##VIDEO ID:Orduv4B9HOA## good evening everybody would like to open the town of air select board meeting for Tuesday September 17th 2024 uh this meeting SL hearing of the air select board will be held in person at the location provided on this notice members of the public are welcome to attend this in-person meeting please note that while an option for remote attendance and or participation via Zoom is being provided as a courtesy to the public the meeting SL hearing will not be suspended or terminated if technological problems interrupt the virtual broadcast unless otherwise required by law members of the public with particular interest in a specific item on this agenda should make plans for in-person versus virtual attendance accordingly this meeting will be live on zoom and channel 8 the public May access the proceedings by joining Zoom v u meeting ID number 897 980 0793 or by calling 92925 6099 for additional information about remote participation please contact Carly antonellis the assistant Town manager at ATM a.m. us or 978-772-4864 God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay um I understand there's a couple of amendments to the agenda this evening Janice uh yes Mr chair I'd like to under new business select board member uh question section I'd like to add um kind of a I spoke to Senator alridge so I guess a conversation with Senator alridge uh update okay and then Robert Mr chairman uh members of the board uh two amendments under the community development program manager report if we could add a number three which would be the designation of environmental certifying officer for the grant Miss hery will present that and then under the town manager's report if we could add a number six which is the approval of the household hazardous w amendment number six which would add the town of ashram to the collaborative and I'll speak to that under my report thank you okay um any other changes amendments I don't have any okay I'll take a motion I make a motion that the select board approve the agenda as amended seconded all those in favor I I and chair says I um any announcements this evening all right um so move on to public input is anybody here for public input sure come on up you got Pauline's hand know okay hi I'm Carolyn McCreery 6 what US said Avenue East and uh I'm here because um we are forming or have formed Friends of the air Senior Center and we have applied for a 501c3 and we're seeking members donations and uh we're asking for donations of $20 so um come see me we'll take check cash whatever credit card okay okay thank you thank you all right and is there anybody else here for public input sure come on up and then Pauline I do see your hand I'll get to you right after hello hello um so my name is Christina Zer I'm the assistant town clerk here and um we're here to officially invite you and everybody else to the fourth annual um Newton Street folken Arts Festival um being planned for Saturday October 5th from 10:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. um with a rain date of that Sunday October 6th um we're really looking forward to putting this on um so I just like to quickly thank the volunteer committee who's working very hard to put this together um which is myself and Samantha Benoy um we have Jonathan cran um Barry schwarzel Alicia hery um and Chuck Schultz and um we're also grateful to have the guidance of Robert pomon Our Town manager um and then we are in contact with the Chiefs as well um Tim Johnson Brian Gil and as well as Dan van gwick from DPW and we're grateful for their support as well um we've received sponsorship as you can see up here um just today we were very fortunate to accept accept a very generous donation of $6,000 um from Main Street Bank to help fund this Festival um we also received sponsorships from Kat oils and Noya as well and we are very grateful for their ongoing support of this event um we will have uh during this event uh quite a few entertainers uh we've already have some bands booked uh Eric hilborne and the swing Cafe Band Mike Lanigan and the Roadhouse Romeos the Squeezebox Stoppers in a local singer songwriter Keith mclindon um we'll also have two dance performances from local dance schools Maria's school of dance and the dance Garden will also do a little show um and at this time we have uh 38 booths of vendors uh about half of them are local artists and Crafters who'll be selling their goods but we'll also have um local nonprofits boards committees we'll also have tables um to share information and how you can get involved with the town excellent yeah and we're really looking forward to seeing everybody on that Saturday the 5th um cuz we're not going to need the rain dat going beautiful yes yes but we do hope to see everybody there and it's going to be a wonderful event thank you very much and congratulations on the $6,000 check looking forward to it um Pauline thank you Mr chair I have one extremely brief and one a little bit longer but still brief comment first Habitat for Humanity would like to invite all of you to the official groundbreaking for 12 Newton Street on Friday September 27th at 10:00 a.m. so if you would put that on the town calendar of course we'd like anyone from town to be there Senator Eldridge will I'm not sure I think representative Sena um but I don't know about representative Scarsdale though we would love a representation from the board so that's a really brief one the next one is not a new topic for us but I wanted to just share some thoughts I've had recently it will soon be dark earlier but since there are still a few weeks to go I want to make yet another request for better signage and lighting at the Central Avenue Adam Street crosswalk first I want to thank Dan for his willingness to consider and implement the suggestions I made last fall there there has been a definite Improvement but crossing the street continues to be a challenge the reflective pedestrian sign which was placed in the crosswalk in the spring really helped slow traffic especially with cars parked along both sides of central AB but it is constantly being moved to the side of the street although I've never seen that happen and it has been there now for many weeks and I know it will be removed for winter I have had multiple close calls as of the pedestrian which prompted me to make the requests I did last fall few weeks ago I had an experience as a driver that was very disturbing but I believe is easily resolved on August 15th the night of the dph public hearing at deons I was bringing a friend home who was unable to drive it was after 10: p.m. and therefore sorry therefore very dark we were heading East on Central Aven in the same instant my passenger and I I saw two pedestrians to our left in the street Crossing near but not in the crosswalk they were wearing dark clothing and were about 6 in from my front fender when we saw them there was absolutely no light with which to see them we were both very startled he could not be here tonight but he intends to connect with you later I've looked around the area for locations for additional lighting or other means of brightening the area at night hoping to have a suggestion for you the first thought I had was to outline the crossing signs with solar powered flashing lights similar to the ones that outline the stop ahead sign at the shova belly Express I'm sure Dan know is what I'm referring to I will concede if people do not use the crosswalk in the first place putting any type of lighting on the crossing signs may not encourage people to use them but an electronic sign will likely save someone who does use the crossw from certain har I will continue to push to that solution however after the incident August 15th more lighting would definitely improve at driver's visibility of the entire intersection the one street light on the corner of Adams barely illuminates the intersection even after the wattage was increased and the light was turned 45° there is a light p on Adam Street that was there when I moved to cambon Street 30 years ago it is extremely bright and on a timer of sorts as it goes on and off all night long you can know how much I appreciate that it currently faces the Markham building parking on but it is not owned by markam it is also not owned by the NOA club and based on my context 30 years ago it is not owned by the town so it's a light but not owned by anybody that shines very brightly why not turn that light to face central abs and adjust the timing of possible to see if it cast up a broader theme of light on the interion if that works we have a fix at seemingly no cost on a novel concept and closing I want to thank Dan and the DPW for their efforts today I'm hopeful we can find more ways to improve this location as well as our entire Community to make it safer for everyone thank you thank you Paulie all okay um any other um anybody here for public input anybody else or online Okay um next up uh Alicia Percy from our community development program manager hello good evening how are you guys how are you yes um good thanks good so there's two things that I'm here well three things that I'm here for you tonight to bring for of you tonight so so we have um a property that is at a deed restriction it's on our Shi list and it is coming up for resale it is a unit at the Woodland Village um condominium 68 East Main Street and there's 11 units there and three of them are affordable this one will be going on the market but we have a a a requirement that we do have the right for first right of refusal on it and that's just in case they're not selling well because the Market's depressed and then sometimes the town will pick them up to not lose them as a lowincome property so but the market is not depressed this is going to be a wonderful opportunity for our family it will be coming on the market but the first thing they have to do is we have to wave our right for first right of refusal and I have checked in with um our community um our affordable housing committee chair and and and the committee and the there's been an agreement that of course we want to to move this on to a family because it will be it will be coming on at a very affordable right there will be a lottery for it so um any [Music] questions questions don't have any no I don't think so okay so I just need the board to um to vote either to exercise the the purchase or wave the right EX the right or wave the right to purchase that unit I'll make a motion to wave the right of first refusal for 68 East Main Street second unit three unit three second all those in favor I I chair says I thank you very much and if anybody out there is interested in in what when that's going to be coming on the market or anything they can call my office and ask okay um the next thing I have is we have received um a cdbg grant for our um affordable no for our housing rehab program which is a program that we've done in the state in the town for over 20 years and we have rehabed over 100 homes over that time period probably closer to 150 and it is for affordable and moderate income families we often end up rehabbing elderly people's homes that can't afford to put on on a new roof or put in a new furnace things like that or new windows and it allows them to stay in their homes um and so we went to the state this year and requested $287,450 and that's because when I do my budget I didn't round up so it's it's a little odd number there because I just did out the numbers and that's what came up so anyway um this is to hopefully rehab seven housing units and um but with that we were awarded this but there was a few things that the state has changed about the program and they requested that we make the changes in our program guidelines so I sent you the program guidelines and I am highlighted the ones that were changing and one of them was um so we've always always done a 0% interest um DPL um oh now I can't remember what TPL is I have it written down upstairs I'm sorry um deferred payment um loan and it was always a 15-year loan but for the first 5 years because we wanted to um try and get nobody who's going to be flipping houses to use this program so it was for to discourage you know speculators we would say that the loan would stay intact because we were improving the house and after that it would start going down each month for the next 10 years and there was and it just automatically reduces so if the people stay in the house for 15 years they owe nothing um the state has decided that that's not that they want it a little bit more aggressive so it's going to start dep depreciating from the first month and so I've made that changes on that and that is what the state would like to see in this program so that's the first change the other change is um the amounts we um make available and so we can spend we used to be able to spend up to 35,000 then it went to 40,000 per unit and now because of all the increases it's up to 60,000 unit plus the possibility of 10,000 for historic Renovations for historic property or taking delighting a property so I had to make those changes in the guidelines and but the guidelines are approved by the select board so I'm bringing them to you are there any questions on that I don't have any there is one more sorry no there is one more thing that um the the town has been ahead of the state on in this grant period they requested that all um duetting be re um forgiven immediately and that's because the state has been trying desperately to get let out of properties and before it went on the loan and then would depreciate with no payment due but now but the town did that about for the 2018 Grant ahead of everybody because we were seeing exactly what the state has seen that people just need the let out of the properties and so we we forgive the lead portion of the actual scraping and deleting we don't forgive like if we put new windows in that's part of deleting but we don't forget the forgive the cost of the windows or anything like that and but that's in alignment with what the state has changed this year as well just as an FYI thanks seems pretty straightforward yep um I'll take a motion um I make a motion that the select board um approve the FY 24 air housing rehabilitation program guidelines as stated tonight seconded all those in favor I chair says I appr and one more thing which I don't have um a memo on but we need an environmental certifying officer and technically that's usually the CEO of the town which is Robert but he can defer it and before and history he's deferred it to other people but this time we're going to have Robert be the certifying officer um with the help of um say the DPW or the conservation agent I usually do all the review of the environmental but then it goes to the certifying officer to do the final review and certify that the town has approved it so I'm asking for the board to approve Robert as the certifying officer and this is for this grant but we use it sometimes for other things too any questions sir are we citing Robert or the position Town manager in the motion oh I don't know um I would um through the chair I would cite uh the town my name as a town manager it's specific okay yeah good question okay um then I make a motion uh to have uh Robert Pont bran Our Town manager uh as the certifying officer um what's the Environmental review certifying officer the environmental uh review certifying officer seconded all those in favor I I and chair says I okay and I'll give this to Robert and you can just sign that thank you everyone thank you than youa oh was just by you okay um next up we're going to have um the official site recommendation for the Senior Center building quick question yes are these on a dimmer I it is really dark in this room I can boost up the light hello Dr pataski hello Ken how are you thank you for having us absolutely also thank you to the other members of the site selection and building committee that are here in the audience as well oh what am I supposed to do you can't see for God's sake you know I'm going to start bringing my own little light yeah a little light right here [Music] watch me I'll have my light no I'll have him check it the lights sorry that's okay so um the purpose of the update today is to um let you know what we've been up to it hasn't been that long since we've been here um but uh in the past year we have been working diligently and methodically to get to where we are today uh We've evaluated over 50 town-owned Parcels we have conducted site visits to the five Parcels that we deemed to be the most viable uh going forward we issued an RFP for soliciting private land uh to be sold to the town that was actually the second one we had issued with uh no respondents we toured many uh recently constructed senior centers in Massachusetts we hired Catlin architecture for a feasibility study and that culminated in the program design conceptual design including floor plans elevations and uh 3D r ings which are in your packet and uh we conducted preliminary site investigation on the two final sites that we considered as well as met with uh members of the air Shirley Regional School District on multiple occasion and then began the public input process via several small um senior um senior based presentations and as well as the over 20 Committee Member committee meetings that we had that had members of the public both in person and on online so we are pleased to announce that at our August 28th meeting the senior center site selection and building committee voted 7 to one to recommend a portion of the DPW parcel on Bishop Road as the future site of the air Senior Center uh we believe that that is the best fit for a new Senior