##VIDEO ID:hf_zfJj48LQ## uh good evening ladies and gentlemen uh I'd like to welcome you to the August 19th 2024 uh school committee meeting and at this time we'll call it to order and we'll start off with the Pledge of Allegiance 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 liberty and justice for all uh introduction of members we'll start with you Ted Ted Noel milville carry goette Blackstone Aon Baco milville Matt Catalano milville Tara Lin milville Dan Keith Blackstone Joe spagna Director of Finance and operations Jill pag gallerani assistant superintendent director of student services Jason DeFalco superintendent we move on to uh consenting agenda a with warrants take a motion to approve the warrants motion made by Erin seconded by Tara any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I any oppos the eyes have it next will be the minutes from July 8th 2024 take a motion to accept those minutes so moved motion by Tara second second by Carrie any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I any oppos the eyes have it public forum is there anyone here of public forum this evening seeing none we'll move on to school committee agenda and we'll um at this time Mr superintendent we're going to ask the the audit review from Robert E Brown CPA excellent um so good evening everybody um our Auditors are here this evening to give an update to the school committee on the FY 23 audit Joe I don't know if there's anything you want to we just just completed the f23 audit and Bob Brown and uh Sean who was actually did the field work are just going to give us a brief update on the status for FY 23 good evening evening we AED fisal 23 financial statements um U hope you all have a copy of the report um uh the opinion letter uh from us was clean unmodified um this is actually a financial statement package there's like there's three distinct sets of financial statements here and a budget statement um I want to just point a few things out in in the financial statements um page 15 um presents a balance sheet this is pretty much on a cash basis it has a general fund you can see and then they have what's called a non- major column um that's a com combination of all your other funds other than the general fund uh except for the Capital Improvements fund which is separate because it's material enough that we are required to present it separately so the non- major column includes grants revolving funds gifts um and any trust funds that are not uh for scholarships um this is pretty much a cash basis um with some acrs for Grant reimbursements uh the unassigned balance in the general fund was 636,000 so this is probably near what you had for e and at that time um the page afterward is a revenue and expense report for those same um uh captions the general fund the non- major funds and the Capital Improvements fund uh these same numbers are then taken and they're modified to a full acrel basis um on page 12 this they don't call it a balance sheet they change a name to a statement of net position so all those all that information for the non- major funds general fund and and the Capital Improvements fund are all combined into one column but then uh it's converted to full cruel so it adds in all the liabilities for post-employment benefits for health benefits of 36 million pension liability of about 8 million fixed assets of 20 million and some other minor items compensated absences and ACR interest so you wind up with a full cruel presentation for the uh they they tried to make this presentation look like um a business one column um so the unrestricted number is a large negative of 44 million um that is mainly because of the post-employment benefits liability of 36 million and the pension liability of about eight uh you know prior to eight or nine years years ago these liabilities weren't in the financial statements uh a gby changed the rules and so now most governments have a negative in that unrestricted number because of those unfunded liabilities um uh the the district did start a trust fund for post-employment benefits um in 22 I believe the the third set of statements um I said there was three sets um is Page 20 there's a uh statement of position for fiduciary funds these are separate they're not included in any of the other numbers and this is a statement just to present the post-employment benefits trust fund and private purpose trust funds which are scholarship funds uh they're separated up because those are the benefits go to an individual as opposed to the district itself um the budget statement is on page 19 uh obviously the district operates based on a budget it's its most important Focus the net plus for the year at the very bottom right was a plus 33,000 um uh we don't expect a large plus or minus uh in school districts because it's budgeted tightly and there's not really a lot of Revenue that varies because it's mainly assessments and state revenue which are um fairly accurately budgeted and uh there really not um much to drive that out of whack um another thing I just want to mention is the state in contributes 3 million toward the teachers retirement system on behalf of the district uh those numbers are reflected in the uh P the revenue and expense statement we have to show the 3 million coming in as revenue from the state and 3 million going out for employee benefits this state has a liability on behalf of the district for Teacher pensions of $38 million the total liability for the entire state is 25 almost 26 billion that's not fun to deal so the post-employment benefits trust fund started two years ago it started with 50,000 in 22 and a total of 150,000 in23 so it's good that that has been started and the funding has been started uh we suggest making that um just part of your annual budget um in our towns we recommend that because towns have a lot of special articles and um we we don't want it to be a special article because the funding sometimes in question and this this should be addressed just like pension and be part of your annual annual budget um uh the the Capital Improvements fund um um two of the projects are are pretty much complete um there was a msba audit and then all the numbers now are uh complete and um you're doing annual band Bond anticipation out pay Downs for those projects as part of your capital assessment um those are the major items I wanted to mention and if you have any questions that be fine Erin where uh so I'm on page 12 and I know you went through a few pages where is the $150,000 positive balance that we have is it on this page is it on 12 uh which one for the op OPB um the trust fund you have is it is on 200 page2 um the uh liabilities um liabilities on page 12 it's the net liability is about 36 million but there's also something called a deferred inflow and a deferred outflow on the statement of net position from the ruary those also affect your fund balance so the overall liability is an effect of the outflow the liability itself and the Deferred inflow um there's footnote presentation um starting in page [Music] 42 I answered what you need so nowhere on page 12 where it shows liabilities does it show our trust right the trust is the trust is in that that separate statement on page 20 it does not flow into that other okay statement at all but the liability takes into account the trust amount okay so the liability is the net of that um and then one other question I had because I think we' do it differently the you're saying the OPB contribution on our part should be part of our budget not an annual we recommend it just being part of the regular operating budget as opposed to which we've kept separate separate votes in some way um separate from the omnus budget we felt like if our budget if that number wasn't approved that's what's missing from the budget but you're saying incorporate it into the line the the town meeting vote as part of our school budget correct not a separate article yes I only recommend that because I I want to make sure it's treated just like the pension assessment uh because it's it's a similar type of liability um um if it's optional it you may not always get the contribution depending on circumstances within the towns or District itself we all we always know it's a tough decision on how to fund a budget and and what to fund and where it comes from I was I was definitely one of the bigger Advocates on keeping it separate because the towns will say oh you increased another you know $100,000 and no I understand you have your own dynamic because you have member towns to um to get the funding from you know when I'm auditing a town I'm I just want them to make it part of their annual budget as opposed to one of 20 special articles that well we'll pass over that one this year because it's a tough year I want them to look at it as a uh liability just like pension and and funding in a similar way okay I appreciate that it's been difficult because um the three school districts we have they they were not able will get the red funding going for quite a while finally all all three of them do I think what and I I agree with Ain I think because of the nature of the district um we would get you get the support for the pension because they want us to fund our increase in the budget um but I think what we've tried to do is make it a we' successful two years in a row it's been two years right and so try to make it a standard article for the towns yeah to contribute we were trying to I think the object was to get it off the ground too because there's debate on how much and I think the original recommended amount was like 450,000 cou from two or three years ago yeah this our our third year yeah this is our third year yeah so I understand you have to look at your own Dynamics yeah yeah but I think at the end of the day the right thing to do would be to have it yeah it would be easier I would imag in the but we might be sitting here saying how do we cut 100,000 keep that in our lines and yeah that the way I think we agree that we we look at it it's an unfunded mandate but it's a responsibility of the member towns to provide sure and sometimes you're own a position I don't know the situation of Two Towns and how they're doing on their own funding you know I still have one town that hasn't funded at all so um they're the the last one but yeah it has it it's a it's a different problem for districts with you know dealing with member talents as well not just one time meeting any other questions did want to add one thing I just want to let you know that when I got here the FY 23 audit hadn't even begun and Bob's firm was very responsive to me asking them about getting this going we need to get the FY 23 audit done they they jumped on and they they did get it done um we're in a place now where I believe the FY 24 audit we're going to shoot for January 31st to have that completed and then going forward there's no reason why we can't have our audit done every December 31st following the close of the fiscal year as long as the books are in order and everything's you know there's no unknown issues that come up I'll be sending Bob the FY 24 trial balances probably this week not to say there won't be some minor entries that have to be done but we'll work through it on that on that way so thank you Bob thank you is that it well thank you very much thanks gentlemen thank you for your good work Peter's here okay uh if I could get a motion to take the agenda out of order so we can move to um uh Rachel's Challenge so motion made by Tara seconded by Chuck any other discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I guys have it okay um thank you so this year if you look in your packet you'll see some there's some information in there about some dates some times some presentations we're going to be doing this year um called Rachel's Challenge um and I also put in there it's just a summary of each of the little the presentations that will be done so for those of you who don't know Rachel's Challenge was created after the Columbine High School shooting in honor of Rachel Scott and others who lost their lives that day um Rachel uh it's it's founded on the messages Rachel Left Behind through her writings and it's about kindness and compassion um her parents founded Rachel's Challenge as a path for school violence prevention so we we invited Peter diello here tonight um he's going to do a little overview we've been working with him to to schedule our Rachel's Challenge and bring it to our school um and Peter welcome thank you for having hello everybody so I I wanted just give to give you a just like Jill said an overview of what Rachel's Challenge is all about the programs that we offer uh what they look like you know in each each of the uh different schools elementary middle school high school and then if anybody has any questions after that please ask me so we'll be out there uh September 