welcome to the hoil school committee meeting on Tuesday April 23rd it is 6:03 p.m. I will start the meeting with roll call I am here and my name is Aaron brell Miss lefave present Mr Romero Miss tensley Williams here Dr Rivera clone here Dr cabay Roa present Mr willan here Mr Kore here Miss Wilson present and our wonderful student from the dean campus Evan Kennedy is here with us as well um all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance please I'm here too who's there oh mayor Garcia I'm so sorry the screen does not tell me you're there oh I see it now hey welcome mayor Garcia thank you for joining us sorry about that Pledge of Allegiance iates ofer Nation all right so real quick bear with me while I do some housekeeping notes on March 29 2023 Governor Healey signed into law an act relative to extending certain state of emergency accommodations which among other things extends the expiration of the provisions pertaining to the open meeting law to March 31st 2025 specifically this extension allows public bodies to continue holding meetings remotely without a quorum of the public body physically present at a meeting location and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meetings this act does not make any new changes to the open meeting law other than extending the expiration date of the temporary Provisions also a notice is hereby given that this meeting is being audio and visual recorded and broadcasted out through our media all right welcome everybody to begin the meeting tonight we'll start with public comment but I don't have anybody signed up I confirmed with Miss cabala there was no one signed up as of 3 p.m. via email and we have nobody here in person either so moving on we will start with Communications and reports and we will turn it over to our wonderful Dean campus representative Evan Kennedy for his student report all right everyone we have a lot of re a lot of repeats that we've had over the past couple weeks uh but they're important dates and there are a lot of dates I'm going to be throwing at you so I will be happy to repeat them at the end if you'd like first things first on May 11th our seal of biliteracy will be celebrated at UMass we are very proud of our results this year and it is important to celebrate the students who accomplish this amazing and vital goal next as you will all see in front of you you have a flyer on May 18th we'll be hosting our annual Dean Tech Car Show competing cars Will Roll in at 9:00 a.m. and we'll leave about well from 9:00 a.m. uh to 12:00 p.m. and the festivities will begin at 1 and end at 3: with trophies such as uh best Honda best Toyota best audio system best in the show best classic and the rest of them are are listed on your flyer we currently have two food trcks for this event uh we also have that flyer in front of you I do have more flyers for the food trucks or uh yeah the vendors I do not currently have more um car show flyers but I will be happy to run upstairs and make some copies if you need me to next on June 12th from 5:30 to 7:30 will be our annual program advisory committee to celebrate and reflect on the school year 2023 through 2024 next we have a we had a total of 37 students attend April Academy to strengthen their math skills students immersed themselves in mathematics and completed a Project based learning project with one of our cosmetology instructors students saw firsthand the interrelated role that math has in cosmetology and everyday life that's a big uh I'd say complaint over students as you know that we don't often feel as though the curriculum relates to real life so it was amazing that this was able to kind of reflect that um to some of our students and we have a few senior dates here prom will be held at Hitchcock County H nope I'm sorry Hitchcock Country Club on Thursday May 23rd at 5:30 senior day will be on Thursday May 23rd at 8:15 senior breakfast and graduation rehearsal will be May 29th at 8: a.m. senior trip senior trip will be on May 28th to Brownstone water park and con graduation will be on May 30th at 5:30 here in the gym if I if there are any questions or you'd like me to repeat any dates then I will be happy to miss lefave so is it set that it's going to be indoors rather than still open to whether it's going to be outdoor or indoor if weather not good the graduation I'm going to assume that it's going to be indoor but what I will do is I will email Miss caraculo and Miss Bermudez right now to get confirmation and send out an email to the committee after the meeting or when I get an answer so um this is just a recommendation because I know it's happened in the previous years because of you know the amount of people that go is there any way that we can have some like ice waters for individuals I remember one time there was a family member who almost collapsed um because of the Heat and then obviously we didn't have anything to provide to them and don't want warm water yeah um that's not going to help you but like a hydration station that maybe well some people might not bring bottles but I mean if we have something even the small ones or something so that way they can get because sometimes it does get really hot in there and we don't know what the temperature is going to be outside yeah if it's like this we don't have a problem yeah I I agree um that last year it was very hot and I will definitely add that in my email I will draft an email to miss caracho and miss Bermudez right now to get an answer for you and I will send that to the committee after the meeting Miss tensley Williams Mr Kennedy uh where is the trip uh the senior trip yes May 28th Brownstone water park I don't know what city that's in Connecticut um do they need any donations you think um I will ask and let you know I will definitely let you know okay thank you thank you Mr Kennedy and just for point of note our hokai North Campus representative is at a track meet tonight so he couldn't be with us all right so moving right along uh Vice chair reports I just wanted to make note that the masc day on the hill is coming um it is May 6th from 9: to 2:00 p.m. it's $90 for you to participate I have already registered so if anybody else wants to go we can certainly organize a carpool um I if you can come I would highly encourage it uh it's a really important day uh I attached to the agenda um their talking points and leg um go priorities and goals and also some like talking uh points for like how to talk to your legislature to advocate for the things we want I sat in on a really wonderful webinar last Friday I tried so hard to find the slides on MC's website but could not um because I'm just not good with technology but um I took some pictures of the slides um basically it was just you know re if you can't make it we encourage you to reach out to our local legislators start with your State Rep go on from there go you know to Senator vas um and even uh Beyond there and just advocating for the budget priorities in particular um which I like I said you guys have attached to the agenda uh the main budget priorities are adjusting the Chapter 70 inflation index fully funding the student Opportunity Act and the special education circuit breaker and establishing a minimum of $100 per pupil increment as a base number for future years um so feel free to do more research I'm happy to share more information I'm sure miss lefave knows a little bit more as well um but again I encourage anybody who can to attend um and if not uh like I said reaching out to your legislatures in advance to help advocate for uh funding for um public education Miss Le fave so I will add to that so how it all starts off with day on the hill is first we meet at the UMass um Club in Boston um and there we have speakers that come out so um our confirmed speakers is is going to be oh okay our confirmed speakers is rap um Denise garlic and Steve ultrino they're the chair and the vice chair of the joint committee on education um and also the interim commissioner um Russell Johnson after that then we go so we already have appointments scheduled um that our um chair of the legislative committee um for Mas does for us um because we've asked them um and scheduled appointment but there's other members who already schedule ahead of time there the times that they're going to be be meeting with their um State reps or the the staff staff is just as important as meeting uh with the actual rep and uh we go to the state house and we go and we talk about our legislative priorities but it's also good for them to hear about stories from the field so it's your personal stories from within your community and how it um budgeting or certain things impact um our students education and and well-being but then the best part of it all is that students from across the Commonwealth from The Vocational Technical programs they come and they cook and they make their they bring specialty things that they've created and it's just in that big Hall where it's just mounds and mounds of food um that the students have prepared for us and actually for um all the staff and and Reps um in the capital so we eat together oh yeah it's you'll see yeah it's it's great it's it's a great experience um but also it gets you in um as I've always focused on it's not just about local the local yes you want to focus on local but what changes local is your impact on State and then your impact on National um because that's where your funding is coming from um especially in in our city the majority of our funding is state federal it's it's definitely not what's provided locally our local contribution thank you Miss Le fave uh Dr Rivera cologne and just a quick thing it's $90 for anybody but but for students it's free great is that an excused absence as well Mr photo he said I'm just uh anybody else have any comments okay great moving right along to new business um back on masc uh information uh Miss lefave suggested that we start considering who we're going to select as delegates for this year's conference um there is not exact dates yet but it will be the beginning of November and it will be at the cape again um so keeping in mind if you're our delegate it's your job to read ahead of time what you're going to be voting on and do the diligence there and then attend the conference to vote as a representative for the