[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e e e e recording in progress good evening everyone welcome to tonight's school committee meeting it is Thursday March 28th our first item of business is Administrative business the consent agenda and uh for those of you looking specifically at the consent agenda we will only be addressing items I 1 through 7 and Helen would' like to explain why we're going to hold off on 8 through 12 yes thank you um so 8 through 12 um we're not we're voted but not officially by the building commission and so we always take our um our votes after the building commission votes it and so I would suggest that we wait they're going to be meeting they have this docketed for the 8th and um and we can do it on the 12th right after or whatever date our next meeting is um so I would like to hold it because I think it either that or vote it pursuant to them voting in the affirmative that that we could do one of two ways and I'm not sure which way is better to do I think we can go ahead and defer wait for them to vote first and then add this to our April 11th agenda okay just so everybody knows that's usually the the process that we do we do try and do it quickly because you want to pay the bills within two weeks so that you don't pay any kind of fees or anything but this uh everybody has understands what happened here that it wasn't documed appropriately uh at the building commission and so therefore they will be rev voting it Helen is one of those Driscoll sorry David is one of those Driscoll there are three dris yeah so can we actually vote those subject to building commission because those actually need to get pushed out um but the earliest that we could have them actually effectuated would be April 8th right correct because that's when they're uh no April 2nd excuse me APR APR 2 okay all right second so I mean we can take them all uh if that seem I don't know who the lawyer you're the lawyer here David oh s we can do that all right okay so why we take them all then so we'll go ahead and vote on the consent agenda 1 through 12 and the effectiveness of 8 through 12 will be contingent upon a vote by the building commission on April 2nd so would someone like to move the consent agenda I'll move it all right Andy move it Helen you second sure all right Natalia yes Steven yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Andy yes Helen yes Sarah yes Valerie yes and I also vote Yes all right we will now move to the student report Miss clevis thank you so much Mr proman um I'll be sharing my screen shortly I think you have to talk thank all right hello everyone uh I hope we're all having a good evening my name is Laura clevis your school committee student representative and today I'm going to be talking about bathrooms and queer rights at BHS this is what we're going to be talking about this um tonight so to give some background a little over 3 weeks ago I attended a vigil for uh next benedict on Cypress field Benedict of course was a 16-year-old indigenous non-binary High School sophomore in aaso Oklahoma who was beaten up in a girl's bathroom in aaso high school and died the following day approximately 60 people attended the event including Headmaster Meyer and superintendent Giller uh the event featured student speakers who spoke passionately about the impact Benedict's death had on them and more broadly students spoke with Justified anger about their experiences of bhs's queer individuals from student IDs that dead Nam them to frequent usage of slurs to issues with gender neutral restrooms many vo the frustration with the school administration and school system blind and deaf to the presence of a toxic oppressive culture that endangers transends and non-binary students uh not to shamelessly self-promote of course but I would highly encourage reading the coverage if you haven't already uh certainly the sentiments expressed by the students who spoke are much more eloquent than anything I have to say on their behalf and it's worth noting that I went into the event with a reporter's mindset but it became pretty hard to maintain impartiality I walked away from the event with my own thoughts and feelings about the state of career rights of BHS disappointed in how much we have failed these kids so I think one example of the toxic culture I was speaking of earlier as a situation revolving around bathroom usage and accessibility at BHS anecdotally I can speak to the state of bathrooms growing more and more dire students frequently use them to vape and hookup making accessing one pretty hard as is as a result I sent out a survey on the topic interested engaging student sentiment I sent survey to the entire student body through canvas on Monday and as of writing this report I got 305 responses interested in the specific experiences of trans and non-binary students using gender neutral bathrooms I sent another survey to queer to the queer student union and gender sexuality Alliance and a mass data reporting both homophobia and transphobia and bathroom misuse and I got 13 results just from that specific survey aside from the other surveys I had access to and while I acknowledge that this is not outstanding amount of students the nonb in trans Community BHS isn't very big my findings I believe however underscore disparity as you can see on the slides many of the issues students face are similar however take a look at the numbers for General accessibility and access to pads and tampons a majority of students saying that they can count on accessing a bathroom of their choice as opposed to many using general neutral bathrooms report that they cannot reliably count on a bathroom being available for them to use Laura can I ask you if a favor can you go back can you read what the labels are and what the x-axis is on those slides because I can't I can't see that of course thank you so uh the title um the the question I posed was I can reliably count on a bathroom I feel comfortable using being available so the graph on the top was um is a snapshot of the data uh given to me from the General survey where the majority of respondents identify themselves as this gender uh the graph on the bottom was data from Sur a survey sent to the qsu and and the GSA uh the majority respondents identify themselves as trans or non-binary um the x-axis is basically just a raing from one to five one being no I cannot reliably count on a bathroom I feel comfortable using and five being yes I can count on a bathroom being um being available for me to use of course uh the same applies to um access to period products um not a lot of students can really count on finding period products and a bathroom of their choice anyway but a more specific look at gender neutral bathrooms found that best case scenario students found period products in gender neutral bathrooms most of the time as opposed to a small percentage of students using gender bathrooms finding period products some of the um definitely finding period products um at at certain times yes can I ask you to go back and read those labels again they're just too small the exactly what you did the top and then the labels thank you so the top says if you a person who menstruates I can always count on there being pads or tampons when when going to the bathroom by choosing students had three options yes no from time to time so the General survey with the majority of respondents who identifi themselves as this gender uh a small portion of those sorry sorry a small portion of those students said that yes they could um find period products in the bathroom uh the majority said no or from time to time but what I think is pretty striking here is the fact that um no students who responded to my survey uh responded Yes when it when it came to uh gender neutral bathrooms and finding period products and I think that's pretty striking um so my conclusion is that there is equity in theory but none practice and while students face the same issues regardless of what restrooms they use closures make it difficult for Trans and gender queer youth to access bathrooms and um I talked to Kate Leslie social studies teacher in qsu and GSA adviser who reported that gender neutral bathrooms at BHS used to be teacher restrooms before their conversion and as a result they tempt to be prime spots for students have sex or vape because they're around corners and they're much more secluded from the rest of the school and so the inappropriate behavior leads to closures across all bathrooms but that impact isn't felt equally across all populations students using a gendered bathroom might take longer to use the bathroom and trying to find another one that's open because they're more available but because the number of gender neutral bathrooms is so small already Trends and non-binary students are at a loss as to what to do when a safe space closes and don't just take her word or my word for it a recently published Cypress article entitled students confront misuse of gender neutral bathroom shed more light on the situation with gender neutral bathrooms uh truly alarming facts arise uh the facts that students have been holding it in for the entire school day or that more students acrw tardies because of the time it takes trying to find a restroom they feel comfortable using is to me personally alarming and in my conversation with Leslie she said that students would often comforted telling her that when they would access a gender neutral bathroom they would be greeted by slurs levied in their Direction only exacerbating the issue and the unwillingness to use a bathroom um this one quote that really stuck with me uh comes from a student uh their name is Christa wasburn they were interviewing the article uh quote I wish gender neutral bathrooms would be taken more seriously bathrooms can be their own safe space where people are able to do their business feel safe and not have to worry about other people viewing them badly and the sad reality of the situation is that this is only the tip of the iceberg in a political climate that is already criminalized being transs or being non-binary in so many other states uh the fact that we are in Brooklyn Massachusetts and can't even guarantee bathroom access something that goes without saying is a basic human right for these kids is personally deplorable there is however a solution on a more positive note people have been discussing ways to fix this issue for quite a bit Leslie told me that the lgbtq plus task force led by teachers and adults has been talking for months on a way to resolve this problem everything came to a head with the visual with students coming together to work with the administration on a way to improve access to gender neutral bathrooms in the picture is um Echo Kaufman uh a gender flu sophomore who really has been leading the charge alongside other students on this issue um this group has been working on plans to convert gendered bathrooms on each floor into gender neutral bathrooms in order to reduce traffic into those spaces and they're also planning on taking a field trip to Lexington High School a district that has been doing it better than all of us having implemented gender neutral bathroom since 2014 um these students also plan on presenting to all of you in two weeks on a final note I know that in the in the commotion of passing budget cuts it can be hard to keep multiple things on your radar However the fact that there are kids in our district and at the high school who can't use the bathroom um I think that goes without saying that it's just not right it kind of laughs in the face of everything this community claims to stand for or even more alarming perhaps exposes our hypocrisy I certainly hope it doesn't regardless I urge the school committee to pay attention to this incredibly pressing issue thank you thank you for that presentation Miss clevis uh I do have a couple of questions so you mentioned that gender neutral bathrooms for at the high school for the most part used to be teacher restrooms uh so I'm assuming that these are just for intended for one occupant at a time you don't have multiple stalls uh that's correct I know of a couple of gender neutral bathrooms that do have multiple stalls they uh I know of one on the third floor that I can recall off the top of my head that does have multiple stalls the majority of which the majority of the bathrooms according to my understanding and my conversation with Miss Leslie were converted from teacher bathrooms into into those gender neutral bathrooms all right thank you of course Helen so thank you for your report and thank Ezra for when he came here last time um I would suggest that the group come to the capital subcommittee as opposed to the full committee first okay so maybe we can discuss and look for some solutions of course uh the capital subcommittee is in charge of you know doing all we have a a whole list of things that of items that we do repairs on or changes or uh Renovations Etc and I think that would be the better place to start um of course I will relay that message to them and I'd be happy to inter you know put it on our agenda and and try and start to figure out it's it's a very difficult process as you can imagine because of the space the regulations there's all it's just now as you might know or you might not know the plumbing uh code has accepted gender up until now they didn't even accept gender neutral full gender neutral bathrooms where anybody can go in it's a closed cabinet um now that's changed and actually um probably people would be happy to know that at Pierce all of our bathrooms will be gender neutral so there won't be that question of which bathroom do I go to um you know it's it it's it's the same bathroom for everybody it' be floor to ceiling enclosures thank you anyone else all right thank you very much we will now move on to the superintendent reports Dr Giller good evening everyone great to see so many folks in with us tonight uh we will now walk through uh the superintendent up update for March 28th 2024 the office of educational Equity has been conducting residencies at every PSB school with the aim of understanding each School its culture and the strengths and needs of its students and faculty these residencies will will guide O's work moving forward and ensure that the office is supporting each and every school uh and PSB Community member to the best of its ability Claire and Christie have completed residencies at BHS beep and Lawrence and look forward to continuing their residency at F frr in the coming week clar and Christie would like to recognize the tireless work of all PSB schools faculty and staff from custodial and maintenance staff to Educators par professionals counselors Medco and steps advisers School leaders and everyone within the school Community not listed it's a privilege to witness their dedication in action CLA and Christie would like to recognize PSB students and families who have raised them the students are brilliant kind strong-minded and courageous as well as will create a better world for us all so that's a brief update from OE Desy upcoming visits the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and secondary Education Office of Public School monitoring schedules visits to Charter and district schools every 3 years to monitor compliance with federal and state special education and civil rights regulations during the week of April 8th through 12th the PSM will conduct a tiered Focus monitoring review of the public schools of Brookline we look forward to the feedback in the areas of special education and civil rights parent and guardian Outreach is an important part of the review process on March 19th parents and guardians of students with disabilities were sent an online survey by the office of public school monitoring these surveys will be reviewed by the PSM after its closing date April 3rd during the on-site review the PSM will also interview chairpersons of the district's CPAC other on-site activities will include meetings with District staff administrators and a review of documents and observations so that visit again is coming up um the week for April break equal rights presentations at Hayes eighth graders at the Roland Hayes School showcase their presentation on equal rights covering some important and relevant topics and here you can see some of the slides or pictures well it's difficult for you to see but I can see it clearly on my screen um of their presentations that they shared out and several of our senior staff members were able to join Hayes um the Hayes uh students with their presentations Sports analytics program at MIT a group of BHS Medco and the African-American Latina Scholars Program students participated in a sports analytic program along with MBA students at MIT Sloan School of Management the program taught by Professor Ben Shields culminated with a moach NFL draft students were split into teams of five and paired with NBA students while being task with performing The Scouting duties for one of the following NFL teams the Cardinals the Chargers the Giants the Titans or the Atlanta Falcons in the first two days of this collaborative program each team of students conducted a thorough D data analysis and compiled a draft board of their top college prospects they then took part in the first round of a mock NFL draft where they used their data analysis to determine the the value of the prospects and their draft picks and again here is uh a couple of shots from that particular event over at MIT so again congratulations to the students uh for participating in that program composting at Hayes um the video here will be included for the public to view uh play I will not play it tonight because it's about seven minutes um but um I have seen it and it's awesome awesome the work they're doing over there with composting the Roland Hayes schools has been working with the Department of Public Works to introduce composting during their lunches last week composting was launched schoolwide with student council reps volunteering to be compost monitors and teach kids during lunch thank you to miss wheeler Miss shaoa Miss uh weather seed from the DPW and school custodian Mr magn Lelo and Mr forel for leading these efforts again Haze composting and I did click on it uh The Little Mermaid at Baker students in grades six through eight at the baker school put an enthralling performance put on an enthralling performance of The Little Mermaid a big congratulations to all involved in the production there BHS play The Princess Bride BHS drama Society Spring play play was the classic tale The Princess Bride reimagined for the stage the play was originally scheduled for five shows from March 20th through 23rd at 22 tap and theater however due to popular demand and soldout shows a sixth show was added on March 24th and again here are a few shots of that performance upcoming parent Workshops the department of guidance and clinical Services has partnered with the Massachusetts partnership for youth to hold the following parent workshops this spring healthy balance and screen time um and so we don't have the dates in here we'll make sure that we include that when we publish this uh for the record Betsy data suggests that exposing youth to large amounts of screen time can have negative effects on physical and mental development the workshop provides tools and vocabulary needed for children and adolescen to make wise choices about balancing daily screen use while focusing more attention on exercise and nutrition the next uh parent workshop on the docket is social media's impact on Mental Health optimizing the connection Instagram Snapchat and Facebook among others not listed here because they continue to evolve faster than we can keep up fost culture of peer comparison and entice users to stay online longer than they intend tend to which can foster discouraging or negative feelings Snapchat locations and Instagram stories cause fear of missing out contributing to anxiety depression and loneliness in this Workshop teachers and parents will learn individual and group strategies to optimize students use of social media and I think this is the last slide base summer theater arts program Brookline uh adult and Community Education is organizing smart summer theater arts program and Theater Arts junr from July 8th through August 16th this program gives students an opportunity to engage in acting music art and dance and work together to create an original musical based on popular children stories and movies this summer our shows are based on the jungle book The Lion King and Madagascar there are two 3-week sessions from July 8th through August 16th for children ages 5 13 tuition assistance is available and with that that concludes our superintendent report for this evening any questions Mariah I have two questions and a comment um one question is we read recently somewhere that all 8 K8 schools are doing back of house composting like in the kitchen and then Hay's front of house composting is how I interpreted that presentation without the video well and then there's Dro that was so my question is how many schools how many K8 schools are doing front of house composting because we got an a message a month or two ago about this from mothers out front I'm just wondering if if we now know how many schools are are doing composting I I'll come back with that report I know Driscoll and Hayes definitely um because I've seen it in action over there Drisco I've definitely seen too and um I just don't know some of them were doing it had startups last year and then stopped and so there there fits and starts with it but we'll we'll get the exact number and come back to you if I may yeah I'm I'm pretty sure that Lincoln does because they came to us in the beginning when we started composting and they came and told us actually they weighed all the compost the kids it was all through a science class and they they that was pre-co though right yeah there were schools that were doing it before Co that stopped during Co so and I think part of the issue was they didn't they hadn't retransition back to doing I would be surprised if they hadn't I can't remember right now but I would be surprised we'll get yeah we'll get the number for you okay sorry it's Lincoln and Driscoll as well as uh BHS that are doing it out in front as well as back of the house and now heyes too okay I'll hold my other question and comment thanks all right so with that we will move on to public comment now we have 24 people signed up for public comments and we had initially allotted 15 minutes we're we're not going to curtail any of you you'll have your three minutes each of you but please stick to three minutes I do have a tendency to be rather laxed much to the frustration of my colleagues but today we're going to be diligent about really sticking to the three minutes from the beginning so first up we have McKenzie Shane yeah works you just have to kind of hold it right up near your mouth Perfect all right awesome okay hi I'm McKenzie Shane I am a fourth grade teacher at Driscoll school I am with my students here just as h a supporting voice for them last week we heard from our Mandarin teacher Mandarin is taught in the K5 uh level at Driscoll we heard that uh K5 World Language could possibly be cut and my students took it upon themselves to use their voice in the school to um reach out to their fellow students and make them aware and they wanted to come here tonight to also share with you why they feel that World Language should stay in Brooklyn schools so I'm going to hand it off to them my name is Hani my name is Talia my name is Ria my name is Masha we are in fourth grade Mandarin with child Lair at jiso school last week we learned that World Language might go away for all students in kindergarten to fifth grade next year and we don't want that to happen here are some reasons we think world language for kid of five students should stay in Brooklyn schools I feel that it is important to learn another language because it helps your brain grow inspires you to learn new things and experience your view of the world learning World languages is a great opportunity for kids to learn more about other countries their language and their culture it also offers a great moment for our world language teachers in the district to enjoy teaching and sharing their culture and language with us I'm proud to say that I already speak two languages and love learning mandin at Tris school there is data that shows that if you speak two languages you are less likely to have memory problems as you get older and you are probably a better multitasker learning a world language is also a lot of fun our teacher Salo sure doesn't just teach us how to speak Mandarin she teaches us how to write she shows us fun videos and songs we can sing and Mander we also love celebrating lud New Year at Drisco celebrating the Chinese and Asian culture and showing off our world language knowledge to her classmates and her family K through five World Language is something that makes Brooklyn schools unique there are not many school difference districts that offer k35 World Language and that is why it should stay in Brookline our city is so diverse and having k35 World Language helps celebrate that diversity we created a petition and spoke to students parents and residents of Brookline and asked them to sign our petition if they believed K through five World Language should be saved we were able to collect collect 542 signatures in one week thank you for listening and considering our thoughts and reasons we hope that we have inspired you to reconsider cutting K through five World Language from the Brooklyn school's budget sh which means thank you and goodbye and Mandarin right thank you Miss Shane and to your fourth grade students we uh we'll now go to Mr Matt Durant Miss Sandra secard Miss Jenny Murphy good evening everyone my name is Jenny Murphy I have been a teacher at the John D rle school for 17 years I'm joined today by two of my colleagues and many more sitting in the audience and we would like to take this time to clarify our role as educational technology Specialists etss as the school committee now knows based on letters that we have written many letters that our colleagues have written and conversations we've had with Jody Fortuna our position was inaccurately described at the last school committee meeting on March 15th and we would like to use this time to ensure that the community members of Brookline understand our incredibly vital role to the public schools of Brookline shaking um first and foremost we want to make sure that everyone here understands that we are teachers we spent over 80 of 80% of our time in classrooms integr ating technology into lessons and actively teaching students we all hold teaching licenses some with multiple teaching licenses in elementary education and even School administration we teach our students digital citizenship skills across all grades K through 8 we teach students how to care for devices how to understand personal and private information what a digital footprint is and how to make healthy media choices we teach students digital media literacy so that they can learn how information can be both a Force for good and a tool used to influence and manipulate as well as successfully balance their use of social media we teach our students research skills including how to ask powerful questions evaluate web web resources how to find information how to paraphrase so that they understand text