Center for several reasons uh first first utilizing town-owned land saves the taxpayers a considerable sum of money over purchasing a privately owned parcel that um would likely be valued at over a million dollar uh at just a half mile from Park Street the uh parcel on Bishop Road is close to downtown it has good quality well- draining soil it's an open lot with a lot of room for construction without a lot of disruption to neighboring Parcels or or the road um it has because it is adjacent to additional town-owned property uh it would make any future expansion um a simpler process as well and the road leading out there is flat and there's uh not a lot of traffic concerns compared to other locations so we're here today um actually did you have anything you wanted to add to that before I ask them to accept the recommendation not sure how much you want to hear but um the first thing we do have to do I think is thank the DPW and the town manager for having the DPW assist us in the process so we couldn't just you know assume we could use that land without talking to DPW obviously because it'sin the jurisdiction more or less um it's been a process that's taken a lot of time there been a lot of effort put in by the volunteers on the committee and it my estimation it's going to be a great sit fit for the for the senior center location want to go through what we're going to do in the future yeah so um we're here today to ask for um the select board to accept the Bishop Road Site recommendation and to support our future next steps and Ken did you want to go wrong wrong one I think there's someone waiting to get that was good I asked for light he turns them off oh yeah Robert there's somebody waiting to come into the meeting yep thank you so after many sessions looking at land all over town we're aware of the fact that we have to do additional due diligence to make sure that the land doesn't have any surprises and whatnot in the future so at this point in time the committee has authorized us to do but we feel it's comfortable to report to the select board about this the idea is to subdivide a section of land from the SE it's 76.5 acres of land this particular lot that is in control the DPW there's basically two large DPW Lots one closest to where the buildings are and one remote over towards the Bishop Road mcferson road side which winds around under the power lines and comes out where you guys are familiar with what used to be the brush dump and so forth over there we need to take away a section of that land to try to develop and continue with the process of understanding the environmental requirements of the site and determine exactly what if any there are any other situations that are detrimental to using the site so using the whole 76 Acres as a as a study would be just ridiculous so the concept is to create a lot in the corner you have it in the packet I don't know if anyone wants to put it on the screen or whatever but that particular lot then would give us the advantage of hiring professionals to survey and study that corner of the lot the environmental issues of course would be looking at you know a habitat we have to do a habitat assessment which is what people do these days to try to determine if there's any habitat that might be in endangered or potentially a priority and the site which consists of either plant material or animals or mammals or fossils whatever could be there um and then typically we we would do a course a 21e report and investigate the lot for that and if we get through a 218 which is as you guys know is not a real in-depth report we would take the next step to the the next um instead of the um pH phase one we'd go to phase two we're simply going to start with a phase one at this point in time if needed we'll go to a phase two we're talking about uh engaging National Grid led by Dan Van gelwick to determine the engineering required to get electricity to the site there is no electricity on down that road at this point in time and we're talking about the DPW providing us an estimate which they have kind of already done but take it to drawings and something that can be bit out for a water line to come down to the site so based on that we'll know exactly what utility costs of value to bring to the site we have estim now but we want to get closer to the real number the other thing to keep in mind is that you we were kind enough we were lucky enough to get grants for this project from both from the state so I believe we had somewhere we still have somewhere in the vicinity of $285,000 left in the grants that have been given to the senior center for the feasibility study and for the further development of the land so we're not really coming here looking to ask for more money we're coming here basically to keep progressing on the the study of the land and come up with the answers so when people ask have we done this have we done that yes we will able to say we have so we're approaching it just as though we're a professional accomplishment by any developer coming into town looking at a piece of land and trying to determine what if any negatives would be there and determine if it at the end of the day we have any issues that would come up in the future and we hope there are none the feasibility study gave us the ability to determine how many parking spaces for instance would be optimal and how much size the size of the building and the somewhat location of the building as you see in the package that that determines somewhat the 3 Acre requirement it could end up being more than 3 acres if we what the engineer looks at it might be a slightly larger amount the other thing that's interesting out there is we will have no Town sewer out there so this will have a septic system on the site the septic system will most likely need a requirement for expansion in the future under whatever the current you know codes are for um septic systems at this point in time but they will definitely be no Wells unless we will lat it to do it well for let's say lawn irrigation or something it's going to be definitely water before we wouldn't put a building out there with with the wells knowing its proximity um we're also most likely going to do a traffic study now the reason for the traffic study sounds like it's way down the road but we do have to take a look at the intersection of Park Street and Bishop Road if there's any Concept in in getting to the site that's tricky it's going to be that corner so we feel it's going to be advisable to take a look at that corner for traffic study at this point in time ultimately when it goes to a site in the future to the planning board they most likely will ask for traffic study so we're trying to be proactive do things we can do now long before let's say a potential Town meaning comes up for the whole project but we'll at least have determined that the land is clean and it's got the right configuration if if and when the lot is broken up which will be by on paper and signed off it doesn't change anything with the ownership of the lot or how the lot is used it simply creates the lot so if the project even doesn't get forward you simply have another lot that's cut out under the town ownership there's no change in ownership no change in the use of the lot to determine that it went to a specific use so if someone says oh you're creating a lot for the senior center well we're creating a lot ideally we would like to use it for senior center but it may or may not ultimately end up that way it's only shaped on a piece of paper signed off by the planning board at this point in time that's kind of the yeah a quick review so in addition to that due diligence um for the site we um our next steps include conducting um further public input sessions with the broader Community to um educate them about where we've come thus far and to seek input on on the building and the design uh to further refine cost estimates and borrowing strategies and to determine an appropriate timeline for bringing this to um likely a special town meeting so I think what you presented is this building is beautiful and it's very exciting to see that this is where we're at now from where it started Jen uh so just so you're talking maybe that you would want to I mean we're we're just conversing at this moment its own town meeting a special town meeting specifically for this cuz you said special town meeting we wouldn't necessarily do it in the fall so I think we've passed the deadline to add it to the fall town meeting right right so that's what I'm saying I mean but would you be wanting it to do it in the fall because I would think if it's going to be money would have to be the spring to meeting I'm just talking things out I'm not sure we're there yet to determine the best thing I think it will depend on sort of how many extra steps are required in some of the site due diligence and Mr chair yes just to to speak um to that and excellent work uh to Katie and Ken and the whole um committee on that so uh the the last um sort of the last two bullets on on page to is is sort of where um we are actively working now so obviously one of the issues is um to look at the exact uh cost estimates and borrowing strategy and and financing and we don't have all of that information today and um nor nor you wouldn't at this point uh in the process so to air on the side because once you say out a number that gets etched in everybody's mind there's a lot of work to do there to select when living um point I would just add we do know that the project um a significant piece of it as any project of this magnitude would be will be a borrow authorization so procedurally the air town meeting will need to authorize uh a borrow authorization up to a certain amount requires a 2/3 vote of of town meeting and um in talking with the finance manager and other projects it this would be a debt exclusion so so in addition to the borrow authorization the voters of air will have to pass it by a simple majority at a ballot and as the board is aware state law interestingly it doesn't matter what order however almost 99% of the time you would do your town meeting first and then your ballot so one of the things that we need to to look at um as the committee has mentioned in here is the appropriate timeline so one option is Katie mentioned um this fall um that ship has has passed the normal cycle would be the annual town meeting in April of 2025 with the local election uh as May 12th um of 2025 however as we're putting any everything together if it's determined the select board could call a special town meeting for the borrow authorization with at least a 14-day notice we would want to do more and and the select board could also call a special election for that ballot question if we needed to so at this point in the process through the chair I mean all options are on the table our goal is to figure out what get all of the information figure out what are the optimal options and then to come back so um to selectman Livingston's uh question which is an excellent one um it is a two-part process um and we need to uh that will be driven driven largely by the the rest of the information thank you Robert any other questions no I mean I just kind of was you just kind of getting a feel and also was great cuz we made sure that got out and everything um CU this would be a very long process a good process for a good project you know so we want to make sure it gets its Fighting Chance um yeah just curious um cuz I know you're also looking at the parcel that was controlled by the school um over on Washington Street and just curious um the merits of this site were you know obvious uh compared to I know you presented in front of the you know school committee and they were supportive but had some issues so I was just wondering if it was because of those little bit of issues that you kind of went to this site or was it just this site was really what you wanted I think both of the sites had pros and cons um but knowing that this is and I'm going to speak just for myself for a second um knowing that this is a big project to bring to the town um I wasn't I was thinking it would be better to have something that to use the parcel that didn't have a potential competing interest on it so that people there would be no opport they could vote without that in mind does that make sense yeah no totally understood thank you any we thought EXC me just the other thing that we considered that one of the advantages to being there was a thought that if you were near the school it could be a connectivity between the school and the senior center right and whatnot and using the existing facilities but the slope of the lot kind of did neg prated negativity because that was so steep to get up to those you know the tennis courts or pickle ball courts if they were up there whatever the case might be and the TR all of us thought the traffic might be tricky coming down those Hills so that's there was a number of different things it was proximity that was important but by the time we looked at the other aspects of it it seem to be better location I mean I think both sites like you said you know I heard both of them and they were pretty equal in my mind I just didn't know if what you know that kind of tipped it one way or the other that you know it was uh maybe lukewarm support kind of like yeah you know we we like this but there's some issues or or anything like that there's a factor okay any other questions or comments so you need a motion to get the ball rolling I I think that's what yes be great um well then I'll make a motion that the select board accept the bishop BR site recommendation and support the next steps in moving the senior center forward seconded all those in favor I I chair says I thank you so much thank you thank you good luck you got a lot of work ahead of you but you guys can do it exciting yeah all right uh next up we're going to have a presentation of the storm water utility evaluation um From The Storm water utility advisory work group hello mat hello Jonathan hello hello evening thank you yes the problem with this drive scan the drive now and fix it it will work you just have to go to okay falls off the wall it's on you not on my head so share you go to do you want to yeah let me see if I can figure this out so is this maybe we need to open it no documents go to docks oops actually I think we just have to go to the desktop Robert yep so close that yeah minimize just getting out of the zoom y View and then we go exit full screen yep and on the bottom there we go now we go to what if you clicked on the folder the folder we thank and then it should get you to USB USB thank you there you go sorry about the technical I'm hand i'm handy once in a while yes all right and then we need to just hit the share yeah under zoom zoom open box yeah hey there we go all right shair down there awesome all right and we just need to go move bar let's go to slideshow beginning all right all righty thank you for everyone's patience um yes so Jonathan and I are here here on behalf of the storm water utility advisory work group um Matt's doing play byplay I'm doing color um so this work group has been looking at the possibility of a storm water utility over the past year um I believe the last formal presentation was a year ago um I Know Dan s since didn't write a lot of updates to select board but this is more of a formal presentation of her findings so our work group we have nine members it includes select woman Livingston planning board chair Jonathan cran as well as um Jen Hong B sud James carart Barbara TIY Heather hampson D scwi and myself and we also had support from TY Bond the town's consultant and I know Emily Sero is on the call she is with time Bond can answer questions at the so the work group has a web page so this link here will take you right to it you can see the screenshot has a lot of links from past presentations um meeting materials minutes um and also draft documents that we'll get later into tonight in the presentation so the uh work group so our objective is to consider the adoption of a storm water utility so that's also called an Enterprise fund so Enterprise fund that's how we run our water and sewer systems so this would be a similar setup um so for those who aren't familiar with storm water we fund our storm water through the general fund um and we'll get into some of the challenges with that and why that's not um advantageous going into the future so our goal from today meeting is really to present the work group's efforts findings and recommendations so over the past year the work group has done quite a bit so we started in September of last year so the schedule on the bottom shows all the various meetings and uh dates we were trying to get presentations and uh and draft documents completed so but the presentation's more or less these four items here and expanding on that so uh over the past year the work group we've um defined I guess the store Mar utilities needs and and what levels of funding is needed what level of funding we feel is appropriate uh We've also drafted a rate structure regulations and a credit policy and we've conducted uh public meetings and also public Outreach so this first item here is really identifying uh the need for funding um the storm water utility uh needs and funding so really how much money we would need on an annual basis and kind of how to do it in order to meet our needs today and tomorrow if I may so the point we want everyone to understand is that we like so many towns in the United States uh have aging infrastructure that requires care compound that with growth and compound that with climate change and we see