body as a whole Miss LEF so really quickly we we would need a delegate and and then an alternate delegate in case the delegate cannot fulfill their their Duty um it is the role of the delegate to really look at the resolutions that have been passed forward by the resolutions committee that will be presented to the delegate assembly it's also the duty of the the board that they represent is to really look at it as well and decide you know although I say that you when you're making that decision you're making it in the best interest um as well for for your community right um but I do know that there's boards that they put the they put it on the agenda and the expectation is that whatever whoever the delegate is is going to vote according to how the the committee has wanted um wanted it to be voted on and then if there's any um amendments then obviously they'd get that direction from the full board and then you would that delegate would then bring the Amendments forward the delegate assembly the delegate assembly is the members that determine what we're going to be moving for forward and really advocating for legislatively um and that impacts students across the Commonwealth so um that's that's your role so I know we usually nominate somebody but I think if there's anybody who would like to be the delegate to to let them be known and if not then we'll go ahead and uh try to recommend someone so again is there anybody that wants to volunteer like anybody that wants to do it Ellie you want to do it okay so Miss Wilson can be our delegate granted we'll vote on this in a second and I think I'm seeing that Dr uh cab wants to be the alternate now keep in mind you can still attend this conference even if you're not the the voting person right you can attend you pick your session you can attend as as much stuff as you want so keep that in mind right it's not just exclusive to that that is gone okay so I will entertain a motion then to um move forward with rep uh with uh Committee Member Wilson as our delegate to the uh delegate assembly and Committee Member Dr cabano as the alternate delegate motion I heard a motion from a voice it was Mr Kore right okay I heard Mr cmore on the motion and I see Mr wahan on the second uh because Josh is on Zoom we will roll call so roll call uh mayor Garcia yes Miss Brunell is a yes Miss lefave yes Miss Tenley Williams C Miss Dr Rivera cologne C Dr Cavo Roa C Mr willan yes Mr Kore yes Miss Wilson we come with something French in the mix now all right motion passes unanimously thank you everybody um next on uh new business is some policies are up for second review um so the policies are listed below it's the CHC development and dissemination of procedures it's dbj budget transfer Authority that's ironic and DH bonded employee and officers um I will let Miss Wilson say anything if she feels needed and then we'll go from there so I would be um I have not been notified that there is any public comment um or you know anyone commented on this so as the updated policies um stand in place um the procedures policy is again that school committee creates policies and the superintendent and schools create procedures and it's up to the superintendent or design in order to you know uh disseminate and share um procedures that have been created um and the budget transfer Authority is just simply um that we can transfer funds between cost centers um you know in case there is any need and then bonded employees is just simply stating that the school uh District pays for the cost of the bond for any uh positions that need to be bonded the motion to approve second review are we sending this then um to the the receiver recommend to update whatever even though there was nothing it's just to kind of update that it was reviewed um yes so um since it's a second review it now goes to the receiver the receiver discusses it um with uh the state and then if approved it goes forward um and gets the policy gets updated that's online our policy book per se that's online Okay so the motion would be to um send to receiver for approval ad adopt sorry send to receive for adopt so the motion was made by Miss lefave seconded by Miss tensley Williams any further discussion Miss lefave are we taking this as a package because then I would have to so we're going to take it as a package that all three so so the motion is is to um to the receiver to adopt so it would be CHC dbj and DH yes yes on discussion Mr willan um can I move the budget transfer Authority can I take that out and move that into the finance committee to be discussed brief is it it's not um but should it have done been done at first review yes you asking me I am so yes Miss Wilson so I would say that any uh policies that would like to be reviewed by any subcommittees should be done at the first reading because now if the policy want if the subcommittee wants to make a change um we will have to post it again for review so going forward if we're on a first review of any policy um I would ask that any subcommittees that wish to address it um you know or review it within the subcommittee be it be done at first reading so keep in mind Mr willan that can't that doesn't mean it can't be done now if you feel like you need to and then of course we'll just have to post it again it's just a minor language change it's just a minor language update on that policy yeah we just been um discussing this briefly bandring back and forth just uh the policy of um budget transfers so I'm not sure whether the committee with Mrs uh Mrs Wilson's a member of anyways want to just weighting on it on the subcommittee level for forward that's my only Mr SoDo yeah um I think the this policy in General Jay is is Broad enough to allow flexibility cuz the key word in there is transfers between cost centers yeah that's my right so I think a good discussion you know this is my opinion a good discussion to have in subcommittee is like what are those cost centers right um because ultimately like I think that's the like we're going to land on school committee has to approve transfers between cost centers but agreeing to what those cost centers are like you don't want to every single we have 3,500 accounts in in the hoolio public school department each school has a supply line instructional materials textbooks like you don't want to approve at that level but like what are those cost centers that you want to approve at I think that's going to be great discussion that we have uh but I feel like this policy is very broad enough to to name that yes we'll approve but I think more discussion has to be had around what those cost centers are that would allow us to be involved in the process but not but allow schools to you know kind of go about their business okay great thank you for that I appreciate it Miss Le fave I'm wondering if it's more prudent right now just to go ahead and vote for that way it could be adopted and and then anything specific as you guys had your meeting today when you're looking to then um make changes to where it's more specific to hoolio and what you end up deciding then then you can repo that those specific policies and we can go through them again and in this way you put in the specifics to it but for right now um moving forward with the minor changes I think it's better to move there and then a any changes there afterwards they can always be taken up again so I I mean I put in the motion I don't know if if somebody's going to end up amending it um but that's just my two cents any further discussion okay so seeing no amendments the motion on the floor is to take up as a package CC dbj and DH for um recommendation to the receiver for adoption on the roll call Mayor Garcia yes Aaron Brunell is yes Miss lefave yes Miss tensley Williams sorry Shaina is texting me see uh Miss Rivera clone hey Dr Cabo yes Mr willan yes Mr Kore yes and Miss Wilson yes okay just to repeat so that our Note Taker got it the motion was to take as a package CHC dbj and DH for recommendation and adoption by the receiver to refer to the receiver for adoption and the it was seconded it was made by Miss lefave and seconded by Miss Williams okay she should have that okay great thank you y'all moving on ongoing business updates from subcommittee policy and governance I I don't think you have anything but go ahead so I I will be scheduling a meeting um in May at some point in some time um uh so uh because we do have more policies to review as well as minutes to approve in order to send forward to the full committee Y and also the next local Control meeting is is subject on uh policy as well correct all right great some finance and operations Mr will oh I'm sorry that's okay Miss fave I just have a quick question and mind you maybe we did talk about it I'm now starting to write more here um have we ever thought about a policy on AI so I think the first business is to review and update our current policies um I I believe that AI would be uh a newer policy well of course it would be a newer policy um but um I think that we can you know look into that um I have to be very honest with you that um my focus is on current policies and updating them um and then moving forward to enriching our uh policies with ones that we feel we need thank you Mr willan finance and operations look make sure I can move forward I reached out to Mr sorto and our finance director um we agreed to have our next meeting on May 6 at 5:45 at the central office building um I have the minutes from our March 88th meeting done so we'll hopefully approve approve or slash amend those at that meeting and then bring those minutes to the full board okay thank you just keeping in mind that's the day on the hill so I don't know who your members are off hand but just confirming if they're going to day on the hill or not thank you you're welcome um okay Joint City Council school committee Miss Le fave so I did send out a communication over to um Jeffrey Anderson B Bergos as well as um co-chair um counselor uh jordane uh just to figure out when we're going to have our our minutes ready so that this way we can also meet because some of the recommendations from our meeting um let me just look at my email real quick that I sent um there were some recommendations I haven't received a response back yet but uh they wanted a follow up on Esser funding and spending