algi to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with Li and justice for all this meeting is being live streamed by chelon Tel media and posted the CPS website for interested community members to access and watch inperson public participation will be taking place tonight in accordance with the Chelson school committee public participation policy anyone speak speaking tonight during the public input portion of this meeting has notified the superintendent's office of the desire to speak and provided with these guidelines upon request written comments received no later than 12:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting will also be read and made part of the record of the meeting during a second public comment session so welcome to this meeting of the Chon school committee our first order of business is to approve our minutes from April 9th make a motion okay I make a motion to uh approve the minutes of the regular school committee meeting from April 9th second any corrections did you want that one all right all in favor I I I I'm distracted there's a giant ant walk Zero 4 Z coming towards you okay up next are high school student Representatives after we chew away the um so the chelsford high school theater Guild is presenting are we there yet yet which is the annual children's play written and directed by students it will run April 25th to 27th with four performances including a MAA on Saturday afternoon general admission tickets are $10 each and sold at the door outside the Performing Arts Center additionally trium music Honor Society students will be helping out with the annual instrument test drive which is an event where incoming middle school students can try out various band and orchestra instruments and see what they like best trium students will also be hosting a big seal at the event which will be on Saturday April 27th from 9 to 11:30 at the CHS Lobby hello everyone so the week before break um the high school's music department so band Orchestra and chorus got to go on a trip to New York th New York City on Thursday Friday Saturday and Sunday and they got to experience the city take tours enjoy musical performances and partake in their music Department's clinics in the junior classes old Hollywood theme catian will be taking place on Saturday May 11th at the high school from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. and students will be able to purchase tickets during their lunches in front of the calf on Monday through Wednesday um the week of the 29th and they will be $35 and students can purchase that with cash or a check written out to CHS class of 2025 and today former Celtics player Chris Heron came to the high school for a second time since 2012 to share a story with addiction and substance abuse to the high schoolers as well as the eighth graders I'm super glad and thankful I was given this opportunity to listen to story and experiences and I know I can speak behalf on the students when I say it was really an impactful speech great thank you very much any uh good news yeah we have two pieces of good news um we welcome back obviously our students and staff it's always nice to have them come back from vacation it gets a little quiet around here um so we're happy to see the schools are full with everybody back and then um our um students that went to Argentina returned as well as our um students that did their Exchange in Spain and they all had a wonderful time great anybody else have any good news I want to share okay all right we're now to our first public input session I don't see anybody in the audience so I think we're safe to say that we don't have any no one all right so we'll move on to new business great uh a few pieces of new business uh again kind of good news tonight uh the first one I put in your packet the uh msba initial compliance certification for the Parker middle school project um so we have um kind of achieved the first uh phase of the project is different steps we have to go through uh and whenever we complete a step I'm just going to put it on the agenda so that you can kind of track the progress with us but uh we submitted our compliance certification and then um the msba got back to us two days later and said that Council had reviewed it and accepted it um so we do have that now complete so we're shifting into the second stage which is to work on setting up the um excuse me um the school building committee um working with Town manager on that hopefully we'll have that um tidied up by the end of of next week be able to present that to you at the next school committee meeting and we also just as a reminder have a to meeting next Monday so that's the regular Springtown meeting we'll have our budget on the agenda and we also have the feasibility study so although that wasn't required until the end of the vote we're doing that early because that's when our town meeting happens to fall um so we may um hopefully be able to um check that off the list as well so I'll be presenting and recommending that funding next Monday but um first phase the initial compliance certification was completed and accepted so we have that behind us great any questions yeah just is the feasibility stuff part of the whole budget presentation or is that gonna be a separate article it's a separate article it is okay yeah um and if you like I can actually email you i' sent um Tommy and Cohen um the presentation I was going to do for the regular budget and then separately the presentation for the um feasibility study I'll email you both presentations if you want them ah of time just to take a pecat what I had to do is um kind of come up with an a bridged version of the feasibility study one because when you know we had the Linda keeps reminding me of this but when we had the public session um I tended to talk for a little bit so we have to kind of get it down to 10 minutes and uh it can't be the hour and a half that that we went so um I picked out eight and nine kind of key slides that just talk about the project talk a little bit about Parker school why we selected that talk about the enrollment um that we're going to be dealing with the increases over the years and then I have the additional slides in the back of the packet but I'm not going to speak on them unless someone asked a question I will say that um we've had about 200 views on the video that we did that night I had sent that out to all the time meeting reps so I do hope that people were able to kind of watch that and at least acclimate themselves with the project so when they come you know we certainly want to talk about it and answer questions um but I I'm hoping we're in pretty good shape on that as far as being prepared but um I will send you out the two different presentations that's okay I'm no rush I was just a separate article yeah oh it's a separate yeah it's a separate article I do think in talking to Paul that the um uh all our articles should be dealt with at the Monday night town meeting the budget's always for us we know we'll do that and then we have the town's Capital plan that usually comes pretty early on as well and I think the feasibility study follows that so the hopefully the school department articles will all be addressed on Monday night any other questions or comments on it well just looking at this whole um sign off on this agreement here it looks like first of all it has ongoing obligations where we have to you know provide information if anything changes all kinds of different obligations here what is the project manager is that a totally separate position that's hired throughout the process yes so um what we're trying to get funding for is to fund the feasibility study the two key components of the feasibility study are actually U procuring what they call an owner project manager and a designer for the project um so those are the two uh kind of biggest um elements of the feasibility study okay so um that's the $1.8 million that we're seeking um which we would get about a 52% reimbursement for um which is good and I have that breakdown in the slideshow