e e all right everybody we're g to call the regular meeting of the M Regional school committee to order at 6:00 p.m. and let us begin with the Pledge of Allegiance stand and help I pledge allegiance to the of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all uh first item on our business is Citizens comments and not seeing anyone in the galley uh or Gallery except for our fantastic attorney so go back there but no citizens comments this evening so we're going to move actually right to Executive session I'm going to look to my vice chair for a motion I move to enter into executive session 6 1 p.m. pursuant to J general to GL chapter 30A section 2183 I.E purpose number three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares for Unit A and C executive session to include the school committee superintendent Downing Director of Human Resources Amry STA and Director of Finance Russ moar will return to open session at the conclusion of the executive session so I'll second that because I do declare it is necessary so um any discussion all right let's take uh the vote all in favor no roll call roll call dang it Scott yes Karen yes Amy yes Mike yes Joe yes Amy yes myself yes Sharon yes shandor yes and Jackie yes all right everybody we are an executive e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Scott maybe then you can feel good because the meeting might end before it officially all right everybody we're back in regular session and we are going to continue on with our agenda the next item is uh approving the consent agenda um I move to approve the consent agenda of Mar 13th 2024 containing draft meeting minutes of February 28th 2024 draft meeting minutes of fiscal year 25 budget hearing school committee meeting of March 6 2024 and the lawrance of March 15 2024 and I'll second that any discussion yes sh on the minutes of February 28th I actually abstain from the consent agenda vote for all right so be that you can make that [Music] change yep discussion Amy are you amendable to that change for your motion yes as am I I seconded the motion shander um so all those in favor of approving the consent agenda raise your hand none opposed we have the school Comm chairperson update and there nothing uh specific there our student representative report um however I don't see our student representative schedule I think what did you say early maybe that you mean it's scheduled for 650 it's only 626 do you think she's coming I didn't get any notice so it's quite possible okay so if she if she arrives later we'll just perhaps um hear from her then from hansy then or Eva um but we can now turn our attention to the superintendent report thank you madam chair for that recognition um welcome everybody it's good to see you all again a couple of superintendent reports here before we get into the the business of the evening around our budget work and also student Opportunity Act um first thing I want to share is uh aming with the wer County Superintendent Association puts on scholar lunch in to honor uh Scholars at all the school systems in Wester County and this year noova Regional School Districts represent will be Jack London a senior at Michel Regional High School uh so I'm just going to read the report and and put it out there into the record for our community to hear on March 21st I'll have the honor of joining Dr Kate Boon and theber Regional High School senior Jack London at the Worcester County Superintendent Association scholar lunchin throughout his career Jack has demonstrated strong performance by excelling in challenging courses such as AP Statistics and AP Physics C mechanics he has received recognition for his achievements including the Columbia book award and the title of deca state champion outside of academics Jack produces educational YouTube videos and tutor students in advanced math his dedication to running has resulted in notable achievements including completing a mile in 4 minutes and 50 seconds Jack values community service and Leadership actively contributing to his communities his favorite quote life is not a matter of holding good cards but sometimes playing a poor hand well reflects his resilient attitude towards challenges and opportunities for Prof personal growth so let us all congratulate Jack for his academic success the wer county superintendent so congratulations Jack um and with that I am going to turn it to assistant superintendent friend uh to talk about our day of professional learning coming up assistant superintendent thank you superintendent Downing we are excited about our full day of professional learning on Friday it's hard to believe March 15th is upon us uh we're pleased to offer uh we're around 70 sessions for our faculty and staff uh presented by nishoba Educators students we have two students presenting a a session on supporting neur neurodiverse Learners in the classroom um they're very nervous and um their session was very popular and it exceeded the limit so they're going to have 30 teachers in their session I told them they're going to do a great job um so super exciting about that and just a side note the origin of that session actually came about because of a Civics project in the spring the students asked to meet with me on the topic and we were talking about what teachers need to hear and then we started talking about our full day of professional learning and I said would you be interested if I came back around uh to you next year to perhaps present and they said yes and so here we are so it's exciting really proud of them and also grateful for our uh nishoba Educators for sharing their talents our EMT Cadets will also be sharing their knowledge and talents um with Hands-On CPR and those sessions are full so it's it's it's going to be a great day um we have full registrations from our faculty and staff and um we're going to begin the day with an opening session to focus on our portrait of an a showare graduate competencies and what those competencies really look like in uh the real world from diverse sectors so we have individuals from higher ed um the business world the technology World um we have a graduate it joining the panel and the flyer um I believe what had been shared with the committee but I can include that uh in the common update this week for our larger Community to be aware of uh the thinking behind the panel um is the next step of our work from last year so if you remember our full day really supported the voices of our nishoba graduates and so this is bringing a different lens on the same topic to ground ourselves on the larger purpose of why we're here uh for kids so we're thankful for our panelists for actually donating their time and energy uh to engage in an interactive panel with us to start off the gra day so I would be pleased to share an update of uh of Friday with the committee in the next couple weeks once we receive the feedback because we are asking faculty and staff for feedback as we typically do great thank you will take any questions uh wonderful I hope you all received glor's email inviting you all for the full day professional development day if you're available and I would say it's not too late awesome even if you can only come for a portion of the day or if you want to join us for the opening panel session we'd love to have you just send me an email great any questions about the superintendence report i' just like to uh personally congratulate our senior Jack Lon what a great tribute that was as well yeah that was all great kids looking forward to spending a little time next week at the lunch so great and good luck to you all for your PD day thanks Laura for organizing and and a shout out to our PD planning committee and the department of teaching and learning and superintendent founding and Mr malaren and and everyone it's a it's definitely a group there are a lot of moving Parts um it takes a takes a team so we're grateful for our team youa taking yeah all right so uh so moving on guys to new business we have um we have a plan designed for our um insurance plan and uh perhaps we can hand this over to superintendent down and you can maybe queue it up a little bit before or after the motion yeah I'll just cue it up before the motion as we uh had a discussion today in executive session re regarding changes to uh the current uh health benefits plan um I would like to uh thank Mr kie uh Miss um um gon Gallagher and everybody that participated on that team um it showed that our teachers are great Partners in education with us and how we're all working together to make sure we're put putting fiscally response and budgets together um so in that uh we know that uh our insurance rates will continue at a 7030 share we'll be moving to a deductible model of 250 an individual 500 for a family with a reimbursement opportunity for employees on those deductibles through a mechanism that's designing a budget and that helped us uh be able to realize the the um reductions in the anticipated costs that you saw reflected in the budget last week so um it's at this point that we would um replicate the vote that occurred in executive session excellent so I'll turn to any for motion I move to approve the recommendation of the insurance advisory committee to change the plan design of the Blue Cross health insurance plans the recommended plan design institutes an annual deductible for identified services in the amount of $250 for member and $500 for a family I further move to approve the nishoba Regional School District to partially reimburse employees and retirees for the percentage of deduc cost as presented I'll second that any discussion or commentary um just one clarifying point that I think would be helpful to make in public session could you just remind us how much cost savings that brought to the budget yeah the the total cost of the budget package with offsets that were explain in others was a reduction of $390,000 in the benefit line with an addition into the budget of a $50,000 reimbursement line um for anticipated reimbursements when when uh folks turn in those deductible reimbursements so the net is a $340,000 benefit to the budget and and um so we were very happy with our partners in the nraa who uh uh recognize that working together we going to put it all together so thank you and there's also recognized savings by the membership yeah there is a recognized savings by the membership the the total cost uh to the members Mr McAn I think you have the the numbers the benefit the total benefit reduction I think was 1.1% that's not a reduction in the anticipated that's a reduction in actual which is rare when it comes to benefit packages to go down year-over-year but again when we did the the analysis of the options it it seemed to be uh The Logical uh