sure I'm trying to do a few things at once I was gonna say I didn't get the notification of the recording so there we there it goes we'll do the roll call I know David could not make it this evening um Jess here will yes June here miss Bloom here miss Martin here Randy here I know Tom could not make it um I am here and uh I probably should start off by welcoming uh will Hackler back to the school committee um being appointed uh to the uh to the towns in representative vacancy so welcome back will no balloons no flowers we had it all set up claws what the heck you know don't have it in the budget it's not in the budget will didn't even get the cool background yet no not yet I the background Rob um our next scheduled meeting of the uh North Middle sex Regional school committee will be held at 6m on Thursday April 18th uh first order business we have our consent agenda for approval of minutes accounts payable warrants payroll warrants and a series of donations so I'll take a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved second all right um Jess yes will yes June yes Lisa Bloom yes Lisa Martin yes Randy yes and I will vote Yes so that is unanimous thank you uh next up public Communications we had one uh person submit for public Communications um so Pat MC if you'd again give us your name address and then um you will have three minutes to uh say what you want to say so go for it P yeah Patrick thank you for giving me this time um I I see you guys going around and going to the communities especially superintendent to present the school budget and the reasons why the increases and a lot of the reasons is it's understandable but the problem is the communities are waiting for nor middle sex to complete their portion of the budget so that they can determine what they want to add I or what they were going to cut that they're going to put back in So my suggestion would be is that you and you're not required to and I know you're not required to do this is if you could add into your application software which would be pretty simple and pretty straightforward the communities as to what they're presently presenting as a budget so that the people would know before they get to a warrant what their taxes are going to be whether they can reduce the nor middle sex or reduce their local Town budget the reason why I raise that is you had 40 you had a 26% increase last year when everybody forced you to reduce saying they couldn't afford they couldn't afford but those towns were doing 26% increases when nor middle sex only did six so people need to see the differences in what's happening there and why it's happening so if you could add that into your software I think you'll be able to slow down some of this criticism of your budget I mean the budget is needed a lot of these increases you don't have SE on people don't get that it's all done by the state so you need to find some way of presenting it all I hear from my town is we aren't presenting the budget until we see the budget from North Middle SE well that ties our hand and to be honest I would say to people decline your budget if they don't get it out soon if they're waiting for one little aspect um but you guys if you can add that into your software would be the best thing H and I don't even know if it's legal I I was told it may not be you're not supposed to be uh infringing on the town budgets so you have to check that suggest I you guys are do you done it every year you cut it back but then they turn around and they increased their 46 26% you were 6.7 to Townsen in ppro and they were at 12% so they can't keep streaming that you're too high when they're coming in high too thank you P I appreciate the the input um I mean I will say that superintendent his admin team and members of the school committee have been meeting with the towns since uh um since last fall even so August August so I mean none of this should have been a surprise to the towns they're free to present um the numbers in their budgets as they see fit um so I I I don't know why there's such a disconnect still but um we can certainly work on ways to improve that communication we add it to the softw yep because you're the only ones doing the software to tell us what taxes are going to be at the end of next year the budgets yep all right anyone's doing something to at least be transparent I appreciate po thank you I'll leave that alone for you guys thank you all right any there's no other public comment so um we'll move on I don't have um a specific chairperson report um so superintendent Morgan will'll go over to you I just have the budget so I can certainly hold off until a little bit later in the meeting if you'd like all right sure then uh we'll jump down to new business first item is school Committee Member roles um so I'll I'll actually turn this over to Randy um her and I have been talking about a couple ways to improve uh efficiency and workload with the committee I know she sent some stuff out to the committee um earlier today I believe so I know it was kind of short but I just want to get the discussion going um on that so I don't know Randy if you want to share that or if you want me to share if just want to talk through any of those yeah if you have it up that' be great if you can share it uh I forgot to bring that up before I got started here um and I sent that out last night I do apologize for the late notice with that um with everything trying to go with the budget and all um oh sorry just trying to figure out my computer um so basically what it is is uh what I've been noticing over the years is um there's just some more of different types of responsibilities that are coming to the school committee uh some things are uh increasing in the volume um and we never re we haven't really fully defined everything that all the different roles have on the left hand side you can see the current roles and responsibil these kind of have been um taken on and not really assigned by the full committee so the chair creates the agenda uh collaborates with the superintendent on the agenda he runs the meeting uh signs any paperwork for the school committee um he's the speaker for on behalf of the school committee and answers emails uh to with the public and he keeps track of the annual pacing items you can kind of go down and and see what the different positions we currently have um I also know that people um over the years myself included uh sometimes have more time to be on subcommittees and do more work sometimes uh life kind of takes over you need to pull back a little bit uh so I tried to reimagine some of the roles spread out some of the responsibilities um including a new position um on here that uh would allow somebody to have a lot of participation but not in a subcommittee so they can do it on their own time if they just don't have the time during the day um so you can see as the proposed roles and responsibilities the chair um I've given a lot more responsibilities to the vice chair and the the chair and the vice chair kind of work together on some things um so policy subcommittee um just some ideas about splitting it um either internally and have a a separate person in charge of the fiveyear policy review cycle and then policies that are current that need to be reviewed um policy uh sub is becoming quite large um with all those