18th 19th and 20 and U um has anybody seen a Rachel's Challenge presentation in the room I I've seen one awesome awesome so Rachel I'll give you the notes version on how we we started Rachel was the first student that was killed the Coline um after uh after she died her family found six diaries that she kept so Rachel started these Diaries in elementary school and everything she did was all about creating a culture of cist and compassion she her big dream was to start a chain reaction of K kind that she hoped would Ripple around the world and that's what she lived for so every day consistently she would reach out to people in kindness but she would write about but she would also write about some of the things she wanted to do some of the things she was doing at her funeral her family was amazed and how many people came up to them and said you know Rachel really impacted my life in a positive way Rachel changed my life Rachel saved my life so they were overwhelmed by you know by how many people came out and they were asked to speak immediately they were speaking to stadiums of 40,000 people inside of 2 months so they went back to the the Diaries and what they realized they had were the foundations for K through2 program and that's how it all started so 25 years later it's crazy I know we've just had the anniversary of Coline 25 years later we've been uh in front of over 35 million people mostly K through 12 students parents staff Administration and so all of our programs are age appropriate all right so for example for K through uh 4 we do the linkup presentation so we come to a school we do a pre presentations in the morning the linkup presentation is theirs link up uh for Elementary uh is high powerered it's uh it's a lot of fun it's 40 minutes we don't talk about a Coline we don't talk about how Rachel died we do mention that Rachel's not with us anymore more and the reason we do that is we've had so many fourth graders who raised their hand and say you know what's Rachel doing now can we talk to her so we we figure okay we need to give them a heads up um so we just let them know she's not with us uh when we get into fifth and sixth grade we do Rachel story Rachel's story is an hourong presentation uh it differs from Rachel's Challenge which is 7 through 12 Rachel's how does it different Rachel's challenges an hour two um we do present what happened at Coline to the student new we showed them some news footage from that t sorry um I've never figured out a another way to say this or an easy way to say this so I just blurred it out we don't show any shooting we don't show any blood we don't show any dead bodies okay but we do show news footage describing what happened today because they they have cell phones we don't want them Googling Coline or feeling like they have to Google anything about Coline we let them know it's Rachel's story and that's it Rachel's life her writings her story but we give them the background so for the fifth and sixth graders we we do it a little more delicately We Do It Through The Eyes of Mike Scott Mike Scott was 11 years old that day okay Rachel's youngest brother so we narrate through the through a voiceover from an 11y year old what as Mike what he remembers from that day so that starts it first 5 to seven minutes the rest of the hour or is all about Rachel's life writings and in every presentation whether it's the elementary or it's the middle school or it's the middle high school we give them a five challenges and those five challenges result to this first is eliminating Prejudice from their lives okay of course for the little ones we don't say it that way we say just accept their everybody okay um the Second Challenge is about keeping their own journal keeping their own diary we encourage them to be purposefully uh uh sensitive to kindness and compassion and also to encourage them to keep their own journal of the Outreach that they might be doing so we we encourage that so they will do it and keep that journal again we wouldn't have this program if it wasn't for Rachel keeping her own journals the third challenge is about choosing positive influences in their lives okay today we're there's so much so much negative out there we encourage them to be per purposefully seeking positive input positive experiences um choosing positive influences and so whether that's uh in history positive sayings to live by or it might be uh music or it might be television media we we we encourage them to seek what's positive out there and and to model their lives after that the fourth challenge is about not only speaking kindly to each other but also uh um acting kindly with each other not only a person but over social media especially today Rachel didn't have the social media impact that the students have today so it's even more important to be talking about that right now in the fifth challenge that's all about starting their own chain reaction of kindness not only individually but also as uh a group okay and then at the end we ask the stents if you accept these challenges raise your hands and I would tell you 99 to 100% of the hands go up and then we we let them know we've left the school with a banner and that Banner says Ah what AG to um of course for the littles uh maybe the teacher will help them uh initial the banner okay but bottom line is we encourage that that Banner is hung up outside the principal's office in the hallway so when when they come in in the morning as they leave in the afternoon the students are reminded about what they signed up for okay that day the the administration the staff Administration will receive a OnDemand digital link and that link is to sustainability tools no no nobody wants a one andone we don't want to be one andone we want to leave the the staff Administration with tools to keep the program going to keep supporting it with the kids so um the first there four components to these digital materials the first is 6 10minute videos those videos are all about the five of them are about the five challenges and then one is an intro video however you use them is the right way what I see schools do and I encourage it is maybe have a live assembly once a month after we leave show one of the videos and then have talking points with the students um so for example maybe the video on choosing positive influences show it um after 10 minutes address the students and ask them how do we keep doing that you know what are you guys doing to uh uh uh to bring positive into your life through positive influences that's the first component the second component is called 180 connections and that is for the 180 year um uh we we give this we give this school each School a talking point so what we encourage each day a different talking point what we encourage is in the uh The Home Room with first class of the day break up the students into groups of four or five for three or four minutes change them around every day change the groups around every day introduce the talking point and have them share the the connection part of that is so huge we hear you know cell phones out of their hands they're sharing with each other we hear especially from middle and high schools that this has been such a huge component in helping to break down buing Behavior Uh referrals have gone down because of it it's a powerful tool the third component that's for you all okay that's that's three onour videos for professional development Daryl Scott who's Rachel's dad got together with Dr Robert Marzano and they teach in these videos they bring on uh people like uh Aron brewell if you know who Ain is if you've seen the 2008 film Freedom Writers she was the teacher basically got a a classroom of students nobody wanted in the district and she worked with them worked with them today they're all they're all entrepreneurs or Educators they're doing great things in society because of the work she did she comes on and she teaches and then Christian more comes on and teaches too Christian if you've ever heard of the organization Why Try he own wide tribe Christian works with primarily with staff and parents on how to help build resiliency students and he's one of my favorite speakers Christian saves a lot of lives every year um but but these three 1hour videos what I see districts do with these and I really encourage it is maybe during inservice days or professional de development days when it's just the team the staff um show one of the videos and have talking points amongst each other you know how do we keep keep this going how do we keep sustaining this not only with students and the fourth component is a workbook and that workbook is chalk full of ideas suggestions on how to help uh uh again maybe some creative ideas you know new projects to do if somebody comes to let's say one of you a counselor and says hey I want to do something different with the students this uh this week go to the workbook there's some great ideas there um so those are the tools those tools carry a one year use I explained it to Jill after a year you can re up those tools um but that's what that day entails and the staff will receive those links on that day too any qu I didn't want to take up too much time any question I just want to let everyone know to this comes at a perfect time you know at the end of the year we survey our families our students and our staff and there was a bit of a theme that you know we want our kids to be kind to each other do you know what I mean we we we you know want to reduce if there's any of that bullying or you know that kind of behavior so it comes at a perfect time um and I know he talked about too we brought it up a little bit at our leadership team um we want to make sure that the work we never want it a one and done so that's why we have these resources continue this message it's about kindness and compassion you know how do we weave that in as we go throughout the year um because it is something at all levels that we want to instill in our kids as well any specific questions for for Peter at all and then you can look at the little um I did do the presentation of the days and you'll notice as he spoke that different grade levels have different presentations whether it's the Rachel story The linked up the Rachel's Challenge um and they are Geared for the for our students at those at those levels okay Peter thank you very much for joining us tonight and I'm sure we'll be in touch again before you um you all come out for our presentations and we're also going to be the principls will be sending in a newsletter form we like a little pamphlet uh little flyer to the families just with some updated information if they you know didn't weren't able to tune in tonight so they know the dates and times um and the you know little summary of the presentations and again Peter thank you so much for joining us tonight thank you so much for having me I appreciate it any questions please agree them to all right thank you take care everyone thank you thank you okay we'll go back to the uh the agenda the uh under the school committee uh Part B declassify executive session minutes and so I'll take a motion to declassify Executive session minutes from February 8th 2024 March 7th 2024 April 11th 2024 May 9th 2024 and June 13th 2024 so move made by Chuck second second by Ted um any further discussion on this hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed the eyes have it next is contract updates Mr superintendent yes uh just very very briefly um unit a uh and Unit C just to put it back on the um kind of back on our radar as soon as our staff return the leadership of both of those bargain units have shared that they'll be uh scheduling a meeting to um approve approve the uh or vote hopefully to approve the um grade reconfiguration Mo MOA U but we are obviously moving forward with what we discussed uh as this school year is uh is upon us which is great um and then Unit C uh their successor contract once they return uh they'll be scheduling a um bargain unit meeting to hopefully ratify the contract so I hope in September or October excuse me at the latest we'll have those in front of the school committee to so I just wanted to put it back at the top of uh everybody's inbox so to speak just as a reminder any questions on that no all right we'll move up to the uh MSP update OPM selection process yes ter do you want me to yes please um so uh lots of activity since our last school committee meeting uh I'm going to run through some important dates for everybody um and just to give a good Community overview of where we stand in the work done uh today so uh on July 6th we posted our uh request for services uh in the paper um for the owner's project manager that's what OPM uh stands for for the feasibility study um on July 10th we put the request in the central register um so uh that to is another public place that um you know different