that there's a greater urgency to storm we than there had been in the past and so the efforts of the work group are to come up with the most responsible and Fair Way of addressing the overall stor challenge see some pictures on the slide and that is a picture of the uh Calvert over James Brook on gr School Road you can see it's uh very old and definitely in need of replacement and it's also a very expensive project to take on it's a $3 million estimated project so and as you cank you so so on the very bottom we it shows that we evaluate three different levels of storm water management really the the best level of service versus um you know an acceptable and proactive level of service you can see that the costs are quite different for each different version and if if I may so you can imagine that the bulk of the work group's discussion has been about these different levels and and we're trying to balance responsible uh care for our storm water infrastructure versus the costs imposed on the taxpayers in and that's the the hard thing you're trying to find that you you go for the highest level you get the most money to do the projects the fastest but it it proves to could be way too burdensome to the to the ordinary taxpayer and what we found is that we looked at these three different models that you could see version one version two and version three that we and believe in in the subsequent slides we can go into more detail but it turns out that when we go to the the version that's the least burdensome to the town it does effectively address our storm infrastructure needs but it spreads out the capital projects over a longer length of time mhm and that's shown on this slide so just as Jonathan said so the work group decided to recommend version three that proactive version the least expensive version it does meet our today's needs and our tomorrow's needs it's um it's a proactive program you can see on the left that's our current program our funding levels about $240,000 a year but with that funding level we're still a very reactive program we're really chasing already existing completely failed infrastructure um and it's just not a really good way of going about it but that's historically how our storm water program has been run right we want to fix the stuff before it breaks and creates a problem so some details on here you can see the projects today they're very small projects we do some very small cover projects here in there but this program would allow us to do much larger projects to take on these Culver replacement projects on a fairly regular basis um and also it take us from an unlikely uh possibility of meeting our future permit needs to very likely with this level of fing so it's really a sustainable way of going about storm water with this additional funding and I just want to add too for those projects that are capital intents of like over $3 million for that gron Harvard Road cobbert obviously that can't just come from 700 $1,000 you know annual Enterprise fund there would have to be a a capital you need to get to borrow the debt service is it was already calculated within the 700,000 per year so that's included in that so it's not like here's 700,000 plus we have to accommodate some debt no it's all in one thing it's already included in the numbers and I want I think Ty and bond and also Dan and Matt for for doing those calculations so this next uh set of slides this is the draft rate structure so before we get into I guess numbers these are just two key terms that we'll be referencing um impervious area and equivalent residential units so those are obviously not terms we use every day but they're very important here um so impervious here is really just hard surface it's pavement concrete and storm water flows off of it right water cannot percolate down as it would naturally um so unfortunately we can't meter a storm Mar that can came with water and sewer but it can impervious area can be measured it's the most common way of assessing a storm water feet uh the second term is the equivalent residential unit and to make this simple it's really a storm water dilling unit yep so we can't really like I said measure the amount of water coming off a property um but this term eru it's related to impervious area um so that's a simple definition and the more complicated definition is that one eru is equal to 3,200 s ft of impervious area and that is basically the typical single family home how much impervious area is on that property so it would be like the house and the driveway and maybe the sidewalk to the front door would be the impervious area exactly talking about right exactly and through the chair to Janice so what what this does is by creating the eru the equivalent residential unit that avoids the complexity and the incredible expense having to bring out tape and measure every all the property in there obviously that's not reasonable but we can come up with an average number of the 3200 ft which is reasonable and by having that one unit brings absolute Clarity you have a single family home it's one eru and then as you'll see as we go into other areas then it becomes instead of doing a complex calculation just say well how many erus is this equalent to and that's how it is so this is important so imagine if it's a 10 unit apartment complex it's not 10 times the eru it's like 10 units 10 Ru no it's not it's the impervious area that might only be three erus even though there's 10 units on there so I just want to make that distinction before there a sense of panic oh my gosh what about the multifamilies that's how this is going to work so and one more slide before we get into numbers and the real rates that we're proposing as a work group um we have a property viewer so this we have a link up here and a QR code so this is an interactive map you can search for your property or pan to it um but it gives a lot of good information um you have the property owner ID but going back to that last slide there's also the impervious area and the erus that have been calculated for each property and we have some examples just to make this more clear for everyone um in the next two slides but this this is the big uh slide that I'd say that uh most people are probably most interested in so the work groups recommended braid structure really what the cost is per um billing unit or eru so based on all the slides all the information we've presented so our proposed annual fee would be $95 per year Ru and that $95 um is proportional to that 700,000 that we just um went over for the total funding so if that 700,000 were to go down that 95 would go down at the same proportional amount so for for the average citizen then when they get their water sewer bill quarterly this will be a third line on them water sewer and then the 2375 for the stormore utility Enterprise fund mhm and if I could just add on the the $95 was also talked about when we had the public hearing up at Great Hall so that amount hasn't changed since that public hearing because it works um so I just wanted to just kind of remind everybody that you know there's been nothing nothing added and um if approved at town meeting this would fall under the rate review MH so any potential increases would all be in a public meeting and then a public hearing just like we do with the transfer station and the water and sewer so again this would all be very very transparent and the public would be able to be you know so if 2 years from now we need to raise the rates it's in a public setting so that people can express their concerns or at least watch to be to find out what's going on so uh the next two bullet points here um are go over single family Residential Properties and and all other properties so single family Residential Properties based on what the work group proposed um those properties would have an annual fee of $95 so that one eru $95 um that amounts to $23.75 quarterly just to be clear um but all other properties are not single family residential those would actually be charged um a fee proportional to the amount of impervious area on the property so those bills would could possibly be higher and even much higher we'll go over two examples um so this first example is uh two pheasant Circle so this is right from our interactive map you can see all this red here that's a driveway building Footprints there's some other Hardscape on here um there's the property so that impervious area has been calculated it's listed right here 3190 Square ft um one eru because it's a single family residential property it doesn't matter how much hard surface is on a single family residential property based on what the work group is proposing no matter how large or small uh your driveway is or your house is you would be charged at $95 per quarter or $95 annually which is 2375 per quarter and for all other properties or non- single family Residential Properties so commercial industrial multif family um those properties would actually be charged um at different fee and that's all based on the properties in perious area that's where this all this red here really comes into play in determining the actual fee so this example here is 11 Willow Road and you can see this is from the property viewer so this is the impervious area uh 68542 ft So based on that one eru being 3200 ft this property has uh 22 erus and the total annual rate based on $95 per eru uh proposed that would result in a $2,090 annual fee so you can really see these very large properties would pay their fair share um based on what we're proposing what the work groups recommending so this third item is uh draft regulations and credit policy so similar to a water and sewer um Enterprise funds we would need a regulations for for storm water If This Were to be accepted um but you the board are the authority you the board would set the rates mhm um and the rate process as as uh U Janice mentioned it' be very similar to Water and Sewer be a public process um so we are proposing as a work group a credit policy um and it would be available to all properties um it'd be very helpful especially to the large properties like the example we just showed for will uh Little Road um but the credit policy what we're uh recommending uh any property would have would be eligible to up to 50% off their storm water feed they would have to come to the town and show that they have some storm water controls on the property that help a limit the amount of storm water falling off their property and have uh in the draft regulations so these are on the um web page I believe it's the first first uh link on there but um we also have a section for billion collection and as Jonathan mentioned uh this would be added to the water and sewer bill If This Were to be approved what's up J through the chair over here to there um and also you had like a public forum for some of the businesses right so the businesses are already aware of this so I just know I just want to kind of you know put that out there too absolutely Janice can I'll use that as a segue so in terms of we didn't come here today to Spring this on you so in addition to the fact we've had monthly meetings for a year now uh we've had multiple board and committee presentations you can see there first the you know February 23 to this select board um we had and again with an update in June of 23 um evaluation in February 24 of the storware Enterprise fund and then this has been a lot of funs we've done presentations to the planning board the Conservation Commission the financial committee the Board of Health all of these of course public uh in the Public Public welcome and videotape and then formal public Outreach presentations uh I wish I could remember I uh we brought on an expert on storm mortar policy to speak to us at the at the library in February of this year we had the public input form you can see the photo of it in the lower right hand corner that went really well uh and in fact you know I thought wonder if you know if there would be a lot of uh concern there sticker shock and in in fact I was surprised that was very little in fact some people were saying you sure 95 is enough you sure that's going to work we're like yes we believe it can and then just recently last month uh we had a meeting in this room with commercial property owners and again that meeting went astonishingly well uh the questions really weren't about challenging the rates or the fund but just um about the technicalities people wanted to know how it works how they're going to pay how Etc but there was no push back uh uh which always promising mhm which if I may also by starting at you know the lower amount of the $95 okay there's no Sticker Shop okay but also it gives us a chance to grow over the years instead of starting up High um which again everyone the biggest concern I think that everyone at the public information session in June was you know would the 95 do what is needed to be done and it will yes you know so there's no reason to you know go higher you know when it gives us a place to grow you know absolutely well set and there was some other Outreach as well so these weren't presentations but really just uh information sent you know mailings to Residents Flyers at town meeting um posted on social media um here and there um we have a uh frequently asked questions document on the web page that has a lot of good information um and also all our meetings um our work group meetings we have the meeting notes and minutes and also all our Outreach plans um on the website and uh Heather of the Conservation Commission has been so kind as to say that at her table the Newton Street Festival on October 5th she'll be she there'll be information there available about the storm War Utility Fund and I'll be volunteering at that event but I'm hoping I can spend also some time at the table too to answer people's questions um our last slide here this is really next steps um we have our draft rates draft regulations we've done our public Outreach um so our next step obviously is to present this at fall town meeting which has been our goal for the past year is to get to this step and we would present uh two warrant articles um first being the creation of the storm Water Utility Fund and the second would be the actual funding mechanism the storm water utility fee collections payments links so that next month there you go that Dan's not here but he he uh he did all the work it looks like he's holding the camera right there nice job yes thank you guys very good job any questions please sir no I mean I think this group has done a excellent job um um putting out the information um you know I saw my picture there at at the public uh input meeting uh you did a great job there explaining everything so um you know it's pretty concise it it shows what this is it it's one of those things that you know they use a term you pay the piper this all these like the cver I mean those things are going to fail you know you have deferred maintenance but doesn't mean that it doesn't exist so it's just kicking the can down the road you're going to pay for it at some point and um I I think you've done a great job showing that this is you know what's going to happen if we just you ignore this and say you know as you say being reactive instead of proactive never a spot you want to be so yeah great job thank you thank you guys very much thank you thank you all right uh next up we have the Department of Public Works report um uh from Matt Our Town engineer and Kimberly our water and sewer superintendent hello welcome see you over there yes so DPW we have uh five items on the agenda tonight um so our first item is a recommendation installation of traffic signage this is simply uh recommendation install a stop sign um so the DPW and police department were made aware of um some near misses at the intersection of pleasant groden and Washington Court so it's that kind of weird uh really tight intersection there it is kind of a a weird one um I'm trying to place it yeah no keep going there's a map I do have a Graphic page 35 in the packet it's kind of zoomed in but mhm yeah that doesn't help me I know but it doesn't help me it just yeah so I'll go drive it so our understanding the near misses was um a pedestrian near misses so there wasn't a um there actually was a crosswalk there that had faded and um we have since uh DPW since painted it um but we kind of realized there's no stop sign which is very unusual the other leg at the intersection of stop signs so kind of um I think we just a missing stop sign strangely enough um so the BBW we recommend it the police department recommend it um and we're bringing this to the select board because the select board has um Authority for placement of of traffic signs I'm alline if the DPW and police say that it's needed that's good enough for me no I want to arue it please I I drive that intersection almost every day and yeah a stop sign would be helpful it's proposed afterno okay um I'll make a motion to authorize the town to install and maintain a traffic sign at the approach to Pleasant Street from gron Street in accordance with the town of air traffic regulations and as presented second it all those in favor I I chair says I yes approved uh second item uh tonight uh we have a change order uh this is change order number two for the hydrant replacement project um that was a townwide hydrant replacement project it's now substantially complete uh the project included 18 hydrants uh that were replaced in various locations throughout the town and also included some water main work on West Main Street uh between Mechanic Street and Park Street um so this change order is uh specifically for the replacement