but the owners project manager technically would work as our agent for the for the project so they would be involved in the day-to-day you know kind of oversight of the project they the group that actually does all of the different submissions to the msba when it comes to like the different schematic designs that we want look at the options they serve as our agent so we're going to be very working closely with them um but that's a key role and then the second key role is called the designer so that's like the architect who would actually be putting everything together um and there's a whole designer selection process that we have to adhere to um but that we wouldn't get into until we actually get to feasibility um but that's what that $1.8 million funds a portion for the OPM and a portion for the designer okay and one more question on this in terms of um the role of the school committee in the entire Dennis got to sign us I can see that so he he's binding the school committee in in some ways here what is do we for example have any say on the hiring of this manager and of the designer and so on how does that work so the school building committee that we put together as the next step would be the group that would actually interview and be part of the procurement process um so we have to follow a very prescribed process that the state lays out for like 30b of the procurement guidelines we have to follow that um the msba has a very um kind of prescriptive um set of documents that we have to go out and put out to be able to get the OPM on board but ultimately your representatives on the school building committee would vote to um select the OPM and then the OPM also then has to be approved by the msba so the msba has to sign off on it um that group would report regularly to the school committee so they would be a group kind of like the DM group they would come you know quarterly or however often we need them to to give presentations and updates on how the work is progressing um so that's how you would kind of get your your input okay when it comes to the designer the process has changed significantly over the last number of years um the msba actually has more kind of say and control in who the designer is because when you go through the designer selection process they just have more votes at the table um to actually figure out who that person is obviously they want you to work with a firm that can work well with the OPM and can understand the community um because they're paying for so much of this project they want to make sure that they have kind of pre-screened who the designers are that are going to be eligible for that we obviously still have a say and we get to participate but um it used to be that the the municipality selected both and just kind of ran with the project um now the designer does have to go through the designer selection process which is a little bit you know we have a little bit less control over that but we are going to be able to have full control the OPM the project manager thank you and just a refresh if we have this approved at town meeting how long would that process then take from that that feasibility study would take us how sure so if that gets approved at time meeting again we're kind of doing a little early because we technically are going to be in what's called eligibility through uh the end of the calendar year through the end of December so the very earliest we can hit our eight milestones and then ultimately be able to go before the msba to be invited into feasibility would be the February of 25 msba board meeting so then the work would commence then and it's at least you know 14 to 18 months so what they said is the earliest we would ever finish feasibility would be July of 26 so we would then likely be looking at going to the town for some type of a vote in the fall of 26 or winter of 27 um and there's no way to kind of jump those dates we have to stick within those um within those dates all right any other questions on this great all right one step down yes and um I did just as on the side to I emailed you out a kind of a tracking sheet that I'm using so if you want to follow along it has the different projects the milestones and the dates when we submit and then when we ultimately get approved by the msba just as another way to uh kind of keep track of the project okay great um second this evening oh you do a question no motion what's that we don't have to approve anything oh no motion for right now oh you're good um second for right now is um Linder actually has a little presentation for us on student attendance and uh we' had a couple of different meetings where we talked a little bit about student attendance often it came because we would get the uh reports from the state around say m crass and they were looking at different um student performance uh indicators um so Linda has a a little presentation she's going to provide to you the talks a bit of pre-co postco um because our numbers overall obviously we're continuing to work on them um but are pretty consistent at this point with pre-co data so Wenda you sure um so yes I'm going to go over a few things I think we have to take a step backwards first and just look at the laws and the regulations around it and what is absenteeism is defined by the state then I had pulled um five years of data pre-co to 2023 from the state specifically and then just to give you an idea of what what our attendance looks like now and you'll get a little sneak preview of Panorama and with flat data so um there's been a lot of talk in the news you probably see a lot of Articles too talking about student absenteeism um what's happening in many towns it's it's it's prevalent across all of the Commonwealth so it's not just a chumford piece but um just to get an idea of what we're actually looking at for our schools so first things first I mean coming to school is compulsory so students by the age of six and and up until 16 must be in school right so that is the law that's General law 76 and the regulation fessie on top of that that actually supports this talks about that as soon as a student turns six that September in that calendar year that they turn six they must be in school and they must go to a school that's either the town school or a school that is approved by the school committee and what that means is parents do have a choice in this matter so they can go to this regular school district that we have like chumpon public schools they could go to a public District that's outside of their school such as a virtual school um if they're going to the tech school so they have some options that way or if they're school choice and they go to another District or they must be in a private school or they can go into home school status through the district which is something that I oversee so there's their choice so that is the law with the regulation now continuing with that law under General law 76 there's responsibilities on the parent side and on the school side and the parents is you know pretty straightforward they must work towards getting their kids to go to school right school is available for them they must ensure that they go to school and if they are absent they must call the school and let them know that they are going to be absent and the reasons why on the school side for the school committee you have to make sure that you have um a way to notify parents if a student is not coming to school and you have not been notified so after three days if we don't hear from a school from a parent or a caregiver we need to call contact that family to find out what's going on and after five days we have to make sure that there's a plan in place for the student to start to come to school so the schools are continually working with families there's a lot of moving Parts in here but we have an obligation to make sure that we are contacting the families and working with the families on top of that we have to have clear policies and we have to have it written in our handbooks so your policies under student St under J it's