and how to reflect and make sure their information is helping them answer their research questions this also includes how to ethically use AI we teach our students how to effectively communicate their learning to authentic audiences we work with students in all grades to create slides that visually present their ideas during a live presentation making a book in Book Creator developing powerful websites and creating videos these visual presentations provide our students with the framework and guidance to be great storytellers and presenters of information at BHS in college and Beyond we teach our students how to code and think logically students across all schools in Brookline experience coding and computer programming using many different tools such as scratch Microsoft make code probots and Spiro robots many of our students take their love of coding to college and into their professional lives and lastly students have shown that they learn best when they learn materials and have opportunities to apply knowledge through Project based learning we work with students to use their learning while integrating technology and Engineering skills in Steam projects and our maker spaces within this work students are able to share their Book Creator books their websites their videos through various artifacts throughout the curriculum thank you hi I'm Matt Durant I'm the ETS at Roland Hayes school etss is collaborate with with our fellow Educators to thoughtfully and effectively integrate 21st century skills uh well to for our students the support we offer through collaboration and through co- teing is one of the reasons why Brookline is such a special place to teach in and to be a student in we make sure that our students are safe and that their privacy is protected by collaborating with teachers to integrate digital literacy into the curriculum these include digital Wellness online saf safety positive social media habits and more now ETS has frequently learn from one another about digital literacy and and other Tech tools we then collaborate with the Educators back at our schools to improve our teaching and our students learning we improve our students learning of information Literacy By collaborate collaborating with our teachers to improve research skills through developing research questions evaluating resources paraphrasing texts and more new technologies are always evolving so we have to stay current for example Jenny mentioned that AI is exploding onto the scene etss are busy learning about a a AI so that we can bring that back when we collaborate with teachers to develop lessons for our students to ethically and effectively use the AI we improve our uh students communication skills when we collaborate with teachers to develop projects that have students share their learning to authentic audiences through multimedia slide decks ePub books websites and videos we share our expertise as ets's through professional development offering just in time PD for individual teachers or small groups of teachers and through summer workshops which improve teaching and student learning of communication skills and more we improve our students learning of coding and Engineering skills as we collaborate with Educators to integrate scratch spere robots micro bits and maker space projects etss spend a lot of time attending workshops and SE seminars to learn about coding skills and steam projects so that we can bring those ideas back to our collaboration and our work with students so etss support teachers as they try new teaching tools and techniques and by being a reliable partner the success of our ETS is rely heavily on our abil ability to develop strong trusting relationships and consistently be there to support our Educators as they integrate technology the districts uh said for literacy Specialists the distri the model of one to 200 students is an excellent uh uh model to have powerful collaboration and teaching the proposed cuts for ETS would bring us to a student ratio of one teacher to 1200 student students and ask us to cover seven sections per grade level across two schools this would stretch us too thin and not allow us to be effective partners for collaboration or co- teing this is why we ask you to fully fund our ETS positions thank you hi I'm Sandy sard I'm the educational technology specialist at peer school and I um want to tell you about the other 20% that um Matt and Jenny haven't told you about and that is supporting all of the technology to make sure that it works because if it doesn't work the teaching and learning can't work um we we know that a perception perception exists that some of our job responsibilities could be replaced by help desk Personnel they do a great job of supporting the hardware such as Chromebooks and laptops and managing the network but most of what we do is outside their expertise um in most of our grades at least some of the curriculum is online in middle schools most assignments are online to do this work students require a working Chromebook new students need a Chromebook from the day they begin especially in Middle School um with students enrolling most weeks at school we have to stay up toate preparing and providing Chromebooks and log in information to students sometimes students experience issues with Chromebooks such as broken screens keyboards that sap functioning or logins that are forgotten since we are on site we can address those issues on the same day and provide students with a laner CB Chromebook if theirs requires repairs we liaison with the help desk to have Chromebooks repaired and then we return those to the students we're able to do that by keeping a current supply of Chromebooks ready to go and assigning them as we need to students as we do this support as we help students as we support teachers we want to highlight that we help them and model how to problem solve so that they can build their skills and learn Independence when working with technology our district has at least 35 different digital tools we are familiar with all of them and support staff and students in their youth providing just in time professional development and Technical Support we also support administrators in this testing season that is upon us right now we support the administration and troubleshooting of tests such as mcast and access right many of my colleagues and I were texting and calling our vice principles last weekend to make sure that this week went well we also trained teachers to use the software and spend test days walking around the schools helping troubleshoot issues and making sure everything is running smoothly all right please conclude if you have another sentence or two okay all right we also provide systemic supports across the district including school-based websites and District based websites thank you for your time thank [Applause] you next up we have Miss Rebecca blow wolf who will be followed by Katie Mitchell and Kristen wheeler all right so we will go to Miss Katie Mitchell and Miss chrisen wheeler I'm Katie Mitchell A literacy specialist at Hayes school and I would like to discuss the impact of the proposed elimination of the district's remaining four literacy coaches let me start by first explaining the difference between the role of literacy coach and literacy specialist as they are often easily confused A literacy specialist like myself works with students who are reading below grade level in small cohorts called Intervention groups contrastingly literacy coaches are the literacy Personnel who are at risk of being eliminated with this budget cut each of brookline's current literacy coaches have received at least a Year's worth of professional development paid for by PSB from Leslie University about how to coach classroom teachers they work to co- te and co- with teachers about best practices around literacy instruction they are in multiple classrooms a day providing strong mentorships to new teachers and Veterans alike last year the district caught half of the coaching staff resulting in four remaining coaches to be split amongst the eight schools I would like to remind everyone that Brookline has committed to two very important literacy initiatives within the next year a universal grades 4 to8 literacy screener and most notably A literacy curriculum for grades K to 8 adopting a new new curriculum is a multi-year Endeavor which requires ongoing professional development and support in order to have a successful roll out of these important initiatives PSB needs to retain its coaching staff it is counterintuitive and short-sighted to select a new curriculum in the same year that we eliminate the entire literacy coaching team it was suggested last week at the school committee meeting and reiterated by upper admin at a recent liter specialist meeting that if coaches are cut this critical professional development for classroom teachers will be provided by the literacy Specialists like myself Specialists are teachers with a wealth of literacy knowledge but unlike the coaches we have not received the extensive training that coaches have and cannot possibly be adequately trained in time for the start of this initiative additionally and most importantly if coaches are cut it has been made clear that Specialists will be asked to take time away from our intervention students our students who are below grade level and instead designate an unknown portion of our day to support teachers with new curriculum I would like to point out that across the district there is a wait list of students students who are below Benchmark who are currently waiting to work with a literacy specialist taking away more time in our schedule away from students in order to absorb the loss of literacy coaches will without a doubt cause more students to just do without the critical reading intervention that they need do not cut literacy coaches doing so will unfairly Short Change both teachers and students of Brooklyn Public Schools hi everybody I'm Kristen wheeler and um I'm A literacy coach at the hay school so um I work with Katie and so I started at Hayes in 2001 as a literacy specialist about 15 years into my career as doing that role which was a job that I absolutely loved I was asked to consider taking a new role as a literacy coach intrigued by the idea I said yes um and along with a number of my colleagues I went to Leslie for training which the town paid for I I don't actually know how many of us were trained but I think it was around five or six um so I want to say that again the town paid for us to go to Leslie to get trained to become coaches so I've held this job since 2017 and I've absolutely loved it so one of the main things that coaches are trained for is to provide professional development that's not all we do though we also co- te with teachers and classrooms we analyze literacy data which we have tons of now which is awesome thanks to some new assessments we help teachers plan for instru instruction and despite what you may have heard we have always been student facing so we were told this week as Katie just said that a new literacy curriculum is going to be rolled out in the next few years so we were also told that coaches are slated to be cut and that literacy Specialists are going to be tasked with training and supporting teachers implementing the new curriculum this just doesn't make sense um so I've worked in both roles I know that literacy Specialists provide intervention and literacy coaches do professional development and all those other things that I just talked about supporting teachers supporting students so why then would the coaches be cut I think this is really ill-considered and shortsighted why not use us in the capacity that we were trained for and again that the town has already paid for our training um I can't say this strongly enough anytime A literacy specialist is teaching a teacher how to teach a new curriculum that is time that they are not teaching a child to learn how to read our schools are full of kids who struggle with reading despite Superior instruction despite Superior materials which you have which we have a lot of so in this poorly imagined future that's being cooked up the biggest losers are going to be the students who need literacy intervention um I'm just about out of time I had a whole bunch of quotes that I got from people who've worked with coaches um which I am not going to have time to read I am going to finish with I made that composting video and I had no idea it was going out to the whole town and I'm a little bit embarrassed now I hold back and also just to say one more thing we had grant money that I used to make that I did not make that during the school day [Applause] all right thank you Miss Mitchell Miss wheeler now we will go to Rebecca blow wolf thank you um I am here I was first of just very appreciative of your volunteerism and you might recognize me I have come to speak on behalf of word language in the past and I wrote you a letter earlier this week I voted for the K5 World language program when I was pregnant with my oldest child back in 2008 and then again in the 2015 override and I'm asking you to stand by voters like me who really want to see a commitment to this program I'm the parent of a current dris scho student who is learning Spanish and a BHS sophomore who is taking Chinese and French and they both study Chinese K5 at Drisco we speak non-native French at home and we're just super duper into languages so you might wonder for a bilingual family how much value is there in a K5 World language program and I just want to say there is a lot um my husband and I see incredible benefits from our children having been exposed to different worldviews a different calendar bringing Chinese New Year celebration into our community and incredible empathy for kids who are arriving at Driscoll from all over the world without English um kids who are coming from places like Korea China and the Ukraine I think my children have a very different perspective on that as kids who've learned a language um from the very beginning and they have been ready for much deeper language learning when they arrived in Middle School my 10th grader just registered for AP Chinese next year which would be inconceivable had he not begun at the very beginning that was not a language we could contribute to in any way in our home um and so really only when we start language learning in kindergarten do we ensure that every student has this opportunity and I think in a family like ours that opportunity was going to be there no matter what but that is not the case for all children in Brookline and if we want that to be available to everyone then it has to come through the schools when I served as national language teacher of the year in 2020 I got to see what language programs look like across this country and most americ can study a second language for just two years and have no functional communicative capacity what you hear said again and again is I took four years of French in high school and can't speak a word and so Americans are way way behind when it comes to multilingualism we seem to have this idea that our brains can't do it that it's too much of a cognitive load on young children and then we also seem to struggle with how can this possibly be fit into a school day elementary schools are expected to to do so many things for our Learners um but I really feel that we are so lucky to have this program in our town I'm a middle school French teacher in another District we lost our elementary program for over a decade in an override and it was a ton of work and such a loss to try to get it back over all those years now my students come in and they've had six years of Elementary Spanish which is not the same language as French but they are completely different Learners when they walk into my room they are open they are ready to communicate they are not at all put off by the fact that I'm speaking to them entirely in French and so when I look at nearby districts like Newton and Welsley and see them understanding this I want to know why should brookly kids get less why can't we make this happen here I would love your support for the program thank you Miss play wolf next we have Miss shenendoa Pon Miss Isabella deor Miss Colleen Bole and Mr Mark goldner they will be followed by Sonia Peterson Mark is out with covid actually so he we he seated our his time to us um so Mark if you're watching hope you feel better um so hello again um frequent flyer here um seems like maybe the last time uh but if you don't know Shannon DOA pound 11year unle Spanish teacher um you've all heard me talk many many times about the strengths and challenges of our program some of you I shout out to Sarah and Stephen for also hearing lots of other conversations about the value of the program and showing so much support for it um recently um you've heard us speak about what I believe the program that we have has the potential to become um I hope to explore these with our world language task force but sadly that kind of just hasn't happened um and the truth is that we we can and in many ways already are succeeding we just need some support Mr prman if I'm not mistaken you actually observed me teach on Zoom during the pandemic um second grade class and we're actually so impressed by what you saw the kids doing in second grade that you came back to Advocate to keep K through2 so I really thought that Brookline honestly I this is for real I thought we had a chance to bump Glastonberry off their Hill as the shining example of the Nationwide non imion Elementary program that we always are hearing about I thought that could be us I really did um and I'm appalled that District leaders have not only refused to support us but have gone as far as to make claims about the value of our program based on misleading data points and guesses about how to best use hours in the school day but that's actually not what I'm going to talk about tonight this year as a result of the district's refusal to post the needed position at my school in a timely manner I was bumped up to teach fifth and sixth grade for the first time after 10 years with our youngest Learners I have to say as sad as I was to lose K2 it's been amazing working with older older students who are really getting somewhere with the language they're no longer novice Learners repeating back simple phrases I've taught them they're really starting to create and express their own unique ideas in Spanish which is awesome to see um it has been rewarding and anyone who says that the K5 program is ineffective probably hasn't taken the time to compare what our sixth grade or our eighth grade or our 12th grade is doing compared to what students in other districts without that K5 boost are doing uh but that's actually not the most rewarding part of the job as great as that has been this year like most years I have a number of new students from Spanish speaking countries RL is the school where students anywhere in the district can come to rle if they speak Spanish at home school is challenging for these students especially in that first year it's it's hard enough to be the new kid in the best of cases and even harder when there's also a language barrier now you may be wondering why am I talking about kids who already speak Spanish they don't need me to teach them uh but if that's what you're thinking you are missing the point language is about connecting with other people learning a second language or third or fourth is about breaking down barriers that divide us and building connections with those who have come from different backgrounds it's about building a shared community that is strong not in spite of differences but because of them so the best part of my job isn't seeing the progress my sixth graders have made it's seeing my third graders try their best to welcome and support a new classmate with the Spanish that they have it's seeing that student say oh gracias when she's muttering up out loud to herself about the color she needs while digging through the marker bin and a kid comes up and helps her it is seeing the smile on her face and the connection that they made and knowing that this student can start to feel welcome and at home thousands of miles away from the world that she's known that is the real point of the program this is why the world language review found that our program while popular with families in general is even more popular with parents of students who speak the language at home because they get it that it's not just about improving the language skills it's about values it's about embracing diversity it's no coincidence that our small Department of about 20 people has members that hail from eight different countries on four different continents the most diverse in the entire District uh it's about saying uh the world doesn't always revolve around English and you can learn a little more about someone else's perspective and if you already have a background in another language that's awesome that should be celebrated that's not something to hide away or feel like you need to keep private from your friends even if it's not the language we teach um so it's about building community and considering perspectives it's about making School a place of joy and not just test prep that is the real value of our program and that is what you are planning to cut sadly I think some people in town never even tried to understand that and I hope that if they're listening tonight it stays with [Applause] them hello everyone uh good evening um my name is Isabella delori I'm Spanish uh teacher at F frr fourth fifth and sixth graders this year and uh there are two main points that I want to discuss tonight the review and what's being said about it and how the world language program will be treated moving forward I'll start with the review uh I find it really interesting that the only point that has been consistently and repeatedly uh mentioned about the entire review is what is listed in one paragraph on page 32 uh which is a section that actually talks about the SE of biliteracy and that point the the point of this action is actually to say that Brook line is actually preparing students well to be able to obtain the C literacy at the end of high school yet uh the the data from that paragraph is being used to actually pretend as if the paragraph Was Written uh about the effectiveness of the program um this the sorry I lost myself in here um this is being this is being taken out of context and it's presented as if it was a study of the effect iess of the world language program comparing the nonk through 5 with the Spanish and the French I just want to be clear I understand that the review would look at the effectiveness of a program and I would be surprised if it did not what I do question is how this data is is being presented or not presented because it's interesting that there's no appendex with the data for us to really look at it uh and and how it is being interpreted um do we really understand what an intermediate level of language proficiency means do we have any idea how long it takes typically for a student to go from the intermediate level to the advanced level I actually brought here this is a poster that we have in our classroom and it's the path to proficiency and it shows what um and it shows the path so here student starts novice low novice mid and novice high and this is the intermediate path so we have intermediate low intermediate mid intermediate High until they get to advance and uh I I just wonder uh do we do we just see how how long this level is and and um what um and and do you understand when we are saying that students are reaching the intermediate level what do we really mean are we saying that they are all here in the intermediate low are we saying that they are here it's a very long it's it's probably one of the longest paths in the language language acquisition process and to say that students are reaching the intermediate level is really not a lot of information unless you are talking in detail about it so uh I also want to remind you that when um when uh sorry I want I want to remind you and I want to make the berline community aware that the results of the world language review were presented to the subcommittee without anyone from the World Language Department present to ask any clarifying questions to offer any context um so now this uh I find that really interesting not even the World Language coordinator was in that meeting uh and now this one pie of information about the review is being used to justify the decisions to eliminate the k35 oral language and that is just wrong uh if there are budget issues and moral language is on The Chopping Block then just let's just say that if we are going to discuss the effective enough the program to justify these Cuts then please let's discuss the results more thoroughly without having proper discussions and Analysis I find it extremely disingenous and deceiving to the public when you say that you are killing the program because of its non-effectiveness um which brings me to my second Point uh in the world language uh in the school committee meeting that was a point being made that uh a program that it's not worth having a program in the lower grades if we can't do it well well with all the respect I feel like um you have chosen to not do it well right now we have a program where a large number of teachers um it we we have a large number of new teachers and it's simply because the the work that the workload that they have the positions that were offered was just unsustainable we have been unable to maintain to retain talent in our program so uh will the Middle School teachers have a workload that is fair and compatible to other Middle School academics or will the world language teachers in schools like mine F frr will they still prep for 13 different lessons every single week when the other Middle School teachers are prepping for four are we going to be able to maintain talent that way so if we are going to say that we can't have K through five because we don't do it well then let's just do it well let's just do it well because honestly so I know that my speech is four and a half minutes and I'm gonna read the whole thing my name is colen Bole I a current resident of Brooklyn a graduate of Pierce and Brooklyn high school and most importantly a Spanish teacher at rle currently in my 17th year so yes I've been here since before the K through6 Elementary World language program started and I am one of the few that remains in the department that literally built this program from zero once the override passed in 2008 the incredibly High turnover in our department has never been due to the ineffectiveness of the program but rather as a direct result of the poor treatment of our department of the poor treatment our department has faced over all of these years before instruction started in January of 2009 a group of us sat in a windowless room in the SEC for hours writing curriculum each day I would spend my morning writing curriculum and then go to rle for the afternoon to teach my middle school classes over the years my main teach Jal has been in sixth seventh and eighth grades however I've also taught fifth grade for a number of years and one year I was even given second grade in addition to my middle school classes because apparently my schedule wasn't full enough so why not give me a random gr grade level right the principls in central Administration making these decisions are not keeping what's best