good evening everyone today is Tuesday April 9th and the time is 6:37 p.m. and I'd like to call this meeting to order uh first on our agenda is the consent agenda first is minute from March 26th has everyone had a chance to review the minutes yes okay any questions or comments for those nope hearing none I will take the motion U make a motion to accept school committee uh minutes March 26 2024 I a second second all those in favor I I next is warrant 60 and 61 which are going around for Signature um questions or comments on the warrants all right hearing hearing none can I have a motion I'll make the motion to approve warrants 60 and 61 can I have a second second all those in favor I next is visitors comments any citizen wishing to speak before the committee must sign in with the administrative assistant prior to the opening of the regular session of the school committee the visitor will identify themselves by name and address and shall speak for no longer than 3 minutes for anyone unable to sign in ahead of time we ask that you clearly state your name and address so that this information can be included in the record of the meeting and we have no visitors cool you're up thank you I hope you're all doing well I don't have a ton more to say from the last two weeks that I met you last uh at East Meadow of course it's the last week before April break so everybody's wrapping up with mcast and other tests mcast uh of course grades three four and five 3 four five and six are either getting ready to take it or are taking it currently I was told that it is going to be Dino night on the 13th uh this is a program to help promote Ela in math within the community of the younger kids it will also provide a reading space for kids which to develop those skills going to H in just it's the 11th the 11th I apologize no no problem the 11th I'm I over at the high school um start of the spring Sports Seasons game started this past week the cradles for CR program I mentioned two weeks ago also finished up the other day I was told that went very successfully uh it's the end of the third quarter started the 4th School tentatively ends on June 14th now as we know cuz of that last snow day last week mcast is also in swing over at the high school seventh grade is taking it this week and high school is still building schedules for next year for student leadership and representation I was told Corey and David of the senior class went to Boston with Mrs Romano for a student government day I was told they also wore suits there actually so I'm it was a good time School culture and environment spirit week this week Hawaiian day Monday twin Tuesday anything but a backpack backpack Wednesday should be good I got a couple ideas and we're finishing up with pajama Friday there will be a field trip to Sunny's for the seventh and eighth graders and a field trip to Brownstone for the ninth graders coming soon on May T and excuse me on May 9th there will be a good decision and positive action uh meeting for prom of course to keep students safe on the after parties to make good decisions not be stupid um April 29th there will be a digital skill assembly for all grades for Community engagement there was of course the volleyball tournament for autism acceptance there was seven teams a teacher team two student teams with a medal prize a lot of people showed out for that we had good turnout with that the pathways program was also ran at around the same time and gained a lot of money they're making more money every year so that's going very successfully as for future plans and goals um of course teachers and staff are still working on student schedules the final touch-ups on signups and course selections are going on right now the cell survey will be released April 29th for the final one of the year and in the newsletter I was told by Miss Jordan this is important uh there was a summer programming for pre-ol opportunity that all students should be notified about as it has opportunity for volunteer work and internships that might help them for the fields they want to go into for college that's pretty much all I got so when is prom prom is going to be May 10th this year it's at the barn at Hampshire College it's going to be from 6:00 to 10: they're selling tickets now currently at lunch uh Emily and R have been out there doing that for the past couple of days I bought mine tried to get that out of the way give him a customer give him the first customer I'm sure they appreciate you buying ahead I know PR tickets often go last minute well I'm I'm the one planning next year's too and I am quickly understanding that it's a lot work all that so I appreciate all the effort that they put in for us especially because you know the senior class does it for the junior class usually every year so I appreciate that I really do great any other questions for Cole doing grateful I appreciate it thanks Cole see you tomorrow right short and sweet okay um here's the big one voting on The FY 25 budget so you should have in your folder it says FY 24 budget FY 25 most language fy4 budget oh that just might be the title didn't get changed I'll double check it's in there it's language is it in there okay got it sorry it wasn't at the right spot and there's also a fy2 budget summary sheet in there um it's just that kind of main Landing sheet that we've used in the past um and this shows us closing the Gap as of last week we had a gap still of about $80,000 um and you know I think we've been pretty consistent in saying that it's we are seeing fy2 is going to be um a tight budget um but I think Todd and the leadership team and the budget and finance subcommittee have worked to try to minimize the impact I want to be clear that's not saying there won't be an impact um I went back and watched some of last year's meeting at this time and we had talked about making about $700,000 in Cuts last year and we're around the same number this year um so that is backto back years of pretty significant reduction we've been fortunate fortunate to minimize the impact on Staffing to an extent but there are places we've talked about throughout this music um being one where uh we haven't been able to build things back into the budget that weren't in that were eliminated from last year's or this current Year's budget um so you