge over many discussions, and we do hope that the final product is going to look something like this, particularly in terms of intentionality and in terms of consistency across schools and across grades. So we are hoping that this is going to be again a district-wide initiative. Teaching units are going to be created for a variety of disabilities. Certainly for those conditions that qualify as disabilities under the Social Security Administration, which are bolded in this presentation, but also for other conditions that affect our students, such as asthma, epilepsy, allergic conditions. The district is going to identify age and grade appropriate units, meaning that, for instance, a decision is going to be made that the second grade all students are going to be exposed to units for blindness and physical disability, for instance, such that by a particular grade, for instance, at the end of the elementary school or the end of the middle school, all students are going to be exposed to all units. We are going to teach two or three units per grade, potentially as part of the ELA curriculum. And again, this will kind of ensure that the students are going to stay with this topic for several days in the same way that they are staying with their ELA units. And they are going to have time to really work with this topic. Materials for each unit are going to be identified at district level. And there are going to be a reading list. Reading materials are going to be available to teachers. Fiction and nonfiction, vocabulary activities, There are going to be guidelines for discussions or writing sessions. There are going to be hands-on activities, including details about resources available in the district. For instance, if they are teaching a unit on blindness, the teachers are going to know where they can find some books written in braille so they can demonstrate that and the students can have that experience. Or if they are teaching a unit on physical disability, they can have access to a wheelchair, and again, the students can have some hands-on experience. The materials is going to be presented in a variety of ways, such as videos materials are going to be available for teachers. And we're going to try to keep students engaged and keep their curiosity going. For instance, providing examples of famous people that have disabilities. In conclusion, introducing a disability awareness curriculum in Medford Public Schools remains a priority for CPAC. We believe that the need is as acute as ever. We are really thankful and encouraged that this subcommittee is taking this issue and is addressing this issue. And we hope to make meaningful progress.
[Van der Kloot]: Great. Thank you. Thank you so much, Alex. And thank you for all your work with the special education pack. As you know, this is something that I've believed in very firmly and have been part of the discussions in the previous years. So this is the year, right? Yes, thank you. I appreciate it. Having said that now, I think I'm going to turn it over to Joan and or Susanna. I don't know who's going to take the lead.
[Bowen]: Sure. Susanna, are you going to screen share?
[Campbell]: Yes, I'll screen share the presentation.
[Bowen]: OK. Do you want me to walk through it, or do you want to walk through it? Because this is your creation, so.
[Campbell]: I can start and talk about the course, and then maybe you want to talk a little bit more about next steps. Sure. I think that I need somebody to make me a co-host, though, so I can share.
[Edouard-Vincent]: You should be all set.
[Campbell]: Okay, thank you. I'm just trying to see if I can hit the present button. Okay, are you able to see that? Yes. So this is just an overview of the course that I ran the year before last and some next steps that we are hoping to implement this spring. So the name of the course that we ran, and we are going to be running again this coming year, or in January of 2021, is Disability Awareness in the Classroom. And this professional development offering is currently available on the PD website. It's open for registration, and we're hoping to have lots of different people participate, including teachers, but also paraprofessionals, administrators, all staff. I think that anybody who works in the school environment will really benefit from this training because it's about building a community of people who are enlightened. And so it's really about the whole school, not just teachers. The dates and times are on this slide. We'll begin in January on Thursday afternoons, wrapping up in February. The hours are after school. And we're going to hold this via Zoom or Google Meet, just because I think that given the current climate, that's going to be more feasible and safe at this point. So the outcomes for the course are that the participants will learn the history of disabilities in America and the legislation that's been put into place to protect people with disabilities, that they will understand disability bias and the concept of ableism. And ableism is a societal attitude that people who are not disabled are considered kind of the norm and that it is more favorable to walk than it is to roll in a wheelchair, that it's better to speak than it is to communicate with a communication device. So being able to understand that that's part of society and how to break down some of those beliefs will be part of this course. Understanding Disability etiquette so that teachers are able to model and people within our district are able to use proper disability etiquette. And this is things like if somebody is in a wheelchair that, you know, you don't touch their chair, that if you think somebody might need assistance that you ask them if they want assistance, you don't just assume and step in. Develop a deeper understanding of what it's like to be a student with a disability. we go through a variety of disabilities in the course. They're listed under number five. So we talk about autism, communication, disabilities, blindness, intellectual disabilities, dyslexia, hearing impairment, fine motor issues, and many more. And so it is a little bit controversial to do kind of these activities where they give a person an opportunity to kind of experience what it might like to have a disability. But when we do this, we talk about what could the teachers or the individuals who are participating really take away from it in terms of what can they understand might help their students to access better when they go through these simulations. Number six, we identify