if you recall correctly um superintendent sto as well as the Panorama survey I know you had discussed something about doing like um a smaller one was it like a different type of survey or a follow-up survey that they wanted presented or were we using the one that you had presented to us um in that joint committee I don't recall anything coming up about Panorama oh yeah did other than I know that we had a discussion about Holio High School's report card and there was some discussion about about a future presentation but I think ultimately Mr uh councelor jordane said that the order was complied with but um I think I would have to also check my notes Miss LEF from that meeting I don't think I brought it I brought that agenda with me where I had written down um but I do remember they wanted a follow up on the Esser funding and spending that was a definite um and then yeah they were looking at the report card and then they they were talking about the Panorama survey but I like I said I'm still waiting a response from either one um and to see when we're going to go ahead and have our next meeting I heard you guys also talking about operations um and when you're looking at um building Improvement um so I think it is very important that we're having more frequent meetings um with as a joint schol committee city council so I'll get back to you once I hear something I'll get back to the vice chair and then we'll go from there thank you so much Dr Rivera cologne for diversity equity and inclusion subcommittee primarily going over the draft plan for the renaming potential renaming I should say of PC school so I in our committee we worked on with the help of Mr SoDo and Aon lindville and their expertise on how to um request feedback and include as many voices as possible we together came up with a plan on renaming in order to include um community voice parents voice and everybody especially those who are going to be um in the building um in order to and this has a a two purpose one being the renaming of the building whether whether as part of our feedback is decided that it stays the same or it changes but also it's an opportunity for us as the school committee to to be out there in terms of that the community knows what we do and how we do things and it's another opportunity for people to have a purpose to be involved with us so to speak and be able to learn more and for us to have a presence in the community this is something that is a a short-term um project so to speak and but it allows the community to be involved and be and really see more about what we do and I think that the timing could not be more perfect in terms of us preparing ourselves to get local control to be able to have more opportunities to be in touch with the community and this would be something that is a a finite um project that people can get behind does anybody have any questions about the plan that she attached for our review yes Miss uh teny Williams um you mentioned something about re nameing I think we need to um study that first I did some research on it and um he my motto is never take a fence down until we know who I was put up and I think we need to kind of look into that a little bit more before we change the name because I did do some research and he did Mr peek um he was the first to let women um work being pregnant he also was for um um women getting paid the correct pay so I think we really need to look into that a little more before we make a decision thank you Miss tensley Williams we we did have our research done and was presented to the committee as well and all of the wonderful things that Dr peek did this is not necessarily taking away of anything that we know that was done but it's another opportunity for having the community have a say in the name of a school especially in a community where we with our students do not always feel represented with the names of the buildings in our city uh Mr willan thank you um yeah I've been trying to follow this um the policy too on on Zoom yeah um thank you for your efforts um yeah just going back to you know we're now we're we're sort of morphing into the mascots and the school colors you know do we wantan to we want to have that part of this process could that be part two of the process down the road I think you know the you know the school the school body should be involved with that too you know they could do a a survey or a contest you know you know what's the best school mascot have a you know make it a contest we want to delve that far into this you know the weeds you know what's going to be next you know so I mean I would just to me my opinion it's just not have this mascots and the colors part of this process I would do that phase two thank you yeah on the School building committee itself when discussing mascots and colors we kind of said the same thing as um you know once the school is established letting the new leadership come in um you know maybe we have basic colors established um but then letting the new leadership kind of decide and vote as a school body on mascot and things like that uh Mr cmore and then miss lefave yes I have to agree with Mr well that our job in the committee was specifically for the naming of the school and I think we ought to leave it that way we can we we as a school committee have a lot to say in that matter but uh the colors and things like this you got to leave it up to the parents you got to leave it up to the principal the superintendent and along and let them have their discussion pertaining to all those other things so I think Mr W is right just let's leave it just for the naming of the school but let's not rush into it but get it done it's time time is really getting close with the construction of the building y Miss fave I remember when this was first talked about they talked about whether it was going to be determined that this was going to be a new school or was is it going to just be like a p came down because obviously it needed to be like redone has it been determined that this it's like PEC was once here peek is gone this is now something completely new yes we're using the same area but it's totally new well so I would say as the representative for the school building committee yes and no because this process is to replace the PEC School structure however as a district we've changed all our schools in the last year right so Sullivan is no longer Sullivan Elementary School it's Sullivan middle school so the purposes of this school will be different than the purposes of the school would have been two or three years ago so in theory it is a new school but in in reality it's not right like everything we do within the school building committee is the rebuilding of the PEC school so that being said right now the name is PEC school right and the body needs to decide if they want to change the name and what that process would be so I would just suggest that you just edit into this may you know to Jay's recommendation we'll edit the motion but to remove the the the mascot and colors but to also make sure that in the discussion is is whether or not to keep the name have him presentation about peek himself and and let the people decide you know if that's the the way we want to go um Mr willan yeah thank you I mean you can kind of simplify it I mean they they tore down the original Yankee Stadium Circa 74 73 74 I'm not a Yankee fan okay I want that in the record but you know they tore down the original Yankee Stadium the house that Ruth built and they built you know the new you know the new the the new Yankee stadium it's still it's still Yankee Stadium I think they're on their third the third Stadium now thank you Mr soda yeah I just I don't know if this adds value to the conversation but I'm going to say it anyway um for accountability purposes it will definitely be a new school even if it even if it retains the name PE so like whenever you know whenever a new school is built the accountability process stays over and and you know part of that process is you know kids have to be in that school for a couple years before you could actually collect certain metrics that the state um that the state collects on an annual basis so for in for purposes of like will this be a new school yes it's going to be a new school um and we'll have to register as a new school with the state um and then they'll start tracking data they're not going to say oh this is like stem and metf combined and when we do a comparison like nope it's this is a brand new school new start new accountability data new everything even if the name is PEC no I was just going through our policy I mean it's so vague I'm just saying um so I don't know if those are again it's going right back to the whole thing about really making it it's going to have to be added into the policy into the policy an amendment to the policy for updating I think before we take action any further because it s it almost sounds contradictory itself it'll talk about a new facility but then it says changing a name and so it it just so you're saying that the policy needs to be updated before we can enter the process no I mean you guys are looking at doing this in December I mean your policy you can have it done beforehand okay maybe not that would uh ideally by September is what Margaret would be pushing for who's our operations manager she wanted it done this spring but obviously that didn't happen so ideally and then of course keeping in mind I'm coming to you next Miss Wilson policy is next for the big Topic at local control and I know Miss Wilson has suggested like reaching out to masac for a deep policy review within the district so that's something I think will'll be doing highly likely within the next calendar the next school calendar year at least right so you know as long as we're falling within our policy guidelines now which Miss Rivera clone Dr Rivera clone I'm sure you insured we were then I think we're okay to move forward for now and then obviously adopting policy forward we would you know make sure miss Wilson so I think we need to go back to some of the language that was used um and I think we did I saw rebuild the L that that term was used rebuild it wasn't a new school it's a rebuild so in my mind when I think of a rebuild I think we are rebuilding that same instit that same school