of an additional hydrant on West Main Street that we found was not functioning properly in the work area and change order also includes delays that were incurred by the contractor um so for all these hydrant Replacements we actually had to turn the water off close valves notify customers in this instance the valves weren't functional um so we actually had to delay the work for a whole day um so these change orders amounted to proposed change orders amounted to 14, uh $ 24771 so DPW recommends that select board um vote to approve that change order any questions okay let's take a motion I'll make a motion that the select board approved change order number two for the hydrant replacement project in the amount of $1 14,247 .71 for Signature by the chair seconded all those in favor I chair says I it's approved motion passes where is he signing oh here yep uh our third item uh from DPW is uh execution of agreements um thank you uh for 254 to 260 Air Road in Littleton so if you're not familiar with that property um that's the uh Gulf gas station uh right at the Town Line at the uh Willow Road at Route 28 intersection um so that property they're proposing to redevelop the property um proposing another gas station with a a pizza and coffee shop but um one of the challenges is they don't have towns to where to connect to um that was actually voted at uh the the past uh town meeting um so the town did vote to accept that so we're connection it hasn't been constructed yet we've been working through some agreements with uh the property owner and also the town of Littleton they actually had to go through U the same process through their um DPW board uh to approve that sewer and this project is really beneficial to the town because it would actually allow I believe it's five or six properties that connect the town sewers so um it's it was a pretty easy um uh thing for DPW to to go along with um so the two agreements we're looking for Signature tonight um one agreement is between the town of air and the property owner of 254 to 260 so they would actually be constructing this pipe paying for it um and the other agreement is an intermunicipal agreement between town of a and town of Littleton um so DPW recommends it s board vote to execute those a agreements Mr chair just to add in addition to the dpw's work on this both agreements have been uh reviewed by Town Council to legal form okay any questions they're going to have to rip up all the work that they did so that's been kind of the elephant in the room with this um so I think it's I think we met back in January um of this year when this was initially brought to the town's attention so we've to the developer this project is very closely done you have to coordinate with Mast do this is their project you have to get permits to them in the town but Mast is a party in this um so personally I've been a little frustrated with the progress it seems like they're slowly inching toward uh construction but um yes that is something they're actually working with mot they're hoping to possibly delay the paving but I'm not sure if that will actually happen yeah so is there like a 5year no disturb after so I mean are we on the clock or exactly there's a 5e moratorium mot might have even a more strict moratorium um but even if this weren't to happen immediately um dis agreement in place it could happen 5 years down the road so this is a good thing okay um all right I will make a motion um to vote to execute the municipal sewer agreement with the owner of 254 to 260 Air Road in Littleton for Signature by the board seconded all those in favor I chair says I motion passes and uh okay and I'll make a motion that the select board execute the intermunicipal agreement between town of air and town of Littleton for the provision of Municipal sewer related to the Sewer connection for two 54 through 260 Air Road in Litton for Signature by the board seconded all those in favor I chair says I motion passes okay so my next topic is the execution of a contract between the town of air and Calgon carbon so at the last Town Mee we appropriated some funds in order to um award the um the bid of um getting GAC for the spectral Pond filtration plan which as we know GAC is the media that filters out the the posos and we want to keep that going forward so with your permission we' like to um sign the contract between the town of air and Calon carbon any questions I have none Calon oh take me away um all right I'll make a motion to vote to execute the contract for the spectacle pond water treatment plant GAC media replacement project in the amount of $164,400 for Signature by the chair and there are three copies of the same thing uh second it all those in favor I I and the chair says that all right and lastly is a water supply update this one's for Signature by the chair okay sorry too many Shuffle one around I didn't want to miss I confused for a second okay yeah take we did the motion for yours right okay yes yeah so lastly is the uh water supply update so steady is the word I want to use it's the best word to to use these days the average since the last up update the average use has been 1.45 million gallons a day uh which is not bad at all the highest day was on September 5th at 1.8 and that's not that's not too bad so um the wells are getting very few breaks but they are getting breaks like steady is is the word I want to emphasize with um how we've been doing since the last update Washington tank which is a measure of demand and how um resilient we are we like to start out in the 50s every morning and there were a few days we were starting out in the upper 40s so we weren't were not quite as resilient as we were during our last report um but we're still we're still doing okay the large customers are cooperating and for that we are still eternally grateful um and we are also getting better compliance from the residents there haven't been any new letters issued out to Residents um I have started granting requests for variances because of new landscape um installations so this as you know this is like the right time of year to be installing landscape and and reing Lawns and stuff so if people want that variance request just uh the paperwork is they can call the office to get or email me or it's on the website is the form is there um lastly I want to note that we are going to be because we are doing well enough with water we're going to start doing our fall flushing program starting on the 23rd um it's a townwide flushing program it's but it will be dayt day depending on the availability of water so in the past before we had this posos issue they would just do the whole town in 6 weeks and and it wouldn't be an issue but now it's a dayto day depending on the water availability ility it is mandatory maintenance to clean the loose sediment in the lines and we do it as efficiently as possible I know it looks wasteful but it's really important to do it also makes sure that hydrants and valves are still working properly as they should that's if anybody has any questions no okay thank you very much thank you so much have a good night good job did we have the on the um has waist that's going to come up under me yeah I wrote it in the wrong I put did you do I sawed number six and I said that yeah I know I was just looking at that too our next item on the agenda is our town manager's report Mr P brand Mr chair members of the board um good evening uh you have in the packet the town warrants that were reviewed and approved uh since the board last met on September the 4th uh in terms of the administrative update just briefly we're uh getting into full uh budget preparation at mode and town meeting preparation uh mode as we normally do this time of year um I'll talk about the development of the town meeting warrant in just a moment and we've uh beginning the the budget process uh we'll be giving a presentation to the fincom on the cleargov uh budget platform for the budget uh will also be automating uh the capital process this year uh using clear gov so all departments will be able to submit uh their Capital electronically uh the committee will be able to review and what's nice of it about it and we'll show this at a future date there's all kinds of um intera interactive graphics and reports that the individual user whether resident or a department of so forth can tailor to their needs so uh this is an exciting year I think for CLA gov uh it'll be a year work in progress as we un un unveil that um unless there any administrative uh questions um from the board um in the interest of time I'll just get into the action items that that I have for tonight sure um so I do not there are no appointments this this evening for the board's consideration uh so the next item is the creation of a working group for the initial plan for 71 Sandy Pond uh Road and uh as the board is aware uh through the support of of town meeting uh last spring uh the town acquired um 71 Sandy Pond Road and um as we all know that the intent for that parcel is um for it to be used for parks recreation open space is sort of the universe of what we're looking at uh for that uh so what I'm proposing is the creation of a working group that would simply be charged as they put in the packet with developing the initial planning and public Outreach and participation um for the property and I really want to stress the public Outreach in participation process because I think the DPW uh director said at best this is sort of a blank canvas there's a lot of exciting ideas out there from the parks committee from the public and we want to uh really go through all of those ideas and and see what uh would be best uh the best use uh for that uh property additionally uh we thank the select board for your support um using Opera funds of up to $25,000 for a consultant uh to work on the initial um design uh with the working group and the public but also to hold a series of public Outreach um forums or charettes on on that so we appreciate those tools for Success the working group the goal will be charged with providing a formal recommendation or recommendations uh to the select board to consist of a final project option or options um a proposed project budget with recommended uh funding options and a recommendation on next steps uh for um the project uh additionally the working group shall provide the appropriate level of public Outreach and public engagement with the initial uh planning process the working group as all of our working groups such as the storm water group will adhere to the Massachusetts open meeting law with all of the meetings being publicly posted and open to the public Additionally the working group will adhere to the Massachusetts Public Records law by recording and publicly posting working group meeting minutes and all materials used by the working group on a dedicated web page on the town's website and the proposed composition of the working group uh is an 11 member group uh I would sort of uh convene it uh the DPW director the parks director uh two parks Commissioners uh to be selected by the Parks Commission uh a member of the community preservation uh committee as they CPC did put some key funding as we all know last uh spring for this acquisition uh when I met with the CPC they also indicated uh further support for this project U moving forward the town planner a planning board uh member and that should say is selected by the the planning board typo on Parks Commission the conservation agent and two resident Representatives appointed by the select board so it would be an 11 member working group um just to work on this to make recommendations um to the board of which seven of the 11 would be air residents uh the two resident representatives and we'll advertise this if the board authorizes this should submit a letter or email of interest to the select Board office by September 27th and candidates will be interviewed and approved by the select board at the October 1st meeting as we' like to get this um going so that's sort of the what we're presenting for the the next steps I open it to any questions uh suggestions um from the select board and would' be looking for your support to move this forward and as we move forward we intend to come both to the select board and to the Parks Commission uh with uh periodic updates any questions sounds good to make questions excited to see it happening yeah uh I'll make a motion uh to vote to authorize uh the working group for 71 Sandy Pond Road as presented seconded all those in favor I hi chair says I great thank you um so the next item is it's hard to believe it's coming up so quick is the 2024 um special fall town meeting to be held on Monday October 28th at 7 in the High School auditorium just to reiterate the deadline for all warrant articles is Friday September 27th at noon that's also the deadline for Citizens petitions to the town clerk at the same time um the board uh will be reviewing and approving the warrant on October 1st and the warrant will be in your packet in advance of that um in on upon approval by the select board uh we'll publicly post the warrant um by October 4th on the town's website in various locations throughout Town it'll be sent for printing and mailing at that time to arrive in air households in advance of town meeting which is usually about a week after so it'll be around October 11th time frame uh the warrant is currently under development but I did put in the in your packet a summary of the potential warrant articles it looks like there will be 10 articles uh at at this time and it'll continue to keep the board updated as we move um forward um I gave a brief synopsis one is the adoption of The Prudent investment rule uh which there'll be a brief presentation at town meeting this is from the finance um manager it's recommended um as the best practice the adoption of this statute would allow for broader investment options for the town's um various trust funds um and she will um provide a detailed explanatory note for the warrant as well as a memo for October 1 to make a presentation on that a second article which we've had from time to time to to resend unissued borrowing balances again this would be from the finance manager um previous projects that are complete that had borrow authorization there usually a small amount remaining um we need asking town meeting to resin those and and to clean up uh that um the supplemental appropriation for the assistant Parks director um position um a contingent upon the certification of free cash on October 1st I'll have um a brief presentation um with this for the warrant article but this is um something that's been in development for some time uh for the assistant position uh looking for authorization by town meeting um for the funding so the position could start sooner uh than July 1st and of course the position would be built into the FY 26 uh Budget moving forward uh as talked about tonight there'd be two articles for the storm water utility the first article uh creates the um Enterprise fund requires a vote by town meeting and the second article uh would be authorizes the uh the um fee Collections abatements and leans so it's a sort of a two warrant um two article process again presentations on the Z at toown meeting then the board heard at your last meeting um in the first meeting in September various zoning bylaw amendments um being proposed by the town planner and the planning board um the adoption of the MBTA multif family overlay District which the board received a presentation on at your last meeting and the planning board is currently conducting its public hearing uh which opened on September 11 September 10th with respect to that a zoning bylaw Amendment for the inclusionary housing uh bylaw a zoning bylaw amendment to update the town's definitions specifically the definition of affordable uh Housing Trust uh would need to be added uh there uh zoning Amendment uh to update the zoning map assuming that town meeting passes the um MBTA overlay District the map will need to reflect those uh two districts and then lastly there is a street acceptance which at the last meeting the board started that process by voting the intent to accept Shaker Pond Road as a public way it's currently at the planning board going through that process will come back to the select board for inclusion on the warrant and as this board knows right up to town meeting if the the developer does not complete all of the punch list items required by the DPW director uh the director will often recommend that town meeting um withdraw the article but everything looks to be on schedule so that's sort of what the warrant is shaping up to look at look like at 10 articles uh for the uh town meeting will continue to keep the board updated um as we move forward questions and then the last piece just to to put and we talked about this previously and um sending this to the finance committee um for their meeting on uh Thursday and and their input is just the proposed fy2 6 town uh budget calendar uh I think we're it's beginning to shape up pretty good um we need to just populate some of the different um boards and committees uh which I'll be reaching out to as to what when their meetings are going to be on there um but I think that's the last real piece there unless there's any questions from the board um on that I can tell you the public hearing for the transfer station rates would be in November right thank you so yep and unless there's any questions from the board that that oh sorry I did as amended I'm sorry thank you as request on the amendment yes this very so number six the household hazardous waste uh collection program which the town of