2020-06-22 School Committee Minutes

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Mr.Wise moved,seconded by Mrs. Nazzaro,to approve the consent aeenda as amended. The roll call vote carried 5-0.Mr.Parks,Mr.Wise,Mrs.Nazzaro,Mrs. Gaffen.and Mr. Robinson. C. Reports Director of Student Services Dr. Stys began by thanking Allison Wright who is organizing the ESY program and Kelly DiCato and Leander Corman who are helping to call for transportation. We have sent letters to families explaining we are starting remotely and then will begin in-person services with students in sub separate programs who have not accessed services remotely. We will try to increase services as the summer progresses based on the state recommendation and student/staff progress. We are still waiting for guidance from the state before 7/6. Mary Giuliana is doing training for the staff. However,we are waiting for DPH to train the nurses. Therefore, Mrs. Giuliana will be updating staff training when the guidance comes out. Thank you to Joe Huggins,Gail Dowd and Mary Giuliana for partnering with us through this process. For the first group of students doing live sessions,the first week the teachers will be teaching from the class wearing PPE to expose the students to the new process. Allison will be reaching out to the families with exact schedules. The district is sponsoring a Training with Dr. Orkin's company Crafting Minds. This ties into the reading assessments I spoke about 2 weeks ago. Thank you for Dr. Doherty and Mrs. Dowd for helping us secure the funding. The course is called Investigating Reading Difficulties: Using Assessment to Inform Instructional Planning. There are almost 30 staff participating from general education and special education including Chris Kelley, Allison Wright, the reading specialists, the team chairs and school psychologists. The class addresses: how the reading circuit is developed; using assessment to understand students' strengths and weaknesses in reading—this includes—cognitive contributors to reading achievement and subtypes of reading impairments—phonological,working memory, rapid naming, oral language; Essential Components of Reading Instruction: Phonological Awareness and Phonics, Fluency, and Text comprehension and vocabulary. We are working through this training to create a continuum of assessment for general education and special education in reading. The assessment battery will contain Foundational Skills, Single Words and Connected Text and the Reading Achievement Domains of Skills will include Accuracy, Automaticity and Oral Language. This training is 9 total hours. Chief Financial Officer No report Assistant Superintendent No report Page 12