for students in mind at all their focus on what is easiest and most convenient for them in terms of scheduling and budgeting instead of working with us while which we as World language teachers have tried to do numerous times the district is proposing to cut the program because it's just too difficult to manage what a sad excuse for leadership that is making decisions that deeply impact all students in Brooklyn I guarantee that this is not what's best for students families nor teachers only Administration is benefiting from this cut allowing them to remain inefficient at scheduling and giving individual principles the power to decide what 1.0 FTE looks like within each building and for each teacher individually you as school committee members have to put a stop to this I've spoken to a few of you and I appreciate your willingness to hear and understand the reality of the situation from us the people who live this every day this K5 cut will further exacerbate the over scheduling problems for World language teachers which is at the root of our retention issues as you all know only now the overburdening is moving up the chain to Middle School teachers since there won't be Elementary Spanish and Chinese Teachers to take advantage of anymore once they eliminate the program the office of teaching and learning and the building principles have proposed a cut that is an attt to literally balance the budget on my back personally some of the savings that OTL presented in the budget are misleading for example I've been a 1.0 teaching five classes across six seven and eight uh six seventh and eighth grade for the vast majority of my 17 years at rankl and next year with this cut I will be forced to take on an additional section in sixth grade essentially absorbing a02 while remaining a 1.0 FTE how is that even possible meanwhile the rest of my sixth through eight team rle at rle teaches four or five classes and only two grade levels to be a 1.0 this change will exclude me from our weekly team meetings and special education consult so that my contractual one prep per day is met even though I will be teaching the majority of students in sixth seventh and eighth grade this change will also prohibit me from having a win or advisory which is really a time that I am able to connect with students in English for once and with those students who don't take Spanish at all if individual schools are willing to award a point2 FTE to some teachers for running a win Andor advisory two to three times a week then it is absurd to count a sixth grade Spanish Chinese or French class as point1 the abuse and exploitation of world language teachers needs to stop and you all have the power to do that beyond the budget conversation it is imperative that you meet with the beu to finally Define what 1.0 FTE looks like within each and across all buildings the inequity is outrageous and has gone on for far too long I appalled and Beyond disappointed that the principles in the office of teaching and learning have decided that World Language isn't worth their time even though the community has supported it time and time again you school committee members who are elected by the same community that has voted to raise taxes multiple times in order to keep our program active must step up and help the community's voices and wishes be heard I'm not even asking you to delay the vote anymore this budget proposal should be flat out rejected this proposal is absolutely not in the best interest of our students it is the anti antithesis of a student- centered and wellth out Plan central Administration paid more than one teacher salary for the world language review last spring and the subse subsequent professional development we were going through this year then suddenly decided to cut the program without even allowing us one year to begin to implement any single recommendation from that very costly review that shows poor leadership decisions and a gross mismanagement of money it's not a surprise we're in a deficit year after year you members of the school committee cannot accept this budget proposal as it stands without hearing from those of us that do understand the impacts and are willing to work on Creative problem solving without decimating an entire program that once again the community supports you are our only hope this cut is going to cause far more detriment to the students of public schools of Brooklyn than it is worth in monetary value you cannot in good faith vote for this B budget proposal to move forward knowing that our community voted three times to fund our program because they want it to succeed I urge you to push back on Dr gillery Dr Fortuna and the building principles to explore other options that do not cut core parts of the vision and fabric of the Brooklyn schools thank you right next we have Miss Sonia Peterson who will be followed by Louisa janess all right we will move to miss Louisa janess will be followed by Lauren finane some of you may have understood what I just said for those of you who didn't I simply said hello my name is Louisa janess I grew up in brookln and I graduated from Brooklyn High School in 2011 the reason that I am able to speak Mandarin as well as I am is because I was fortunate enough to have started learning when I was in first grade I continued learning throughout high school and took the Chinese AP exam in college I continued my studies and was able to pass the hu shaping cure level five this is the highest level of proficiency exam recognized by the Chinese government learning Chinese sparked my love of languages towards the end of high school I started teaching myself Arabic I was fortunate enough to be able to take four years of Arabic in college as well however I noticed a marked difference in my Arabic and Chinese abilities there are several phonemes in Arabic that I'm simply not able to pronounce correctly because I didn't start learning early enough in contrast when I speak Chinese I'm able to speak with minimal accent and a fluency that comes as a surprise to many native speakers this ability has benefited me in numerous ways I have been able to give uh tourists directions when I overheard them trying to figure out how to navigate the tea I work part-time at the Aquatic Center front desk and on numerous occasions I have needed to explain pool hours closures or swim lesson information to members of our own Community who only speak Chinese and perhaps one of the greatest benefits is that my language skills are almost always brought up at job interviews I have even been told by potential employers that they wanted to interview me because of the language background on my resume even when it was not the focus of the job that I was applying for before I go over my time I want to share one of my favorite jokes what do you call someone who speaks three languages trilingual what do you call someone who speaks two languages bilingual what do you call someone who can only speak one language American please do not turn Brooklyn schools into run-ofthe-mill American schools by eliminating K5 foreign languages thank you CA [Applause] W thank you miss janess our next speaker is Miss Lauren finnean hi I'm Lauren fukin I'm a Brookline resident a mom of Lawrence kids and a teacher at Lawrence um first I'd like to thank the school committee and the superintendent for your tireless work in making the Brookline School special uh Mariah just told me that most of you are bilingual at least um and so I don't have to herang you about the benefits of bilingualism you've experienced them firsthand already so instead I'd like to talk about how final this decision would be if you cut this program it will be all but impossible to build back you see the passion of these amazing amazing Lang anguage teachers they're going to be scooped up by another district and 15 years of hard work and taxpayer money will be flushed down the toilet a temporary budget fix is preferable to a permanent decision that runs counter to the will of the Brookline Community here tonight and I am here for the World Language department but that is so true for the ETS specialist for the literacy coaches um we can figure something out now and do another over ride it's worth it to not ruin this voters have passed multiple overrides in support of our world language program including one last year we the Brookline voters know that language learning aptitude is highest for young children and we want our kids to have high quality language instructions while their brains are primed for language acquisition there are some parents who have lost their faith in our program um just last week I heard a mom M menting how little her kids can say after years of Elementary Spanish class and I hear that frustration but I've been in the world language classes I was a Spanish teacher and and left when my position kept getting changed um and I've walked into many of these classrooms and seen just complete immersion environments with every single kid engaged so to the the Brookline people who are worried about a program that um where their kids are not speaking after in second grade they want them to understand that when you're in that class they're they're actively engaged their brains are processing Spanish they are developing a complex implicit language system that's going to benefit them forever um in language acquisition comprehension comes before expression and being being able to speak isn't the first goal communication comes down that road that Isabelle wherever she went showed us on her beautiful poster um there are problems with our program but they're not irreconcilable and this program can be even better than what it is now which is already amazing I understand that the funding isn't Limitless and that Financial sustainability is a major issue but eliminating this program would be an irreversible decision I deeply believe that a short-term budget fix is better than a permanent decision that goes against the will of the voters thank you for considering it thank you Miss finin next we have Miss Christina Toby who will be followed by Justin Brown hello is this can you hear me okay okay um I don't think I'm G to speak for three minutes so I'm gonna can I give them like see it a minute to um Ellie sure okay so um good evening and like thank you for being here my name is Christina Toby I'm never spoken at a school committee meeting but um I'm here to implore you implore you and to say no cuts and yes to a fully funded School school system my focus tonight is going to be on fully funding the K to8 World language program and I stand before you as a Brookline high school Spanish teacher currently in my 20th year and also as a parent of three students enrolled in the public schools of Brookline all of whom have benefited from the Kate a program getting a little emotional just yesterday my fourth grader told me she was talking to a group of friends on the playground and they said if the K8 World language program were cut they would form a secret group to take Spanish lessons like in Harry Potter and she hoped and which is funny and really like upsetting at the same time it's like adorable and upsetting so she hoped I would teach to maybe my mom can teach us so and and I want to reiterate a secret group to take Spanish classes in elementary schools in Brookline it seems absurd so we're laughing at it um but it's true so they were real they was real um I've never oh I said I've never spoken here so I knew I couldn't look my children in the eye unless I stood up and spoke out in favor of keeping a program that they value that I value and the vot have time and again demonstrated matters to them when they voted to keep the program as a teacher I've seen the benefits of the program for many years some of our nth grade classes have written and Illustrated fairy tale stories and we've always thought it would be great to have an authentic audience for sharing their work for the past three years we have walked to pierce to read stories to second third and fourth grade classes is always a highlight for both the high schoolers and elementary students certainly students don't understand all of what the nth graders read to them with their exposure to Spanish from their classes they can recognize words and are able to see the level of proficiency they can attain by 9th grade what would this look like if the elementary students had never been exposed to Spanish what a missed opportunity there's certainly room for improvement in the K to8 program and our district hasn't give given the program the opportunity to make the changes it needs to to thrive every time students come and say like I don't know a ton of Spanish it's when they've told me they've had five different teachers and the because the teachers aren't staying because they're not given the support that they need don't we value a growth mindset if my students are struggling I don't just say give up I work with them to make improvements and I give them the tools they need to become the best they can be why has the district given up on the K to8 World language program why do we need to constantly defend all the programs and staff positions we know make the public schools of Brooklyn what they are when we know the district has the money to fully fund the programs so I implore you to vote to fully fund the public schools of Brook line thank [Applause] you all right next we have Mr Justin Brown who will be followed by Allison Kerr uh good evening members of the Brookline school committee Dr gillery uh beu members uh and community members here and online uh my name is Justin Brown and as president of the beu and a veteran fourth grade teacher I rise tonight to say no to cuts and yes to a fully funded schol school system as a fourth grade teacher for 17 years at Lawrence I've worked closely with Educators from the three groups whose positions on The Chopping Block Spanish teacher Zoe Kar ETS Christian Alper and literacy coach Diane lundle um all of these positions proposed to be cut of course are also relationships ones that will leave students in Brookline with a diminished experience and the schools of Brookline with a demoralized Workforce now as Union president I'm seeing this from A New Perspective and what I'm learning is deeply unsettling instead of fully funding Public Services brookln Town leaders seem to instead consistently be underestimating local receipts and using the extra funds to maintain Reserve funds at levels higher than needed why to maintain AAA Bond ratings and it seems because Moody's and by extension Wall Street is telling them to for my part I've reached out to the president uh presidents of educator unions in all 14 municipalities across the Commonwealth who maintain AAA Bond ratings including Hingham Welsley Weston conquered Cambridge Newton and Lexington these are the richest towns in one of the richest regions in the richest country and these unions are seeing the same story with startling consistency consistency underestimations excess going to free cash message of absolutely hands off and being here every spring again and again facing layoffs balanced budgets on the backs of Educators in addition I want to highlight how underserved school districts across the Commonwealth have been by the limit to chapter 7 funding doing due to the 4.5% um inflation cap one that is wellfully out of line with recent inflation rates the result is entirely inadequate State funds flowing to school districts this is the result of a technicality going back about 10 years that locked in that cap there is a simple fix the legislature could update language in the new law that would still include the 4.5% cap but would allow the Under and Over inflation rates to be used in subsequent years so that local Aid could always catch up to match real inflation rates a press release uh sorry a joint statement about this was issued today by the MTA AF mass mass and mask organizations representing Massachusetts Public School Educators superintendents and school committees what does this mean for right now for our schools for the next year it means that Reserve funds used to fill budget shortfalls could be backf backfilled by gains from next year this is a question for the body and I hope one you'll consider tonight if this change comes through will you use those savings to restore the cuts thank you thanks Christina for the extra 40 seconds and thank you for Mr pman for agreeing to that um so thank you everybody for the opportunity to speak this this evening my name is Allison Kerr and I'm in my sixth year as a French teacher in Brookline I transitioned to BHS this year after five years in the K8 schools leaving unfortunately for some of the reasons that my colleagues have mentioned of my schedule being stretched adding classes additional FTE far beyond a 1.0 it was unsustainable and I'm at the high school and I feel supported and it's much better um I'm here to respectfully ask you to do everything in your power to preserve the K to 5 World language program to the greatest extent possible as well as edtech Specialists literacy coaches and school secretaries these roles directly influence the day-to-day functions of our school I've worked with Jenny and Matt creating opportunities for students to use technology to meaningfully engage with students their age in France and with Kristen and Rachel designing um the reading based uh uh social tional program of the peer empowerment program at Hay School that Dr gillery awarded a spotlight on Excellence last year all of these roles are essential for our schools last school committee meeting Dr funa recommended cutting the entire K to5 World language program six years of language instruction with Rial effects all the way through high school and limiting how many students reach the Seal of biliteracy the district hopes to implement I need to push back on statements that somehow offering after school programming or summering programming to for students to learn language would somehow make up for these Cuts so many students would not access that programming exacerbating inequities of access and outcomes of who can achieve that seal please don't limit Elementary World language education to those with the means of accessing it I find it deeply disheartening that our district leaders have taken the Viewpoint that removing K to5 World Language instruction is somehow in students best interest rather than consider ways that literacy social studies and World Language can support one another's goals it's been framed as an either or or zero some game viewing Elementary World Language as distracting rather than an asset is precisely the attitude we hope to change by uplifting the importance of linguistic diversity and multilingualism it is an asset to Learners not a distraction when we reference the review uh completed by Thomas sour I'm disappointed to see that we've been ignoring many of the assets of the program and focusing instead on findings that taken out of context could justify cut some of them have been mentioned already one example of information taken out of context is compar comping students proficiency after 6 to8 French which I've taught which is intermediate low with that of students at the end of K to8 Spanish of intermediate mid without the Nuance of what those different subl levels mean they are distinct and different um and it takes a lot of time to move between the sub levels of intermediate please don't underestimate that we're also not considering that students in K to 5 have different minutes of instruction per year than in middle school or understanding that the students entering sixth grade French as Rebecca blue wolf mentioned have a springboard of K to five that really should not be underestimated there's a wealth of cognates and also an availability to language an excitement for learning a resourcefulness cognates between the two languages and familiarity with how a language class operates what their tools are for being a language detective all of that they show up in my classroom or they showed up in my classroom in sixth grade having and that really supports where they end up by the end of 6 to8 French while it's great to celebrate the accomplishments of six to8 French we would be remiss to under estimate K to 5 um rather than refine the program and make it sustainable using Mr Sour's recommendations the district proposes losing all of the prog progress this program has made since its creation years of curriculum development professional development and recently tens of thousands of dollars this year that Thomas sour and pearl have been paid to work with Educators to implement his recommendations without providing a single year for those to be implemented um extra 4 okay uh the district and the district's uh values of difference and Equity are tied with the k to5 program World language education is essential in a largely English dominant Society precisely because it has the potential to change challenge the biases and Prejudice implicit in such a society as our brave student speaker shared earlier in teaching World Language we're not only introducing students to new vocabulary and structures we're also exposing them to the rich diversity of cultures language languages and dialects that exist in our world it has the Imp the potential to improve our nation's Intercultural proficiency Inspire empathy for non-native English speakers must navigate our largely monolingual English doin in dominant Society that's all I have to say thank you please consider keeping K thank you Miss Kerr next we have Miss Jill Coleman who will be followed by Amanda kretchmar hi I have a very brief statement I'm hoping that I can uh seed some of my time to my uh friend Ted um so I'm Jill Coleman and our family has lived um here in Brooklyn since the spring of 1994 our daughter and son are proud graduates of Pierce and they both graduated from um BHS in 2010 we moved across the pond Jamaica pond because we wanted our children to attend Brooklyn School we rented we borrowed some cash we are lucky enough to buy a condo we are horrified to learn that our elected leaders are considering laying off 20 Educators a town and a school budget is the material evidence of what our elected leaders and our Community Values deciding to put more money into some Reserve funds and instead eliminate the programs that the Educators have been talking about and to lay off Educators is stunning disappointing and it's unacceptable students in our community have one chance for their public education and every single one of them deserves a fully funded fully staffed public public school one chance you are our elected leaders and In This Moment our community needs you we need you to Advocate on behalf of our students and our Educators we have the money no cuts to programs no cuts to staff our students are watching our community is watching please please do the right thing thank you and U I'm Ted Lewis and my kids have benefited from the world language program and what is particularly heartbreaking here and I made the illusion last week I think I used the phrase manufactured crisis this entirely is a manufactured crisis you've heard several other people allude to uh to a choice between putting money into Reserve funds or funding the world language program that really is the choice the stabilization fund is going to increase by $2 million next year that's already in the budget we have predicted uh $33 million Revenue next year um from local receipts last year last year it was $43 million we are not going to experience a $10 million uh reduction in local receipts the dollars are going to be there and they can be used so my ask of you is to tell the town the dollars are there instead of bolstering Reserve funds that are already going to be bolstered fund the programs that the dollars are supposed to go to fund thank [Applause] you all right next we have Miss Amanda kretchmar and uh Sonia Peterson if you've arrived we can go to you afterwards hi my name is Amanda ketmar and I Rise this evening to say no to cuts and yes to a fully funded school system I've been a public school teacher for 24 years the last 14 of which I've been the peer School librarian I have never spoken at a school committee meeting before even when it was my position that was being threatened to be cut twice but I'm here tonight to implore you to see the big picture and the longlasting effects of the decisions you make 14 years ago I was so proud to call myself a Brooklyn educator after spending my first 10 years in the public schools of Miami Dade County and West Palm Beach Florida I felt like I won the lottery coming back to the town where I did my student teaching I used to brag to my old colleagues that this is how American public schools should be run Brooklyn is doing it right I was treated like a professional and worked with the most amazing and dedicated colleagues we loved our jobs Brooklyn was a town that took pride in its public schools that respected and trusted and valued its teachers what has happened it only took 14 years to make our incredible school system feel more like the awful Florida systems I came from fewer teachers and staff in the schools more in central admin offices money wasted on scripted curriculum a constant threat of our jobs being cut and a general lack of trust and respect for teachers you should never announce which departments matter less and you should never pick departments against each other it's just a terrible way to run a school system it's a waste of our time and energy to have to write letters and come to these meetings and explain to the powers that be why our jobs matter beg you not to cut us it's also hard to believe we're truly in another budget crisis when money is continuously being spent why are we hiring Consultants to tell us exactly what we already know why are we purchasing materials that are not needed or wanted if this is true why on Earth are we hiring HR Specialists for Teacher retention I'll tell you right now there is no teacher retention when teachers feel unsupported undervalued unsafe and miserable and Brooklyn you are looking more and more like the Florida schools I came from every day we are a global society that values World languages and yet you have consistently underfunded and mismanaged this program since its initiation even after the people in this town voted to support it you're threatening to cut literacy coaches entirely after making their jobs impossible when you cut them in half last year those positions and you are shooting yourself in the foot by eliminating any of our education technology specialists at a time when we as a district are completely dependent on technology and have no idea where the future of AI will take us let alone the importance of digital literacy Internet safety and critical thinking we need these Specialists more now than ever all of them and because classroom teachers cannot do it all on their own we need our colleagues in these support roles we need less people telling us how to do our jobs and more people in the schools actually doing the work of teaching I implore you beg you to please rethink these budget cuts be the leaders we need you to be and advocate for what is right please make us proud of the Brooklyn Public Schools again thank you you miss kretchmar do we have Miss Sonia Peterson here all right that case we will move on to our public commenters on zoom and first we have Mr Seth finlin do you have a question I'm not sure what you're asking no I was wondering is it my turn if