##VIDEO ID:QjvteqyMYTU## [Music] [Music] [Music] know can she hear me now no she will yeah V yes I feel like you're right you're right over my shoulder I'm feel like you're right here I'm right there with you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay [Music] [Music] [Music] recording in progress all right good evening and welcome to the January 9th 2025 meeting of the Brooklin school committee uh I'd like to start by moving the consent agenda do I have a second for that a second thank Suzanne um does anybody have any questions on the consent agenda it consists of minutes for December 19th 2024 and approval of Grants go ahead the there's one of the grants which has a very small I believe it's $179 cor Betsy um difference between what was originally submitted and what was approved because of the small amount difference we had already previously approved the applications through fin finance and so this went straight to um full school committee per our new procedure but there is that slight just very small amount difference and so when we talked about with Susan was like it's small enough that we don't need to go back to finance but just FYI okay thanks Mar uh any other comments or questions before we vote all right I see none so let's start with Jesse yes uh Sarah yes Stephen yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Helen yes Carolyn yes Val yes and I vote Yes as well um and I should have mentioned before and I forgot to that uh in addition to the members who are here in the room we have uh Val FES joining us remotely so all nine of us are here all right um that takes us to the superintendent report over to you Dr gillery thank you and good evening everyone um before I walk through some pieces of the slideshow I do well actually let me start there and then I'll come back um I do want to start off with acknowledging the tremendous loss in our community our hearts go out to the family friends and colleagues of PSB teacher Matt Goldstein his wife Lyla and two daughters Valerie and violet who passed away at their home in Wakefield New Hampshire uh Mr Goldstein was an eighth grade math teacher at Baker and an exceptional educator who brought passion kindness um and dedication and Excellence to his classroom his dedication to inspiring students and shaping young minds has left an indelible mark on all who had the privilege of knowing him Mrs Goin Mrs G Goin was a proud graduate of BHS class of 1988 and her class members were remember her as a beloved and respected member of the class and smart kind and admirable and so again we want to take this time uh to acknowledge this loss in our community and I know Miss finnean is going to share a little bit more when she um gets up to speak um so I do want to um share a couple of uh just general updates um Power School some of you may have heard that power school had a national security event um Power School why did I open the box so power school is um an online service provider um many districts when I was in New York power school was basically our student information system it held our student data and that type of thing Brookline uses power school for its um human resources or our employee application process so the Cyber attack that occurred does not impact us uh but I wanted to acknowledge uh that aspect in case folks were wondering I'll share that information out uh in the community newsletter so districts that use power school for its student information system our student information system is Aspen uh is where our student data is stored um but those that used Power School in that capacity um had an attack on their data such and so that doesn't apply to Brook line so I just want to be clear about that um uh the principal search for um f frr is underway and again if you recall two years ago when I appointed Mrs whitmore's interim I committed to doing a search for a permanent principal uh and that process is starting uh now so the interview committee has been assembled they're going to meet next week uh to select the folks with whom that they want to interview as well as engage in the interview process Helen yeah I think because there are new members here maybe you can tell them who usually is on sure interview committee so usually on the um interview committee will be um members of the central office staff which will be a member of senior cabinet a curriculum coordinator and a principal and then there's an equal representation of uh parents and teachers that sit on the committee and so that makes up the interviewing committee those folks interview candidates and basically say this group we would feel comfortable with serving as the principal and what we then do is a round two interview with senior staff uh we then do that and then I do a final sort of selection to say these are the two candidates that I'd like to bring forward for the community the F frr Community or whatever School Community is impacted um for them to weigh in give their advice meet the candidates and then I make a final determination after that so the goal is to have uh the frr principal named by um early to mid-February I think is the timeline right now and that last interview but with the community is usually open to everyone so sometimes school committee members might go to that y thank you sure Carolyn so um I think Baker School is also in the second year of interim y so is that going to be on a different timeline it's on a different timeline we'll be starting that um uh right after right well while this is going but I want now that we had this event happen at Baker the tragic loss I wanted to give that Community some time before launching right into that y all right so that's Baker uh and so my next note was actually Baker is on the horizon um we the district for U has been reidentified for uh dis uh significant disproportionality again in special education for students with uh for African-American students with specific learning disabilities So Lisa and I have been talking about that and the work that needs to happen there so more information will be forthcoming but you all will remember we had that identification a couple of years back um but now we've been reidentified as such and so we'll have more information to share out but I just at least wanted to give you that alert um that that has happened that's a question sure uh when will you have information for us on that uh hopefully by the next um meeting should be able to have something there okay and well I'll wait I'll wait and not ask questions thank you all right so those are the general remarks there um then I want to move to the spotlight on Excellence um Miss finegan that's you so do you I don't know what you have first Dr Giller might I sent a slide deck oh this is what I wanted to share first um I know that Dr gillary just shared the tragic loss at Baker but I think it trickled through to the whole Brooklyn Public Schools community and I just wanted to share some joyful things that happened and some things that made us as I want you all to know what brookly public schools has always been um it really brought me back to I've been here for almost 26 years um and we received emails over when we got the news from Dr Giller a few of us were still were working over break so a couple of schools got together few three schools and were able to provide lunch for the baker staff when they returned that Friday and that was really appreciated we got a lot of text messages um just food cookies everything just so they could just take a break and be together but the other thing that happened on that Friday was we received a message from Baker that Matt was a big fan of flannel Fridays so these pictures are of all the staff members across the district who wore flannel on Friday the first one is of Lincoln that had the signs that said Lincoln loves Beaker the one in the middle is the Driscoll staff I don't know if you can move the one on the right is actually the baker staff that afternoon on Friday are there more y on the top right oh now I'm going to have to look it looks like that's Fisher Hill they have two smaller groups the one on the bottom left is all of rle school um there's also old Lincoln there's Jamie in the back and there is frr at the bottom and then on the right just so you can see the lovely lunch but I just wanted people to know how much it brought us together as a community and how appreciative Baker was of the entire Brooklyn Public Public School staff it was hard for everybody and they're still struggling and I still we sent staff over from rle guidance staff who knew this um there on Thursday and Friday and Rebecca Snider will go back on Monday because the service is on Sunday so we're anticipating that they'll still need support um moving forward but I just wanted you to see some of the joy that people were able to bring at least some comfort in a really um tragic time so that was that and then for I don't know if um Jenny Murphy is on online I don't know if Olivia is on as well or is it just Jenny I'm here wait so um I want to share one academic piece from rle Spotlight on excellence and this is from um a sixth grade collaboration between our ETF um Jenny Murphy and Olivia Dy who is our English teacher for sixth and seventh grade they do do a deep study of characters and they use bookmaker with Jenny to um document character studies um using bookmaker after they choose books from their book clubs so you can switch the slides am I can I do it myself oh okay so students have been reading various books since December and students read approximately one to four books throughout this time and these are just and they all have different themes so these are the themes that are included racial adversity disabilities historical fiction fantasy mystery multiple narratives um narrators that says um bullying and lgbtq and I think it's really important because I have had Parents ask why do we give them so many choices about what they're going to choose to read and I think it's important that students have choice on what they read because they're invested and they're able to meet in small groups with what like-minded students who have similar interests and we've seen a huge engagement in Reading in middle school when we give these kids choices next slide um these are just some of the titles that students are reading so I'll just let you take a look you can the next slide so this project highlights what students are learning about deeply about character students choose key takeaways and they put it in their readers notebooks and then they include it in a showcase so the technology Jenny do you want to just talk for a minute about what the technology piece looks like sure it's um know I don't have my camera on so the the tool we use is called Book Creator and we have a we have a we use it districtwide um it's a really great integration tool in all subjects but especially here they were able to Showcase and work collaboratively in groups to include um evidence from their readers notebooks and they wrote their key takeaway in paragraphs and they also um audio recorded it and then we will share with a greater audience so there will be shared with each other each other's home rooms and the families of rle thank you you can go to the next SL these are just pictures of the students working on their bookmakers in sixth grade in Miss Daily's class you can move and the next and we have samples of some of their work as well I know it's hard to read them but I you can look at the I I do have access to it yourselves just to see what some of the students I can't see the whole picture hold on but I like how they talk about their their less like likable qualities they're very interesting I can't read but um you can keep you can scroll through but the kids did a great job and then they were like the audio recording helps as well and then at the very end there are link so that the parents are able to also get online and see their students work so at the end we'll publish all three home rooms libraries for each everybody to see right now I just put a couple links to a couple of the books because we're still working and just finalizing the details today and tomorrow um there'll be more if you would like me to send them I'm be happy to do that and this is just more evidence I just want to emphasize that our you know our ETFs are really doing good work in the schools collaborating with the General Ed teachers and having these projects that are able to share with not just the school School Community but with the parent Community um and it's been wonderful and Jenny does this with many teachers but this was just the one that was happening most recently ETS ETS what am I saying ETF I used to be that job so you know it's late I've been here really long time I'm sorry I've been an ETF she's an ETS educational technology specialist I'm so sorry Jenny forgive me that was going to be my first question was I'd never heard of ETFs doing this in the school you probably could do that too does anybody have any questions or was I fast was I under three minutes this looks great really cool really nice I really like how you're able to put something together that looks so nice and parents can see from home Jenny are you exclusively at rle or do you go to different schools yeah there's one of us in each school I like this a lot can I speak is that okay I go ahead um I like this a lot because I I like that both as school committee members um the public and the the parents that we can really engage on the level of reading students writing to see like the high level I'm I'm always impressed by how our students write well and um then also engage in something that we might like ourselves to consider reading those books ourselves so thank you for that yeah when they're published I'd be happy to send the libraries over to the whole school committee if you'd like because they will be um published in more like a library so you'll see each class and their five or six books or so per home room I would really like that because then we can see all the different topics that students um read about thank you yeah you're welcome all right any other questions for Miss finnean so with that Miss Daly is not here but miss finegan you can accept this on their behalf the public schools of Brookline Spotlight on Excellence is awarded to Olivia Daly and Jenny Murphy with deep appreciation for spearheading this Innovative project which promotes students love of reading critical thinking skills writing skills and collabor collaborative teamwork so congratulations ronal [Applause] school all right with that I will continue the superintendance update um I want to start with an acknowledgement that our current situation um in the office of students uh Services is extremely unfortunate and I too am dismayed by and I feel the frustrations uh so my heart goes out to the families uh staff and impacted service providers but know that we are committed to um resolution and getting this resolved and getting into getting us to a point where we're not in this uh process again our are in this situation again our staff are working hard to address the current St challenges and so that's both student services staff as well as Administration and finances staff uh the vendors who have uh provided Services who have not been paid will be paid um and the goal as I checked in with Dr given this afternoon is to have everyone paid by the end of this month so we are uh the teams are working diligently there I want to give um some information on just some over brew a broad context for aspects of the budget uh hopefully everyone can see this we went back and looked sort of where we