so I would not be uh you know voting in favor of any name change based upon the language that was used um to ourselves as well as to our community um and I remember greatly the consternation um that was had when we took away the dean campus that wasn't we no I'm saying when we I'm talking about this okay when the city when um when when the school district um took away the dean you know identity um and I you know while it's still a middle school it's still functioning in the way it was originally built we are not changing that and so I I just wanted to make those points I think establishing this process was to mainly avoid what happen with this campus um and get input exactly um I was just checking to see if Mr Garcia had his hand up because I know he's the one who wanted this to come through the committee and to have a process rather than just simply saying we're keeping peack or not keeping PE um I'll let Miss tensley Williams comment and then miss CTO and then we're going to move on Mr Garcia did you want to add any thing to this conversation while we're on it I didn't have my hand up but since um since I'm up um on the topic here I think the conversation you're having right now and I and again I I say very little because I don't want the anyone to ever think and feel that the mayor is trying to influence the process so I appreciate the conversations people are having around us table and so the how you guys are ing this out right now where you are in the stage of trying to figure out what to do I think it's very appropriate um and again I'm just looking forward to actually execute some sort of process to engage the public so that we could start collecting that feedback and data that we need so you know we can get to a point where we can actually make a decision but where we are right now I think is very appropriate although uh like Mr calore alluded to you know we want to um watch out on the time here we don't want to waste too much time before we start anything um but again the conversation is is is really good very appropriate and I'm going to say as little as possible um just so that to make sure that the result is indeed um a stakeholder convers from a stakeholder conversation Miss teny Williams Mr PEC was uh 25 years old when he became a superintendent um Tech schools was Aon so what he did he brought it into the public so it would be with the public school system are you talking about Mr Dean now or Mr pek because you just said Tech schools well Mr PE okay thank you Miss Dr CTO yeah listening to the conversations that make me think about well yes we need the public to voice your opinions and then I thought well taking away the building and then the name this is all thought process right now right it'll take away a lot of the identity and the history of so many people who went we just referenced that place as when I went to peek my my my dad went to peek I don't know how that U changing the name would affect emotionally you know and uh in terms of Legacy terms of history and again belonging a place where uh there's nothing left not even the name so I'm just thinking and wanted to just um point that out yeah I'll just point out um of course the Dei subcommittee meetings were open to the public um and open to all committee members um and I know that they worked on it over multiple meetings so this process that's being recommended to us didn't come to us without thought um but that can't that doesn't mean it can't be adjusted of course uh Mr Kennedy um superintendent stto I actually just heard a lot about this this week but regardless of whether the name is changed or not on paper the test scores the all that stuff from PEC Middle School will that it'll be new right like we'll be starting fresh yes everything will be fresh and and you know I appreciate all the dialogue but I also want to add a perspective as well about people that might not have had a good experience at PEC and people that might have a perception in the community about PE was what peek was right and the stories about PE and all this stuff so this is also an opport and and like the mayor I want I don't want to say too much but I also want to make sure that multiple perspectives are heard this you know part of the dean name change was because of the reputation that Dean had at the time and there was a desire and I was not involved with that process so I want to be clear there was a desire to change the narrative and to and and this is also an opportunity to change this is a new start new Middle School something different um so that could there could be a group of people that feel passionately about like wanting a name change and there's going to be a group of people that feel passionately about keeping it the same but both voices are important and I think it's you know I appreciate your work and making sure I feel like everything that you've done had uh um has been about making sure we're including voices especially of those that haven't been heard because otherwise we're just going to hear from people that feel only one way and not worry about what other people feel so thank you Mr Kennedy um yeah I was actually going to make a point about that too I don't think that if we well you if you were to vote on a name change for the school that we'd necessarily be erasing the history that has been made there we just be creating an opportunity for new history to be made um I don't think we're discrediting anything that Mr peek did for the community he is still going down as a part of holy Oak's history but also it's allowing someone else or another thing to be recognized in the city of Holio and also creating like what he said creating new memor memories in that property right um so yeah that was my that was my point I was going to say you know I was just thinking that too Mr stto so keep in mind too even ultimately if the name of the building changes it we can name cafeterias gyms uh courts all kinds of other thing libraries media centers other things after individuals too if we so choose uh Mr willan real quick thank you yeah follow up on what Mr stto said you know I mean first we have to develop the policy okay we're getting ahead of ourselves tonight okay with making decisions okay the policy is what we're we betting here that's the first step right all right we haven't gone into the community yet and we're already making decisions and our minds are already set one way or the other I don't think that's right you know it has to go into has to go into the look at different perspectives as Mr stto said you know that that's that's what we're here for you know to to get their input there might not be any right or wrong answer okay there no right or wrong answer okay it's so you know moving forward we can we can not eliminate PEC name we can add a name to it you know the PEC Martin Luther King School pick a second name okay so we don't have to eliminate anything we have the old and the new that's something going forward that's that's my suggestion so you got to have two two perspectives you know you know just again what Mr stto said just moving forward you know have have a name for the next 50 years thank you um so on the motion because we've been kind of talking about this for a while do you want to make a motion that we recommend what you've put forward or does body Madam Vice chair I I do believe that we have someone who's raised his hand quite throughout disc have few people that have raised their hand repetitively my cvy to move the discussion forward I understand that but this individual has not been able to speak he has actually right Mr colore you've spoken on this have you not everybody has spoken no I have not I apologize sincerely I'm 95% sure I thought you had so please Mr Colmore yeah uh I agree with what you people are saying and I think we ought it's in committee and this committee should quickly as possible have a public hearing let the public know this is very serious business we're doing for our city so let's have the public know that they can come in here and discuss this with us and give us some suggestions because uh at some of our committee meetings uh we didn't have anyone come to even put in a word about any changes at all so I think it's important that we just get this thing moving and get get public input and say this is the way it's going to be and then we vote from there but don't don't lag on to this and lag on to this without getting the public have a say and just to point out Mr colmer was the second person that spoke on this topic so he did have a chance to speak I just want to make the record clear Miss tensley Williams um I just have one more thing to say um we can't make decisions because someone had a personal problem at the school my son had a rough time at peek so I could say well just change the name because he had a rough time at peek but I that's not it's not personal it's everyone like you said need to be involved because we can't just pick a situation that someone had and then just scrap things and again we're not trying to make the decision for ourselves we want to engage the community moving forward um so uh Dr Rivera clone has brought forward a draft plan I will entertain any motions as people see fit I would there are no motions I'll inter there's no motions on the floor just to clarify your you're you want us to give like a motion to accept this plan and and move it forward as a as a policy no no just as a plan of how while you're going to to do the renaming in order to collect feedback to then present it to these body so then the body actually votes on what the name would be is that's what's in our perview okay so motion to um accept the plan that thei subcommittee collect feedback from stakeholders colback from stakeholders second that I hope Shaya got that the motion on the floor made by Miss lefave is to accept the draft of the renaming plan presented to us by the Dei subcommittee Miss teny Williams seconded the motion Mr cmore did you want to make or let me rephrase myself any further discussion no all those in favor I will take a roll call Mr Garcia yes Miss Brunell is a yes Miss lefave yes Miss Hensley Williams see Miss Rivera cologne sorry Dr Rivera cologne yes Dr cavetto yes Dr see what happens you guys I go on a tangent Mr will yes Mr colore no and miss Wilson yes okay motion