roles um I'm proposing uh that we go back to separating out the negotiation subcommittee um that is something that happens every three years but we used to have a teachers negotiation subcommittee and then um all other um uh unions um so just non teach so the Paras the secretaries the custodians uh all of the other um uh unions that we have um if you want to go down a little bit uh uh the new position that I I'm I'm suggesting is called a correspondence secretary and this is somebody that could take uh take over answering emails that come in keeping track of that um this way things that happened over the over the years is everyone assumes that one person either the chair or somebody else is answering the emails sometimes everybody answers the emails um so I wanted to um bring that into one role and somebody go ahead and uh work with the with the community um when they send in emails also this could second as um the communication subcommittee um where we've been playing with that uh subcommittee and haven't had a tremendous amount of success going forward and getting things uh together and people being on that subcommittee um if we just have the other chairs submit things to the correspondent secretary they can just gather it up and then we can have um a quarterly um correspondence um out to the public um and then of course we have the town Liaisons so I just wanted to kind of start running this past the school committee to see what you think of this if you had other ideas as far as how to reorganize ourselves in different positions uh to allow everybody on their own um timetable to be able to participate as much as they want so I'd like to open us up for comments and questions and suggestions right everybody loves it yep can I go ahead and assign everybody to something right um I mean I I I I would like people's input again I think since since 2020 um I think the the the volume of communication we get and emails and and and the I'll say the strength behind some of those has been uh quite a bit and I mean that takes up a considerable amount of time and and I I first to admit I don't keep up with it all there's just no way um but I also think there's opportunity to to spread things out and make us a little more efficient a little more effective um so again but I want everybody's input on this this is it's not going to work if it's prescribed it does have to be kind of a a joint effort so um for those that have chaired subcommittees for those that have been Vice chairs I mean any or those that have been chairs before like any input concerns you like it don't like it like that's kind of we want to flush that out um so Jun I see you got your hand up um yes thank you Randy first of all for putting this together um and I I think you're right some of the roles um are definitely more heavily weighted than others um and as the public can see when someone joins school committee you don't just join school committee um there's a lot more to it the subcommittee meetings actually often take up more time than the actual school committee meetings do um so there there is definitely a lot to it um so to try to break it up better does sound good um along with what Craig said um the cor respondence um has definitely increased it seems in the last couple years um and I do like the flexibility of the secretary position where it's not regular meetings um but I think that that role itself um to maintain all of that um is a lot also for one person so perhaps that's a role that could be divided by two people without having a whole committee it might make more sense to have two people kind of feel that and to to talk out responses to emails and and whatnot um that I that's my only big feedback right now um but also I want to mention that I it seems that we're we'll probably have some turnover on the committee before our organizational meeting in May um so perhaps we'll we may need to revisit this even if we decide we like it you know the RS a certain way if we have that many new committee members they might have some input on it too so we might not want to finalize it until that point but that's it but thank you for doing this thanks J Randy I I I I'm not looking at the document um well I can see here but I don't actually have it in front of me are did you add the um Town Liaisons to this as well sorry I was muted um yes it is down a little bit SL okay great all right Lisa Martin my same my comment was the same as June's is with having the turnover come in April I think we will have to revisit this because some of um the new members may not be able to take on all of these things because it is new and they need to get up to date on a few things before they can step into a a role like this anybody else I guess the one thing I would add is um implementation I think is one thing but feedback and trying to get this to a point that people are agreeable is is another so I I wouldn't recommend we not make progress um because we could use that reason to not vote on anything tonight um so i' I'd still want to make sure that this at least makes sense to people and that they're not violently disagreeing with it um if directionally it's accurate um we can defer voting that's not an issue at all but I think uh I would like to make sure that we're making progress towards this so maybe you use this in the organizational meeting as uh as something you vote on right in that in that meeting uh Jess I think it's a good idea to split up the negotiations um committee it is very time intensive type of thing um although it's not all the time it's a certain parts certain parts you know some years you are very intense and other years you have essentially nothing going on so it should also take into balance with other things like Finance subcommittee might be busy one part of the Year versus you know another part um is also important because it is a huge payload people do not understand I know I didn't when I first came on this committee how much work this actually is and how much time I know off the camera we do doing research and talking with people and talking with the administration and answering all of these emails and and how much work this actually is so I think it's important to get it as you know spread across the board as possible thank you Jess Randy yeah I just wanted to add that um you know uh whenever we whether we vote on this now whether we just kind of go to the organizational meeting with this this could certainly be um a work in progress um I wasn't intending uh to have this dead set and no changes um we can try and Implement parts of this or all of this and then come back to it in two months and say what's working what's not working or in six months what's working what's not working and um I'm just trying to this is this is part of my push to try and get the school committee working a little bit more efficiently a little more effectively um and and in a way also just to kind of raise the level of the work that we are doing without raising the effort okay works for me okay any feel from anybody whether U you want to sit with this for a little bit longer and take some more time maybe have some more suggestions for next meeting we can talk a little bit more next meeting that that work for everybody especially since I only got it out last night great start and um you know like