Pathway to go down great did I get that number right Mr marar what did you say 61% it's a negative 1.61% correct so it feels like a win-win yes okay wonderful so thanks for um thanks to all of the people who worked on this both um our our staff members who got together to to benefit our budget our administrative members who got together to benefit our budget and benefit our towns so it's great all right so there's no further discussion we'll take the vote all those in favor of making this change okay it is unanimous fantastic thanks everyone uh so the next matter for new business is um the student Opportunity Act presentation I will let her cue it up but I think Laura is going to take the okay I'll be brief and and try not to steal too many of Miss friend's words that I know she prepared so hard for a student Opportunity Act uh is a requirement of the state of Massachusetts that we'll have to fulfill um and so U Miss friend is going to explain a little bit about that act and how we're applying the work of the school district which you all are very familiar with by now through the multiple presentations that you've had from the teaching and learning office relative to this I will say this though when we think of the student Opportunity Act there are multiple Provisions in the act one of these Provisions is the requirements to submit these plans the others around the funding formulas for schools they are not tied together they are parallel Pathways so um as we've had a lot of discussion on Chapter 70 funds and we got the minimum funding this year because of our reduction and enrollment uh that does not forgive us from having to submit our threeyear student opportunity the ACT plan of the state and so annually we're required or every 3 years we're required to bring that in front of the committee to let you know what we're doing it does not require a vote it just requires that we've uh reported to the committee on the plan and give you an opportunity for any comment so miss friend how did I do you did great it does require a vote oh it does require a vote maybe it's just the school counil to disagree with the superintendent so it does require vote it does okay requires a vote yeah so we' be looking for a vote in a couple weeks so um thank you superintendent Downing I I wrote in my notes that I'm pleased to share and show the student Opportunity Act plan I'm not quite sure that the verb is accurate um um because um it doesn't become associated with additional funding for us to support the initiatives that we've outlined in the plan so what we have done is um really selected initiatives that we already have underway at nishoba to support our strategic efforts and to meet Jesse's SLA criteria and requirements so that was the goal of the plan I'm going to provide you an overview of the plan with this presentation I know that you have the actual plan it's it's long there are a lot of a lot of words in the plan um and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have at the end but the presentation is just strictly an overview of the framework of the plan what we've selected and what our intentions are we will ask the school committee's approval um and we will ask you to vote on the plan on March 27th the plan is due by us um by April 1st here's the timeline uh that superintendent Downing mentioned um this is a Tri annual requirement we need to submit a new updated SOA plan every 3 years so here's the plan for um the current sequence of three years we'll submit the new plan in April we're required to annually annually review the plan and provide a written progress update to desie all of this is publicly available um and and could be um found by any Community member across the Commonwealth for any school district and then in April of 2027 the district will be required to submit a new threeyear SOA plan desie provides districts with a pretty prescriptive process for developing their SOA plans um the process includes four defined steps and and they are here as follows so I've outlin the four steps for you here uh the Desy image in the bottom right hand corner just indicates that I basically copied this word for word from the desie guidance on the subsequent slides I will articulate to you how Miss sha has develop their plan in accordance with these four steps these are the four steps uh in a nutshell the process involves looking at student data specifically subgroup data setting targets for improvements for those subgroups engaging with families selecting evidence-based programs and strategies provided by desie they provide a list from which districts are to choose to address the disparity disparities and achievement gaps amongst the student groups and then work to summarize the plan that's it in an upsh so I'm going to talk the most about this slide um because this really articulates the why so there are many areas to focus on um we could focus on many areas we have many growth areas we are you know committed to continual Improvement so while there are many areas in which we could focus we have selected two areas as they are directly reflective of current priorities and efforts as they relate to initiatives that we've already brought forth to this committee efforts that we've already brought forth to our larger community and these will serve as the focused areas of which there are two for our for our plan within page one and two of the plan itself you will see a specific articul of data analysis supporting the why of these two target areas why we have identified them and why they are support of our current efforts that we have engaged in our district and they are as follows K to 5 literacy and then the second Focus area is around student engagement which we' have spoken about with this committee at the high school level I'm going to speak um in a moment about why chronic absenteeism is tied to engagement but they're connected in terms of literacy uh the committee will likely remember in December that we presented data analysis reflecting our K to 5 literacy needs through our literacy curriculum review process in our Council that data analysis in included quantitative analysis including mcast analysis star reading and early literacy data student work as well as qualitative data analysis including faculty and staff surveys and our use of thought exchange the analysis reflected learning recovery evident for all students like are all students all of our student groups combined and for our black africanamerican subgroup and our Asian and white subgroups but there were disparities that we found in our data analysis and those enforce sub groups and those four subgroups are listed here on the slide our students with disabilities are English Learners our students from low income households and students who racially identify as Hispanic and Latino in terms of Engagement the committee is aware of our work around engagement at the high school level as we're aware of self-reported low engagement levels across all student groups at the high school work on student engagement at the high school is a priority we are undergoing multiple efforts to address engagement through the curriculum review process goal setting by departments participation in the Kaleidoscope initiative des's instructional leadership initiative and our significant efforts to launch two Innovation Pathways programs and be recognized as an innovation Pathways District well work on student engagement remains a priority beyond the qualitative feedback that we receive through surveys such as Panorama we have quantitative data that also reflects student experience and perceive connections to engagement and that's where absenteeism comes in and that's why we have connected these two types of data chronic absente chronic absente absenteeism is a priority at the state level you may well very well be aware there's a PSA right now out there and we also have increased waiting of attendance with accountability ratings beginning with our next next set of mcast MOBA has made um some great gains and closing of gaps with our chronic absenteeism rates but we have work to do so thus our engagement and absenteeism is the second of our Focus area and is interr we've made Solid solid Gap closing in all student groups in terms of attendance at the high school but data analysis again reflects continued disparities with these four subgroups so these are our Focus areas for the student Opportunity Act step two requires um utilizing performance targets connected with mcast for the lowest performing student group as a starting starting point and desie outlines the importance of identifying ambitious and those are Desi's terminology ambitious three-year targets we do not select the targets they're provided to us by desie desie actually provides targets three-year targets and annual targets for all student groups all student Sub subgroups in different category areas for example mcast scale score student growth percentile absente is and rats um Etc so I provided for you here what the targets that have been set forth by Desi are our three-year targets and then what our annual targets are for our high needs student subgroups these will be the targets that we will be reviewing when we annually review progress as it relates to our student Opportunity Act this will also be the data that we are reporting out on when we provide a progress report annually I'm sorry to interrupt but can you just Define absenteeism cuz 32% sounds like a lot so absenteeism is defined as being absent 10% or more of days in attendance so um for a whole year of attendance that would be 18 so for what that 32.6% is reflecting is for our students in the high needs subgroup High needs subgroup is a student who falls into two or more subgroup categories for example a student who is a student with disabilities and is a language learner or a student with from a loow income household who is a student who also is a student disability is considered high needs so 32.6% of our students who are fall in the high needs subgroup 2023 Baseline more fall in the chronically absent ab and that when you look at all students you see the disparity that's not what our chronic absentees already looks like for all students thank you step three involves engaging families and stakeholders in the target areas and feedback process I've listed some of the ways we've engaged families and caregivers already in the process for you here on page four and five of the plan itself there's two pages of list of ways we're engaging with families um in care caregivers and we continue to do so as we improve our efforts there um um I'll note that the the the last bullet point here is I will be meeting with our elementary school councils and I met with our high school school