groups can go to different firms and go to to see what work is out there uh so we posted that on July 10th um on July 16th uh Joe and Scott um I believe Scott was part of the tours as well but hosted U I think there were 15 or 16 uh different interested uh firms in the feasibility study at the high school um and they toured those firms around the high school to give them a really good sense of where the facility is at and the different needs uh that are in front of us and what we're looking to do through that feasibility study as it relates specifically to the scope of the work um on July 24th all of the applications for a prospective owners project manager were due uh by 2:00 on the 24th and by 4:00 on the 24th our OPM selection subcommittee was reviewing the eight applications that we received uh just as a reminder the OPM selection subcommittee uh was uh Joe um spagna our uh finance and operations director um Mary BSO uh on the school building committee Matt plant on the school building committee Sarah Peters School building committee but also um Sarah is I believe the president of our CPAC she is uh and myself um so you uh utilizing a rubric uh that was approved by the mass School building authority we uh ranked each one of the eight applications um at the end of that uh evening um we had three three top candidates that emerged those top candidates uh were P3 uh cha and Colliers so those are the three firms that had the highest scores on the rubric um that we were measuring each of the proposals against um on July 29th we had each of those firms in for an hourong interview we had uh met as a subcommittee and generated 10 questions um each to those questions was worth 10 points uh in our process we reset the interview scale so that the paper screening in the interview screening are two separate scores um and so uh although you might have had the you know top score on the paper screening that reset when you went into the interview uh because that actually gave us a chance to meet with the prospective teams that would be leading the feasibility study um in the in the district and so um the interview was conducted by the OPM selection subcommittee but as you recall uh we did send out um um a link virtual link uh and invited school committee and the school building committee uh anybody that wanted to attend in person could we had a few members uh that did attend in person and then we did have a few members that did attend virtually uh on the link that we had sent out so um that was really helpful to get uh feedback after the three interviews were finished when the three interviews were done we then calculated we sat uh in uh in the conference room we took the feedback from those that were able to participate whether virtual or in person that were rather in the school committee or the school building committee took everybody's feedback and then we scored uh the the uh three interviews now an important piece to mention uh one of the things that we did different that we didn't have to do um and uh it was quite labor intensive but I think it was important uh we reference checked very thoroughly each one of the eight applicants so although we only interviewed the top three we still reference checked everybody um that took a significant significant amount of time because we had to reference check with 24 different individuals and I'm sure as you know try to get one individual on the phone you know to talk about anything um but it was important to us to make sure we were incredibly thorough in finding the right fit uh for this project um once all the references came in um we uh moved forward with uh Colliers uh the Colliers firm uh they have done uh like many of the firms but they have done extensive work in this area I think a piece that uh really helped kers Stand Out above the others uh specifically was uh there were there were two individuals I think that were a tremendous value add to our feasibility study uh one would be our project manager uh who is just incredibly recommended in the field everybody we spoke to it didn't matter some from other firms frankly their references uh because as you can imagine these some of these guys kind of bounce around from firm to firm um so the project manager Project Director had just an incredible has an incredible reputation for this work um and uh their HVAC heating cooling systems uh individual is from all accounts from even our own people on our OPM selection subcommittee is the top in this field uh so particularly as we're thinking about green energies and the different types of heating and cooling systems that we're going to want um it seemed as though from the project management side and then the system side uh that we have two of the best in the industry uh that are on this that are on this firm um the other thing that was important uh to the OPM selection committee was approach and uh approachability um we were very clear that uh we are a smaller system that's going to take a lot of community work and we need individuals on the feasibility study um in the feasibility study process that is going to uh not only be able to work closely with our community but wants to and that was a really important piece um was making sure that we had that um kind of tailored approach uh because every district and every system and every project is different um and so we wanted to make sure that we had individuals leading this project that we felt would work really well with both the towns of Blackstone and milville uh along of course with the district because this is a joint effort this isn't going to work unless all of us are moving in the right direction while Colliers is a larger firm um they had a very small uh kind of small town feel to it uh and have done smaller projects in regionals uh one that will remain nameless but took them 13 years to get to construction and they stuck out every single phase um and that really really resonated we certainly don't want it to take that long by any sense but um they hung in really uh tightly throughout that whole process uh even when it was looking you know not favorable um they still didn't give up they went back out to the community and they kept working with the towns it was another Regional uh two Town region so um for many reasons it felt like they were the right fit and the references um uh bore out uh the same which was great um from there we had to submit uh a uh OPM procurement package um is the actual the title of it on August 6th Tara and myself and Stephanie met with our Mass School building authority reps to go through the whole OPM procurement package submission process my apologies for all of the words these are their terms they're not mine uh they use way too many words um and I think terara would agree on that call the the notion back to us was you guys are already ahead of this it's already done which was great because uh the procurement package needed to be submitted by August 14th uh which was not a problem at all for us as far as the submission um so in your packet you have this evening you have a copy of uh the OPM we just we just put in the packet the actual um narrative that we had to go in and write um we didn't submit all the other paperwork that is with it although we'd be happy to if if anybody's interested in seeing any of the additional paperwork um but uh we explained the questions we asked we explained the rubrics we explained why we went with one firm and not the other firm the strengths the weaknesses uh it it if you when when you read that I'm sure you already have you probably felt like you were part of the process because they want that much detail um so all that was submitted on time which is important because we want to be in front of uh the OPM selection panel for the mass School building authority on September 9th which by all accounts should be fine and uh we will be um the other very important piece to mention part of the selection part of the OPM procurement package is to have a negotiated contract um with Colliers signed from them not from us uh we do not sign it until the um msba gives it an approval you'll remember uh the budget for this project was a million the OPM fee came in at $319,000 not to exceed $319,000 it doesn't mean we're going to spend that uh there are two pieces um um of fee that was included in the proposal uh one was around some of the hven systems and then the other was around uh the construction management side of things neither of which I think will be spending uh we also had a meeting uh Tara myself Joe had a meeting with Colliers to go through their uh contract and it seemed as though that th those two we may not necessarily need but the 319,000 is a not to exceed number uh what they did not include in their proposal but I had a follow-up uh discussion with the Project Lead was around some of the community outreach work he said the reason that they didn't call that out specifically in the contract because it is included in the work of of many of the different branches that were included in the overall contract uh so that that concern was um was aate um once uh msba approves our selection and we sign the contract the OPM will then uh very very thankfully will take control of the process and go out for request for services for a designer once we have the designer on board um in this process that we used for the OPM was kind of a rinse and repeat for the designer but will be managed again incredibly grateful to the OPM to managing this it was a tremendous amount to do they will take control of that piece of the work um and we will get a designer on board and we will start the feasibility study um there was a little bit of push and pull on the timeline um when we initially spoke to two callers they said okay well we've got you know 18 to 24 months we said no you don't we don't have 18 to 24 months uh we would like to have a proposal in front of the towns a year from November um they agreed to the terms they vetted out that timeline among their own team and said it's going be very difficult but that they would they would absolutely make that work the challenge we may face with that timeline is msba like we saw the last time um we Tred to get in front of their OPM selection committee August and they said they weren't ready it is feasible they will tell us they just won't have their ducks in a row for us to have in front of the Town by them towns by then so just know if there is a delay on that uh uh Community vote it's it's not on the school side and it's not on the OPM side it's going to be on the msba side but we're doing everything we can to keep moving the project forward um Tara did I miss anything or Joe I don't think you covered everything okay if I could just add in so for people at home the 319,000 for the OPM designer is going to be substantial so that there's not a $700,000 savings yet you know I just want to clarify that yes there'll be a designer thank you um Dan there there'll be a designer fee and then there could be some site work that we're going to need testing and borings and all kinds of things I'm learning about about so I'm not sure yet um what that will look like but you are correct any other questions on that well thank you to all who the the um building subcommittee for all their work and efforts to the names you've mentioned tar as well your work on this moving moving along right yes so next would be the facilities and athletic fee schedu we is something we want to discuss tonight wait is here so we can kind of go over to a little high level um we met the policy subcommittee met a few weeks ago um and Jason you can add in where I miss but um there was discussion I know you guys wanted us to go and you you all wanted us to go and uh check out the um user fees going into the New Year we looked at that to try and see where we could move things or level things out and at this point we decided not to move forward with any of it with the upcoming school year uh reassess it throughout the school year and make changes possibly for for next year um and then as you also uh had us looking at the outside user fees for the facilities um and I think Joe you could Joe or maybe Jason could speak more to that um as far as as we were in agreement that they should be put more in line with the other school districts in the area uh I don't think we had any real numbers though at that at this point yeah the overall uh gist to that was just to look at group three which are the not the the non you know Blackstone milville youth groups if you will but like you know the dance company and the the folks that utilize our facilities from outside of the two uh the Two Towns um and looking at as Matt said those with the surrounding areas but not to increase the fees on our blacko milville groups that are using the space for you know youth basketball and those kinds of things um and then on the athletic