like everybody said the organizational meeting where we figure this out is a great spot for it so okay all right thank you everyone thank you Randy for uh for helping push for this and uh putting this together appreciate it you're a few years too late but I appreciate [Laughter] it right um next on the agenda uh we have the dedication in honor of uh late school school Committee Member Susan Robbins so superintendent go me unmute so I just wanted to talk to the committee um certainly understand that we've tried to stay away from this in the past but I would like to recommend that the school committee allow for the high school's Performing Art Center to be named in Susan Robins memory as I emailed the committee recently this week uh Susan's commitment to the North Middle sux Regional School District was impressive to say the least in addition to her years of service in the school committee she was a constant and unwavering advocate for our schools and I cannot think of a more deserving person for the committee to consider for this honor at this point I'd like to turn it over to former Committee Member Rob Templeton to provide some additional background information thank you so now I'm gonna have to try and keep it together here for uh for this but um yeah I appreciate the opportunity to come and talk to you all and see you all it's uh it's good to see everybody again um yeah you know Susan was definitely special right and um you know the passion she had for the district was really crazy um you know she was interested in all of it right not just the fun stuff or the easy Parts but you know she was interested in solving problems and you know always looking to how to help the district right whether it was policy committee you know finance committee negotiation she would have been all over ry's you know list of tasks for everybody to do um you know she loved that stuff and you know she was quick to volunteer fully committed I think she was on the committee for more than 16 years um and before that she was an active member of ptas and all of that so I'm really dedicated to you know the very end um you know I you know I'm good friends with her husband and you know still remember like all the Mondays that she was at school committee and um you know away from family and you really supporting her and M family um it's just pretty it was pretty amazing um the thing that always you know really got me and you know the reason I liked working with her on it was you know she looked at things 58 different ways to try and make sure that she was you know not just making a decision based on what she thought was right but really tried to get um impact from all the stakeholders right whether it was you know the community the school teachers um students um you know really everything she did was was really to drive you know progress there um you know I I've had many debates with her on you know different topics and you know always appreciated the way she would run things past different committee members and you know really try and find the right solution for it um you know and finally I think you know when we think about naming something after it's you know it's a big deal right and it doesn't happen often and um you I think when I think about how she's impacted the district sorry I told myself I wasn't going to get all all sappy here but you know when I when I think about that Performing Arts Center and kind of How It's a focal point of you know that high school yeah I think she's a great person and I think she's somebody that models the goals that enem has for our kids right she's passionate about her family passionate about her work and passionate about supporting her community and so I think I think it's a perfect honor for her I think it's a perfect way for you know our kids to understand who she was into the future and um you know hopefully they they all can you know kind of take a little bit of you know the good work that she did and uh you know move on to uh you to bigger and better things that we always want our kids to do so with that I'll uh kind of pull myself together here and uh appreciate y'all letting me talk and uh you know good uh you know hope you consider it and I think it's a uh it's a great thing for the district and uh proud to uh you know be able to uh talk in her behalf thank you Rob thank you Rob appreciate that yep um so our our uh just for everyone's benefit our policy um requires that we hold a public hearing um for for facility naming request so we can certainly talk about this here um we can we can deliberate it we can't make a decision tonight but um we can certainly have discussion if anybody's got uh thoughts they want to share certainly do that so Randy see your hand up and I before Randy starts I would add that um Susan was a constant rule follower so she would want to there you go she probably Wordsmith that policy to death so we definitely need to follow that policy yes um I I I do believe that she was on the policy subcommittee with me when we uh put that one together and uh approved it through uh all the channels um so thank you thank you so much Rob um what kind words um you you leave me a little speechless um she was wonderful and she was so dedicated uh to this District um I had many many uh conversations with her after school committee meetings discussing what went on in the meetings um you know kind of just seeing the next steps thinking about things like you said from very different uh angles that you might not normally uh to make sure that you know the whole issue is understood the whole um situation is understood um she she just was um I I don't know it's just she was wonderful um and uh um definitely very thoughtful um and uh compassionate and for all of the students um dedicated to the district I am wholeheartly um in favor of bringing this uh to the community to share with them um our ideas of naming the Performing Arts Center after her I think that is a um like you said Rob it's the focal point of the high school um it it it's a very deserving of what she did for the district and what the district meant to her so thank you for bringing this to us J um yeah I just I just want to say that it is an extremely high honor and that very few people almost no people are deserving of that honor um but I do think that Susan absolutely is and that this is a really worthy and fitting way to honor her memory I am in support of doing that anybody else with questions or comments Jess speaking of rule follower she was the one when I first came on the mtee to the committee to give me the Roberts Rules of Order book and um I couldn't be more in support of this Choice thank you I hated that book by the way I was gonna say actually so when when I first joined that's where Susan and I found common Bond was uh Roberts rules and Rule following and project management and all that stuff so it was um I guess as as we look ahead to again having a public hearing going through that that process um do I don't think we need a recommendation out of this in order to have that hearing um I think we just have that hearing and then can make it a determination at that time um I I completely agree with everything and this is my rule follower policy hat on um so don't take this for anything about that I just want to make sure that we are um setting the