okay the hour of 7 o'clock having arrived call PR rham school committee meeting to order um I'd just like to remind everyone we are uh live on V Facebook channel it's being taped uh for later broadcast whenever you'd like to see it um and we are going to uh go right into the Pledge of Allegiance and if we could remain standing after the pledge of allegiance to remember those we've lost thank you I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay so let's introduce folks here on my left is Mr D Marino Mrs Martelli Miss Conrad labero on my right Miss shs Miss King Mr Lo Miss Mainville Miss Davenport the superintendent various administrators in the audience and myself uh Tim Fitz G so welcome all uh per school committee policy we will open up the floor for 12 minutes uh for public comment if you go beyond three minutes we're going to ask you to step back and submit any other comments to Mr is there anyone here for public comment going once going twice no one here for public comment all right before we move into correspondence and recognition I would take a motion to take um item 7c out of order which is the be our Regional School District audit presentation our auditor uh M Renee Davis is here from maram LP and uh we just want to make sure she gets in and out uh as needed so is there a motion made by Mr King second by Mr de Marino any discussion all those in favor opposed it's unanimous Miss maram welcome up thank you for coming we appreciate it thank you thank you um I mean Mr pavis you come from Mar I would correct you Renee Davis with Mark with Markham I'm the audit partner on the engagement and a little bit to open up about that is when we did the engagement um most of our audit work was done under powers and Sullivan so previously powers and Sullivan we actually mered no relation to the superintendent there's a lot of um we merged with Markham on February 1st so your actually your audit reports if you look at them are under powers in Sullivan I'm introducing myself under Markham next year we'll be under markh um so firm same doing the same thing 100% of our firm just merged into a larger firm Not Unusual in the environment of area and what I'd like to do tonight is to talk a little bit about the results of the audit explain a little bit about what an audit is and isn't and I got a couple of questions ahead of time so I want to make sure we have time to address those questions so the audit your independent audit of your financial statements every year we have to come in and we sort of start in I'm going to say the spring before you even end the the fiscal year doing a risk assessment we talk to your staff and look at your controls your internal controls and the way you process things the way you come up with your budget balance your budget collect receipts make sure they get deposited correctly and manage your spending to make sure things are being approved properly and things are being charged to the correct accounts and that you have controls to reconcile the cash that's in the banks any receivables making com in and making sure you're not overspending or managing the budget in accordance with the votes so we do an assessment in the springtime we do some tests of those internal controls so after we do our risk assessment we test the internal controls a big focus of the audit is also your federal spending right your federal expenditures and we have to do a program assessment on your federal expenditures and do some federal compliance testing on what we deem to be the most significant or major programs so all that happens while you're still working during the fisal year we then go away for a couple of months and come back after the end of the fiscal year to test the final financial statements now part of that process is we come in and we get your records right you send us your trial balances you send us your cash accounts and your bank reconciliations we assist the district with putting together the financial statements um just to clarify they're not our fin stat they're yours um management think it's a draft so we get all the information from you we send you a draft of your reports and management is responsible for reviewing those draft reports and coming back with changes or things that they don't agree with or don't understand and really a big focus of the audit is making sure that management does understand the information that's in those financial statements and we get a representation letter back saying yes we agree and once we're done with all of our audit work and we have enough audit evidence that we're comfortable with numbers and you've signed a representation letter the report gets finalized we were finalized I think February this year with the year so it's almost it almost becomes a year round process we also help with um we help with the end calculation you'll notice your audit does not include it's not an audit of and and is something that goes through the state that is your available fund balance that's C every year but we do help with that process so we're add doing some non audit services but just to recognize that the goal of the audit is to make sure your financial statements are properly stated so part of that and part of a risk assessment is looking at things of course that are the big numbers right we're not here looking at every transaction we're not looking at maybe little transactions we're looking at your processes and your controls and um you'll notice if you your final and some of the big things in those are the P the net pension liability the oped liability which is your health insurance liability that you're going to pay to retirees so those are one time things they're not you have to pay your pension assessment every year and you have to pay for health insurance for retirees but as far as booking that big liability it's not something that you do every day um Capital assets same thing it's something that management puts together at the end of the year just for the a not something that you're doing as part of your day-to-day operations so there's a big focus on how those numbers go into your financial statements um to be able to do that we work with your actuaries with your um with your retirement system with your actuaries to make sure we understand the information that they're getting from you and what they're using for those liabilities and that those liabilities and the disclosures in your financial statements are accurate um a big part of your report big part of the footnotes a big liability and a big part of the supplemental schedules all relates to those pension and opad liabilities they sort of walk in talk similarly um you have with your pension system you have an obligation to be prefunding that over for a period of time with opep there's not a similar legal obligation you have opted to start funding it um you've been putting in so $10,000 a year it's not a lot of money compared to the big liability but you do have a so that you have started to um another part of it that we focus on of course your controls your budget so your general fund budget right you approve a budget every year you get budgetary reports to see how that budget is working and of course the results of that budget what you collect in Revenue that's unbudgeted or what you turn back in expenditures all lead down to your end or your available fund balance that you can then use in the future foring the money that you have in your savings account if you will so there's a focus to make sure that you have controls to report things accurately And Timely and that things are being approved in a regular course of of business um one of the things that we had noted in the audit I think somebody this was one of the questions that was brought up is there a few minor things that were overextended it's a big it's a big budget 99.9% of it was was dead- on and there were a few lines that were overex um they've already put controls in place to make sure that doesn't happen again in the future um some of the questions that sort of came up about this related to what can you tell us about how we're how are we doing and are there risk areas what um is there a guarantee of how we're going to do in the future well I don't have a crystal ball um so I can't guarantee future success what I will say is that you do have controls in place so when we come in um management is cooperative with when we ask for information it's provided to us we have um we receive things time we receive things timely during the audit on schedule and I even think that you know we've had some turnover a couple years ago I think the new staff has really you know stepped up and said what do you need let's get on let's get on a good schedule to get this done as timely as we can um so I think there's definitely been improvements there and um whenever we bring things up things come up dayto day during the a you know minor minor issues and management really takes those um takes those to heart and corrects them as we're bringing them up so of course it's after that and audit is um right now we're talking about the audit for the year ended June 30th 23 so we're into June of 24 now before you know it we're going to be auditing your 24 books so an audited is always looking at what happened in the past to tell you you know it's not a prediction of the future telling you St as presented are accurate based on the results of the tests that we did um your how you're going to do in the future really depends on you but you do have controls in place and the things you want to look at going forward um you know how much of your open liability are you funding or do you want to F that's a real liability that you are going to be obligated to P in the future do you have um conservative budgeting right so any if you start going to um tight with your Revenue budget if you're really you know budgeting because you need to have your expenditures in place you get too strict with your Revenue budget you may find yourself in a situation where isn't what you thought it was before right now it's been fine you actually have really good turn backs last year and your Revenue um you collected more than you budgeted a lot of that was because you had a lot of cash on hand you had some um tool building going on so maybe an unusual amount of cash on hand an interest rates will really so that really led into your end last year your expenditures are are pretty on like you do turn back money it's not excessive so it looks like you have a good process for your expenditure budget um Debt Service of course with a new school coming online your debt service goes up a a little bit more it is not out of line with normal so looking at your fixed cost in the future you know health insurance is sort of unpredictable a little bit but anything related to um keep you a Debt Service you don't want that to be too much of your budget because that could constrain you and what we can do with other other areas ofation but overall can I stop you for one second if the debt service has a prop two and a half debt exclusion it does it matter that much at that point no because you're you're right so you're assess you're assessing the communities and if you can still increase their regular assessments because that's out of out of the window for that then you're agre um and the other you know big part of it I mentioned was so um was the single I'm call the single a of your testing of federal grants we had no findings related to that so special education was tested along with one of the covid programs just Co specific we do specific compliance testing making sure that you're not only charging things correctly that you procured them correctly that you are reporting to the federal government correctly And Timely all of that compliance testing that's required by the federal government went through without any anything imp particular you want me to go through on the financial statement um so did you address all the questions you have let me make sure that I did no one there's one other one um so I'll give you I'll give you the questions were there any areas that worked really well or things that could be appr improved I talked about that the audit goes very very smoothly we get full cooperation ask for more as far as that goes whenever something and there has been nothing of significance that's come up but whenever something that is not significant comes up and we discuss it they act they act on that um one of the comments that that did come up during the audit and it's in the disclosures and the footnotes was uninsured Bank uninsured bank accounts that's been something that has come to highlight over the past couple of years because we had a couple of bank failures feel like we had this note in for a long time and nobody really paid much attention but now people do uh what happens with that you have a lot of cash on hand at any given time and the treasurer um puts that in various different bank account accounts right so it goes to different bank accounts and you have an investment policy that's going to limit your risk so it will limit how much money has to be covered by insurance and how much money is just in the bank that may not be insured um part of what you want to assess with that is what banks you have money so