council two weeks ago on February 29th to review this plan because our K to 5 school and schools and our high school are the focus areas of our plan in the process I did um reach out to the middle school principal and said if you have space later on in the spring I'd be happy to come talk to your school councils about what's happening at the elementary school and then what's ahead at the high school particularly as they relate to the Innovation Pathways so the next step and the final step is given the identified target areas that a district has districts were asked to select two Focus areas and then evidence-based programs to address the performance discrepancies for those Focus areas so i' as I've mentioned we have the two Focus areas kto 5 literacy and engagement and absenteeism at the high school level The Next Step was to identify evidence-based programs to support efforts to address those disparities and achievement gaps with our subgroups and so they're listed here we're required to identify one we require we have Identify two at n inclusive curriculum adoption for K to 5 literacy and then the pursuit of highquality secondary Pathways and programs as an evidence-based program to further help support student engagement in relevance and to hopefully create a stronger experience for students to see the relevance and be engaged so that we see a reduction in The Chronic absenteeism rate so I fleshed out for you here the first Focus area uh around inclusive curriculum adoption for KI literacy I know the committee is very well aware of our curriculum review process for K to 5 literacy and is highlighted for you here desie has actually identified 30 EVPs those are evidence-based programs that they have articulated are reflective of strong programmatic practice which means they are likely to have the greatest impact on students when the essential elements are implemented within the 30 EVPs that they provide you to select from the commissioner has identified five priority ebps our noova plan reflects the three of these five priority EVPs as follows comprehensive approach to early literacy early literacy screening and high quality secondary Pathways so once you've identified your Focus area and you take a look at the 30 EVPs from which to choose the district is then to select the EVPs the evidence-based programs that best support that Focus area and you'll see three ebps here to support our inclusive curriculum adoption the first being our um request and pursuit of adoption for high quality instructional materials for K to 5 this in essence is our curricul our anticipated and hopeful curriculum adoption for K to5 literacy which will provide strong tier one curriculum for our teachers based on evidence-based practices in the science of raing the second EBP um is a comprehensive approach to early literacy and that's essentially a plan and at nishoba we have developed veloped an early literacy action plan through a Desi supported course that we took in the spring and that was called Paving the way for reading proficiency that worked helped us inform our mtss structure our PLC structure and our wing time structure while we're only in year one this year we know that these structures will help further support our students particularly our youngest learners that's the comprehensive approach and then the third EVP is supporting implementation and that's high quality professional development which will begin this Friday um where we are having Dr Melissa Orin out of crafting Minds present to our K2 teachers instructional assistants administrators special Educators everyone involved in K to 2 in one session everyone involved for three through 5 and that will be a focus for those Educators in a half day session on Friday the high quality professional development will continue into next year will include the introduction the integration of our continued instructional coaches in the implementation of look for tools to ensure effective implementation and data collection and Analysis of student subgroup performance the second second Focus area is around our high quality um secondary Pathways and this in essence is our pursuit of innovation Pathways designation which um with the chair's permission and superintendent downing's permission at at some point um when we hopefully receive designation and and this grant which we should um hopefully here in April we would we would be most honored to present overview of the Innovation Pathways to the committee with the team we are currently in the pursuit of two Innovation Pathways designations to programs Advanced manufacturing and engineering and business and finance these efforts are directly tied to our efforts to increase relevance of the high school experience for our students they will also INE include an anticipated integration of project lead the way into our science curriculum and into our in advanced manufacturing and Engineering pathway the addition of dual enrollment opportunities which will provide more advanced options for students beyond our AP offerings and essentially providing more on Rams for access to advanced level courses for students who aren't currently able to access those not to mention providing real world relevant hands-on experience through internship and Capstone experiences which is the culmination of the pathway during the senior year as I am engaging and and talking about this plan and really the initiatives that we have going on in K 5 and at the high school I will be asking um our groups next week including cpad I've also asked to to meet with CPAC and that will be happening I believe it's next Wednesday evening and I already have my conversation with the high school but what do you see as the greatest opportunities and challenges in meeting the needs of our targeted subgroups and and the second question is what is the best way for us to keep those groups engaged in our annual review process do you want to be engaged and what's the best way to do so I just jotted down some notes to share with you short notes about the high school feedback from the high school school council which as you're aware is comprised parents and students and Educators and of course Dr Boon the challenges that the high school school council identified were really how to best engage families of students and our targeted of all families and students in our targeted groups the importance of making parents and caregivers aware of what's going on in in different modalities and different ways working directly with students so students are aware and know that these opportunities are accessible to them they shared with me um their encouragement to explore expanding course offerings through VHS or virtual high school or the like so the dual enrollment opportunities aligns with that thinking and then one student on the council when discussing Innovation pathway said to me I quoted I would have jumped at the chance for the Innovation pathway in the real world application and I know my friends would have to so the last slide is um how our student opport our Opportunity Act initiatives that we've chosen to lift in the plan are aligned with our strategic plan and I I just made a note and and Mr mcaren and I um spoke earlier this afternoon it's just a reminder that the student opport student Opportunity Act plan is just that it's a plan it's a plan that will be reviewed and adjusted um over time and done so on an annual basis it is not a financial commitment it's a plan we have a strong strategic plan plan in the works and we have leveraged our current efforts to develop Misha's SOA we're definitely not starting from scratch and there was a lot to work from When developing the plan that we present to you tonight I recognize that was a lot of words it's a lot of words um and the plan is is is quite dense so hopefully that provided the committee an overview of the two Focus areas and the specific initiatives not all of the initiatives but specific EVPs that are supportive of the initiatives in align with our strategic work questions awesome thank you assistant superintendent friend that was fantastic uh the breath of that is um impressive and I I appreciate I will appreciate watching go into depth with it over time um can I just ask you guys to quickly remind the community and maybe even the board in mostly me can you talk a little bit more about the SOA and like you say that it's not it's not a grant it's required by Mass General law M um so this is something that all districts had to start doing in 2020 2019 so it's pre- pandemic oops um and so then um but there were dollars associated with it at first well there's dollars Associated for 6 years and and so it was first came into play in 2019 and then s SOA plans were put on hold for a year which is why it's a little bit out of cycle like we're actually 5 years apart then 3 years apart so this is the second iteration of that we got another one coming up in three years um so yes it involved a funding mechanism to to look at Chapter 70 funding across the state and to begin closing that Gap that towns were expressing and Regional School Districts and were expressing as well that they were getting farther farther away from ability to pay um Tracy Novak gave a great session on that at the mass conference actually this year that I attended um so ear earlier I I made a misstatement that I want to correct this year we did not receive additional funding for student Opportunity Act dollars due to our decline in rup but we have for two consecutive Cycles to the benefit of of almost $1.4 million dollar of additional funding which raised our Baseline you can never go down in your your chapter $70 so we did we benefit from that imperfect tuity now it's just we were hoping to continue to be on that train for six years to close that Gap um so yes it is part of uh just the requirement uh from from state of Massachusetts and forever more yes you have to do the you have to do this on top of everything else these acts have to be reauthorized all the time so if if they were reauthorized by the state legislature then yes and it's primarily focused on students in subgroups you say that's the pro that's the goal yes is to address the disparities in achievement um attendance um with I car groups and so one thing that I heard you talking about was that yes this is focused on the students who are in these subgroups but it benefits all yes yes we believe that yes that's great what other questions do we have Joe yeah I have a question preps is to um to superintendent friend you know preps by Mark was saying in my work career some of the stupidest and dumbest things I've ever heard were in public meetings M berson has heard some of my stories some of the stupid things I've heard over the