right precedent or not setting the wrong precedent um she's completely deserving of the recognition she contributed far and above um more than probably any other volunteer at least in in recent memory has done she was dedicated I know I think she was an alternate Rob on the building committee and did a ton of work um with the building project so which is still open by the way um but um so I I think completely deserving I just want to make sure that we are um doing the right thing um and um I don't think the reasons are in question I just want to make sure we're not uh setting ourselves up for something that may be hard in the future so that would be my only my only input but fully I got fully supportive all right and I mean I can bring I can I mean Craig I you know I've been in in that in in your all seats right and I've we've debated this a number of times and you know I debated it myself a number of times right on this and um yeah just yeah I I I just think it's you know it's kind of extraordinary measures right it's it's it's just a an interesting thing and and when you think about you know different items right it it just this just seemed right to me right and of course I'm biased right I'm friend and all of that but um yeah I think it I think you have every you know every right to consider it absolutely and I think I'm I I know it's a very emotional topic um it's a very topic that's close to many of our Parts it's very recent um and and I want to make sure that 10 years from now there's no question that this was the right thing to do do I believe it is right now absolutely um I got to put that hat on of again 10 years down the road um was that the right decision and you look at fields that get named you look at plaques that get put beneath trees you look at TV studios that get named like all those things that have been done um if we're consistent with the reasons for that wholeheartly support it I just want again just due diligence to make sure that uh that we're doing this for for the right reason so that that's the only angle on that I guess um all right so our next step on this would be if the committee is in agreement to move this to the next step uh would be to uh to schedule a public hearing on this topic and uh in hopefully a subsequent vote and then I see who is that BR that oh Brad you have your hand up yes I I I just wanted to add um obviously you know I I've I've been in other districts outside of NM and um I've worked with with many uh school committee members and I have never seen the level of service um that someone has put forth um I can't think of anyone that can even rival Susan whether th being NM or in other districts and just want the committee obviously it certainly sounds like everyone is um in support that um you know unlike a lot of the the the naming Honors that have happened previously Susan was a volunteer um she was someone that um truly volunteered her time on behalf of the on behalf of the students in the NM community so just wanted to put that out there thank you br I think that's an important point thank you thank you Randy did you want to make a motion yes um I would move that uh we bring this recommendation U for a public hearing I'd like to second that motion do we need to set a date for that or is that just at the next conv time and we'll publish it with the required lead times and all that stuff I think uh publish it with the next it would be nice next school committee meeting uh is a possibility if if the timing works on that I think that makes sense um any other questions comments on the motion had Randy and Will was making that all right so this is to uh we will schedule a public hearing uh on this topic at the earliest uh possible time uh so Jess yes will yes yes yes yesy yes I vote yes that's unanimous thank you everybody uh and Rob again thank you very much for for bringing this forward um and saying what you said about Susan really appreciate you stepping up yep no thanks for uh thanks for having me and thanks for considering it so have fun with the um budget we'll see you all next uh Tuesday night you're welcome to saay for the budget if you want it's always a good time I know I know thanks Rob right thanks all uh next on the agenda we have the student opportunity acts plan with uh Dr Reese somewhere yes good evening everyone I'm going to share my screen um Craig are you able to enable me to share my screen I did you should be all say ging okay I see it now thank you thanks so this evening um I'm seeking approval of our student Opportunity Act plan uh to submit to the Department of Education as required under the state regulations um what I thought would be helpful tonight is just quickly going through I know you got the plan draft plan in your packets but just going through the background of the student Opportunity Act and kind of the impus in terms of developing the plan the areas that we're focusing on and why we're focusing on those areas so the student Opportunity Act was actually a state law that was enacted in 2019 the focus of this act was really on providing funding to what's turned out to be a small number of districts that are serving students that have the greatest needs in terms of disparities between specific subgroups um while our district really doesn't receive additional funding for this purpose there was a provision in the law that required every District to set targets for improving disparities and achievement among student groups and develop a three-year plan using evidence-based strategies to meet those targets so a plan was developed three years ago and it's now time for us to to revisit our plan and look at the targets and areas that we're focusing on just for clarification purposes we talk about our strategic plan and that's our Five-Year Plan where we're really looking at how are we meeting the needs of all students whereas the student Opportunity Act plan is really fine-tuning in looking at specific subgroups that show disparities from our all student population and looking at what specific programs and what specific supports we're going to put in place to address those disparities and try to narrow the gap for for the subgroups that have been identified So the plan has requirements um we have to do what's called an executive summary just a summary of the plan um we have to do analysis of the data identify the subgroups that we're going to focus on for the plan we have to look at setting threee targets for improving student achievement we have to look at the ways or talk about the ways that we we've shared information out with families caregivers and other stakeholders about the plan and provided opportunities for input um and then looking at um identifying the evidence-based programs or strategies which are called as as we know in education everyone loves acronyms so the EB ebps to address uh the disparities in its student achievement and so desie has identified a list of specific evidence-based strategies we had to select from that list and then talk about specifically what we were doing under that strategy um in terms of timelines um back in December the state provided initial guidance um and training to districts on the development of the 2024 SOA plans uh in January they provided some additional guidance to us and updated the information a little bit um and