air was a founding member of in 2010 as the board's aware is two two days a month up Bond devans uh residents can bring for a nominal fee household hazardous waste products for a safe uh disposal and um it's been a very successful uh program and what I'm recommending is uh approval of amendment number six uh to the agreement which would add the town of Ashburnham uh which would be the the newest member by having more members there is the capacity for it and more members will lower uh the town's um annual fee to belong to belong to it so it's a it's a positive in that sense but we would need the board to authorize Amendment Six uh to add the town of Ashburnham for Signature by the chair any questions pretty straightforward all take a motion um I will um make a motion uh to accept an amendment six to add Ashburnham to the um hazardous waste exactly collection program collection program second it all those in favor I I chair says I all right okay and that completes my report Mr chair members of the board thank you for your time all right um next up is new business select board member questions um Janice so um I spoke with Senator eldrid today so I contact him last week because after the uh Devon jurisdictional framework committee meeting um the assistant Town Administrator Shirley happened to say that the next the following day we were going to hear an announcement about money and that he was going to get money and I said well what money what are you talking about where's my money so I contacted Senator Elder so we were able to touch base today so what it is is that the state um I'm assuming the governor's office is talking is talking about some mitigation money that's pretty much what it is there's a conversation about creating some type of mitigation fund nothing has been uh completed yet so but I wanted to you know he's telling me he's getting money and I'm like well why am I getting money so s El is like nobody getting any money right now I'm like okay I just want to make sure I wasn't getting cheated um so he then informed me that the governor's office is talking about again all of this is just conversations that are going on okay um that they're talking about it's kind of a dumb moment um and I creating a nishoba valley task force to study the impacts of the closure the um and he called her to ensure that the stakeholders are involved which I I agreed because that's been part of the problem all along you know they're talking and nobody's talking to the ground troops and everybody knows you always should talk to the ground troops so again um this is something that's being discussed um he got wind of it and he called and said make sure we're included okay so that's where that lies um regarding any potential um proposals coming forward to bringing the hospital back he said that there have been a lot of conversations with a lot of different entities um private public but nobody has submitted a proposal so again everybody's talking I I think uh one of the problems is the the the property uh you know being owned uh by somebody else and and all that but no specific proposals have come forward but the good news is at least there's some talk going on there's some conversations going on so again this is this is really just to kind of get everyone up to date as far as you know people are talking which is you know great um so for those who didn't watch it I highly recommend it you you go find it if you can um as we know Senator Bernie Sanders had uh subpoena uh steuart Health he declined um I think it was because that uh due to the bankruptcy he couldn't be there like you could have let's be honest you could have avoided any real bankruptcy related Court you know conversations but talked about some of the other stuff but okay um but we had um there was about four Witnesses I think that came forward um one was our own nurse audris spr um that we all uh met um from nooba Valley there was another woman I I can't remember her name that was um from St Elizabeth's um all of them were wonderful and what was brought up was how our Massachusetts Department of Public Health la teeth which as some of you know I said at the public hearing so I guess prior to everything going down a bill was passed by the Senate our Senate to empower the dph regarding Community Hospitals and removing private Equity um from these hospitals it is currently in conference being negotiated between the house and the Senate so I guess the house was kind of coming up with their own bill so now they're all trying to figure out what's the best I said well as long as there's teeth in it I think we all agree um so that's where it said that's where that lays now that being said if tomorrow everyone agreed they could just show up and vote they don't have to have it on a specific period you know so they could it's kind of an informal so they could vote so hopefully um something's going to come uh out of that so of course based on that um and this is you know we're like a big dumb moment um I mentioned how it was even discussed at the Senate hearing that the dph being lacking the teeth so I believe it was the woman from St Elizabeth and she happened to say how which I don't quote me on on who said it whoever the I know it was a woman whoever the woman was was talking about how at a hospital a certain section was closed down of a hospital okay example we'll say IC you okay and so Department of Public Health is notified hey this part of the hospital is closed down they've closed this department Department of Public Health well we know what they should have done what they did was they picked up the phone they called steuart health steuart health says no what are you talking about it's not closed I'm going to give a little benefit of the doubt to whoever that person was on the other end of the phone cuz it could have been in Texas and hadn't gotten the memo yet okay and that was the end of the conversation Department of Health Public Health then called back the person who had called originally to say no they say it's open and of course they're like hm that's funny cuz I'm literally standing in front of a locked door but okay so I asked that it be placed in writing that the Department of Public Health needs to physically show up and look at something instead of just calling and taking the answer as is I to me that's your common sense answer the problem is is that you can have field Personnel mhm and you can have non-field Personnel so there's the person who takes the call and then there's the person who actually shows up you know and um my husband's an engineer he he he know has a lot of Engineers but you cannot send those Engineers out into the field because they they're just going to be lost little puppies they don't know what to do okay and then there's those that don't s them at a desk because they need to be out in the field and what needs to happen is that obviously we need some field Personnel or more field Personnel but or somebody to just say you know what I'm that's on my way home I think I will get up and get into my vehicle and drive by and at least iight it myself mhm so he agreed and I said so I said I don't know if that's in there but you know maybe if you you're editing something you could add that because I I'm sad to say that that needs to be said um and but that's the problem sometimes when we're creating some of these rules or laws and everything we forget those little pieces and so everybody says like well it didn't say I had to get up and it's like yeah well let me show you why you need to get up so so that's that's the update um it's nothing nothing really of substance really uh unfortunately um all I can say is that there are things being looked at there are being there's conversations still happening but we're still in this limbo yeah you know it's not silence we don't want silence exactly we're still discussing still talk exactly exactly so you know so that's why I wanted to at least bring this forward to at least let people know that conversations are happening there's a lot of balls up in the air and and you know we're just waiting um for someone to do something so thank you mod Reagan trust but verify right there you go yes yes oh yes Pauline I just have a question thank you Janice for the update I really appreciate it earlier today Channel 7 was reporting that UMass is in negotiations to reopen the the emergency department at nishoba Valley I have no other information than that but I'm wondering if you all would contact representative Scaris Dale because she posted something two weeks ago that she is directly involved in the negotiations at the request of the governor with entities who are interested in both Carney and isoba Valley I have contacted her she has not responded but maybe y'all could reach out to her I know she doesn't represent air but she is uniquely involved in this that she is a member of the health the uh committee or whatever the governor's committee is and maybe we can get more accurate information but Channel 7 is reporting as of this morning anyway that UMass is directly involved in negotiations with the state to reopen the emergency department at mova which be would be a godsend thank you so just to kind of bounce off so I mean Jamie did mention Senator Scarsdale and everything um but again there in in negotiations means there's conversations going on and not necessarily anything concrete um I talked to Senator Eldridge 1:00 2:00 this no 1 or 1:00 this afternoon I think it was um so it it could be that this is one of those conversations too um but I'll reach out to even Senator Eldridge to talk to Senator Scarsdale because I I know that they've been involved in this but I mean I'm hoping that what she just said comes to fruition all right great thank you very much I appreciate that Janice thank you thank you P have a good night you too okay um next on our agenda is approval of meeting minutes for August 6th 20th and September 4th the only thing that I saw in the was the August 20th meeting minutes on page three um looks like some kind of funny computer thing where it says Jeff Tillson stated that he has 100 henen stated oh yeah yeah yeah I saw that too and I forgot to mention it I put it on my little post fit and stuck it to my laptop what is 100 hen so Mr chair is that like another word for like 100% or something or the point Mr J but in full disclosure as I was doing these minutes I realized that my wireless keyboard batteries were on their way out and oh it's the old battery I because 100 henen yeah that the SEL Tara that should be stricken which we'll take out yeah no I saw that I said is that some political term I don't quite know or something but I figured it had to be a computer little hiccup yep okay that's all I saw I saw that and I forgot to like bring that forward like what is henen yeah I use technology and then good oldfashioned posters post okay so um so I we'll do them individually uh I'll make a motion that the August 6 2024 meeting minutes be approved as submitted seconded all those in favor I I sherff says I I'll make a motion that the select board approve the August 20th 202 four meeting minutes as amended seconded all those in favor I chair says I and I'll make a motion that the SE it's really cold in here September 4th 2024 meeting minutes be approved is submitted seconded all those in favor I Chair say I right they're all approved there the six the 20 and unless there's anything else Mr chair yes I'd like to make a motion to adjourn I'll second that all those in favor I sharff says I and we are adjourned thank you very much --------- ##VIDEO ID:z6Y_fgiK0s0## kick off the meeting for the air Shirley Regional school committee uh for Tuesday September 17th um those attending tonight's meeting should be aware that the meeting is being audio and video video recorded by um apaac and asrsd any audience members who wish to record any part of the meeting must inform the chairperson who will announce the recording this is to comply with the mass wire tap statute the listing of all matters the listing of matters are those re reasonably anticipated by the chair which may be discussed at the meeting not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law per the air Shirley Regional school committee policy public comment is not a discussion debate or dialogue between citizens and the school committee it's a Citizens opportunity to express an opinion on issues of school committee business school committee will have or citizens will have 3 minutes to express their views any staff members address addressing the committee are reminded of their obligation under state and federal student record laws with respect to maintaining the confidentiality of student record information and refraining from disclosing any personal personally identifying information regarding students so with that said let's start with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all all right M Mr Mrs here Mr quinty here Mrs re here Mr R here all right and with that I'm going to hand it over to U Miss terab bosk and Adam Renda to recognize some wonderful retirees terra's faster yes clearly my age um so I'd like to ask Linda to please come up [Applause] here Linda Perell was with the district for 28 years she was the educational team leader she started in the Shirley buildings when we were not regionalized and then when the regionalization happened she ended up over for a Charley and she did the elementary schools you have been just instr and helping to Mo the special education department forward as you know when you told me you retiring I had a hard time for Christ had to control me um but we are so thankful for every single thing that you have done to help the special education department the students and families and both Aon Charley we wish you nothing but a healthy fun wonderful relaxing retirement thank you [Applause] come up and join I get that one so Mr deppy was with the district for 16 years as principal of P chop um he was in education for over 47 years and to steal Fred's line I know that's hard you believe because he's so young but he did start teaching when he was 14 13 excuse me 13 years old um Fred's will loved in this community uh there's really no place that you can go at least in the air uh where people don't know him or he hasn't reached out or got them to volunteer or to donate um his connections and relationships are are second to none and I think it's uh you know it's obvious to see that when the superintendent who hired him uh came tonight to see him receive his retirement gift and some kind a wordss um through all of us I mean that says a lot um people think very highly of you and uh we already miss you and we'll continue to miss you but uh I don't know who knows this but Mr dep is already doing some volunteer work here at the high school working with the high school students who are going over to pill toop to do the um internship program that um we started last year so I'm sure we will find other ways to utilize uh his expertise and really relationship building because I I think that's that's what it is um going into the future but I hope what he decides to do at some point is to enjoy himself um take up some new hobbies maybe start some old ones with the motorcycle what we talked about um and there is not one in the proper lot before you Fred my apologies put together or something sincerely congratulations uh thank you for the W walking you gave me when I started it was it was much appreciated and best of luck and please if there's anything You' like to [Applause] say she didn't say it I'm going to say it's been a pleasure working with you and I'll Echo everything that ter that I've known you not all that all those years but um this has been special I've been fortunate to have a career in many places and I saved the best for last and these last 16 years have been amazing uh when I came to a all I knew was my boys used to play soccer at Rogers field over at devans on Memorial Day tournaments I knew nothing else but I found out this is without a doubt the the the best school district in community the the leadership we've known and Jim and Joyce I've known you the latest on here um the staff most phenomenal passionate engaging dedicated staff most of who a lot of them have been with me for most of those 16 or at least 14 to 16 years parents who's some of them have had three and four of their kids I've seen the kids go through growing up and they stay you know helping out in high school like uh Dr Renda said helping the interns some of them come back and sub all the time in college and some are working uh phenomenal families I had the pleasure of doing and I've told many of the people too they should know that the communities you have here from you know the police chief and his staff I Chief in his staff Robert Pon PR you know and it just this is uh an amazing Community people don't I I can say that other people you know may not know it but not that I didn't like my other places but I did end with the best and this is it and I thank you not thank me but I thank you for the opportunity these last 16 years it's been it's been a pleasure it's been an honor to be here so um Mr Dey Fred I have to tell everybody that one of the joys of being on school committee was being able to walk down the hall through the cafeteria and hear Fred talking to the students I always stopped because it was a joy to hear him interacting in the cafeteria with these kids who were just fantastic as he was so thank you very much Fred thank you I will miss that part of coming and doing the showc here before you guys that was always highlights of the year as bringing kids and teachers here to Showcase