uh good evening hollon and welcome to the uh July 18th meeting of the hollon school committee we are meeting remotely um uh only and though I understand that we are both on streaming on Zoom but and also that hcat is back up on TV so hopefully uh people have been able to find us uh before we begin I'll just simply I'll read the remote statement pursuant to the governor's July 16th 2022 act relative to extending certain covid-19 measures adopted during the state of emergency suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law mgl 3A paragraph 20 the hson school committee will be using remote participation for this meeting the audio of this meeting is being recorded and will be uh posted to the town's web page as soon as possible in accordance with keeping of the keeping of the public informed of actions during this meeting at this time a roll call of attendance will be taken back all right uh Joe pres Hillary here Don yes Sarah here you have a Corum and uh we do expect the other two members but uh we will get started now um I didn't see so we have a consent agenda I didn't see though um there's there's note of a um of a of a gift but I don't see it in the folder am I missing it there was one gift I didn't get it in there we'll do it next meeting okay um and then okay so then so the only other thing to is the executive session minutes are being approved um so let's just do those SE let's take those out separately let's approve the consent agenda so I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda excluding the gift as well as the June 20th uh executive session minut move by Don do I have a second Sarah sorry all right um that requires a roll call vote um Frank we're voting on The consent agenda so um we'll start with Joe yes Hillary yes Don yes Sarah yes and uh Frank yes all right now I'll entertain a motion to approve but not release the minutes from June 20th 2024 by John second by Sarah okay Joe yes Hillary yes Don yes Sarah yes Frank yes all right um so let's just talk quickly about the FAQ before while we wait for Cynthia do she anyone heard from her right did someone text her yeah um so Hillary put together an updated FAQ I I sent some edits I don't know if anyone has anything they want to sort of talk about that they want to cover within that um but I think that it was it was good I I supplied a decent number of changes but I do think that we want to have made some more thought on some of it and so I was thinking that maybe we could just simply empower the communication subcommittee Sarah's okay with that uh to to run with it and and and publish it and trust their their good judgment on uh on it so that way uh we don't necessarily have to all spend time tonight given that we also have a sort of a 6:30 hard uh deadline but if there are things that we want to talk about um now we we should also do that if certainly people who aren't on Communications want to get certain ideas or thoughts out to put onto the the uh the FAQ I got your adds to Dan I'll include those in the next draft okay nothing specific on my side it was um I think it was very comprehensive it covered a number of topics and the information was consistent with what was published in the past so I think it's always a good thing I do also think we should probably uh just run the final thing by Keith Susan and Joanie just uh to to ensure consistency with what you know as far as implementing of different different pieces of it and stuff like that um do that makes sense once Communications sort of has has a final draft um so I guess at this time then um I will entertain a motion to sort of authorize the communication subcommittee to finalize the FAQs and um circulate them and then publish them move by Don second okay um wait just saw Cynthia so I'll just before we we can now have some discussion about it I just want to update Cynthia before we move forward see if she has anything she wants to add so we were just sorry what was that I'm sorry we were just discussing the FAQs and I had supplied some changes to to Hillary um it seemed like you know did you have anything you wanted to add because what we have right now on the table on on the floor is a motion to basically authorize the communication subcommittee to sort of finalize them um run them by the administration to ensure that they meet the administration's views on things or or not views on the but understanding of how things will will go um but did you have any sort of changes or or thoughts you wanted to add for communication sort of takes over um I mean yes and [Music] no that's right you can Circle back to me I just we'll just approve it and if we have to add we can add things to it if we want to and you can also send you can also send notes to I'll just yeah I I just had a couple things that people that I was talking to some one yesterday and I and it was it was you know just new thoughts of things to add and I didn't want to like spring that anybody now so like I don't want to hold up our process so let's just get it out there and then as we have more information we can just update it okay um just this motion isn't to approve the FAQ it's to approve Communications finalizing y okay uh so we'll take a roll call uh Joe yes Hillary yes Don yes uh Sarah yes Frank yes and Cynthia yes I know and