literature that has positive representations of persons with disabilities that they can incorporate into their classroom learning. And I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. We identify tools that can be used to break down disability stereotypes. The teachers develop lesson plans that target student disability awareness, identification of similarities between students with and without disabilities, acceptance, positive attitudes, uniqueness, and inclusion. We identify strategies, accommodations, and modifications that facilitate the participation of students with various disabilities in everyday teaching. So it's not just about a certain unit. This is something that can be incorporated in the content areas consistently. And the participants understand why disability awareness is important to teachers and to students. So the key curricular concepts are that we want are educators to be incorporating positive representations of people with disabilities into their content area lessons. So whether we're talking about a high school social studies teacher or we're talking about a preschool teacher, that they can take these positive representations and work it into their curriculum. that they will use universal design for learning during everyday teaching. And universal design for learning is learning that helps everybody have better access. That we can incorporate anti-ableism language and practices into the content area lessons. So that if we are reading a book and there are examples of ableism in the book and you're talking about older students that you can kind of delve into that and have a conversation and clear that up so that we're reframing these misconceptions that are related to disability while addressing content. We want to build a more inclusive classroom environment where students can see that they are all very similar with or without disability, and that they're also unique in their own ways. And to create a community of learners who celebrate differences and support one another in an appropriate way. So, Joan, do you want to kind of take over and talk about our next steps there?
[Bowen]: Sure. So the next steps are that, you know, we have the participants complete the professional development course that will be held from January to February in 2021. After the completion of the course, we want to pilot and recruit those staff members who either participated in the 2019 professional development or this year's professional development to pilot a disability awareness curriculum within our schools. So we would work with these individuals. It could be any grade level, any content area. We want to try to get as many volunteers as we can to be able to do this. And then once we establish what the curriculum will look like, we want to pilot in the classrooms from March to May 2021. We also want this to continue. We don't want this to be a one and done sort of thing. We want it to be implemented and embedded in everyday instruction. That's where we're headed and we feel like this is really valuable for the disability awareness we don't, you know, there are sort of your box curriculum. But I think the work that the staff and that Susanna has done with the disability awareness course really personalizes it and makes it individualized for our students in Medford Public Schools. So that's where we're headed. We're excited for it. We had a huge turnout for the professional development in 2019. We're anticipating that we will have a large number of faculty and staff members attending this one. And then we will take the next steps and we can update as we go along.
[Campbell]: If you would like, I could show you a couple of examples of some lessons that were created out of the 2019 course. This might help people to kind of understand where this came from and where we might be going. So let me just pull one up here. Okay, so let's see. Are you able to see this okay?
[Van der Kloot]: Yes.
[Campbell]: OK. So this lesson was created by a fifth grade teacher, Ms. Pires, who now has a new last name. But she took a book out of my mind, which is something that she was using as part of her ELA curriculum. And this book is focused on a intermediate grade student who has a physical disability and is not able to speak. And the students read this as part of their ELA instruction. And she was able to incorporate all of these different elements of the curriculum frameworks so that she was addressing her ELA standards while also addressing the disability awareness. So there were essential questions that really helped the kids to discuss disability and to understand more about it. So she had language objectives, the targeted academic language, she was also able to go through and talk about student preconceptions and misconceptions of, you know, what is cerebral palsy and what are the preconceptions that students had of those with disabilities and their abilities. Because what was interesting about this particular character is that while she was not able to speak, she was very intelligent. And once she was given the opportunity to communicate with a communication device, it opened up a world where she was able to really express everything that she had been thinking all along. So she, you know, Ms. Pires went through and made all of these, all of these specific steps in terms of outlining the lessons. And then she also included these leading questions that could be used to facilitate conversation or written feedback. And when you have, we created a drive of all of these different lesson plans so that this way, you know, as teachers are looking for how can they incorporate disability awareness into their everyday lessons, they have a drive, and these are from the 2019 course, where these are all different lessons that are based on grade level. So we have preschool, primary grades, intermediate grades, grades six through eight, nine plus, and we also had unified arts because we had an art teacher participate. Let's see what else is in there. So we had a music teacher, an art teacher. So we really can be applying this across all different classes throughout the school day. And I think that it's really exciting. I think the teachers enjoyed it. I know that I really enjoyed leading the course. we have a tremendous resource here already that we're going to build upon this year so that when individuals, you know, volunteer to pilot, they'll be in a really good position to have a lot of resources right at their fingertips. Does anybody have any questions about that?