but fantastic thank you been a phenomenal experience and this is by far just a great district and great leadership great people all around and uh you know hopefully you can carry on and continue thank you wait wait we're not quite done yet Going's love you got to stand there and take it right I'm glad to see George anybody else I'm glad to see that George is here because really I mean a lot of people work hard to get to where we are today but the it always takes something to start it and that guy right there in MA Reed kind of started it rolling they had the conon to kind of come up with the idea that hey maybe this will work out and then to show that they were even bigger that after we had the plan and after the plan passed they immediately changed a plant we just put in the Middle School in surley and then everything started rolling um I left a a big they sailed off and said Carl Mark you can go figure out how you're going to put all that stuff together we just think it can be done we're just going to try to retire again which they had done unsuccessfully because they kept coming back um and then we had to put the whole District together between what Carl mock did trying to figure out how how this is going to work together and then Dr Malone and now Dr Renda we had a lot of things that we had to work out the entire time and the reason I bringing up now is that as we had to try to put all this stuff together from my perspective the one thing I didn't have to think about was payila everything else was hard you know there was a lot of turmoil a lot of things we had to do and at least we say you know what we can take one part of it and just sort of like push that up to the side because Fred's got the hill he controls a high ground and if you just leave him alone it'll be okay and he kept the community involved he kept the students moved he did all that stuff without a lot of Direction without a lot of support cuz I don't think Fred likes direction or support well he' like support a lot especially if he doesn't watch well the oil goes and he really likees support but but for all the work you did up there and for me not having to spend hardly any time up there doing anything I thank you friend thank you sir and thanks to your children who were some of the ones that kept coming back and helping all the time GRE up and they were always devoted even though they were Shirley they always came out so even though we were Shirley I'm going to think about that I'm saying his children were not paig Hilltop children but they were still dedicated to the district they came and helped out and did everything all right I think now we can have another round of applause for both of our retirees um thank you again um Mrs brownwell and Mr deppy with that let's move um further into the agenda um and we have a consent agenda to review and approve I would welcome we just we do need a moment in case there is a public comment oh I had made an assumption that public comment but I realized I skipped over public comment getting to the retirees there is no public comment I'm happy to wait to see if anyone is in the room behind the book cases um sorry about that I completely jumped that agenda item so with that now let's move to the consent agenda seeing that there's no public comment um and I would entertain a motion to improve it Mr chair i' make a motion to approve um the AP warrants the payroll warrants and the August 21st meeting minutes as listed on the agenda second all right any further discussion or questions not all those in favor I I I okay and now let me actually open the right agenda well no this is the right agenda um let me stick with the right agenda um new business um request from my mechanic Mr plunet thank you Mr chair we had a um inquiry from my mechanic automotive shop in in Air on Park Street and they uh I guess they noticed the banners that were up on the athletic field and they wanted to know how they would could go about getting a banner uh for a donation and hanging it up there uh on the field with the other ones uh I really don't know the process uh I was reading over the uh school committee policy and basically we just have to make sure that there's no uh nothing that would be detrimental to the students like you know advertisements for alcohol or nicotine or anything like that has to be aligned with our core standards uh try to show some connection to the you know what we're trying to uh teach to our students so it's and it Al it says that school committee uh will approve uh any of these banners they could be inconspicuous like from your friends at my mechanic or you know good luck Panthers um I this is a part I I really don't know I'm spitballing here but uh we could have JNS do up a banner uh according to you know a proof or something that you guys if you wanted to see it first and then they would give a donation uh I don't know how much uh we had a T-Mobile banner up there for a few years uh and I believe I was hoping Steve Kendall would be here but they donated $1,000 and that was the last we saw of them the man just stayed we hung up there for for 10 years so um yeah not really sure about on the pricing but we I think that we're kind of open did we have a I feel like we had a price list or like a list of recommendations or guidance from the um Fields committee that was for naming right on specific score this is a little different top of that I think for the for as long as they were doing I mean there was a more active football boosters committee they control basically anything that used to hang onto the field and it used to run through the football boosters I don't know if we want to change that I know that we we made a change in our policy here for anything that's over $5,000 that was going to make a capital Improvement or something that had to come before that but with the rest of the guidelines here anything else that they want to run Banner program I know like um I contribute to the Shirley Lily but that Banner is like 350 a season and they find you every April you so and your ban is not there if you don't you know go year after year so I think that kind of re that kind of renewal thing is is probably a good idea although I would probably look to to reach out to I don't know if the the athletic boosters or something say look if we want to craft a program that they can run cuz that that thing is kind of already set up I don't think we need to get into something else I think we'll take a look at things over 5,000 but outside of that if they run a banner program for a banner for a year is $400 whatever they decide to put it up there and then they get their list of sponsors and every year they go back and contact the sponsors I think that will have legs but I mean we're not going to you know next September reach out to my mechanic to see if they' like renew their you know that's just not going to we're not going to be able to maintain that thing and I just wonder if the uh if we talked to the athletic boosters if if they would like to run the program for the facility for their yeah Joyce um did Steve kle have any input on this I've done banners and a decent Banner that's done right even not huge but visible um that's on a good vinyl and stuff is going to cost the the sponsor $650 to $750 before they donate anything and so it seems like we need a schedule like if you want a 2x4 it's this and it's for one year you know just like we have applications for using the school it's the same I would think it'd be the same type of thing you know um so I think some people get into this and they don't realize that the banner itself costs money and since I've had mine hanging out for only two or 3 years now um and it's held up so they wouldn't necessarily have to renew it every year but we should have a place on there where we say you need to put a new banner up because that one looks like um so I think we don't have a procedure here to go with the policy do we you know not that I know of but what we can I believe Mr Kendall is actually on the agenda for the next meeting right for oh jeez I talked to him today I know he's coming to the next meeting why don't we do this um I will have a conversation with Steve he can talk to the boosters to see if they have that if not we'll put one together I mean and we'll present tur it over to the boosters we're going to stay on top of it their kids are in there for four years you know so they tend to have an active group I would think and um kind of let we can pocket the money into the boosters policy or whatever yeah yeah the boosters will get the money M right not not the district right so letting them set the parameters that they want to set size color can't be offensive no drugs alcohol or racing or betting well our our director of our coordinator of facilities oversees the hanging of any uh banners and signs make sure that they don't there's no damage to the uh property and we've had some that have been tattered and shattered and left out way too long so that he that he'd be in charge of kind of keeping an eye on that mhm yeah so I think in terms of procedure it's I don't think we have one but the director of facilities needs to approve and oversee the hanging of the banners um we don't need school committee doesn't need to weigh in on any of them um unless we are charging $5,000 And1 for a banner um I don't think that it needs to come to us and I think whether we want to I mean Joyce you make the point of like if we want the boosters to run it because people have enough on their plate and that money will go back to the programs great if we want to have someone um internally manage it also great I but from my perspective I think you know reading the policy Adam like you need to make sure that it aligns to the um the um requirements that we wrote out in the policy right can't promote all the things Joyce that you cited hostility violence like any of those things so that I think is on you and Facilities can manage the hanging and is it going to break the fields and whoever collects the money gets to decide how they spend it I think is at least the way the policy was intended when we wrote it go ahead Chris are you saying that we actually don't need to vote on this because we have the policy in place already yeah I don't think we need to vote to a should be that's what you're saying I'm saying we we do not need to vote on approving These funds well is that what you're asking for with the no just in general they're not going to come each one's not going to come before us to say no it unless they are charging more than $5,000 um we do not need to vote on these um Adam needs to make sure that they are in line with the policy in terms of appropriateness facilities needs to make sure they are in a way that maintains our facilities um but otherwise I think this can either be again run through your office or you could delegate it to the boosters and let them manage it I don't know if anyone has a different reading of the policy but we we will take care of that absolutely I think that hopefully makes it easy for oh I just like I don't know that we need to start reviewing banners for my mechanic and your mechanic and their mechanic well not to disparage my mechanic I'm thrilled that they're reaching out to us but again if it is the boosters there's as Mr quiny had stated there's much more of a chance that there will be some type of donation every year rather than if it is left to to us in the school commun then the boosters can review it every year too absolutely see what their list is and reach out to the ones they want to tag and that'll give them the funds some funds they need all right up next we need to vote to appoint Dr Renda to the Keystone Board of Directors for the 2425 school year um Adam anything you would add to that before we it's no that's really it it's pretty cut and dry um if for some reason uh someone else is voted to the board of directors they will be the the acting secretary for the year um so I'm guessing that's meaning that people wanted even less but I'm I'm happy to do it that it's uh they're they're really well-run um important meetings so that's um I would make a motion Mr chair that we appoint Adam Rena to the Keystone Board of Directors for the 2425 school year second all right all those in favor I I I all right moving along um Mr Charlie clear um revision to polic JB first read um and before context is this a revision or is this a new policy well that would really depend on you all so technically it could be added to yeah JB and that could be amended or it could be created as a new policy that addresses this particular issue perect So currently in our school committee policy list um we have policy JB which focuses on entrance age in compliance with Mass General law um so that provides kind of Ages for kindergarten what age you can start in kindergarten and then more importantly it talks about compulsory education for kids who when they're turning six it doesn't happen to mention anything about kind of a maximum age or an upper entrance age and so there are times that we run into these issues where a student who is uh the vernacular and the education world is overaged and under accredited so students who are I'll use an example like a 20-year-old student who may be who has no credits no transcripts no information and is seeking to enroll in high school and so often this puts a strain on the system because there's no uh policy or regulation at the state level that kind of guides an upper maximum age level and so that's ultimately the determination of the school committee and so what happens for these overaged under accredited students is that they are placed uh into high school and it's a little bit challenging to figure out what grade they should be placed in and often time they are placed in grades that have under students who are younger 9th grade 10th grade because of their entry requirements and so then you end up with students who are say 20 years old with a 14-year-old student in class and that doesn't really kind of sit well um so inevitably these challenges kind of are experienced in a lot of public schools across the Commonwealth and a number of school committees have passed upper entrance age requirements to minimize this process it wouldn't impact any students who are uh receiving Services through special education because we have laws that govern that that those students are eligible for services up until their 22nd birthday and so the policy wording is such that it really talks about students who really have no credits um and no real chance of earning a diploma um in a reasonable amount of time and so I come to you with a proposal to either revise policy JB to add a statement to it that a statement much like the one that's listed in this policy or add a new policy for jba that would read as included in your packet if you'd like me to read it I'm happy to please so jba is upper entrance age school admissions and it refers to any individual 18 years of age or older seeking seing admission to air Shirley Regional School District with inadequate or no prior academic credits will be referred to programs offered locally or at Massachusetts community colleges any individual who has completed a high school has completed high school or has attained a GED or um a GED is like the comparable high school diploma um or equivalent will not be admitted to the Air shley Regional School District uh students in special education between the ages of 18 and 21 will be assigned on a case-by Case basis and a ordance with their individual educational plans um Charlie is there a definition for inadequate um prior academic credits I think it would be I I don't have a formal definition for you it would essentially be a student who has no opportunity by which to earn a diploma uh in the time that they have remaining um under a school AED requirement okay so there are times as if I use the 20-year-old example mhm and let's say that um if we use the upper end of the state law that is applied to students who are receiving special education that would mean that that student would have to complete their High School within the time that they're 20 until their 22nd birthday if they have no credits they can't do that y it would be impossible so that's essentially the type of um I guess the best answer to your question to describe what in adequate would be yeah having no chance to earn their credits in a reasonable enough time but ultimately our goal is to keep our students if you think about some of the laws that exist relative to ages um students typically don't mix with students Beyond four years yeah is typically what happens and so when we talk about students who are overaged and this happens a lot in larger districts so typically urban city districts large cities a lot of them have extra or additional um Educational Services to support students to earn their credits virtually at night night school either a high set which is the equivalent of a GED or some other partnership with a community college yeah um Joyce you had your hand so um just to clarify a couple of things but um and I have a question that's just curiosity but um when you say 18 and 21 doesn't I always thought that was up to age 22 that clearer to say that in there instead of you know it's conf I would say up to 22nd birthday or something because it's really four years that's allowed right 18 19 20 21 it's not about the number of years it's about their age it's about their age y um I always knew it was up to up to 22 and that's why I probably would that in there instead of 21 M cuz they could start 3 months before 22 you know um so I don't that just seemed like it wasn't