years so this will probably chalk right up there with some of the stupidest questions you ever heard but forgive me for what I'm about to ask you a tremendous preface no I'm always in awe of those who are Keen to engage in the correct conjugation of Latin based words so on the last on your last slide you're talking about implementing clearly aligned and articulated curricula and then engage in an audit of districtwide curriculum and conduct and conduct a curriculum revision cycle so I'm just a little bit confused between the singular and the plural I will I'll have to consult with the authors of our strategic plan that would be all of us yeah that that is from our strategic plan so curricul would be the plural of curriculum sing singular so I just wanted because you you're bouncing back well this flag bounces back and I'm like am I missing something all right so yeah okay all right never mind question thank you Joe thank you uh what other uh questions you have Mike uh going back to um chronic absenteeism yeah um I know that this is a Statewide issue um and I know that they sort of did an audit of all of the districts across the the Commonwealth um but not all schools um fall under the absence priority School designation um some in our district some aren't how does that change our strategy on how to address it and how are we held to account like if if there's a school that is part of that grouping how does the state sort of track progress being made to address that I don't know if superintendent I can I was anticipating this question coming so I pulled our data up yeah and man yes I would say that um in large part we received all of our accountability points for absenteeism for the last cycle of data in in large part so we are closing the Gap what what is not necessarily evident when you look straight value at our absenteeism rates is actually what I described with our high needs group you're not necessarily going to see that significant disparities superintendent dowy is likely going to tell you that right now our chronic absenteeism rate at the high school I think I don't know if that's where he's headed but we're sitting right around 10% um it's it's it's we want all students in school every day um you want to yeah I'll give you some basic context our comic absent rate as of today live today is 10.8% as a district yes as a district last year um after the conclusion of the month of April it was 15.7 so we've improved by 5 five 4.9 percentage points over last year when we look at our just straight daily average daily attendance the target is 95 % we're at 95.2 this year as of today uh through the entire mon of Mark month of March last year we were um 94.3 so we're a percentage Point improved there and then we when we look at another category called absent rate meaning you've accumulated 18 absences to date so when you have medical situations or School refusal situations our number was 4.55% today this time last year at the conclusion of March it was 10.7% so the work being done particularly at our high school and I want to do a shout out to our high school administrative team that have put together a very intentional plan and working with students and families in combination with some of the programs like our bridge program at the high school to keep students in school has been affected and has dramatically improved our attendance year-over-year but that doesn't mean we don't continue to look at that area so can I just ask a follow question so is the state paying particular attention to those schools that fall under that that designation um I don't think um the state looks at that finally out if they're looking at yeah the large numbers it's just a report out and the districts address it how they address it exactly got it yeah you you might see some scenarios maybe with reh waiting the accountability um to provide a higher waiting for attendance so we will see that reflected in this year's accountability actually reducing proficiency and increasing the weight of attendance there is a lot of discussion in in superintendent circles on that move this year as being a very unequitable move um so you can imagine that school districts that uh are predominantly white are not seeing the same effects as maybe a lot of our urban districts that are have larger populations of those identified categories other than white so there's a lot of debate going on around the state's move on that that feels like it could be an additional penalty to schools that are already school systems that are already trying to overcome some some significant challenges so compounding effective just quickly on attendance are you finding that kids outside are you tracking kids outside of subgroups as well because I know that attendance has just been a problem with like postco with even vacations and things of that sort are we struggling in that regard um we're doing quite well okay 95% attendance rate that is approximating our historical attendance rate pre-co okay so we would hover in between 95 and 96 across our buildings and I will add that I think superintendent Downing is looking at uh schoolzilla dashboard that is a component of our Renaissance star assessment all of that Suite so our our principals Deans have access to the school Zilla dashboard which shows all of that data moving up and down every day and you can even drill down and see student names associated with with attendance data not in addition to academic data uh any oh yeah I'm I'm excited about the Innovation um pathway stuff I know like um talking to some of my own students and with Pathways at our school one of the things that I hope that I wonder about with this is like they don't decide till later in high school that oh I'm interested in that but then if you don't start early like a number of kids have said that to be like you have to start in ninth grade and if you don't get on that so I don't know if you're developing different on wraps or like um ways that they can act access it so they don't feel like if I don't figure it out in that gr that this is the way I want to go that I'm out of luck kind of thing um I we're not there yet um I will say one of the priorities in developing the requirements because the requirements include two technical courses two Advanced courses um creating a wide selection of Baseline courses for students to try out it of thinking about that area so that they're not pinned down have to stay in the pathway but they've taken those Baseline courses to see if it's actually something that they're interested in and they would like to pursue where I know some of the districts that we have we have spoken with their pathway is pretty tight there aren't a lot of options yeah so creating like a broad Baseline framework for an on-ramp okay that's the same yeah and then I guess that was are wondering are you also then going to do a lot with kind of um career like the guidance you know at at like the eighth grade level or something like starting to really explore surveys and like figure out where kids might want to go so they're already think like really diving into that conversation before that um that's part of the my cap you may remember from last year we had talked about the development of a my my career and academic profile m um but beginning in seventh grade and so our guidance department and our Deans and we even had a Summer Academy session to develop advisory curriculum to integrate into our 7th grade advisory conversations because it begins with interest right and awareness um and so we're working on it yeah beginning in 7th grade and it's such a great age grade to start to continue to elevate those conversations with our seventh graders um I actually I have two things I wanted to ask about one of them was The Innovation Innovative Innovation pathway program and um what the timeline was is it because it's in the um plan that you just put together is that like a threeyear process that you hope that the pathway program is rolled out and like being implemented by so I can explain the timeline if I may give an overview um we have been working very hard and a shout out to the high school team and Dr Boon and Mr a and Mr leblank who've been Partners right there alongside with me but we have been working on this since last spring so we had applied for a planning Grant we used that planning Grint to to help develop vertical plans offering um marketing materials communication efforts Etc we then submitted a part a application and we were approved for the part A we we submitted the part B then you move on to the part B application I think superintend superintendent Downing mentioned that he read it was 53 Pages application is really large multiple components because I think that the Commonwealth wants to see you're actually invested in this you know this isn't an arbitrary decision you really need to have your pieces in your plan in place the last step in the process will be an interview and our interview is actually next Friday so myself Dr Boon Mr a and Mr lank will be interviewed by the Desi team and we should receive notification in April early April of whether or not we will receive the designation and the associated grant funding that we have requested to support our implementation our full implementation in year 1 Beyond year 1 um if you are designated as an innovation Pathways District it opens you up to other funding sources such as the capital skills Grant the Perkins Grant um the 18 Foundation to support pltw and there's also an innovation plant pathway sustaining grants so we are hopeful that we will receive the designation and the grant funding and we should know more in need that and is year one like next year yes awesome that's awesome um my second question has to do with um the feedback from the school councils and CPAC and I just wanted to say that I was really glad that they were one of the you know um groups that you sought feedback from because I think the school councils um are should be a part of this discussion and and they you know because the apparent representation they they um they should their feedback is important to this plan so I know that you mentioned that you heard from the high school school council have you met with the elementary school councils yet next week next week okay P next week as well okay my question was what the elementary school council principal Bates is talking to the Florence Sawyer school council I met with him I shared the plan and he was presenting it on my behalf tonight because it coincides with this meeting okay but I've offered to come back and answer any questions they may have okay great thank you sh um with regards to the high needs students it do you happen to know like what percentage of students fall under