[Van der Kloot]: So, Suzanne, can you tell me how many teachers took the course the first time and what your hope is for enrollment.
[Campbell]: I wanted to say that it was about 48. The first time around. I don't know, to be honest with you, how many we'll get this year because I feel like people are a little bit saturated and overwhelmed this year in general. There's so much that they're juggling. So I hope that, you know, we will get, I'm hoping about 15, 20 is kind of like, I feel like a good expectation. The fact that it's being held via Zoom might be more appealing to some because they can, you know, log in from wherever they are. And then the thought would be that we would just continue this the following year so that eventually we would be catching kind of more and more of the individuals so that in the end, we would be giving everybody this coursework.
[Van der Kloot]: Great, thank you. So I think that this work that you've been doing is really excellent, you know, and I've loved seeing the lesson plans. My only concern is it's possible that a student would go through eight grades and not happen to get any consistent discussion from year to year, depending on who this child's teachers are.
[Campbell]: Yeah, I think that's where we need your support, to be honest. I think that, you know, up until this point, it has been, you know, a volunteer basis. And I think that that's where Alex and Tanya are coming from, that they want this to be recognized so that then maybe we can identify some different specific topics that would be targeted at each grade level so that we don't have that possibility. I think we need to start with a pilot first, but I think that the hope would be that down the road, we can do what Alex said, that in grades one and two, they're covering a couple of specific topics. In grades three and four, it's a couple of different specific topics so that then we are making sure that as kids work through the school system, that they're getting all of these different lessons.
[Graham]: Jenny? Susanna, I think my question is, did we make a conscious decision that we were going to build this incrementally over time instead of purchasing a curriculum that would put in place exactly what you're talking about? So it strikes me that the, I heard wonderful things about the professional development, but it strikes me that the output of the professional development was so that people could go off and like build their own stuff, which is okay, but it's not sort of foolproof in that we can't guarantee that we are covering the curriculum in a linked and progressive fashion if every teacher is off independently creating. So I'm just curious, like what research we did to decide that we weren't going to buy something and instead we were going to build this way.
[Campbell]: So I would have to go back to kind of the discussion that we had with Kathy Madaglio. And, you know, Alex, looks like she wants to say something as well. But I think that part of what we were concerned about with a quote unquote boxed curriculum is that then it's kind of one and done, as Alex said, that the kids have a specific unit. but that if the teachers aren't really learning the underpinnings of how to do this on their own, they're not able to just kind of incorporate it naturally and become kind of educated readers themselves as they're looking at a book and reading it to have those discussions. So I think that the background knowledge and really understanding the history of disability, really understanding ableism, is something that is, it takes a little bit longer and it's not really something that you're going to just, you know, give one presentation, have people come in and do that and walk away with that underlying knowledge. I think that this is building kind of teachers who are able to then incorporate it daily rather than just two weeks during the year. But yeah.
[Graham]: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And I, I think the professional development is critical because I, without it, you can't do that authentically, I guess. I think the professional development piece is sort of different, at least in my mind, than the curriculum piece. If we have 10 topics we wanna cover and we don't have a curriculum that sort of does scope and sequence to cover those 10 topics, how are we sure we didn't miss a topic somewhere that we should have covered? I guess that's, so I don't, I think the professional development is important for all the reasons you just described, but to me, that's sort of a different discussion than choosing to incrementally build things voluntarily versus identifying what the need is and determining, and maybe there's nothing out there, I don't know. I just was curious if you guys had looked at all of that.