know we've said all along that our budget is built on projections and things change and sometimes those things work in our advantage and some times they work against us um but this is a Balan budget that we're asking you to vote on the total amount um of our full operating budget we're anticipating being 12, 15,580 7,99 um questions and comments on this first my comment is I just want you guys to know how much I appreciate all the work that you've done on this because it's been a a daunting task for sure um so I really appreciate all the work that you guys have um have done for that because we're here without I mean $700,000 of cuts is um is awful but it's not as awful as it could be where you know districts surrounding us are announcing huge layoffs and um things so job well done thank you and I think we're unfortunately in some ways taking a one year at a time approach always looking ahead but also understanding that some of the things that we're doing to get through also kind of push things down the road a year um with the hopes of maybe some changes to financial formulas or other areas that we could benefit from so um one question is if the governor does something and there's more um more money somehow for Chapter 70 or whatever would would how would that work as far as the town's concerned and secondly if there's more money coming in does that mean we can add some stuff back so I think we have two options so as far as the town's concerned one of the places that I would try to do things and this that go hand in hand is maintain as much as I can in our revolving because right now we're offsetting quite a bit of our budget with particularly school choice revolving um and that's that's got its own cliff and so um if the per pupil goes from 30 to 60 and and we see another 19 just SI $20,000 that's there's not a lot we can build back with that we're not going to be able to rein build a music program or something like that and so that's a place where keeping that and revolving gives us some flexibility not a lot again it's not a program Builder but it's that unanticipated expense that we can cover um rather than going to the town for Reserve transfer um you know I think only thing we've talked about that could potentially bring meaningful change to our budget would be funding schools at that recommended 60 million which given the projections and where everybody's talking about with Revenue I don't foresee the legislature going uh to that level of funding but that would be the place where then we could really start FOC at what are we building while still maintaining uh some reserves okay I think I don't know that it's a phrase that I coined but I said to Todd at one point last week I I there's always some risks in the like but I think we've been conservative about the risks that we've tried to take and say like okay if this happens might we have a cushion somewhere else and so we've tried to be thoughtful about all those places and not zeroing out accounts and like going through everything in a revolving account so we tried to be thoughtful both about shortterm and longterm and the impact of all these decisions that we're having and um you know I think there's some things that either are not in this budget were removed from the budget or we weren't able to build back in that people continue to feel but also think we've been creative in some of our problem solving that has minimized the impact in some areas that we could see further could have seen further reductions okay any other questions on the budget are we ready to make the motion the the language is in the folder on that sheet that um they put in there for us uh sure I'll make a motion uh make a motion to approve the proposed fy2 Grand B Public Schools operating budget of 9 million $847,000 to submit to the town of grand B and preparation for the annual town meeting I have a second I'll second all those in favor I I okay next is continued business first read policy ihbc for dual enrollment so I know this is the um policy that George and I looked at last meeting um and what we discussed then was essentially going with a policy that allowed for the procedures to be implemented by the superintendent and building um staff so my apologies so what um what I would note because I know this has been on the agenda in terms of the dual enrollment conversations and different things like that and it is just a shorter policy that if people were open to it I don't know if we need a second read if we wanted to potentially wave that option um I think we can but it doesn't have vote on the agenda so I think we would have to take a vote to add it as a vote is that correct or should we just table it to the next meeting um I think if you're okay with it you could take a vote to make a vote and we can always throw it on the next meeting just to again it's not going to have a huge impact on the immediate there's no action that will be taken although guidance counselors could let those students as they're fig figuring out their cast class schedules know that they have some more flexibility so that's the one thing but I think if we're feeling like that's going to be supported then we can communicate that to guidance as well now so well I know Cole mentioned that they're working on the schedules and all those pieces so I would think sooner rather than later would be helpful but if if I'm I'm fine with it just I so I will need a motion to add it on as a vote I'll make a motion to add it on as a vote can I have a second I'll second all those in favor I any additional discussion on the policy as it stands the um grades earned in the college coursework won't be calculated into the high school GPA that's correct but they will receive the credit towards their diploma yes okay yeah and typically College admissions offices M will run their own calculation based on courses students take in their transcript so it just doesn't get calculated into the schools GPA because it's not a course offered through the school so the biggest thing is those kids that take full advantage I'll say of the dual enrollment lose a chance at a higher rank overall because they're not their GPA is not being calculated with those courses so they're not taking High School courses so an AP class has a higher weight than like an honors class or