that or how big that cohort is I think superintendent ging is pulling it up um question uh the high needs students designation like how large a group of students is that might be difficult for me to pull up quickly but I will work on I can I can look you know as the meeting progresses and share out um our students with disabilities percentage knowing that that is not necessarily our high needs group I is is 18 18.9% yeah so so it's likely relatively small so I smaller than that yeah although I will say that um lately I've been we've been talking about the these percentages and how they're labeling districts High needs and I was shocked how high the number was inter um so um I would yeah it might be good for us to know what the percentage is um in the show but might not be but like I was noticing that Malboro was like 70% found it 23 29.6% yeah that's it's hot per of the district Statewide is 55.8% so to your point very high go ahead sh I just have related question did you say that high needs inward be high needs they need to be in two categories two or more two or more categories so is it a different designation for complex Learners say that again is it so you're what you're saying is that in order to be considered high needs you need to be in two or more of those categories but there are some children that would have a high level of need but may not fall into two categories though that's a different group okay that would be one that we would identify at the school level right this is the high needs is is just the category from desie you know how they're identifying students so when Jesse says 29 something something per it means that 29 something per in our district fall into two CES two or more right yeah I have a quick comment um and it's about the Innovation pathway program and I see here that we've identified two yes once and if if and once we get into this program and can it proliferate can itow Pathways that is the goal because the ities minded folks are really hopeful that Civics you know the teachers who Inspire so many of our kids civically U because I I mean truly Kevin I'm going to call you out right now every single vivito marks you as an inspiration so you know as they move into the high school even though they might be also inspired by Mr a and the DECA program as we saw an enormous State Following last last week and congrats to Mr a for all of that and Miss Norton um I would love to see more Humanities I concur okay we'll vot we'll vote at the next meeting we will it's on the planning calendar so uh thank you to Laura thank you everybody that that was very it's our pleasure um okay guys on to the next item on the agenda and so we're moving into finance and operations so we're going to talk or rather seek four different votes today um things that we've already discussed and so would you like us to um put a motion on the table first well I think we're going to start with just a a brief presentation from Mr moar and then we'll entertain those motions with that one at a time pieces the chair oh got it got it all right over to ro great thank you uh so this is just a review of what was presented last week uh at the update on the budget um meeting so again athletic fees extracurricular fee and parking fees so these are the same figures that you saw last week with regards to our athletic fees at both the high school and middle school levels I've added some data from uh Miss Rich our athletic directors reach out through the midwatch um not every uh midwatch Team or midwatch school has fees there are two schools that have no fees at all um those are more High needs districts uh than us and so I believe that that may be for uh increasing participation but for those that do charge the first sport U and I put first sport in parenthesis because not all have a sliding scale for the sports but um if you're going to participate um the average across those mid League excuse me midat leagues was $254 and then for the Middle School respondents um believe we had five out of seven or four out of seven the average on the midwatch Middle School um athletic 2 was $153 uh one of the schools is in line with us it's about 50 but their school is also under consideration for raising their rate as well with regards to extracurricular fee no other data to present other than uh as we said before we do not charge a fee for extracurriculars right now and we would only be looking uh at charging for those clubs and activities as uh defined by superintendent Downey's remarks last week and again the parking fees uh not in any recent memory with these looked at so the this increase is somewhat nominal um I can only speak to my own personal data uh that this is definitely reasonable um however uh it's still um I think in line with um you know nominal increase we we looking to PR rate that monthly as we know not every kid needs a full year of a parking space um you know as they get their license or get their first vehicle or have a vehicle available so thank you it's just a quick review for the committee before vote this evening uh so guys I think what is best is if we um go put the motion on this the table and then discussion can happen within um okay so Amy why don't you walk us down a path here let's start with the athletic fee proposal okay I moveed to approve at this will year 25 athletic fees at nrhs first sport $200 second sport 175 third sport 150 family cap 1,000 and Middle School athletic fees of $100 per sport I'll second that what discussion do we have if any all I have oh I have a question I also have a statement that I wanted to make but I was expecting it to be a full I wasn't expecting it to be broken apart so I'm not really quite sure my question is about the second the extracurricular extracurricular which is the next motion and then my the statement that I wanted to make incorporates all of them so I'm not really quite sure where the best place to put this is um so the discussion on this motion can you relegate it to Athletics um wait it's not an Athletics related question I'm not sure this is the right place to have that discussion right what do you she said she had a question about extracurriculars right yeah which can happen wait till that motion and then she had a statement it sounds like she had a statement about the whole budget no not about the whole budget about thees that include all of the schedule maybe this is the right place for that yeah I think it's probably fine okay so I just wanted to make this statement that I support fees for extracurricular activities however the fee structure as proposed is inequitable fees for non-athletic activities are disproportionately high compared to proposed athletic fees that is not to say that I don't support Athletics I do but rather to point out that Athletics are intensive in the amount of time um that is required of um anyone that's involved in any athletic activity and they also carry high costs for things such as busing equipment uniforms Etc um the majority of other extracurricular activities meet once a week or perhaps two or three times a week for a short season they do not incur the same level of cost I wish that the fees had been proposed in a more Equitable way and I hope that going forward more thoughtful support will be given to activities for our student artists musicians thespians entrepreneurs writers all of those other students um so that every child um has an opportunity to participate um freely in an activity that expire that inspires them any other commentary all right so this is um just to vote on the athletic fee proposal all those in favor of this thanks everybody um now we will move on to the extracurricular fee proposal and I'll turn you to for a moing I move to approve the fiscal year 25 extracurricular fee of $50 per extracurricular I'll second that so Sharon's words ring I'm sure I have a question regarding that um there are currently some extracurricular offerings that are volunteer Le with those a volunteer Le um extracurricular offering have a fee associated with it the Demar Cas we're making is the service oriented clubs versus the other clubs in those two categories is how we Define that right so then um in a club where there is a parent volunteer that runs the club each student that's participating in that club would be asked to pay a fee to participate in that club although there is no expense to the district for that club in turn stien because it is a volunteer Le Club is there a volunteer Le Club you're referring to there I know of one at least yes yeah I don't I'm not aware of a volunteer Le Club uh maybe activity our clubs are our our school sponsored clubs are run through a schedule that's part of the negotiated agreement with the nrea so we compensate for those clubs I guess I would have to get more detail perhaps I'm using the wrong term perhaps Club isn't the right turn but it is an an extracurricular activity that um is well attended it is led by a parent volunteer there is no stipend associated with that is it in the contract probably not not schedule maybe it doesn't apply so maybe it doesn't apply which club are you are referring to the drama uh Club offered at M the drama club offered at M is that part of our our stien schedule or our club schule call the contract specifically but I would have to look into it a little bit further I it is not a stipended position it is a volunteer that's running that program is it a new it is to M so yes as of last year as of this year or is as of as of this year yes correct so in the contract uh it says essentially and I don't have the language in front of me essentially that new clubs that are um proposed at let's say the elementary level middle or High School the first year that they can be run on a trial basis to see if there's interest and if there is then it gets incorporated into to stiens for the following year correct and then therefore that person will receive a sement we do have several parents and or community members that receive stiens for running our clubs and extracurriculars um and they are paid by the district through our stien lines so may ask a follow-up question last week um Jackie suggested that perhaps there would be opportunities where we could have uh extracurricular activities with parent volunteers running those um activities so my question again is if you have a volunteer running the activity will those kids be subject to a fee it's hard for me to project on that because we don't have any policies or structures built for that at the moment yeah so that would be that would be um speculation on my part at the moment so I I don't think I can Define that at this instant but your point is well taken and and we'll we'll look at that closely if that is in case a bridge that is