[Van der Kloot]: I might, yeah. Susan, do you want to answer and then go to Alex?
[Campbell]: I think that Alex probably wants to talk a little bit about understanding our differences, because that is somewhat of a boxed curriculum that focuses on those, but she has some experience with that. So maybe she'd like to comment.
[Alexandra Lauric]: Yeah, so CPAC actually did a lot of research trying to look for a curriculum that would answer our needs, and there is nothing out there. So we, through discussions with the special ed subcommittee and with Cathy Medavio, we kind of got the conclusion that what we want to do, we want to infuse the curriculum with disability awareness information and allow students to spend a little bit more time with each topic. What exists, the closest we could find was something that is called understanding our differences. which was created in Newton, they are selling that. But the way it is done, it is, for instance, for a unit on autism, the whole school gets together and they stay with that topic for two hours. And they do some activities and they have some guests, but that's it. It's a two hour event and then they go to the classroom and it's done. And we, like I said, we're hoping to be able to go more in depth. and let the students stay with the topic and really interact with the ideas more. So we are in a situation in which we do have to kind of invent this, invent the wheel.
[Graham]: Got it. Yeah, no, that's super helpful. I guess, so do we have a framework? Like, are we working toward a framework of, like, here is what we want to be teaching at each grade level? Like, has that... been articulated and Susana, I think you sort of said you needed support from the school committee. So I'm interested in what that is, what support it is that we could provide.
[Alexandra Lauric]: I can just say something. So we can learn from understanding our differences and the list of conditions and disabilities that I provided in my PowerPoint is what they are offering. And they actually have some guidelines of what they present at each grade. So we can look at that. They are covering just elementary school, so maybe we want to do elementary and middle school, or we want to play with that. But there is some information out there that we can use. Melanie?
[McLaughlin]: Thank you. I'm just going to speak from a parent perspective, but also as the former co-chair of the CPAC, we had actually, Kathy Medaglio and I, and the CPAC had been working on this idea for some time. And in fact, we did purchase Understanding Our Differences. at the Brooks School for fifth grade as part of the inclusion committee for the Brooks. And it was the autism unit, but it never was actually implemented. We ended up having a transition between a former principal and a newer principal, and it sort of just fell through the gap, and it just was never picked up again. So I think that's the other part of the problem with a one-time event, you know, that if it doesn't happen, if something gets rescheduled, obviously it's not going to happen. So Kathy and I talked much more And it was expensive by the way, it was like $1,500 for the one unit for fifth grade. And then there was some, we were looking at whether we wanted to expand that, but Kathy and I had talked more and that was when Kathy was really talking about infusing the curriculum and not having a one and done for all of the reasons that folks mentioned and actually starting with a pilot similar to the understanding our differences, right, Alex, where it started with a grade for the curriculum so that there was a curriculum map, if you will, for one grade as you're talking about, like, what is the framework? You know, you start small with a pilot with one curriculum map for that grade, if you will. and then looking beyond expanding after potentially that year. And I just wanted to add to the point of Susanna's disability awareness curriculum. It was so well-received last time, and you've done such an amazing job on the syllabus and working with all that, that we're really glad to see all of that, Susanna. And this has been an evolution of the past, I would say, five years of discussion and work, the combination of that. So thanks, I just wanted to add that.
[Van der Kloot]: So I had a question, um, the book that you cited, uh, from the teacher's lesson plan, out of my mind, is that a book that fifth graders, um, in most classes are reading?
[Campbell]: No. So the teachers have opportunities to be able to select different books that address the curriculum frameworks. So this was not, um, one that would be aligned with journeys was an extra novel that she was reading. with her class and one part of the course was that we took different books and we presented them and talked about them and then teachers kind of selected something that really spoke to them or went out on their own and created a lesson around these books that have positive representations of people with disabilities. And then those books were all put into the school library. So that they were available and I know that the school librarian also at the Andrews and McGlynn happened to be there during the presentation because it was in the library and she started purchasing a bunch of books that kind of run that list as well so. It's something that I think is a little bit of a grassroots effort. I think that if we want to select specific books, that's something that we need to talk about. If we decide that we want to have very specific goals for each grade level, that's something that needs to be laid out. That work has not been done yet. So it's not to say that it's not important. I think it's very important. I just don't think that we have quite taken that step as of yet. So that to me would be a next step.