in multiple places about student attendance it's not just one about attendance you have several of them so it is in our policies and it's written in the handbooks both the K through 12 handbook that governs a lot of different pieces and CHS has a separate addendum that talks a lot about the high school and all their rules and regulations that go along with that so we're meeting both those obligations we just need to have work with the families and be sure that they're working on their obligation which sometimes is the most difficult part right because we're not necessarily in control what's happening at home so that's a little bit of the background um on the laws and the state actually considers chronic absenteeism missing 10% of the school year so we have 180 days that we provide for students 10% of that is 18 days so if they are missing 18 days that is chronic absenteeism in our schools that's how it's defined by the state that's what they're looking at and as we all know being in school is the best place for students in order for them to achieve academically and socially they need to physically be with us in order to make that happen so there's a lot of factors that go into that as well and we notice that a lot of the issues that families have include these five different issues of why there is absenteeism in school and those are many of the things that our schools are working with counselors all of our support systems even our through our town through our social workers are working to make sure that we do the best we can to get kids in school in front of their teachers because that's how we teach them and that's how they interact with their peers so the next five slides are going to look similar so this is actual data from the state I pulled preco so 18 school year 1819 so that was before covid and you'll notice that they have some of the same factors that go across but I added a the last part which was the N how many students because sometimes when you see a percentage you need to know how many students you're actually looking at to see how big it is because sometimes a percentage looks big but it ends up being like one or two kids so for me I added that on there and hopefully that's a little bit helpful for you and what happens is the state puts together they look at all students but then they break it down into the different subgroups to see if there's uh some issues or areas that you would want to focus on overall in chelsford and you'll see this a theme as we go through these next five slides we are always meeting our attendance rate which you want to be at 90 or above and we're always usually anywhere between 94 and above so 94 to 97 depending on the subgroup and depending on the year so we are meeting the state requirement for attendance in all of the subgroups and all students but then what you want to look at is as you go across they give you the average of absences on for each of those subgroups so it's about 7.5 absences for all students and then you want to start to look at The Chronic absenteeism and anything that's 10% or more areas that you would want to focus on and work with those students and those families so you start to see an uptick when you look at some of your subgroups like economically disadvantage High needs elll and students with disabilities so that is one of the those are some of the areas that they're working on and looking in those areas but overall that subgroup is meeting attendance requirements if you look at the number of students so this is what was happening preco and then fast forward to the co year the data that you up here is not end ofe data because on Friday the 13th the infamous day everybody went home and so this data is from is up until that date in March typically you'd see end of the data when we submit through the state in June this ends in March but the I guess the the main thing to take from here is that had we stayed in school we were still meeting that attendance rate data and those subgroups were some some of them were actually doing better than they were 18 19 and then as they move forward some you'll see some upticks in some of those subgroup areas so preo the the actual covid like everybody go home in the spring of 2020 and then as we move forward this is where you'll start to see an uptick in some of those chronic absenteeism pieces however I'll tell you it was very difficult to do attendance when we had that hybrid year because there was the they're absent virtually they're absent in person I don't know they're absent virtually all the way through it got very difficult to actually do attendance so I'm sure that there are some like missteps in here where I mean we have teachers in the room now they probably will tell you it it got very tricky where you had half the kids online half of them in front of you and you're trying to do attendance so and this is also when people started to get sick right so kids were required to be out of school so when you start if you're required to be out of school for 10 to 14 days you're starting to go towards chronic absenteeism whether you feel sick or not you were required to stay home so we'll start to see that pattern as we go through each one of these you know for these years but this was one of the big years and then as we go into the 2122 school year we did return in person everybody came back we only had math The Mask restrictions for half a year but people were still getting sick but again the story is we were still meeting the attendance rates for the state so chumford is a state is a town that does not have chronic absenteeism in the eyes of the state um but they but we do see it in those subgroups and those are the areas that we have to focus in on and then this is the last year of data that we have for from the state because the state's always a year behind because we haven't submitted for this year and again Meeting those um attendance rates and then the uptick in those those smaller areas of lowi income High needs L students and students with disabilities what you'll notice too is that in 202 23 they also started to add in the 20 or percent more absent because more and more students are out for longer periods of time as we move forward so we're in the current year right now we don't have the data that you just had on there we won't receive that until this summer but we do have our Panorama data and this is where you'll get a little snapshot into Panorama um this gives us overview what you're seeing for the picture up there is actually like we have a dashboard so that's the district dashboard because I see all the schools and you'll notice that we're at 91% so we're well on our way of meeting our our our absenteeism rates for the state however um two things you have to keep in mind so we did have a total of 4,959 students I pulled this data on April 12th April 12th was the day before vacation so we do see a little bit of uh decline right before vacation weeks and you'll see that in the slides on the schools it's almost like I call it EKG it looks like an EKG as we go through it and you'll always see the dip in every school right before vacation week and then you'll also see a dip like in that January is February time where people are get that's when people are getting sick too so none of this is surprising um when we look at our Panorama data we want to be meeting 95% which is even higher than the state so we tend to be at 95% at attendance for our students uh overall that was going to make a question is that 91 on April 12th that is on April 12th right because you look at the a overall average is a much higher than that just April 12th right so when we go to these next few slides you're going to see the April 12th date and then the year to to date so how they've been doing so as we look at biome and this is the EKG hopefully EKG does not look like this you might need to see a position um you'll see like on that day it was at 91.1 which is still not we just are we set this to 95 so if we set it with the state would be in green but we set it to 95 because we want kids to