ended FY 23 on and this is the expensive side of the house not the um Personnel side of the house just on the expenses side where you can see where FY 23 expenses uh ended for oh no I'm sorry I didn't print this yeah uh FY 23 final expenses uh our fy2 24 revised budget you can see um where um the again on the the expenditure side uh where the fy2 24 budget was where the final expenses sit for fy2 and if you all remember uh at the end of last fiscal year we had to go for Reserve fund transfer because we were overx extended um and you can see that the services needed for our students uh for students and student services did require um that act and the town um supported that need and we want to make sure that we are clear that we are um making sure that we're providing uh we are providing the budgetary um expectations to meet our students need so when we look at fy2 budget you'll see that Val do I see your hand already yeah just a question on fy2 24 to make sure I'm remembering right that was mostly transportation is that right some um transportation some um um cont was it contracted Services Susan or out of District um out of district and contractor services and I think a little Transportation cost there yep um so when we look at the fy2 budget um compared to FY 24 um you can see and I will provide these slides to you but you can see um where the fy2 budget Compares with the fy2 4 budget and and you can see the increase for student services in fy2 um and look at how uh other budgets were adjusted uh as well and so the goal there was to note that we have uh increased the fy2 or the fy2 budget was increased to try to accommodate some of the overage that occurred in fy4 and you all remember that there was some stoppage uh in the district around um other um programs that we had to take reductions in uh to mitigate cost as best we could so when we look at now where we are as of today again I asked uhi Administration and finance yes Stephen just a quick clarification the if I remember also the increase to the OSS line was largely um shifting of cost categories not a true increase of costs related to OSS is that right I I remember Susan can you come up and speak to Dr given if if you wouldn't mind speaking to this I I remember we were readjusting uh where costs fell per category yeah so in this the microphone presentation it's done by office category so that uh regardless of where the OSX expense um if can hear you online I'm sorry can you hear me now yeah sorry so in this presentation here it summarizes all of our non-salary expenses by the particular office so it doesn't matter which budget line it was in so in other words whether it was at the high school or beep or student service districtwide this collapses that so you can get a view by office so I see the off yes so so the change from FY 24 to fy2 in student services is a true increase in expenditure and student services not a recategorization of cost from oaf to OSS correct okay thank you yep and where you will currently see our budget sits and this this changes um as Susan was explaining to me this changes um daily um as as um as uh costs come in or as POS are released or as uh incumbrances are shifted and so we'll get to this a little bit later but I want to say it now one uh in light of what transpired last year with our budget and we had to uh shift costs from uh other departments to cover overages one of the tra changes that was made this year was for departments or budget managers to encumber their funds so that it would look like those funds are all spent um and you couldn't necessarily charge more than what you have uh been allocated and so that's what some of the challenges are and I saw some of the questions about um some of the charge to the working group where I uh shared that we're looking for opportunities to shift costs or reduce services that wasn't saying take away entitled services or required services but that was saying for example if you've budgeted a service for lonus and lonus moves out of District you can now go in and say well I no longer need that service for lus is that something that I can free up to use in other areas so that's what that means it doesn't mean look at lonus and say lonus you have this entitled service but let's find a way to reduce that that's not what we're talking about at all so we're just saying if there is something that we budgeted that we're no longer think we need if it's truly not a need then let's free up that encumbrance so that the money can be shifted to cover required Services services that are coming in with invoices that we don't have uh so I want to be clear about that so you can currently I don't I want to ask questions when you're done with your okay my mind but I'm holding make sure you write it down oh I don't need to okay so where we currently stand um again as of today uh you'll see that each um Department what their available funds are and um my understanding is that OSS um identified um some POS that they could or or some encumbrances that they could release and therefore they have this balance that's available now that can be uh utilized to pay invoices that may be behind and you're referring to the 84,000 the 84,000 yeah um and so we're going to continue that's part of the work that we've asked the working group uh to look at is what opportunities exists for an encumbrance that was that was bookmarked that you can that can be released if it can be released if not don't release it um but if it can be released then let's do that type of thing and then you see teaching and learning um where they currently sit so so in the in the student services list the 84,000 is that the real number of what's available as of today it doesn't account it doesn't account for what's still owed then this is just dollars correct that are available to to pay pay a bill pay a bill well pay a bill that hasn't already been encumbered been encumbered right right okay okay I think that's part of the question is contracts that were not processed and so there's no the contract's not signed there's no incumbrance Associated right Susan I mean that would be the next like right and so the other part that Susan shared the 50 contracts um and correct me if I'm saying this incorrectly Susan that the 50 contracts that oaf is aware of 38 of them have been executed and 12 are the remaining 12 are in process meaning that um they're either with the vendor they're out for Signature they're waiting for either um some action from um it's it's not in the oaq being held there but it's out for processing in in some other um um someone else's queue uh at that juncture so uh quite a tremendous amount of work is happened there um for Staffing there are five new positions that OSS has requested that do not currently have a funding source and I think those of you that were at the last Finance saw this uh only one of the five positions is for oneon-one PA but again this is as of right now that doesn't mean that a kid that moves in tomorrow that has this on this service won't tip the scale or won't shift this so again these we bless you we're giving you moments in time but these moments in time can change based on the the changing um demographics of our student body student moves in student moves out all of those types of things um the estimated cost can I ask a question what are the other I know we've seen this twice in finance but I thought four of them were PA professionals yeah but this is just signaling out this is a onetoone pair but what is what's the pairs okay but like what's the what's the what are you trying to say when you're differentiating one to ones versus other I think there was a I thought there was a question about someone not having a onetoone PA I think yeah but I think the question is also is it a par that is in somebody's IEP as a shared parah whether it's one to one or whether it's a shared par on an IEP service okay I think we can we can definitely get that information as well Val and I ALS I also think that the sorry the question about the Paras it doesn't matter if they're budgeted or not budgeted there's just two different issues right of right okay yeah exactly um and so Susan do you have any indication I don't know if these are open or if they've been filled that's what I don't know I don't believe these ones in particular have been filled and we have asked that very question about of these which ones are actually written into ipps don't have the answer to that just trying to provide you with the data that I do have at this time um unencumbered contracts and I think this was what um so the other um the unencumbered contracts uh as of today are estimated to be just north of a million dollars the FY 25 Ida Grant was approved last week and by by Desi so with uh 450,000 in that Grant um identified for contracted Services which reduces is this out of this $1 million a $617,000 um basically that we have to uh fund Fund in the general fund as such um salaries that are no longer included in the idea Grant because um I think during the budgeting process a larger number of staff were projected to the idea Grant um but when OSS uh submitted the grant it did not have that same level of Staffing and so that differential is um uh an increase of the operating deficit uh by 1.2 million and I think you all I think you talked about that also at Finance at one point we did yeah last okay yes Helen so not for tonight's C but one of the things in the past that we've had um to be able to sort of track things was to have a a spreadsheet of the years and how many pair professionals we have working oneon-one or classroom pair professionals and how that number has changed over the years I think that would be really important and just for us to be able to understand is it according to the percentage of increase of students or is there more more uh pair professionals because that that's a big part I think of the cost uh that we're we're seeing so I for one would like to just have a sense of where we are compared to where we were 10 years ago or something Val I see your hand yes while we're on this slide I just want to I don't know if um Leisa is here or Susan can answer this but my understanding of the Ida Grant is that salaries are never allowed under the Ida Grant so how did we how did we mess that one up um salaries are typically what is charged to an IED I DEA Grant the idea Grant is actually the federal government's contribution to special education costs in our district and um typically you would see salaries charged to it and it historically they have been here okay thanks and then this is just to give some guidance or some information and this is what I was going to try to say a little bit earlier uh and this has been an Illuminating process for me as well um to reacquaint myself with um with the procurement practices here in Massachusetts so just breathing okay the procurement I'll just read it um for those that in the back of the room that may not be able to see it the procurement practices from bidding to ordering supplies and services that PSB follow today have been in place for many years and is well documented in a procedures manual developed by the town procurement office uh as well as the office of administration and finance back in 2018 the practices are standard operating procedures in municipalities across the Commonwealth of mass and are designed to ensure Fair open and rigorous processes the town and the school department have offered training and procurement practices and August of 23 as well as August of 24 to ensure all um staff are aware of the processes and procedures um and so again those um typically costs are that are less than 10,000 um go through a different um uh routing process and those that are 10,000 or above um go through I would won't necessarily call it a more rigorous process but it that has more steps uh in it any service any of these services that require an adult to interface with children those adults must be cored uh and that's a part of the process um as well Susan do you want to say any more about that okay um yeah yeah so so when you follow procurement process the higher the dollar value is the more you know you're required to uh have certain checks and balances in place sometimes it's bidding but always you would have a contract in place and when you have a contract in place as Dr gillery mentioned um not only do direct service providers have to have be Corey cleared and should always be whether it's $10,000 or otherwise if they're working with our vulnerable population or any students they should be Corey cleared um in addition to that um for liability reasons uh these vendors need to have insurance at a certain level that is agreeable to the town um and all of that is kind of worked into the contract um issuing process if there is um a contract that involves um online tools or software of some sort then there's data privacy uh checks and balances to make sure that the vendors that we're working with um have proper data security plans and place Etc all of that is what happens when it gets to this next level and so once those uh checks and balances are all um uh clarified uh the contract is signed by the vendor it's signed by myself and then we're it's called an executed contract at that point then uh requisition can then be provided um through the system um with that document attached that is at that point um it goes to the town um and then from the town they issue a purch purch order if all of the components are in place if they're not in place then it gets kicked back to us until we get the components in place um and unless and until those things are done um we can't get a purchase order until there's a purchase order issued then an invoice can't be paid so that's kind of the full cycle of that process sorry why are we reviewing this just to give some context as to you know some of the challenges that were raised about um some of the outstanding um cont conts student services contracts I just wanted folks the community to understand the process that uh that these pieces must go through but does that go towards explaining the issues that we're addressing now yes can you say a bit about how sure so so for example if a student um if a if a vendor if when student services says I need to contract with expers to do this service that's in an IEP the process that Susan just described must be executed before said person a party can begin their work so so you're saying that process needs to be followed and it takes time yes and and that goes towards explaining why there was an interruption in the provision of services some of the some of that and then the other part of that is um with the with the the funds being um not available to pay some of those then so that's part of the work that Susan is talking about uh in terms of when a budget is fully encumbered so when we looked at this in December um the budget was um there wasn't this 84,000 that was available so some work has been done some um some incumbrances have been released and so now money is available so now more things can be charge so that's why we're doing sort of this let's look through whatever incumbrances that we thought we were going to book out and see do we truly need them and if we don't need them let's free them up so that we can pay the for these things that are required as so now I'm now I'm thoroughly confused Dr Giller because we talked you talked earlier about how this wasn't impacting state and federal mandates for IEP services and if something's in IEP that needs to the next day it needs to start the next day and we used to be able to do this um and I'm wondering how we did and I'm also cognizant of