[Van der Kloot]: Right, what I'm thinking is that, you know, again, it's wonderful the work you're doing today and the work you'll do in the next go round, but is there a way to, you know, suggest to other teachers who aren't participating at least to be looking at that lesson plan, which seems to be very comprehensive, so that maybe they'll be choosing that book too. to read in their classrooms. Again, my concern is what you're doing is fantastic. It just is for those who either aren't participating. And I totally understand that this year is so, again, how do we get all the curriculum pieces in? And that's why it's so fantastic to be able to infuse it into the curriculum. But I'm wondering how we can encourage all teachers to be looking at those. I'm wondering if we can identify a couple of lesson plans for each grade and send them out and just say, hey, FYI, this is one of the things that the district is really looking at. Here's some great lesson plans. I would think that for some of our teachers, they might be vastly relieved to have it laid out so clearly. So I guess I'm trying to say, how do we ramp it up a little bit more? You know, and I'm looking into next year too, how are we making sure that we are hitting, that there's, I mean, there's multiple topics, not just one topic, but so many different topics effectively for our students. And, you know, I bet there will be some teachers who would just absolutely shine at doing this, but if your kid is not in that class, that's what the problem is.
[Campbell]: Right. And I think that having it aligned with some different curriculum that we already have in place. I mean, for example, I know in the second grade journeys curriculum, they have some stories that are all around blindness and Braille. And so that's a nice segue because that's something that all teachers that are using the journeys curriculum are going to be addressing with their students. So that's kind of an easy way to go. I think that we need to be talking with Dr. Chiesa and making sure that, you know, as we're making suggestions around literature, that we really have, you know, her input as well, because obviously that's her department.
[Van der Kloot]: Jenny?
[Graham]: So, I guess sort of one thing that I was thinking about as you were talking, Susanna, and to Paulette's point, are there contractual levers that would allow us to make a PD like this required over some stretch of time? Because I think that's like one starting gate, right? Like this PD is really important and it was well-received, but it is fundamentally voluntary at the moment. So is there some lever in the contract that we would have to like kind of tug on to say, this is going from something that's voluntary to something that's required in some way. And I don't know if anyone has the answer to that question, but that certainly is a question that I have about how to make sure that we do sort of expose everybody to this professional development, because it, like I said, it sounds like it was incredibly well done and informative.
[Campbell]: So it really, it depends on kind of the priorities of the time in the year. We certainly do have some mandatory PDs that happen during the year, but it's always a matter of, you know, what is our top priority at that particular moment? And there are some things that we need to make mandatory and we need to do those within the contract, within the teacher's contract, so that we're offering them at times that they are obligated to be there. The times that this course are being run are after school hours. They're outside of contract hours. So we wouldn't be able to mandate that teachers attend something after school hours. So I guess that I would kind of look to probably somebody, you know, either Joan or Suzanne to kind of speak more on that about, you know, what we would be able to do in terms of contract.
[Bowen]: So I also think that it's for their licensure, their education licensure, that they do have to work towards so many PDPs for say special education, and this could be something that we offer if it's, you know, so many PDPs, you can use it towards your relicensure and make sure that you meet the special education requirement and that would be for all teachers, not just special education teachers. So that's something that we can look at at how is we, how do we present it to staff that this is something that you want to use, you want to take advantage of, because we can meet this requirement throughout the school year within a two month period to get those PDPs, that sort of thing. But like Susanna said, it is outside of their contractual hours, but I think this is where the pilot program is going to be important because the people that take the course are going to go back into their schools and sort of be the cheerleaders about this is the importance of what I learned in this professional development and sort of come up with maybe some professional learning communities, things like that, that they can share what they learned and then it can grow from there within the school building itself so that's something that we're looking at as well.
[Graham]: Yeah, I think that's great.