be in school so 91.9 but they overall is 94.9 which is really almost at 95 so that would have been in the green so that's and you'll see those dips if you look at each one of those dips it's before December break it's before February break and then so on and then you'll see where people tend to get sick but that is what we're seeing and this is one piece in Panorama that we get as a report and we can do it live this is just flat data for you to see and then as we go through the schools you're going to see the same common theme as you go through each one of these schools um you'll see a little bit more of an uptick in attendance when you start to get into the middle schools and high school level and again right on that cusp of 95 at Harrington and those dips right there right before vacation although theirs wasn't bad right on that April 12th day compared to some of the other schools South Row same thing a lot of people pulling their kids out but they tend to stay at 90 and above Parker Middle School seeing the same type of um piece I do as much as I make fun of the little EKG thing it is a good visual to give you an idea of like where things are happening opposed to just a lot of numbers going across and then this is where you start to see the kids as they because this are now the seventh and eighth graders so it's even your upper middle school students and the high school they're almost like flat except for right before December because a lot of times to high school students like they need to be in school too for their grades and their other events so there is a little bit more of like a a poll for them to go in but there is a lot of missing attendance like on that day right before vacation 82.2 there was a lot of high school kids out on that Friday before school vacation so what are some of the things that we're seeing I mean overall we meet that requirement from if you look at all students from the 1819 school year to last year when we received the data from desie we only had a 1.4% difference so for our overall which is you know a good thing we'd like to see it better but we haven't made a significant change um the current year attendance is on track for meeting at the end of the year attendance so we're not concerned about not meeting our requirements or for the majority of our students and then we do see that higher occurrence of absenteeism at the middle and high school levels um we do have to monitor those four subgroups that you see there economically disadvantaged High needs students with disabilities and L because that will be important that's where we're seeing a lot of the dip and we have to find out what are the reasons is it for some of those reasons that I had in the previous slide is it transportation is it illness is it you know lack of you know uh being able to access something so those are the things that people are working on and then we have action steps that are going through so you know is this yeah this is sorry my action steps didn't go through it went it went through up there but not here so there is an attendance committee and quite honestly that was put together originally because the courts have opened up again and when we're sending kids for attendance issues they're requiring parents to come in so a lot of those um meetings were online and that was difficult because parents were not showing up so the attendance committee originally got got together because now they're required to go back to court and these parents are being pulled back in so they wanted to you know make sure the process and the procedures that each one of the schools were doing was the same rather than it just being halfhazard so it's actually a good thing that the courts are open and having parents come in because it's more accountability the judges are like get here these kids need to be in school so that's helping us that they're requiring to come in person um there is representation from all the schools on this attendance committee from the administration to make sure that the these policies and procedures are in place being done the same way sharing ideas on how they're having students come to school um the student service director is um spearheading this whole piece because there are many students that are on IEPs that need to come to school and that's where she wanted to put her focus and the coordinator of social emotional learning and counseling is on there too because they're working with the teacher with the counselors that and our and our social workers that are helping these families so for these students that have chronic absenteeism they're putting together specific plans for them so this is where you see the work of the counselors the the social workers the school sites coming together and making sure that there's plans for these families and working with even Department of uh children and families to make sure that students are coming to school and the importance of coming to school and then obviously our uh social workers and counselors are working not only with the families but they're doing home visits they're doing community connections with families they've been very helpful especially the social workers who have that skill in that area and just making sure that they're seeing these families because it is they need to be in as we said schools need to be in kids need to be in school in order for us to educate them so this is just a an overview to give you what's happening with attendance and how that's affecting us in chum anybody have any questions I like to see all that greed on the chart I'm glad we do that but it's a high percentage still it's great it it is but um but it's Al for me I mean 5% of students not in every day not being there and it's pretty high number but in any event uh one of the things that we've been discussing quite a bit during the strategic planning in that Equity Group that I've been a part of is the transportation piece M the transportation is just so so absolutely key in some of these uh families they just cannot if they miss the bus M or even getting them to the bus is sometimes just an impossibility in a particular day right you know one of the other things that we run into too is that um there seems to be a like a new trend of like people pulling their kids out of school to go on vacation right so rather than going to school they pull them out for a long period per of time or we have a lot of families that go home to their home countries for a visit and that's it's disruptive because they're gone for over a week sometimes two weeks right um so we have to we look at some of those factors and how it's affecting kids that the home visits tend to slow down as the kids get in the upper grades because there's a little bit more of like a you know responsibility and they can't miss like their AP classes and things like that but um there seems to be this like we just pull kids out because it's it's cheaper to fly it's more convenient I don't know there's a variety of reasons and they want it to be an excused absence and like it's not an excused absence and cor correct me from at the high school and the middle school we've have programs especially for medic kids for medical reasons so transition back in you know a little bit at a time is yes and they if they're in if they're out for medical and they're receiving like home and Hospital tutoring that's you know that's not going to affect their attendance but if they're transitioning back in through one of the programs we have a plan for them in place so that's not going to affect their attendance right other questions great tricking right yeah thank you good information super thanks Linda uh third item this evening is our third quarter financial report um this is a report I'm going to ask Joanna just to review with you um we just finished up the third quarter at the end of March um so these are your updated uh financials thank you you have a few um documents you see each quarter a memo that is a narrative of where we are with our budget the actual year-to-date budget report through March 