then um what what needed to happen next was just working on the plan development so I know there were some questions last month about some of the disparities particularly with our special education subgroup and we had talked about that we're going to be meeting to address those through this plan um and then getting input from commun the caregivers and stakeholders um the plan is due to the state by April 1st which really doesn't give a lot of turnaround time it wasn't until probably the first week in February that the state actually made the online plan available um for us to sub to work on within What's called the gem system which is um the online system that districts use uh primarily for um grant writing and development it's a new system that they have but they're actually asking us to work within that system to develop the or submit the um student Opportunity Act plan so it didn't give us a lot of turnaround time we we have to get approval of the plan from the school committee before submitting it and so that's why I'm here this evening to to share it out and answer any questions and hopefully get approval so that we can be on time to to submit um in terms of looking at the data the state has developed um what they call a heat map and it's actually a public um resource that anyone can access I've got the link here um I've shared the link out um in the community to our caregivers but basically what this map does is identify what are the areas um that there are disparities between um for some of our student subgroups as compared to the performance of our all students group um the areas we looked at or the areas of state was focused on was chronic absenteeism so students that have 10 or more absences um or 10% or more absences in a year um regardless of whether it's excused or unexcused because but even if a student has an excused absence they're still missing core instruction and so the state that's that's been an area of focus for the state looking at out of school suspensions looking at the rate of nth graders passing all of their core subject areas there's a lot of research to show that that e8th to nth grade transition if we can catch those students in ninth grade and help them be successful in passing the greater percentage of students that pass their ninth grade classes it's it's correlated with graduation rates as well um and then looking at Dropout and fiveyear graduation rates um this sorry this document when you look at it anything that's in the dark red is um an area where there is the greatest disparity for all compared to our all students anything that's in the pink is that that group didn't meet the all students rate anything that's in the blue is the students actually met or exceeded the all students group so when we looked at this the things that stood out for um the leadership team were around our English language Learners students with disabilities and lowincome students and then when we further look down towards the bottom at the 2023 mcast we really saw that those areas were having the greatest impact in terms of student achievement on our students with disability subgroup and so that's when we decided that that was going to be the area of focus for the upcoming student Opportunity Act plan um in terms of Outreach to community and stakeholders um this has been shared with the building administrators they're sharing it with their school councils um Brad is going to U talk about it at his next um superintendent advisory council meeting and I'll be attending that as well to answer any questions it's been shared with the uh special uh parent advisory Council leadership team uh for feedb feedback and input um it's been posted in uh Brad's newsletter last week um and it was also included for our staff members um out of the curriculum office we do a newsletter every other week and it was included for staff members as well to be able to take a look at it and give input um and so the three areas that from the state's list of focus areas that we decided um would have the greatest we felt would have the greatest leverage for addressing those disparities for our special education students were around promoting students physical mental health and wellness um implementing a multi-tiered system of support um which often is called mtss and basically what that does is it looks at you don't want to just say we're going to address the academic needs of students we're going to address the social emotional needs we're going to address the behavioral needs it's looking at that as a system and how do we provide a comprehensive system for supporting all students and then the other Focus area was really using that um multi-tiered system to implement academic supports and interventions that provide all students particularly those students with disabilities um equ access to Equitable um and deeper learning and the high leverage instructional practices which is been an area of focus um over the past few years in the district so that's kind of the the brief overview I'm happy to answer what we did was we then looked at under each of those areas what are the specific um strategies and approaches we already have in place that we want to elevate and what are the things that we need to add additionally to really reflect on those areas in terms of the setting targets the state does provide us with targets and we had the opportunity to either go with the targets that the state will be providing or develop our own and given the fact that there's not really money associated with this we felt like um the most the easiest way and the probably the most valid in terms of looking at data was just using the the targets that the state would be setting happy to answer any questions but I would ask for a vote from the committee if possible this evening so that we can get this submitted thank you Gary any questions from the committee Randy um how much of uh implementing this um do we need new resources um do these utilize what we already have in the district and using them a little bit different l or more effectively or with different groups um how does that this affect uh the district yeah so a lot of it is really around um providing like particularly in that first area providing some additional professional development and resources and support for staff to be able to um meet the needs of the students um with disabilities we also felt like while we identified students with disabilities as the specific Target group that the strategies we'd be using would carry over and support the other groups um when you look at the other two areas it's really going to be we don't have a strong um multi-tiered system um in place so it will be time working with a committee of teachers to and staff members to really develop that mtss system and then look at ways to then bring it to life and use it effectively within the district so a lot of it will be you know professional development for staff time for committees to get together to work on on the development of these plans any questions from anybody else Gary just I I think I I thought you said this and I may have just not retained it but um this is a plan for just next year or is over the next three years it's it's focused over the next three years thank you I'll make a motion if we're ready are you ready Craig I'm ready if you