the fact that since we lost Mike denafo we haven't filled that position the position that I used to call the translator between OSS and oaf a and so how do we pay for something that is legally required to begin that day or the next day if we're having a one- siiz fits-all procurement model right and can I just add to that what I was driving towards I I I agree with what you're driving towards Val is I I appreciate that we need these procedures for purchasing but we equally need to be compliant absolutely with fape and so so I imagine that there are multiple considerations we're weighing so just to present these procedures as our single mandate seems to be imbalance to me we we equally have to be providing these Services as V says on day one of an IEP yeah and that's the that's the question that um that I have there as well um but I the and when I get to the last slide I we're we're actually commissioning an audit uh to help us better understand you know why we're in the spot that we're in but then also to say What are the next best practices as well Susan can you speak to um the question that Steph and Val asked about when something goes in an IEP uh sort of that timeline and and so part of that Val also is having contingency available uh if a budget is is fully expended um and we as you all know we don't have a contingency fund right now for special education so I think part of that's the conundrum that we're also in in there too okay now sorry I'm going to go back to part two of that question then because you keep circling me around Dr Giller well I don't mean to do that well is it money or is it procurement because I'm hearing two things you just said if we had a contingency fund we could do that but then just before I thought I heard you say it's because we have to go through this procurement process that's on the slide I believe it's it's both of them Val um but the question is how do we do it expediently and I think that's the that's the part that I want to try to get us uh to a spot as well because we can't I mean so a service that's required on an IEP if a person isn't can't have that person coming in and and doing something with the kid as well and so that's the that's the challenge and so um Susan can you add any more to it sure um and these are great questions so how do school districts make sure that they are uh able to meet these needs if they don't know always that they need them and one of the ways that you do that is that there are certain service providers that most school districts use on a recurring basis and in those cases what you do is you usually in the spring you know after town meeting your budget's approved you work uh collaboratively to set up these contracts in advance having a contract in place all allows you then when you do need the service to be able to issue a PO so they're related but not related in that way okay so if in most school districts when you're on cycle with your processes um these contracts are in place by the time you get to July 1 most of the contracts that we have and not all of them maybe a dozen of them are new to us this year but the remainder of the contracts are with vendors that have been here in the past but the contracts were not completed um and so that's how you usually do it in most school districts so when we can get on cycle and these are some of the things we're working on is to get us on cycle so that when we come to July 1 any of these vendors that we believe that we would be doing business with we have the contracts in place when OSS then needs the service they can go in the contracts in place they issue a PO for the amount of money in which they are going to need for that service to be provided that's how most school districts in the Commonwealth um are able to be e execute in a more timely fashion sometimes they'll come up usually it's not you know as licky split with good communication between the OSS department and my office you know will be able to expedite these not all contracts take a long time there's a variety of different things that happen that kind of can can get things um a little off track so for example if a contract um our contract the town requires a certain amount of insurance and the vendor doesn't have that then there's a little negotiation that goes on between the Town Council of our town and this vendor to be able to get the contract terms in agreement so sometimes that will hang that up um fish tank was the one that you had approved that one is already out to the vendor ready for Signature because the cun contract and the information that came to O AF had all of the information we need in order to execute a contract so sometime there's a whole host of reasons why there can be challenges and why we're experiencing challenges but all of these can be overcome and we can get things back on track and in a normal kind of a sequence so that when people need Services they're able to get them in a timely fashion the money can be encumbered in a timely way and the bills can be paid uh Carolyn I don't want to interrupt the flow but is is it okay to sure otherwise it'll leave my head so I I think I'm following this I appreciate all this I think my one question is um so I always like seeing the the procurement process that's clear um and that's the the the process um the procedure in town and I guess I would I'm assuming that we've that the district has been following that process Steven shaking his head no at so I guess understanding that Dr gens has been trying to rationalize the procurement process to your credit that that you've been trying to put in these procedures and that's that's part of the shift that you've been trying to inaugurate here right um the procedures have actually been in place for quite some time they haven't um I think with the shift in staff all over the place you know in my office and OSS and support staff I think that there's been some confusion about what those are when new staff transition into positions and so I think tasset organizational knowledge gets lost when you lose an employee um and I think that's created some confusion so we've been working I mean this problem existed last year as we all know and we've been working with the OSS team um in order to get things back in compliance with what these uh processes and procedures are have we made as much progress as we had hoped apparently we haven't but we will continue to drive and we will get there as most school districts are able to do this uh I'm confident that the public schools of Brookline can get there um and so I guess I am wondering Val mentioned um so that when Mike D left his position which was before his death he moved to the police department so um is that related is is this a is this a Mike D's position and I'm also curious sort of what that was why it hasn't been filled and and if that is a a piece of this so part of that part of that responsibility moved over because we brought in the finance director role um back to the office of um Administration and finance so part of that work sits there as well um um so it's not all um and and last year um uh Lisa uh was um stiening an additional employee to do some of that work as well okay so I think you're saying Mike shifted out of a position and then a new position was either created or filled or was it created or a different open position was filled uh the finance director was put in office of administration and finance um to help assist with some of the work that was being done in OSS and the financial uh uh in the financial World there but not just but not just right okay and sorry was that was that that was a new position like a newly created position I it it's it's new back but it used to be it used to be in oaf then that position moved to OSS now it's moved back to okay yeah got it thank you um is that all the questions there I'm holding it okay um I don't think we need to go over this one so for our next steps we're going to continue working with vendors to assist them through the Contracting process um and again our commitment is to have um all of those with prior invoices um caught up for the work that they've done we're going to continue leveraging the cross departmental working group and expand that as needed um Shifting the body of work from uh looking at fy2 to then start looking at FY 26 um we are commissioning a firm to conduct an audit um you want to say anything about that now um sure the um I've spoken with um Paul Healey who's the chair of the audit committee and um and subsequently Susan lonus Andy and I spoke with um Paul Healey and Lincoln heinan is that his last name hinan who's the finance director for the town um to have an audit Commission um high school committee in partnership with the audit committee um so that um we could get a little bit um some clarity and some external validation on um the practices that are occurring and um making sure that PSB is following best practices and um getting that um objective perspective on on this and so that should be happening um we did get a statement of work I think right before this meeting but I I didn't actually read the timeline I was looking at it on my phone as I was coming over here but it is coming it will be it's it's a go and it will be happening um in the next I think very very short term so in the next month or so yeah okay yeah I think we got it right before the meeting so it's probably in your inbox but um anyway that is that's in process and we should know more um from the audic uh the auditor in that review in the next I would say month or so and then the last is that funded no we do not have funds for it but we are going to do it going to do it yep feels like it's an important um step to take and then the next uh part last bullet there is to present the quarterly report um okay and review the status of the Gap um at the finance committee meeting next week Val your hand yeah sorry these just feel like important questions and I'm going going back a couple slides or something that Susan said about the contracts I really want to understand this you had talked about vendors who we use all the time and and being able to rely on them in some of the data that we got Dr Van Han was there the Brooklyn Community Center for the bright program was included in in vendors who had to get Rec contracted um can you just help me understand why that was for vendors that we've used for I don't know probably at least 20 years I don't know how long we've used the vendors but um the contracts are always subject to an annual appropriation and the contracts are for for one year and so uh if they aren't submitted to have them done then uh we don't know next year these were these were ones that we saw that were submitted and then were asked to get done I don't know what information you're looking at so it's really hard for me to respond but I'm happy to sit down with you if you would like to and show me what you're looking at I'm happy to explain sure I'm certain anybody in the room could show you the hard copies thanks can I make one comment perhaps but I don't have um I could be incorrect but on on some of the contracts we saw that were submitted I think part of the challenge and you alluded to this just now Susan is people are submitting contracts with incomplete backup information that allows the contract to be processed so having a contract submitted July 1st doesn't mean it includes the Cory information doesn't include it mean it includes the insurance information doesn't mean it includes for example a statement of work that's accurate and sufficient to process a contract and so while there might be a timestamped contract submission it doesn't necessarily mean it means it gets bounced and you described that process earlier it will go all the way to the town side and they will say this doesn't have the information it gets sent back so a contract submission doesn't mean a complete contract package is being submitted and I think that might be that might be the challenge in what's going on here and as you alluded to there's some staff turnover perhaps incomplete historical knowledge and people who don't realize that if they for example don't submit those things then it does then it means they have not submitted what needs to be done to it to actually process the contract so I think that's the the discrepancy that we're experiencing thank you other questions I yeah I guess I'm a little confused being newer to this is this an annual exercise the Contracting know this kind of issue right so so so in that case I mean I would have hoped that we saw some kind of like more bulleted analysis of exactly what caused it this time around because many of the vendors going to help us with okay because I mean many these vendors have been used for a long time they haven't been you know we got emails they haven't been paid since last year and last school year you know and um so I'm just wondering where the wheels came off you know on this and did we see it in advance I'm not I can't answer every question about every scenario right because each contract is got its own unique path um but what I can say is that even if you have a contract in place if nobody executes a PO then there's nothing in the system that allows you to pay so the contract is only one piece of the com of the pie so for PE folks that weren't paid last year if there was never a issued then the money was never encumbered and so therefore there's no knowledge that you have a payment out there that's pending and that has happened um multiple times over the course of this last year this is not an issue that has arisen this year this happened last year as well so it's not just something all of a sudden this time last year the same scenario occurred okay so I just want to be clear that it's not something that happened this year and we can talk more in finance committee about some of the details around that and we have we have talked publicly where we've been to the advisory Council we have talked really indepth about a lot of these challenges um and so I just want to be clear about that you can have the contract in place and in some of these cases you didn't need a contract because it was under the threshold and the invoices are still coming in because there was no PO and now there's no money in the accounts and the bill can't be paid so that this is this is what Dr Giller is trying to say there's two kind of converging um situations that find that that put us in this position at this time last year this exact position we were in last year as well and if you remember we didn't detect that this was a problem until April we've put some internal controls in place and so therefore we can detect that this is a problem now instead of as we're approaching the end of the fiscal year so I just want to be clear that this isn't not a situation that's just a this year problem this has been going on for period of time and can I just ask a follow-up question to that have have we paid contractors previously who have not had sufficient Contracting mechanisms in place have we paid contractors who have not had sufficient Contracting mechanisms in place before have I seen have we paid contractors who have not had sufficient Contracting mechanisms in place before yes yes we have yes okay so it Mariah just you said something that just struck me which was that we could have been submitting things that would have been rejected by the town but really we could also have if I understand correctly we could have been simply paying contractors and getting in trouble on the other side which was not having sufficient contracts to cover payments right so my point is there was a decision made on