at the end of the year about 50% of the deposits that you had were uninsured um which is outside of your your range of what you consider in your investment policy it's not really outside what I see in other places but it's outside of your policy so it's disclosed in your notes we brought it up during the audit and management has already taken action to make sure that you are now in a sweep situation so when you have money in any One Bank anything over $250,000 is not covered by FDIC or the federal government some banks you can get collateralization agreements some have Massachusetts state dif insurance that covers above that and you had two banks in particular that did not have either of those so they're listed as uninsured uncollateralized and what they've done subsequent to year and we brought it up during the audit was now that money is in sweep account so it actually gets swept out overnight to account so we don't see that as a problem going forward it brought out during the audit and it was disclosed that was another question that came in um talking about internal controls again we had no issue with the testing of internal controls you have a good warrant process things are being approved things are charged correctly um we do make a number of adust I'm call audit adjustments your books and records are kept on the state system so they're kept on a budgetary basis of accting yearend ad are required to bring you up to Gap what we call Gap accounting or full approval accounting so we bring on your opab your pension your fixed assets your debt all of that your entry through journal entries but all of the information comes right from to's office right from um your finance office so we're not making corrections as we go through we're helping to thank you and that was the end of the um pres submitted questions I I think I pretty much covered all of them um any problems or things that could make it hard for us in the future I mentioned that right you want to make sure that you have a good use of dend right you want to make sure that you have adequate reserves you certainly do right now um conservative budgeting making sure that your fixed costs are I'm going to say not out of control but that you have them if fixed costs are going to be de that they're de excluded so they're not impacting your ability to to you know to hire teachers and things like that be able to continue operating and having a good Capital plan in place again going through a good school construction project we saw no issues with the project that I think that covers them all thank you are you open to have a couple questions from the committee on this side um I just wanted to confirm that in addition to that audited report that there was an internal controls report that was provided to the district there was it's it's a report on federal award program that's the um the single what we call the single audit report there were two reports issued one was the basic financial statements the other was the report on federal Awards and the first opinion in that is the report on internal controls over financial report okay on this side anything from anyone okay well Miss Davis thank you so much for the report and it's nice to hear that we're doing things mostly the right way Auditors always have to find something so you know we wouldn't pay otherwise thank you thank you for coming in appreciate it all right moving back to uh the agenda correspondence and recognition student advisory councel Miss k um so this is as we know in the past um this will be the student advisory Council for this year their last report out um at the school year we do have two seniors gradu um and then they will back up um with two new members plus the three current members um in the fall um so last we're G have and then I will have some final as good evening everyone um this was orig WR for the meeting last month April on the 25th the 26th and the 27th the rainwater players put on their original musical to the light written by VR Al Mike and it was a fun experience for the cast and really moved the audience moving on from rainwater the VR Junior Prom recently took place on Friday May 10th the venue was located in Westport wh of Westport and the students enjoyed it very much the theme was star night with blue silver and and white being used as colors for the photo Boo and center pieces on the tabl all different colors and P dresses and suits were worn making it a very fashionable night teachers and staff and attendant also made the prom very fun and made for a positive experience the prom court consisted of six Juniors Cory kahill Evan BR fabiio gersy Caleb trip Drew B committee advisory board's very own virtual Cory lastly I would like to thank our two seniors Nolan Barb Nolan Barbor and jny for a wonderful year on The Advisory Board and I wish both of them the best of luck on their future ende and we will miss you so much I would now like to welome Rachel good evening school committee as you probably heard recently to the international Deca competition in Anaheim California this was an amazing trip where I met Deca members from across the world I also heard the story of keynote speaker Kido o and a former Deca member from Toronto who is now a global product L manager in special projects for the Jordan brand at Nike World Headquarters in Oregon after his speech I also saw a Deca ICDC performance by the Jabba walkies which was just incredible also as I returned at the start of there has one of br's adjustment counselors to promote the significance of May as mental health awareness month Mr Suarez organized three presentations including guest speakers um that all students were allowed to attend these presentations along with similar schoolwide announcements promoted the ideas of meditation healthy relationships coping strategies and how to handle stress and anxiety also students from Mr Palmer's journalism class worked with the student um School adjustment counselors to create posters flyers and visuals to promote mental health related and resources that were posted around the school the adjustment counselors and Miss pal Marini's class hope to continue with these events throughout the rest of the month which was night um thank you for a great year on the school committee and I wish Nolan and Danny a great summer and transition into college I now welcome good evening school committee and Bringers on Tuesday May 21st we are held an AC teachers and coaches had the opportunity to nominate students who stood out in different ways to receive a variety of awards on top of those Awards they also recognized students in the principal Club UB of sports for the top students in each grade and then on May 3rd bu also H AAL Bingo night students teachers families and friends were all invited to play Bingo and even earn some candy prizes pizza was donated to a few that that and I wish to um sorry I wish to congratulate Danny and and hope that they have a good transition into college and then I welcome good evening everyone uh before I talk about my little blurp I just kind of like to thank uh the school committee and Mrs curly for giving me this opportunity to um not only present things that are kind of going on in our school but kind of also work on my own public speaking skills because as high school it's kind of n get not talking to people um so yeah as an adult it's hard to so um I'm just very thankful for this opportunity and couldn't be more grateful um on Wednesday May 15th the National Honor Society hosted a field day including the class of 2024 2025 and both the Bridgewater and rham Middle School National Honor societies this was the first ever collaboration between the high school and middle school chapters we hosted number of that tested both our mental and physical abilities in both a competitive and and fun way to celebrate um all the hard work that we've done over the school year event was a huge success and hopefully become an annual tradition before both all groups can collaborate together I'd now like to welcome Danny good evening on May 6th the student committee Advisory Board had the wonderful opportunity to attend the massach Association of school committees stay on the hill after arriving in Boston we had the opportunity to hear from speakers from our very own massachusett House of Representatives the director of desie as well as the vice and president of the association of school committees after hearing their inspirational speeches about their Visions for education and how we can help them achieve their goal we took a few steps over to the Capitol Building there we met with Senator William Timothy who not only assured us that education was on the top of his list but also gave a private tour of the Senate where we even got to sit in their seats this was not only a fun trip but also gave us an interesting perspective on what's going on with the people upstairs and showed us how we can help today and in the future I also have something written down for the past three years I've had the privilege and pleasure of speaking in front of you each month I'm sorry not only has this experience giving me stronger public speaking skills but I connect to the community that only a few get the opportunity to have sorry that's [Music] okay although it seems like yesterday I was here as a sophomore promising to use this opportunity as a stepping stone for my future this has become a foundation not just a stone I would like to thank Miss curly and Miss King for not only integrating us into this committee for taking a valid interest into our personal and academic lives I cannot thank you enough for these past three years and although this will be my last time speaking as a student chair I hope to be back I will be back thank you [Applause] now I'm going to start crying good evening everyone as this advisory council's last meeting of the school year I would like to also acknowledge their their advisor Mrs Kathleen um I have worked in Miss curly these past two years and she really just goes above and beyond with morning meetings attending school committee meetings with them communicating with the students and myself thinking of ways for them to do Outreach in the community and their school Community better benit their mission and going on field trips I appreciate everything she does and I know they do as well so thank you so much thank you I also want to acknowledge our student advisory members Quinn Dy Rachel Corey and Sophia King for your monthly reports at school committee meetings and I also want to thank you for your commitment to the student advisory Council and attending these morning meetings at school committee meetings I'm in every month when you confidently give your report public speaking is something that many of us still work on and struggle with but it's so important in many aspects of your lives so thank you for being here and your commitment to the student advisory Council and your school as a whole I look forward to working with you again in the next can I have Quinn I would also like to say a few words to celebrate our two seniors on the student advisory Council as this is their last meeting after graduation was they're here after graduation Noah bar has been on a student ad counc for two years and has served as co-chair this year with Miss jobs this year he was president of the National Honor Society captain of the lacrosse team and played bars ball in addition to graduating in the top of his class he also takes part in student leadership program at VR Mr bar heading to Boston College to study biochemistry in [Applause] Danny shs has been on the student advisory Council for three years and has served as co-chair this year with Mr B she was co- captain of the debate team a member of the drama club onj robotics team National Honor Society and ybert Club Miss sh will be heading to Bryant University to St to study business management and D on the hill she did say she will be there someday and I totally agree I'm in awe of your confidence and Poise at this young age so I know you're going do amazing I just want to congratulate them as they had often graduate and go to college in the fall I've worked with them for the past two years and again public speaking and getting involved in your community is something we really want to Foster in young people because St at such a young age now then it will only grow from there so I am so proud of all of you so thank you and congratulations [Applause] thank you so we we may be having a meeting in July and uh you know you're welcome to go back like I think the uh superintendent would like to say a few words I I just wanted to say thank you um I I know many of you shared tonight your reasons for mebe getting involved in this but what you may not realize is the leadership qualities and and characteristics that you display by getting up here each and every month it's not easy as you know as Mrs King has shared but the fact that you commit to it you've committed to some of you multiple years doing this uh really just it speaks a lot about you and and the potential that you all have I think the other thing that I just want to say thank you you come up here each month and you know I have the the privilege of being in your school every day and in all