a traditional class and so there's someone that's taking a ton of AP classes and someone else is taking a bunch of dual enrollment classes and everything else was equal the AP student will have the higher overall GPA per class rank okay does that make sense it does okay um which is fine because I think in the long run those that are taking dual enrollment are seeing the benefits cuz AP is going down this weird weird thing where a lot of schools are not even even if you test at a three or four not giving you uh credit so yeah so that's one of the things that the work group that we've worked with the past year around this specifically we've talked a lot about because there's not a standardized approach to accepting AP classes the approach to accepting dual enrollment classes is more standardized it doesn't mean it's going to a ho Community College course is going to be accepted at every school across the country but many schools have an equivalency chart to say if you took this course here it would count for this course in our institution where AP is a little bit more all over the place and if your AP class is in your major they're going to make you take the class regardless even if you got a five on the exam because they want you to learn their curriculum how they teach it and it bu because it builds from there so everyone's starting at the same place at the same time Y and you're in the same cohort likely of a group of students who would be going through that path um all right uh with if there's no other discussion I'll take the motion to vote accepting policy ihbc I'll make the motion to accept policy ihbc second all those in favor I excellent nice job you guys that was it's a good one okay superintendent search so we have in our folder a list of um people that are interested in being on the committee and Jill if you could uh where was that other one was it just in the folder it was in the um previous previous meeting no in the previous mhm is that primary it's the superintendent search committee list okay if that helps to sit yeah I just want to look at have them side by side so um the list that we have we have it open the list that we have we have have um quite a bit of interest from East Meadow at least two of the members I see are also GAA members and then we do have some interest from the high school and again I believe is Mr racing on no okay um so the two GAA members would be also teachers at East Meadow I would get I would guess then all right so someone I'm just talking in circles here so we what we need to have is what we did last time is we had one school administrator two District administrators two school committee members um but with the composition of our committee now I suggest that that is just one Committee Member um because other otherwise you would be Quorum in that meeting with really with the way that it is right now so I'm going to write this down School administrator and then ad you said two District admin yeah I think one school administrator two District admin I'll just take okay one school committee member um GAA member um one or two for that we had one last time but I don't know that we're we have to be exact so I'm just curious thoughts just match with last time okay so one the only change I'm making to that is again the school committee um so we're still at potential the you know 134 number which I think is a how many parents all right so parents for East Meadow we had we had two from each school right and then essentially it was two staff from each of the buildings in addition to the GAA member and then I think the intention was to have have two community members but we ended up with one last time all sudden and done I see that person just keep scrolling oh went to the next page yeah okay so the Community member last time was that person still on a board yes so um Okay so have I have 15 by that count yeah I have 14 14 there's 14 unless you do two community members and then there's 15 yeah 14 I think 14 is so I had one school committ one school administrator yep two District administrators y one school Committee Member y one GAA member two East Meadow parents M two Junior Senior High School parents two East Meadow staff two Junior Senior High School staff two community members you can try for that so 15 15 person committee so and then I think if you potentially start with that committee and can do the selection process if there's people that aren't chosen they can be alternates too because sometimes after that first meeting or so if people can't commit or things come up yeah so we need um and of this one um we'll have a chair you had an executive board last time sort of right like a chair and a uh co-chair or vice chair or did you just have one and then I felt like there was a few of you that were yeah I think it could have been I think when we were in the selection group committee we had somebody like doing secretary stuff like all those pieces to cover um so we can't um we can't pick the date right cuz we need to have the committee the committee but I do see um Todd's name on there as someone from central office so I'm um my vote is for that and then maybe you could help start to organize getting some um people I don't know if we want to go through and pick all these people or invite them and kind of run through and see if people or send an email if people drop off once they see what the expectation is I'm just not sure like I don't want to Weedle it down and pick from this and then have people say I can't meet the commitment of you know yeah I think if you're able to identify at least the school Committee Member the district administrator or District administrators and a school administrator then I think maybe that group could connect in the next couple days again I think personally and I don't know how others feel I think the postings open until next Friday right now the 19th so if the committee could kind of be in place by the end of this week then as soon as that closes you can start screening identify a group for interviews and then I would say at that point it's really the committee how many people the committee would like to see recommended for interviews so looking at this I'm I'm thinking that um as a community a Community member we could have officer Gilly and Rick although he will be uh his