the PSB right there's a decision made on the PSB side that last I didn't either we had a choice we could either not provide legally mandated Services which is what we did did to some of our students or we could require or we could not provide the contract and provide those services to the students correct no where am I misunderstanding I I'm not really making please contract be in place without having a PO so so then why couldn't we put a contract in place at hold on the what we did do is we interrupted services for students on iups and who had 504s that's what we did do what could we have done instead of that could we simply have paid vendors who didn't have the contracts in place I think I understand what you're saying so what happened last year was we completely shut down spending you remember trout gate and all of that yeah so when this happened last year at this time we had to shut down spending everywhere um and so what we're saying now is that here we are at this point again um and we've been able to see this right now so we're trying to take the actions in order to be able to like get things back on track so we're not completely shutting down or having to lay off staff and other such things right but quarter though we made a decision for the past quarter which was to interrupt Services correct we did not make that decision no how come students experienced an interruption in their services I I had no knowledge of anybody having any interrupted Services well then why are we having this presentation it started with an acknowledgement that there was an interruption in services to students in the district right I mean that's how we started this presentation well I I I would say that it we have we have had that that is true but I think we're connecting dots that don't necessarily connect the decision wasn't made to stop people's Services what happened was we got a whole pile of invoices that didn't have contracts or POS that we were unaware of and so we tried to process as much as we could and we didn't have any money left and so the system shuts us down from being able to pay any further bills it wasn't like we made this decision that this was going to happen this is just what has happened not because anybody was intentionally um trying to disrupt anything and so we're trying to um resolve this as immediately as we can um working tirelessly to get this straightened out because as a result of that that happened Services were disrupted wasn't a a choice that was made all of this kind of happened simultaneously not um okay we're going to stop services for this it it didn't happen that way Stephen just didn't I guess now though I'm at where Val was at a few minutes ago where what you're saying now is we didn't have the funds remaining whereas I thought the problem also was that we didn't have the process in place to pay them we were doing both at the same time because what happened was even if we had the process in place we couldn't have paid because the funds weren't ultimately that's what wound up happening I see okay yeah so just sorry one last question on the process Susan for POS can any Department enter a PO or is that only done through through your office um our office does not enter POS those are done um at the various budg manager levels okay thanks sure is that okay sorry lonus do you mind going back to the slide with the table the budget table this one okay so um and is this only the general fund or is this total non-salary this is just the non-salary no but is it General is it all non salary or is it only general fund non salary only general fund non salary okay and we will have uh information on the other funds when we do our finance report on Wednesday because I think thank you I think that like part of this is I mean this tells one story which I'm going to say like a little bit about but I think it's not the whole story too because like there's the salary and the non-salary and then there's the general fund and then there's all the other things we're charging to right the special funds and so um there's a story here which I'm presuming is probably true when we expand into all of these things but what so and you're nodding so I'm going to take that as a yes which is that um from FY 23 final expenses were 8 8.1 million in student services and then went up to 11.2 million correct um in the following year so that's a change of $3.1 million in one year and so um and I think I wrote this is this is my question that I sent in advance to Lisa is what's the reason for the increase in funding in expenses and again this is only one one portion of the overall pie of expenses again this is just general fund just non salary as opposed to um all all funds uh salary and then the special fund non salary um but what's reason for the increase you know is it and I I laid out a a couple of things that occurred to me which were the cost of providing these things have increased there's more students the students we have have more needs um you know just what is the rationale because that's that's a I think like a 35% 40% increase in one year um and so I just I would like to understand the 40% increase from 23 to 24 correct because if you look it was FY 23 the yellow column is 8.1 and then it went to 11.2 so that's a $3.1 million increase in one year so just understanding that $3.1 million um we didn't get a breakdown of that but we'll we'll still keep it cap but I still think it's like I'm not you know I'm not I'm not like an account I'm not looking at the exact pennies but more like the overall sort of Gestalt of like what's happened here what are the trends are that we're seeing in special education that would lead to that kind of single year and I know we've talked about some of them both at full school committee and at um Finance in in terms of the cost of transportation and some other things but I'm not sure that um but I'm not sure that we've necessarily heard the whole story there and I think when we talked about it mostly it was last year considering what was going on in FY 24 and then the budget was adjusted and I don't know how to interpret right now what I'm seeing for fy2 like are we go right now it basically looks like we're in January so we're six months into the year a little more than six months into the year and we've more than three months of which we had no school so and and we're um fully expended in student services such that they had to rearrange money to be able to fit what they've got so far plus there's another million dollars in contracts I don't know if all of those are student service so are they all student services so um that have currently if I understood the next slide or whatever it is later on don't have any funding source still so 600,000 no no no there was more there was the 600,000 and then there was another 1.2 million the Staffing right so no there was another whole thing of go back to go do you mind just going forward a little bit there's the there's the oh yeah the 1 million right the unencumbered so there's 617 plus the 1.2 million so we're talking about do you mind going back now to the other slide at least 1.8 plus the 155 that's at the top of that for the Paras which to to do apples to apples I'm going to leave the Paras out because none of this includes salary right now so so we're looking at expenditures this year so far of 12.3 if I add up the 10.5 that's been expended the 10497 plus another 1.8 sorry I'm like doing math on the Fly here but 12.3 so so that's now an increase we're halfway through the year and we're at an increase of 800,000 already over last year's expenditures so again I'm just trying to understand the reason for this change and I'm not I I am in no position to question that that these services are appropriate I don't think anyone at this table you know are we're not in the position to understand what is faped for our what's free appropriate public education for our students who are on IEPs and with 504s um but I am trying to understand it from the budgetary perspective so that um if what the implications are for this year because we need to be able to talk about that which of these are unanticipated costs such that we might need to pursue a reserve fund transfer because these were not things we could know what was going on and what the implication is for FY 26 as well because if we are talking about an overall budget that has a trajectory like this but then we know that our special education costs are increasing at a trajectory like this well then we need to make that accommodation and we need to talk about that very publicly with our town partners and with the public um quite early in the before we put out our budget because we're going to be in quite a situation if we don't so that's what I really would like to understand is you know where are we at for 25 again I just did some math on the fly right but it looks like at least a million over last year the year before that was 3 million over where are we ending up and where are we going so that's sort of a a recap of I said in my email I think yeah is liisa here no who was I talking to just and sorry I think you also asked and I'm just because I thought it was an interesting question yeah and I'm not sure if it's closely connected to this I think you were if I understood you also asking like I think you wanted to understand is this like what's driving this that's exactly that's my question a change in needs is this a change in what we're doing exactly right were we not providing Faith before I don't know and I don't think any of us necessarily you know none of us have that rightfully so that perspective but I do want to understand and probably the real answer is it's a little bit of col and a little bit of column b and a little bit of column C but I want to hear that and try to understand that um and I think also because I don't want us to end up in I want us to have a budget which actually captures the needs of all the different students and the needs to be to like I don't want us to pause field trips again this year I don't want us to have these things happen so how do we make sure that all of the parts of the engine are funded to the to the appropriate level so that they don't have so that no one else has to stop doing their work um because rightfully so these services are um mandated services so can I can I sorry I don't know if you're if there's an order but I it sounds like what Mariah is asking isn't going to get to be unpacked well did you get an answer from me not not to explain that okay but I think that's like the the literally the million dollar question right okay literally literally and I think I want to say not to be a Debbie Downer but I guess all of this we're only talking about mandated services and then there's also non-mandated that like there's I'm I'm concerned about what else is going to fall off as a result of this like last year the trout thing but is it going to be I'm just worried I'm concerned about what the impacts of all of this are what's the trickle down into other places as well which is not remotely to I hope that makes sense like for and one way of asking that is I'm curious like I'll look at the oee line where they what are they not doing or purchasing that freed up money that had that had been budgeted to them you mean last year or this year this year like why do they have the million dollars unencumbered that's 144,000 OE was this one oh oee in my head I heard OTL not so much well I don't really mean it as why but like what are are they what are they giving up or not doing like what are the trickle down effects of un encumbering this money and then and we're not just to be clear we're we're we're on our way to that um to understanding that will be but we're not there yet okay okay okay um like does oee also have are are other um offices experiencing the same issues with the procurement process such that that they have okay no there's no other office that's experiencing any of these types of challenges at this time and the reason why there is funds that are available right now is because we're halfway through the year and so not all expenses are encumbered for all services example in the office of administration and finance which includes Human Resources a lot of our recruitment fairs and advertising and all of that gears up in the spring well we haven't encumbered money for those things yet so it's not that it's not money that's needed last year we weren't able to go to recruitment fairs and such because we got shut down in our spending and as you know um OTL was not able to do field trips and a whole lot of other things uh that we had to put the kabash on we had to cancel POS for non-essential services that were non-mandated even though we all feel that they were important in order to be able to cover the $2.5 million deficit that you can see occurred so it's not that so we we honored all those mandated services and we're continuing to try to do so we just um we got these things that converged at the same time and we're trying to resolve them as quickly as we can to pay the bills so that those can be restored it wasn't a decision that was made it's a situation that happened so I just want to be clear about that but we haven't fully encumbered what our needs are in the other areas for the year there's more work that um you know uh each of these offices needs to do before the year is out and that's not in at this time this is just a a point in time Jesse yeah um two questions one was um the timeline for the contracts so in my reading through the massive emails that we got and I don't can't really recall at the moment which of the emails had it it looked like and I think Susan mentioned that a little while ago too about 50 contracts are out there or something like that um I think I remember that there were about eight or nine that have been finished so far and that lead like um 40 or so to be completed and you said you wanted to get everything paid up by the end of January and there's only like two and a half weeks left or something so of of work days so I'm just wondering how um you know it's one thing about being optimistic but realistically where do we really think we're going to be at the end of the month if we're if we're stating as you did I don't know a few minutes ago that we're going to have this rectified by the end of January and vendors are hearing it if they're tuned in and all this so I just just want to make sure what's the plan um Susan I know you know and the team are working tirelessly to get the contracts completed but I mean on the other hand let's just say a vendor is slow or away or something happens and they can't get back I can understand that's you know maybe a few but I'm sure every vendor that hasn't been paid is doing whatever they can to work with us to get their contract finished because if not they don't get paid so do we have a real timeline for that I mean with each of those contracts and second question is um are we using any fy2 money to pay our FY 24 expenses at this time Susan you want to so again the 50 contracts that were in f o oaf yes 38 of them have been executed and 12 of them are in process um as of right now Susan you want to and some of those are contracts and some are just things that require a PO and we're waiting for the quaries to clear so um that that 50 includes all of those they're not necessarily pending a contract but there's some uh compliance component that's that's in process um for any of the vendors that were were actively engaged some of them are like inches away from uh having everybody uh signing off on them um what what does hold some up sometimes is Insurance sometimes the