of our schools but you come up here each month and and share some of the kind of behind the scenes awesome things that happen in our schools and many of our committee members attend all the events to speak about uh but there's many members of of the public that can't get in there uh all the time and so you provide that opportunity for the public to really hear about all the amazing things that you do as kids that our staff does as teachers and so I just want to say thank you and uh obviously Nolan and Danny this is not the last time we'll see you uh but certainly you're always part of Red Nation we hope to see you soon uh and don't be strangers and Miss curly and the rest of the team thank you so much and look forward to to seeing you in the future thank you all very much I think I speak for the scho I'm saying congratulations great job we look forward to the uh the uh returning members coming back next next fall thank moving on um Teacher Appreciation Week Nurses Week Mr Po yes thank you Mr chairman I I just wanted to provide a a quick acknowledgement and update on some of the happening it's hard to believe our last meeting was actually back in in April so a lot has happened in our district uh one of those two major Milestones being that of uh national teacher appreciation week and and National School nurses week and day as well uh that first week in May so we haven't had a chance since then to acknowledge them at at the school committee meeting I know Miss Gren and our nurse leader is here uh and miss m from our um I'm Sorry Miss L from our no M I had it right I had it right from our faculty is uh here as well so it it just it's you know we appreciate everything our staff does on a daily basis but it's nice that they actually set aside a a month and designated day for them throughout the school year uh it's certainly not enough but it's uh at least something to acknowledge that so that's how we started the month off uh certainly you've heard a lot about uh the month of May and all the different activities that have gone on for our students not just our high school students but across the district a lot of end of the year activities uh but most importantly obviously we've we've held three recent graduations I know some of you were able to attend those so thank you uh the first was our Excel evening program where we had five students uh graduate uh if you've had the opportunity to attend those you really know what a special event that is that's an opportunity for our students who uh may not have uh you know taken the traditional path to graduation have had to face some life challenges and obstacles and so they really show their true great determination and perseverance and we so proud of them uh following that was the therapeutic Day program our therapeutic Day School graduation um again similar uh similar type of paths that some of our students have to take so we graduated three students um in that program we're so proud of them um you know they have uh life plans which is great uh one is heading over to Bridgewater State another is going to uh trade school and one is hoping to get into uh cosmetology school so we're very very proud of those students and then certainly uh this past Friday night uh we graduated uh nearly 300 students from high school um it was a perfect evening we had great WEA uh the event went so smooth this wat and her team do an amazing job organizing that um you know if you were there you can certainly attest to that how how great the evening was and so I just want to congratulate all of our students that graduated uh but leading up to graduation you heard our students talk about we had the National Honor Society induction uh we held our multilingual Awards night for our students that are English language Learners and their families uh we also had um uh the academic and sports award night that of our stud talked about so again it it really just it it just highlights some of the the awesome things that happen around our district I also want to acknowledge and maybe noan didn't want to share this you notice Nolan's hair was uh slightly different color this evening uh the uh boys lacrosse team has actually made the state playoffs and so they actually W most of the team Dy their hair something a sheet of yellow um but they actually won their first round game uh on Sunday so a little Advance uh the girl lacrosse team won their first game on Saturday the first round of the playoffs they're actually playing this evening so hopefully we get some updates and also the softball team won this weekend as well so they're advancing so I just wanted to congratulate those student athletes and we actually had many of our students I think we had three or four students today um speak at the uh Bridgewater Town P flag raising ceremony on the common so again we're always proud so proud of our students when we get up and and speak in public and represent the school uh and I did want to just take because it has been such a ific amount of time uh just to I know Mr Fitz K started our meeting with a moment of silence but I didn't want to just acknowledge the the passing of of Mr Jack Powers he was a High School faculty member I know you're were aware of this uh but again we haven't necessarily been able to public publicly acknowledge in in this form um Mr parz was a a member of the faculty in the social studies Department um I think what really spoke to me about Mr Powers and and the impact he had was the outpouring that we saw from students from parents from you know uh colleagues on memory boards that were posted online and just the uh number of Faculty members and students had showed up to his Services as well I think it speaks to the type of person he was and the impact he had so I just wanted to take a moment to to acknowledge his passing as well much much Beyond appreciation yes thank you uh school committee correspond the school committee should have received an email from Mrs McDougall earlier today with a suggestion on how I'd like to approach um reporting out on on issues Kudos etc for received by any of the members of the school committee hopefully we can make that work we're going to punt the uh committee correspondence till next week when we have our regular scheduled meeting uh to see if we can make that work and uh there was nothing uh so it had to be brought up tonight um all right moving on to secretary clerk resignation uh during our reorganization uh we elected Miss mville to be the uh secretary Clerk of the committee that's what happens when you don't show up to meetings Miss Mainville I'm just kidding but she has she has decided that she'd like to step down from that role which is certainly um her her prerogative and and we thank her for the her brief important service on on on the committee and therefore we're going to roll right into uh letter e nomination and vote to fill secretary uh clerk position so I'll open the floor for nominations and I'll make a nomination of Mr de Marino for secretary clerk are there any there is there a second second by m um Davenport is there another nomination to be made seeing none all those in favor of Mr uh Maro uh taking over secretary duties uh signifi by saying I opposed it's unanimous thank you thank you Mr de Marino for um being volunt told by your committee all right uh we're moving on to consent agenda which is approval of minutes from past meetings approval of general ledger warrants uh school committee meeting schedule uh fy2 payroll and warrant schedule uh and acceptance of gifts and we do want to um we do want to acknowledge these I think town of Bridgewater grant for the rainwater players and the sum of uh $22,000 French horn uh donated to brhs music department by AK musar Mar um which is awesome um 8480 of parent donations to the class of 2026 another $455 parent donation to the class of 2026 and another $500 donation to the class of 2026 so the class of 26 uh congratulations you're making out tonight um is there a motion to approve the consent second okay all in favor unanimous thank you um Mrs King did we cover uh student advisory Council already okay uh moving on we are going up to the report of the superintendent Mr Powers and he's going y he's going to uh give us his self evaluation and any other things that are on his mind that he didn't tell us under the uh last few minutes uh would you like me to turn this a little bit thank you Mr chairman men of the school committee um I do have several items under the uh superintendent's report uh the first uh being an easy one uh EF Tours is a uh International or national an international tour company that organizes uh school trips uh again they could travel across our our great country or they could certainly go overseas to a foreign country uh EF Tours has in the past organized trips within the district um these are not school sponsored so it's not involving um anything that has to do with our policies procedures this is simply an outside organization wanting to offer a tour so uh they have reached out to the high school about um you know potentially scheduling a tour for future years obviously there's a lot of behind the scenes that has to go into that there's informational uh nights that have to happen there's obviously have to do some interest Gathering to see if this a commitment if you remember um I believe I know it was before um EF Tours ran tour here at middle school I think it went to Italy JY I think that's where it was um and again not uh not school sponsored um obviously we have some policies on overnight on travel that are School sanctioned but these are outside of that um and so they do afford an opportunity for our students to attend uh and sometimes they do ask some of our faculty and staff to chaperon those trips as well as well as parents just because of the familiar so I just wanted to one provide you that information action is needed on that but just in case you see U you know some information being disseminated out to the community U again those are not school spons but then those are through thef um I I did want to give you an update on the fy2 budget as well as go for my evidence for the superintendent's evaluation I know many of you have uh seen some of this information especially if you've been to bu of sub of course now a little disadvantage to know what slides up but I will I'll follow along with my my here okay so again this is information that has all been shared with you and with the public over the last uh almost six months going back to our January uh preliminary budget presentation uh some of this information has just simply been updated so for example at that time we didn't necessarily know our 4 25 numbers um I actually believe that day of the uh preliminary presentation we received our preliminary Chapter 70 so this has just uh been updated with what we received for our state funding so again you can see there and obviously at that time we didn't necessarily know what the brid r brid r contribution would be but now we do so that this has been updated you can see our budget history again uh these numbers all numbers that should be familiar to you uh again the only initial update there is the fy2 approved column uh I did include what we had initially requested uh requested back in January compared to what was actually approved uh based on state funding and the funding from both communities and you can see that I also did include a difference from FY 24 to fy2 and again in many categories uh we actually saw a reduction and certainly in the categories we increase or significant increases we have talked about what some of those cost drivers are but I will also review that this evening for you so you can see here obviously where we kind of compare our uh increase to State funding increase to local uh from local contributions from the towns versus what our cost drivers are we've talked about that obviously we have some contractual obligations that we had to fulfill uh we entered into negotiations with three of our unions uh this year and so fulfilling those um obligations that we agreed upon and we actually have one Union that we're still negotiated with so these numbers will you know change slightly which I'll share at the end uh Transportation increase uh health insurance increase uh special ed tuition cost increase and obviously increase in utilities as Miss babalola has shared with you um obviously our contracts with some of our utility vendors have expired and so uh you voted to you ENT into cont with some new contracts but obviously those prices have increased so we're anticipating that so as you know we were faced with roughly a $3.5 million uh shortfall based on what we're going to get from funding versus what our cost drivers were going to be and as I shared again I've shared this with you in the past uh we worked internally uh to decrease that amount to make up that difference uh we obviously cut supplies and materials uh we increased our local contributions so as we've already shared we took additional money out of end uh we did use funds from school choice we did use funds from uh tuition in uh program so if a student is attending outside of bridgew rham and they may actually attend one of our in District special education programs were able to charge