passes moving forward local control subcommittee Dr Rivera cologne so we had our most recent meeting which was just an hour ago a little bit more um it was on the topic of budget we went over the points that were shared with us for the building capacity for the Holio school committee we got really positive um feedback from acting commissioner Johnston and um we would be moving forward putting together the draft of the plan which is going to be shared with everybody on this committee so that way as we're moving forward you will also have the opportunity to make suggestions and give feedback on the plan in order for us to continue our next steps moving forward to local control thank you any questions I just want to thank all the committee members that have been taking the time to attend these as well um I think the process is going really well and I look forward to continuing it um ongoing business I see an aate field trip for Sullivan middle school as an FYI um if anybody yes Miss Wilson so I I'm just wondering when I look at these I see some of the the required lines are not filled in such as where the cost is coming from things of that sort so I would ask in the future um either we update the forms that are used if it's not relevant or we ensure that it's being completed yeah the the first form is is about getting school committee approval first right and in the like right now the policy is is that any out of state or overnight field trips must be approved first by the receiver and in local control the school committee um there is a separate form that has all those details once that approval is granted so it's really about getting the approval first before they go and do all the other work to to to finalize all of that stuff um so if if you're saying that like in order to approve these trips you want more details then like we we we'll train up the rols to make sure that they're doing that but they don't want to go through the trouble of getting all these details and then not being able to go on the trip because it wasn't approved right but I I'm just saying that if if the lines that are on the form that are not being completed if they're not relevant to us approving it or not then we need to update that form rather than it looking like it's coming to us incomplete okay that's my only suggestion fair enough all right announcements uh we have a few announcements here career at Kelly school is coming up um CPAC and esy summer thank you end of school year summer school options um superhero literacy night at Ian white school middle school building committee meeting local control subcommittee um e is English language I'm assuming yep English Learners I'm really bad that's what I that's why I was still looking for a second an L elll pack P English language Learners pack district meeting coming up and a dpack meeting coming up um does anybody have any other announcements Mr Kennedy I was wondering if we could take a quick second to go back to Communications and reports I have an answer to miss lefave and Miss tensley Williams you sure May Mr Kennedy all right so uh the dean graduation will be held inside in the gymnasium um and we will be doing our best to accommodate the families with a bottled water bottled water we did that for the class of 2022 and we hope to do it again this year um if possible Miss tensley Williams the senior trip is covered so donations uh so we're not accepting donations at this time but we appreciate your your generous offer thank you all right great seeing nothing else then I will entertain a motion to adjourn motion second Miss Le on the motion seconded by Miss Wilson I'm sorry Mr Mayor once the motion's made we can't entertain any other discuss discussion if I'm not mistaken according to Robert's Rules I had my hands up before these motions were made but I'm fine to uh Reserve hold on one second please I just wanted to make sure I could take it before I did I apologize I did not look to my right before taking that motion so Mr Garcia please just that I want to invite the school board members and anybody that's watching from home we are doing state of the city scheduled for May 9th that is the day that I'll officially be presenting the budget to the city council and then they have their hearings scheduled after that May 9th state of the city presentation city council chambers at six o'clock thank you Mr Mayor and apologies all right so on that motion to adjourn then made by miss lefave it was seconded by Miss Wilson all those in favor roll call Mayor Garcia yes Miss Brunell is a yes Miss lefave yes Miss tensley Williams see Dr Rivera cologne yes Dr cab Roa see Mr willan yes Mr colore yes and Miss Wilson yes all right meeting is officially adjourned at 7:01 PM Tuesday April 23rd thank y'all --------- welcome everyone to the local Control subcommittee meeting in this Monday April 23rd we are calling to order at 57 roll call Miss Brunell here Mr Romero Dr Gloria cavalero here and Dr Dr colong that's me here all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance housekeeping things first on March 29 2023 Governor Hy signed into law a supplemental budget bill which among other things extends the temporary Provisions pertaining to the op meeting law to March 31st 2025 specifically this further extension allows public bodies to continue holding meetings remotely without a quorum of the public body physically present at a meeting location and to provide adequate alternative access to remote meetings the language does not make any substant substantive changes to the open meeting law other than extending the expiration date of the temporary Provisions regarding remote meetings from March 31st 2023 to March 31st 2025 pursuant to Mass General doll chapter 38 section 20 I'm hereby informing all attendees that a video and audio recording is being made of the meeting and the meeting is being live stream and run on the live City's community TV channel thank you everybody for being here today everybody's favorite topic of the Season budget we had we received um in our very first meeting our document for Holly public school committee capacity building and it included a section of budget we had a meeting with our finance committee um chair in order to make sure that we had all the information available as well as with our receiver Mr SoDo and vice chair Miss Brunell I will would like to entertain a motion to suspend the rules to allow Mr wellan the chair of the finance committee to be able to speak at this meeting so moves Tak all in favor I oppose so moved okay Mr wahan can you come up we also would like to recognize that in attendance is also Mr calore thank you so much for being here and Mr SoDo is also here joining us today as for all our local subcommittee meetings we have acting commissioner Russell Johnston and the chief of staff Lauren woo as well welcome to both of you so one of the things that we were doing as going through all the things that we should be learning and being trained on in the process of going transitioning to local control about the budget was kind of like taking almost like stock about what are the things that we already do and have in place and things that we will be able to do very soon one of the um points that was brought up in the capacity building document was maintain and established budget subcommittee we have our finance and operations subcommittee up and running and I would like to ask Mr willan to kind of like give a little bit of an overview of what the subcommittee does or has been doing so far far Mr willan thank you thank you for the invitation yeah just um we're having um um meetings um as needed not necessarily monthly but as needed with um Mr stto and Sean uh the finance Finance director just to get updates on um current budget um number how they relate to the district is there any need for um additions um we' really concentrated on the money that we we got through the uh Federal funding program uh Sr Sr I guess um moving forward um want to concentrate on those issues we want to concentrate on well we back up we changed the name of the committee to op to finance and operations just to get a firmer um firmer Viewpoint of the needs of the school system in terms of the facilities I know Mr stto that was his former uh former title the finance and operations so I know he's done a lot of work with the operational um growth and um uh improvements with the school buildings I know Mr kmore has been a champion of that for for years I know the past I thought personally there's been deferred maintenance on a lot of projects I know even the school facility manager has you know in publicly stated that you know that you know we he had some sort of phrase you know we we fix it till it till it breaks you know until just you know it's just the the policy you know just we just need more of a long-term um long-term plan just to uh you know get the facilities um manageable we all know that there's only a limited amount of money out there I know um the district I know I pointed this out in many many meetings we're in a better financial situation here in hoyo than than our our um surrounding communities you know ammer Bel town Northampton they're all struggling to um fund their school system you know they're cutting staff they're cutting programs there's infighting going on between the town councils and the school committee so we're we're in that we're not in that situation luckily because of the student Opportunity Act and the are funding so I think we're in a better place you know as opposed to 10 years ago when Mr SoDo got on board you know he always had a he always had a cut cut cut so I think we're we're in a better place because of that we want to maintain that going forward that's what I'm concerned with um I know some of the schools and districts that I mentioned I think maybe their planning wasn't that great they're using extra money for one time cost costs as opposed to long range planning so that's my take thank you so much questions from the committee to Mr wellan Dr Gloria cavalero um thank you so much Mr um Kahan I have a question how do you envision um that we can make our budget sustainable now that we're in a better place um making sure that it is not just this year but that it continues being in such a way that is um sustainable and that we can count