are all right move that the school committee approved the student Opportunity Act plan as presented second all right Lisa and will any other questions or comments from the committee all right seeing none U Jess yes will yes June yes this Lisa if you said something I did not hear you oh I everything went out um yes right sorry thank you Lisa Martin yes Randy yes and I will vote Yes so that's unanimous thank you thank you very much uh next up we have Federal grant supply chain assistance funds I don't know who has this [Music] item I think this is Nancy Haynes is I can probably talk briefly about it so um these funds will be used to supplement um uh the food chain of um for Food Service uh essentially it's it's funding that is going to be used to purchase uh local sourced uh foods and on and in I think the New England area mostly so it's it's um a Federal Grant I believe um Gary do I have that right believe it's a Federal grant so it's coming coming through to the district um $78,000 uh to support the food service and improve on um delivery of and and I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that the um district has had trouble getting certain products in um and some in some areas they've had shortages over the past few years and still that continues so this is a way to promote and expand upon the the vendors that we're using to support the the food service thank you Nancy um yeah just to add I think one of the other big requirements I think is that the foods are unprocessed uh so anything significantly processed or already prepared can be purchased using these funds this correct y thank you any questions from the committee this is for us to um basically approve the re the receipt of this grant as required by our policy so if nobody has any questions I'll take a motion that school committee approve the supply chain assistance funds Grant in the amount of $782 3 so moved second all right any other questions all right Jess yes will yes yes Blom yes Martin yesy yes and I will vote Yes so that is unanimous all right that was it for new business moving on on to subcommittee reports uh any update Lisa on accelerated repair no uh Ashby building committee June uh NOP no update um I actually had an update on the the high school building committee that uh Nancy had forwarded me earlier um we're working to close that out so uh I think there were like seven or eight items on a on a checklist that we had to go through to submit some paperwork and and notify msba and have them notify us on things so still some back and forth there but uh it feels like it's getting close and I know our I think it was the OPM that sent that is is anxious to get that close out as well um I don't have an update on Communications uh Finance Lisa oh we do have an update there would Brad like to go first on the budget yes sure uh do you want me to do the the full presentation at this point if we want to yes that would probably sure okay and I can certainly do that I just wanted to certainly let the committee know this is um you know kind of like a 30,000 foot view of the budget the final budget message which is a lengthy document will be posted onto the website tomorrow um once this evening's budget um is voted on I also wanted to put out there we have yet to put up a um a detailed line item budget at this point because we are still in active negotiations with four of our collective bargaining agreements excuse me with four of our collective bargaining groups so if we were to post um several of several of those lines would be identifiable so we have to be very cautious in that um because we are still in active negotiations so just wanted the committee to know that uh so as far as fy2 really not much has changed um and I did make a presentation to the peil Council on Aging uh last Friday and I have upcoming presentations of both the towns Townson and Ashby Council on Aging and plan to do a zoom community meeting as well um also met with a couple small groups uh just to talk about um some of the needs that the district has so the budget that we are proposing is a level service budget um meaning that this is the we essentially need the money we are asking for in order to continue the level of Education that we are currently offering our students uh an important note to point out is that our per pupil spending is $8,600 per student that is from um FY 2022 um but that is the most recent number that we have uh that is $1,535 per student below the state average so in my opinion we are doing an excellent job of educating our students um with the money that we have allocated to us um overall our budget represents a 6.27% increase over fy4 and a lot of that is due to new positions um to help service both special education and English language Learners um I think again we've done a very good job uh managing money in the school district in the past five years our average increas has been 2.89% um on average so we've done a really good job trying to stay close to that 2 and a half percent um essentially uh an override is required in order to get this to get to the 6.27% otherwise we will be looking at a reduction um and really the only reduction that we're looking at at this point is essentially reducing by 31 staff um and that's an estimate based on salaries and whether or not uh staff take benefits or not um and that would involve core content teachers and grades K to8 counselors power professionals nurses building Administration and central office administration the end result of that would be class sizes in K to8 of 27 to 32 um that would get us to about $2.2 million in in redu eduction the only other way that we can feasibly get to the additional 800,000 plus to get to that 3 million reduction would be the elimination of all after school activities um there's really no other way to get there um by after school activities I'm talking about after school athletics after school music programs and clubs um that would obviously result in a large number of students looking for Alternatives um outside of M if that were to happen the reason I say that that's the um you know the second part of the cut is that if the only other real option would be to instead of reducing by 31 FTE to reduce by close to 50 FTE and with 31 we're looking at class sizes of 27 to 32 50 would make it substantially um would would make it substantially more difficult to manage our classrooms uh a concern that I have is that if if we don't have you know basically this we're hoping this goes to ballot in in Townson and in Peril in April um after their Town meetings the special Town meetings that they've called on the problem is is that if we get into May and we don't have an answer and then into June and we still don't have an answer we're likely going to have to um reduce staff or pink slip staff as it's called um and a concern that I have is because there is such a significant shortage of Educators out there is that if we do pink slip staff the likelihood of being able to retain them is going to be very slim an example I would have is is that we had to fill a guidance counselor position at one of our middle schools this year with a service 10 years ago there would be well over 200 applications for that position we didn't receive any um other districts are reaching out asking pH for physical education teachers