somebody wants to seed some time but we do have rules about registering are you talking did that person okay let's go to Mr finlon go ahead I'm sorry I'm sorry can you hear me we can yes perfect thank you um uh hi my name is H Seth finklin I um first want to thank the the committee and the superintendent for all the time they put into these meetings um and hearing everyone's uh concerns um my uh family has lived in Brookline for 20 years I have a three daughters one graduated from Brooklyn High School uh one as a junior and one as a fourth grader at Roland Hayes and I would just like to speak in favor of retaining the k25 world language program um but first I do want to take you back to New Jersey in the mid 1980s and while we did have excellent pizza and for Springsteen we didn't have a 2 five language program um and as a student in the public school system my first foreign language exposure was Spanish with senior aino in eth grade and by the time I got to high school my Spanish was so poor that senior zappi would jokingly cover his ears uh whenever I spoke and I contrast this with my three daughters all who have benefited from this wonderful and unique program here in Brookline by um two older girls speak Spanish beautifully um and my fourth grader can actually put together small Spanish sentences it really is remarkable and um obviously like everyone here I've seen studies that back up this anecdotal evidence that starting language is early has a profound impact on learning uh and learning a new language and um the other point I just like to to raise is that it just seems especially important in a world that's becoming um increasingly insular uh and less Global to give our kids more exposure to other places and cultures not less um the k25 language program is one of the many things that has made Brookline Public School such a wonderful place and it's something that we should strive to protect uh thank thank you very much for your time I really appreciate it thank you Mr finlin next we have Miss Don fly hello can you hear hear me yes go ah ahead all right hi hi my name is Don fly and I have an upcoming kindergartener entering into the uh uh Brookline School System this fall one of the things that I was most excited about was the fact that You' be learning a language early uh because coming from a dual language household not the they the languages that are spoken I I recognized how imperative it is for children to learn their to learn another language early um not only that but it helps open up their cultural recognition uh for uh other cultures and um uh this is something I've witnessed uh with my own children and then when I started a language as a child um and so I ask that you please don't push off uh starting a language until sixth grade that uh this is really a unique program and I really uh really want to see my children uh go into it thank you all right next we have Miss Caitlyn Robinson hi I'm Caitlyn Robinson a Spanish teacher at Lawrence School currently teaching grades 3 through six I want to express my concern about the rationale that was presented for the elimination of K through five World Language I was surprised to hear the deputy superintendent of teaching and Learning Link The Cutting of K through five World Language to the need for students to learn about the world and to learn to speak read and write we do all of this in k25 World Language picture books and stories set the context for all of my units in elementary school so much of what we do with literacy and with children's literature that is often a product of the target cultures just because it isn't in English or from a specific prescribed literacy curriculum it doesn't mean it is not literacy it doesn't mean it doesn't have value and World Language is multi-disciplinary for example students learn about the mon butterfly migration and life cyle in doing so they engage in mapping cack the monarchs over the course of their migration learn about the Monarch's habitat and exchange messages and symbolic butterflies with children who live near the Monarch sanctuaries in Mutan Mexico this is but one example of many links to social studies and Science and is an addition to all the ways that literacy is integrated into this unit but what I learned at the last school committee meeting was that literacy science and social studies instruction that happened in the world language class do not count eliminating 36 hours of World Language only yields the stated increase of 36 hours in literacy instruction when literacy that happens in world in the world language classroom is assigned the value of zero the same goes for the stated increase of 54 hours of science and social studies instruction it implies that any of this instruction that happens in World Language is worthless value that there this harmful messaging does not align with Brooklyn State of values and it cannot be taken in isolation from the broader political context in which we live where America first or America only rhetoric abounds and here I'm referring to a meaning of America that is much narrower than the meaning of Amer that my students learn about in Spanish I urge you to reject this proposal this messaging and this rationale for eliminating K through five World Language and to show not just say that you Value World language and learning that happens in languages other than English and that reflects different worldviews thank you next we have Miss Liz Gorman hi everyone can you hear me we can yes okay um sorry I'm from home I came down with a fever today but first I just want to thank you for your service to this town uh my name is Liz Gorman I speak to advocate for the preservation of the elementary World language program I am concerned sad and angry about the possible elimination of the K to5 program as a longtime Brookline resident and Brookline Public Schools parent I ask you to reflect back what we are telling you tonight we the taxpayers and your constituents in this town voted for an override in 2009 to create and sustain a k to5 World language program and in two subsequent overrides a clear vote to invest in it very few communities have K to2 World Language programs and this is one of the things that distinguishes our school system my friends with children and other communities Envy us and cutting this program would be a huge public loss for the public schools of Brooklyn I am also a Spanish teacher at Brooklyn High School in my 28th year of teaching which puts me in the unique position of remembering the program well before and after the addition of early Elementary World languages to our schools there are a host of benefits of learning World languages including cross-cultural understanding but tonight I am going to focus on our achievement outcomes I remember clearly the first five to six years after that override vote when the students from K to 8 started arriving in our classes each year with more language each year we revised and enriched and ultimately rewrote our entire curriculums to respond to the growing skills the students were bringing the impact of starting younger is significant what I can do with my Spanish for students is fundamentally different from my colleagues in other districts without Elementary programs please understand that to cut the entire K to 5 program would be devastating to our high school World language program and roll back almost a decade of work by our team imagine cutting K to 5 math and the impact it would have on a student's development of the skills this is an equity issue Dr Giller has expressed support for bringing the Seal of biliteracy to Brookline a prestigious National credential that would reward students with a Distinction on their diplomas for earning an intermediate high or Advanced low proficiency level we have always had some students who progressed quickly and who have been able to enrich that progress with travel abroad and immersion experiences however the majority of our students need the full K to2 experience to achieve these high levels of proficiency and we believe that all stud students deserve this opportunity without a k toi program those with the means to have outside experiences in learning a language would have a significant leg up in accessing that honor the school committee should reflect what they hear from the community we have been given almost no time to weigh in and yet you are hearing compelling compelling testimony in public comment and in the more than 50 Community LS letters that you have read please listen and examine every possible way to keep the program alive these are hard budget decisions even without new Revenue we absolutely can and should fund one to two years of the program every additional year matters difficulty scheduling is not a good enough reason to make this important this this hard this Choice the this community has always gone Against the Grain in valuing and celebrating multilingualism unlike much of the United States we are telling you as a community that we value this if you the school committee do not Value World Language please come out and say it this is what a yes Vote for This budget means tonight keep the door open once the program is gone it is gone thank you for listening next we have Darcy Fifer can you see me we see you and hear you okay great hi thank you all for everything that you do every single day I appreciate it um I'm here as a 26 year Brookline resident um taxpayer to BHS grads and a kid at Hayes I say no cuts and please fund our children full the recent decision by the town of Brook line to implement a $3 million budget cut from our school budget particularly concerning reduction in funding of our language education for our K to5 students and literacy coach reduction it's disheartening it's not okay guys it's not okay we need this critical education programs for our town for our kids for them to survive and thrive our continue our town continues to engage Eng in indepth conversations about projects like the reserve funds and an incredibly expensive new ice rank I just don't see how we can put an ice rank up when we're taking language away from our children education especially at the at the foundation levels play a critical and pivotal role in shaping the future of our children and our community by cutting funding for our language education World Language literacy coaches in our critical five dec of five years were risk depriving our children the invaluable opportunities for our culturally enrichment cognitive development the love of reading and Global competency as a community we prioritize the holistic development of our children which includes nurturing their linguistic abilities and cultural awareness from an early age what we understand the need for budgetary PR UD and the challenges of balancing the those priorities I know it's really tough but it's essential that we keep critical assets for longer term such cuts are going to ruin our children education is an investment in our Collective future short-term Bud budgetary considerations should not come to the expense of our children's academic and personal growth furthermore it's imperative that we Foster transparency accountability in these decision-mak processes we hope that you don't vote for this I urge Town officials to reconsider this decision and explore alternative solutions that preserve and enhance our language education for our K8 students I encourage our fellow residents to actively engage in discussions the importance of Education the collaboration on finding suitable solutions that prioritize the wellbe and future success of our children let us reaffirm our commitment to providing a comprehensive and Equitable education for all Brooklyn students ensuring that they have the tools and opportunities to thrive an increasingly interconnected and diverse world thank you for your attention to this critical issue to keep our children at the highest level of public education that are taxes pay for in this intensely competitive Community city nation and world thank you all right last call for Sonia Peterson all right Bob Miller thank you I appreciate it I know it's a long night and um I appreciate what you all do I've actually voted for all of the people on well except for Sarah who I will'll hope to vote for soon um I you know I'll try to be quick and I'm not going to repeat anything that's been said so or well I think I won't um you know I would encourage you on the World Language thing you know the the voters I I voted for it I've been paying for it uh you know in terms of the override um you know it seems like it would be something that the the community deserves a chance to vote on before it goes away way uh it's much easier to go away than to come back um and what I want to address is the um education the the ETS position um I I retired so Bob Miller I retired two years ago from teaching science at the heath school now the Hayes school and um I wanted to address the benefit I got from Matt Durant um there's nobody who had a greater impact on my teaching and on the education that the students I taught got than Matt um Not only was he there to give me instruction on use of Technology he brought projects that I used for years and years after he brought them to me he's somebody who was in all of the levels of the classes and all of the school all of the classrooms and brought me all sorts of information he I I thought of him like a bumblebee you know he was taking information and bringing it all around the school um so I you know I I I appreciate you let me speak I don't want to go on any longer but I you know I think that these positions that we're talking about are the difference between good schools and great schools and I really encourage you I know budgets are tough believe me I understand that but I would really encourage you to try to find a way to keep these really valuable jobs there is no um you know bringing them back will be unbelievably difficult if not impossible and um you know the the yeah so I'll leave it there thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak all right thank you to everyone who participated in public comment today that concludes public comment for this evening we will now move into presentations and discussions of current issues fy2 budget update Dr given uh good evening and um I believe the next item on the agenda is uh user fees and um building rental fees uh so the finance committee yes okay all right okay um so the finance committee met um and discussed the fees over two sessions um and has put before you um the fees as um currently being instituted this year for building rentals um as well as most of our fees with the exception of uh uh material fees which would be going up by 3% next year um and then of course we had to set the tuition rate for beep and the recommendation for that tuition for the upcoming school year is$ 15,500 so um I don't know if there's any questions we spent quite some time um walking through those but certainly happy to answer any questions people may have about the fees go ahead Mariah then Helen uh the only thing I would just add to that um summary is that the discussion of the beep fees um was based on the actual cost per student with a um very slight 3% contingency so the the actual cost was just over 15,000 and we put in a 3% contingency which brought us to uh 15,500 Helen yeah I I will support the the fees however I'd like to request that the finance committee since these are the youngest families with probably the tightest budgets um think very clearly for next year early on and maybe for the next few years if we can what the increases would be and to try and minimize them obviously as much as possible for those families so I'm going to support this we we have two or three hours more in the day for some students because we're going to full day it makes sense uh but I think we need to to do that so people can plan the only thing I I thank you for the support and I would just um add that last year the cost for this time for students who are participating was around 19,000 because they paid for the day and then extended day so it's actually a significant reduction in cost for families who are um who are who have been in those both the prior year and the upcoming year yeah so that's good news for that's a good news and then for those who were only have day it's more but yes I agree and in the future we will take up fees in the fall so they'll be a a longer runway for families to make any adjustments um uh to their budget so Dr given could you restate what you said about the fee structure you said most are going up by 3% no they're remaining the same as they are this year with the exception of material fees going up by 3% see and the establishment of the beep tuition for next year at $115,500 all so otherwise we left all the use the building user fees static from last year and all of the other fees are static yeah oh one other thing I want to highlight is in the past two years sorry Susan this was good thing to mention um we had voted uh additional um waivers on food for students who are on free and reduced lunch um partway through the year and we did that again last year and this year we're getting ahead of it and doing it at the same time so um the page the section on um Food Services actually includes the language of the vote um so that students on free and reduced lunch um can get second lunches or other allart menus other allart menu it items um at no cost all right so I'm going to move that we accept both the user fees and the whatever the other thing is building rental fees thank you um for fy2 all right Sarah seconds natal also that this was fully recommended by the finance sub committee yes it is worth thank you Stephen yes Steph Yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Andy yes Helen yes Sarah yes Valerie yes and I also vote Yes and all right so with that we now move into a discussion and possible votes on the fy2 budget request okay you do a quick review yes okay so I'm just going to walk uh through again um can you hear me we do that better okay if you can go to the next slide I'm just going to walk through um a summary of uh where we're at um for those that uh weren't here previously for the presentation uh just to kind of ground us in what the work is here tonight so as we approached um the task of uh making a recommendation as requested by the school board for uh $3 million worth of reductions um we uh kept our eye um on our plans for um high quality teaching and learning uh foundations and Equity um having adequate time on learning and enhancing Literacy for all these are all uh priorities spelled out in the Strategic plan um in year one uh so as we thought about you know how do we go about even contemplating um what might be um uh put forth for potential adjustments to the budget these are the the items that you know we kept reviewing in our minds you know how does this relate to the Strategic plan and these four uh priorities in particular um so when we proposed our budget uh back in January we knew that the budget that we presented was higher than what was um allocated by the town during the uh budget override meetings last year so during the override conversations um the school had anticipated its expenses would be about100 3 7,100 uh no 137 million1 100,000 um and our budget came in at um this initial budget came in at uh 138 m642 so so that's you know $15 million dollar above uh what was anticipated so I know some have asked you know how can that be we did all of this work and and of course when you're preparing budget or forecast um there's always assumptions that you make and sometimes things um crop up that weren't anticipated during the time of those uh conversations and during the planning process um and so there's a couple of uh things that that I don't believe were fully captured in the override one was utility costs um the utility costs associated with the schools were significantly higher um in the prior year and carrying forward into this upcoming year to capture in the budget uh cycle of 25 to kind of right size or true up to the actual costs in addition to that um transportation um associated with the students that need to be transported to placements outside of our school district um and the cost of transp Transportation broadly is significantly more expensive in communities Brook line included um than they have been in the past so one of the things that we did to try to mitigate the impact of this large increase to our trans Transportation costs was to go out to bid which we did and a a couple of weeks ago we opened those bids and thankfully they were a little more favorable but it still doesn't uh change that uh that cost Alone um had increased by almost a million dollars um I'm sure some of that was captured in the projection but certainly that is not uh a number that that one would be able to necessarily anticipate when they're doing just regular forecasting so so those those two items and of course we added the five uh High School teaching positions as well so in combination um I think those are some of the items that were budget drivers in addition to of course salaries the cost of you know step and column um cost of living um are the biggest budget drivers in a school district I think we're at 83 or 84% of our budget is associated with salaries so I just wanted to give that that context so um you know some pieces are you know kind of structural components that you know must be paid for we have to pay for utilities we have to pay for transportation there's things that we have to pay for and um and some of those are are affecting you know the budget numbers that are before you um tonight uh in addition to that um Susan yes before you go on I just want to make sure I understand that last point so that means that post override the projections for utilities and transportation costs uh came in much higher than initially projected and those are major drivers of the budget Gap that we're trying to remedy tonight that that's that's my my best understanding and I say that because when I look at what was budgeted in FY 24 for those costs um and then I look at what the cost and expenses are that are coming in right here right now they're significantly higher this year and so when we're looking at transportation and the increase there it's based on this year's are significantly overspent right and so those costs are soaring now on us and I'm trying to capture that in the upcoming year budget is it possible for you to give us a ballpark of the the size of the difference in projections in the I know you weren't here immediately post override and I okay I I I don't I don't have unfortunately what I don't have is what each component of your budget how how the forecasting for fy2 was um developed I don't have that so I can only speak in kind of broad terms and look at what your FY 24 budget is that tied to the override number for this year and then when I'm looking at at gaps and I'm looking at the difference between what was budgeted in 24 and what we're overspending in the current year I I I'm surmising that if if you knew that in advance you would have built that in the FY 24 budget but you must not have seen it if you saw it that you would have addressed it so so that's where I'm that's where I'm um uh okay yeah it's it's not based on I know exactly uh what the forecasting methodology was it's it's rather what experience we're having right now and how that is impacting the numbers we're putting forth in 25 for that for that particular item so I just wanted to uh provide a little bit of context again um uh one of the the things that happened since our last meeting that was positive is that the GIC numbers came in and so GIC stands for Group Insurance Commission or our health insurance for the town um the town had uh uh built the the budget numbers um around a 10% increase and they came in approximately 9 and a half and so as a result of that we we share in a portion of that savings and that portion we Sharon resulted in $224,800 app is is about $2 million and then there were some items that the school board um wanted to uh add to the budget um Ela curriculum um there's sufficient money in the budget right now to fund the ELA Ela curriculum um except for this $220,000 short shortage and so you wanted to add that in so we have full funding for that um in addition the high school administration was here about a month ago and they presented uh to you on um class size and um had requested an additional two um teachers um to help address class siiz concerns there um and so adding that in would cost about 160,000 and then uh the pier campus split uh there's some additional staff being requested um as the campus splits uh there's services that need to be provided and having the campus is so far apart uh it would make it particularly difficult to to address um student needs and and building needs without adding a little bit of staff so the request there was for 138,000 um so the the total uh increase there uh would be 318,000 you had also uh talked a bit about adding um the Windthrop house early and I know Deputy superintendent uh oconnell has indicated that um she'd be able to kind of um transition that in over a couple of years and that next year I I believe she can fund uh the increase out of one of our grants so it would have no impact you don't need to add anything for that um here so I'm just footnoting it um she'll be able to move forward with that using alternative funding sources um so it kind of moves that off off the table of conversation for tonight so that um means that if we add those three items that it makes the budget Gap 2 million $322,982 so from there so that's all the ads um I may just ask a question here so the grant for winr house is that a multi-year grant would we need to find that money in the second year how long is it for the IDE Grant okay but the idea is uh oftentimes you use grants um as seed money for launching um programs and then if you have um it becomes an integral part of your uh ongoing programming you'd probably over time migrate that into your regular education uh or or your operating budget over time I'm suspecting that would be the case Okay this would be the launch you know if all goes well then we would migrate the program um into our oper operating budget in future years and then also my understanding from a presentation we had on this previously is that longterm we think that it's at Cost neutral okay Natalia was I think it was yes can I ask about the Pierce campus split last time or at some point we had said maybe that could be budgeted into the Pierce project funds or they were going to look at that is that possible we were and we will um I I can't I can't speak for the Pierce budget right now but that would be my goal to make sure that that goes into the budget we can kind of put this in a parenthetical that this is do thank you and an upcoming slide I'm kind of backing that out based on that conversation but I just wanted to highlight the items that you had talked about potentially increasing yeah R can you just clarify for me um at the on the 14th the Gap was 22457 why why is it 2, 4,000 tonight 2, 4,000 because I reduce the GIC money oh you've already reduced the but when the Gap was 2024 571 if you reduce the GIC money wouldn't it be like 1.8 I I'm I'm reducing it in a different order on the slides Mariah than what you were looking at there okay I tried to bucket them a little bit differently here in case you wanted to take votes on things