vendors aren't responding to us I have contracts that have been sent out to vendors in in early December and nobody responded um also true in November so sometimes the the contracts are being held up on the on the on the vendor side and it has nothing to do with us that's why I'm saying each contract has its own story and situation but um we're in pretty good shape um except for the contracts in which vendors are not responding to us so I I I don't feel um as uh uh there's nothing I can do about um uh that if a vendor is not responding and working with this active there aren't that many of them but are the vendors who are not responding still sending staff onto PS into PSB schools and providing support or have they stopped because they haven't been we don't have an accounting of who is and who isn't okay that doesn't come to us I don't well you're looking at the yeah I don't know which ones have uh have have communicated that they're not providing services I don't I don't have that I I also don't all the invoices that's obviously when it hits the pavement right because when the parent doesn't have a person show up or or they get an email sorry your kid won't get support that's when the pain starts so all the stuff that's going on in the background is one whole piece which you're you know that's a universe of its own my my concern would be where the kids aren't getting Services I think that all the in of the contractors and I can't say for certain because I don't know which ones have paused but I don't believe all the contracts that are uh currently in process they have they have uh stopped services and I know that um on each week that the office of student services who prepares the warrants those are not provided those are not prepared by the office of Finance for that department um has been processing uh purchase orders right um and has been processing um invoice payments so I think they're catching up yes but I and I don't but I can't tell you which ones they're putting on a warrant WIS or not because that's their their decisions not not ours sure of course thank you um all right Stephen and then I think we I guess I had question about the fy2 the fy2 funds for the FY 24 expenses the chair should be closer get some exercise I'm sorry yeah I get my steps into tonight right so the question was are any fy2 monies being used to pay some of these fy2 or are we planning to to pay the fy2 24 um bills I'm not aware of any FY 24 bills other than a batch that just came in two days ago that we were not aware of um yeah happens monthly uh that we get invoices um I'm not aware of anything that hasn't that has come to me that hasn't been paid other than this most recent batch okay and so um if their invoices from the prior year there is an entir different process that we have to follow in order to get those bills paid if we were aware of them when we Clos the fiscal year we would have issued a PO which encumbers the money so that you can pay it right when the invoice comes in however we are receiving invoices for which there was no PO or incumbrance because we weren't made aware of that um and for those we're going to have to you know uh follow a different process for getting those paid um but what budget does it come out of it probably we'll need in some cases it could require us to go before the town and ask uh for a reserve fund transfer to pay for it it just depends um so I I can't say yet until I only know of the batch that came in last week and uh another batch that came in last month um but we can't address them if we don't know about them and when we find out about them then we're doing our best to to get to get those vendors paid yeah thank you all right so Stephen then Mariah then we better up the superintendence report very very briefly um um well even more briefly I forgot my first point so the the second question was uh the 1.2 million in federal funds for salaries I I know I should understand this already Mariah I know it's come up in finance subcommittee can I just want to know was this you said Dr Gilly that it's adding to our deficit does that mean it wasn't initially projected when the initial projections were delivered to us this is something that we didn't expect those when we those folks uh those staff were um put on the idea Grant so we had them covered or accounted for there when the Ida Grant was written it was written written for a different um different set of services and different set of staff so if we go with the Ida is Grant as written those staff have to come off to the general fund and then the um and this is what um Susan was saying that um why you know that million six um in contracted Services because the Ida Grant was written with 450,000 that those Services can now be charged to that and it leaves us exposed for that 600 right I'm just asking did we not anticipate that the way you said it suggested to me that this was a new understanding This 1.2 million in costs surely we knew the period of the Grant in the first place I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding something very obvious I guess I'm not understanding the way I understood it maybe I'm maybe I can try the way I understood it was um oaf understood that the staff on it from last year were rolling forward so that they would still be carried on the grant OSS rewrote the Grant and put new stuff on so it was essentially double counted and then OSS said okay we're going to do it for this new stuff but oaf said hey wait a moment all these staff were on the grant so it almost like it got used twice I see so so it does reflect a misunderstanding on PSB side about how we were going to be charging the staff okay and I did remember my other piece just very small who's writing the scope for the audit is that on the school committee side or is that on PSP admin side it's written it's written it's written I can read it if you want no you don't have to read it okay I just wonder if you could share it yeah thank you yeah and sorry is that are do you anticipate that being our the town's usual outside auditor or a different the quote was given with the yeah the current auditor um my question is since my question wasn't answered tonight my questions weren't answered tonight um and I'm surprised that Lisa is not here because I sent it in advance too and I would have hoped that we would have gotten that or or she would have shared that answer in advance but with that said when will my question be answered uh let's plan to get that to you next early next week for finance hopefully okay so should we docket this again for finance so that other people are seeing it and talk when we're talking I mean I was hoping we're going to use Finance for other things because we have so much stuff to cover but um Let me let me check with Leisa and then I'll confirm it with you tomorrow thank you all right all right thank you Dr Galli and thank you Dr given um I think it is time to move on now to public comment so we have four speakers signed up tonight thanks also to our speakers and for those who came to hear them for um your patience during our very extended superintendent update um so our first speaker is Margot Jones um floor is yours for three minutes okay um what's that yeah okay can you hear me okay good evening members of the school committee my name is Margot Jones um and thank you for the opportunity to speak today I'm a parent um Brooklyn resident and co-chair of CPAC the special education parent advisory Council and this is a joint statement on behalf of CPAC leadership um so I'm here to address a few critical issues related to Special Education First the failure to provide necessary services to students with disabilities and illum threat of service discontinuation due to payment issues and hiring processes for par professionals it's become increasingly clear that administrative barriers are causing disruption disruptions in Service delivery um when students are not receiving their services this is a violation of their legal rights and can cause major setbacks and regressions in their education additionally parents are losing confidence in the district's commitment to providing a free appropriate public public education which will have devastating impacts in the long term what's even more concerning is the lack of oversight from the office of the superintendent there's a disturbing pattern of inaction and spreading of misinformation the superintendent has said that the budget is hot and talked about costs higher than anticipated this is misleading to the public special education services are not optional line items that can be cut or reduced from the budget public schools are mandated to provide free appropriate public education and students with disabilities need the services outlined in their IEP in order to receive their free appropriate education we need transparent transparency from ad administrators but right now we're hearing from the central office just about the high budget numbers and that's deflecting from the operational issues um with non-payment for services when it comes to special education it's impossible to plan for everything in the budget not only do students come and go from the district but students needs change and IEPs are being written or amended throughout the entire school year what's also true is that the district is mandated to pay for any and all services student need as determined through their IEP um one students higher than anticipated needs has no bearing on another student services I reject this notion that the delays and payments are related to projected budget or finding funding sources lastly there are service providers who have been working with students for months and months without pay and some who have had to discontinue providing Services due to non-payment some of these providers have worked with the district for years The Contract Processing and payment delays are completely unacceptable I urge the school committee to take the following actions number one conduct an exit interview with Lisa oconnell the departing Deputy superintendent of student services number two immediately organize the search committee for Lisa's replacement number three um number three investigate and report back to the community on the allegation of a hostile work environment within the central office um number four assign one or more school committee members to the superintendent's working group on the budget issues um number five consider adding professional development opportunities for the central office for additional training on special education budget and lastly consider hiring a forensic consultant to review the budgeting procedures and protocols specific to special education so that legally mandated Services can be paid for in a timely manner and the central office school committee and the public can have a clear and accurate picture of the budget as the fiscal year progresses we cannot afford to allow this situation to persist the well-being and future successes of our most V vulnerable students depend on it thank you very very much for your attention and for your urgent consideration of these issues thank you Miss Jones our next speaker is Sana harun hi good evening um I'm here to speak relating about the issue of the E holiday so a great deal has been said about the need for evidence of low attendance to who authorized the Eid holiday in Brooklyn for the school calendar this year but after extensive research that I wish to present to you today I can say with confidence there was almost no data on low attendance entered into the town record as major Jewish and Christian holidays were debated in 1972 and 1981 the conversations began when lacking compelling reasons to the contrary the school committee of the town of Brooklyn voted on a calendar that did not not Grant a holiday for Good Friday in 1970 2 years later Good Friday and Passover were scheduled to fall in the same calendar day March 31st 1972 responding to demands from the community the school committee took up and ratify proposals from the pioneering and Progressive superintendent Dr sperber announcing a holiday for all Brookline schools that March 31st 1972 and a few months later also authorizing holidays in favor of yam KIU rosashana and Good Friday as regular school holidays for the 1972 to 73 calendar the compelling reason for this was presented as low attendance data but in the first meeting Dr sperber only presented anticipated teacher and staff absences and in the second student absences were discussed but no numbers were entered into the record at all and throughout these discussions Christian and Jewish religious Hol holidays were considered together and arguments in support of one were considered to be justification for the other as well these holidays remained in place unchallenged I think until 1981 when the town tried to negotiate with the State against the 180-day school calendar failing to convince the state that a quality education could be imparted in 15 159 instructional days the school calendar task force committee proposed and passed a new calendar that did away with the traditional days of low attendance the committee cited a survey that was sent to All parents in school staff that showed insufficient support for these holidays there was a strong and a vocal response from the community emphasizing work life considerations multiculturalism and Equity Leonard zakim of the anti-deformation league emphasized the rationale of interfaith understanding the Brookline Educators Union wrote that with the elimination of two Jewish holidays if a person observes their Jewish holidays they will be forced to use three of their four personal days the youth Resources Commission wrote that the inclusion of religious days as holidays had been Progressive and promoting of positive Multicultural relations in our community the Jewish clergy of Brookline wrote that when school is in session on such days morale is impaired the minutes of the school committee meeting recorded appeals from the audience for greater sensitivity to the religious needs of students all these arguments focused on the principles of individual Justice not anticipated attenders data that did not in fact provide sufficient justification for these holidays that day in 1981 the school committee voted on and approved an amended calendar the retain the holy days of Good Friday rashishana and yam Kapur could I have another 30 seconds or um the data that was collected in 1972 and 1981 was sparse and inconsistent and now is simply unavailable to us there is no viable model that I have found for using low attendance data as a basis for authorizing religious holidays here in this room we are part of a history and an ongoing negotiation of what we have come to understand as multiculturalism and equity for the individual and for minorities and Progressive policy that responds to the needs of each and all of its citizens I encourage the members of the school committee to uphold their vote granting idul fit as a school holiday in March in keeping with these principles and without anxiety about the absence of low attendance data as such data has never been collected or presented in this room with any degree of consistency or reliability thanks [Applause] thank you miss harun our next speaker is zad bamon my name is zad bamun and I alumnist of Brookline High School during my time at Brookline High School I had the privilege of serving as one of the co-presidents of the Muslim Student Association in this role I regularly met with administrators to advocate for the needs of Muslim Students and worked to Foster uh understanding within the school Community I collaborated