31 the Grant and revolving fund summary and the Student Activity account balances for the high school and both middle schools there's not too many changes from the other quarterly reports since many of the variances popped out um pretty early on in the year um what has some of the variances has actually gone away because at the March 26th school committee meeting you approved some budget transfers to reallocate some of the Savings in areas uh for um to redirect the funds for other needs of the district so our operating budget is $7,700 th000 in 2024 um the variance well it's not a large one for classroom teachers it's only $3,825 I left the narrative here because a lot happened through the year with this category with um teachers um achieving a higher degree so they um the lane change uh number went you know the 150,000 was reallocated to the account where the teacher achiev the higher degree we did have some variances for um teachers being hired at less than Master step three we had some favorable variances for a teacher going out on an approved unpaid leave of absence um but those funds were reallocated uh to the the list that was provided at the March 26 meeting and then the same is true on um The Specialist teachers so that's special ed reading and elll and this category um is slightly on favorable right now by 38,000 but uh once we make the offset journal entry at the end of the year when needed to the chips revolving fund uh this category will be favorable uh the other variants that has stayed with us is in our transportation and right now we are unfavorable by 281,000 and uh We've talked about this in the prior quarters uh the main reason is we've needed additional vehicles for uh students requiring special ed transportation in District and out of district and we have needed um to provide transportation uh for students who are um experiencing homelessness or if they're with a foster family we're responsible uh for transporting them our plan with this unfavorable variance is we can either transfer funds from another favorable category here to cover this unfavorable variance or um we can take an offset to the transportation revolving fund for the General Ed the big buses because we do have a reserve there do we you already have that factor in the budget an offset to the um I we show it uh so it would be in addition to this when I do the purchase order for the big buses so that's $1.8 million I actually split the cost and so I'm showing some of the cost straight to the revolving fund when we get to the that page already okay okay good question y be additional if we had to Y and then uh the last uh category is AO district tuitions and this one um I made the journal entry already for we fund um out of district tuitions from the local budget and the circuit breaker revolving fund and um in Prior years I've made the journal entry um after the third quarter and uh this year since the fund um we wouldn't go in deficit or anything I made it right before the March uh report so we could get a bigger picture of what's going on with special ed so um but overall our special ed out of District tuitions are $6.7 million where regardless of where they're funded from the local budget or the circuit breaker fund and um this year the reason the number is a little bit less is because we prepaid tuitions last in fiscal year 23 for fiscal year 24 um in compliance with U Mass General law what you could prepay so when it's all said and done we are going to be favorable in this category by approximately $1.2 million that's why I wanted to do the journal entry so we could all see what the um potential is for being favorable in this category and that's largely because we did prepay the tuitions so we'll have a choice we can um prepay tuitions again some a fiscal 25 you know or we could re um reallocate these funds the other thing that was um we knew uh is that we have the credit from Valley collaborative um that was a a new reason why we were favorable by 208,000 and then the last page shows um even though the um school choice revolving fund is not helping to offset Special Ed tuitions I just wanted to show the fund balance uh for you here we are at um we are projected to be at about 2.7 million $2.66 million and what this is funding is the one: one computer initiative um each year so any questions on the 70 m700 th000 operating budget just one one question just on the in the IM mun report just under textbooks yes uh I think it's page 10 in the report sure uh uh yeah textbooks so it's a overall it's at 35.8% um is that because do we add in money for the foreign is that like under textbook adoptions we start at 127 and we added 250 is that for what we just put in foreign language adoptions yes we are uh and at the time of so after the March 26th meeting we did the budget transfers so for this quarterly report um in those few days not every purchase order was entered against everything for that budget transfer but yes those funds will be utilized for the that was my question so that that money is going to go towards the foreign languages yes and then when you see the um April report just posted to the website you'll um that number will not be as favorable okay great thank you any other questions on the general budget okay great work as always okay right the next page is the grants and revolving fund summary um not too many changes from that um I think we did get a new Grant uh the uh special ed u program Improvement Grant I think was the only new grant that was on here from the December report and then the last page is the um revolving funds and more progress is being made and no funds are in deficit any questions on the grants I just had two two questions on the there's one Grant uh essential school health Grant it seems to be underfunded or oh so that is a nursing Grant okay that we get every year for like 10 years okay and the way that works is um so the grant was for 40,000 and they sent kind of when you get the grant you get your first revenue of 20,000 from the Department of Public Health and then they will send the second half um actually I think it just came some day in April okay um and actually that Grant is also going to be increased to 50,000 so we knew that um that additional funds were coming in April and actually this was the grant that funded when the student was talking about the Chris Aon presentation this was the grant that funded that okay thank you good Mar a question here on this Esser three Okay so we've still got $548,000 on this yes this is what's its end date when do we have to spend it by September 30th 2024 okay so it's coming up it's coming up and we've got plans for it we do and we'll be giving a presentation probably in May of the okay uh plans for that and then we also actually have to report our plans for that to desie by May 10th right okay super thank you right my other question just on this special ed Reserve account that we set up we put money into it yes when did we transfer that last year would when did that go in I think we transferred any last year that's what happened that was established in F the end of fiscal 22 okay and then it's just the reason it's going up is it earns interest and the interest has to be recorded in the fund got it yep right great any other questions on grants okay uh the next set of documents are the Student Activity accounts for the high school and both middle schools so it shows the overall balance and then the balance by Club so the high school's at 233,000 [Music] the uh McCarthy Middle School is at almost 42,000 and the Parker middle school is almost at 50,000 any questions EXC me on the activity accounts good all right well thank you very much as always great job thank you thank you um more good news Yes actually fourth the agenda this evening is uh Linda will just share with you the good news about the anticipated last day of school I'm always the good news person um I don't know how I got voted that one but um yes so this is the yearly memo that goes out um just to just to give you a summary obviously back in December 2022 is when