and history teachers positions that were that would literally get hundreds of applications so it's a concern that if we pink slip that number of staff that they won't be available to us um if and when the dust settles so to speak the other concern I have is that we may lose some of our veteran teachers as well who are looking at the forecast of large class sizes and the possibility of going elsewhere where the budget may seem a little brighter so certainly a certainly a problem uh and just wanted to put out there while you know the budget this year is certainly High there are certainly things that we are still doing without we are still without a middle school foreign language program both in part due to funding and also do in part to the fact of our inability to find licensed staff um we do not have tiered curriculum directors which most of other districts around us have we have two k to2 curriculum directors uh we are in dire need for additional resources for social emotional programming we do not have a separate gifted and talented program which um our Middle School um and Elementary administrators have been asking for we're going to lose our academic interventionists are are U that were funded by Esser after covid we had academic interventionists come in and catch kids up to the best of their ability North Middle sex just like all the other districts that are out there are still trying to catch kids up from that one and a half to two years of of of remote and hybrid learning and we're going to lose those interventionists we really don't have after school security in place especially at the high school where the high school is an active busy building after school and we don't have a funding mechanism to keep a person station there we're currently finding ways to do it but it's not sustainable uh we're essentially using revolving funds in order to make that happen but again that's not sustainable we've lost Librarians at the elementary middle school and there's also a need um according to our elementary school for a k to first grade transitions program so again the budget is certainly higher than in years past um but I will say um you know obviously this year it's high but I attended the legislative breakfast yesterday for the marac valley Roundtable um a lot of our legislators were there and there is a significant concern for FY 26 and FY 27 as well because they do not see any real change in public education funding at least until FY 28 um so that coupled with inflation has put school districts not just NM but you know certainly regionals around us whether it be rot and dunable act in boxboro then you look at comprehensive such as Westford all of whom are struggling um with with our current budget situation so I I would certainly recommend to the committee that we move forward with a 6.27% increase over FY 24 and certainly willing to take questions if you have them this was also the increase that was approved on voted for in the finance committee as a recommendation that we move forward with the 6.27% increase and I thank Brad and Nancy and Robin and your entire team um Gary as well for putting together a budget I know that it hasn't been easy this year um and going forward it may not be easy as well and I I'm in full support of you guys um putting this forward for us thank you uh Randy uh yes I I would like to thank every everybody uh this has been a very difficult year um a little bit more pressure with the special Town meetings coming and earlier than we normally have um this is you we we say this every single year and it sounds like a um broken record but this process has broken from this from the timing standpoint of what the state gives us for our numbers on what we can count on um and it's unfortunate um but I we just we don't have all of our answers yet uh from the state of of all things um to be able to put together um a little bit more of an accurate budget than I would would like at this point in time this is the best that we have and I know uh we're still waiting on any numbers do we have any um any idea of when some of these numbers might be coming in when the house might be putting out their numbers um when other thing other numbers that we're waiting for might be coming out so yeah I I was told yesterday that the Senate has filed the supplemental budget but I will not um there's there's no expected action on that probably for at least two more weeks I don't know if Nancy has any additional information yeah my my what I had heard about the the next um state budget um tier which I believe is the house is that we would see those numbers around April 10th somewhere in that range to see if there's any changes to the numbers but I mean typically in the past years there haven't been been drastic changes um I'm you know been always hopeful no I know and unfortunately the state's having a hard year as well so those numbers probably won't change much uh you're right but it'd be nice to have some solid numbers uh behind our budget but again thank you for for all you've done this thus far with the uncertainty that there is yeah I'll Echo the thanks and I know um proud I know you you referenced that that we're right now this was the option that the only option we're considering I think it's important to note that you and your team and and the finance subcommittee have looked at numerous other options that just weren't weren't viable to take forward so um a lot of I know a lot of due diligence a lot of uh back and forth and hard decisions have been made to get us to this recommendation which again represents level service I think that's a point that shouldn't be lost that this is what is needed to continue to offer what we're already offering um our students so um there's been Cuts made over the years that have gotten us to this point and this is not not restoring that this is providing the same level of service um so I think that's another just important thing the public needs to be aware of any any other questions or comments on the budget Lisa do you want me to read that and you so move I have it I have it right here for it move that the school committee adopt the following budgets for fiscal year 2025 operational budget 58 m780 486 Transportation budget 4,46 $ 7,164 Debt Service 4,411 162 furthermore I propose that these budgets be utilized to calculate the fiscal year 2025 School assessments for member towns in accordance with the with um s s sanor requirements additionally I recommend the authorization of the use of 245,000 from the excess and deficiency account to offset the fiscal year 2025 operational budget this motion is made with the understanding that these budget allocations are in the best interest of our schools and the communities we serve aiming to provide quality education while being fiscally responsible I seek a second to this motion for further discussion and a subsequent vote second will just um I don't know if anyone else is my I think my audio cut out for the transportation budget it's 4,467 164 I didn't hear the 400,000 so maybe other people did but in case not just to clarify that all right any other questions on the budget or discussion um Robin I think we posted this as a joint meeting did we not I'm just going back to the agenda I did yes do we have anybody from the town I don't know if the towns posted