position ends um at the end of May at the same time as jills but we're trying to have it done before then so he could act in that role he's also a parent so he would be duly haded as well I feel like when it came to St you would probably remember too staff and parents that they were chosen at random after being grouped together so it was just like they if there were four interested parents from East Meadow then they pulled two names if they were four interested from the the junor high school they pulled I was going to ask is there more of a random way that can select from the pool right well I'm just looking that they're the only two people that are community members in the way that we used it last time mhm so that's how I'm looking at it but I you know I'm totally that's where I'm I'm stuck because I don't know if we say all right um Todd and maybe Ally and Lisa are represent as we've got then a district and one person from each school have them sort of be like the chairing committee to get this together so that they can do random or if we pick a few people off of this list that's where um that's where I'm sort of star stepping because last time we didn't we didn't as the school committee go through and pick the names out of the hat so I think if we get our school Committee Member and I can go forward with the process um in terms and work with the school Community member in terms of getting the rest of the committee selected uh in whatever random fashion um like you said there are a couple of people who wear multiple hats in here can kind of reach out and say do you how would you like would you like prefer to identify yourself as the staff member or as the GAA lays on and that might help sure teir it down or at least Target some people okay yeah and I think I'll just acknowledge like in a short period of time 27 community members staff members administrators reached out to be a part of this so I think acknowledging like just appreciative that their willingness to step up for this and also hope that they recognize that we also have some constraints that we have to adhere to and it's I think that's why it's good that you guys are kind of talking about a a random selection process for some of those places where we have more people than we have slots um and I think it's not that people's opinions aren't valued or anything like that it's just we no no no no nobody I don't think has indicated that just like we have to have a manageable number absolutely so um so for the school committee member um I think I've said it before for but last time they when I was chair they asked me to step down because I would become the tiebreak vote if when we go go through and are voting on The finalist that I can't be in all of the initial workings so it's between the two of you and George um who wants to be on the search committee I'll let you say your piece first I was going to make a joke that we should just yeah know I just I do worry um with George's work um commitments if he you know but the meetings might be at different times so it might be totally um totally fine so again I you know I don't we have to run two of these right so this is the initial one and then we have to do other one the so this yes yes and yes you want to do the initial and then I'll do the following one and that way we don't have to flip a coin well she won't be here at the right bottom oh that's right by default still work she's like that still works for me yeah that's fine that's fine and if dorge wants to yeah shift anything I'll let him know he has that opportunity I can't imagine he would yeah so I've got Todd and Jill for sure and the two of you will kind of take it and move forward are we okay with this are you okay with this m um and then if we need to make adjustments we can do that okay once the once we have the members if we need to make adjustments let's make sure that we do that okay okay are we good with that you're good with that thank you thank you Joe I know it's going to be a daunting uh daunting task um anything else that we need to talk about for that um I guess it probably doesn't have to be talked about tonight but if there were to be a that the committee would want to see it identified as finalist but I think that could be discussed the 23rd as well because the posting closes the 19th I don't think they'll have screened and interviewed by the 23rd so um I think that's just something that the committee is going to have to make a decision on if not tonight at our next meeting well what do you guys think about going into that would it be better to know as you're setting up um with the committee to know what I don't know that it makes a difference for us at this point either way it's just an arbitrary number that we're so I think it in a lot of ways it makes sense to at least think about moving forward three to four candidates because you don't know if somebody like before those finalists are announced are going to kind of pull out um and I think three would be ideal to kind of interview as the in the full and we had someone last time withdraw right before being named as a finalist so I um I like the three to four you could say no more than four no more than five so you have a cap at least for me no more than no more than four would be ideal I'm perfectly comfortable with that because I think that that um gives us a good um a good pool to work with and it gives us room if anybody has to pull out because it seems like a lot of times they're applying for other positions as well so um are you good with that yeah do we is that a vote a vote vote I don't think it needs to be does it I think so okay so no more than four candidates um that sounds sounds good uh good to me all right enrollment dashboard this is also one that's probably pretty easy tonight it's I don't know how this keeps happening but it's three in and three out and we remained at 712 one in and out was from prek one in and out was from K and then we had one out from 11th no one out from 7th and one in from 11th so it's a new enrollment in prek a new enrollment who relocated to town in k a new enrollment who transferred in from a private school in grade 11 and then the withdrawal was a prek and a k mo transferred because they relocated out of state and then a grade seven that transferred um or school