you had voted on the 2324 school calendar thank you very much and that had us with an end date for students on June 20th and for staff on June 21st and that had the built built-in six provisional days due to no school or closures um so during this past school year we only used one day we're not going to talk about that day um it happens the best um so one day of the six even though we're only required by the state to have five built-in days you have to offer 185 days um so if all goes well the last day of school for students would be on June 12th and that is a half day for students full day for teachers and the last day for teachers would be a half day on the 13th there's a little bit of caveat to this though because we have only used one of the six days which is really one of five days with the state if there were to be any in Clement weather or any reason to close a school between now and March 31st we would be required to make those days off so hopefully there's no windstorms there's no anything that knocks out electricity hash buam Elementary School i w i well that's that's the one May 31st take it back take it back um they would be required to do so because I know people always say in in April like oh we don't have to make up any days if anything happens that's only if you've exhausted those built-in those those built-in days we have not so they'd still be 4 days out there however we're not anticipating anything bad it's all going to be great so if all goes well June 12th for the students June 13th for the teachers great right any questions no but Linda said March 31st by mistake yeah oh I say March 31st sorry May 31st I was reading March 31st required sorry May 30 exuberant everything has to be fine great sure everybody at home was everybody hear this yes there's been a lot of questions a lot of phone calls everybody in the audience too everybody yeah there's a lot of calls people need to make plans so plan on that okay okay uh next up is just the uh school committee warrant signing schedule we had already had a warrant signing schedule uh for the Year this just gets us through the end of June um so we just updated it with uh adding the new school Committee Member and um Diana went on and then U Donna went off um so no other changes we'll do a full one for next year but this just gets us through the end of June any questions so we're just at the end there everybody's good still with just you know we have three people but just having one signature is still good with everybody yeah okay that and then whenever I think Diana will start up next one so if one of us could go in and just help her out and sure give her show the ropes that' be great okay perfect great I update that your packet afterward I mean your online packet as well um then the sixth item this evening is the school committee meeting schedule for next year um and so there was a um schedule in your packet but then um Susan actually brought up the fact in September I had listed the third as a date for us to have a school committee meeting but that's an election day um so we don't meet on days when there's an election so on your desk tonight I gave you a new one that was um highlighted in yellow um so we're just recommending if we work off this Revis schedule ual um to have the school committee meeting on the 10th instead of the 3D um and then the other thing is I was talking to Dennis about last year and it actually worked out well uh March we switched the dates from the 1st and third to the 2nd and fourth because when it comes to February V this February vacation week we always do the budget meeting the week right after so then if we actually kept the fourth we'd have two meetings kind of buting up against each other and then in April we don't meet the first one um the first Tuesday because that's Town election day so we don't actually meet until the following one so by moving the two March dates it just spreads out the meetings a little bit for us to do business so I updated the March dates also on here to be March 11th and 25 so if you um uh want to take a look at the revised dates I would recommend uh those dates if there's any questions or you want to talk about anything certainly can um but I would just work off of the Revis draft that I left you at your desk tonight anybody have any comments on this schedule or anything they want to change good at this point I'm sure we'll hear some feedback and then we'll let you know I mean about this schedule oh the schedule no I don't what's your feedback sorry wrong schedle you're got a lot going on so if not I'll take a motion accept the revised okay so can we not have I'll make I make a motion to accept the revised 20242 school committee meeting meeting schedule um as presented here you want this one I hey any further discussion I you are going to hear about the schedule for me now that I said that and then I'm good though that's you all all right all in favor of approval I hi 4 Z okay so I'll get that updated and I'll also get that in your um in your packet for you um seventh item on this this evening's agenda is just your school committee leaz on assignments and I'll turn this over to y yeah so I just I did make a lot of changes because most people were seem to be comfortable with what they had um um you know a lot of Diana's um assignments are going to be what Don had like sou row with the the middle school is correct me from wrong Maria they they they meet together anyways right so that's why I just put Diana for both and John as an alternate for both because they always beat at the same time so it's really just one meeting between the two of them and in doing that then everybody pretty much has six like um major coverages and then three alternates so and they try to split up people at the um negotiating committees we're doing we're going to start negotiations with four out of the five U so the custodians won't custodians are off cycle right they're off cycle they're off cycle so I try to spread those out as much as possible as well so I did send it out earlier um I made some corrections to spellings of names and things like that but other than that any questions or concerns with it um if if Diana is taking over an assignment that you had before if you could just give her the cont contact people and I'll contact Donna and have her also let her know for like sellow who who to get in touch with so to all right so I'll take a motion to accept the Le On Assignment oh yeah I have to make a motion for this one too okay I move that we accept the 2024 2025 liaison assignment contacts as presented here a second okay any other questions all in favor I I was there thank you I'll get that up in your packet too um last for me tonight is number eight this is just the Personnel report for the month of March uh not too much activity but just highlighting for you a few hires we had a few resignations and um just as a a side note we're already kind of deep into the hiring for the fall um so we're actively advertising and um going through internal transfers and external hires for the fall um we're actually pretty well underway on that so you'll start to see as we get a little later into the spring the report's going to increase obviously because it's going to list the transfers and new hires but um not a lot of activity in March but just sharing with you anyway and uh we're well on our way for hiring for the fall any okay any luck on um some psychologist candidates um not too too much I do know that they've um interviewed at at least one of because there three that we have right now so they've interviewed at one or two of the schools I know they looked at a couple of candidates dates I don't know exactly where they're at in the process now I could find out for you and get you an update um those three positions are going to be very difficult to fill right just have three at the same time is um is a lot yeah and so essential correct other questions I did the one question uh we lost his Spanish teacher at McCarthy in early March have we do we have somebody in place already we have