that clear well I mean the thing is the I understand your point 100% um I think the challenge is if you insert a number like 22 in there then it violates the law because a student who comes in who is 22 years of age and is seeking education I'm just going to say up to 22 right so adding the wording up to 22 or up to the 22nd birthday I can check the wording that's in the law for the upper end of the just curious does it that's the way it was always told to me when I heard things about it so that's the other thing and this is just curiosity um are our uh community colleges um picking up um some of the lack of Education uh from our from of our um immigrant populations are they expanding in that direction with Ela classes and stuff I don't know the extent of the courses that they offering mhm I know that there are um other programs that offer additional supports for kids the if you're talking about um immigrants and folks that have um that may not have credits or any previous educational experience there are opportunities then participate in some communities offer uh night school in language I can speak to what community colleges are offering I'm just curious because I haven't you know haven't looked into it and I didn't know if you knew anything about it like what what they're doing um because we certainly have so now we have Wachusett Community College what's the other community colleges in stone throw distance I can't think of them the mounts M watch okay the M Sig middle sex middle sex yeah just curious y I have to go back and look thank you sure job core might also be an option for some job core may also be an option for some of these students is job core doing anything with language and are I mean when we were over there they doing some great stuff and we did I don't know they are publicly funded so if there are I would imagine if they have students uh that it would be interesting to know because when we do get a student walking a person walking in the door it would be good if we had a list of things they could do and and that would just be Community helpful yeah to some extent that's part of the policy so it's chicken or the egg to an extent right so we have to develop so in concert with the policy being developed we have to develop the resources that are available or at least identify what those resources are yeah just turning someone away say well you're not eligible here but here here yes yeah that's because they're coming from a point of not knowing and we're certainly helping everybody if we help them to know y you know so um that's what I ask yeah that's brainstorming with you yeah you know our our school counselors would I'm sure could spout off um some options that that we not able to at at this this time but it's actually for a student who I think the example you used was 20 years old coming in with no credits it's really a disservice to enroll them they're not going to be able to graduate on time they're much better off in a program also a disservice to say get out away don't without putting something in their hand right no but which is why the policy names that um they'll be referred to programs offered locally yeah because it says is that what it says yeah thank you um not yeah are are there any state or federal handcuffs that will say I know what you're trying to do but we're not really down with that because everybody's got a right to education and you're receiving money and you're going to have to figure this out yourself I mean I'm I'm guessing that if it's already in chelsford that this has been V through DS and legals already reviewed that but we're they're okay with that I mean I understand the philosophy and I'm down with that totally yeah but I'm looking at it going like I if it comes up to challenge I are we okay this is fairly common language in policies so we believe that it would hold up um but we I I couldn't tell you 100% that if this was challenged through our policy that it would yeah I'm willing to take the challenge I know that there are several other districts be besides shord who have adopted this policy within the region as well so we have not run it by our attorneys to look at it but we also know that several of these districts already have right and they have beat us to the implementing this policy not race or anything I guess why if doing this I would rather see it included in JB that way You' say look we just we're not singling anybody out we're just saying we talked about age on all ends of the spectrum and it's all one sheet so if you look up Admissions and age we're dealing with young and old so I'd rather see it as part of JB than its own policy cuz then we're not zeroing in on one group are there examples Beyond chelsford they were the I was trying to find the mask language I couldn't find any so I was looking I couldn't find any JB policies or JBS that were upper entrance outside of Chelmsford is there another I can send you some other okay yeah I'm I'm like I'm sure they're there and all these policies are trying to Google my way to that is not I think it's a it's a bit of a black hole right um well there was always something in there to that effect in the policies historically no they've always no no they've always been starting the starting age yeah and that's part of the challenge so sounds like a question for the annual meeting of the massachus association school committee sounds like the subject for that conference it could be um but I think I mean it would be I think helpful well I heard Jim's uh comment that it feels like we could amend JB include this as sort of the parag talks about missions age in general yeah um and I think Charlie I would trust your discretion on the like students between the ages of 18 and 21 or between the ages of 18 and up to 22 um I think while I generally would like to keep these as short as possible if there is a way to Define inadequate so that it is not a gray area for interpretation and it's a I don't know I I don't know if it's like defining the formula like a student who is unable to complete credits in you know I don't know if that is easy to do if that is not easy to do on with words that would you know I think is certainly something um if it's a if there's a way to do it efficiently and clearly great um but I think otherwise seeing this and if we could have Kevin Andor Erica then I think we were probably pretty close to voting on it all right so then I'll go back and do a revision awesome a draft revision to JB right and do my best with the vocabulary and the language yeah I I know that this is a fun dance no no no no worries um and I'll Chris do you want me to send you other examples and then you can share with Comm I think that I does anyone want to see other school districts who have done this I mean no but I think it's good to include it in just one policy and not a separate not a separate paragraph I was mostly curious because I was wondering about again that like definition of inadequate I was like there must be someone who's figured that out um but I I don't think I need to see that but okay very good all right thank you I appreciate it yeah look at yes um so would you like it on the next agenda as a vote we could sh we're trying to get faster with policies they never go away be to be slower I mean could you imagine if we went from first read to voting in two meetings be um okay um any further discussion on JB revisions otherwise all right I'll hand it over to you uh Dr Renda okay so I have a very thick packet uh for you but uh do not worry because this presentation these presentations have already happened um I'm happy to answer uh any further questions on it but um what you have in front of you is the summary of the and progress of the goals for the 20 uh 23 24 Academic Year as I'm sure you remember uh these were reviewed in three uh separate School Community meetings last year April 9th uh May 1st and May 15th I am happy to go through these um with you either at a school committee meeting or or one uh one-onone but what you will notice first is a copy of the goals with in red next to each goal it will give you the update of where I believe uh we are for those goals and then at the end of the goals in a box is a uh fairly detailed summary of each um action step and where I believe we are uh the the rationale of the rating uh for the action step if you look further you will also find the documents from the three presentations in the school committee last year uh including surveys there some um PowerPoint or excuse me uh Google slide presentations and if you did further you will find the model system for educator evaluation specifically the uh superintendent rubric and at the end of the superintendent rubric what you will find is the actual documents that the school committee would need to complete my evaluation I'm happy to answer any questions or go into uh uh more detail on any of this if you so choose but um I'm basing this on the facial expressions after the end of the third meeting of the superintendent goals last spring um to Guess that that maybe you don't want me to but again I am happy to there were three long meetings any questions questions or comments yeah I don't need to to re-review them but I I would like to I'm excited to hear the results of Mich calling random people inviting them to sit down with you because I think it's going to put you in a great place I know that we're just kicking that off we just it's September right so we will be doing that actually we're going to start doing that with some of this the cell phone um but I think you you'll be excited to hear that we actually uh we expanded that Beyond I think I mentioned this last fall when we were last spring excuse me when we were talking about we we expanded this to all buildings and all administrators so we um asked Lynch to come in and give all district administrators training on running focus groups so that's not necessarily cold calling people but how when you do cold call people to come in how do you run that meeting uh effectively so not only will will I be doing it and Charlie will be doing it and um um the special education department but building building administrations will be running these F focus groups so you will be getting updates not only from from me but building administrators on how those focus groups are running we will also be holding a essentially office hours for the superintendent once a month prior to one of the school committee meetings where people can kind of come in uh an hour before and really ask um anything that they want that's in addition to these cold calling um invitation meetings are you using like darts to make it truly random because the key is the key is the truly random part cuz that's that's really the that's really the the thing that gets you where you need to be it's like I had no idea that was going to come out of there cuz it's easy to pick a group go like I can just write this report and just drink the coffee but when you start going really random you're really going to get some good in it wasn't D what we what we were going to do was um put um the grade levels in a hat and then based on the grade levels teachers names based on the teachers names kids names or numbers associated with students and go like that and then that parent can't make it pick another draw again yeah I think you need a bubble machine you know where you you can get the ball that's a great idea I think we're going to wait until um we'll wait till after we'll wait till see how the budget season goes before we buy the the power ball or lottery machine for that but I I like that just go to bingo hall and just go to Bing you know yeah that's not as exciting as the one that's you I'm thinking you know with that with that $800 million megga millions that was recently there that could be well if you could win that we're all set yeah I don't know if people would be as excited to be randomly chosen to meet with with me as they would winning $800 million but maybe it been how B Don yeah any other questions okay all right um next up is me um so I'm going to ask some questions as I go but we have to write an evaluation um in the coming weeks do we have a time when those are due no am i setting it or yes it it would be it's always nice talking about this yeah so I've already started writing some goals for this year y but it is um I think my plan would be to to complete two goals last year I waited y to do the goals until I had the evaluation um evaluation was a little bit later last year which is no no complaints here about that but what I think I'm going to do this year is write a couple of goals present them and then once I have the evaluation write a final goal to address some of the concerns from the evaluation okay um I think we waited a little bit too long last year to get the goals for the districts though though we had we knew where we were going and what work we needed to do it was it was just a little bit too long for for my work for our work for those goals to be completed so if it's okay with you it would be great to have it before Halloween great be fantastic um but if it's okay with the school committee I would love to present a couple of goals to address my main concerns and then if needed a goal that would address um any school committee concerns based on the evaluation okay um and so if we have a goal of Halloween the last uh school committee meeting before Halloween is October 16th um I feel like that is you can certainly do the first meeting in November would be fine okay great uh and so but maybe if we can Target because if I'm remembering this process correctly and I should have this down at this point everyone's going to write and then I will do in addition to writing compile MH and so if this group could work on their drafts by the October 16th so that I can then compile for the first meeting in November does that directionally work for folks okay I will send an email to to that effect so that um Kevin and um Erica have that um and in today's packet like Adam just went over there's a lot of data and evidence that you can use for when you are filling out your nine-page checklist and just to to uh state it again if there's any questions or if you would like to meet with me I'm more than happy to meet and review any of this with feel or answer any questions any questions or comments about the superintendent's evaluation all right with that we're going to turn it back to you Adam to go over the superintendent report okay so we made a decision yesterday um in collaboration with the Board of Health for a time change of um of after school activities due to our current risk level for triple um we spoke with Jim graphy the director of theer associated Board of Health regarding the heighten risk of Tripoli in our area um because of this affected immediately we are um changing the times of all Outdoor sporting activities that will start no later than 5 and all practices will be done by 6:30 uh the start end times of away games is still determined by the Home District um this really won't have much of an effect on practice most practices are done by 6:30 um anyway really what we're going to see is games games are going to have to be moved earlier um in anticipation of this Mr Kendall did move the home game this Friday to 4:30 um this is a move that that many of our neighbors have done and just based on the it's just not not worth taking the risk we're still going to have the games we're still going to have practice we're just moving everything a little bit earlier and we're saving a little bit on our electric bill um for some of the night games and I believe after after first Frost we can go back to we can go back to the normal schedule right any questions about that you know if the towns cuz I'm in acon and they cancelled a concert two weeks ago and um we're doing some other stuff and do you know if and I know acting is going to be spraying air sprayed last Wednesday air spraying too and the school we actually sprayed uh the the the page Hilltop in in high school facility were also sprayed and we sent we sent out a notice I believe it was on Monday for that okay no they sent notices around to everybody that when they was spraying and stuff yeah okay so the asrd cell phone policy as discussed in previous meetings the district um would like to change the school cell phone policy beginning in January of next year uh we would like to notify parents about the upcoming the that that changes will be occurring um as soon as possible uh we believe updating will enhance our learning Environ uh we believe the change in the policy will update the learning environment in fact um if you're watching this or following this um locally on the news uh it does seem like some states and actually even Massachusetts there might be a state policy coming down about cell phone bands uh I think it's important though that we continue that work uh even if we can get this a half a year sooner than the state decides to come up with a policy it it will um it'll be great for our students I mean already this year I can tell you the distractions and the issues that we're dealing with this displine wise in the middle school and high school are almost all related to cell phones and social media we have reached out to a possible guest speaker we'd like to to offer some education um to uh students and families uh to come in um I'm hoping this will be a night event and an inperson event but we're still um we're still talking to this person which is why we don't have her name but but she had recently presented at an Mass uh executive session and her experti is in digital space technology and the dangers of social media