like um you know budget adjustments and things so I kind of I just regroup them differently to try to highlight where the um GIC impacted on the line that you had traditionally seen it so I've I've reordered it a little from what you'd seen before it gets it'll get down to the to the and in the end uh okay I'm just so excuse me yeah yes I just want to I just want to make a different version of my question from before okay um so um there there was five to seven FTE that were adding to BHS that we're going to discuss tonight and there is Ela curriculum and we're taking out the Pierce campus split other than that though the main drivers of the budget Gap this is the point I want to confirm and emphasize that are due to structural factors outside of the district's control there there are obligations that we have to fulfill that were not projected at the time of the override is that correct yes these are items the utility for ex they not du the choices that PSB made previously that were now looking to counterbalance they're due to obligations that we have to fulfill period and now we have to look for cuts to balance these obligations that we didn't forecast initially anticipate and I think it's important especially on the utility um because and I want to make sure that people understand it's not because we're not being um conservative with you know turning off lights and all of that that is not the reason why the utilities uh shifted there there was in fact um uh I guess an error in the rate that was being used and so uh when they identified this on the we don't do the projections on those when they identified that town side on the town side right but it's for the schools and this is above the line cost so unfortunately um they're real true costs but it it's not as a result of something we've done it it just happens to be okay I appreciate that explanation I'm just belaboring this point said preempt any narrative that that what we're doing tonight is the consequence either of mismanagement or of compensating for choices that we made to fund some activities that we now have to counteract with cuts now these we're making Cuts because we are having to deal with structural factors that that are imposed on the entire town and affecting PSP as well affects us and affect town as well okay thank you so if the slide um and we start doing uh we go through and again you've seen these and I've I've I've lumped this is one of the things I've lumped differently than you saw it before so I tried this this time for clarity purposes hopefully um to put what budget adjustments so in other words these are things that have happened that um don't affect the service delivery in any way but in fact um uh reduce the budget because we've learn more as we've gone along Andor we've targeted certain expenses to be charged off to Grants uh similar to with wi house um so since we're not going to need to carry this money in the operating budget um we're able to reduce it so uh when you add up uh the numbers on this slide it's 414,000 I think it says 52 but my um 52 there we go so now we can we can subtract this from the total and um on the next slide uh we reduce the Gap uh to 1.9 um and so right now that's the that's the Gap that we're trying to close and on the next several slides in order of priority um uh appear those uh reductions or or options to consider for reduction so if you uh can go to the next and this is um already but um again what I moved out of the original list that you saw on the 14th were just those budget adjustments so it makes this list look a little bit um smaller but that's because we've already accounted for those and then uh for for on the districtwide um there's the supplies and services um at the peer school um we the administration is recommending that that we fund that through alternative sources so where we added it before we're suggesting subtract it here um on OTL um there's some administrative positions one and a half positions um that would be reduced uh then uh the much uh discussed tonight or we've heard an awful lot tonight about the next several items which is the world language program uh K5 uh followed by the literacy coaches and then on the next SL so those those alone I subtotal by um by slide so that uh those those cuts in total would be a little over 2 million again 1.9 is is the Target and then on the uh this last slide here uh it's just uh simply the other two items which is the ets's uh for FTE there and then um uh positions to be determined at the high school totaling 133 so that's an additional 553 uh th000 so that's just a summary um just to kind of reorient us so uh the conversation is really on these last two sides I believe that's that's that's where the school committee will continue their deliberation and uh Jody and Lisa and I and superintendent are all here to answer whatever questions we can to help you in this process uh on the BHS position um I know in the other slide we said plus two and then this is minus one but the plus two are 160 and this minus one is 133 is it because it's an administrative right was it it's not it's not identified um at this point that's true so non student facing yeah so that's that's the non- student facing BHS positions TBD line when we presented it it um uh Anthony the principal uh you know suggested that we we we write the um item like this because he needs to go through the scheduling process and make some adjustments there and isn't sure where exactly um the adjustments would be made but wanted to have the benefit of being able to schedule because he understands that the class siiz issue is um you know a high priority to address that so uh he felt that he would look throughout the um high school for options but wanted to hold off on identifying what those would be until after he had uh completed the scheduling process so if if he can um provide you with um class sizes that are more aligned with your historical expectations um and there was a point two left over then maybe that would be a reduction but not at the expense of addressing your class size uh the class size challenge you face this year and it could be anything any anything else he understands it just has to Total to that amount of money not necessarily an FTE that's have an FTE there because I don't know I'm sorry Susan did the 1908 figure include the subscriptions reduction or not I apologize for missing that 1908 the the slide before yeah the the Gap prior to this one did that figure include the subscriptions reduction for 220 well we've we have in the budget process prior to this prior to even presenting we have reduced those lines a little bit but you would be reducing um the supplies of materials um off of that it's not included in the custom that's not included not included on the next slide you start um for the reductions but that does include the transportation adjustment yes and the the salary reimbursement for the be yes exactly those would be budget adjustments as opposed to reductions in a supply of service of some sort yeah okay now our number is yeah that's what I was trying to say because I was because really if if the board wanted to vote I wanted to put those up because you could just vote the budget adjustments and then and and get that kind of component of it over with without having to um go back and forth about this is because those don't affect any supplies services or any other programming I'm sorry one more question yes the does do these figures include Winthrop house or not they don't because Winthrop house will be phased in and is funded through other sources so the there is no available cut to an assumption of spending 235 on winr house right but we can't subtract 235 no you can't cuz I didn't put it in there's nothing to be removed there's nothing to be removed because I didn't put it in the first place that's why on the first slide only had the three items and then the footnote on win through house so that's already netted out okay you don't have to add or subtract or anything it's just you what you need to focus on is we in order to get to the um to the funding level that's available from the town we need to reduce the budget 1, 98,9 44 from items on the next two slides is that okay can we go back to next okay just a slide you were just in thank you Helen so just to be clear right now we're looking at a $1.9 or $2 million deficit one 1, 98,000 1, 98,000 okay and and this slide to just this slide totals we're not adding or subtracting I'm just saying each item stands alone but this slide totals uh 202 and the next slide totals uh 553 I only put the subtotals because I know if I don't you'll say how much does thisal and then can't head at 9 o' at that's helpful just um so I know you know part of the reason to vote a budget early is in order to be able to do the hiring principles don't know what they can hire without knowing what their budget is right on the other hand is there anything that we 100% % need to vote this budget tonight because and I'll tell you the reason I it my understanding and B correct me if I'm wrong um the house will be voting their budget and my logic in this and may not be true and maybe it's too panish but um every District in the Commonwealth is suffering and I can't imagine that the house won't raise some in the budget and so I know we also have to let people know and I think that has been moved up to May 15 or so I don't remember the date when we need to let people know if we're not going to be rehiring them there is a date in our contract huh it's around May 15th I think no later then so if you're going to if you're going to let somebody go ideally you'd want to let them know sooner so they have the opportunity during the hiring season to be able to apply for jobs while they're open right so us delaying in letting somebody know um isn't really fair to the to the person if we're going to have to cut positions that's that's all I mean think about the yeah no I I hear you I mean a very diff I think for any of us I think we're trying to find a way to I mean none of it is none of it is what we want no I'm just saying that if if a cut has to be made you can reinstate for sure but um I think In fairness there you know um we give people ample opportunity during the season in which positions are open and available would be you know the the the kind thing to do uh for those staff members that are impacted I mean that's just my opinion of course yeah can I ask a followup to Helen's point I mean is there a way we can start there's some things that we all agree on for example Piers or the supplies and online subscriptions um right I think like can we can we get to the number that we're actually discussing right so I'd like to do that too so the first the first three items here supplies the uh staff campus split for Pierce and the OTL FTE those three combined if I'm doing my math correct we we can do that too but just so we know what the actual Gap is to answer Natalia's question because if these three we're already in agreement on sir do you have your slide that you want to go up okay okay sure are we just gonna do it this way if you have it if you have it that's what was prompting but is the consent David I'm just I'm sorry I'm confused it's under reduction and Pierce at 138 is it th000 I I thought we were adding that in no we and now we're taking it out right because it's going to be part added we're taking it out okay Pres because don't okay so I just want tolight that number0 uh if we have these first three items as a consent agenda then we can just vote to adjust the number and then that gets us to roughly 1.7 million it doesn't quite match right there was there was also the 1.5 FTE and OTL that they're below right those AR those aren't in the consent agenda right but it is in Susan's version of a consent agenda hers doesn't have a consent agenda but but what the the last thing that Susan showed when she said that the first three lines were things that she thought we could all agree on that included the 1.5 in OTL right so could we just move for purposes I'm not sure we all do agree on the 1.5 andl so I don't these ones I was pretty sure we were all okay with think that that was that was yeah going to be not controversial I'm not sure that about that can we agree can if I move to vote those three right now that's going to be a separate like let's talk about that vote later on I the up at the top of this is the historical what we did historically so historically like going back on February 29th this was the Gap presented then we asked for four things to be added I've just deleted winthrip house because it got taken out of the mix Al together at that point it was 2.3 last week we got the GIC adjustment 224 it went down to 2117 999 then Susan presented us just now um her number was 1.9 1,900,000 n44 or whatever is 9008 it's basically this cell plus the one below it added I already removed it here so the good news is the math all ties out and then the idea is can we get rid of these three things quickly in a vote and then the next ones will be removed one by one or whatever it is you can immediately move the other one what it's just that with winr house since we knew it wasn't going to be on the budget we took we just took it out and so we saying Pierce isn't going to be in the budget it's going to be in the this is our decision we asked to add it back in and now we're and now we can make a choice to remove it if we want yeah I mean and some people want to put it in the consent agenda we can vote it right afterwards I'm just saying it's proposed on here to be consent agenda and I moved it and we could just be done with talking about right so Mariah you're moving sort of that middle window right yeah all right the Transportation adjustment be presentence salary reimbursement subscription reduction yes all right second that Steven second Natalia your vote stepen Yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Andy Helen yes Sarah yes Valerie yes and I also vote Yes okay does someone want to move yours okay so I'm sorry so when we're looking at 1688 as the total def as the total Gap right now correct I have 1908 so what are are you it's the 220 you didn't you don't have the 220 there reason y that was the same thing that was when I was like ah it sounds like Suzanne wants to move a second Pierce one Natalie a second Natalia your vote Yes Stephen I'm sorry what are we voting the pier split yes Mariah yesan yes Andy yes Helen yes Sarah yes Valerie yes I also vote Yes but that doesn't that's already removed for once no not yet now gonna remove that yes you might as well just keep it in that oh never mind yeah so what's the total now 1.55 million all right next up so it sounds like David can I make a comment this is the point at which I don't feel good about any and I frankly don't want to do any of this I just want to say that like out loud right now that this is not a good moment for any of us we don't want to do these things this is not um I'm not sure I'm going I'm not sure I'm going to vote for any of these things so um that's not where we're supposed to be that's but at the same time this brings me to my tension of the role of um the tension between advocacy and governance and um and this is really hard I mean we just went through the override last year it's been less than a year um it's too bad Susan did a great job sort of explaining you know there's the unanticipated um things that happen but I'm just not sure how to proceed and I'm just saying my own personal opinion at this point I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this point Natalia I want to go back to Helen's point I mean is it realistic to imagine that there would be a million or is it completely unrealistic like can we bring it down like I would be willing to talk about the BHS position addition I would be willing even though I don't believe we should cut literacy coaches but I understand that two are retiring so they wouldn't we wouldn't fall into that challenge of like letting needing to let people go like to bring it down a little bit so that we feel confident to leave you know if we can leave a 1 million budget deficit or some some some amount that we think is realistic but I know what and maybe Val or Helen can get like I'm happy with not getting us to zero today but I would think we should bring it down as much as we feel comfortable so Valerie historically what has the amount been that gets added do you have that information I don't and I wouldn't anticipate very much being added this year they just the house just announced today um another Revenue issue and um to be on the lookout for a pretty Stark f y 25 and FY 26 so I wouldn't feel confident that the town of Brook line is going to get some amount of money that would leave us with a million dollars on the school side if we were to receive some kind of uh increase on what order of magnitude you think it would be we looking at 1,200,000 but nowhere close to a million correct are you asking me or you or any anyone you know it's so hard they have had um what are they called three C Cuts or three e Cuts one some sort of cuts on the state level during the year because they're they're in trouble in the state I'm not exactly sure why or what is causing that um n9c and they happened in January Helen thank you yeah thank you it was how much what percentage do you remember it was massive it it was a massive um nine c cut round of nine SE Cuts this year and maybe they just estimated too high from last year I that I don't know um you know in the past especially when we've had Republican Governors the the Democratic um con you know uh House and Senate usually went higher this may be the other way around you know I can't be sure we don't know um and but we'll know more I when do they have to vote when do they have to have a budget by uh well they'll have a budget out just before April break and then they'll start debating it just after April break so we'll probably know more on the 11th and that will give us at least a little more time but if all we're going to know is a relatively small amount then I'm I I think that we want to continue with this exercise at least a little bit further David I think we we probably agree on the OTL 1.5 ft and probably on the BHS uh 133 sorry to be a stickler on that point is the O is the point5 OTL the coordinator from the world language program it is so that that is sort of factored into the World Language decision it is that's true 1 Point 0 of that uh reduction is related to World Language 1.0 1.0 yes it's right oh I see and then the BHS position to be determined that would be on the administrative side because it wouldn't make much sense that we're adding because it wouldn't make much sense to me that we're adding two FTE at the high school and then just basically taking it away that's not really an addition it's not been determined um what exactly he would reduce it could be uh non-core um services in some way um could be some uh teaching in in some other area that um the FTE is not needed in order to maintain appropriate class sizes but he did not feel uh comfortable being being able to say this is exactly what it's going to be until he does his uh um adjustments for um scheduling so can I make a motion that we cut that right are you entertaining motions to remove things from the list of consideration yes okay then I would like to move to remove the edtech Specialists from the consideration pool correct they are no longer I'll second that all right any discussion well it's it's just hard to know if you don't have the big picture 419 how are you may you add that up back I'm just removing it from the pool of consideration I'm not sure what it means to take a vote on this right now aren't we only really voting on the final budget are we taking is the motion to take a binding vote among the school committee for this I mean I support retaining the Ed Tech specialist 100% I just don't know what this vote means we're closing the budget and that is not an option on the table in front of us anymore so we are restricted from this yes it would be removing an option and should we discuss right I the reason I'm not I mean obviously someone has seconded so we'll we'll vote on it but in terms of discussion for discussion purposes without getting into a substantive conversation on World Language I'm not comfortable ruling out other buckets yet which is not to say that I don't support our technology Specialists but it's a little difficult without looking at the broader picture to completely rule out anything at this point at least for me but we do have a second to your vote believe I second I seconded sorry all right Natalia no I don't think I'm ready Stephen yeah yes no I'm not ready I vote now I vote Yes enen not ready not ready Valerie no I can't do this without knowing the whole all right so the nose carry it for now right 63 all right why don't we look at World Language numbers and more details just to have an understanding here if you could maybe shift over where we can see the different permut and what those costs look like yeah one of the things I'm confused by um is when and I'm still confused I'm sorry Jody and Su I'm still confused by this even though you've told me several times and and what I'm going to flag is when we when we talked about on your slides from the 14th the this K through 5 with sixth grade at 3 days it was presented as 12.6 ft and then here it's being in the second thing you showed us with all the iterations it was being presented as 13.6 and you said the difference was the 1.0 in OTL however that's already counted over here in this 1.5 so I don't understand why it's 13.6 here and 1.5 over there in my it was my ballpark so if you remember I sent you that separately from what Susan sent you so in my ballpark I didn't count it separately I counted it in this so that's why it's 13.6 so should it actually be 12. it should actually be 12.6 okay so then does that reduce other things also because that would imply I'm just piping in 12.6 right now that there's only a point4 difference for offering no when we ran the numbers we ran them off of the teaching numbers off the teaching FD not including that 1.0 so should all of these be reduced by one no okay so I just gave you the total that I gave Mariah included that and then I assumed that that would already be taken out so because this was just an estimate we weren't exact okay so so we shouldn't so what should I think about the fact that there's only a point4 difference between K4 and K5 I don't know what to think about that I'm thrown off by that I think it's the number of minutes um when Mich ran these numbers um for me I think it came down to the number of minutes but how could there be a 2.3 difference between two and three which have much fewer like right okay yeah so two and three is when it goes up one day a week so in grade two it's still two days a week and in grade three it goes up to three days a week no no the the K to2 represents oh I'm sorry I misunderstood the question so the first line is starting at grade three so we already have the it's there's no time difference between those first two lines so I think there's probably a consistent level of FTE changes between the lines because they're going up a consistent amount I I do think that the numbers are keeping us from being able to figure out this conversation because we don't have like trust in them and in addition it it would be super helpful to to know um what an FTE is consider like I think we would all like to know that language and so so I wasn't able to replicate those numbers I guess is what I'd like to say the shorthand of it and I think that the numbers um appeared to me to to take in um to account too little for what people would be like it didn't give enough credit to each individual in addition we've also talked about how um those aren't full individuals unless we keep they keep on equaling one right so we have a difficulty of making a program that works in theory and doesn't actually work in human beings right and when we were doing these numbers uh one point what we used for 1.0 was 25 contacts with a student so 25 periods but then in addition to what we've just talked about there's also the issue that it doesn't go up the way that you would expect it to and so um having this conversation is so hard I I would love to be able to look at that and say let's start the program in fourth grade and and I can't so it's a hurdle to this conversation are you saying Sarah that you think that these numbers are likely an underestimate of the resources we would need to or or you're not even sure which direction it goes underestimate my name is Sarah but but you know we we are talking we are talking in the theoretical because it's a budget so if you know if we want to use these numbers and say let's start the program in fourth grade and then take something away from somewhere else I understand the spirit of a budget is like we're you you know not every single teacher equals $80,000 right so I if if you want to proceed not knowing um we can still have the conversation and we don't might not have any other option right now because we don't have good numbers so could you explain a little more about why you feel this is an underestimate well the first part is the part that I've already explained to you is that um when we when we look at actual people um taking on those FTE and we look at who we already have as staff in the buildings and know the number of hours that they have to teach we definitely are going to have to um round up a little bit from um the FTS that it would equate you know just doing the the numbers based on hours because basically in order to get to a full person at each school you're you're not going to be able to get away with um just those hours right so I believe that these numbers don't take that into assumption and I don't also don't think that they take a level of workload into assumption that I'm comfortable with but I completely understand that the conversation that we need to have like these are all Concepts that for me are easy you know and I understand that they wouldn't be if you haven't addressed a schedule before and so I understand that there might be a little bit of lag of of my level of comfortability coming up with this type of thing to everybody else's and I also think that we need to have a conversation tonight about about whether we value Contin in World Language Department I don't want to hold up a conversation just because the numbers are inaccurate and I would agree with you Sarah that those weren't this is really a ballpark estimate because we were doing we were trying to do it quick turnaround this doesn't take into account bumping it doesn't take into account scheduling into buildings it's really just a flat ballpark estimate r one of my concerns about taking these reductions is um anything less than the top than the original reduction presented is that if to Sarah's Point things will be I'll say even further underst staffed than they've already apparently like they've struggled with that then we're not actually saving anything in some ways we're making things much worse and much more complicated so I'm I'm concerned about thinking we're doing the right thing and actually like making it all even more unsustainable so in order to try to make this a valuable conversation tonight um there are teachers that have worked on taking a look at that and the conclusion that those teachers came to was that there wasn't a respectful way to