needed to cross as well I guess that's a a follow-up question that I have we're proposing it for this year is this moving forward for future years this would establish that rate for fees for clubs but it could be we discussed in the next budget cycle if we if I'm sure after Ross studies it and finds you know it might not have an equitable impact even though the intent was not that way right the example that I was thinking about was that M has a long-standing tradition of running um parent-led um enrichment activities after school and I don't know that it happened this year but it has happened in previous years um and it's a way for especially during the winter for kids who maybe don't have access to sports or other activities in the community to be able to have some enrichment I would wonder if it if it's happening in the building right mhm so I mean technically there is cost associated with that because do they pay the ental rate you you all are going to need to do a calculus on yeah is it actually budget neutral and you know some sort of mediated process for that for those activities and then it does come back to policy in some way and operations as well so I just think being mindful of that yeah can I I just want to ask a clarifying question and then suggest maybe a possible Amendment to the motion um because it sounds like the fees are proposed to fund the siens or offset the siphons so is it possible to amend the motion so that we're approving fees for extra extracurricular activities with stien did somehow attach it to the stiens because I think that might solve the problem that Sharon and Jackie have raised I I would personally feel better about it um too and is the prise correct there yes but I think there's some discussions based upon the dialogue that are H that's happening tonight that I would want to have a conversation with our leaders in the nraa because there are Provisions contractually in which offering clubs and as being established practices as well and I just want to make sure that that all those procedures are being respected and adhere to as well because I don't want to EST Lish a piece here that could put us in a compromising position in an employee not being offered an opportunity to to lead a club because the one who will do it for free is going to do the club I I don't think our teachers would would um uh or any of our employees that participate in those would would look kindly on that and and I support them in that so good what's the budget impact of this proposal total offsets are $50,000 towards student activ excuse me extracurricular stiens across the district which totals $278,000 did you say $278 so this $50 fee is going to increase our income by $278,000 okay thank you offset it offset the cost of 278 550 so I'd just like to ask sounds like we're not quite ready to vote on this and it doesn't sound like it's critical to the budget can we delay this can we postpone this vote well the budget that was presented at the hearing and the budget that was presented is being presented to you tonight includes that $50,000 offset to it I'd like to actually offer um a little bit of a counterargument I support this fee um and here's why I think that and this is um this goes out to something I said last last time is that often times the school budget it lands on the entire public and and um there were a lot of calls during the school vote that said the people are actually using the school need to pay for the school and so if my child's not using the drama program or the lacrosse team or you know what what have you can you just please put that somewhere else and this is to the older taxpayers who they want offsets they said that to us very clearly so whether or not the 50 is correct I am willing to go forward with it this this year knowing that this is a discussion point that needs to resurface I think that whenever there is a contractual uh position whether or not it's stipended that the fee should apply to the students even if it's on that oneyear um trial basis again I'm willing to go forward with this because I'm looking to create some relief for the people who don't actually use the schools although I all also want to perhaps be a little bit more judicious in the way that we apply this especially considering we have that very clear tiered approach toward the stiens in the contract and maybe we can associate this fee a little bit more closely with that like the drama program requires a ton more and I think that stiped is bigger than say student council although that st's not bad either oh it's a service Club it's a service club and so I'm just saying like maybe next year we can revisit this although I'm ready to go forward today I just because it seems like maybe I used the term club which then is adding some confusion to it so I I think that maybe Club was not the right term maybe I should have used extracurricular activity or something something to that um some other language than Club I think that I didn't realize that that had a particular connotation with it um and so I just wanted to clarify that that it is there is a piece there that may be language is getting in the way can I excuse me piggy back off of your comments Madam chair uh I too fully support an across theboard extracurricular fee for any and all users of the facility whether it be a club or an extrac carico organization and I I think that frankly it's it's suspect to even suggest that that there's any sort of cost neutrality or cost savings to the district if the building is open and students and parent volunteers are in it this district is in current costs utility costs heating cost uh custodial costs custodial material costs Insurance costs if the building is open we're incurring cost if the building is not open the lights are off the heat is decreased and you have maybe a security guard on duty so I would fully support what you're saying here and I don't see any way this would ever be cost neutral to our district any other comments thanks Joe all right guys so we uh have a motion on the table and we are going to go forward with get all those uh in favor of supporting this extracurricular fee raise your hand okay everybody um recognizing those not in favor raise your hand are there any extensions okay yes no no this is something for next year for sure all right everybody uh let's go on to the next piece here and that's the parking fee proposal I mooved to approve the fiscal year 25 nishoba Regional High School student parking fee of $100 PR rated monthly I'll second that any discussion our less controversial actually I have a question no I um they don't paint their spots do today okay I'm just curious all right all those in favor of this motion thank very much and um moving on to the next item here no small item and that is the fy2 budget vote thank you madam chair we are pleased to bring you very brief presentation on the vote budget tonight as you've gone through some very lengthy presentations on the the budget in recent meetings and once again I'll turn it over to our finance and operations director Ross M thank you everyone um and I do sincerely thank the school committee uh not only for the opportunity this evening but for the time uh and attention paid to the fy2 budget building process um also to budget warrant subcommittee as well uh for their time and attention to the budget um I do want to take a quick uh I don't know if I can click on that because Master s can you click on that and then we'll hold on hitting play um as you're aware yep just hold right there so as you're aware um we're working on a transparency Center um superintendent Downey was uh presented uh a resource out in the educational community that is able to produce videos for us so we produce one of probably a set of three or four videos that will be uh headers on our transparency site in sort of entry points to the public for looking and un looking at and understanding aspects of our our finances as a district so um this is not a fully uh edited video at this point we have a couple more adjustments to make but we felt it important that since we received it this afternoon we share of the school committee to give you a preview of what's to come for our transparency site so um if you can hit play I'm hoping sounds budgeting process that we use each fiscal year we'll give an overview of what makes up our budget the groups that play a role in its creation and the nrsd budget now the went away yeah I hit yeah yeah yeah we'll restart close my eyes ruin the surpr overall enrollment when you there was an x on it so I think it was turned off the other output Shan door help us isn't it supposed to be calone take me away is that the right one you're going to try give it a world two it's like me at town meeting we're killing the moment isn't the TV volume working yeah but if you're operating from that I'm not sure yeah I'm F into both okay just crank the TV up it is up pretty high on you're good it's it's not it's not it wouldn't give us speakers it would give us the it should work on the split but it's muted yeah yeah see the x is that not there there you go oh careful now classroom material are we ready now are you not entertained okay here we go enjoy noova community in this video we'll guide you through the budgeting process that we use each fiscal year we'll give an overview of what makes up our budget the groups that play a role in its creation and the nrsd budget timeline let's dive in to show how our school budget is put together our budget has two main parts salary and non-salary salaries are of course what we need to pay our staff from teachers to administrators to support staff this depends on how many students we have how big our classes are and our overall enrollment our non-salary portion of the budget includes everything else like classroom materials keeping our buildings in shape and getting our students from home to school and back did you know salaries insurance and benefits take up about 80% of our budget the rest that's 20% covers non-salary costs so where does money for noa's Budget come from there are four main sources the first source of budget funds comes from our towns each town has a minimum amount they need to contribute to the District budget this is by the state each year and it's called the minimum local contribution the second source of funding for noa's Budget comes from the Commonwealth Chapter 70 educational Aid all districts receive Chapter 70 educational Aid based on a formula the state uses to support an equitable education the third source of money for our budget is a combination of other Revenue sources these sources can include but are not limited to reimbursements earnings on investment and an appropriation of the excess and