I am a yes as well um okay so moving back up to the agenda we finished the consent agenda piece um the uh initial reason for having this meeting obviously is vote on the appointment of Dr David Jordan as the super assistant superintendent for finance and operations um does anyone want to have any discussion about this or should we just move to uh to to a motion any thoughts I I think there's been a lot of I mean consistent feedback early on when the news came out um has slowed down since um a lot of mixed feedback I I think you know I do applaud the committee that did interview all of the cans that came in it was important that we looked at a plethora uh of varying experiences it is challenging environment out there for this role um and thus uh you know I do believe at this point um Dr Jordan is the best candidate to fill I think at the last school committee meeting we heard um a lot from Dr kuska and Mr Beday around the um hiring process that they have gone through and the qualifications that they see um in Dr Jordan as well as the interview that um we had during the school committee meeting um I don't have anything to add um and I would concur I think Dr Jordan did did a good job at the interview I think he will um I think he's a good candidate and I uh you know look forward to to working with him um and I'm glad that we have Keith on board for a while for a little while anyway uh to assist with the transition um and but to be honest I think that you know unless you know we had found somebody with you know 20 plus years of experience we were going to need Keith to assist with the the transition for for anybody so this is not even a Dr Jordan specific thing it's a um when you have somebody in a role for 25 years right you know it's it's it's a it's going to be a difficult transition regardless not difficult I don't mean difficult transition but is going to you know be there's a lot of information that that Keith has uh in his head that he's going to have to download for whoever was going to take that job so um Dr C do you have anything you sort of want to add no um certainly Keith and I have both talked with Dr Jordan and we feel he's ready for the appointment and we're going to be meeting pending this um final vote early next week to talk about the transition timeline and process okay de or Joanie okay um so with that unless there's some we can still even talk afterwards but I will entertain a motion to appoint uh David Jordan as the new assistant superintendent for finance and operations pending um contract negotiated move by Cynthia than by Frank okay um that requires a roll call vote uh Joe yes Hillary yes Don yes Sarah yes Frank yes Cynthia yes and I Dan am a yes so congratulations to Dr Jordan um and uh look forward to working with youing on uh the network specialist job description who did you want to discuss that yes so um thean McLoud had approached me we've had some changes in this department and also changes over the years through how we deal with our technology and as you know the network system has changed all of our switches all of our the way we access technology has completely changed and a lot of the work that we used to have to do in person manually at the computer station is now done remotely and um so because of that we have two people in District that are already well ready to take on additional duties so we are changing the network admin job and reorganizing the department so this network specialist job will we have two people in that job doing technology Specialists and network Specialists and then we're hiring two new technology um Specialists as well so we'll still have the same team of four within the same salary ranges it's just really to make sure that we're meeting the needs of today's computer system and how we access technology in the district and we're confident we have two very skilled people in the role moving into this role already so we feel like this is a really good way to make the next to plan ahead for our future okay uh and so you're looking for a vote to approve the job description yes please okay uh does anyone have any questions about the job description or about uh the role anything related to it going once going twice okay that I'll entertain a motion to approve the job description for the uh position of network specialist so moved okay so second second by Dawn all right um Joe yes Hillary yes Don yes Sarah yes Frank yes Cynthia yes Dan yes all right um I skipped over uh Communications is there any individual comment no okay and there's no public on the zoom so I assume there's no public comment um it's not on here but I don't but the uh the uh since the administration is also public the public part of the public if they do have anything they want to say I apologize for for uh for cutting them off I don't go ahead I just wanted to say before we move further on I when you had talked about the FAQs and that you wanted um Administration to look at those I didn't see those in the folder so um yeah if somebody could share those with Keith and joonie and will take a look at those when you when you like some input yeah I think there was just some work that needs to be done so I think once the communication subcomittee kind of has a more finalized draft final draft rather than bring bring