on I collaborated on initiatives to raise awareness about Muslim traditions and holidays organized events to build Bridges between diverse groups and ensured that the voices of Muslim Students were heard in decisions that affected us this experience gave me a deep understanding of how my fellow Muslim Students felt and the challenges they face in navigating their identity within the school environment I'm here to speak on the importance of upholding the October 10th vote to designate as a category one holiday for the 2025 2026 school year and Beyond as a former student in the district I have personally experienced the challenges Muslims student face when celebrating Eid without it being recognized as a school holiday for my family and me Eid is a day of prayer celebration and connection with loved ones yet while I was trying to observe this meaningful day I couldn't fully celebrate because I was preoccupied with the thoughts of missed assignments and classes worse I couldn't share the joy of the occasion with my non-muslim friends as they were at school the burden of choosing between our faith and education created unnecessary stress and diminished the joy of a day meant to meant for Spiritual and communal fulfillment designating Eid as a category one holiday would eliminate this conflict for current students and future students it would allow Muslims students to celebrate without compromising their education or feeling excluded from the community more importantly it sends a powerful message of inclusion that our community values that are Community Values and respects the diversity of its members Brook L's decision to recognize as a categ one holiday would not only honor the traditions of its Muslim residents but also serve as a model for how schools can Embrace equity and inclusion in meaningful ways recognizing Aid as a holiday isn't just about convenience it's about representation and respect for years Muslim Students and families have quietly struggled with the challenge of balancing their religious obligations with academic Expectations by taking this step uh Brooklyn would affirm its commitment to creating a welcoming and supportive environment for everyone Brookline Prides itself on being an inclusive and Equitable community and recognizing as a category one holiday is a reflection of those values I hope this community I hope this committee will honor its October 10th vote and ensure that Muslim Students and families feel seen respected and included thank [Applause] you thank you Mr Balon and our last speaker is Amanda ganway my name is Amanda G and I'm the parent of two children enrolled in PSB I'm here to express my significant disappointment in the departure of Elizabeth o' Connell and also my deep concerns about the district's ability to manage its finances and rebuild trust with the community one of my sons is a student in the Adaptive Learning Center at Lincoln a sub-par program for kids with medical complexities and significant developmental disabilities he represents the students most vulnerable to instability and cuts in student services the highlight of the week for students in the alc is music therapy which offers an important opportunity for reverse inclusion peers from general education are invited to come into the alc to sing and play helping to demystify and destigmatize special education the day after leisa's resignation and the news of the district's significant deficit went public the Al's music therapy program was suspended for non-payment PSB has lost the trust of vendors and also of families I'm heartbroken that Lisa a beloved and effective administrator reportedly had to endure a hostile work in environment what a gift to our students that she didn't resign quietly and instead publicly called out the mismanagement that spurred her resignation leaving us with the opportunity to get the district back on track will we meet that challenge or will we fall flat by minimizing what's gone wrong my family moved to Brookline based on PSP's reputation for academic excellence and inclusivity it's wildly expensive to live here at every opportunity I voted to put more money into our schools even though doing that puts increased Financial strength on my family until the district can demonstrate that it's capable of managing its budget I'm unlikely to vote for increased funding again I'm more likely to move or to petition for my child to be sent out of District if the student services that he requires can't be provided something's gone substantially wrong with the district's budget in the past few years we all make mistakes it's the most human of outcomes in the face of falling short PSB should do what it teaches its students to do when they don't meet expectations be honest with an independent entity to regain the community's trust be honest about the true amount of the deficit and how it happened not only for the sake of accountability but also so that we could move forward and fix the root problems thank you thank you very much Miss gway uh that concludes our public comment for tonight and brings us to our skull committee actions uh the first of these is a discussion and at long last possible vote on the 2025 26 School District calendar um uh okay y so Mariah is leaving the table but we'll continue as part of the meeting remotely um okay so uh we have uh four draft calendars that are part of the docket um and of course we can you know move or amend any of these um they range from uh well I'll just list them the first one is essentially the current calendar um the second one designates EOL fer as a new category one holiday uh the third one uh moves a professional development day uh from November to March 20th which next year happens to be EOL fitter and uh version four eliminates all non-mandatory holidays from the calendar so normally I like to have a motion on the table before we start discussing but I think in this case um because there's such a wide range of uh possible motions um I'd like to give every member who wants to speak um a chance to speak before anybody makes a motion um so uh in addition we have with us tonight remotely um associate Town Council Susan Harris in case um people have any questions about um how proposed rationals for whatever action we might be taking um you know work out or not with the memo that um town council's office gave us so um before we start let me just reread um the two short paragraphs from that memo that um we I think we should be keeping in mind so in considering add or removing school holidays now and moving forward into the future the school committee should rely on criteria tied to the learning needs of PSB students that are one supported by evidence and two non-discriminatory and also um low attendance is not the only possible evidence that may support School closure based on the particular learning needs of a community students to the extent that designating adol fitter as a category one holiday is a deviation from the school committee's past practice however the committee should think through and preferably articulate the substantial evidence underlying its decision on the record uh so I hope that our discussion tonight will make it clear what the rationale would be for any calendar that we do end up adopting um okay so with that um would anybody like to start off our discussion the one piece that she said that if this was not the practice we did include Lunar New Year without any data right so so let's there is a precedent yeah to the extent that this is a deviation from past practice so we have to kind of evaluate whether whatever we're doing might be might or might not be a deviation from past practice it the wrong way sorry um all right um so I see Val's hand up yeah I'm GNA be super chatty this meeting um so I guess I'll I'll put my rationale which would eventually maybe become a motion on the table and just some background on um what I've been working on the last couple of weeks um uh through Dr Giller we reached out to the beu to see if they would um survey their staff uh on the the current holidays that we have so on on yamur rashash Shana um uh Good Friday and Lunar New Year um the basis for that being that it seemed to me it was the easiest way for us to understand if we had sufficient staff issues and staff challeng es either because um staff members were celebrating those holidays or because the schools where their um children went were closed on those days um unfortunately the union um refused to put that survey out that said I think that um through management rights Dr gillery could put that survey out in the next couple of months and we could work on impact bargaining that with the union and um get that data um and then in terms of Eid um I would suggest that it uh follows our values of equity and inclusion and that in this one-year calendar in this pilot year uh we would add Eid and then take a look at perhaps you know other models um what other districts have done and several in our region have done uh a rotating model for um holidays of um religious minorities in their Community uh but but where they wanted to be inclusive so my my motion if I were to make one now would be uh for calendar two with uh those um sort of not not caveats but with those with those uh uh asterisks that we would uh attempt to get additional data in this next 12 month period okay thanks pH I see Carolyn's hand up thanks um I'd love I want to ask Val a question I think or a couple questions um or and also I think Andy um so if you're saying so Town Council advised us I don't have it right in front of us that we have we we should sorry that if we endeav to devise a new rationale now that uh sorry the committee should think through and preferably articulate the substantial evidence underlying its decision on the record so if the what what would be the evidence part if the rationale is that it's consistent with values of how does that fit into what Town Council advised and a related question answer that than than me and so I'm gonna ask a related question that maybe is to for Andy well before we move on to a question for me should we ask um Susan to to address your first question well it's sort of it's closely related so let me just put out there so where what we have now is language that says category one holiday means a day of low attendance would so we would be redefining what category one is in order to vote yeah I think that that language is in the superintendent's letter and not in the calendar itself I might be wrong about that so you know that that's correct okay so you know for now we're voting on the calendar and any necessary revisions to the letter could follow so we wouldn't be it wouldn't be elevating Eid to a category one holiday wouldn't be the I can Envision more than one possible motion that would result in E becoming a day of no school right we could call it category one and keep that category or we could eliminate that category and designate days of no school just as days of no school okay sorry so and so what I'm asking is like what's proposed in in that case like at some point we would have to have langage but I don't think we're there yet no one has made a motion yet um but Susan would you want to address um Carolyn's first question sure so I I think I understand the question as being sort of what is what is the substantial evidence or what could the substantial evidence be um I think as I said at the last meeting you know any administrative decision has to be supported by evidence and that really means your you know your reasoning for what you're doing um I Heard Val say um you know the values of the school committee and PSB being equity and inclusion so um maybe say a little bit more about um what that means or what that's based on I'm I'm sure it is a part of part of some mission statement and existence and and how you all approach your work and and um education in Brook line um Jesse yes I've been doing a lot of thinking about this and I prepared some remarks in a um slide deck that Betsy has so um the way I approach this is trying to figure out you know sort of analytically and logically what step we should take at this time not to preclude us from of course making other decisions at other times so you can go to the next slide so um I left out the 4 option because um it had that one change of moving a PD day to March 20th of 26 as Andy talked about so it leads us with basically really three options um on the left you see the Asis option which is basically I'm calling option one no change at all um so for that year um make no changes to the calendar and why is at least up to this moment and we just heard one of the public speakers as well there is no quantitative data to support closing School um for adding another for adding more holidays we don't have any quanti data about the eal fitter um proposal as well um in terms of the second option eatle fitter um to have school closed that's our option two so it's current currently as we know Category 2 and um it would move to um all schools closed category 1 and the reason for it is that there were uh requests from families to the school committee to um to make that change and the third option that Val had talked about um back at our Workshop I think and that's on the table is that uh schools just stay open uh for the maximum number of days to make our 180 days Etc and we just remove the religious holidays and make them all essentially I guess category two so we would accommodate all staff and all students days of religious observance during the school year and by doing that we would maximize effective learning for the vast Ma majority of people who are going to come to school each day that it's open so I see Jesse just for clarity so it's version three that you're not considering version four correct I didn't have this um nclat until I saw it tonight again yeah thank you um so so those are the three options I see and then um if we go to the next slide we just sort of look look at each one um uh yeah so briefly we all know this I mean we mentioned it earlier we want at least 180 days of quality teaching and learning effective teaching and we want to keep the schools open Monday to Friday every week um unless we're prevented uh certainly by natural things like weather or power rages or something like that or federal state mandated closures where Dr Giller has no um decision it's has to be open it has to be closed on a day that's a federal or state mandated mandated holiday so the considerations are we do have educational breaks for professional development that comes out of perhaps like Union negotiations as well there's time for um teachers to curriculum prep so their early dismissals I think on Friday some of that of kind of thing as well their parent teacher conferences that have to happen all this takes away from effective teaching and adds up over the conversations we've had over the last couple of months to a significant number of days and a lot of um chaos and confusion for all parents who have to take care of their kids on the days when um school doesn't run from 8 to 2:30 let's say um and the other consideration is um in our diverse population of staff and students there may be days when not enough staff are present literally present in the school in the schools to operate school um or provide quality teaching through trying to assemble enough substitutes or and uh not enough students are in school and that's the low attendance uh concept that we've heard about which um would be nice to be able to um uh collect statistical information from but either it's somewhere and we haven't been provided it or um we haven't been able to collect it um and um and