and this includes cell phones it was very well received um and we're currently um in discussions of trying to get her in District to have this if this is something that we're able to to make happen we will certainly invite um the the school committee all parents and probably um select boards fincom uh from each town uh to come this is probably one of the well it might be the most important topic in public education right now um cell phones are a constant issue all day long in schools along those same lines we have been talking to Mr Steven hemond from Mars and we are trying to work out to to do a budget a Regional School District budget presentation for families he's done this presentation for school committees often but we think um the school committee certainly be invited to that but uh I believe it was Mr quiny who had the thought to have something for parents and select boards and fincom so they kind of have a better understanding of the regional budget system which is much different than uh a city's budgeting um he feels comfortable doing it he has some more questions he was thinking about just presenting the school committee we trying to convince him to to do an open uh form night so we we're going to work with Mr Heming um whether he does it or can recommend somebody else but we do want to make that happen we like how transparent we're able to be with the towns last year through this budgeting process uh and we would like that to continue um one of the things that is connected to this uh that really came out of what we did last year is we when we receive the letter to bargain with Azria um and I've already talked to both Town managers about this um we will be sending a letter to both Town managers asking uh them to to to propose to their select boards and fincom that we have one volunteer from each Town either a select board member or fincom member that will join us for negotiations because the the same part about the budgeting I think it's very important for for a select board member or fincom member to hear the information in those budgeting sessions that the teachers present so when they see a number or a percentage they have a better understanding why they're asking for that and maybe more importantly why we ultimately agree to it um at so they can understand the standing of where we are as compared to other cities and towns uh surrounding us so transparency transparency transparency when it comes to money that that's that's what we're going to be looking for any questions on that okay oh Joyce um so it seems like that at one point um we may have had the town managers in on negotiations MH you know um just their expertise in knowing where their budget's coming from and then when we get to the next level because the town manager has been in on this if they'll do it I don't know well we were able to last year keep um the town managers in the loop of where we were uh during negotiations and after once we had decided on a contract working with them on on the the a um manageable increase as we did last last year it's just have a lot of experience in in negotiations and various other things and um I know that I remember the town manager can be you know one way or the other but well we'd be happy to have both of them actually they they um are already part of the negotiating team if they so choose um but I'm more than happy to have that conversation with with Robert and Brian I think yeah they're both very smart have done a lot lot of stuff and no money and might be an interesting scenario I will reach out and see if and see if they're interested I'm sure they just going to hate it but that's well the interest level will be will be interesting to see there there there's lots of meetings and um um at least they haven't at least the one that I have have been involved with with teachers was not contentious it was productive so hopefully it will be be the same way this year any other questions on when are we starting that well they have to send we have not got a letter but um the uh Maran zon the president of Azria has indicated that she will be sending that early typically we get that after sometime after the first of the year right I think we can expect that probably sometime in October good yeah I agree trying to set my life up all right so summer registrations uh we had over 100 students register in air shirely um over the summer that is that that that's a a fairly big increase we are getting close to 1,800 students um which is great that's what we want to do we want to grow we want um the students who move here to stay with us and not school choice out um the school choice numbers the school choice out numbers are going the direction that we want the school choice in numbers are fairly stable but we are not taking as many kids as we as we used to we we're keeping our seats um where they need to be and just because I think we're probably going to get this question um only less than 10% or around 10% of those of those 100 registrations are students who are living in the in the shelter so it is not this is not huge numbers uh from that shelter we um are remaining barely close to the numbers that we had last year any questions on that okay so update from Mr Kendall I know you're disappointed that Mr Kendall isn't here but I will do my best impression the fall Sports season is in full swing our orts team will be underway at the end of the month in addition to our outstanding and successful Middle School team we are thrilled to be offering at the high school um also coached under the coach of the year nominee Amy Doyle and Chris Pataky a big thank you to ASAP for funding the program this year they funded the program completely including registration fees for our students good uh both the boys and girls cross country are off to two and 0 starts with wins over Nar gansen and Clinton Jake Leone Cole new Ryan Gil Jimmy stemens Jack Holden have led the boys while carollyn Mason adah perak Isabelle Brenan NE Fallon and Jane Marshall have paced the girls girls soccer is off to a three and one start heading into today's game with West bolon Sasha chaville has had two hat tricks this season while Le Carlson has been strong in goal the girls host Clinton Thursday at Northern Athletic Complex the JB team is two- one under first year coach Michelle scall boy soccer has played well and we're off to a two and two start Noah caravelli Griff cter Kevin Velasquez and Santiago and Nick Cruz have had great starts for the Panthers who face West Bolson today and D Clinton on Thursday the JB team is 201 And1 under the leadership of Sam elari football is 1 and one heading into Friday 430 home game against Norton High School North High School excuse me Bobby Manchester and JT bran have been outstanding thus far the JB team is at North on Saturday at Foley Stadium volleyball is three and2 heading into today's match at pitchburg Grace Kier Autumn Cormier Bella leblan and the husk sisters uh Marney Abby and Kylie have played well for the Panthers the team has shown lots of growth on the court this season the JB Squad is 3-2 as well under first year coach Loi Capas did you just say coach Wally kapaso I did wow yeah I would have lost that bit our three-time defending uh league golf team is 4- one and playing well Tommy buron Adai Patel Reed oia Shen and Jason Turner have led the way for the Panthers the JB team has been playing well in the early season chair and Ben will both perform at Friday's home game and both have competition starting in the next few weeks Middle School soccer kicked off its season with a win over Murdoch the teams open uh the home schedule tomorrow against Nar narit excuse me girls at 3:45 and boys immediately after around 5 and that is all for the superintendent's report where is um Middle School soccer playing I'm sorry where do they play their matches are they playing in Shirley they playing here the Middle School the middle school they playing behind sometimes they were playing behind sometimes were playing a the road do you know where they're playing I don't I I believe they're playing behind the middle school yeah okay check Steve all right we will get an update on the Middle School uh soccer teams um but what before or in advance of doing that let's go to an update on the air Senior Center project okay so at the last meeting uh Dr patrai from the air Council on Aging provided a presentation about the senior sen project um uh when they brought this to uh the select board the select board recommended and voted for the Bishop Road um land so though the the uh the town in uh Mr pomon uh appreciates that we were willing to meet and take a look at the land and do a walk through with the staked off area that is no longer needed um because they're going with a different area all in all probably best for us um just in case for future projects but um again when the the the the town and especially the seniors have been very good uh to us especially uh last year with voting to approve the budget with the increase with no questions it's always nice to support for us to support the town any way we can so thank you for that I I know I mean I'm I'm sure you had experte discussions with them in the senior center and I know that they looked at all 54 57 Parcels that are public parcels and uh I'm I just look at for you know Senior Center places and I you know the one that immediately comes to mind is you know across from Dev Plaza on West Maine I mean there's basically a brown site that you I mean they're talking about a million and a half dollars to go from route to way to out in the woods somewhere and you got all that flat L going all the way back to the railroad tracks that just seems crying I bet you could get a deal for a lot less money that would be easier to get to was there any discussion about looking I mean they briefly mentioned well we reach out of some private land owners and they weren't really interested but did you have did you feel any that is that was a real thing or not not not that it's our I mean I'm not trying to decide what air is going to do I'm just looking at what they're trying to accomplish for the seniors and I'm looking at that pycho like my mother drove to she was 96 and I know after 92 I don't think I would have centered on Bishop Road but especially when the gates closed because their flooded yeah that as much as I know and um that as much as I asked yeah okay yeah Roger that all right just previous comments yeah um traffic and just if we're on Bishop Road there isn't a lot of extra in turning in and turning out traffic and you're closer to the grocery store okay Michelle Middle School soccer is scheduled to play at the middle school all games on the schedule right now anything changes okay good all right there are no chairperson's notes I don't believe but would look to the rest of the the committee to see if there's any topics not reasonably anticipated Jim I did reasonably anticipate this but not not for discussion but while the the coffers are still warm um we had our summer enrichment program we were going to review the cost and the associates and whe they're covered because we made a bunch of changes and how that whole thing was going to happen because it's not really our thing right you know so now would be a good time to go over and take a look at at uh how that perform cost wise with our new model before we start talking about it again next April and May so Bill I know you looking for something to do if you could take a look at receipts from that and uh see how that does because that's really something that we we only do there we don't do it anywhere else I mean summer and jley is its own thing this thing just I don't know I don't know what the history of this program is and how it ended up here but I just know I just wanted to be self-contained I'm happy with them using the facilities and stuff but I just want to make sure that they're self-supportive and it's meeting whatever their their goals are so I think a financial review at any point of that program would be warranted wonderful any other topics for discussion if I could just follow up on the the cell phone policy um there was I don't even know where it came from but I saw a lot of social media posting about a new policy and some parents were getting very upset and I just kind of wanted to make maybe clarify cuz I didn't think any information had been released yet so I just thought of course it's going to snowball and then the negative reactions that are unwarranted so I just kind of wanted to clarify like has any information gone out yet on that the only information that has gone out is the information that's been shared in school committee okay so we did share a draft jumping off point policy at the last school committee meeting so someone could have it certainly wasn't accurate information so I don't believe it came from the meeting no but you I would I would guess that this is that this may be starting with kids going home and sharing that there going to be a policy and what they think that might be and then um it would probably be the telephone gain from from there yeah okay um this is one of the reasons you're summarizing exactly why we want to send home an actual communication to parents to kind of stem that off there there's going to be parents it's probably going to be 5050 there'll be parents who absolutely love that we're doing this and then there's going to be parents who aren't going to be thrilled that we're doing it but this cell phones are a huge issue with teaching and learning and discipline especially in our middle uh middle and high school Ag and this is not not unique to May Shirley this is it is uh it's probably an EP epidemic in public education which is why you're seeing whole states really adopt some of these these cellone ban uh policies I'm fully in support of it I just wanted to kind of yeah I already I haven't seen those um which I'm shocked because typically people send me screenshots um didn't want to waste your time with I try not to I try not to to look myself um but I do get text messages with screenshots often but we do want to send out a communication that we're looking at this and here some of the possibilities so we'll kind of hopefully put put a cap on that if people hear some some actually accurate information from us well that I kind of wanted to be like hey watch school committee and you can see you know the work that's being put into this but um or come to public comment yeah um and we can have their input actually prior to writing a policy instead of enar um right yeah okay all right thank you well and um this is like I think you need to keep reiterating the negatives of this and the and the fact that it's being recognized around the United States this is not just us and it's going to be bigger and bigger so and every draft policy we have talked about so far matches the procedures and policy drafted in the handbook already in place so it's a matter of enforcing what is already being expected of students um but I we did not have cell phone policy on the agenda for today so it's a good note that nothing has gone out yet we should come back to that policy and again the family events yeah I will draft that communication and I will share that with school committee prior to sending it up that would yeah so our president policy is like enforcing the 55 mph speed limit on route two yes that's what we have to do put some rumble stress there be limit on two a sure um okay any other topics that we didn't touch on today that folks hoped to okay Communications okay um Wednesday September 18th is a 90-minute early release St preschool through 12 professional development for teachers dismissal time high school 12:55 Middle School 12:45 Laura White Page Hilltop 145 also Wednesday the 18th is the Laura a white open house this was rescheduled from Thursday September 19th Wednesday the 25th is the page Hilltop open house Thursday September 26th is the high school open housee Sunday September 29th is the holdenwood trail run uh starts at 10:00 a.m. p.m. and that's at the hold and run trail in Shirley Tuesday October 1st school committee meeting 6:30 p.m. in the high school Wednesday October 9th a 90-minute early release preschool through 12 professional development for teachers high school at 12:55 Middle School 12:45 Laura White and Page Hill toop 1:45 Monday October 14th is no school in observance of Columbus Day Wednesday October 16th school committee meeting 6:30 Middle School library and then finally on Wednesday October 23rd is a 90-minute early release preschool through 12 professional development for teachers with the same dismissal text okay doc what are the PD topics you guys are doing what are the PD topics that you guys are covering this this Wednesday this Wednesday um is a uh teacher day so the teachers have 90 minutes to do common planning some of them are doing their goals for the year and there's one other dat analysis and we also have math analis support coming in or consultation School chice uh I'm sorry Mr chairman I know I'm out of order on this I apologize but I would like to thank uh Dr rinda for um um getting the letter to Mary about the hospital it didn't work well it might come back don't don't say that yeah well a lot of people very very upset so it was a pretty good letter I thought it was going to do the trck but thank you very well done all right thank you do we have my do we have a need for executive session no need all right well then I would uh entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting uh by my watch I will adjourn the meeting at uh see it 7:41 741 second all right all those in favor all right great meeting folks