those monies those funds to really keep funding the programs and keep hiring people how can what can we do that's our goal I agree with you that's my concern okay that's my concern going forward you know um who's going to be in this in this job in five or 10 years I don't know but just just um let's leave let's leave the district in a better place I know Mr Mr stto and Sean um I always putcher his last name so I'm just gonna call him the finance director okay so I know they have they're putting together a fiveyear school budget um Outlook is that that the right term Mr Soto just like a fiveyear plan looking forward so I I think that's going to be the the true um benefit that we have a good team in place we got we got our finance director and Mr SoDo who are specialist in in this in these um uh this this process so we don't get behind we don't get we don't find our ourselves in a pinch I know we we talked about was it um was it Brockton all of a sudden a day things were great and by Friday they had a $14 million budget deficit okay how did that happen okay where's the long where's the longterm plan and where's the short-term plan on that so I think with the team we have in place with um I think uh we're we're um in a good spot moving forward thank you thank you so much thank Miss bro yeah I'll just add to that too like a lot of it comes down to um lobbying for money through the state so masc of course is our partner in in advocating for that and we'll be discussing in our full meeting tonight too um MC's uh Dan Hill which is coming up and the main budget priorities are to adjust the Chapter 70 inflation index to a full cap of 4.5% so we got to make sure that the legislature is properly funding education they need to fully fund the uh student Opportunity Act and the special circuit breaker and then they're also pushing uh for establishing $100 per pupil minimum increment as a base number for future years so you know it's up to us too to continuously be advocating on the legislature side to make sure that we're getting adequate funding but then also of course to Jay's Point making sure we're hiring people who who do plan ahead for the future because you know luckily our financial team did plan properly for our Sesser funding plan properly ahead for the student Opportunity Act so that way we weren't funding positions that we couldn't afford for the long term so um those are some things we can keep an eye on too as a school board thank you thank you so much so the next item that we had was collaborate with Holo Public Schools administration to prepare and recommend the annual budget to the receiver for approval and then the sub point for that was subcommittee members participate in School District operation and planning meetings this is something that we already do both of the subcommittee and full committee we get the information and we also get to see the budget calendar as well even though we're not technically a functioning body as the state is the one who has the power to make these decisions we do vote to recommend things to the receiver um on a regular basis as we look through all the different we we vote to accept and then recommend them the receiver the the the language it sounds a little funny when you know that there's not real local control however we we do go over it and we take it seriously and we listen to all the different things that come in those presentations as well conduct budget presentations and discussion at the subcommittee and full committee levels which we do vote to recommend the annual budget to the receiver again this is not something we get to vote on because we are not under local control but we do receive all the information and discuss it as we go as I have mentioned in the past because we have as a body and a good relationship with our receiver we get to have these discussions and often times if there's something that we need to discuss further we do and whenever we need more information we also Al requested and it is presented to us so I wanted to make sure that I mentioned that as well any comments yes Mr wahan thank you yeah um I think we've been um sort of blessed on this committee over the years since I've been here because each one of us brings our own to the committee um like I said um s Callum where he's been champion in Dean tech for for decades I don't want to age him but for decades okay that's a compliment um and and um again just making sure our our buildings are are in good shape and I know um Mrs um the Fay um just um has been a champion of the um having monies available for the for the um uh um the subse uh special education the subsect in our uh in our programs making sure those are funded uh Mrs Bernell has been a champion just to make sure we're getting her um adequate um monies from the state in terms of school choice reimbursements and special and uh um get the special education so I think we kind of all bring our own perspectives to the committee and um I think it works well thank you okay moving on engage HPS Administration in discussions of quarterly budget Updates this is something that happens regularly if not quarterly um sometimes monthly depending on when the finance committee meets and Mr SoDo prepares a monthly report that he sends over for discussion so again this is something that we have been doing and regular communication with the receiver recommend to the receiver budget transfers this is something that I don't think historically has been done before but I could be wrong for those of you who have been in the committee before me can tell me more about that but I don't think that this has been in place before so this would be a new recommendation that we would have to work on and figure out the process for that review warrants payroll with the receiver this is something that again we haven't necessarily been doing because again we're not under local control and that takes time and effort um but it's something that in preparation for um transitioning um to local control uh one of the things that we were talking about and Mr willan can speak to this further is revising what the the protocol or the procedure was for reviewing warrants in the past and seeing how we're going to move with that to the Future Mr wellan yeah um I wasn't on the finance committee um before we went to receivership I know Mrs Mr berell was on that with a couple other people um Mr Bernell too and I know um I think they just took turns going down to the central office just assign the warrants so that's something that we'd have to we'd have to put together just getting a plan going on that just in terms terms of really the timing what time what time are the warrants available what days know um who's going to do it do we need a majority of the board to sign the warrants that's my question I know there's a provision in the law where can committee can adopt it have one person sign the war warrant but that don't make that don't mean it's a good law it's a provision that we can adopt but whether that's right or wrong that would have to be have to be vetted I'm maybe in favor of having the uh some sort of a majority in place to sign the warrants but moving forward if that's a challenge we have to revisit that thank you I also want to add that even though this has not been necessarily in place they are available to us if there was someone from the committee who wanted to go and look through them they are available and we are informed of that so that's something that again that we can start doing as well as we move forward then the last of the points that were given to us was assign a representative to observe collective bargaining this has not been in place and this is something that um has to be discussed by the full body how that would be moving forward I understand that as a recommendation and that's something that we would need to discuss further and it's something that has not been in place Miss brell yes thank you um yeah so um as Dr Rivera cologne is alluding to we had a wonderful meeting um between myself herself Mr willan Mr SoDo and our chief of finance and you know I know Mr commissioner one of the points you're looking for is kind of like how do we plan to uh work moving forward so we talked a lot about um what's working now and what we want to see bringing forward so I think it's important to note um we discussed reaching out to masc and having Glenn come and teach another budget class even though we just did it last year but come in teach another budget class to the subcommittee and then also in that helping the subcommittee with outlining the facilitation of how we're going to best work moving forward um so obviously in collaboration with you making sure we're hitting all of our key points um but some of the things that are we're doing now that maybe we weren't doing pre-re receivership that we would like to continue to do moving forward would be as an example like the cost Center levels and decentralizing the budget process so you know allowing the principles to establish what to do in their schools but also of course with the consent of the superintendent and the superintendent the district giving them leadership and saying you know you have to fill like you know these key essential positions and then what would you like your school to see and be able to have moving forward so we'd really like to see see the decision keeping focus on what the building has to offer especially in a unique District like us where some buildings have different offerings in other buildings whether it's dual language or you know uh vocational here at this campus or whatever we it is that we have going on um the other things we discussed with that was staff allocations and discretionary spending um and then like for the school committee to start to plan to have regular meetings with the fin department and the superintendent ahead of budget season to kind of discuss our priorities so I know that's something that Mr stto is working on now individually with us so for me as an example it's art and music I want to make sure the district's always being conscious of funding art and music so that we're providing a you know a well-rounded day for our students so every like Jay had said every Committee Member tends to have its focus and it's its priorities at the moment so I know that Mr