deficiency fund the fourth funding source for noa's budget is the variable assessment to each town the calculation for each Town's share is based on a 5-year rolling average of student enrollment from each of the member towns as outlined in the nooba Regional School District agreement creating to show the school budget is a team effort here's how it works our superintendent and Director of Finance and operations get the ball rolling just as the school year starts they set the timeline and guide the team in setting budget priorities that meet our Strate iic plan while being fiscally responsible they also present a budget timeline to the school committee in early October that lays out the major benchmarks to create a budget that supports the Mission Vision and core values of our district as a whole from October to January our school administration team is busy drafting the budget school principales and Department directors pitch in they start with what they need for their teams and schools like staff and supplies then they sit down with the superintendent and the finance director to find tune these ideas making sure that we're staying on track with our goals and our budget from January to March the school committee reviews the draft budget and suggests changes during a series of budget workshops they get a close look at what we're planning to spend and the money we expect to come in their job is to make sure everything lines up with our strategic plan and that we're being fiscally responsible it's not just us in the school who have a say in the Cha's budget we also work with Town administrators and the the finance committees and Boards of each of our towns they give us extra feedback and ask important questions about our budget Town residents have the opportunity to provide feedback and ask questions at an annual public hearing hosted by the school committee as required in Massachusetts General law the school committee then votes on the proposed budget and here's where you come in the community at the end of this process each town will hold their annual town meeting this is where you get to vote on the budget we've put together and that the school committee has approved thank you for spending time learning about how we create our budget if you're curious to learn more about this year's budget and the process behind it check out our finance and operations page and our school committee page definitely expecting to hear Ross or Kirk's voice but that guy was pretty good yeah was we built it with the idea that it should live without the dependence of a person in the seat because it's about the information not about the person sitting and if you're following the graphic on the uh Revenue sources the proportions are not it was difficult to comprehend to some more minor edits um so again thank you for the opportunity to present the uh budget this evening uh for fy2 uh sort of as the video also showed in detail you can see the work that's been done and I know that I keep calling back to this and I also would not um omit this U because it does show the scope of the work that began even prior to um the timeline because we're building the timeline and thinking about the work that needs to happen ahead uh in the slides for this evening are the updates that we've been providing to the school committee um along the way way uh if the public wants to click on any of those um other color the budget Workshop or the update uh links that will take you right to the school committee um meeting materials for that night so you can review the budget and the update um slides so as you're aware uh proposed budget for this evening for FY 25 for your um approval uh it's considered um the operating budget at 66 m520 , 432 adding in our debt service and our lease um brings the total budget to 69 m255 1891 representing a 6.71% change over FY 24 voted budget obviously there's an increase on our debt service um which is why we've shown the breakup between operating and debt um moving forward as we continue with our high school um again uh we presented the break break down of the assessments differently this year um to make sure we highlighted The Debt Service but also the operating what is it actually costing to run our schools outside of our debt payments as well as with the total assessments are to each for our towns so with that um done with my short presentation this evening and again thank you not only for your time this evening but along the way in the budget season so thank you thanks uh quick question the transparency page is not yet operational right under construction under construction our um Extended Learning coordinator SL communication specialist is working closely on the construction of that behind the curtain so that'll be we're going to hopefully get that launched we're going to get that launched before uh the town meetings so so we can have everything lined up there doesn't mean every button we plan there is that we're planning for might be ready by that dat but we want to have it in time for Town meetings um just very quick recommendation the presentation that you gave your first year the budget presentation you gave that year I found to be the most informative only because it was the foundational presentation right like you built on it every year for somebody who's new and did an experience that I constantly Point people back to that one with the buckets buets and um if you could include that like go all the way back to the beginning yeah of Kirk is that the all the enrollment yeah yes with the Census Data you know how badly I'm going to pay for that one later but it it included like an explanation of what the variable assessment is what is minimum local contribution it brings it all down the the it it's we're going to have archived into the work that we've done over the last three years through the budget season so that's in the works great to add to your point though um of the Lancaster finance committee contacted me last year about budget and I said look at that presentation it will really give you a good overview of all of the different players and and all the different pieces involved and she got back to me afterwards and said that was incredibly helpful it really brought the whole thing into a good perspective so I do think that even if it the the data in it isn't necessarily current the information is very valuable so when we build up as as we construct videos similars to this we'll have also the supporting documents behind it so okay it's exciting great job thank you uh Mike um we should mention that that video was dynamite and and I personally found the voice over both soothing and reassuring that was outstanding that was really really something special um but my my my my comment is kind of about the budget um this year I mean every year is a kind of a difficult budget season um this year felt particularly challenging because of um our lower Chapter 70 uh projections are out of District placements transportation and it all kind of Blindsided us and if you look at if you've been following the budget updates you can see that we initially projected um much higher um and we got much lower um and my comment is that um to to pull 1 an excess of $1.5 million from a roughly $66 million budget um is is really quite difficult and doing it was not some sort of uh cheap parlor trick or a slight of hand um if if people who were on this committee last year think back these were all very intentional um strategic decisions that were made by The District in order to create a more stable and fiscally responsible uh budget we had um so in other words we would not have been able to meet the town's needs all three Town's needs um if um we had not invested in a healthy endd we were able to tap into that and that was a decision um that was made early on we would not have been able to make meet the town's needs had we not voted on um generating more Revenue through school choice um we would not have been able to meet the needs of our towns um if we didn't have this um amical bargaining climate that has been sort of uh defining um um central office leadership so um these are all things that we did at the time they seemed like a responsible thing and now we're sort of um um of harvesting the fruits of those decisions and um that was again that was no small task so I just want to thank the superintendent and the director of um finance and operations and really your entire staff um that was a really challenging uh couple of months and um I'm just I'm just very impressed so uh words from our budget and warrant chair Mike thanks so much you have also been integral in pushing this Evolution uh and so we thank you as well and all of your leadership i' add one last thing please I just want to make sure it's recognized as well that our partners that are in our bargaining unit the leadership of our bargaining units we instrumental in that as well absolutely so a lot of Goodwill a lot of great leadership and good ideas so um all grateful let's put a motion on the floor and then we can take further discussion okay I moveed to approve the MOBA Regional School District F school year 25 budget in the amount of 69,500 increase I'll second that any other discussion on this uh fully in the leading question department on the last slide um the increases for each of the three towns was a different percentage and I know that that is very confusing to my neighbors I was wondering if someone could take a moment just to address why that is and explain why they're not the same Madam chair referred to a 78 page slide deck presentation that gets into that uh I'll I'll tell the simplest way is that each of our towns have a different Equalization value and that Equalization value is based on the total assets of the Town Bolton and Stow are at the statutory limit of 82.5% whereas right now lancasters hovering somewhere around the 68 to 70% level so there's more cealing for lancasters annual minimum local contribution to rise whereas there isn't space for stoves and and boltons to rise in the same way it's just the valuation second piece is enrollment has an impact so is the 5-year enrollment averages change uh we've seen the percentage of students participating in the Regional School District at Landcaster is rising in proportion to the students in Bolton Ino I think those are the two greatest factors that impact the difference of that well it sort of explains why Lancaster is higher than Bolton it doesn't really explain why Bolton's higher than sto um it does in terms of the enrollment and the participation we've seen that decline the enrollment impact in STO which you'll get a very detailed presentation on at our school of choice hearing this year uh really reflects that and I'll just