them tuition to do that and so that money uh that revolving account had uh grown uh you know up in numbers and so we're able to take some funding from there obviously when we have some retirements and we're able to fill those we have anticipated what we refer to as leave uh I'm sorry we refer to as breakage uh so the savings if we someone retires at 100,000 we hire somebody at 75 obviously the savings there at 25 so looking at potential retirements and then obviously uh any type of Staffing reduction resignation retirements leaves we're able to uh bring that number up to about 1.6 and then obviously increase our circuit breaker um so when we went through that exercise we were were pretty close uh we were about $800 um away from actually making that number up and then from there uh we had some additional drivers uh that came to light uh ones that we knew were potentially going to uh you know we were going to be faced with uh but were not originally included in the budget because the budget was being uh you know projected so tight that we weren't able to account for all these initially so that being the case we had to make up for these additional cost drivers again working with a number that was approved by both town school so as you know those are additional cost drivers as I just mentioned we just settled with our V for ran Education Association uh Unit A which encompasses our certified staff and Unit B which is our um esps or education support professionals um as I mentioned we're currently negotiating with one of our as unions uh secretaries uh we're looking at a potential cost of about a million dollars now I say potential because obviously with any of uh you know contractual obligations there are um some unknowns and some potentials for example when we look at um the number of individuals that may take a leave and the cost associated with that high substitute we don't necessarily know next year how many individuals are actually going to take that LE so we have to go based on past Trends and use estimates uh but I can go over uh the ones that we definitively know uh the cost of living adjustments uh we did uh the teachers um thankfully and graciously took a um 0% cost of living increase for the majority of those on the salary scale uh just uh two steps on the salary scale step 14 and step 20 because they actually do not move a step um were given a 1% cost of living adjustment but all other uh members received a 0% cost of living adjustment there was still some movement on the steps and so when you see uh you know back of slide or two drivers having to pay for step increases so there was an increase in in salary between steps however uh typically what happens is if you're familiar you not only move a step but you also get a cost of living increase uh thankfully our our teachers union agreed uh for the year uh not to take any possibility increas so that saved us a significant amount of money uh so thank you to them uh we obviously have some uh cost of living um adjustments that we had to make to um stiens in the back of the contract uh that hadn't been changed in years at least I think 15 to 20 and that would be the coaching stiens extracurricular stiens some of our department had stiens and the such so that was a little over $6,000 uh there was an incentive in the contract um that was agreed upon for a sickly retirement and again when we look at uh estimating the number of um employees that may take advantage of that we had to estim based on how many people typically retire in a given year um so we looked at what that potentially May cost that was uh about $83,000 now there was a deadline for them to notify the district um Ste and I sat down Friday afternoon we have to kind of regroup because the the deadline was over the weekend so we haven't had a chance to to reconnect to see if any last minute ones came in uh but that number uh as of Friday afternoon was closer to $50,000 so already we have a $33,000 savings uh there that uh you we can apply to teaching positions uh parental leave again where does this cost come from this is uh you know providing uh the additional cost of substitute teachers um teachers are obviously entitled to leave of abses now however uh if a teacher was to extend a leave uh for um you know for whatever reason if it's a maternity leave or could be other Le related a lot of times those leaves when they get extended are unpaid and so uh we saving the cost of the teacher salary uh obviously we're able to you know hire a substitute teacher but the cost of the sub is really U you know negated because of the savings from the teacher uh the new parental leave that was agreed upon as you know as as you approve this um it does allow the teacher or staff member to use um their own time and so there won't be necessarily that cost savings if those Le are extended because they will still be being un paid leaves now so we'll have uh we won't necessarily have the savings for the substitutes so again you have to go based on how many potential leaves uh and we look at historical data uh to see how many typical leaves happen each year and that's that 91,000 is based upon that number could actually be higher that number could be less uh but when we look at kind of Trends the last few years that's where we basically that upon and then the early retirement incentive as you know there's already ear inen built into the contract but there was some uh language changes for next year uh that uh Chang the age restrictions and who could actually qualify for that um so again we look at who may be eligible for that for next year that cost is $625,000 again an estimate uh but we have to make sure that we account for that money uh now the deadline to notifi notify the District of that is not until the end of the school year um we have feel we a pretty decent handle on um who may be taking advantage of that but we really won't 100% sure know until the end of the year uh but right now we're we're looking at you know not that number uh we're cautiously optimistic um when we looked at Friday again uh you know if they notified us that they were going to take advantage of the sickly uh retirement incentive some also notified us that they were taking advantage of the early retirement incentive so we have a a sense right now that we're just around $300,000 so again there could be you know another savings there um and that maybe be over budgeted we'll know that in a couple weeks hopefully we did but if we uh found ourselves under budgeting we you know certainly be in a in a different situation and then obviously other um collective bargaining Provisions meaning that we are still in negotiations with that third Union as I mentioned so right now we're million plus that we need to make up for uh and obviously we' started to go through that exercise and I've shared this with some of you already um so when we look at um you know positions that we through that first 3.4 that we had um potentially not filled you know we had some Elementary positions uh that we were hoping to fill uh We've now left those unfilled and again this exercise is on paper because as we um start to have funds available we know these may not necessarily be our reality uh we had three Middle School leave of absences uh that we are leaving unfill that we had plan to go ahead Phil uh we've had three additional reductions at the Middle School uh which resulted in four non-renewal letters so as I've shared with the committee we did Issue non Ral letters um unfortunately it's never a great exercise to have to go through and be in that position unfortun do it a number of times throughout my career so I certainly understand the angs and uh uh you know heartache it it causes however U you know we have to make sure that we are covered and that um you know we have taken the proactive steps to make up this deficit instead of kind of waiting to see what happens and then find ourselves uh really in a situation where uh it's now maybe too late to lay individuals off or non-renew individuals and find ourselves in in you know a true budget deficit uh so we had two additional High School positions unfilled we had um uh you know the opportunity for a couple members not to come back next year so there was another savings after that first round but we did have to reduce two additional positions at the high school and that resulted in six non-real letters uh when we look at you know how do those letters get generated we obviously look at areas that we can reduce we then look at higher date and certification so for example uh Miss Haw and I both teach math at the high school level we have the same certification hired on the same date if it's my position my particular position that may be eliminated we are both getting letters nonrenewal letters because again both the same date we both have the same certification uh and so that's basically a domino effect so does it mean that uh you know all six of those positions may not come back no but again we had to take that initial step of not renewing all six and then once funding becomes available we'll be able to rehire some of those individuals and then as I've talked about all along we've had we have had to uh reduce um administrative staff as well so there was already reductions in administration and this was uh one additional um so you can see the savings that I've identified is higher than actual the potential deficit I just want to remind everybody that we are responsible for contributing to unemployment so when we actually start talking about leaving positions unfilled and not renewing individuals uh we really do have to unfortunately um you know non-renew additional staff to cover the cost of of unemployment but again that number will go down as hopefully we're able to bring some of these individuals back if the numbers allow this just gives you an overview of what the impact right now uh again on paper so this is the first Domino this doesn't take into account um central office sitting down with the principles and say okay um you know this class size here this particular grade might be lower can we move a teacher from that grade level um you know same thing at the middle school same thing at the high school uh do you hold multiple certifications where maybe I could move you from you know the ELA Department to social studies department or you might have a math science um certification so I might have to take you from the math department and put you in the science department so that that hasn't happened yet because we're waiting to see exactly who we can bring back um and be higher but this gives you an overview of the impact thus far uh obviously uh when we look at teaching and uh learning our class with positions right now we have 16 um unfilled or eliminated positions because of re time leaves or we've actually had to uh reduce those positions um we did have a reduction of the secretarial Union we had two and a half in the custodial um body as well we were in the process of reducing the proor positions by four and then as I shared with we've eliminated three administrative positions between central office and building based this just gives you an overview again this is what it would look like right now before we actually make any type of movements but these are the positions the positions in red signify that there's been a reduction uh from previous years so for example if you look at uh first grade bridgew water last year we had 10 same thing in second grade we had 10 so I highlighted that to show that it's a reduction from the year prior um you can see the reductions on the rham side as well actually we had seven last year in first grade uh we have two retirees so not filling those positions only but you can see what the impact of that would be we're looking at class size in first grade now in 3032 um is that reasonable is that feasible I think that's the worst case that's if we have no other option um and no other funding sources then that's what we have to do but as money uh funds become available or we have a better sense of who's taking advantage of these incentives we'll actually be able to then say okay we are going to fill um you know the the key positions the priority positions and work our way down so again this is just what it would be on paper not necessarily what the reality would be and I hope to have you know additional information for you on the 12th I'll be able to give you an update then as well and hopefully I don't have to give you an update in July because this is all been settled but certainly might not be able to give you a full update just because some of those due dates AR until after school gets out but as I shared uh during budget sub uh the teaching and learning Department special education and working with business office to try to identify other potential funding sources that we can bring a position or two positions back how can we fund them creatively with some of our grants um obviously you know Sesser 3 is expiring at the end of September we have our title grants so Title One title two title three and title four if there's money left over this year how can we carry that over into next year and we can use some of those funding uh sources to actually fill some of these teaching positions um