stto is working on doing that with us now and I know that's something that we'd like to see continue moving forward uh in regards to the um assigning a represent representative to observe budget uh collaborate oh my God collective bargaining Aaron my tongue doesn't want to work today that's something that we came that we thought was a good idea to implement now so someone is learning or observing the process again in preparation for doing it out of receivership so that's not something that we would necessarily continue out of receivership because of course our role would be then to actually be active members as a committee in executive session for these things so that was more like this is what we could be doing now to be learning and to be preparing um and then there was one other point you had on there I wanted to touch on too um oh budget transfers so what Mr SoDo and we discussed was establishing some kind of um figure right so that way somebody doesn't have to come to us for small transfers but they would need to come to us for larger transfers so again within the work of the budget subcommittee in planning ahead we would be discussing and establishing like what those baselines look like so that way we know moving forward uh how to best uh engage them when they come up so those are some of the other things that we talked about moving forward too thank you so much Mr willan yeah thank you yeah um just follow on what Mrs forel said yeah I mean it's not my goal to micromanage the the school district you know that that's that's not my Approach you know you know we hired a superintendent to to run the schools you know that's that's their job you know we're the oversight Authority that's that's that's my take on it okay if you talk to other school members throughout the throughout the Commonwealth they might have a different perspective but that's that's mine you know so again you know what M Mr Bell said just having some sort of a threshold where you know if there's a major transfer that it has to take place because of some some reasoning you know again probably because the state didn't fund us accordingly like they should have know so you know that type of issue so I can see that moving forward um my experience before receivership with the like the bargaining you know I I just you know we just just um we we let that up to the the lawyers and the and the superintendent work out the uh the contracts you know we um discussed those in executive session we approved them or didn't I remember going back and forth with with some of the um Finance people at that point you know where the school the school committee wanted to give larger raises you know then there was a push back back and forth um whether I think that's how some of the some of the local towns might have got in trouble because they gave out um too big of uh contracts now they're they're sort of feeling the effects of that so that's that's just my take you know um I think we're just we just should be our role should be an oversight Authority kept in the loop okay we don't want any s surprises like I said in and Brockton where all of a sudden over the weekend they're in the whole $10 million okay so that shouldn't happen and again just back to that long range planning that Mr sort mentioned and again what M Mrs Bell said just you know the sometime what the state promis you promises us and funding doesn't doesn't happen it it doesn't materialize you know so we have we have to Pivot you know so so I think unfortunately we're at the mercy of the state in a lot of regards in terms of the funding that one we expect until we get thank you Miss Bruno I yeah just to mention I think it's important too when you talk about you know the long-term plan and capital planning you know when we talk about our infrastructure our buildings right like it's important to keep in mind too like our buildings ultimately are owned by the city so we need to be working with our joint committee in collaboration with the city council to make sure that school projects are being funded easily that aren't within the pervy of the Massachusetts school building authority right so repairs things like that because at the end of the day the liability does come back on the city and it increases the the overall value of the properties for the city too to keep these buildings in good maintenance so I think it's critical that we start to focus more on our infrastructure and keeping them in good standing so that way for the longevity of them we have good building so that's partly why we refocused and renamed the finance committee finance and operation so that way to ensure that we're we're keeping an eye on that end of it too because Finance is not just what goes into the day-to-day running of the school it's the school itself thank you so much so one other thing that I added to that we added to the agenda as an additional evidence of how the budget calendar happened for um over the last year and I also highlighted all the places where school committee has been involved not necessarily that I needed to show you all the evidence because if you wanted to see you could see all the agendas of all the C last couple of years of all the budget and everything like that but Justin generous an overview so that it's it's a matter of record that we have been involved in the budget before and it's something that we are prepared to do moving forward so now for item two which I'm going to invite the acting commissioner um to speak on this is what are what would be our next steps for building capacity we already know that we want to utilize the resources that we have available from math ask in order to get our training for a budget is there anything else that you were thinking that we needed to do and have you seen enough of our evidence moving forward as well thank you uh Dr Rivera colog thank you so much and really to all of you for a tremendous presentation tonight uh I kept smiling and nodding as you went along we're working from the same list which I think is helpful about you know what is the role of the school committee related to uh financial decisions to budget and finance and so it was just great you know like you were doing just ticking down the list of the ways in which the school committee has already taken action and things that you can see that you need to make some decisions on um such as you know like you said having that um having masc come back is a decision that it sounds like you want to make and we're fully supportive of that a decision around how to sign the warrants uh so there's are kind of small technical things that just remain left to do and a lot of it is just you know I think for the idea of a plan right this section isn't going to be hard to write because you're already doing so much of it and so it's just going to be to capture what you're already doing uh showing our shared commitment that this is on the right path um and is supportive of a process that brings you know both the sort of financial oversight uh like you all said as well as the kind of you know public information that the school commun needs to provide um and the specific actions that the that a school committee needs to take relative to budget and finance and you know I appreciate you know throwing you know you're adding in operations as well uh so um I think we're you know very much on uh a really solid track here and um just very encouraged by everything that we're hearing tonight um I wonder if um if it's possible if you would bear with me if I take maybe one quick step back to then talk about how we can then codify what we are uh doing here tonight um I'm wondering about now that we are this is our second our third meeting but our second meeting related to content um I'm wondering if what you all would think about us beginning to draft what this what you know the components of the plan will be um and um you know so for example I I really appreciated this conversation tonight and like I said I don't think this will be that hard to write because so many of the things are in place and then we just need to identify a timeline for the things that you know like taking a small example like the signing of the warrants you know when will the school committee decide if they want that to be an individual or you know a a quorum or however you all want to want to slice that so I think that's like one thing to name but I worry about it if we go too far along without beginning to write things down we might begin to forget um you know what did we talk about in each of these meetings and so I would offer to you if it's helpful for Dy to begin to to draft the plan and share it with you very openly 100% open for comments and feedback so that you know our goal is by we by the time we get to that last meeting that you know that we've been developing this plan all the way along and that we are all feeling very you know confident about it once we get to our last meeting in August as opposed to waiting you know to towards till we get to the end to start actually writing a plan so wondering uh how you all you know what your responses to that and then you know what we would maybe want to do is to take tonight's conversation and for our next meeting uh begin to have a draft for you of what this would would look like for your feedback and input and then we can kind of keep this process going so that again we get to hopefully something that's just really solid and really actionable uh once we get to the end of this process absolutely I have started a draft of what that looks like that I want to share with our full school committee for feedback and then once I do that I'll send it over to you so that way you know if you have a draft that you're working on we can kind of like merge them together and kind of see what things are the same what things we need to add and so on and so forth I love that that sounds great and I'll just add that I I oh I'm sorry I'm so sorry my apologies um to your point yes we'll look look forward to in in transferring that document back and forth we can try to establish the dates that we're looking for um you know when are we like you know in what month we're going to have mac out so therefore that's the month you know finance will draft their plan and then you guys can review and so yeah it'll be good to