you in before things are are finalized just so that you can look at the final issue prodct no problem I just wasn't sure if you thought I had them already yeah it's more just to make sure that we're we're being accurate with all of our statements and consistent so uh Keith They joining anything just one thing just um the uh Skylight project at the elementary complex has done um the the uh Miller playground project is probably I would guess maybe about 50% done the the playground mulch has been put down they've cleaned out all the old stuff um they've put a base layer down and now they just have to pour so that that's moving along um and as I'm sure as you drive down Hollow Street you can see our lovely beige walls so better than Green so I was the green was drawing on me actually but uh I think I might have been the only one I'm sorry is the last wall done because there was still green at the carnival I remember yes yes no the the it's not done yet I'm saying that's what they're on now they're on that final section so any update on the playgrounds uh the other two playgrounds again we're waiting for the contractor to give us a schedule um so we're I mean it's moving forward it's just we just they need to have the the the the uh uh elements that's the word where the elements that they put into place or have are that we've selected to put into place they're available right now it's it's getting them here not well I guess here true getting them here and available to them and uh getting them to have an install schedule so yeah James felt confident that they were going to meet our timeline that they knew that this was a summer project that we wanted done before school so we'll update you once we hear anything further but that was James's last communication to me a few days ago okay all right um moving on to our our last agenda item before we get into executive session is the uh schedule for for fiscal year 2425 um the only just two things I I have uh asked us Dr Kuser just to kind of have it put on there a discussion or an update just for the first meeting as a sort of a followup to the December rankings and rigor uh presentation that uh the administration did not much to update us on the date and any new data but just to have kind of a further conversation about different action steps that we may be able to take um in in in that regard as well as if we do have any new data um I don't know if I think I heard AP scores might have been out so just any anything that you could update us on would be great um but but also at the same time this is not like a huge detailed report like last time I'm not looking for you know people to spend hours on it yes I'll I'll pull any slides that we might have updates and are you okay with me removing the old slide they just want me to take the de and leave it as is and just add any new information I don't have an opinion I think maybe adding the or changing the slides where we have updated information just highlighting those are changed sure how's that sound yep that sounds good so the only other thing I would add is that obviously between Thursday the 22nd and and September 12th uh August 22nd and September 12th obviously there's the override vote on September 10th so there we may need to add an ad hog meeting in there if there's a need arises or something I think we just need to be flexible in that period if possible but also I think that from an Administration perspective I'm not sure that if you can't make it you know it would be more of a a school Committee Member type thing just so I'm not trying to get SP you know waste too much of of your time or andure that you know that you have to stay late on those days but um if you can just sort of keep that in the back of their heads so any other questions about the calendar okay uh with that I will entertain a motion then to approve the calendar as amended um just to adding the the presentation or discussion on rigger um as presented your packet um for 2425 by Sarah second by Dawn okay requires a roll call vote Joe yes uh Hillary yes Don yes Sarah yes Frank yes Cynthia yes and I'm a yes um so we have now a calendar schedule to go off of um okay so our next official meeting and hopefully this will be their next meeting is August 22nd um as a a reminder uh School uh the first day for teachers is August 26th and the first day for students which is a half day uh is August 27th and that's for first grade it up right the kindergarteners start a day or two later so um this will be right before the start of school um we do uh we we should go into executive session uh at least briefly before we we have our information session um so I will entertain a motion to adjourn to Executive session from which we will not return uh to conduct strategy session to strategy in preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel uh or uh um contract negotiations with non union Personnel so and this is for the assistant superintendent of finance and operations Dr Jordan mooved by Don second by Cynthia right this requires a roll call vote uh Joe yes Hillary yes Don yes Shar yes Frank yes Cynthia yes I am a guess as well where is that link Dan where the link yes no we're gonna stay right here oh okay sorry I thought you said we're gonna uh Bruce uh we are adjourned for