side there were a couple of questions car you might have had them um around um the user fee for cheerleading and it was a hundred uh it's $100 per season uh there was a question around um what do the user fee go to uh last year I'm using just very rounded numbers um our Athletics budget was around 300,000 and we collected 80,000 in user fees remember um you know in our budget the way we set it up is all of the fees we collect we account for we put them as offsets uh to get the assessments down to the Two Towns so um you know we we could take any guess at what the 880,000 was used for it just absorbed a part of the Athletics budget right 880,000 of the 300,000 again I'm using rounded numbers but to bring that number down so that the assessment would be as low as possible to the Two Towns um so I know you had a question on that as well uh I think that was it on Athletics un let that something Carrie no did we so we're keeping tier at 100 all the other sports at 200 other than football and hockey and I think the idea was for this cuz we're in the budget cycle now yes but then to revisit if we wanted to change them did I I think yeah and I think that should be re Revisited you know before the end of the year so that way we can plan for it for the exactly and then we did collect the information on the athletic fees um for uh Douglas Northbridge Hopedale Bellingham we you know we grab the communities that are directly around us corre so when we get to that conversation we have some data already collected if committee wants to look at that again very good anything else on that so do we need to move forward with the facility fee changes that we talked about last time would that be the next meeting so this is this is in here as a discussion item y um so you know I guess we can discuss that um based on what they are right now for was it Group C yeah and we had in the last meeting we had talked about um group three uh the auditorium we increased the rates let's see it was $125 for group three um and then um an additional and I think it was the first three hours and then an additional $40 for each um of the subsequent hours so I think that's the proposal right Terry referring to the one we talked about at the last meeting so the I think the question would be if we want to bring that back to a school committee meeting as a formal proposal to look just look at group three for fiscal 20 um well we could do it whatever the school committee would like if we if they wanted to look at group three for this fiscal year we could or if you would want to wait to look at group three for fiscal 26 they're not our black so milville why would we wait folks so yeah I mean we don't we don't have to yeah we bring it to the next meeting we can pick a date that that goes in into into effect we we can do it now if you want it's on the agenda so if we agreed to that last time it's up to it's up to the it's the pleasure of the committee so I mean it's Revenue do we have the actual fees anywhere though we do because we have a facilities request in your packet tonight those I hope it's in there the number should be in there is always a page not listed in there darn I was hoping it wasn't there but just for an example there's one here for the track for $50 so that jumps right out to me I have a copy from the packet from last meeting oh good okay yeah but that's a lot of time and the Tara these are yeah perfect thank you um yeah so it looks like do you want me to run through these just for group three sure yeah um so it right now uh for group three only uh that's the group we're talking about uh we were at $100 a day and the proposal was to move to $125 for the first three hours and then $40 um for every hour after and then uh for the auditorium for rehearsals right now it's $70 for the day the proposal was $85 for the first three hours and then again the increase uh the hourly increase after the gym uh is $70 a day we would move that to 85 for the first three hours and then again the same the the three hours following would be $30 an hour um the cafeteria was at 70 actually the calf the the gym the calf the kitchen are all at 70 we'd recommend moving those to 85 for the first 3 hours and then the um classroom is at $50 a day we would recommend to move the classroom to 85 for the first 3 hours and then 30 uh each hour after and then um for the field tracks in uh basketball courts I guess outside or tennis courts excuse me uh was $50 a day and we'd recommend that the 75 for the first three hours and then the 30 for every hour after so that was what was proposed at our July B Tara thank you you're welcome and that lines up with the research was from other towns like something comparable so that was so I'll make a motion to uh increase our fees based on uh what was just read as recommended with the research beginning September 1st how do we want to handle well those September 1 request maybe like are these grandfathered so like new requests after SE new okay motion made by Aaron seconded by Chuck and just for clarification this motion is for the fees on class three um group group R sorry group three facility requests facility request rates any other discussion on this all those in favor signified by by saying I I any opposed the eyes have it look at those updated sure perfect now we can move right into the report of the superintendent excellent um so what is that holiday song It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year people are pushing the carts through Staples and that's how it felt last Thursday you bank and all the school supplies and um and the parents coming to pick up the bags and full of supplies and been an awesome uh awesome start uh to the year already um so just a couple of quick dates to run through and then we're going to actually ask our principes to join us up front and give some updates uh but um as a school committee knows we started our first day of our two-day Leadership Retreat today um and uh it was an action-packed day lots of uh reflection lots of planning um and it was really good to be together as a full uh leadership team tomorrow we have each invited a guest um so we have staff from across the school system from facilities to Food Service to uh classroom uh teachers and everything in between administrative assistance that will be joining us on day two to talk about um you know the the the framing we use is how do we operationalize the work so how do we actually get the the the work into action into motion and we can't do that without everybody pulling in the same direction so we're really excited for uh our second day tomorrow um I will say having it at galliford's was lovely the monkeys were a little distracting uh outside because they were outside the room I guess that's what they were uh throughout the day you could hear them making noises and all kinds of funny things which is kind of fun but uh I guess we weren't the only animals that were that were there the say but it was a it was a great day uh and we're excited for tomorrow um even more exciting we have our new staff joining us on Thursday uh we'll be here at 8:00 a.m. uh Thursday and Friday for our um new staff orientation um we have an incredibly uh talented uh energetic kid focused diverse group of Educators uh the most I've seen um since my seven years here and so we're we are really thrilled to be welcoming them on Thursday so anyone who's around and if you're able and you want to stop in um you know for a cup of coffee and and say hello to our new staff that'd be great we're going to introduce the leadership team and any committee members who can be here um we have uh quite a few activities that we're going to be doing with them to really help them learn uh more and uh you know kind of deeper about the school system and our kids first approach so we're really really excited for that uh and they will be doing the annual tour in the afternoon uh of the towns which is great um so they'll be doing that at 1:00 um so lots of excitement there um I should also mention our back to school uh kickoff video this year uh is really going to be showcasing them and our veteran folks veteran staff that have been here for quite some time so we're putting together a compilation video it'll be about 5 minutes uh that's going to hit the headlines of all the kind of exciting things for the school year um it will not be my voice it will not be Jesse's but I think Jesse's got a automated kind of thing using it sounded really good I got a chance to hear it um and um the rest are going to be interviews showcasing and highlighting our new staff and supporting our veteran staff that have been here we have a lot of folks that have been here 20 25 30 years uh we spend a lot of time talking about the turnover uh but we don't talk enough about are the you know of 80% of our staff that stay with us um and so um we're going to celebrate them in the good work that they do for our our students so you'll see when we uh release the video hopefully later this week um you're going to see some new faces and hear some new voices and you're going to hear and see some uh very familiar folks that that were all too eager and excited to get on camera and talk about how great uh our school system is so very cool doing something different this year um next week we will be uh welcoming back all of our staff on Monday and Tuesday um and the first kind of three quarters we always look at the the days and kind of half so uh the first day and a half if you will uh is going to be very focused on training and staff development and getting our you know classrooms ready and all things situated and prepared for our launch uh but the second half of Tuesday we're going to be celebrating together uh we're back school barbecue for the staff again any committee who's able to join us it'd be great um at the high school and I believe our principles are setting up a uh nasty version in nasty in terms of intents of Family Feud I think little competition against the schools uh is what I'm hearing through the Great Vine so last year was are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader central office lost miserably huh yeah I'm auditioning this year and so uh this year I think we're having a family feud competition uh the second half of Tuesday uh which would be great it'll really bring that camaraderie and that energy together before the the students come back on Wednesday so please join us for that if you're able to um and then of course the big return of our uh first through 12th graders on Wednesday the 28th and then um kindergarten um starts the kindergarten and some preschool start the 28th and some preschool start the 29th and there's this real wacky schedule that Mrs shaver can go over with everybody because it depends on the half day the full day the what day the this day the all those things so she has all that information so with that principles if you would like to join us up front and give the school committee an update on and the community on all things school year 2425 I was working on trying to get us an animal for tomorrow oh so you want a sloth a sloth well I just me we're messaging right now he everyone hello um so tomorrow uh sorry Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. we have our new family tour so all grades one through three families will come into the building and get to see so our kindergarten families will do a little tour when we have orientation so we're not excluding them we're just not having them come in yet because um all of our current first graders now have toured the building last year so we so we will have a one through three family tour in Wednesday um it's going to be so nice to have little bodies like I have we had them there all summer but it's going to be nice to have them all in there so um super excited that we have the ice cream social on Monday um thanks to our parents organization we have a sensory friendly half hour from 5: to 5:30 prek K and 1 will go from 5:30 to 6:15 and this was all sent out to families when we did placements but we'll send a reminder and then grades 2 and three will go 6:15 to 7 so they're hoping by giving those kind of time specific slots it'll make that long line that if you drive by there it's not won't be as long so um and then obviously the 28th is the first day we have two kindergarten orientations because we can't fit 100 I think we're up to 108 or something like that right now kindergarteners [Laughter] and you never know what that's going to look like sometimes there's a lot of tears and sometimes the kids are like Bye Mom so you know they they run uh but 9:45 Mrs rosenbom and Miss gills classes are going to have orientation and then 11:15 we have Mrs Clark Mrs Doyle and Miss stuffy so um and then in the times off of that our kindergarten teachers are catching up with any of the screenings that of either people that