we have a long-term sub in place and um some of us working in the background to um put together the the assignments and everything along with that substitute okay just want to check make sure okay all right that's all I had for the new U new agenda great all right anyone have any leaon reports this is kind of like quiet time yeah I know okay uh any new items action items people to seeing you guys Monday yeah I just remind we about Monday um there is a pre-own meeting on tomorrow tomorrow night 7 o' at the senior center are you going to yeah I'm going to go so if anybody has questions yeah I do have to Paul I'm not going to present um but I'm going to be there as he reviews The Articles just in case anyone had a question on budget or capital or the feasibility study so I'll be there tomorrow great and the other thing just superintendent sent everybody a link to um a list of agend it so we kind of have a running list so if you see anything that's not on there that you would like to put on to the you know one of the upcoming agendas just send me an email and we'll try to get it on that I just got to figure one of the things I've been thinking about that we really should I think we should look at again is we've now had one full year of the Middle School um reorganization here and just wondering how the Year's been whether there's anything that you know they're planning to change in ter for next year at the beginning of the year um is there any kind of report that we could get just as an update on what's happening with the middle schools yeah we could work on one towards the end of the year that just uh maybe talks about um feedback and then any alterations they're considering for that would be a good idea anything else okay uh we are now to our second public input part of our meeting uh if there's anyone present that would like to address the committee please come forward and state your name and address those that are speaking tonight I would ask you to try to limit your comments to 3 to five minutes keep in mind that we will not be responding directly to your comments during this part of the meeting although we may address them during a future meeting so come on yeah Katie had uh Katie Sullivan had reached out and requested to um speak so um we have her on hello Dr L how are you good how are you good thank you Dr H members of the school committee I hope you're all doing well just in case you don't know cuz some of you I haven't met my name is Katie Sullivan I'm currently the president president of the chelsford Federation of teachers local 3569 I've also been a member of the social studies department at chumford high school since 1996 so that means I've been around a long time and I've seen a lot I am aware that the time limit for public input session is 3 minutes but I'm probably going to go over a little bit if you're not okay with that let me know and I'll give what we wrote up to my co- person Executive Vice President Ben Cole and he'll take over so if you find that I'm going if we let you speak then Ben doesn't have to speak if you let me to speak that is correct so thank you John I appreciate it I understand trust me so the CFT represents the teachers nurses support staff including the custodial staff and also the town Librarians just in case you didn't know we are aware of the national teacher shortage as well as the fact like the majority of Americans School Personnel are overworked and underpaid despite the view held by some that we are part-time workers people who think that are very far removed from the field of Education I do not want to F focus on the national crisis I want to keep it at the local level the CFT is concerned with the retention of teachers in our district I want the committee to understand that over the last few years we have been losing teachers to other districts and some to other professions people are not just leaving because of our low pay scale the CFT feels that the district needs to start planning and working towards retaining the staff of chumford public schools in the past five years we have lost two World language teachers a World Language coordinator four Math teachers three science teachers and a plethora of special education teachers this is just a casual accounting it does not include teachers who contracts were not renewed or those who retired we do not want to lose amazing dedicated teachers due to the fact that they do not feel supported we often hear the words staff appreciation but the actions that follow do not align with that sentiment do we love being treated with coffee and donuts of course we would also like for our staff members when they reach out for assistance when dealing with an obstacle to receive that assistance support advice if possible without judgment to summarize a quote from Charles MC's short story The Boy The Mole The Fox and the horse asking for help is not giving up it is the opposite it's refusing to give up when Specialists advocate for help with the increased number of students who need to be tested provided before you have staff teaching lessons on mental health issues provide the appropriate professional development or even better have the mental health specialists in the district teach it it takes a village to educate we are concerned about the infrastructure of our village in The Exodus of professionals leaving because of this weakness we would like HR to conduct an audit of teachers who have left the district for reasons other than retirement or renewal over the last school year scores of Staff members have shared with us their specifics where they do not feel supported especially after they have voiced their concerns regarding servic students should be receiving instead they're given poor evaluations for school culture when asking for assistance now I get it everyone has more to do than ever before no one has more to do than teachers well we want what we want I'm sorry we all want in this profession sorry we all went into this profession knowing we should have to work outside our contractual hours that's not the complaint the complaint is simple when a staff member voices their concern concerns as a district we need to assist them not make them feel like quitting is the only option because who will you hire to replace them honestly who's going into this field not as many people as once used to certainly they're not coming to chumford when they can earn thousands more within a 15 mile radius instead invest in the staff you have not just finan finally provide us with the with assistance when we ask for help provide us with the professional courtesy that we have earned value our expertise as the Educators who deal with Chelmsford students on a daily basis provide training on effective educational management to your administrators educating children is not a business more than several administrators in this District have less teaching experience than recent classroom teacher hires if we are not provided with the support the committee will see a more glaring negative impact on the school district which will have a negative effect on property values will I leave no sorry I'm too old to start over however you have the ability to help CH to help chelmsford's children access the same quality of educ ation their parents received which has made the town such an attractive Community to raise a family in in the first place the biggest factor that influences property values is the trust in the municipality school system we want to bring the trust back and make it stronger thank you thank you [Applause] much anybody else looking to speak tonight hello Kathy PLO t bentle l here in chumford good evening Dr Lang school committee members I'm the VP for support staff as you know Finding substitutes to cover for teachers absences meetings Etc has been a significant challenge this year with lack of substitutes the Administration has relied on Paris to fill in when and where needed coverage by Paris can span anywhere from 45 minutes to an entire day Paris are willing to assist but more concerned that the courage takes away