[Galusi]: Joan just took the words right out of my mouth because I was just gonna say that we're starting with the pilot, and then growing it from there I think, ultimately right the goal is that every single educator is having the opportunity to be a part of this training. That is the goal. But we do have to start with the pilot so that we can have those pieces built in that Joan was talking about. The professional learning communities, using common planning time, all of those building blocks so that we can have the correct process for what's going to be the most effective way to deliver this to everybody.
[Graham]: And then the other thing I was thinking about, Susanna, as you were talking particularly about the ELA curricula, this committee has an agenda item to create sort of an audit or a catalog of all our curricula and whether they are meeting our needs or not, and whether we are gonna start seeking new curricula and various components So I'm sort of wondering, Paulette, if we prioritize the ELA and literacy block for lots of reasons, but I think one of them is this sort of natural tie to say, have we evaluated our current curriculum with a lens of how does it help advance our objectives about disability awareness? And if it doesn't, Are there others out there that do a better job of that? So that that becomes part of our criteria as we look at our ELA curriculum at various levels. So there might be a way to add some supports there that like you said, like there's like little nuggets of it in the journeys curriculum, but probably not nearly enough. So how do we think about that when we think about whether the journeys curriculum is the right curriculum for us?
[Van der Kloot]: And remember, we also just last month talked about the racial equity piece. So it's not just this. So there's multiple things that we're trying to provide comprehensive education for our kids. So we have to talk a little bit more. Maurice, I see superintendent.
[Edouard-Vincent]: I could even I just wanted to weigh in on. The piece regarding, I'm kind of happy there isn't an official canned curriculum that exists, because sometimes people will just check the box. And I think as we shift, and we want to have a true mindset shift, when you do think about curricula, and you are creative, and you are able to have teachers and curriculum directors involved in creating something from the grassroots. and kind of looking at the existing curriculum that's in place and finding areas where you can really make intentional connections. I feel like it sticks better for the children. And as we think about having this mindset shift, you know, eventually to roll it in grade level by grade level or focus on specific areas, I feel that letting it happen organically is the best way for it to bring about authentic change. And I am excited about the course being offered again because there was such positive feedback for all the people who were able to participate in the first go round that I feel there's a lot of people kind of waiting for this second session to start in January. And if anything, I mean, I know it's going to be by Zoom that, you know, Susanna may end up with like a waiting list and have to say, well, let's target maybe a specific grade level or look at what it is to see if we could, that would be a good problem. But I'm just saying, I feel when you bring about new curriculum and you introduce it, you have to provide the right training, the right backbone so that people can understand the rationale behind it and be able to have it connect to something that already exists. So it doesn't feel like it's, one more thing being added on, but it's just part of the work. And to the point of what was said last month with looking at our curriculum across the board and saying, where can we integrate or incorporate racial awareness and equity awareness, instead of having it be, we're adding this on because we have to check the box, if it is just incorporated, it will not feel like an add on and the students will be the greatest beneficiaries of it all. So I just wanted to bring up that point.
[Van der Kloot]: I was wondering whether any of the teachers who've participated before have been from the vocational school.
[Campbell]: I don't think that there were any vocational teachers who participated last time that I can remember. I'd have to go back and double check the list. We did have a variety of staff who participated, including administrators, paraprofessionals, a couple of paraprofessionals, and pre-K through high school. But I don't remember there being a vocational teacher. There were unified arts teachers, though, as I mentioned.
[Van der Kloot]: Well, where I'm what I'm thinking is that, you know, as teachers are attending this they're also learning more about the disabilities that they students might have, particularly say, you know, a student on the spectrum. that that goes across the board. So it may not be that the carpentry teacher in essence is really teaching or developing a unit, but also I guess there's another piece of saying, how do we make sure that our staff is knowledgeable about different disabilities that their students have? And I don't know how we do that. Does anybody wanna address that?