or can we use say example S 3 that September so we can't necessarily hire a teacher next year using that but is there some purchasing that we could do or something that we could charge to it from next year's budget that now frees up money in that budget for us to be able to bring back one of these teaching positions uh obviously we've been working closely uh with our Union leadership uh around this we really trying to keep them informed every step of the way uh just so that they're aware because this is impacting their members so not just our um vda Partners but our ASP Partners as well um and then obviously you know this is where um you know my responsibility is to prioritize uh those positions that we can bring back it's going to have the greatest impact on the students U while maintaining efficient operations uh you know I I am hesitant about some of the positions that we have uh not filled or plan to eliminate the negative impact that may have um on operations for example uh you know reducing a position in the business office we start talking about payroll and other business functions you know we're going to be having a different if my staff doesn't get paid because we had a uh you know reduction in payroll office but that's you know that's something right now that I have to weigh that's something that I prioritize that you know right now it may be more important to have a person in a classroom versus in the business office um I I know special education as well as taking a hip um secretarial wise in their Department also have great you know big concerns about that as well but when I look at where we can put our priorities it really has to be I actually think Ste I think you said we have to put the our dollars closest to those that are being impact and that's our students or something along those lines uh you usually have some wise words to say uh that I try to replicate when I can but uh certainly uh you know when we look at uh you know other positions we will bring that start to bring back you will see and I've shared this in budgets up you're going to start to see postings for anticipated positions because we know there are certain positions that we have to fill so for example uh we do have some retirees or leave of absences Department we are filling those um you know they provide a a key service to our students you're going to uh you actually have already seen an anticipated opening for two ESL teachers um obviously I've shared with you our English language learner numbers have grown uh quite significantly over the school year uh even before our our new French joined us um those numbers were were growing and so again looking ahead to next year so even though we aren't necessarily uh for these positions that I just reviewed there are other postings that you'll see and then you'll also see these positions as we know funding has become available such as like those title positions that I mentioned we might be able to start posting for you know those first grade positions or second grade positions or I will continue to keep you updated again the information of this presentation is not you SE most of it superintendent on this side M when's the ideal time tost positions um honestly if if things were great we'd probably do it back in in March and April once we know um it's never really too early to start posting um so I I think you know we're probably a little late but we don't want to be posting for empty positions that we know we're not going to fill because you know there are um strong candidates out there and then we can deliver on that so we know we also have a group of individuals that we have non-renewed um that if we can um we're hopeful those they're still available that we can hire them back that is our first priority possible um but it you know I think other districts are in the same situation so we're again cautiously optimistic that there'll be a strong pool out there even anything else no I just um want to um when we think about bringing back if we can bring back anybody um I would suggest first grade because those numbers are staggering um to have a classroom size of 30 and 32 those are your foundation levels it's not okay yes sorry one question um for any of the um staff that we gave uh layup that we gave notices to if they meet any of the qualifications for the positions that we are hiring will they be recalled or asked to come for those positions again I don't know if they meet like special ed or whatever certainly they they'd be U certainly open to and encouraged to apply uh for those positions abut if if they had that certification anything else either way see none thank you Mr P for the update moving on to superintendent evaluation transition over here and this is your uh your presentation of the evidence of meeting your goals this year just so we level set the public and the school committee yes I I prefer to keep the questions at a high level when we do this because obviously each member is going to have to make their own determination based on the that are written and the evidence you provide we're certainly welcome to D in deeply if you need to and then um the other thing I will just make sure everyone knows Mr Lo you're welcome to do a superintendent evaluation should you choose but we will be asking Mr Nolan as well if he'd like to uh do an evaluation because he was here for most of the year so with that said I'll turn it over back to you thank you thank you uh yes I did want to provide uh you an opportunity to review my evidence uh in anticipation of you completing my superintendent's evaluation um I just wanted to kind again provide some context and and background information the educator evaluation framework or system that currently all of our Educators not just superintendant but our our administrators our teaching staff uh under go really a five-step evaluation cycle and it starts with the self assessment the self assessment is really the first part of this it's usually done depending on your position uh late summer early fall where you're reviewing uh your evaluation from the prior year you're reviewing data that you have at your fingertips and you're kind of just self assessing your performance in the past uh against the rubrics and uh standards that have been set you from that self assessment you're then asked to develop goals um and create goals for the year uh so again that usually typically happens depending on your position um summer fall and those are actually implemented throughout the school year and then there's a mid year or or mid cycle what we refer to as the Forma of assessment or valuation um and that again depending on your position happens uh usually if you recall I presented after the budget was presented so in February I think for for myself uh for our teaching staff it's it's typically sooner and then at the end of the cycle is a summit of evaluation so that's the point we're at now so I'm presenting you evidence towards my SU valuation uh as I am on a one year evaluation cycle currently uh what I am uh you know what you should be measuring me against is the standards of effective administrative leadership and the first one is being uh instru instructional leadership management and operations uh family and Community engagement professional culture so those are the four main areas of the educator evaluation for superintendents uh from there uh those are the standards there are IND underneath and I'll show you an example so those standards and indicators are put together into what they refer to as a rubric and so you have access to that uh through your your documentation and obviously these are all public documents that the state publishes as well um so what that really looks like is this this is an example of what the rubric actually looks like so this would just be a snippet from standard one instructional leadership so it gives you a uh you know kind of a definition what instructional leadership for superintendent would look like and then it actually gives you U indicators underneath so the first one is curriculum and then they actually give you the four ratings so you actually rate uh the individual as unsatisfactory needs Improvement proficient or exemplary proficient is actually the goal not just the superintendent but in the state educator evaluation system that is what everyone should be striving to do uh obviously um exemplary is is certainly above and beyond model uh needs Improvement U you certainly have uh pieces of what you're trying to do or pieces of that element in your practice and then unsatisfactory obviously you wouldn't necessarily see any evidence of that so this is what the r looks like uh and obviously what you would be doing is then get an overall reading you don't necessarily evaluate each indicator on the superintendent rubric uh you actually when you look at the rubric you'll see it's quite lengthy really on is when I identify goals I also identify indicators at Al line and so you would be uh issuing me rating on my progress towards those goals as well as using that evidence to then go ahead and rate me on those indicators that I've correlated this next slide I really just kind of went over exactly what the ratings are you can see I put proficient bold as you'll see that all throughout the educator evaluation system so the end of the cycle Summit of evaluation uh it does assess the progress towards goals uh you do use the ratings did not meet some progress significant progress met or exceeded uh superintendent are asked to create a professional practice goal a student learning goal and a district Improvement goal and then you're also assessing me or rating me on the performance on the standards that I just went over and those are unsatisfactory needs improve and proficient Exemplar the standards instruction leadership management and operations family and Community engagement and professional culture this is again just a snippet of what the evaluation system looks like this is kind of the cover page so you can see uh you see there three goals listed professional practice student learning goal District Improvement this is where you would rate that did not meet some progress significant progress met exceeded and then also you're assessing my performance on the standards so instructional leadership man engagement in professional culture and you either ring at those standards as unsatisfactory needs Improvement proficient or ex so that's just um I did want to just share with you again you have access to this you've had access to these allowing year uh but especially for Mr being new just to kind of go over my goals as you know the school commit approved my goals going into uh this school year and also approve the uh evidence that I would be supplying here this evening towards that so these are already been pre-established but my first goal my professional practice go I participate Mr just interrupt for second I I don't mean to but you you worked with the long long range planning committee over last summer and into the fall to agree on these goals and what the evidence was and then we as a full school committee voted on the report from the long range planning committee to say you know this is what we came up with and we're we're recommending and but this is now what we're evaluating you on and I'd just like to remind all of uh my fellow school committee members um we do have a training on superintendent valuation coming up on Wednesday which will probably be very helpful in you know reinforcing a lot of this so thank you um participate in the new superintendent induction program which I've shared with you you've had a chance to meet my uh new superintendent coach m long um so again how does that align to our Student Success plan uh what do the indicators on the uh educator evaluation rubric does it align to I've actually called those out down the bottom just so you could have the definition there so you didn't have to necessarily go back and refer to the rubic but you certainly can so these would be two of the indicators that you want to take uh a closer look at because I Supply evidence they align to uh my goals and so therefore they would be the indicators that you would be reading Beyond obviously key actions famili with and then um the evidence uh just to to point out because there were some updates to this uh I had talked about one piece of evidence being a transition plan and findings I actually changed that at the recommendation of our of my new superintendent's program uh they actually require that we do an what they refer to as an entry plan and report of findings so somewhat of a different title uh but I have updated that and provided that for you there so you actually see the uh entry plan and then for plings from my entry plan going back to last year as I've shared with you the new superintendent program uh just being in the situation that I was in last year serving as acting interim and going through the development of the Student Success plan actually basically put me a year ahead of all my uh new superintendent colleagues that is really the end result of what they're uh trying to do through this new superintendent program is to have new superintendents create a strategic plan for the district so um you know again I