from their primary responsibility for working with specializ students a practice and time required for Paris to perform these duties varies from school to school with the par out of the room this has a huge impact on the students and also on the teachers thank you for listening and hearing the concerns of the Paris we are always open to discuss further to find different solutions thank you thank you very [Music] much hi um I'm Shelley bthl I am the CFT secretary I'm also a language teacher at McCarthy um so what I'm addressing is a few meetings ago Miss Santos asked to hear about the reading programs um and the teachers heard that and they asked us to speak on behalf of them so um the chum Federation of teachers asked K through six teachers to complete a survey on their current reading program it was brought to our attention that Desi offered districts money to replace their current reading programs that they deemed low quality our current reading program Fontes and panel is listed as a lowquality reading program on the desie website the deadline to apply for the grant was January 24th 2023 and it's as far as we understand it was not applied for as a federation we would like the district to replace the lowquality materials that teachers have been speaking up about since the beginning of their adoption we also ask that teachers are truly listened to and not just put on a committee to say that they were put on a committee and had a voice when in the end the administrators in control will choose what they want anyway I will be reading a document from the sixth grade ELA teachers that summarizes many of the responses from our K through six teachers I will also email each of you um the full document of responses so you can read through it they are compiled into one document so every participant is anonymous please keep in mind that the reason for this statement is to better the education of our students by trusting the Educators in the classrooms who know their students best and what they need to be successful so this is the letter dear Dr Lang and members of the school committee recently a request was made to inquire about how the fontas and panel reading curriculum is working in classrooms and how it is being received by teachers as sixth grade middle school teachers we are writing to share our comments and concerns about the curriculum as we have often have different concerns and needs than the elementary teachers although a lot of the concerns were similar to what the elementary had from the initial adoption of this program we have voiced concerns historically Chum has asked teachers to Pilot several new programs before one is chosen for this program pilot teachers were told to use the program for a year and pick elements that they thought should be used there was no discussion about looking at any other programs from the beginning the teachers felt that it was not middle school appropriate and the elements of the program that teachers found to be the least valuable were purchased the K through2 reading coordinator told us that the elementary teachers piloted several programs and chose ftis and penel because they really liked it however she was unable to tell us what why this program was chosen since the program has been adopted teachers have expressed their concerns many times about the following issues the rigor of the program is not up to chelsford or state standards it is extremely teacher directed students are passive listeners the major instructional component of the program the interactive read aloud is a teacher reading a picture book to students students are asked in turn to to turn and talk to peers or respond briefly in writing to show understanding while Middle School school students love to be read aloud to it is not developmentally appropriate to be the main component of Middle School reading curriculum many teachers have created their own slideshows to provide visuals for students to view while reading while these are helpful they are not provided by the publisher the curriculum does not incorporate any udl or best teaching practices at the middle school level which also was noted by the element teachers this method of instruction and the minimal student expectations do not align with State assessments for example in this curriculum students are not asked to read independently unless it is a free choice book or a book club novel and they are not required to they are and are not required to respond in various or challenging ways they are unable to site textual evidence as they do not have a copy of the text in their hands when they are expected to do these tasks independent L they struggle because they are not prepared to handle the challenge the program does not provide any materials or exercises to go along with the reading material it is all expected to be discussed for these reasons we often see report card grades are high yet low mcast scores what we are teaching and assessing in class does not align with what is being assessed on Statewide tests another great concern is the fontas and panel curriculum does not include a comprehensive writing program grade five has been provided with a new book of writing mini lessons this year but the sixth grade level has not been created yet while this sounds promising the type of writing they have provided is more creative and brief and it does not focus on multi-paragraph text-based informational writing which our standards require Additionally the word study lessons are very brief and disconnected from the reading and from each other for example you may be asked to teach a one-day lesson on abbreviations and then move on to spelling demons the next day the lessons do not allow students to make connections to what they hear and the read alouds or in books that they are reading independently they also only skim the surface of a topic without the opportunity or resources to explore the word study topic with any depth or opportunity or practice there are lessons about word Parts but the program does not provide any meanings or definitions so students are left to figure it out which is not always possible without any context some of the lessons are good starting points but are not enough for students to demonstrate Mastery of the topics many are not aligned with our standards we have also voiced concerns about the book club component of the program some books are chapter books while other are are picture books with the exception of the Fairly generic card offering discussion questions to be asked at the conclusion of a book there are no materials to provide to see if students are understanding what they are reading much of the professional development we have been given since we have started using this program has been low quality much of the PD has been focused on grades K through five which excluded us at times we have wondered if the curriculum for grade six is truly completed as we are often not included in the materials provided these are a few of our concerns regarding the program it certainly has gaps that a comprehensive Reading Writing speaking and listening Middle School curriculum should not have while we have voiced our concerns many times little has been done to help our students we have been instructed not to supplement the program with any additional or more appropriate materials and that it must be followed with Fidelity these concerns along with the recent article stating that fontas and penel classroom is a lowquality curriculum have made the last few years difficult we want to engage prepare and Empower our students as our CPS mission statement lists and we feel that this curriculum is not allowing us to do that in grade six sincerely the grade 6 ELA teachers and as I said earlier it's also reflected by the elementary school that it's not an appropriate program thank [Applause] you would anybody else like to speak all right well thank you all for coming tonight thank you all right uh anybody have anything else okay I'll take a motion to adjourn oh I make a motion to adjourn I second all in favor I I 4 Z okay