choice out and that left us at 712 total for our I think fourth third or fourth month in a row fourth month in a row four month in a row well it's first time that's happened it's nice to see even though there's some changes that were overall um staying fairly steady any questions on the dashboard okay so just one thing kind of connected to that that's floating out there we didn't talk about k um school choice when we talked about school choice we have talked about it internally it's still I think there's some volatility to it we're like 35 or 36 so I don't know I just want if anyone's watching it's not that we've forgotten about it I just don't know that there right now is action to be taken at it on it because we do typically get some enrollment over the summer at that age so um to open up school choice now might end up making that class size bigger than we typically hope so just wanted to make sure we mention that okay superintendence report so again always good to have our student rep back not just to have the student voice but because they take some of the things that I always plan to mention for uh superintendent report but want to EMP emphasize East Meadows Dino night it's a math and literacy night is this Thursday April 11th from 5: to 7 here at East Meadow um reminder to folks that it is spring break next week so April 15th through 19th schools are closed I know that there is an um attendance and acceleration Academy happen at the junior senior high school so if students have question they can talk to Miss Jordan or Mr Rodriguez um and schools will reopen on Monday April 22nd um we are in position to have our statement of interest to the msba submitted by this Friday's deadline we um I think have our final signatures and that should be submitted uh by the end of the day tomorrow and msba will also be on campus next week um it's actually not the msba it's their um contractor for the recommissioning at East Meadow they had their initial walkth through here at the um at East Meadow last week and they're coming to run tests while students and staff aren't in session so that they can get some of the classroom data um and things like that worked out without um being interrupted and also want to announce that um last week Governor Healey made the announcement that there um of new innovation career Pathways and grandby was designated their to have their first Innovation career pathway starting next year in Information Technology um and it's anticipated that that designation will come with opportunities for additional funding and support the development of that program so we have a meeting tomorrow afternoon a new design meeting tomorrow afternoon to learn a little bit more about next steps but really excited about that there was a team of people at the Junior Senior High School who put a lot of time and work into that um to get that designation and happy to have it and look forward to seeing it getting up and running excellent that's great thank you Tad uh so the main focus was obviously getting the budget to you um so we crossed that hurdle um the kitchen project so the um one of the companies that we're working with they're sending their electrical engineer out tomorrow to do their inspection so we've had our uh ventilation inspection by them they're building their um proposals get us ready for the bid process and so now the electrical side is coming in tomorrow so we're looking to move that project along excellent that's all that I have all right Jill so CES met um March 27th um they discussed their rates in terms of some programming with the m Tom mountt and HEC Academy tuition rates um there was a review of funds as part of the budget portion um the executive director gave the report because it's also their 50th anniversary year so they're doing Special Events um and then we reviewed the evaluation for the executive director which was all very positive EXC EXC um anything else for any of those um I just have one thing that I just wanted to mention on a sad note um we lost U Mrs still who taught in the district for 35 years she was a kindergartner kindergarten teacher first grade and fourth grade teacher um and she was also very instrumental with um friends at the grammy public library and so we just want to pass along our condolences to the still family um okay for our next meeting on April 23rd um Stephen I think we need to work on your evaluation we need to get that finished up before I'd like to get that done before May um because I really want you to be a part of that so will you present then y so I'll present on the 23rd and then our next meeting it would be May 7 so we have enough time to we'll have those two weeks to be able to put in our inputs um so I'll do the same normally it's cop like hard copies of the proposed goals with the evaluations everyone their individual electronic copies already before the mid cycle so people could take notes and keep them so everyone should have that if they had a question you can certainly reach out to me here Jackie um next meeting should be um work group meetings I think right um at do will we need to do any more budget probably probably worth having it on the agenda oh was all set um we just I don't know if we'll have more information about the date of town meeting or anything like that and um the one pager and things like that so and then um do you have more policy stuff that you want to do yeah we had if we can go back to yeah the other one that we passed by um all right anything else that we can think of right now for um next time think so I think some of what has been community relations could be handled in budget in that one because and I think both of us are on both now so we can kind of have it be budget and commun relations how to get people out for the vote and you know um we did have some people come this time which was nice so we're we're getting there all right if there's nothing else um we'll vote to enter into executive session under Massachusetts General Law chapter 30A section 21 part A3 to discuss strategy with regard to collective bargaining as doing so in an open session may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the committee the committee will not return to open session can you do a roll call vote Please Mr hi M hi hi thanks everybody have a good night