the only way to really find out about it would be to have school open and then see that as it was 50 years ago and 70 years ago in people's Recollections that have been that have been uh written down and are available that um classes would collapse to partial class there'd be one person to be there to watch the kids during the day and it wasn't really a educational effective teaching day it was more like a place for kids to be wh while all their um student um colleagues were observing a holiday that's exactly what the reality was then whether it is as well today to the points that have been mentioned we're not really sure because we haven't been able to collect data but I'm a Quant quantitive kind of you know a guy and so without the quantitative data my my predilection is to leave things as they are until we're proven otherwise because we don't know whether or not uh the um quantitative data would prove that we're doing something wrong or right at this at this current moment so to look at the the pros and cons for the three options if you go to the next slide um the Asis option so the pro as I mentioned is you'll maintain the school year without having to adjust the 180-day calendar by adding more days off uh in the future and then U having to move to either uh reducing vacation time or you know squeezing out something into June um it'll also provide uh our committee time to properly quantify in some way uh what adding any other school closure day would be right now eid's on the table but something else might come up the uh con of leaving it the you know sort of the negative side I hate to say con but um the negative side or the the the concern like you we could put con make call it concern is that families under the current uh option we're options we're looking at who observe e Al fitter have to decide to keep their children home to celebrate that holiday and and continue to receive as a category 2 holiday uh existing accommodations from the district um and as we know uh given our mission in the district it would be obvious that we would continue to use a variety of opportunities within school to educate not only um across the Muslim Community they would know what EO fitter is but across our entire school committee School uh School Community about the holiday and any other related observances so that it's on people's minds and that they're aware of it and culturally responsive to it uh on the next slide is the um the eat option which would allow students on the positive side to observe uh without as we heard a spe um this evening to not miss a day of school and it would provide additional visibility um you know to the holiday in our community the concern would be is that we're we're talking about closing the school for a day when the vast majority of staff and students are not celebrating that holiday while it's true that there would be students who would want to hang with other students on the holiday and their friends and things that's of course the reality but the uh vast majority of Staff would be uh attend ing uh school and uh would not um uh if school was closed um we're closing for a day when most people would be able to go to school and and um it would require a large number of parents to find some kind of coverage for their students on that day as they have to do in their PD days and other things this adds a significant um financial burden it would literally be a tax in a way on working parents single parents who have to find something to do for their children on that day and it would also require um us as a committee finding another day of effective teaching time to meet the guideline uh the third option on the next slide and then we're almost done here uh if the schools were open we're going to Max all the times and we eliminate the religious holidays we maximize our effective teaching days within the guidelines um we would treat observance of uh our community's cultural and religious holidays in a very equal manner very Equitable Manner and you know the United States has a series of Heritage buns that cross across all um different approaches culturally in the country that would be one opportunity of course among many for teaching about specific uh observances of communities uh and that goes on for a whole month you know in each to the extent we take uh take it seriously and and fill the uh calendar in that month with them those are available to all the different groups um that make up our uh our community the concern uh would be families with current category one holidays um even if Eid at some point was to become a category one holiday they'd also have to choose between observing Eid and um and and attending school the schools are open all the time um it's there's potential that very low attendance day uh could impact school operation if staff are incoming um and we heard also about what the issues would be if if parents have if staff have students in other schools that are open and they have to be there um and that we would have made this decision with as we heard earlier and we've talked to before with no quantitative support at all um so um I think the last slide's coming up yeah so the recommendation again from a logical standpoint as I've tried to lay out here is that we leave the calendar as is for for one year um and why is this logical so first we don't really have the data to analyze that supports closing school for one more holiday due to uh low attendance and I want to point out because it's been mentioned uh through the letters that we've got many many times that the addition of Eid as a category one holiday was an approve was only an approved request from us as a committee to Dr gillery to create one of four versions it was not a commitment as it's been in the press and other places um so we're not taking really really I want to just be clear that the school committee is not taking anything away it was to provide one of several options and we have four on the table this evening the second comment would be uh deciding to remove all religious holidays uh closures from the calendar which is the other option is not supported by any data either so staying what we already have is not capitulating to anything it's a reality we're not repudiating any religious holiday in any way we're not disrespecting anyone we're really putting out there that we recognize as a committee that we have work to do as a group to really figure out how to address the challenges of a full school year and a multi a multiculturally diverse community and to um provide uh a a environment in which everyone feels comfortable and respected um but not to rush into it and so you know to do it for one year and then meet on it and take it away would also be heartbreaking so my recommendation is that we leave it as is for the next year all right thank you Jesse I see Helen's hand up and Mariah if um if you need to speak up you should just speak up because I can't see you but for now Helen I know you said you didn't want a motion but I'd like to make a motion um is there anybody who has something to say that uh is you know really wants to get it in before a motion hits the floor okay that go for it this is this is a really interesting issue to me um I voted against adding Eid um and and I'll do so again if that's the motion um not because I don't value our diverse um uh community of course I do um but this is uh I'm going to read something because this is the easiest way for me to do it as the the one person probably who will vote no I don't know maybe other people will depending on the motion it it's sort of a an awkward position so I'm going to I'll read um and this is consistent with I'm I'm a new school Committee Member I ran last year um I ran on a very clear um platform I was very clear about who I am and how I think um and so this is this issue is sort of um speaks to that and um is is consistent with with with how I ran um so for me the calendar is about what our purpose is as a school district and what our obligations are as a school committee our core purpose Dr Giller used that word when we talked about this in August um as a district is to provide our 7 plus students uh with opportunities for academic learning our school committee is mandated under the state's Student Learning Time regulations to create a school year calendar that provides 10 day 80 Days of instruction to the students we serve collectively the regulation reads quote in determining the school year schedule the school committee shall attempt to maximize high quality teaching and learning end quote that's our mandate for this work of building a calendar maximizing instruction now we know because teachers tell us that there's a window of time within which effective instruction can take place and it ends in June so it's our responsibility to understand that window ideally using facts and data and to schedule our 180 precious days in a way that is most conducive to effective instruction systemically and we should have input from building leaders because they know what works and what doesn't work for them to get the work done of educating students this should be our framework no matter what our calendar won't make every person happy on every day but we and the law accommodate for that m General Law requires public schools to excuse individual students who choose to be absent for religious observation and PSB goes beyond that by offering homework extensions and delaying exams around holidays so this is a tidy system that makes sense we should create a calendar such that we are open on the days that we know we can best provide effective teaching and learning and if you choose not to be there for certain reasons you're accommodated if we accommodated everyone who wished to be absent on any given day we would be open zero days so it all works together with respect to the question of closing the school system for Eid or any other religious holiday which more will come I just can't justify keeping students and teachers away not in school on a day in the middle of the year when we know that well over 90% would be present when building leaders have indicated that they do not want to add more holidays this proposal might appeal ideologically but it's not responsive to the obligations and purpose of the public school system then we have the obvious issue of the separation of church and state which means Public Schools cannot endorse or advance Advance religious practice we can accommodate individuals who wish to celebrate religion on a particular day but as a public entity we cannot be the celebrant the fact that a few towns in Massachusetts have chosen to close school for a religious holiday without a secular non-religious reason such as low attendance which has been our president does not sufficiently justify for me Brookline going that route this is untested seeing as the public schools of Brookline have in the past year and a half been cited by the state for violations of campaign Finance law open meeting law failure to comply with public records law I don't think it would be prudent for us to wing it legally at this moment so while I appreciate the advocacy from spe specific constituents which we also talked about in I think our fall Workshop um our systemic obligation is to our Collective 7,000 students on a daily basis every day that we offer or don't offer instruction to our students matters I'm not able to support adding a day of no school for a religious holiday and I wish we had the opportunity or time to discuss some of the data that we've um been provided and how it can inform good decisions about providing our students with the most effective instruction possible on our 180 days all right thanks Carolyn um I don't see any more hands up so let's oh Stephen are you planning to make a motion I'm happy to talk before after Helen's motion um all right well let's let's get a motion on the floor so Helen do you do you want to go ahead yes I I would like to make a motion that we um include eel and do version two of our calendar um for next year and you know we can certainly continue to look at all of these things I I think one of the things that's interesting about all of these holidays none of them fall on the same day every year and many of them at times even fall on Saturdays so there wouldn't be the the issue of when we finish in terms of I'm sorry I I'm completing my the motion the motion is clear I wanted to respond to a few I second it second um all right okay um also you know parents have to pay for costs of child care if school ends on June 20th or June 22nd it's the same thing um there's always a day that you have to pay for child care because the way unless we had year round schooling that that would Al you know we wouldn't have a choice about that yes it is true because you're adding sorry sorry sorry sorry stepen Steven was next in line you can finish alen if you have more to say no I'm done thank you okay I um [Music] um I guess I'd like to say a few things one is I I thought first of all I want to thank you Jesse for such a thoughtful presentation and you as well Caroline for your comments I I say that with genuine respect both of you I I also thought they were very good Arguments for version four um I thought if your Chief concern Carolyn is the length of the education year it's a strong argument for version four and Jesse if your Chief concern is the lack of solid quantitative data that's a good argument for pilot year for version 4 and I'm not saying that to be Devil's Advocate I'm saying that because I I also consider version 4 to be a not unreasonable proposal before us right now um I I want to start by saying I consider version one to be um the de facto discriminatory uh alternative before us right now because I think it requires our ongoing belief in the fiction that there was previously um data presented before the school committee on low attendance or some semblance of a neutral rationale presented for version one that resulted in one Christian in two Jewish holidays declared as category one holidays when no such thing happened so to to opt for version one AKA of the status quo is in fact to opt to continue to believe something uh neutral rationale that simply never happened and to continue what was a discriminatory idea in the first place and I think we can't ignore that um second of all I think I myself honestly am quite torn between versions two and version four I think there are strong Arguments for not pushing the calendar further into the summer I'm concerned about the climate in our buildings I'm concerned about having our buildings having our school year extend further into the summer I however I um to me it comes down to this there are I think three reasonable arguments against version two one is The Establishment Clause concerns where people are think that we're coming up with a we're establishing a a preferential treatment of religion but I was very reassured by by uses in in saying that this wasn't in fact violating that because we weren't endorsing religion so that put that concern to rest for me the second was the slippery slope argument which I also considered a reasonable concern that if we start by declaring e Al fit category one holiday why not devali why not a number of other holidays and in fact I think Dali also has a very reasonable case to be declared a category one holiday but in my research around this I haven't found school districts that have gone past devali and Eid I haven't seen and Lunar New Year frankly I haven't seen other holidays put on the table so I don't really think the slippery slope extends past one more day so I think this at the most would consider one more day um