didn't show up for Orient um the screenings at the end of the year or people that just recently registered so they've registered since we've done the screening so they'll be getting all of those done I think we have an additional 15 to do we have about two to three from each class some classes have four or five so um and then the exciting piece is the kindergarteners all love this part tellstone brings a bus so we'll park in that back Loop um so they start the orientation meeting with um all of us together the kids go off with their teachers so they get to see the teachers they go to see their classrooms and all that and the parents unfortunately have to stay and listen to me um and we have a variety of Staff members there um the our adustment counselors will be there we have CPAC coming um we also have um the parents organization coming as well to introduce themselves so parents can kind of see who they are um we'll have our nurse come we have um kind of people that they'll see on a regular basis if I can free up our um new admin assistant to come down and see them will be right in the auditorium so they should be able to pop in for a couple seconds they can put a face with the name um but then the bus will be outside so the kids will go at the um teachers to the classroom but they also learn at that time like how you're supposed to be on a bus you're not standing on the seats you know you have to come in you have to sit down this is where the kindergarten is usually sit so we kind of go all of those things in that 40 half hour 45 minutes of time um they'll show them how to get on how to get off all that good stuff so the kids love the bus part um and meeting their teacher too of course but um and then at 12:45 we have preschool am session orientation and at 1:45 we have the PM session orientation so we are a busy day of orientation and we're going to be giving tours during all these times as well so so we'll be busy but um I have to steal staff from different places but they um are great because just to get them to see like the expanse of the building um was super helpful and the parents from kindergarten last year really loved it and being able to see so um and then our kindergarteners will be in on Thursday and um okay so to kids that come to prechool on Tuesday Thursday will come on Thursday kids that come on Monday Wednesday Friday will come on Wednesday September 4th and kids that attend four or five days we start on Thursday the 29th so it's been a it's a little piece to puzzle piece to get them all together so those are our three different start dates um our preschool start times will be 9:10 for the morning session to 11 11:40 so it's the same time we just adjusted the times and then PM session will be 12:30 to 300 p.m. so we always like to get all the students the preschool students out because we we're going to follow the same route we did last year when we were all in the building parent drop off will be at the back Loop but then the buses will be on the mend and street loop for dismissal and then in the morning we'll stop once um on the AF side AFM side for grades two and three sorry Joe and then um pre then K and one will come to the JFK door and they'll get off there so and parent um preschool drop off will be there too so and we're going to keep preschool at door 25 so any questions I think that's everything oh sorry and I missed one meet the teacher is September 12th for from Mees at the comp and I should mention if you're worried about the dates we did get the school calendars to the district calendar so if it goes on one of the school calendars and you click the BMR the main District page the dates that run in the bottom are pulled right from the schools and anything that we add so we're trying to get this all in one it was a little Tech issue but I think we got it so and we'll send another reminder so beginning of the year I'll do another like important dates type of things for families so that they can see everything in one place so any a reminder to families Christina just mentioned Mees at the complex you got some questions like I don't see the mees best route I don't see this but remember Mees are prek through 3 are at the still at the complex MH do you have a no oh I just was looking at you I thought you had a question oh no sorry a lot of coordination went into that just the delivery to us it took a lot of coordination so I I'm excited to because I've been able to see them here and there and some kids have come in for different things and it's been so nice to see them they're so excited especially at pre 3 to see you so it's like woohoo you know um so when they came there was a few kids that came for summer and they were like Mr shaper and I'm like oh my gosh so um that's a part part of my day that makes me the happiest it's been funny talking to the parents when they they've come to pick up the backpacks with the supplies I'm like oh how you know how is your son is he ready to come back and some of the parents are like yeah he's like banging down the door to get and then other parents are like nope not even close like well it's it's coming and obviously those first couple days you worry about you know we do have that crying you know for the a lot of the students that's the first time thought your time for the teacher yes some time to parents you know um but that's you know the first few days are definitely a lot of that crying the first week and a half because obviously especially at preschool not one group not starting till September 4th you know we'll have it at least up through the 4th of September so and Jason mentioned again about the backpack so again a huge thank you to both St Vincent to Paul um and UniBank but if there's any families out there that are still in need Maybe miss the flyer that came out or school starts and you realize you need something else please you know please reach out um whether it's a backpack and or supplies um you know we have them ready ready to go absolutely you want me to go next I'm in a little bit of unique situation um prior to the summer I counted um we held probably over 30 meetings with teachers um getting feedback from them um asking teachers to place students instead of the system scheduling students um but that was really well spent like the time that we spent um made it the summmer really smooth of scheduling uh we re ramp the whole schedule uh teachers no longer doing duties but we're adding more time teaching time um we look at the data we analyze the data we know that writing across curriculum is very important so we implement the time opportunity for students to you know to do more writing with teachers in a different content uh we also able to add at the end of the day for 30 minutes for RTI so we ask the teachers from the prior grade to place those students into the RTI groups so we're not sitting there beginning of the year and try to figure it out they're all set ready to go so um I really want want to thank the teachers like meeting with me spending time with me scheduling the kids um we also have over 80 students sign up for fourth grade band this is a true test program and how well you know the program is so they can't wait I I'm like getting to the point like what are we going to do with those little few kids left you know um you know in the in you know without not taking band um one thing I do want to really focus on is the physical part of the school I can't thank the custodian custodians enough for cleaning it really go through every corner of the school I don't know if you know this is really clean in addition to the custodian we had over 15 staff members came in reorganizing books make decision on what to get rid of and what to donate to the music program and what to keep um so they spent a lot of time in here um I have two Middle School teachers came in and said to me I feel the school pry and I say this is what we need we need to have school pry and I hoping the kids come in on August 28th they feel the pride um our summer program went well um in you know we focus on literacy and numeracy cuz we want to prevent that summer slide but in addition to that we added a lot of enrichment program kids had a blast they actually ask for five days a week next year not four so I don't know we can pull that off so it's really been a great summer um lot of work so this Wednesday we have our sixth grade Open Door day they'll come in and get their schedule and play with the locker I try to figure it out we are going to have four and fifth grade use their lockers good luck to us um seventh grade is easy they've been here so their Open Door day is a little bit shorter so they'll come in get their schedule and we're going to let them go into the classroom and see the classrooms uh looks really good uh Jason already covered teacher orientation ice cream social is August 27th at 5:30 um Meet the Teacher Night is September 19 67 and uh parent teacher conference is November 20th 4:30 to 7:30 November 21st 2:30 to 4:30 we did did I go to overachiever yeah I I think at the end of the day we look at what we have done this summer I'm very very proud of everyone in this school any questions I like that why don't we have an ice cream social I need a PTO I'm G to call Par I'm going to call the boosters and say hey y'all I want a ice cream social I to go with them no um so the high school um the the next chapter the new and improved as I said this uh evening we had the um open house for Sports in the athletes and I said the next chapter of the bmrs the 7 through uh I mean 8 through 12 oh Lord 8 through 12 building and uh no we're really excited um very excited for the new staff that we have coming in um staff have been trickling in and getting them un unpacked lots of boxes are getting unpacked um people came with a lot of things uh we are also it's the theme of the orientation is uh Wednesday is orientation day at at BMR um in the district we will also be hosting tours every half hour starting at 9:00 so 9 9:30 10 10:30 11 11:30 and noon um at 11:00 I have a group of students coming in to do a student panel um talking about a number of stuff when I asked for volunteers even though I know that some of it conflicted with sports staff I had over 20 kids like yep what do you want me to do like the the list that Nicole sacko sent me I was just love my kids um so yeah and that is for anybody new to the district that is for any e8th grade that is nth grade there is no separate one or two we're all one you come in we and they're all student Le Tours um you don't have to listen to any adults talking um except briefly at the um open house um that's that we are dabbling with possibly doing a uh back to school an 89 uh dance luau type thing where waiting student councils got their fingers in some other things so we'll see what happens um we are uh very excited to have um to welcome the new the new group it will be uh a tight fit I think for the first time we're going to be feeling it because right now we've got uh close to 550 students who will be in our building so that is a very new um welcomed um one of the things they want to talk about is hallway etiquette so that is something on the student panel is hallway etiquette so uh yeah so we're looking forward to that our o parent night is the last Thursday of the month in September I think that's the 26th but that information will all go out soon um I have already had students if you've driven by our school there is a little Easter egg and I've already had people asking uh they said it says are you ready for it and yes it is an homage to Taylor Swift and so they are waiting to find out what my lip sync will be the first day because you know anything about the high school we do a lip sync battle in the start of the day year and we end with karaoke and uh so there we'll just have to wait and see we'll have to wait and see email me if you want to participate one of the things that I I get really jazzed thinking about is just walking in the hallways in the buzz you're going to hear because for the you know first time in a while each one of our buildings is going to have over 500 students in it and that may not sound significant but when you're walking the high school and there's 380 kids in there or you're here and there's 352 kids in here um It's oddly quiet right you expect schools to be noisy places and you know good noise right like productive noise and sometimes not great noise but um so it's so it's strange and you know but when we think about this year just having the schools close to capacity is actually great like that's a really exciting thing uh and also I think looking at Middle School different for the first time um is going to be really important and I think it's going to create an incredible opportunity for our students and our staff to do some different and unique things and to take a grade span that typically