[Campbell]: So the course is two, it's kind of two pronged that a part of it is about learning how to teach students about disabilities and how to be, you know, kind of a mindset that is inclusive. And the other part of the course is about the teachers learning about disability so that they can learn how to use universal design so that they are giving access to more students in a very natural way. So I think that both of those kind of go hand in hand. Part of the course is actually going through how are students found eligible for individualized educational plans, which I think general educators really benefit from that background because they're not always sure, you know, which kids qualify and why and why not and how can a student have a disability and not have an IEP in some cases. you know, we talk about 504s and about the laws that apply to those. So I think that there's a lot of education that goes into this. That's way more than just, um, knowing how to teach kids about disability. It's about giving the teachers the background knowledge so that they can help their own students access. Um, and we all learn a little bit about ourselves too, because we realize that we're all using different strategies to help ourselves because we all have strengths and weaknesses and it's, you know, it's kind of an eyeopening experience.
[Van der Kloot]: That's great. Wonderful. Anybody else like to have a question? Comment? Joan? No?
[Bowen]: Oh, Paula, when we do have a student with a disability and the vocational teachers or other teachers are you know, want assistance with the IEP accommodations or modifications. We do do a lot of consultation. We pull the team together. We say, you know, what does this accommodation mean? How does that, how can you implement that in your particular classroom? That's what, so there's a lot of ongoing consultation throughout the school year. So teachers get to know the students, what their IEPs mean, how to implement them, and any issues or concerns that come up, the team will meet to relook at things and revisit the IEP, and just to offer any sort of assistance that would need to occur within the school year.
[Van der Kloot]: Okay, great. Does anybody else have any questions? Yeah, Alex?
[Alexandra Lauric]: So I have a question about how I understand the process. So there is going to be the training that Susanna is going to offer, and then we are going to open the pilot to a couple of teachers, and they are going to pick their own topics. They're going to pick disabilities that interest them, I'm assuming, and create lesson plans. And then is there going to be a report by the end of the year? Or how are we going to find out how it worked and what the next plans are, next steps?
[Van der Kloot]: Well, Alexia, that was exactly my question, is saying how will we follow up on this and then make sure that we're expanding on it in successive years and being able to also evaluate our success of implementing this curriculum or in our larger school. Any thoughts on?
[Campbell]: Next steps, I would say we need to identify the teachers who will be conducting the pilot. And then there needs to be work that's done with that professional learning group so that we will be talking with that committee to find out what is appropriate at that grade level. to be targeting, what is already present in the curricula for that gray level that could be tied to this disability awareness course so that we will be kind of doing that work hand in hand with the teachers. I think that they are the experts in knowing what it is that they are already teaching. you know, what books they use or what books they might want to substitute in or out and, you know, collaborating as well with the content teachers. If there's a teacher who feels like they really wanted to target this through some of the social studies curricula, then we could do that. If it's somebody who feels that they really want to target it through ELA, we could do that, but we need to pull in the appropriate directors to make sure that they're also on board. So I think that I can't really lay out exactly the plan because I think that what we need to do is get the pilot going and have that be a professional learning community where we're really working on that work together with the educators.
[Van der Kloot]: How many teachers are you thinking in terms of the pilot?
[Campbell]: So I think that we will see how many people volunteer. And I'm I would like to aim big. I mean, if we end up with three different grade levels that we can try at once, I'm open to that. As long as we have the staff who are willing and able to do that work, I'm there to support them.
[Van der Kloot]: Okay, I would think that it makes sense for this topic, again, that we touch back on it, either at the end of the year or definitely at the very beginning of next year, so we can see what happened and where we are. Does that seem, the pilot program was listed in the original presentation, was that from March to May?
[Campbell]: It was, so I feel like having a report for you in June makes sense.
[Van der Kloot]: Okay, that would be great. So we can either add it on, perhaps, to our topics. We do know how crazy June gets, but I think that we need to circle back to it. Alex?
[Alexandra Lauric]: Yeah, another idea, I guess. I know that in the summer 2019, I think, Susana, you had a grant and you had the adaptive books initiative, right, where teachers worked on that project. So I was wondering if it's possible, maybe again over the summer, some teachers that are interested and are more natural, like attracted to this subject, to maybe work on something like this and use the summer to create more units and lesson plans, similar to the one that you share, and maybe the school committee can help with that.
[Campbell]: The adapted book workshop that took place over that summer was a ton of fun. We created lots of different books at all different levels that were accessible to different students. And we still are using many of those books, but I think that that does overlap nicely, Alex, because you can look at what are the materials the teachers are using, and then what adaptations do we need to make to make those materials accessible? for different students. So I think that that's a really good idea. I don't know where we are in terms of, you know, grant funding for that, but it's certainly something that I can look into for you.