go ahead and add in fourth and fifth grade in a way that compensated people fairly Stephen so okay I feel like there's two two conversations first conversation that Sarah is starting I think is important and it's about the data we're using to evaluate the price point of these cuts so let's let's I want to have this conversation I the just right away it's the the FTE reductions it I think you're right to point out it doesn't make sense to have 2.3 going from grade three to grade four but only but then 2.7 to go from grade four to grade six um however I think from talking to World language teachers I feel more confident that it's about 2.3 FTE per grade cut that's at the current Staffing levels which I think Sarah's right also to point out are concerning because they've resulted in the kinds of schedules that have led to World language teachers talk to us repeatedly about unsustainable schedules and burnout and resignations so I think we can assume that funding them at current levels would also cause more burnout so we should assume probably a higher level of FTE if we're going to have a more successful World language program so I think we'd have to assume a higher level maybe 2.5 2.7 something like that so I think using the what are we using 80 plus so we're looking at something like 230 to 250 a year as a cut that's that's the her istic I'm using a grade I'm sorry per grade so that's that's what I'm using as a ballpark figure Jody and my head when I'm going back a year there isn't though the big time jumps are from grade two to grade three and then from grade six up assuming no I'm not I'm saying that's where the time jumps are Stephen your your 2.3 isn't matching out though if you look at the first line it's three grades 2.3 is from grade is if we cut K to two from K to three so that assumes that you need 2.3 going from grade three to grade four but that that FTE increase doesn't hold up per year but that I'm saying it doesn't hold up really if you look back at kada 2 like it it just doesn't these These are rough estimates and I yeah I'm not sure that I'm challenging the that data that's what that that's my point B so so that's conversation one about the how we're using data to make this decision but conversation two to me is so this is a a big cut right this is a million plus cut that's on the table looking you know what I'm going to hold off in the second conversation want to see where this come so I see Stephen's point there that looking at the K2 numbers if we had confidence that that's accurate then that would indicate that at least in those grade levels it's 230,000 per year because that that comes to about 690 um Suzanne yeah I mean I think part of the problem is there are several conversations going on and I think uh jod said something like a full-time person is 25 touch points that's that's because most teachers teach five times five subjects a day five times a week that's 25 in World Language you have teachers doing two 20 minute sessions I don't know how you count those and then they do some three times 20 so it's really hard to have a conversation where each grade is completely different from another grade I mean that's not true when you get to seventh and eth but even sixth in our district is different from Seventh and eth the number of contacts for our lower elementary is a lot higher a lot higher and that's part of the problem we've had with just how many classes you teach in a day and how you can sustain that kind of uh case load on the other hand if you aren't doing that many classes you're not working the equivalent of fulltime right uh so that's that's why this I think the best the best advice that we've gotten again and again is um and we did get get this from the World Language coordinator is that uh starting a program in third grade would be something that works best and do you have confidence that that would be a figure of that 689 that we see in terms of savings no sorry you think it would be less than that but you know I as a member of a school committee I should not be answering that question right this is completely somebody else's domain Natalia I mean I think just taking a step back having heard everything tonight having read the 50 plus emails um my own background as someone who went to school overseas started learning English in third grade I speak fluently um you know I I feel like I would not I could not vote for cutting K through 5 I and I will not um and so no and you know and I was and I think there are many reasons and I think the ones I want to highlight is the point of diversity and equity and our foreign you know our our families and what they expect and this notion of like we're trying to build Global Citizens you know I'm leaving school committee soon so I don't know if I'll be part of this conversations but but I'm going to work at the UN where the expectation is that you speak at least two languages three four and you know I speak some Spanish some French some Arabic and it's not that I'm fluent in these languages but I grew up believing that I could learn languages so many American students do not believe that they can learn languages and I think that if they start in sixth grade they will not believe that they can and so I don't want to do that to our kids and yes my fifth grader doesn't speak great Spanish and that frustrates me but she believes that she can learn a language she doesn't you know and so I think our metrics of success and I and I'm not really happy with her math and I'm not really happy with her reading level either you know so it's not like I'm picking on her Spanish um you know she the you know the schools they were kids she's a fifth grader who was disrupted in first second third grade because of covid and you know all her learning has suffered and so I don't know I I would not be comfortable philosophically it's like telling me we're going to cut all the Arts or all the music program or all physical activity and I know Jody you've said that those are mandated but to me you know our town should be mandating even if we can't so so I don't know how we get there and I don't know if it is literally not voting for this and forcing town meeting to take that vote like someone making an amendment and saying you know we believe that that needs to be an additional 300,000 I know Andy just gave me a bad look but no I'm not I'm not saying I I just really I just I I feel like School committees should should you know or whether it's your point Helen of like waiting to see what happens in the town I could not in in good conscious vote for cutting K through 5 the K through 3 you know it I would love for our kids to start in kindergarten but I understand that literacy is a key concern and in the K through three we really want to be putting in those minutes but and I understand that it's a scheduling headache and that the principles would prefer um that we cut K through 5 but I do not believe that that is what our town should be doing right now so I would like to start in third grade if that's what you're saying Sarah is the best model um I would like if that's not an option to save like Driscoll's Mandarin program like it sounds amazing can we do that save some programs and not across the district I had heard that Mandarin existed even before like should we just it was Grant funded it was Grant funded I mean can we be unequitable that way but just to sort of keep the door open for like I I believe what we have heard that it's going to be impossible to reopen this door where is you know and I I love that we have ETS people but I think once teachers start not being able to teach we will find a way to fund you know etss will they'll come back like you know if if our canvas is and our computers are broken like we will find a way whereas language it it'll be difficult so um anyways that's just my like big picture like is this what we want Suzanne well I'm wondering if we're having this big conversation if we want to start thinking about other possibilities for instance um we were at a meeting this morning lonus and I and I was talking to the superintendent from Milton and Milton has a fabulous immersion program and they start I think maybe in kindergarten and they have a language track in each of their schools so you can take the language track early or you can wait until sixth grade or whatever they do it anyway it's just it's just something else that would provide those families and students who want to have language full immersion early uh I don't know what it would cost um it may not cost anything extra it it may I don't know but it's just I'm just trying to you know there are there are other ideas out there besides just what we've got in front of us um and I think it's very exciting and so the superintendent said sure come visit if you want to see how they've been doing it for 40 years so you know they know how to do it Sarah one of the things that we have to keep in um track of is that we have all the pieces for a great world language program right here in front of us on a different model and so if we let go of this program that we have right now we're giving up investment that we have in the past so it would take us a lot more to go to a new model and not take advantage of what we have currently I get that Sarah but I'm possibly I don't think we could afford it um I mean I think you know somebody said there's at least six of us that speak a second language here and some even more than that and and so we all value it it's not like we don't I I worked hard on getting that override in 2009 I was on the committee at the time and it was really important to me um and it still is you know I just I think we're really stuck right now and I think we're trying to you know I mean I guess we could ask the staff have to come back to us and tell us you know what kind of cut we would have if if we did it you know um fifth grade or and if we included fourth grade and then see what those numbers come out to because I still can't figure this out I'm sorry maybe others can but this is beyond me um Andy oh sorry H that's all I had um yeah I was just wanting to go back to what Sarah was saying earlier and I'm not I'm not understanding yet why um why you think that starting in fourth grade would be unworkable but starting in third grade uh would be good I actually was repeating somebody else's advice so at the point where I felt like I was kind of not being I'm taking my role into account as as a school Committee Member and I was kind of speaking um for others I went back to tell you that the World Language coordinator K to8 that who we currently have her advice when we um entered into this conversation was was that she thought that the only piece that could work having an like enough of a job there to Warrant bringing in a second Spanish teacher you know in addition to the teacher that you have in the Middle School only works with a three to six sorry three three four and five keeping three four and five so it's to do with scheduling and Logistics not with pedagogy it is both yeah okay I'm not seeing the pedagogy part yet so the pedagogy part I think is what um there's many of us who view World Language as a part an integral part of um the experi the educational experience here in in Brookline and if we take that away from students we're taking away from something that we've built you know up over the years to be a part of their full education students learn best about that Curiosity of other cultures when you start them young when you get everybody there for it right and so um the pedagogy part about bringing it down to third grade is it's prior to that 12-year-old cuto off where people start to have difficulty learning languages it's you know integrated into the education the the social studies the English you know everything that the the student is learning has to do with learning about another culture and you do that earlier and the student is better off you get more years of instruction student can get to a higher level in high school so the pedagogy is absolutely there to bring it as early as you can [Music] absolutely start later than third grade but they don't speak to why you shouldn't start in second or first or kindergarten I guess I don't understand like that to me like I don't understand why she's saying third oh third grade is it but maybe maybe what did she say third grade is the absolute latest as opposed to third grade okay Tanya said that logistically it worked better starting in third keeping third fourth and fifth grade that was your question I'm sorry yes so so I think we have sort of two separate questions here one is what is pedagogically the most sensible approach and there seems to be a general agreement that the earlier you start the better but certainly by age 10 then there's logistical aspect about how we currently have the FTE laid out and how we could run an effective schedule and a program where we wouldn't have burnout and it sounds like the answer to that question is you start either in grade three or grade six but if you start in grade six then you're totally ignoring the pedagogical part do I have that right okay Mariah I think also there's the logistics bit but there's this um other point that was introduced about time for I'll say English literacy and what we're doing about that in the lower grades I'm just adding that to it I'm not saying one way or the other no and I think that's a very important point because one concern that we've had about the finite number of minutes in the day and that we do want to be able to dedicate more time to uh fundamental core skills in literacy especially in those earliest grades uh but doing that for K2 I think is still compatible with the model where we start World language in grade three my concern is more if we don't really trust these numbers and we say that we're going to start World language in grade three which financially I think we would all have to do if we could the question is do we still end up with a gap in the end Stephen sorry my concern is the money these numbers are just going to go up like all of this discussion I agree with everything that's being said I highly value the world I I would like to say and believe that I highly like value the world language program but the this is about budget cuts to me and our mandate to balance the budget I the the these aren't going to get better with better data these are going to get worse with better data these numbers right they're in my concern so will if we theoretically went with the first line of eliminate World language in K2 we would save according to this 690 there would still be ways to get to the 1.55 if we did that but I don't know if it's really 690 it's 690 or are we only saving 200 and then we're still in the same hole Mariah I just want to comment on something Stephen just said I don't think we have a mandate to deliver a balanced budget or to we have a mandate to deliver a budget I mean I mean I just think I just don't think that that like if you go look in the stat the statute it doesn't say that that's Town meeting's responsibility that's not our responsibility yep now we do have a responsibility to deliver a budget contract and through the contract if we don't get the money I mean it has to come from somewhere you know uh and we have to let teachers know by May 15 that is true Helen but town meeting could do anything they want on May 25th and we don't have the control over that like either right there's it's Town meetings budget y I just don't like we talk a lot about governance and staying in our lane and you know I'm not saying that we should we should be responsible it's all about responsible budgeting but also I mean Sarah you asked a big question that I don't think we answered which is do we want to be a district that starts that has a a K12 World language program or not and if that's who we want to be then these choices aren't something that we should be endorsing through budget cuts so I'm personally not comfortable with leaving this to town meeting to decide because who knows what they do so I think that it's safer if we try as painful as it is try to meet the allocation number rather than risk town meeting taking some kind of drastic step and then we're even worse off at least this way we have some level of control over our own destiny and and also we we it is important to be a fiscal partner with the towns side and other departments meet their budgets ultimately I think we should do the same and is a town School partnership meeting coming up right it sounded like it sounded like they were setting one up all right anyone else Helen well I'm still thinking you know and in the past when we've had difficult budgets like this and we have an easy budget it's easy to vote it early um if we could wait till the 11th and see I I don't know if we can somehow let the principles know that you know they can you know they're going to have a budget it's just there's 2 million out of 13 six million is it that that we got that that we're trying to figure out so a question perhaps for Dr Fortuna if you could maybe talk to us about your confidence in these numbers and if there's any additional work that would allow you to refine these numbers by a subsequent meeting or you think that there's too much guest work involved and this is the best that we'll have we could get closer with actual salaries rather than using the 8189 it will just take the time to do hopefully we would be able to get it to you by the April 11th meeting okay anyone else well I'm I'm just wondering is there anything else uh Dr Gil that that would you know suffer by us not voting today except for the indecisiveness and the difficulty it is for people who are here and and at home that are still waiting to know what's going to happen so great question um I think um what Dr given shared earlier um it would just delay certainly again we recognize the impact that it has on our current Staffing but it also delays our our delays Us by is it two weeks where it about two weeks for hosting advertising that type of thing or we couldn't do that for other jobs well well but you when you're inside the confines of what the budget is you have a greater bumping yeah you have greater um assurity around that um but again we can we can wait until we can wait until that time but uh just make adjustments we'll just be hold holding until and refining some numbers but I think there's a lot of interest right now in this and a con ation is is worth continuing right now and if a budget is based on estimates anyway let's go with the information that we have and see where we get as a group does that make sense okay so it sounds to me I might be off but that because we are in a very fiscally difficult situation that with reluctance we might be agreeable to removing World Language at the K through two level for two reasons it doesn't necessarily harm pedagogy too much because we're still starting under that age that studies show is important for beginning language instruction and also it makes the scheduling a lot easier and reduces the workload for our teachers so well I think from the recommendations that we heard from uh the teacher who has been having conversations with Sarah and some others and also from the World Language coordinator that starting in grade three is more workable in terms of scheduling and I I don't I don't think I mean if you reduce people in reduced grades I was I I'm not sure that there's a clear line between that resulting in reduced workload for an individual I mean right well but the again those two 20 minute sessions each week is is either extra or it's it's not as much right Sarah so 23 minutes 230 230 so they have 30 minutes in kindergarten yeah it used to be 320 minutes and now it's two 230 minutes okay okay so it's it does change the scheduling is very hard I believe it's very hard I'm just saying the the connection of reducing it resulting in less workload for the people who remain I was not clear about that's what I'm not clear about that it's case through two is complicated absolutely but it's better for the people who stay well it's less workload because if you're doing that 2 * 30 you've got more of those so you'll have more classes in a week than you would if you had you know if I was teaching three through five this year and I'm teaching three through five next year what would be the change in my workload that's all you teach but I don't know that that's that right that's not commonly the case so one of the reasons that our world language teachers are very concerned with their scheduling is we have teachers who will have K1 and six and it's all over the map in those cases right okay so it's not the grades themselves yes yes yes Stephen I just want to ask Dr Giller if you have any any further guidance for us on on these Cuts so no um what we what we have brought forth is our best work in terms of what the committee has tasked us with doing given the tough Financial Times and as we all have articulated that this uh is not what we want to be doing uh but given the confines of the constraints of what we have this is our best work in terms of what we brought forward to you and again that work was listed in a prioritized or or um a numerical order in terms of choices so uh deviations from that are not what the recommendations were from our standpoint given the task that was before us all right so just to do the math on this uh if theoretically we were to go along with limiting K through two with the numbers we have we would go from a gap of 1, 550,000 $64 to a gap of $ 86,5 161 which means that then from the remaining buckets of literacy technology Specialists and BHS admin we pretty much would have to go to almost all of that natal unless we also cut one of Anthony's new two positions for the high school I mean we we've added five and now we've added seven right we've added seven plus in the high school I mean I really don't see class sizes yeah go ahead well sorry I that's to address a class size issue that we've yeah no no I do I that's what I was going to say I understand class size but the estimate was a minimum of five and then we added seven right and in order to have a buffer is that correct no I think their real ask was seven right they were asking for seven in order to reduce class size their initial ask was five right and then we said is that really what you need and they said no we really need seven we need seven yeah maybe I mean they all the students have put in their schedules at this point M no they haven't no no haven't no oh April 2nd sorry yeah never mind David can I just caution against coming up with a new figure based on that 689 I think that's the figure that we're going to probably want to do a little bit more digging on to make sure it's accurate given that there isn't an even progression of FTE per grade that would certainly be helpful this is what we have right now just if we can at least have a better idea of where we stand in terms of our approach for taking cuts it does seem though that unless there's something drastically wrong with these numbers like what David was saying is essentially correct that if we were to rescue grades three through rescue grades three through five that means essentially taking all the other available Cuts so all the literacy and all the etss positions and and if we're off this estimate the wrong direction potentially some Cuts beyond that I mean unless we reintroduce the two new the five plus two the two BHS positions and unless we don't balance the budget I mean I know that's either because Helen is hopeful and I'm hopeful or we leave it to town meeting and and we sort of say this is what we we've saved three to five World languages I mean something something else we could look at again there were the four FTE for class level consolidations that would come to 300 something thousand if we use the 80,000 can I ask what happens to the OTL if it's a three the full all the full 1.5 the full one is it 1.0 but not 1.5 all right just in terms of maybe a straw poll to see where we're at in whether it's K through two or going even higher Natalia would you be most comfortable with just eliminating the K2 portion yes most comfortable with some very unenviable choices yes Stephen sorry what are you asking David given that realistically we need to make some level of cuts to World Language would K2 be I can't I can't make a decision without seeing the whole picture all right Mariah um I don't want to support that because it doesn't like it makes other terrible choices happen too okay Suzanne yeah I could go a little higher I could do a K3 Eliminator and start it in fourth all right Andy uh I don't think I could support it right now not knowing whether if we were to rescue grades three through five we could do so in a form that's more effective than what we currently have there if all we can do is s of have things limp on the way they are then I'm not sure that's the best use of our resources if we can do it better perhaps but it's not clear Helen I'm torn uh because we've been given what you know the best knowledge of our Administration and our principles and it's sort of going I guess what they're recommending and it's it's really hard um to to to figure out what to do with all of this um on the one hand we're trying to piece together things we may make it worse I mean they they had hours to sit down and talk about it and I guess I don't know the answer is I don't know Sarah not ready Valerie also not ready all right the not ready is clearly have it uh okay but we will need to make a choice at some point you know and probably April 11th is is seems to me like a good time to to do it it's still somewhat early in the hiring I'm not sure if there aren't you know certain positions that couldn't be hired if you know you're going to have is is it because of the bumping issues is why you're thinking that we may end up you know like an ETS might be become a teacher or World Language teacher might become a yes clearly clearly for those areas where um those certifications come into fact into play in areas where where um there isn't the overlap uh those those positions can be so it's it's not you know it doesn't stop the whole production but it does limit us Elementary School is probably where you have the most movement too in terms of positions I would imagine yeah they uh the team has already done an analysis of what um what impact um that would have for for people in these particular categories Brian Jody could I ask more questions about the literacy coaches um my question is could you just speak to I know you spoke to this briefly last time but could you speak again to the delivery of the professional development next year because I've heard the you said there was literacy specialist but I've also heard that there is coaching included within the in the within the purchase and I'm just wondering if you could talk a little bit more about that because I'm pretty concerned about being able to roll this out and it has to be done right and I know you are too I just want to sort of hear more about that so when you purchase a new program it comes with um professional development for example the one that we cost it out I don't know if it's the one we're going to go to but it's a fairly typical offer is they offer both online and in person coaching to help roll out the program so we would have that for one year um as Natalia said two of the coaching positions um are lost through attrition um we have two retirements that um would impact that so that