people are like uh Middle School in general everywhere I think they're going to think different about a year I really do I think it's going to be an opport to actually cultivate some leadership in the way that you've set it up Jenny with your team and those student leader positions and the different opportunities through that the eighth grade being part of the high school and all of the things that they were always doing but from afar and now they're in it and they're just part of it and they're not separated they're not isolated but they're part of the school Community um I think we have a really great opportunity to reset um and Rebrand the work the really good work that's been happening here um and so my hats off to the three of you I know it's uh hasn't been easy but uh you and your teams have done just tremendous work than thanks good thank you thank you good luck thank you have toay I'm still talking we film the uh lip sync oh yeah so my first year here I said said how am I going to introduce myself cuz I knew I was already very different from the previous principal and so we I brought kids up we did a lip sync battle with the adults and the adults like crushed the children and so yeah of course um and so I didn't think anything of it and then fast forward to June and I had several students come up and say to me so are we going to do the lip sync battle again I said You Don't Know What You Did in class yesterday but you remember what we did on the first day of school and because of that it started a tradition and if you're going to lip syn at the beginning then you've got to actually sing on yes yeah which you don't really and but I I set the tone because I said the bar really low and everybody sounds great so yep that's that that culture we're going to acclimate the kids and these eighth graders are going to be like oh Lord who is this woman we got ourselves I'm great all right we're moving on to Spring 2024 advanced placement score review yes all right now I need my gu sty hello all right um so an exciting Trend with the AP and you've got all sorts of data and you can look at all of those and um I just really want to um talk about a couple of things the exciting trend is that we are increasing the number of tests that are being taken that is exciting so if you look on the second page it says who's taking the exams um the the parenthesis is the plus minus from the year before Jill do you want it oh okay got it does he have it y a little click oh the clicker is here all right I'm really not good at this one but um the yeah the plus minus so we had 15 additional students in grade 10 taking the AP exam and that was only um AP US History so that and that was wonderful and the again the same thing uh three more 11th graders we had two fewer 12th graders but that's not bad we had 16 more students take taking tests so out of there were 67 students who took 100 tests so this was really a a very exciting um opportunity for our kids there were no new offerings this year so this is just based on what we've all um always been doing um it mentions uh the the results there that we have you know a three is the score if three is technically what you would want to call as passing is that um we strive for you know anyone can get a one anybody can take the class and get a one if you uh score a two or higher you really are learning the technical piece of something three is what you would like to get for the passing score four and then five now colleges have changed um what whether how they take them um a lot of our state uh universities um do offer there's our totals uh do um take scores of three or higher um a number of students who have gone with uh you know ample credits from from our AP um pass our passing rate did um decrease uh slightly from last year but again we increased 26 tests so that's those are the things that are going to happen um shoutouts there just want to take a second to look at the students we still had we had nine last year we had nine this year um several multiple um shoutouts that will be in one of my first newsletters with the little sign that says I got an A I mean I got a five on the AP score um so this was u a really wonderful way to see this in some of the the students who are on this um two of them are if you look at any Apu assist I mean the US History ones um in biology you're talking about sophomore so you're going to have ample opportunity to have a lot more AP tests under their belt um so here's the takeaways uh you know 100 we we are steadily increasing and we have a projected 143 tests if everybody who's in the eight enrolled in AP right now takes the test there's 103 um projected 143 projected tests um that is in part because we we have added two AP classes um the AP Pre-K and the AP seminar AP seminar is for our 10th graders uh and then the AP pre-cal is either for the juniors or the seniors so um uh definitely opportunity um I will be meeting with all of the AP teachers and uh we're going to be looking over their individual data the the AP gives an extensive um score on how you know where are the where are the um areas for improvement um and so we'll be looking at all of those um and but just really thrilled that we're continuing to grow this part um of our advanced placement Jill on the uh students who scored are two that still research based is is a clear indicator of college persistence although they didn't pass the exam it's still an indication that the kids can persist in college based on at least scoring a two on what they you you you really are like I said anybody it's kind of like the you you sign your name like anybody can get a one um it really is showing that you are learning and growing um in that piece so it's uh it's exciting and uh we are consistently seeing you know certain subjects doing really really well so any questions no when we add new courses like I know this year we added the AP pre-cal and the seminar is that at like teacher suggestion student suggestion how do we decide which ones we want to kind of try out a little bit of both um the AP seminar was something that I kind of dropped in the English department and they said here why don't you think about that it's it's up and coming there's a you could take AP seminar and AP research and then there's also an AP Capstone we're we're looking down there and so they jumped on that we did a number of webinars um other schools were using that as their 10th grade um piece so then it really became them spearheading that um the AP Calculus pre-calculus is a new course it was new this year so this will be in the year two for the AP and one of the things that they were the math department was looking at that came from the math department um was that if you're not on the calculus track if you're in an n9th grade algebra 1 you will never get a chance to take an AP course if you're just in regular you know math I was in regular math right so this gives that more Equity also so that was another piece that they wanted to do so yep I don't know how many students who are signed up for pre-calculus were really like let's do AP but um we do have uh you know in the 20s for both of for both of those right we'll have to see what happens any other question great thanks you very much thanks Joe can I just add one quick uh just Darlene uh is not here because she was at the open house for fall Athletics but um would encourage anyone tuning in or anyone that hasn't met her uh yet or had a conversation with her she is very driven she has a vision for our Athletics program uh and some of our extracurriculars and how she's looking to expand those um she's met with coaches she's met with athletes she's meeting with parents she's getting uniforms organized she's organizing supplies materials she was going to come and give an update tonight as part of the back to school but she was you know doing the open house instead um but she has jumped right in um she was at a Leadership Retreat this morning she read this summer reading uh texts very quickly uh and and has really hit the ground running so if you haven't had a chance or you got question on Athletics uh by all means to our families and friends at home do not hesitate to reach out to her she's super approachable super available and she came in with her BMR uh sweatshirt on already so she's she's she's in it she's definitely in it and really excited very good next is the uh business office report go um the vacancy report I believe the superintendent was going to oh uh sure yep your uh the Personnel report is in your packet that's uh just to be placed on file uh but a quick rundown of where we are with our vacancies uh these are changing daily um and I'll do them by school because it's probably just uh easier organized that way and these are not on the personel changes um at milville Elementary uh we still have a speech language pathology just uh open we had a uh person in the position and she resigned uh last minute so we have been starting that search again um we have a special education uh vacancy there at Mees but we have a candidate um for that we have a parah uh professional opening that just opened uh we have a preschool teacher uh we filled it great candidate uh she accepted did her paperwork and then resigned uh to get something closer to home um and uh we just had a grade two resignation Friday um so uh we already have a candidate for grade two we already have a a candidate for preschool and we have a candidate for special ed uh so my senses uh within the next 48 hours or so their vacancies will be the speech language pathologist which I know Jill is working on um and a pair professional um at the middle school grades four to 7 we we have a reading specialist uh vacancy uh that just came about a couple weeks ago um we have a a new special education vacancy the teacher resigned Thursday and a um Behavior technician bcba uh resigned today so we have a new vacancy there um so I just share the dates on those things so that you know the community and the committee understands that we you know we we think we have these things filled and then we get a last minute resignation so uh we are hard at work filling the last few vacancies that we have uh we have put out offers to um two separate um LPNs um you know to support the nursing staff with and ghosted by both of them so uh not sure what's going on out there but we will continue to do our work and recruit and try to hire the best uh we can but as of today we um we we truly will have one to uh looks like five six vacancies across the system um but I get the sense that those will be filled uh or close to by the time school starts almost all of them so there are no vacancies at BMR none oh but a recent update like very recent update at LPN we have our candidate and we're just finalizing C hopefully to fill up already fill them up hopefully that will be finalized in the next day or two yep that's good to know Jill you're not the candidate right no okay very recent upate like breaking news though yes it was um so at our last meeting these positions weren't they weren't vacant so these are these are all new vacancies the last of which were the past week or so so that's okay we we we keep moving forward all right expenditure report um the expenditure report that's packet uh there's three items I just want to stress on this I did try to clean up the categories and the groupings in here to make it a little bit easier to follow so you'll see some things are condensed in there on on the um left hand side of the column there's a new column in here for prior year encumbrances and I'm sure you're aware of what those are but just in a nutshell any open purchase orders at the end of the fiscal year that are not paid by July 15th of the following fiscal year is considered the prior year encumbrance so when we Roll It Forward I don't want to bore you with the accounting of it but they Department of Revenue requires us to increase our fund balance in the next fiscal year and also expense those per those um open POS in the current year when I press them about um expensing them each line I said well you're increasing our expense in a budgeted line we're going to be over budget if we budget $220,000 but we carry forward another $110,000 to be expensed we're going to be over over budget by $10,000 they recommended the display of what I show you here they said they've seen other districts add that pre- incumbrance line so in the lines that are going to get hit with these pre- incumbrances I think we had about 46,000 in FY 24 that came over to 25 it'll take into account the additional it's almost increasing the budget in that line so we don't see an overe expenditure at the end of the year and then it all gets at the it's all wash at the end of the year because when it gets closed out at the end of 25 it Clos through our fund balance that we've increased anyways so the