start establishing the dates but I know that Dr Rivera clone has already definitely been working on a Google doc to be outlining what we've already been uh covering and it does have a space for timeline as well okay acting commissioner Johnson thank you thank you um so I again I um I like that idea a lot of um beginning to outline the uh the steps and a lot of uh I appreciate that we covered sort of the essentials and Miss Bruno I especially appreciate that you brought up the development of the annual budget guidelines and priorities um so that you know I think a budget is always that statement of of priorities uh and it's such a key document for you know what are we investing in for our children and so when we think about you know the the timeline for the 2425 school year uh you know I just want to make sure we're all we're talking about the same thing that for these items that we've discussed some are ongoing um but also you know things like you know when will the school committee have that discussion about you know guidelines and priorities for the development of the fiscal year 20's F budget right um you know something that I know that we would would want to see in the the draft that you all cre that we contribute to and and we talked about it tonight um and I was very encouraged uh when you brought that up Miss Brunell and you know that that would be you know a critical thing to each of those things that we talked about and I'm just using that as an example uh to have in this plan uh would be what we I just want to check to make sure we're calibrating that that is the level of detail that we want to make sure we include excellent absolutely and then one one thing that I want to for everybody who is still following this from home this also ties back to what we were talking about last time because all of the things that we're doing in the budget also align with our strategic plan which aligns with our turnaround so this is this is all connected and we're working on it moving forward Asis Miss Bruno yeah to your point uh commissioner if you reference the document that jotti attached you'll see our our structured budget outline for the previous year so based on this it would be like say December of this coming year that we would be starting to plan um our overview of the start of the budget season for the following calendar year but like I said I know that Mr stto is already working on establishing those IND individual meetings with us to make sure that he knows our priorities um so I know that they're already starting to plan um but again referencing this you know there is some official timelines that we were working off of before that we can go off of and just adjust moving forward excellent excellent thank you Miss Bruno Mr willan yeah thank you again um yeah I mean um I think the key key take of this meeting tonight is just you know um proper proper planning you know you know oneyear plan fiveyear plan long-term plan you know that we have to Pivot you know if the state doesn't give us money that they promised a year ago can we find that you know um again um I'm just going back to you know the experts that we have in our uh in our district that that have the ability to just lead us through those times um um when you foul again I just keep pointing back pointing the finger to Amhurst and uh and Northampton and you know there's there's a give and take right now between the the the school committees and the town councils are like well why didn't you do this why didn't you do that why didn't you plan that you plan this so there's a back and forth there's a distrust distrust that's going on um throughout those communities because they have a budget budget deficit so that's just something that uh we want to alleviate here again it's just one team and just again with the the proper planning and the and the proper um expertise from the um from the district um I think we can uh achieve a a good goal moving forward thank you Dr cavalero well thank you so much for these presentations and talks about the budget and uh the presence of the acting commissioner and uh and the chief of staff um this is I am a new member of the board and to me what it shows is how intentionally and proactively this school committee has been working for years and decades and the fact that we're collaborating with you um commissioner is something that um presents a common vision for our city moving forward um collaborating with uh with you and everybody all the stakeholders can can only prove that holia has been in a position of just you know wisdom for many decades and trying to really preemptively as I said before uh look forward um to get us out of receivership in such a way that budget is one of our priorities here to see how we can you know together uh can put the city again in a good spot uh Spotlight thank you so much I'd like to Echo Dr caver roa's words as well and and just like I did in the first meeting with we stand in the shoulders of giants right there were people who were here from the very first year of receivership who really held the position and held all the mechanisms that we have now possible to be able to do what we do so that when we had the right receiver who would listen to us also and also have all of the people who are working really hard for us it was just a matter for us as a new people it was just a matter of learning what we needed to do but it wasn't a matter of recreating or restarting we are really just making official what has been happening already so again thank you to all of those who came before us who have moved on to sering other ways as well I would like to ask the committee one last time if there are any other things that they would like to say before we move to the approval of the minutes next Mr Johnston is your hand still up for a new thing or was that okay please go ahead sorry I wasn't sure do apologize I I really appreciate how well you run the meeting and I didn't want to interject so thank you um so just wanted a couple of things one is I just wanted to mention that you know there I've heard a bit of a narrative tonight around you know the state promising funding and whether not you know if those funds are not made available um I know that you know the state actually has made a lot of funding available to Holio through the receivership which again to Mr sto's credit um is not not something that the district is Reliant upon into the future and so I think that's really you've built a lot of sustainability around um moving beyond the state investment and receivership but I think you're referring to perhaps other forms of State funding I just want to mention that if there's ever a question about that if there's ever a concern you know how to reach us and we want to support Holio well we want to advocate for Holio now and in the future uh that desire for sustainability that desire for being able to fund your priorities uh will will always be one of our top priorities and so uh just want you to know that you know we stand we have I feel like we've ve been very financially committed to the district and will continue to do so uh in the future and so just wanted to make sure I I just mentioned that and then I also just want to put a quick um note that I appreciate again uh the discussion earlier about drilling down the school committee perhaps drilling down to uh school-based uh funding decisions and there are different ways that and that that U Miss BR you brought that up and I what I appreciate about that is it sort of went beyond the checklist that we all looked at tonight and the the kind of the the traditional role of the school committee and there are some options that other districts have uh investigated around this and this might be just something that we note as uh a follow-up item to look into further um there are ways in which for example the school committee reviews they don't have authority over school Improvement plans but the way in which a school committee sort of sets uh with the superintendent a deadline by which they want to review School Improvement plans and can use that to understand what the priorities of of the school are to then inform budget conversations is an option there are ways in which uh districts have created a Performance Management framework to be able to understand uh the the progress that each school is making for funding decisions um but I just want to put a that I think that item sort of went a little Above and Beyond in a good way um the the checklist that we had uh to kind of look through to work through tonight and so I just wanted to uh to name that I thought that was uh another encouraging aspect of tonight's meeting and if it's something that the this committee wanted to look at and maybe even build into this plan I know that we'd be glad to um to be part of that conversation as well so just wanted to name those two things thank you so much and just having that decentralized budget creation really mirrors who we are as a community where all the voices are important and it's much harder and inequitable to create a budget from an ivory tower for everybody else rather than actually listening to everybody who's going to be affected by that budget so that's something that we definitely want to keep moving forward thank you I don't see any other raced hands so I will take a motion to approve the minutes for our 32524 meeting so moved Miss Brunell on the motion second second by Dr cavalero Roa all in favor I thank you so much for that and that's just the first I have the other ones so those are going to keep up coming in our next meetings thank you so much to everybody in the room we had also in attendance Miss tensley Williams which she's snu in and I didn't get to see her earlier so thank you so much for all and Miss lafab of course all of you for being here and all of those of you at home for sticking with us and actually looking at what we're doing and our student representative who was here earlier than me so shout out to you as well thank you so much everybody and I will take a motion to adjourn so move Miss Brunell on the motion second by Dr caver all in favor I again thank you so much commissioner and Miss Chief of Staff woo thank thank you so much for your Trek on zoom and we hope to see you soon in person have a good one you thank you 553