find myself a little of of the rest but I've included the um agendas for you if you click on those links it'll bring you through the fold up all the agendas and participation material so you can see the outline of what we've covered throughout the year as I shared with you when I presented my uh evidence in the middle of the Year there really weren't this was anticipated of because not knowing what the program is going to entail there was an anticipation of uh having to complete assignments but we were never NE uh we never actually assign an assignment to complete it was all really group discussion so there wasn't anything tangible for me to actually produce other than the uh entry plan so that would really be the the one assignment I also included the calendar of meetings not just for this past year but I believe in that link you'll see the uh meeting dates for next year as well and again I'm happy to read through all this but I I know just the essence of time you have access to all of this uh the second goal is a student learning goal uh oversee the expansion of I ready to the high school we would Target the nth grade students um who didn't necessarily uh score as high as they should have le in eighth grade again um it's tied to the Student Success plan it's tied to the Desy indicator of curriculum which I called out for you down the bottom you can see the key actions that we took and the correspondent evidence um I would just say this this is actually you know interesting anytime you expand a program it really provides you the opportunity to assess how successful it was and although I would say this had showed progress and probably met the goal um I don't know if this is necessarily a program we would continue we didn't find it to necessarily be overly beneficial to our nth graders uh I think what we found is that some of the nth graders that we identified may have probably rushed through the test in eth grade because when they took it again when they found out they had to take it again a lot of them tested out uh as the year went on we did see the US uh usage drop um we also ran into some scheduling issues as well and so when we really look at was this program and beneficial to our high school students um I I think the the data probably points to the fact that it wasn't uh but we wouldn't have known it unless we went through it but you can see there through the links uh you'll see some information there um you'll see that again usage and indiv personalized instruction went down uh as the year went on but we've already started taking uh steps to look at all right if we're not going to do I ready next year what else can we do so the map department at the high school is looking ATL uh which is actually a high school program you got to remember I ready is K K through 8 so we're trying to fit a a middle school 8th grade program into high school we just didn't you know after the end of the pilot it didn't really see seem though work uh soel would replace math read 180 we have available something we've already been using in the district and in speaking with our special Educators up at the high school that seems to be more appropriate uh more appropriate intervention for our students versus re and then obviously I just want to point out um I hoped but given the timing of the Year those benchmarks are administered at the end of the year so you're going to see on on some pieces of evidence here I did put an aspect underneath U the chart it just says that giv given the timing of this presentation there wasn't necessarily data available uh because they haven't finished the evalu I'm sorry the administration of the third Benchmark in order for me to present my evidence to do that and you'll see that in a couple of other places going forward again you know these pieces of evidence developed last summer uh so in anticipation of what they uh the district Improvement goal I I think we you know made tremendous stries here um obviously we wanted to collaborate with district and school administrators to ensure our district and school priorities are aligned with the Student Success plan and that progress towards the alignment is monitored one of the things I I think you've seen them obviously we had all the principles present their school Improvement plans when you look at our school Improvement plan it is so aligned uh so tightly to our Student Success plan it mirrors that not just in format but also in the actions and the initiatives that have been identified by the schools so I'm really proud of the effort that the principles have undertaken that we as a district undertaken to make sure both of those documents are aligned and again moving this for in the right direction uh again aligned to the Student Success plan Desi indicator uh evaluation I call that out for you down the bottom you can see the key actions and then obviously The Benchmark and evidence again because of the part of the cycle that we're in um the educator plans and analys Analysis of formative and summative evaluations is just not available that would be something until we actually have to submit that data to Des in the summer so obviously that would be after the fact but you have links to the school Improvement plans you've seen those again the schedule and overview of the superintendent site visits which corelates to the key actions and then superintend round meetings agendas again and then the last District Improvement goal um I work with the Director of Business Services and collaborate with the district leadership and the leadership of each building uh in towns to develop a sound fiscal budget I think you obviously heard from the auditor this evening the sound fiscal practices that we do have in place here and obviously I know she made a point to point out this St as willingness to work with the Auditors of already put proactively in place uh it was really nice to hear that uh your work is validated so congratulations uh but again uh the alignment of the Student Success plan the desting indicators the key actions that were identified and established uh last summer and then obviously the bench marks and evidence um what I did note there in using the two aspects was that the line item budget um it's not available because the format that you're used to say in uh I vision is that budget tonight that roll over process hasn't happened so we have it in Excel uh but we don't necessarily have it in the ni format that you uh are accustomed to um that will be coming this this summer um I also did include the staff budget meeting schedule that we held as you know this was something that um we decided to do after the fact so this was not a recent part of the benchmarks and evidence we did a whole budget meetings at each of our schools uh to speak with staff and go with the budget challenges that we're faced with and answer any questions and then obviously I also included the community outreach regarding the FY 25 budget that was not something that was originally part of the evidence and Benchmark but I thought it was important to as well and that uh basically concludes my presentation evidence you have all the links I certainly didn't want to spend U all the time we would take to click the links and show you uh everything that's in there this one is just uh this slide just has the corresponding documents that reference uh so again Des guidance to evaluating superintendant Des Su evaluation form the superintendent rubric our Student Success plan and then my report entry plan report were there any highle questions for the superintendent about his report out obviously we all have access to the detailed evidence that we have in our links um and I don't want to go into those Point by point at this time you're certain to do it in your evaluation and it will all be considered when it's done but High Lev questions right thank you Mr Powers uh and um I'll just say I was thinking of being really ambitious and asking you guys to get it all done by uh Wednesday so I could get the evaluation out by next Wednesday I don't think we can do that soting is Wednesday No by this Wednesday the training yes no I was joking about that I love yes um so so what we're going to do is um you know we'll have our training on Wednesday we'll take this back write our own uh evaluations for the per the forums we get and then we'll have a meeting we're going to need a budget meeting clean up anyway in July we'll schedule I believe it's the 24th did I hear that correctly July July 24th to hear the review uh for the superintendent and uh from the committee and we'll put it all together we are going to need a budget meeting in July so we will need to have the July meeting is that where you're going no I was just say I thought our evaluations would du to desie by July 1 double check with my understanding the superintendent evaluation d desie by July 1 we may third meeting Jun well our meeting is could people be able to turn around to you by Monday or Sunday nightend I just it's due to desie and is my understanding we need to turned into desie by July 1st I would prefer to work on this now and not have another meeting a fourth meeting or a third meting in j because we all are really busy towards the end of June um I would prefer to be able to turn this back around to us and night do we know if that's a recomendation or requ it's a requirement from from that they are supposed to be in by July 1st all right we we'll uh get that done yeah yeah just make sure you take into account all the information we get on Wednesday right right I don't know how much editing I'll be able to do over that time but I'll do what I can I mean I think just for people to remember and you'll hear on Wednesday the training is when you look at these there's lots of indicators and there's always been some confusion all we need to fill out is the indicators that were agreed to in Long brdge planning with Mr Powers so um I thought he his report was very specific to of exactly what we evaluating on to make it it's very clear what you here to be able to follow yeah all right well I think that's a tight timeline but I think I would prefer that too because that's that's what we'll do then we'll we'll make it we'll make it work we'll make it work thank you for uh keeping us legal this God I I don't think I think many of us are not available towards the end of June yeah yeah no that that's fine we'll make it all right thank you Mr Powers presentation this evening with Mr CH thank you um moving on Mrs King budget subcommittee report thank you Mr chairman um so this is a little bit out of date so a few things I will give updates um we did meet on Tuesday May 14th 2024 for Budget St um and then we did just meet right before this meeting so I don't have a technically a report on that yet I'll report out on the June 12th meeting from that a couple of things I will update just briefly as I go through them so it's up to date um so we met on May 14th as the budget subcommittee at 5:30 in the superintendent's conference room and attendance were Mr FG Mrs Martelli superintendent Powers our reporing secretary Mrs M du and myself um we gave we received a fiscal year 2024 budget update from Miss Bola um via Mr Powers um she could that but he she provided an update to him which he gave at that time um Mr Powers gave um an update on Theo current year budget and any line items that we continue to watch throughout the end of his school throughout the end of the year um which have been items that we've indicated every um budget sub meeting utilities such as heat and electric that we were watching Transportation um The Substitute lines as well as ad of District tuition those are lines that we watch um through the budget until the end of the year which closes June 30th um and will give us a final report on that where we are clean up everything and we'll do our final transfers at that time um Mr FG also questions um how we would end this fiscal year um with our end which we do not know technically until the end of the year um but miss babalo is confident that we should definitely have the 2 million that um budgeted for next fiscal year um to offset next year's budget um Mr Powers stated at that time that we would have more information on encumbrance releases in the next few months and the transfers will be voted on so we did discuss at this meeting we had right before um this current meeting um we need to do those transfers at the July 24th meeting so once J June 30th closes the books um we will have all the final transfers um and all the final numbers at the July meeting um to go over and how this budgets um closing that out um fiscal year 2025 budget update um Mr poers went in depth during his report on that um at our budget sub meeting he did give us an update on the status and current shortfalls and how he was trying to close that Gap especially since we Hadi future contracts and like you stated we're in the current negotiating with the clerical secretary contract right now um so we did have the June 1st deadline for early retirement so we kind of have an idea on if that's going to be a cost savings to us um in June 17th we have the I'm sorry the six we buyback was June 1st and then early retirements will be June 17 so once both of those dates have