net effect is zero hopefully right um the other thing I want to stress too is this is the first year that the this system has been fully utilized to calculate our benefits our medical our dental and our life insurance we are calculating the expense to the district on these items per person per pay period based on the plan they're on so every payroll the system generates an expense for that individual over so many pay periods and when I run my projection you can you project out the entire year it's it's projecting every payroll the amount up to a cap of what they should we should be expending for that individual so I'm comfortable with what you see here for medical and dental when you look at the year end budget but I'm opt I'm pessimist it's perfect timing for a downpour right during this um I'm pessimistically optimistic I want to give it a couple months let's make sure the trending stays with the numbers that we see here maybe there isn't somebody that we didn't miss in the setup you've got uh 350 individuals it could be one or two that didn't calculate properly we got to check um but in a couple months if we see that stren that trending continue and it looks like that's going to be a solid number then I think we need to re and discuss options um I don't in this report see any negative impact of the budget at all at this point that's very early I make a lot of assumptions of full expenditures in every line because you know it's the beginning of the year we anticipate spending all those things I'd be happy to try to answer any questions if anybody has any though any questions on this for Joe well thank you for that show and uh uh the final State uh revenue and charges we in the last week of July we did get you also have that in the packet I put together a little memo with a brief explanation to the committee uh we got our final um cherry sheet in the last week of July it was it was finally approved uh just a quick run through you'll see our Chapter 70 uh compared to our budget the final cherry sheet we did see $118,000 increase increase we also saw an increase in our Charter School tuition reimbursement of almost $30,000 but then to offset that typical State fashion right we saw our school choice receiving tuition decrease by almost 109,000 so the net effect in our receiving receipts was $3 38,5 25 increase but now to further offset that the sending tuition that we pay out that they reduce our Chapter 70 by between choice and uh Charter increased $4 49,3 46 so the net effect is we're taking a hit of $108 21 to our overall receipt of state aid in Chapter 70 um which is really a minor it should be absorbed no problem I don't see it being an issue for us though but it's funny where they tell you you giving you more money but they offset it and they actually take a little bit from you Joe we need to vote the final cherry sheet numbers is that right the final oh yes I'm sorry yeah that's all right then we have to just let the school committee has to reason sure so we just going I'm going to ask for a motion to uh approve the final cherry sheet numbers as just explained by Joe yes so moved motion made by carrye seconded by Ted uh any other discussion all those in favor signify by saying I and he opposed the eyes have it next is high school floor a Jim floor update I'll give you a quick overview I'm sure um Scott's going to go through it too and please Scott if I misspeak correct me okay uh I there's a pipe in the incinerator room behind the gym wall behind the bleachers that has a crack had a had a crack and a leak in it that was leaking into the floor in the incinerating room seeping underneath the uh bleachers and ruining you'll see the the buckling and waving in the gym floor you um it became a safety issue actually we're in the process we did have an asbest check there are no there's no asbest there so that's a good thing um and we're getting an appraisal done right now through Maya with our liability insurance our deductible is $10,000 so I'm waiting on that appraisal I'm working with Scott to find out what the cost is going to be to fix the gym floor we got to do complete repair on it um and is it worth going through our insurance company or not what's going to be the impact to our premium you know if it's a $20,000 repair we pay 10 but there's going to be 10,000 you know you got to weigh out the the differences um so we're just kind of at a standstill right now waiting for that appraisal to come through so we can figure out what how we want to proceed with fixing the floor but it is a safety issue I think with the kids right now I think for a while it stayed behind the bleaches if I'm correct Scott so you didn't really even see it but it's gotten it's worse it's going out to that purple line that's out there right so there's a concrete wall that separates the gym and the incinerator room but the water was seeping in underneath a beam separation in the concrete blocks and getting under the gym floor and with all the heavy rain we had in this spring it was going under the floor undetected so you couldn't even tell there was a water leak um obviously the incinerator room nobody goes in there it's not used anymore it's just used as a storage room um and it's equipment that you only need in the summertime so it was never detected until we started getting spots on the floor and the floor started buckling that's when we noticed the crack in the pipe that during the rainstorm it actually squirts out like a faucet it was so bad and it was on the back side of the pipe so you couldn't even see it between the wall and the pipe um so yeah all the water went undetected um about a month back I cut a hole section off in the floor lifted it up pulled it up there was like a almost like particle board but it's a like a fiber board and right then I said well we're going to get this checked for Asus make sure you know we're not causing any further harm and it came back negative so that was good so the next step will be to move the bleaches away from the wall rip up that whole section of floor um I think it was estimated at 250 square ft of flooring that will be replaced fortunately it's not going to match because the color of the existing floor the years of barnish and age of the wood uh the purple lines will be repainted that's where they're going to stop is right at the outer bottom lines so that will all get repainted once the floor is replaced um yeah as Joe said we're looking at the latest I we got an update from Meer about 4:30 he said it's going to be about 20 25,000 just to replace the floor and repaint the lines I didn't see not including the demolition pulling the bleaches away from the wall ripping up the old flooring so we are waiting on the final price and fortunately volleyball is going to start as well so I don't know if that's going to hinder the games we may have to move a couple of games over to the middle school or something maybe possibly but we can certainly do that volleyball used to be played here when it first started so we can accommodate that and once the repair is done that's when we're going to do the redo the entire floor and anyways like you normally do right you do the whole varnish correct they they'll come in wet screen the whole floor revarnish the whole floor but they're not taking it right down to the bear Ward and repaying all the lines it's just doing another coat of polyurethane on top okay that's the update all right thank you and that end now it we roll right into the facilities report okay facilities update facilities update I can not find my bought in my uh school committee packet for some reason so going off my phone great technology you want a copy is it easier to read no I got this that's fine so the gemm floor we just discussed the roof drain leaking um so on like I said once they rip up the floor they got to test the concrete make sure there's no more moisture in the concrete before they put the new floor down check for any mold or anything that may be under there so um ironically um couple of weeks back we had a rainstorm on a Friday um Todd Schaefer came in on Saturday found some white flaking on the stage uh it turned out that it is not an asbesto ceiling um it was caused by a roof drain as well um plumber and I set up staging last week I ran up got up on a roof R in the hose for like 45 minutes could not find any leak sprayed the whole entire roof area waited for a more significant storm last Thursday we got a storm I went back about 6:30 no leak so I'm waiting for last night good rainstorm no leak I don't know if it's wind driven maybe um might have to get my Roofing specialist up there you might want to go over there after this now that storm was prettyy take over the meeting but this was over the stage you talking is this it's over stage but it's up like a 30t wall the right um and a dead space so it was pretty heavy we had to carry 2x 12 planks up there but we made it safe so we can you know get up there we had safety huses in case anything happened uh then on to we had boiler inspections done over the summer uh industrial burner came in cleaned the boilers left them open uh inspector from Maya uh comes in inspects the the boilers at the high school because of their age he did find that there is a hydraulic leak on one of the gas valves um doesn't affect anything it's just needs to be replaced it's not really a major issue you know we can everything's fine but he did find that two pressure valves are leaking and these are two pressure vales that we had replaced 3 years ago they are not under warranty um and those are a safety issue we cannot run the boilers until we get the ones on that particular boiler fixed boiler one is safe to run boiler two we're just waiting for the new pressure valves to come in industrial burner has already ordered them so that'll be done within the next week or two and also one other thing at the high school is the new kettles and steamer came in for the kitchen um our plumber was out today disconnected the old ones new ones should be plumbed in by Thursday so just in time for the start of school Rachel will be happy uh onto the Middle School the LED lighting project has been completed all the new lights were you know installed and commission they had to go around and program them all and it's it's really neat cuz you can go on your phone and you can dim them you can control if you want daylight like savings like the brighter the sun is the dimmer the lights get so it saves on electricity that way as well it's pretty neat uh sprinkler system was tested back in July that passed um with no problems except for the gauges the gauges are outdated every 15 to 20 years they have to be replaced um so I did budget for that in this year's budget so we have the money to have that done we're just waiting for the gauges to come in and be changed out boil inspection went fine but they did find that one of the O-rings is starting a leak on boiler number two approximately 5 years after we opened we had a crack section on that particular boiler right where the area is that that gasket is leaking so um they have to pull off a couple of sections put a new gasket on but we're talking like the sections are like 300 lb it's not an easy job so it's good to run uh everything's fine we can put that in next year's budget onto JFK Maloney mville uh boiler inspections no issues with were found state inspection was good Plumbing issues we have one kitchen forcet needs to be replace uh border of Health came in and so that it was Dripping and they recommend we replace it so we are just waiting on the plumber to do that as well we did have an wall outlet in C7 that shorted out um got all black kind of melted one of the plugs a little bit it was caused by a improperly ground on the back of the plug um was just a little loose so with the load from all the air conditioners it put a load on that ground wire and um kind of cinched it a little bit but everything's fine it was changed out um we did move one of the um dehumidifiers to another wall outlet um we actually had to run an extension cord from the closet next door into that room just because everyone gets a lot of moisture in it it's got the little kids in it so um we want to keep the dehumidifiers running uh milville Elementary School boiler inspection was no problem um we are having the fire pump tested on September 6 that's the latest in addition to what Jenny said about the custodians here I want to give a shout out to all the custodians this was really a tough summer with all the building moves especially here with every classroom being relocated but even the high school JFK JFK used 20 classrooms in the summer for the summer program so last two weeks they've been under the gun to get it done it looks awesome you showed up to them great team great oh thank you thank you very much and you and your staff for all your hard work maintaining