it but I posted it okay I just didn't know if we had anybody from the town on that wanted to say anything and that would be from town select boards Finance committees check check I can see Chuck walkovich oh I don't know where he went he had raised oh there he is you want me to let him talk if you could yeah anybody from those boards um okay Chuck should be ready to go all right go for it chuck if you just introduce yourself before you speak I think he's on might be muted he I think he's muted Chuck walkovich um peil select board um first I'd like to thank the school committee and the superintendent and his staff for for the work that they put into this budget I I realize that it is a difficult task and um I really appreciate the effort that's put into it um just the one question what is the the total budget you gave three different numbers what does it add up to I I couldn't write that fast Lisa do you have that figure in the motion I don't think we have the total total but I yeah I don't think I did the total in the script I'm sorry sorry can add it up actually I have I have the total Nancy sent it to me earlier it's um 67 million 388,000 questions I did not right I appreciate it thank you anyone else from town boards um I don't see anyone else from a town board all right anybody from the committee have any other questions all right if not we will take a vote all right Jess yes will yes June yeah Lisa Bloom yes L Martin yes Andy yes and I will vote Yes so that is unanimous and again thank you to everybody for your efforts to get us to this point still a long road ahead of us but um definitely appreciate efforts anything else on finance Lisa no not at this time you haven't been doing any other work just just negotiations is next right on the list anything with negotiations uh Brad and Nancy are working and his team are working on it Brad and and Marie I should say are working on it all right thank you uh moving on to policy Randy got a nice list yes hold on let me get this up all right so we have this in a couple of different um groups just because there was so many and they were from different meetings um and there's one change is correct it was correct in the packet um but I'll get to that first first I will make a motion to approve for first reading uh policy CA delegation of administrative responsibility CB Regional School Superintendent CBI Regional School Superintendent CCB line and staff relations CE administrative councils cabinets and committees and CHD Administration in policy abss so move second or will got it will Will's been quick on the seconds tonight the new members by the way these are these are all just from our five-year review so these weren't anything um that particularly came up for anything in the district these were just um part of the fiveyear review that we're going through which is why they're all from the same um kind of in order um as we go through see if masc had updated anything any language um or if anything had changed as far as in our district most of these had very minor changes um uh there wasn't anything real big in this group all right any other anyone with questions all right so this is to provies for our first reading Jess yes yes Jun yes saom yes Martin yes yes I yes next okay in the next group there's seven eight n I'm going to take those together because we actually combined those three into CH and so CH is now uh policy development dissemination and implementation and then it was correct in the packet as the one policy it just got missed uh being combined here so I will take those three to you know uh off the table and I will move that we approve policy C policy development dissemination and implementation for a first reading I second oh Lisa Bloom that time will was sleeping up the wheel any questions or comments on that policy all right chess yes yes June yes Mr yes Martin yes did you hear me I did not uh Randy yes and I will vote Yes as well okay and I am taking chca and JF off the table those were not uh completed yet but CH ca- E uh I'm looking at that uh take that one to yeah I know CL is it CL but there's the chca I'm gonna take that off right now because I'm not sure that was for first reading so I'll just bring it back with the chca so the next one will be CL administrative reports um I move that the uh the committee remove or delete policy CL administrative reports this is one that masc has been going through and finding that they some of these were repetitive um and not necessary anymore a second all right Randy and Lisa see no questions Jess yes I will abstain all right June yeah Lisa boom yes Lisa Martin yes Randy yes I'll vote Yes so that's six in favor one exstension as will and uh anything else on policy Randy um not at all we just keep motoring through these fiveyear reviews and uh we have a couple other new ones that will be coming to the next meeting most likely all right thank you uh any updates from the town the aison all right and I believe we don't need Executive session um I might have to have our next meeting in person so I don't have to do the roll calls for every single vote next time are we going to have an earlier meeting than the April 18th one or is that when is the next meeting the next one the next one is scheduled for the 18th um we could when is um peo move their town meeting to when um April 8th is their town meeting April 8th okay um I mean there's April break in there that we have to consider too if people oh that is the 18th so we'd have to we should do it the week before then right the week of the 18th is April vacation well it depends on how many meetings you want to get in Greg before Oh I prefer we could just be done now peace out everybody see um no I think I mean I think we should have one more especially after um some of the Town meetings we should we should plan to meet regardless I would assume um and I don't think we want to do it during the vacation week so we could bump it up to the 11th if that works for folks I think that sounds like a good idea unless people want to do it sooner um but I think the 11th I think the 11th that we may need a reorganization depending on how things happen in the towns um what um and we could do the for posting a public hearing Robin do we need two weeks or if if I have to put it in the newspaper Jess does it does it have to go in the newspaper public I'm not sure about the newspaper but I think it's a 14-day posting okay yeah so we okay so we're still well within that um for the dedication discussion so um if we plan next meeting for April 11th 6: p.m. um you want to do that in person at the high school all right and it shall be in person at the high school April 11th at 6 PM not the 18th not the 18th due to school vacation all right with that if there's no other business I will um motion to a turn second thanks I was expecting will to make the motion before I finish I was too all right um Jess yes will yes so excited about a journey Jess I don't know I'm gonna miss you Jess um miss you guys too there's one more meeting right there is the 11th I'll be there at the 11th um June don't know if I Alisa yes Martin yes Randy yes yes I will vote Yes uh we are adjourned I challenge any future committee to have as much fun as we did so have a good night everybody and uh we'll talk to you soon take care have a good night he