um it wouldn't be somebody losing a position those positions aren't filled right now um or won't be filled at the end of the year one retired in the winter one will be retiring in the summer are there any literacy specialist rules that are open no okay so let's just say that we didn't fill those two positions would that be half of the 432 655 or not quite because those are probably higher salaried it might be a little bit more okay than that right so I can't remember I asked the principles and jod about this particular particularly and I think I fored the email but I don't know if I did just as a data point to share and if you have two coaches across the district that is like the thinnest layer of peanut butter available in anyone building to the point of like one person covering four schools might it reaches a level of that was my understanding a level of inefficiency and ineffectiveness because there's too much ground to cover where I think that it might still be useful though is we heard that one of the gaps that would be left if we had totally we totally eliminate it would be on the professional development side because these are the people who have been trained and yes it's certainly not ideal to have that kind of ratio but for professional development purposes that might still be workable in terms of making the least bad choice given what we're confronted with so can I offer one Counterpoint to that um the training that you heard referred to tonight was the literacy collaborative training that our teachers went to which the model that we're moving away from I just I wanted to clarify that point for the committee all right can I just clarify what we're requesting between now and the next time we discuss the budget are we are we requesting simply uh further analysis of the FTE and corresponding savings for starting or language at different grade levels or is there something else I think there are two parts to it so one part would be trying to get more exact numbers about what the savings would look like just from a purely Financial cold blunt perspective what does it look like and then the second piece of it is what's workable in terms of the schedule and in terms of uh professional enjoyment of being able to handle whatever the work the resulting workload would be and I think that second piece is a bit more complicated because because we would need some to develop a new model if it were to start at grade three or grade four and look and and see how that plays out that Mariah I'm just concerned that the amount of work that that data collection will take will take like the entire two weeks of multiple people's time I'm not saying it's not important and that we have the right data here but the a potential other way to do that is just to like reduce the FTE that we expect there to be savings on and take a more conservative approach to the values that we come from this if you want to use that I'm just that's one way to approach this is just be more conservative in what's being shown there my worry in doing that is what Andy mentioned I don't want to just have a program for the sake of having it so I I'd want to make sure that it's workable and that it'll be at but if you're reducing fewer FTE oh I see what you mean yes you're essentially building a greater cushion I also think I it makes me um cringe to think about again this literacy coaches specialist uh choice but at the level at which the program is being retained and given that the training that the coaches have um is not consistent with the direction that the literacy program is going in um is that a choice that we should make at this time I think you're right I think we should I just have one follow-up question for Dr Fortuna what would professional development look like for the new literacy curriculum and who would be providing that for year one it would be the publisher of whatever program we choose okay and then in future years who would you anticipate future years we would look at hopefully not needing as many literacy Specialists because our tier one instruction would be improving so we wouldn't have so many students in need um as you heard tonight and so we could look at repurposing some of those back as coaches who have been trained and become experts in using the program um that we put into place okay all right sounds like Mariah was on the I'm gonna make the motion okay for the literacy coaches we have a second reluctantly making the motion Helen seconds notah your vote literacy coaches remove literacy coaches remove remove to remove that line all right what's happening in the room a clarification about who is retiring okay and is it two people yes two people but one is a literacy specialist and the other is a literacy coach no all right and it sounds like there might be one other all right so let's not Natalia your your vote that's that's not our concern I mean I'm going to vote Yes with the hopes that that the information we've gotten is correct Stephen abin Mariah I'm a reluctant yes Suzanne yes Andy yes Helen yes Sarah yes Valerie no and I vote Yes all right uh seven to one one all right so that reduces our Gap to all right bety I'll switch my vote to yes I have it as $1,769 all right go ahead um the admin facing positions at the high school and Anthony did not commit to that but I think we can make that decision and um at this time I'm willing to do that and so it's not a net netting out of the seven teaching positions it's some other second that Natalia yes Steven yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Andy no Helen sorry I don't understand this is uh 1.5 administrative from the high school but we don't even know we don't even know who they are so it's 1.5 to take out oror would be out of the high school Bud somehow yes right okay yeah and I'm sorry the the motion is clarified that it's administrative administrative non- student facing okay all right uh Valerie yes and I also vote Yes so that brings our new Gap to 98433 now that'd be fifth that'll be starting in fifth all right do we want to talk about edtech Specialists sorry what's the 0 five of the FTE again in the OTL line that's the secretary for uh ET Library reducing it to halftime so the 1.5 or three different positions just to be clear the 1.5 administrative is three different positions so uh halftime coordinator World Language halftime secretary World Language and halftime secretary for Library not right Susan do oop sorry jeez um do you happen to have the value of the halftime coordinator for um edte and libraries not off the top of my head ballpark I I can't even I can't even I'm sorry I could go back to my notes but I I can't pull it out of my head tonight I I think at this point I'm willing to move the edtech specialist retention all right uh Natalia your vote to retaining The edtech Specialist position yeah I'm abstain no doesn't make us go up it's category we would no longer consider we're making Cuts so Natalia abstains Stephen yes Mariah yes Suzanne uh I'm going to abstain at this point I'm going to vote no again not because I don't value that group but without settling the World Language piece of it yet I'm not comfortable uh committing to this cut I mean committing to this preservation Andy yes Helen yes Sarah yes Valerie stain all right well the yeses have it so we're not going to touch ETS I think this does likely mean we need to put some more options back on the table so one of those could include classroom consolidations there were four that would still keep us within our guidelines um do we have any news about kindergarten Reg ations or anything like that that might help to actually but the actual registrations for kindergarten and how it's pacing against what we've had in years past I think you have to come to I'm sorry we can have a conversation but they can't hear um the um the projections that we put for um were based on uh the estimated numbers uh Megan uh forecasted and uh there hasn't been anything that changes the forecast that we presented wait Susan before you go um there are there are are two class there are two school grades that average over 22 and only one grade that averages over 23 and that's the haze uh Rising fourth grade class that averages 25 so that's right on the line of our guidelines uh is there any consideration to creating an extra section running counter to the consolidation question I think the lowest class size um is kindergarten in um Pierce and we do have one if you looked at the the analysis I shared the last time there is one class at Hayes that's over guideline at 25 and a half it's that one it's the rising fourth grade I think it's I think it's the rising fourth grade yeah so so what I'm wondering so so it it could be a matter of if reapportioning it could be a matter of reapportioning though we haven't but we're not looking at a potential higher there it would be a reapportionment I I would think that based on the numbers if they if they're even lower in Pierce okay then that number wouldn't I I don't know how you can well the reason I'm bringing up here you know I haven't talked to the principal but I'm if we're looking at consolidation I just want to put on the table that there's also uh there's also demand for a potential extra section that the haze um Rising fourth grade is right on the line of our guidelines in our budget book if not slightly over so before we consolidate I think we should probably look to reapportion unless I'm misreading the budget book well my point being though before we look at consolidation as a budget opt option we should consider the fact that there there may be fewer opportunities to consolidate than have been presented to us we can't just look at low numbers we also have to look at high numbers are there any other categories that we want to put back on the table I I understand what you're saying Stephen uh but it's a category at least so classroom consolidations taking another look at that there were four that had been identified although some caution with that so I believe three of them were at Lawrence and it would be right up at the top which means that if any students were to come in we would then be over the guidelines I'm sorry however I thought Susan's last presentation said that there were zero classrooms no there were four there were three at Lawrence there was one at Pierce uh Pierce 8th grade and the complication was that with the three at lawen if you add even I think one student in any of those then all of a sudden you're at the guideline or possibly over in one or more of the instances and then at Pierce there's the complication of even though the classroom size would be 21 which sounds reasonable the logistical issue of Middle School teaching model uh and then your point about hay so is it really for but there might be something in there and we're looking at go ahead Valerie sorry I was gon to say I think it's worth looking at because we do have the buffer zones that are you know to to be utilized for purposes like this so if we had somebody come in in eighth grade perhaps they don't go to pierce perhaps they go to Driscoll um so I mean I think it's at least worth looking at I agree and similarly with the Lawrence situation even though it's close maybe students who move in would go to frr or Pierce depending on where they are Natalia and with Lawrence because there are three couldn't you sort of consolidate and then the principle the last minute like take a bet and not all three will go over and so like switch a teacher to a different grade level I know it's kind of I don't know if you can do that I'm not like if they're cons if they're like third fourth and fifth and you sort of decide you you say to we're going to cut one meaning move them to Haze or something and then that I think it depends when that decision has to be made but at any point more broadly speaking you know the superintendent does these things according to what he sees is appropriate and I think that we shouldn't be messing and you know I think we've told them a guideline not to have classes under 15 definitely under 16 would be preferable um and you know that that moving around will happen you know just organically because that's what happens people move in people move out and some people don't even know they're moving out until you know very late so you know it uh it causes the the and and they don't tell us which is the harder part that we don't know right right one of the things that I'm still struggling with too is that I'm just thinking about the time that was taken by the deputy superintendent and the principles to come up with this prioritize list and um reflecting on the message that that sends um about you know our our valuing of their guidance and so I'm not saying I you know I I feel conflicted about the section reductions I feel conflicted about K to5 but I just want to sort of say that out loud that I'm I'm I I'm concerned about um that sentiment and how we how we may or may not be making them um feel respected or disrespected all right so I I agree with you Mariah and I would certainly hope that our district leadership doesn't feel disrespected but we as a school committee also are in a very difficult predicament in that we don't only represent School administration of course but the community more broadly and we all we have to sort of balance the interests of what the con what Brooklyn residents would like and what our Educators would like and also what you and administration would like and perhaps our own Visions as well and uh that's always a tricky balance and we're trying to do that the best we can but we're not looking to disrespect anyone uh U from any of those groups I just mentioned all right so in terms of adding back in potential buckets to look at so classroom consolidations and if we use that 80,000 figure and possibly four FTE are identified that's another 320,000 that we might have doesn't mean we'll use it but depending on where we land with World Language we might we might need to now are there any other potential areas that we want to re-explore for closing the budget Gap Natalia I mean is it worth going back and saying we want you like this like principles to identify a few things because I don't think consolidation of all four makes sense like I think that would be too risky but we got a three I'm I'm trying to figure out why we're where we are it's because of the Tech we said don't touch it and we added in the two BHS positions right right but we don't necessarily have to touch all four so there's about 320,000 in that group of four yeah and maybe this is just hypothetically we said all right you're going to cut two somewhere and then that would be 160 so with the four ftes for classroom consolidations we wouldn't necessarily have to say all four we might land on on Two And that's an amount I'm just trying to figure out where are different areas that we could potentially make Cuts albeit very reluctantly in an effort to try to make World Language workable is there attrition anywhere else that is happening I mean I I I feel really horrible talking about real people real jobs right now and so I'd like to know where attrition is happening we did take into account um attrition when we made um the analysis though uh the analysis jod gave was ballpark the analysis that is on my slides is real and reflects riffs bumps based on certification um and we did that in the order in which those priorities are before you tonight so the numbers that are on the slides that you're looking at are real numbers and and it's not a matter of ballpark where you can say 2 FTE equals that it my numbers are real and we did take into account patrici open positions obviously those were considered first all right can we go back to that oh here we it's in order well are we trying to get to a number tonight is that the goal so if it is what makes sense at this point is to keep up to the fifth grade is that correct a through yeah because then we're basically there I mean could you could we say something come back we can add into it I was going to say if we can consolidate something classes then that would give us money right I possibly even just one class would would be enough to B to balance it if go to k to four rather than K to five like we did K to five now if the numbers are they're close okay they should be close I'm just saying with the numbers we have you could do sorry but the the number the differences in the numbers are $100,000 per year that suggests that it's bet that it's very few ft the FTS aren't actually representing the savings right nows is um so how do you get there's there's 04 FTE no no look look hang on MAR 12.2 to 12.6 is4 ft because this is an actual so then going back point4 how is that $100,000 back yes going back4 this one is based on the calculation this one is actual this is not so you're just going up but I don't think we have to do it to the Penny the the point though we left in fifth grade it would be 978 correct am I reading that correct correct right and we're talking 984 in our $136 million budget find 5,000 more dollars somewhere have have we already made we haven't put so right now in that figure no nothing on world languages is there because we haven't made a choice along with that suggestion I I would really be pushing our OTL to find a way to make the world language program that we want and that that works and um and that we commit ourselves to it also so at some point we do have to trust these estimates uh because it would be a lot of work to expect within two weeks to have all yeah this answered and I'm inclined to agree with suzan that given the approximately 100,000 gap between starting in fourth grade and starting in in fifth grade I think we can find that 100,000 from the classroom consolidation group so if we removed two of those four FTE that identified that still keep us within class guidelines that opens up enough to start in fourth grade according to this that's actually starting at fifth oh you're saying fourth no if we do if we do two of those four classroom consolidations yeah that giv that would cover the approximately 100,000 difference y sorry when when you say actual Maria what is the actual the FTE cut this is what Susan presented to us in the prioritized list on March 14th and it reflects actual Sal she just said it reflects the actual salary the the this is the actual dollar amount of what of going to of removing K through five and retaining sixth grade days we're saying there's an actual cut of 12.6 FTE if we start at the sixth grade right okay is that rights correct okay so then I'm suggesting that going back each year should be an even amount and that should be reflected in the savings okay so the reason I think that is because there's an even amount of time that goes back every year until you get to the difference between second and third grade where there's a time Jump Sarah is is my assumption correct yeah so that's why I'm saying that that this there needs to be further analysis on these numbers and that's why I don't have faith in the savings numbers as they are currently right now Susan is this because they are actual numbers and so sometimes there's smaller groups in different grades and teachers that have different salary levels is that does that explain it when conducting a through five it was based on actual an actual construction of what the impact would be we did not do that for a k through two setting or K through we looked at it holistically so to go back and figure out exactly the exact dollar impact because it's different people can bump if they if they have a world if they're in World Language and I have an opening in um and they're certified and they're pts they're entitled to a position in a teacher's role would say at the elementary which then bumps somebody there so then I have to I have to non-renew or riff somebody and as a classroom teacher so that it's a lot of moving Parts um and so what I can say is that the 1,79 23 is real that's the real impact of bumping and making sure that anybody that's pts entitled to a position has a position return turning anyone from leaves of absence back bumping into where they they have a slot that's open here so it's it is a lot so what I can tell you is that is true 1,79 213 is the actual impact it would have if we cut K through five but I can't say exactly without going through that whole thing and then if you add sections to it and I'm cutting a section then it then it then those people that are in those sections might bump into something else that's not related to where we're cutting them so it's it's it's really is complex many of the teachers have said it's it's not a simple math exercise it just it isn't it has Ripple effects in all different direction that's why my concern is if we're if we're not estim if we're estimating the cuts too conservatively we're setting the program up for an even accelerated level of burnout if we're not really estimating the the true level of cuts because that looks like a very that looks like a low level of cuts it looks to me like we should be going at least two FTE back per year but that's not reflected either in the FTE number or the savings I I again this is this is my best estimate from having talked to World language teachers um but my the reason I'm being so obsessive about this is that I don't want to vote on a cut that results in even more difficult ult schedules going forward because if there's anything we know we have to set up the world language program going forward on an even stronger basis for what we're left with yes so do you think another approach we could take is not necessarily determine the grade level but the number of FTE that that it seems to me that we could just use a heris to go back a certain like an average number of FTE and just be really conservative about it and then if we have a surplus Then I then I would feel a confidence that we're at least setting up a program for success we're coming up with a level at which we feel confident that we're going to have a s a serious investment in a successful program at a certain level what would you say tomorrow to a parent or a principal who is asking you what are we offering for our world language program you'd say well I'm cutting 5 FTE well what does that mean what's the uh what's the alternative I don't know I'm just saying that doesn't feel like an appealing alternative to me I I think it's a better alternative than the numbers we have currently well I also Stephen don't think it takes into account what Susan just said about bumping and everything else I I don't know that we know what to say to anybody who asked us about I don't know fifth grade teacher at at that point I I may be misunderstanding it just seems to me that the way we're currently estimating has levels of FTE what am I saying that I'm what am I saying that's not making sense to people maybe I should ask what are you why am I not getting what you're saying I'll just stop would you mind saying that um at the microphone where everyone um at home can hear you this model with the numbers for just six seven and eight the amount of Ft based off of the initial 26 when you're subtracting what's left over isn't enough to staff 68 with the the amount of that they're saying that you would save if you got rid of K5 what's left over only works if you continue to overload teachers and give them a much higher workload than their peers in other subject areas in the middle school so it wouldn't actually be 25 you would it would require all World language teachers to teach 26 blocks per week instead of 25 so you need an additional for sixth grade to cover that you would need a little bit of FTE at H school for those sections um to get your numbers we have the numbers we ran the numbers now I think Dr Fortuna ran numbers on that too for at least sixth grade and that came to an additional 160,000 is that what we're referring to to run just 6 through eight right I mean so what we just heard combined with the size of the Gap that Still Remains suggests that our only remaining option is to eliminate K through five right because of none of the other options would would would get us there if if they're all underestimates except for um except for the Susan's number for for the the original proposal from staff we have to do something I mean it's 10 o'clock at night we still have more Goode Mar I mean is it possible is it possible for the committee to um essentially put a two budget an option on which is we're we're putting together this budget for x and we would like to retain K5 World Language and we put it to town meeting that the option is to retain it that's not an approach that I'm personally comfortable with I think it'll be very divisive and then also we get into a situation where we're seeding some control over our own destiny I would prefer that we reach a decision that we're comfortable with given the unenviable choices we have to make yeah but I think it's such a big deal to cut K through five that town meeting should be aware of it yeah I mean it's it's like a philosophical change in our entire curric like it's not that we're cutting you know like it's it's a huge shift and I I do think Town meetings should be part of that conversation I mean I don't know the problem is what will come up in that conversation is well about the seniors they're they have no budgeting and they're in need and then you know you get the it really becomes I mean it's better for us to make our decisions about our budget I would think um if we get more money certainly there's ways of of working this and I mean I just I just can't cut K through five like that to me see I mean I get Andy that's what you're saying that's the only option I just can't do it so I you know I don't know if if I would go back to the principles in the drawing board and say you know i' like give us other options or sounds like what we're hearing now so some of us were trying to find ways to maybe start in third grade or fourth grade or fifth grade but it sounds like that doesn't even work that to try to make World Language function well we would have to be adding to this and we're not in a position to add so maybe we do look at K5 then as a group I I hate to say that but it sounds like that's really the only viable option at this time under the limited funds that we have because we're not willing to change the model of five days a week because we think that's a really good model of like seventh and eighth graders getting it five days a week yeah we're not I don't think we want to change that model because it it impacts all of their scheduling yeah Mariah Jody I'm sorry I have question for you uh we've talked in the past about after school and you looked at that and um we've also put in our budget priorities for summer program to enhance the summer programming and um given the number of hours that we're talking about over the year um is there any research or any any you know your thoughts on could we do a compelling week-long summer program that would achieve the same number of hours it doesn't do any of the things but it but it at least or it doesn't do almost any of the things but it does do some of the things in terms of least some level exposure well there's I have a couple of thoughts on this if we go five days a week in grade six that would make up for um 2third of the time lost in grade five just doing it numerically um because grade five means three days a week and not five days a week um we could explore summer program I'm also exploring some electronic options