and keeping the buildings up they have good leadership Scott thank you thank you thank you [Applause] use of facilities requests so yes there are a few The Armenian youth Federation is a looking for a track and field uh event the dance company for a dance recital Blackstone parks and wreck for the Blackstone Hall Festival there are three all right what's the pleasure of the committee this is the first time this uh Armenian youth Federation uses our track have we ever rented out our track before great question not that I'm aware of so they have 100 people going is at 100 athletes and then you have all the um Spectators you know parents and grandparents and they say they're not going to use our equipment just the uh it says there will be 100 people totaling total total yeah including Juniors and there will be plenty of adult supervision they say Juniors I that means CH uh you know youth mhm okay I'm good with [Applause] that there's not a football game that day obviously right they're not going to use our any equipment I'd be concerned about is that I know it says they're having a shop put event do we have the net up at shop put oh that's good did we take those down Scott I thought we took the down discus they are down they down yeah we took those down shot shop put uh they're proposing they're they're asking to use the shotput yeah long jump and Shop put long jump and Shop putut so that's a safety issue not having the net up and then their insurance would cover ATT trct meat yeah they had to attach uh submit it as part of their proposal liability insurance that's not part of the packet not usually yeah it's not in the packet what about uh facilities going bathroom they're going to be using not open in the building no they we uh going to go in the woods porta potty we're going we have a py party on site or yeah if it's not there already it will be it wasn't there as of this morning that was actually one of my questions yeah uh but we'll have a custodian on on duty just so we have eyes and ears out there so I guess for this one it just comes down to the shop putut area Scott can we hang the net okay Chuck are you familiar with this grou I haven't heard of them either I didn't know if you and they're coming from all over you know from uh Boston to DC it says in his description wonder how they found 100 people I know we were the cheapest that's 100% you can't Google search that though like you have to like Word of Mouth yeah call around find the the cost so I don't know I'm pretty sure they heard I thought they heard to us through the lip Lip lip syn they have could have been the karaoke looks like they're the individuals from Watertown the person that applies yes yeah Gregory prier and can I make one recommendation too when we're calculating out the custodial costs I know it's going to sound like I'm nitpicking but there's Medicaid Medicare costs to the Sal right now this is just a salary line there's a few dollars of Medicare that we'll be paying as a district for these employees I really think we should include that as a piece of this I mean it's not even over oh times one yeah I mean they they C salar calculated just not calculating the other piece that we pay on the on the district side when we pay these individuals good point did you say it was a large group 100 I would suggest getting another Porta party brought in more than just one almost like they would Shoulda I would and I would actually charge for that and whatever one weekly pump is on that that should be that's something that's usually thrown in almost like we should have someone there like our track like you people that super football field more than I was going to say I'm more concerned about the field having a 100 people on it running it's like no you guys don't do you know can't do that I just know the field we try make sure it gets picked up at the end uh is that going to be our responsibility can we rope off around the field itself so they not using the football field for events or just melee for that matter well they said no Jain just uh they only shot put and long jump long jump and that's a a long day for only having water just saying only have they says refres Refreshments water will be handed out yeah are they going to like if kids are bringing their own lunch or whatever they're probably going to have trash barrels setting up tents tents trash that's a big thing you know I know we wear te on our field up there because we have so many false sports that use that field so having a 100 kids SL families but I don't know I think that means a 100 athletes not including Spectators parents and there are 100 people total including the Juniors which that clarified though you know yeah I mean that's what they wrote it says 100 people total including the Juniors really plenty of adult supervision so it just sounds like we need to make sure they know the rules and maybe roping off the fields is a good idea tap taping it off we've I've been to events where you couldn't go walk across the I'm sure you have too so now we have to buy the equipment that ROP it off as well stakes and tape tape I got some roof cones that I can let you borrow you can cone off the field with some caution tape but then you have one custodian is are they able to say don't don't go on there sounds while while they trying to monitor we don't you have to we can the commit doesn't want to approve it you know just needs a little more like more more guidance maybe for a $50 rental fee now we're talking about the porta potty pumping uh roping off the infields putting up the net at shotput where doesn't say they have to hire a police and fire they have to this is medic this is medic need a policy of dealing with thatu we don't know we're get into and tear what are they asking for hours when I've gone to track you you have to have a crew running the place I say we we try to find somebody who wants to be a site supervisor and add that into the cost somebody who's walking around and making sure that they are adhering to the rules Chuck what are you doing on September 14th Chuck when I will Chuck 4 and a half hours 12:30 to 5 I feel very strongly about yes bucks no one's denying that I think a little followup needs to be done with this application just to clarify um so can I run through what I heard so I can make sure we fall up on the right stuff uh in no particular order but uh taping off and around the field for an additional Porter potty and to pump the porta potty right I think those are separate charges having someone else present to supervise um following up on trash tents the actual real number of individuals um and then including in the fees charge for some type of a site supervisor that would be there to kind of oversee the event following up also we should check in the medic police what I miss and that and that medic is in the application it says they're going to supply it is that what is that what I heard yeah that's what it says on the back yeah last must have medic on site so the doesn't Sayce will be open yeah I don't think it's enough Poli there will be there will be access to the school that day technically cuz you'll have doors open for for band right for band so it makes sense that if we are going to move forward with this to have some sort of site supervisor that can hold people off from going in and I thought if you hadn't to event over a certain size you had to have a detail am I thinking that I think it's 100 though oh it's I like 250 I don't quote me on that it depends on capacity huh it might depend on capacity yeah okay I was just looking up thean youth found and it actually says that Boston's hosting um its swimming and track events for that weekend which it says September 13th through the 15th and interestingly enough it says track SL swimming location Milford High School it doesn't me I but maybe because we haven't done this yet maybe TR is better suited for sure does Milford have a pool yes yeah and then you think this was a put in for a backup Franklin that's possible in case that fell through or something yeah that's possible or if they got through this list of additional requirements so our next meeting though would would be after they want to use it the 12th I think would need an answer these kids are coming in from DC from the East Coast it says and they'll be bust to I'm sure they need to know and this isn't a group you're familiar with Chuck I feel like you have your pulse on finger on the pulse of all those gr Junior Athletic games athletic.net has a all the clubs and schools we can we can can go back and get all this information or we can approve it so they're staying in Frank on Jason they're calling it Boston so the kids are being housed at a camp in Franklin and right now it says Milford for the location but maybe that's the pool they're being housed they're probably not coming with par it says they're going to be busted in from a and they're calling it so I mean it's very organized but sounds like a good thing yeah it's for the it's for youth kids you want we can take this one separately approve it contingent on Jason Administration following up on the concerns of the I like that idea school committee and using their discretion to see that our interests are protected I mean it's a real group that's yeah yeah and I can update on Friday on all these things to the committee or or sooner if we have the information sooner yeah I if there's a motion we'll take this one separately oh well we'll take this one SE motion on that on the um I'll take a motion on the admed median youth Federation facilities requests based on the discussion we just had with the stipulation of the discussion that the superintendent follows up on the concerns of the school committee so moved motion by Chuck second second by Tara any further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I hi he opposed the eyes have it and I think we can take the other two um are the other two more standard ones that annual annual uh requests so you always do MO to approve it the other two facilities requests second motion by Ted second by Carrie any further discussion do we charge for the hydraulic list scous the last page has pricing charge for the cust operator but I don't think Char okay I'll be on the September 1st revision well that I mean then there would be other things too like light lighting do they do that themselves for the recital or do we so we use the lift to hang like Christmas L for them last year they downgraded it signicantly just a question I'm not trying to hold it up they were also using the lift while they had kids children on stage and we put a stop to that kind of scal back on their prods have to lift out there between sets so they're using it or we're using it for them okay okay any other discussion on that motion by Ted seconded by Carrie all those in favor signify by saying I I any oppose the eyes have it all right Surplus items yes uh we have two uh we have a request from the technology department uh and this outlines uh various technology uh older pieces of Hardware that need to be um surplused and then the second is from the high school uh and there's just a few things Band Saw wood planer um large Hobart Mixer I'm not entirely sure what that is but I'm sure many of you know what that is Kitchen yeah the Hobart Mixer okay just doubling down on it just to make sure it's just the custodian getting I only know what a hobot mixer is because of school because it's one of those big Vats with the the thing that mixes up all dough hook yeah it's original to the building yeah I probably had a few potatoes in Oh The Cauldron yeah yeah yeah the hobot Mix us come on why didn't you tell me that's generation gap or something Miss so those are the two requests any make a motion okay motion made to um dispose dis uh by Tara second second by Carrie any further discussion all those favor signify by saying I I I any opposed the eyes have it all right school committee Forum does anyone have anything to add this evening on the school committee Scott just a quick question do you know when the porta potties will be coming for the athletes at try outs and everything I do not that's something the athletic director used to take care of and I did a contact I'll be mind anyone else our our next school committee meeting meeting is um September 12th 2024 at 6 p.m. um we will be going into executive session in not an adjourning in executive session so um I'm going to make a ask for a motion to go into executive session uh for the purpose of Mass General Law chapter 38 section 21 A3 to conduct strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have detrimental effect on bargaining a litigation position to the public body and the chair so declares and not to return into Open Session motion made by Tara second second by Ted roll call vote Ted yes Carrie yes Matt yes Chuck yes Tara yes and Dan is yes