[Van der Kloot]: As you say that, it also jogs me to be thinking that there are budget implications because we want to make sure that if there are particular books or units that people are excited about presenting, that they have the books or materials that they need. So doing this prior to budget so that we were knowledgeable about what we would need would be particularly good.
[Ruseau]: Paulette?
[Van der Kloot]: Yes, Paul.
[Ruseau]: All right, thank you. I just wanted to make sure that we do pay special attention to funding. I just want to make sure we don't slide back into thinking PTOs are an actual way to fund anything. They are not. They're a source of dramatic inequality. And any ideas of relying on the PTOs to fund anything should be rejected outright. If we're not going to put it in the budget, then we are not supporting it. period, end of sentence. So I obviously very much wanna do all this, but I wanna make sure when we say we wanna do this, that we're not just relying on parents that can afford to make donations to their school's PTO, which is not all parents and not all schools. Thank you.
[Van der Kloot]: Yes, Melanie.
[McLaughlin]: Right, I appreciate that. I just want to say from a parent perspective as well from member Rousseau about not all schools have that benefit. And that's true, which is why those funds particularly were used for from one PTO, one school PTO, the Brooks PTO, but they benefited the entire community because they were provided to all of the schools, the adaptive books. So I think to that point, I think that's a really important point. Um some schools as we know, or have much more funding and much more access to funds than others. And so if we're thinking about how we're providing, um. Anything to our community. We should be thinking about how we're providing it to all of our schools. And I just had to add that as well, because I think that is a really important point. And I can
[Ruseau]: I completely agree and understand that sharing has happened and that's wonderful. But I will say that the school committee really can't pass a policy to do something that will depend on donations happening or not happening. Therefore, we really aren't supporting it if we aren't backing it up with a line item in the budget. We can say we're supporting it, we can campaign on supporting it. We are absolutely black and white not supporting it if it's not actually something we budget for.
[Van der Kloot]: Okay, so Jenny, would you like to make a motion that the school committee curriculum subcommittee receive a reconvene in June or prior to budget so that we can get an update and we can see what funding might be necessary to continue this work? Yeah, sure.
[Graham]: I would like to make that motion.
[Van der Kloot]: Great. And I'll second it.
[Graham]: But I particularly want to make sure that what those budgetary considerations are come to us long before June. So perhaps there's a way for us to have the motion say that as part of the budget request that comes to us from, maybe it's the special education budget, that there will be a line item ask in your request to cover the work that we talked about. I can do that.
[Van der Kloot]: Okay, that's great. Jenny, will you call the roll?
[Graham]: Sure. Member Van der Kloot?
[Van der Kloot]: Yes.
[Graham]: Member Graham? Yes. Member Mustone is absent.
[Van der Kloot]: Okay, so
[Graham]: Two affirmative, one absent, motion passes.
[Van der Kloot]: Great. Now, I think that we've really covered it. First, thank you, Alex and Tanya. Is there anything else that either of you would like to add?
[Tanya Sullivan]: No, just to say thank you to everyone for you know, helping us make this come to fruition, hopefully, whether it be through a pilot and we grow it naturally that way. But we would just really appreciate the opportunity to present this to you today.
[Van der Kloot]: Thank you. And thank you. Thank you. Thank you to both of you and to the work of the PAC over not just this year, but for many years. And that includes Melanie, too. Thank you. I'm just want to remind her we have a meeting in December off the top of my head. I'm going to say it's December 11 December 10, I believe, 10, so it's a 10 so close. Okay. And I think we were going to look at addicts. Okay. Great. So we're looking at mathematics in December. We will again continue to let everybody here know. So now this may be unprecedented, but, and Melanie, I know that you've had maybe a slightly shorter meeting, but I am going to ask whether we have a motion to adjourn.
[Graham]: Motion to adjourn.
[Van der Kloot]: That means that we have actually accomplished something we have yet to accomplish. We are having a shorter meeting than called for. And that's because everybody was so well prepared. Thank you so very much.
[Tanya Sullivan]: Thank you. Thank you.
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