passed we can see those are going to be um a cost savings to us depending how many teachers or just Staffing is going to use both those items um like I said he gave a detailed report on where we stand right now so we'll have final numbers after those two facilities update Mr P gave an update to the track and tennis um as an update further update from today's um this project is nearly complete um the track project is complete as of right now they're just doing some Landscaping type work but the track itself is complete the tennis court they have been waiting until this week where the temperature was right overnight for that to cure so the tennis is not totally done but should be done within the next week to two weeks um and then they just have some site work such as grass Landscaping Etc um so the track team has been since they made Nationals they have been practicing on it um the coach has a key so they've been able to practice on the track um but we're not going to it's not totally done we're still finishing drainage mediation and the Landscaping so that will be open for school use and public use probably in um has been allowing the to practice further facility update U BMS and Williams window shap projects um I did not get an update on that is that still up or is that yes they both up to've actually been yes the shades they've beened all the have received and I'm going over Tom okay so I'll have an update on the uh July um RMS gy floor project bid um so we did have a further update on this as well at the main subcommittee meeting this bid came in higher than anticipated um we had originally budgeted 120,000 with an insurance claim and only counting on the $50,000 deductible the bid came in at 247,000 um Miss toil did go back to the insurance company and worked with them to get further reimbursement on that um and we received an update today that they did approve that so it is still only the deductible we will be responsible for so um that cost will be covered by a supplemental check from the insurance company as well um so that should start um the day after school ends and finished by the summer for school September so Mr par did have to leave that meeting early um to go to the National Honor societ Cy um the other item that we did talk to discuss um was the schedule so um if you may recall the budget subcommittee had reviewed the fee schedule for the 2425 school year um we had already previously reviewed and addressed the base fees on that schedule um but we had not determined um any fee changes to the middle and high school fees um previously um so at that main subcommittee meeting we did review the middle and high school fees which had not been reviewed or adjusted in many years actually um as you can know which was attached in the drive um after discussion um the high school fees were raised from $100 per school year um to $125 um that parking fee had been the same for decades um the majority of the theves were raised by a 10% um color guard and marching um this was raised to $200 based on the recommendation of their advisor um for fees that he would need for throughout their um schedule um we also aligned the pricing of the middle school and high school sports fees to $360 per student with a family cap of $700 at each site um I know this was something we had previously discussed um how would that work because previously the Middle School it was um a certain fee per sport for student um so we did want to have a cap um however the cap could not be a family across the district because those fees support that school for coaching and busing Etc um so that's why we did put that wording of $360 per student with family cap of 720 at each site um lastly we addressed the sports or fun Keys um was recommended by that advisor to raise the price from to $10 per week um further the only other thing that we reviewed but declined to change the pricing was the Alternative High School and summer school um alterntive high school we determined um that those students um we did not want to add to those fees since they are seeking out to try and we did not want to add to those at this time we had increased that price last year so we did not increase that price um So based upon that um Mr chairman I would make a motion to approve the revised Bridgewater Rainham Regional School District Fe schedule for the fiscal year 202 242 motion made by Miss King there second second by Miss marelli uh discussion Miss discussion MV um so I understand that these fees haven't beened in a while and I was wondering if there are any specific reasons why they need to go up um besides that being the reason example did we find that equipment has increased by 10% I'm just looking for correlation between the increases and actual costs I can def can I try first defer uh yeah I think it really is just general inflation you know that we haven't seen you know for example um with the bus fees for athletic teams um and with the increase in coaches stiens as we just heard about in the budget presentation Etc that there there are in fact cost drivers that weren't around 10 years ago when these were last so you know we're trying we're trying to be respectful of obviously people's money and whatnot but also at the same time recognize the reality of we're living in 2024 not 2014 where some of these fees have been set out some sometimes so that that's really the overall I mean you know I just think about going up to get a p of hamburger these days you know it's a little bit more than 10% in the last 10 years so so do we have a sense of how much um how this will impact the budget and how much money we can expect over the next yeares I don't know if we've done that yet no yeah we could probably give a swag on it but whatever the revenue is that just bump it by 10% call it even whatever we whatever we see today for that kind of fee revenue and whatever's in the budget we can probably bump it by 10% probably although there is there are some tapbacks for example Middle School sports weren't uh capped before per family so that might be a savings to the Middle School parents and so so but I think 10% would be a fair I mean a lot of the anded um especially busing has been a huge increase with Transportation charges Middle School and High School wasn't necessarily to increase that fee as mrit said but that's more kind of aligning what we're doing because we do have the Middle School sports but we're trying to align it the high school had a cap and we did not have that at Middle School level and as a Middle School Parent I know that's come up over and over again why we have C at one school and not at you know another level so some of it was increasing and trying to make sure we're making which we do want to make money but we're also being mindful of keeping up with the fees but also aligning the district what we're doing at the different anything else other questions anything else no okay all those in favor signify by saying iOS M is so it's 7 to1 thank you I got I gotta hear it um further the budget subcommittee approved for minutes of April 8th 2024 at that meeting um under other we did have the Bridgewater Town Council approved our School District budget at their meeting of May 7th 2024 Mr fitzg Mrs babalola and myself were in attendance at that meeting um rham approved our budget at their town meeting on May 20th 2024 Mr Po Mr important this isor ever attendance at that meeting as well um as I stated we did have our budget subcommittee meeting right before this meeting at 5:30 and I will report out on that at our June 12 meeting um we further discussed at the meeting right before this um we do have some treasur reports that we do need to take a vote on at the June 12th meeting so those will be brought forward at that time um with Miss Ro show um and then july4 will also have to have final transfers in end of year votes from Miss Bola at that time that myd thank you m king um Miss Hy Personnel report of 2024 through May 20th 2024 re okay questions from Miss no oh miss m yes I I should just ask you right away that um so I was um preparation for this meeting I looked at um reports from the previous month and I noticed that um the esps are and the Proctors are the ones that tend to be um the attrition is there I was wondering if you've seen any other Trends or when looking at those two positions and doing the exit interviews are you getting any feedback as to why pro I would I do have um a lot of the esps you see that was re so if you look down bottom up she's also in the middle um so some people think they should leave and go find something else and then they come back which we love we open them you know have open arms for the staff that want to come back and they thought that something better at another district and come back that's like the best story I you on that um we also see that people have whether it's family commitment personal reasons a lot of that comes into and it's just not what they expected our education support professionals are um they're in the Leeds so to speak um they are really the also speaks to the salary you know in terms of what we're requiring them to do up until recently obviously we settled a new contract with that St really minimum wage and so what they what you know the the position actually requires of them they sometimes as I could doing less or something different making else so and I I'd like to emphasize that powers because you know we we as a school committee really did a a good job I think in trying to help out the esps with the contract we just negotiated with the B Unit B and you know got them to a looks like closer to living range I don't know if they exactly agree but we have a year to talk about it I guess um so um but I I think that that's very important too is just you know what what can I do versus what am I doing versus the money making you know it's very important to a lot of people especially trying to make end me these things anything else M I was wondering if we have used any of that um diversity teacher superintendent has been U working with me and theam our initiatives so some of the ones that I have know I put in requests for um are job fairs ston Hill bridgew and the one in Boston e um we have other expenses that go into that as well remember we ran our staff healan some of expenses okay anything else from committee members okay thank you very much and we'll have the annual he report from mola Mr thank you all for your time receive the annual Health Report The Challenge being thise the bank I don't know what to tell you um support sometimes required by The increased security kind of into unfortunately your support services um children you would never have imagined out in the community let alone attending Public School are here and they're here to stay medal technology you know science has them the ability to thrive partipate in schools at a rate we' not seen and it will continue my supplies are expensive I know that um it just continues the a batteries 11 of our 23 time out this oober and students one of the single biggest challenges is George Mitch theur at that school is not to be underestimated wheelchairs oygen TR yeah um the rest of the report we're a grant enhanced District so um we are compliant with our state mandated screenings Vision audiological postural BMI in addition to that Again State mandated expert but Health Department recomended mental health risk assessment and we find it worthy we had 39 crisis emergency calls this year Health appraisals was a little bit of a challenge we strive one of our performance measures through DPA to make sure there's a connection for all students with provider um we was certainly challenged by that um with resettlement students this year help is really good to us um we have had moderate Success With You know the unation of physicals imization compliance overall we're at 96.8% we're good it was a busy year in that admin in implementation of our newly U designed wellness policy it was a learning curve but I think for we year Asos to our so perhaps perhaps it was effective again a learning removing food from ven to do our community collaboration continues is really good to us they give us our CPR training kind of work with Preschool teachers that kind reasonable rate Etc we work with State University particularly Dr Christopher on health advisory committee we help him with his suicide walk team the of Hope Mastery Community College it's been 25 years student nurses bridging lives high point we have our substance use prevention collaborative and um we already mentioned the health advisory Council we're in a fifth year of the comprehensive school health Grant with the Department of Public Health it's actually year of the second 10 year you're in another 10 year cycle current um brw is committed to Health Services every office has at least one RN we maintain a ratio Staffing ratio at least 1 to 500 again some schools the ratio can be met and the that's what I have any questions left this time I would just like to comment and to the nurses and the support staff um when you look at these numbers and what's happening in our schools exactly you said in acoss United States there's increased with kids um and to keep them in the our schools is um goes to the work speaks to the