add to that and say that and remind everybody that the percentages are what we tend to focus on but that if you look at the numbers Stow still has the largest number right the largest dollar amount so we are paying for the schools we are paying more for the schools um but the rate of increase is higher for Bolton and especially Lancaster for the reasons that Kirk just identified any other questions about the budget I think in the motion did you say the increase is 6% I said 6.71 which is the total or the average or the percent total including the debt including the debt of the total budget from last year's budget to this year okay so not on right I guess is there differentiation between in this between the operating budget and the total right up there because right but maybe it maybe it's just irrelevant I'm trying to make sure I understand because the debt service we don't have any control over at this point we've already agreed to that correct right so the what we have the control over is the operating budget and that increase has been brought down to 3.52% from where it started at 6 something perc right which is the second lowest percentage increase of the last six years okay do you want that that clarification in the motion or something to call out the operation I I just wanted it to be clear that the the there are two components here and that the budget increase the operating budget increase the part we have control over has been brought down to 3.52% as long as that's clear I don't need it to be formal I just want it to be clear okay everybody's good have a statement um so I'd like to start by commending our dedicated School administration their tireless eort efforts have resulted in a budget that not only meets the needs of of our students but also addresses the requests of our temps um their commitment to transparency and collaboration is also been evident and appreciated so thank you um the proposed budget allocates resources to enhance classrooms Technology support professional development for educators and maintain our extracurricular programs and our administrators have navigated this complex process with skill and foresight um however it is essential to address the pressing issue and this isn't the first time we brought this up but you know the district's Alliance on excess and deficiency or andd um while it may seem like a convenient way to balance the books um I just want to remind everyone it's not sustainable to use end going forward so we cannot perpetually rely on that lever to save money as it were um over the last few years we've been able to spend about 1.2 million per year from end and still build up a balance of about $2.4 million whereas we increased the end this year to 1.4 million and by doing so we're kind of starting down a dangerous path so um we already run a tight budget coming in about a half million dollars under budget for the last few years but it only takes one bad winter for example to increase fuel and snow removal costs that could potentially wipe out that Surplus so um if we continue to increase our use of B and D not only will we deplete those funds but it could lead to higher borrowing costs associated with the new high school building so the elevated inflation of the last few years is starting to catch up to our expenses and the Administration has been able to find savings to bring in budgets at a level that avoids using overrides but I think the they've exhausted those levers and so over the coming years we may need to use overrides to ensure the continued high quality of our schools so in conclusion I just want to appreciate the hard work of the administration um but also acknowledge the limitation of the & budgets and accept the potential need for future old rides to continue to ensure the the high quality education that we enjoy in this District thanks Scott I Pig you back on that I to reiterate thank you for all of the hard work um that Scott so eloquently spoke of um and this is going to piggy back on what Scott said um in a very similar way but because my brain learns differently um than maybe other brains just to give a a visual kind of uh idea to that is that for many years we have kept the budget increases at the 2 and 1 half 3 3 and 1 12% um increase at the request of the towns so that our our budgets aren't increasing like this at the same time costs are increasing like this and so what's happening is that over time we're getting further and further apart and as Scott was saying we've reached the limit we are if we have not yet we are close reaching the point where this isn't sustainable we we don't have the ability to keep at this increased level when costs are increasing like this and that is is something that we will have to address at some Point likely before too long thanks all right everybody any further discussion so it's time to take the vote uh on the motion on the table for the uh FY 25 budget um all those in favor raise your hand that is humous all time all right everybody with that behind us we have no unfinished business we're going to move on to subcommittee reports before we say Ado uh so let's uh ask budget and Warr anything further that you would like to share we had a brief meeting last Thursday to provide anyone in the township who might have any questions regarding the budget to attend and ask them um we had two each of the committee members had a couple questions clarifying questions but other than that that's the only thing we've done since our last meeting great thanks uh and thanks for offering that communication subcommittee communication um met last week and we are pulling together details and getting ready very close to being able to present that to you amaz good luck with sling through that Sharon sent me a very big email and I said this is going to take me a few days Sharon so the ball is definitely in my court so thanks for that um to the school building committee I'm going to take a moment if you don't mind Madam chair got a couple things I want to address with the building District committee so um initially our next meeting is scheduled for excuse me next Thursday March 21st 2024 um as had been um previewed at our district committee meeting on the 28th uh I will be I'm announcing right now that uh we will be addressing what might be a potentially controversial uh issue which is the bathroom design that is on the agenda for the 21st uh in that regard our Consultants will be uh presenting their design proposals I have offered one of our members who has expressed some uh concern regarding the design an opportunity to also be heard in regards to perhaps an alternate or a contrary design proposal in this regard I have I will let uh committee know and the um public know as well that um first and foremost design decisions are the exclusive domain of the of the dist building committee so in that regard um there will be no public comment excuse me there will be no public uh hearing or public inquiry of the design proposals on the 21st um I will and I I've discussed this with our report secretary uh make adjustments to the agenda if I do receive a number of requests for public comment on bathroom designs and what we'll do is we'll park that behind the presentations I will allow public comment not public inquiry no scrutiny you come you can say at 3 minutes and what you want to say on gr of the bathroom but I'm leaving at that I am leaving the option open to the building committee members if they want to make this a matter of public input or public for that was also proposed as well um that's going to be the uh prerogative of the the membership but if members of the public do come on the 2st um they will not be permitted to inquire of our Consultants or our members at the 21st again if the building committee wants to vote to open this up to public inquiry for our April meeting or later that's the prerogative but there'll be no inquiry and I will and I'll just say it right here now that notice and opportunity to be heard are the cornerstones of our due process system I'm putting people on notice right now that I will not entertain any requests from any member of the public who shows up to make inquiry nor will I entertain any motions from the members on the 21st to allow members of the public on the 21st to inquire this matter again if members because I don't want any member of the public to feel grieved that they didn't show up to ask questions because I mentioned I made this comment at this meeting so after the 21st whatever happens happens but on the 21st we will be discussing this issue and it will at this moment be kept within the exclusive domain of the building committee thank great thanks Joe for that very clear um over to Personnel no report okay over the policy um so we met last week and we um we looked at the two new um school lunch policy so they're ready to go um so we have like 12 policy to show you um and then we also have a we have then we have like 102 that we're looking at that are amended that we've made about a quarter of the way through that we'll have to show people yeah so there's a lot coming down the the road here yeah um so just like a heads up on that um and then um you say there are two school lunch policies or two and then 10 technology policies that I'd already talked to you about so we can bundle that together if you want the school lunch will a lot of the changes are small yeah um but anyway so um there's those 12 and then um we have some other ones I think we made it through maybe like 20 15 I don't know the other night we looked at several but we're working our way through like we'll be up to about 30 pretty soon I would say we've got we've got a lot on on the table um and then we're also going to discuss next month the um Communications policy um parent communication that was my question yep awesome whatever happened with that okay fantastic thanks Amy for that Yen's work and to your whole committee um so over to audit advisory Dana couldn't be with us tonight she is away on business and so I don't think anybody else has a report brought it nope uh let's go over to Dear J I know report ah all right moving right along um over to CPAC no okay and um we have the oped management advisory committee there but it no longer needs to be there I must to copy to agenda yeah small price to pay for your amazing leadership on the agenda leader so I'm going to put that that stuff on the planning calendar anything else you guys are hoping to have into the planning calendar as always let me know if you have anything come Wednesday when Kirk and I meet I'm happy to put on my list if nothing further I'm going to move to adjourn secondy be you uh all those in favor who seconded that am you us thanks everybody have a good night e