um that have come a long way with AI um that would never replace our talented teachers but would be an option worth exploring Suzanne trying to reach someplace where we can land I mean could we say that um we eliminate k four not that I want to but that and so we would balance our budget and then so you'd start in fifth and if it turns out that we have some consolidation for classes that we could start to open it up and fourth that's where I was going but I think there's not enough if I get it consolid by these numbers there would be enough yeah consolidation would be four classes is four times it's 320,000 which would include that would could include grade four by Enough by quite a bit well I'm saying we don't know how many consolidations but it even one or two would help us get to the to include another grade according to these numbers right so yeah so I think are you moving that we start World Language instruction in grade five but if the numbers somehow work out that we could start in grade four we would do that that's what I'm suggesting all right is there a second com sure go ahead um just that I think the principles had said that if if those were the two if if the option was K4 or K5 with six at five days they preferred sixth grade at five days as opposed to going to K4 as opposed to including um fifth grade or fourth grade Dr fora can you address that I believe that's what they that is true it's the best thinking of the principles that we rather than adding fourth and fifth grade back in that we and their school communities and their students would be better off doing six five days a week even though none of these are cuts that people want to entertain that was the feeling of the principles then how do we address that concern about age 10 as really the last moments where you should be embarking upon language instruction to really effectively learn it and pronounce correctly because that that leaves us off by a couple years it does leave us off by a couple of years but I also posit that many people have learned languages starting in middle school maybe not you know to the same extent but students certainly have so Jody correct me if I'm wrong are sixth graders are 11 when they started is that right approximately yeah and Sarah you said up to 12 was the current thinking AG you're being polite and not saying the word puberty but so you can't really put puberty on a particular age is the issue I just like to express a concern about the five days a week model if uh if we're if we're worried about the sustainability of teacher schedules now I I would I think we would need some assurance that teacher schedules would be uh loosened enough for those teachers because that seems like it would stretch them further I'm not sure how we would make it more ra I'm not sure how that would become more feasible for teachers they be end up being yeah it's a full period it's a full period Stephen right but currently teachers who are teaching three days a week can be 1.0 if they're assigned advisories and other duties whereas if they're assigned 5 days a week they'll be strictly assigned to that and they won't be able to do anything but that what was that but it's beginning Spanish you're not doing homework necessarily beginning Spanish yeah yeah well it it would be the same as any other content teacher middle grade so I you know maybe they do they teach four or five classes a week it' be the same as English and math and social studies you might have a third grade level yeah yeah yeah yeah but your your loads your case your your class load should be about the same if you're having five times you should be at 25 classes a week well yeah okay suan make all right soan Zan moves that we start in fifth grade yeah and start in fourth grade if the numbers work out can't hear you Mariah what I said was not worth repeating okay okay all right now uh if we were to opt for the 5 days in sixth grade model there would be some additional FTE and could you go over those numbers I know you've sent them by email but for the public there'd be two additional FTE needed in order to be able to schedule it um correctly um on par with the other content Area Teachers which would be our goal okay I'm going to try this let's see if this will work I think you took off your motion did you it wasn't seconded okay let's let's go with what the principles and the administration have been trying to tell us let's go 6 to8 with the commitment to to working on getting it down if it's one either getting it up or down whatever works best because that's complicated too um and let's let's get a budget let's be done and then if we get more money we can then work out how we're going to do that and that's with sixth grade still at three days not at five no at five oh at five okay so that that's not actually what uh that's actually it seems to me that the staff's first recommendation is six to eight with six with three days for sixth grade then their second choice would be that with five days for sixth grade and then there there beyond that then we would we would be adding lower grades and in terms of our budget we can afford which we could do sixth grade with five days so instead of saving uh one million about it would be around why why would we do that like what's the what's the advantage of going to five days a week because that actually is within our our budget with The Gap as it stand but how what what value is being embodied by going to five sixth grade already has some free periods so this has been a concern uh when we were looking at the middle school review in that each K8 handles grade six differently so at some schools there's an extra elective equivalent at other schools they are study halls so in a way I see this also as uh improving Equity across sixth grade because if we have five day a week language instruction then we're no longer going to have those free periods that are sort of floating around differently in each school and the Counterpoint to that from the principls was sixth grade is a transition time and going from like going full bore on all of the different programming at five days a week was a lot for kids and the second point they made was we were still going through the implications of the Middle School review and essentially making this decision in advance of the the products of that was precipitous and a third point they made was that um currently students with disabilities can participate in sixth grade World Language at three days a week uh a lot of them would have to drop it in sixth grade if it went to five days so that would create a new inequity I believe that's the three points thank you for remembering the third one and this is why the pr we should listen to the principl to begin I also want to remind the committee that sixth grade is the first year that we have choice for students in their language which we would maintain so if we were to if the committee were to vote the um 1,79 and then also vote the 132,000 that goes along with that then that would be a reduction of just over 1.2 million and so we could put some things back why don't we hold that as you know options for what might be needed options so I mean we get an influx of students we may need you know an FTE you know it gives Oh you mean adding additional funds to the reserve the reserve uh staff Reserve bucket that we had talked about you have that or don't have that in this no at the elementary school we didn't add just at the high school so but we knew we had the sections and there was a little capacity to push buffer zone Around The Bu buffer zone so that we could accommodate uh enrollment shifts you know and in case I can't get it all for Pierce we have some money there too I'm going to work on it do we so Helen your motion now is is three days a week or five days a week for for sixth grade no I don't like any of it it's like I I just we need to to come to a decision and I'm trying to help us to do that um so the principles are recommending three days a week and they gave their reasons and we I think made a valiant effort to try to find um more precise savings estimates for going back different years so the I'm sorry there a second my concern with that is the explanation we received is because of the complications with bumping rights and lure that would be a very difficult exercise to engage in to get exact dollars so the best we can really do would seem to be these estimates off of the 880,000 average salary it's just a enormous amount of work to go over every possible permutation something that would make me a bit more comfortable in terms of making a decision here would be if I had a better understanding of what the plan would be for World Language moving forward what would be sort of the ideal scenario that is realistic given our limited dollars so if we said for instance if you have X number FTE what would you recommend and we ask our uh coordinator our principles and get some kind of input on that as opposed to doing it by grade level and I know that Mariah had some concerns in terms of messaging because then we don't really know where we're at and I don't know how much time it would take to come up with a new model that might be very unrealistic uh but perhaps I see some head nodding but if any of you would like to speak to that about what that would entail to come up with a new model based on FTE rather than grade level I think we're getting into Equity between schools how do we divide those I think it would just be a lot of work with not a long Runway to do the work to create a really strong program my my fear in this the whole time has been that what we're doing now is a disservice to our teachers we we've heard that we don't have the funds to put more money into more FTE to strengthen what we have now so our Hope was to create a really strong 6 through eight program um to be able to position our students the best way possible for when they go to high school that was the thinking of myself and the principles so those who voted no did so for the most part not because they have a better idea right now but because they want more information no or or you actually have a specific better idea you're just not moving it so what what was the what was behind the no vote you don't have to answer that I'll answer it okay um my computer's about to die so I'm going to have to like this screen will disappear and I'll plug in in a minute but um there we go um the do you mind here thanks um I have a first I lost Mariah again oh e e e e e hello e e e Valerie do you hear us now now I hear you and I see you all right just sort of testing the mic for you Dom all right so let's well who's missing Natalia and Sarah all right we'll give Natalie and Sarah another minute for those of you in the audience who were watching sorry that we lost our audio and I believe the camera went off as well but now we are back we are still discussing World Language and various permutations of it um well Stephen was talking about possibly switching his vote if it turns out that we can't actually get more information so there could be a motion to reconsider by anyone the only alternative motion is going to five days is that the only alternative motion I'd put a little more in that so I would like it to be a five days in sixth grade and a commitment to explore some immersion options for the near future I understand that many said in public comment that once he takes something away it doesn't come back but that's not 100% true um there were Cuts in music and then music came back there have been Cuts in other areas and it came back and I would want there to really be a strong commitment to try to rebuild something within the confines of our budget which of course is challenging but we do have this pressing deadline of sorts to come within the town allocation for those of us who value that Natalia and my alternative would be we cut K through three that's 874 and then we consolidate one classroom of the four all right so okay Stephen what are your thoughts on that one you seem to be uh Swing Vote here we cut K through three so you start in fourth grade and you I would be a no vote on that because I don't have faith in that number in the 10.9 right I think it's much higher than that number you think uh savings would be lower right I think the savings are much lower than that and I think we' be setting up a program to fail at that level just to get clarity on Stephen's earlier question so realistically this is the best data that we're going to have correct all right I see some head nodding Natalia a question for those who have done it um done budgets for many years Helen I'm looking at you um you know everybody's saying that that these are estimates like what amount do you end up kind of playing with like if we are off by by 200,000 okay maybe a question for Susan like what you know I agree with you I don't want to set people up for a horrible work experience and so if it means that in one school and Sarah I know you played with like the FTE numbers and that we actually have to add in a 0. five to make it fair or we have to add a one like do we have that flexibility after we passed the budget or are we never like I just want to know on 130 plus million budget what is our error usually I can't speak to your patterns or Trends here because I haven't been here I can say that this year's budget right now we're running very hot and uh um and so I'm a bit concerned at this particular point about our current budget but I don't I don't know what your historical trend is anyone else so David have you actually made made a motion I'll go ahead and do that so I'm going I'll switch my vote then all right so I'm going to move that we start World Language and grade six at 5 days a week no before you do that I'd like to switch my vote so that we have a majority for starting at K5 3 days a week so that the original motion passes or you need to move for reconsideration I'd like to move for a reconsideration then okay no he was he was in the minority or he was in the majority yeah all right so Stephen moves it is there a second st's moving for reconsideration on your motion of sixth grade three time times a week and up I'll second that Stephen seconds Natalia your vote no stevenh yes Mariah no Suzanne yes Andy yes Helen yes Sarah no Valerie yes I vote now but the yeses now have it all all right so what's our new number Mariah okay hold on um and the OTL uh would add on to that another so it' be 227 we haven't voted on the OTL change but that goes along with the vote that was made so 1.0 of the OTL is associated with the World Language and the other 0.5 does that have to be bound in with the other 1.0 so that we no longer need that 0.5 to balance the budget so it could out right I thought the justification was that um edtech and libraries was the only program with a full-time secretary um okay I can go look and see what that number is I mean to some extent there could be something else we want to put back like the Pierce campus split as one example but if we can have that on the project budget why would we so I would rather I don't think you can put the teacher position on there okay yeah I don't you can't fund teachers in a building project with bonded money I mean that might be a consideration to put back in at least the special education teacher yeah this yeah do we want to vote the OTL the OTL last line now can we just leave it at this and those small changes we can do next time when right they go together yeah yeah the one but I asked what the 0. five value was and Susan didn't have that uh cost at least at that point jod says it's 28,000 for the library secretary I can go look okay it up for sure so it would be 104 332 well actually voting for a budget number we're not right we don't actually have to have every line exactly voted for we we're voting for well but the but there's the the question of the the staff notifications um and then there's the question of what we might want to add back did I oh no I didn't drop out it thinks I've dropped out but I'm still here so are you going to make a motion on that David or someone so do we have the funds now to keep the 0.5 um in OTL and um the special educator for for the pier split well we'd be a little short of that that was 138 right well no the that was that was the teacher was 80 so we could we could make that 586 80 and retain the teacher okay I'm gonna make that motion I'll second okay all right Natalia your vote oh we have hold on it's because my it's I'm sorry give me one second to deal with technical difficulties on could you clarify that vote I just want to understand it yeah I don't know why see I'm sorry it's just that my my computer has decided to I think I'm back hold on yeah so the the vote is to to move the special educator for the Pierce campus split back into the budget gotcha yes so that would make this reduction 58 860 instead of the 138 okay okay can I just be triply clear in what we're doing so we are taking the the motion is we're taking the 1.0 reduction from OTL that's directly associated with World Language we're keeping the 0.5 we haven't talked about OTL yet I don't think we're talking about the Pierce special educator right now oh I I thought I thought we were just doing both together so so the we're trying to get to the B like as close to zero as possible Right I was asking can we can we do three can we do that by doing three things one we take the 1.0 uh from OTL we keep the 0. five from OTL that's the um uh that's the secretary for libraries and edtech and then we we also uh provide funds to hire another special educator for Pierce because of the campus split can I ask why would we keep um edtech Library Secret at 1.0 when the others are all5 no we're keeping it at. five no it's at right it's at 1.0 and it's being reduced by5 to.5 all the other ones are 0.5 and this one's being taken from a 1.0 to a 0.5 to in in parity with the other that's not being eliminated want to keep that that halftime position that's not something we can take at all okay um okay sorry right we're going to take all 1.5 from OTL that was proposed and you're going to add back in Pierce special educator yeah I mean well I would make the motion we add it back in the whole Pierce amount and if it can be taken from the project budget great but if not at least we have a plan for Piers I don't know where we are okay so I'm gonna make a motion we're going to figure this out because all the BHS one was a plug remember that that dollar amount is not sacran and so that was literally a number to get to 3 million so I'm going to make a motion that we're going to remove the Pierce campus split from our choices of things to eliminate from the budget we're going to now keep the Pierce and is that a is that a one FTE why is it 138,000 it's it's um and and an 40,000 for administrative support it's a special education teacher okay and it is um an additional intern from Northeastern which is 18,500 that makes up the1 38 whatever yes okay so I made that motion and I seconded and now I do think I understand it natal your vote stevenh Yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Andy yes Helen yes Sarah yes Valerie yes and I also vote Yes okay I'm GNA make another motion which is the 132 33 2 1.5 from OTL to remove from the budget I second Natalia your vote Yes Steph Yes Mariah abstain Suzanne you motioned you you moved it yeah I'm just getting us across the Finish Line it's a done deal you already voted the other thing but I don't want to vote for it uh yes Andy yes Helen yes Sarah same Valerie yes I also vote Yes okay hold tight and then I'm going to make a motion to adjust the BHS positions by whatever it takes to get to balance this which is I think to adjust it down by 88732 so it'll be 54 and change I can do it right now hold on second Adalia your vote Yes stevenh oops I don't actually understand that most hold on one second and I'll yeah but I don't understand in what form so there was a 133,000 number that was a madeup number so we're just correct just to get us to a 3 million potential cut so now we're just reducing that madeup number hooray for budgeting I vote Yes Suzanne yes Andy yes Helen yes Sarah yes Valerie yes and and I also vote Yes so conratulations but we need to now vote a number yes is that happen I have that in the last slide I I did the actual vote we need to take yeah I mean I couldn't find one historically so I made one based on um my my life we had a historical one but I'm sure yours would I couldn't find it okay no but also don't we have to say and assuming no um um school choice let's see what Susan's number is and or what Susan's vote is and and if we need to in the future we could always revote it but at least we'll have voted it once it's the yeah it's the last slide L is and you may not like it I did look the one that you had last year had to do with override and this and that and it just didn't apply in our situation all right so I move that the PSB school committee approves an fy2 operating budget of 136,137 Springtown meeting I was thinking your override that you had made a commitment can we just vote it with a period after the number you can okay all right I will amend my own motion the PSB I move that the PSB school committee that we approve an fy2 operating budget of 136 60036 m638 226 which matches the town allocation is there a second Suzanne seconds Natalia your vote yes Steven yes Mariah abstain Suzanne yes Andy yes Helen a reluctant yes Sarah yes Valerie yes and I also vote Yes and I changed mine to abstain I didn't realize that was an option Mar I will abstain I am so heartbroken all right so seven yeses and one abens and two abstentions all right now next up possibly how how import Jody is it that we go over the student Opportunity Act plan all right so we have to do it all right so we will now have a presentation and possible vote on fy2 through 27 student Opportunity Act plan 30 seconds the student Opportunity Act Act is um when they changed the foundational funding formula and they gave money more Town um towns more money um part of what we had to do was create a plan for how we were going to spend that money it's a three-year plan the beauty of this particular s SOA is that it aligns with our strategic plan so there's nothing in this plan that we're submitting to the state that's not already in the Strategic plan it focuses on our literacy program adoption focuses on closing our achievement Gap and designing um an tiered system of support or multi-tiered system of support all of which is in our strategic plan um we just need the school committee to vote on this I feel very lucky that our strategic plan is now in the same three-year cycle as the SOA I move that we approve the student Opportunity Act as we received it is there a second second Suzanne seconds Natalie are your vote Yes Steven yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Andy yes Helen yes Sarah yes Valerie yes and I also vote Yes all right these next two items are quick and Lisa has been patiently waiting for a while so we're going to do them Le has been waiting all this time for it this will be great that that should take like a couple minutes all right just waiting for the next one also no no these are quick all right are you sure yes so we will now go to the proposed statory revision to the student code of conduct first reading well hello um while the majority of the PSB student code of conduct is accurate and up to dat a small change is required um for contextual purposes there are those three statutes that govern student discipline and each statute requires due process protections and an anticipation of the tiered focused monitoring review um focusing on civil rights and special education we noticed that the update was needed for statute 37h and 3 quarter specific to the role of the principal around disciplinary events and procedures so to date the law provided rights to students which included an entitlement to make up work during any and all suspensions and to continue their education during a long-term suspension but in 2022 school districts were required to add language providing additional Clarity um regarding the explicit steps that administratively have to be taken to re-engage the student in the learning process including remedy like mediation or conflict resolution restorative justice practices collaborative problem solving so in other words this additional language puts additional emphasis on a student being a work in progress and being given opportunities and interventions that will help them develop new skills for future Independence so we are requesting uh your approval for a first reading to update the student code of conduct to add this additional paragraph that's the only change that's needed um and there's some referencing within the document itself thank you Betsy for putting that together for us any questions discussion this is only a first reading so we don't vote yet all right don't you need to have this yes but if it's in process we're okay it would be helpful to have the vote but um we certainly understand you know I mean it's the Mass general laws we don't really have much choice you know okay notice okay we we typically have two readings all right so we will next go to a possible vote to appoint a Deputy superintendent for student services I move that we appoint Elizabeth oconnell as our Deputy superintendent for student services for a term of three years conditioned upon the successful negotiation of a mutually agreeable contract of employment approved by both parties and I'll note that we've each received a copy of that contract uh and it will be signed very soon assuming that we vote this through second second Valerie second your vote Natalia yes Stephen yes mariia yes Suzanne yes Andy yes Helen yes Sarah yes Valerie yes and I also vote Yes welcome aboard for three more years thank you it's an honor and a privilege thank you so much for the opportunity all right we will now move to subcommittee and liaison reports can we move to a journ just only if someone only if someone has something pressing otherwise we will skip through yeah just an announcement if anybody doesn't know here uh but I think you probably do on Tuesday there will be some very important um meetings on article 97 it's a combined meeting of parks and R and the Conservation Commission uh to discuss article 97 and hopefully come to a unanimous vote for each board uh there'll also be a hearing for the select board at this is all happening within the same time framework um to have a hearing and vote on our warrant article that we've put forward uh and then the building commission at 8:00 will be meeting to discuss uh discuss and hopefully uh vote the early demolition project so that's on April 2nd and it's a joint meeting of the select board conservation and Parks correct parks and the votes on Parks and conservation must be unanimous well that's my understanding okay all right any other and um and I told you but the building commission does not need to be unanimous okay are there any other subcommittee or one go ahead on so the meeting is a hybrid meeting so if people want to they can come here to the selectman's uh um conference um room or uh you can have it at home it's posted and there's backup material on a lot of the the work that's been done in terms of article 97 um and our consultant um response to a lot of uh discussion that's been happening okay any other subcommittee releas on reports seeing none any new business seeing none we are adjourned recording stopped