work that you all are doing every day to keep them in our schools um and I just would like to highlight of course go here is the signs of suicides um numbers I mean it's really just of 20% of our kids Med to high risk of suicide it is alarming it is concerning and again kudos to nursing and our social staff and our gu counsel scho question I know that an impact at all like Massachusetts we're seeing di access to overall Hy that just def the direct transport the other day to Boston that's impact ties up the ambulance calling on the heels of that ambulance always was like so we have a good working relationship with RH Bridge Water immediately got a second same our mental health they alwaysi um pefully prioritized manner come call again we try not to abuse it we use crisis when we can use crisis um and CCBC has opened a new crisis center which has been just to give you a quick update I actually got the email from the monthly email from car today so car Solace is an online referral program so they connect families with counseling they you know try to say that they'll do within 24 48 Hours where EXP versus your actually connected so this is just from July to June they refer to as inbound Direction so us reaching out or our parent reaching out because it won't always be us initiating that contact we may provide the contact information for 2,147 direction District conne District car um communication save so they're again trying to eliminate you having to get a referral call this so they are saying that they've Communications saved they've eliminated 13,000 communication opportunities we've had 44 family initiated cases wer hand offs so again staff initiating we're going to turn so over 182 more hand offs um we then have had referred individuals at of the client services so again 38 um total appointments into care 97 appointments made and then opport to reach out to Carly just to that's been and a lot of our counseling staff nursing staff they actually the L sign line' avability M Mr Deo anything right anything from anyone okay great thank you so much oh you do have a um I'm so sorry so I I saw that the hearing test showed that everyone who took the test failed the test I wanted to know if it was an equipment issue or it was an inaccurate it's an inaccurate okay I apologize no worries I'll get it get it although if you ever dealt with my children at a certain age you think exactly and I also wanted to know maybe this is a question Mr Po does the Student Success plan consider the results that are coming up in this reading and here from one year to the next when I read the screenings and the kind of things that came up the social emotional piece of our success plan so I was wondering if this is reference absolutely so those are um areas that we reevaluate every year certainly through the budgetary process because a lot of what me is gring hearts and student supports addal bring this information this advocate for additional counseling staff so obviously that being part of our student and so do we expect based on like increas sta or any of budgetary interv what are we expecting to see next year based on those look forward to see success well I I think when we look at data she shared decrease some of these behaviors repor we use our Caris um some of these interventions unfortunately talked and so sometimes it's hard to actually know plan for this but when we have that data we certainly can I think you know as a district as a school committee supported us over the years since I've been here I think when I first started we maybe head exception of some of our special education program program coun across the district we have one every single School some schools have multiple so it's really speaks of commitment of not just emplo yes I know too that we've seen this I know Mrs comes every year and gives us the results I know a lot of it times you'll change programming based on it like the bridging lives for instance I know you've moved that grade down to a fifth grade program so it does they do look at that and say you know what we're we're having high risk at this level we're going to move it that bridging lives is a great opportunity for students here but well at the high school to be able to really make an impact on the younger on the younger students in dist one of the programs is referring to now in grade at both middle schools and students so I can say all right thank you very much Mrs gr appreciate that uh no one finished business uh we'll wait forelli to step away here for a second moving on to new business approval of payroll warrants dated April 4 April 18 May 2 and May 16 of 2024 is there a motion to approve made by Mr King seconded by Mr demarino discussion he none all in favor say I I opposed unanimous thank you not telling you want to come back approval of preschool elementary middle and high school handbooks that should have been in your package I mean I understood it was just kind of cleanups Mrs Barry has uh just some information any questions yeah if there's anything urgent is there anything we should have been focusing on Mr bar well I mean you have the changes in your packet um and I was just going to review kind of rationale behind it but I know that is something yeah happy to do it go ahead okay see how fast I can get it okay um like I said I'm here to review the proposed revisions in the handbooks um you actually have the handbooks and the revisions have been highlighted within them so you have the additional context within each change um outside of what I share we're going to be making changes to formatting adding dates Etc and we usually do that over the summer um we always start with the youngest move to the oldest I think what I'll do is I'll do the high school we'll start with the oldest first and the high school actually has the most changes life uh first revision of the high school allows us to tighten up the language regarding student absences specifically who can verify absences and what is considered an excuse absence just making sure that language is clear for students and their families the next revision is related to treny and skipping classes moving away suspension and relying instead solely on Saturday detention or um its equivalent to address these issues when they occur you're going to see that we're saying Saturday detention or its equivalent and throughout and we'll be making changes to that one of the main reasons for that is because not all kids can stay on a Saturday because of work family um and sports obligations so we needed a little room with that we're going to be changing that somewhat uh next up is dismissals removing the regarding the merits for four dismissals it's noncurrent practice we're taking that out um after dismissal or leaving early there's arriving late so the next change is student tardiness um we're proposing you're taking out the language about Dem merits and once again looking for multiple tardies to be addressed instead with Saturday detention words equivalent again there's that language Saturday detention is generally difficult as I said uh due to student schedules the next change isir forward uh we're taking out um summer map and reading requirements is there are no longer requirements we've also added language to tighten up the sports registration process into high school and um while on Sports we added some language regarding the sort of behaviors that will not be tolerated in the locker room so we don't really need to get into that but we did have some clarity of language in there um we're also proposing the remal of Dem Merit in the handbook is the practice really is no longer in effect so you'll see that throughout the handbook in addition to that we're changing the language regarding cell phones in class at the high school we're no longer acquiring backpack storage or a wall holder but just sit their out of sight during classes it's another change we're taking the language out about student IDs on display high school and lastly we're taking out language around substance abuse speciic alcohol we're taking up the language requiring a rehabilitative program um when infractions arise we most certainly encourage the step but we cannot mandate it so that's the change in that language moving on to the Middle School handook bar can we just stop and just ask if there's any questions on the high school AB handbook first and then I'll take a motion to through that then we move to the middle school high school Etc High School anything questions no okay is there a motion to approve the high school handbook as presented by Mrs second by okay I couldn't hear uh okay all those in favor say I opposed it's unanimous okay moving on to Middle School okay um Middle School handbook we're revising the language regarding student promotion for a few reasons the first is that nonpromotion in the middle school is most certainly not a routine practice and secondly we do not require Summer School attendance at level the way the language was forly written it made it seem like that was routine and that we had summer school as as a consequence to that it's just not something that we do routinely anymore that's the only change at the middle school level outside of formatting changes questions on the Middle School changes there appr made by Mr de second by m Martelli all those in favor opposed unanimous thank you moving on yes Elementary is an easy one we don't have any content changes this year just some changes to formatting motion to approve no if nobody nobody's worried about it I won't be worried about it worried about you know I'm a F suspender Type of Guy usually yeah I mean no harm no foul to accept it I I saw Judy face we'll take a motion to accept to accept made by m second by Mrs King all those in favor unanimous thank you um the preschool handbook was one that we actually focused on quite a bit this year um we have to talk about there um we added explanations to the role of the Health Service office and our behavioral interventions for pekk families to better understand these Services because this is really the entry point to school it was important for families to really understand how those services are utilized in in in the district um the handbook previously had the names of all the teachers within the program and we took those out that's not something that we have in any of the other handbooks um so we don't have specific names of teach programs moving into um 2425 we also took out several links to Community Resources and programs that had no affiliation with the school district with the feeling that they don't necessarily belong in the inbook it could be something that we would distribute separately if at all we added an explanation to our program delivery format this is a change that we made um for the current school year where we're two day three day in a five-day format we just felt that it was for families to understand why we had that um format change so we added language to explain that our new um why we had that change and that basically making that change and holding true to two three or five days allowed us um to have um optimal learning experience experiences for students and better planning for teachers we have a new standards based report card in prek so we just added language to explain that we also added uh language to clarify how families and caregivers could become involved with their child's first school experience um and related to that how the school manages visitors with schools uh so that they understood that if they do become involved here's the process for um visiting the school um we added language to explain tardiness and early dismissals procedures of the Mitchell um again because this is the first introduction to school we wanted to make sure that fames that was addressed um lastly we will be making um addition Chang uh tuition changes in the handbook based on um some of the voting that had occurred tonight in the fee schedule um and the last and by far the best addition to the hbook if you turn to the last pek we have original artwork by our very old prek Alum Matthew Wilson so that was a nice addition to the prek hand good uh questions issues the right I'll take motion to approve by Mrs K second by Mr deino all those in favor oos thank you thank you thank you very muchers um other business that may probably become come before the school committee after the agenda is posted I know if none this is super okay moving move forward we will open again public comment for period of 12 minutes first SCH committee policy and I know everybody in this room and nobody is from the public right now so we're just going to close the public comment uh if anyone rushes in we'll reopen it for you don't worry um announcements if any school committee members have anything they want on the next agenda please email it to myself and Mr mcdou and we will try to get it on the agenda um and uh our next school committee meeting is going to be on Wednesday June 12th 2024 in the lecture hall at the BR Regional High School we will have the superintendent's evaluation that night so everybody at home should tune in and watch uh any other announcements from the rest of the committee on anything see none okay is there a m by Mr Deo second by Mr King all those in favored