the the third concern really is about and the one that I'm most sympathetic to is about placing an additional burden on families having to do with child care um and I don't have a quick response to that I think this would be a legitimate burden on some families to come up with that child care but I weigh that against um having a more inclusive approach to religious observation in our school calendar than exists presently if you I know Carolyn you would if I I shouldn't assume I'm sorry but a straw version of you that's on my shoulder that I think of with respect would say something to me like well what's your rationale Stephen what would you propose as your rationale and I start by thinking that what you read and how you summarized it was different you said we're responsible providing excellent teaching and learning and then you summarize that as instruction and I don't think those two are the same I would want to start with a rationale that has a more a broader conception of Education that would consider how we um how we consider how we how we how we um how we observe and think about the our community and how we think about and treat them in our schools that to me is part of Education um I don't think I can go more I don't think I want to go more in depth about the specifics of this rationale yet but I think to celebrate our mission in verion three is stronger than what to me is a more discriminatory version of our calendar in version one and so I'm sorry in version two than in version one let me not undermine everything right now um so that's why I support version two but I want to say also that uh version 4 also seems to me very reasonable and I can see uh further study of this issue considering more deeply uh version 4 but I strongly support the motion that Helen put forth I now step off my soap box thank you thank you stepen would anyone else like to articulate any yeah before we go to a vote on um on version two yeah if anyone wants to add anything in particular um that could be part of the record you know if indeed the committee adopts that calendar like what would the rationale have been so Susan Suzanne sorry yeah thank you Andy uh I am supporting version two I'm supporting this motion I think we've heard from the community we've heard loud and clearly that this is something that is important that it's part of our educational program this idea that we are uh educating our students to be Global Citizens that we recognize what is important to the members of our community and that uh this this notion of low attendance doesn't really cut it for me I mean our lowest attendance days are the Thanksgiving the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and some other day there's one other it's typically before our vacations and so if we really talking about days that we need to boost uh attendance those are the days we need to think about uh I think that this honors our Muslim Community it also honors our other families so that they again understand what this is about that they can participate if if they want as guests as friends as neighbor ERS um I think it's absolutely within the equity values of our public schools here in Brookline and I will vote Yes on this motion thank [Applause] you before Caroline speaks for a third time I'd like to ask whether Mariah or Sarah or indeed I have anything to say because neither none of the three of us has spoken I'd like to let you go first sure then I'll go and then you um so I'm actually going to votee no on the motion um because I would like to see the district move toward version 4 uh I don't think that doing so next year without any preparation would be a good idea um but that is the direction I'd ultimately like us see i' like to see us CS go in and so I would be voting against adding s of any holiday right now to the calendar so that's what I'm about to do Sarah we've heard a lot of good support for version two and so instead of repeating it I'm going to say that I I agree with what's been said already um and I really think that a lot of us live in a world where we want to have our own holiday and we want other people to have their holidays too and it's about that equity and that understanding that is what we really want ultimately for our students as well Andy can I say one thing too yes um I am supportive of version too um but I also am supportive of moving towards a version that both uh that more closely if not entirely represents version four once we understand the impact of that but also um we continue to do or even do a better job of a district of recognizing and celebrating um cultural differences and cultural celebrations um even as we possibly don't take a day off of school to do that and so I think that that that's all worthy of further discussion and exploration but for for this year I do support version two um so Carolyn has had her hand up so Carolyn gets the last word and then let's go to a vote well I don't know if it will be but um so I'm I don't know how so we were invited to ask for data which I did um I don't know if anybody else did it's unfortunate that despite all of the conversation that's been a lot of the same thing over and over we didn't have an opportunity to discuss the data although a really important piece of what's seen in what I asked for is exactly what Suzanne said this also came up in a conversation that I had um with Jamie yof about her experience so there's two things one I really wish that building leader feedback had been part of this conversation um for a few reasons and I wish and I asked for but I don't believe it happened for the newer we we had building leader feedback on the idea of adding e back in August that Dr Giller shared with us verbally um he shared that with me in writing I asked for it to be shared with the committee it wasn't I also asked for these newer Concepts to be shared for feedback with building leaders and I don't think that happened but I'd like to convey what I think is really important um um the day before Thanksgiving is a lost day it is a noon dismissal um we all got an email from Principal yof uh on that day this year she was really upset I spoke with her about it she basically couldn't operate school it's disrespectful to staff to have to come in and they can't provide instruction and kids watch movies and that's just a disservice to to all of us I think we should do better and so I really would have loved the opportunity and I don't know if this can be a friendly Amendment somehow I really would have loved the opportunity to have that conversation about what do we know about actual days of low attendance and how can we incorporate that into good decisions about providing effective instruction um which just to clarify too to what Stephen said and someone else when I'm talking about what I see our job is here it's because I'm looking at the state regulation for student learning time that specifically tells us what to do when we create the calendar so that is a completely separate issue from whether we value diversity how we celebrate our diversity culture culture religion specific this is a policy decision about creating a an academic schedule um so just to be clear that's that's where my and and that tells us to maximize teaching and learning so that's why that's that's where I'm talking about that it certainly doesn't mean that going to school in a diverse Community is not valued by me or anybody else it's the best thing about my kids's experience at the baker school so I really wish we had had the opportunity to talk about the day before Thanksgiving which I would love to see be a day of no school um and while I respect the the version two so I I think I think we're getting off topic here and uh I I think we need to move to a vote we are going to take up the 26 27 calendar soon so Jesse uh what just let's Helen's motion version two two I'll abstain sarra yes Steven yes Suzanne yes Helen yes Carolyn no Val yes Mariah yes and I vote no motion passes 72 wait was it 7 to two or six to2 to sorry six 6 to2 to one yes Jesse yeah my my mistake all right our second score Committee Action of the night is to review our 2025 legislative priorities so this came out of uh government relations Suzanne Helen and myself um this is the document that we send to our legislators in advance of the meeting we hold with them in early February um and thank you very much Betsy for drafting this on the basis of the discussion that that took place at the government relations subcommittee meeting um an excellent job yeah so you all have it in front of you and um basically it's it's pretty slim down I think compared to previous years um I'd like to draw attention to the final paragraph on the front um looking ahead our focuses on fiscal health and stability um and our priorities basically all reflect that Focus um we say that the town's long-range financial plan paints a pessimistic forecast with anticipated budget deficits not seen in Prior years right so um on the back you see our particular priorities uh which are full funding for the student Opportunity Act um some things we'd like to see happen with Chapter 70 funding um assistance with funding special education uh in particular uh we're supporting the masc policy priority of um increasing the circuit breaker reimbursement from 75 to 90% U full stable funding for metco and prioritizing the use of fair share Amendment money for K12 as opposed as opposed to a postsecondary education um so would anyone like to comment or propose changes on this before this goes out to AR our legislators I would I would just like to add I said it before but on prek to 12 oh yes prek MH very good yeah so and you know this is to prepare for our meeting and the meeting is as much or maybe more about us listening to our legislators um as it is about us talking to them so Andy um I think this is really great and I thank the committee and Betsy for putting it together I think that um The Arc that we have talked about earlier possibly of the special education funding really needs to be drawn to their attention I think that um if anything for example item three further fund special education might not be written strongly enough so I think that there there may need to be some more there I mean this is this is of grave concern and Brooklyn of course is not the only Community facing this so um we need to ensure that we have that funding in place yeah I wonder whether we could change even the wording of the of the bolded heading because right now it kind of makes it sound like oh we'd like to have more money it'd be nice to have more money for special educationa it kind of goes beyond that like there it understates the the the the need the importance of what's going on perhaps change further to fully um yeah I think that's a good idea fully fund yeah fully fund special education the other possibility would be to move that to number one mhm well that can happen also with a rewarding to make it stronger I I agree actually that it would be more effective as the the first item and we and in the meeting itself we can really hammer on that too so I would also recommend calling this uh budgetary and legislative priorities and sending it also to the governor's office that's interesting we've never done that that's a very interesting thought I mean they're going to start budget next week basically so so you think it would be good to send it ahead of time before we present it to our leg legislators or I think we should send it to everybody like tomorrow or whenever it's edited okay can I also ask was there a reason that five is by itself as opposed to um rolled into these other things and is there a reason five doesn't have a blurb just so I understand yeah I think it's more that we couldn't think of anything to say except it the right way yeah um I think it it's separate because it is a separate piece of the budget so it makes sense to separate it out that was the thought process is this really a live issue before the legislature right now you know like how to how to divy up 1.3 billion dollar out there right now every year it's a live issue every year okay I mean there's an issue right so there's not there's not some formula it actually has to be renegotiated every year B do you know yes it's renegotiated every year the it's in the budget it's every year in the budget but am I correct that I just read in the paper there's $1.3 billion that they collected this year more than what they expected not sure if it's more than they expected but it was a it was a very large amount yes yeah it was 1.3 billion um for fy2 I believe right that oh that they raised so to be used in fy20 that they spent in fy2 that they're spending in fy2 yeah so I'll um I'll move um this document um with the changes that we've discussed I think we can probably Workshop a little further like the wording for special education but we can do that offline based on guidance from the committee all right um does anyone have more comments before we vote up all right um Jesse yes Sarah yes Steven yes Suzanne yes Helen yes Carolyn yes B yes Mariah yes and I vote Yes as well thank you very much that was easy um all right so since we're so far behind schedule um after the very long superintendent update um unless somebody has very urgent um yes yours is different I know um except for Capital I'm wondering whether we can postpone subcommittee and Leah and leaz on reports until next time because we still have an executive session to get to um so if no one objects to that and I don't see anybody objecting um can we limit this to Helen Capital Improvements um and in particular the discussion on um a support letter for the Davis path Footbridge project so I think everybody was here for the last time we voted this am I correct um what has happened the department um of Public Works has uh submitted grants this will be the third to the federal government for the Davis uh footpath Bridge the bridge that goes over the treat tracks uh from what's the street behind the hood Suites to White which exactly white place thank you white place to Boon Street it would have been great if we had that functioning right now for the peer school we don't have it functioning uh but they've been trying to it was um taken out of commission because of was deemed to be unsafe right um this is just a a resubmission of a grant to another um Department I think uh the same grant that they've been submitting the last two times so I mean unless there's any questions I think we should I would like to make the motion to the motion is to U issue a letter of support probably the same letter that we've issued with the correct uh address uh for the dpw's D Davis path Footbridge replacement project seconded all right any discussion on that no all right yes uh Sarah yes stepen yes yes okay yes D yes Mariah yes and I vote Yes as well so I have if I could just with capital um I think people have been seeing the building coming down at Pier school has been really pretty quick and and without Much Ado in terms of disturbance neighbors or or anything happening um people should know we will be getting in the bids for the full Pierce project the subcontractors will be um submitting on tomorrow and the reconciled GMP will be available on the 17th however there will be some previe of it to the building commission on Tuesday night so uh their meeting this coming Tuesday um I think that's that's about it and there will can I ask a question about Driscoll sure is it about no I don't know I don't know about the noise all I was going to ask is is the playground done now my understanding is that it was signed off on in December but I don't know for sure maybe Val knows yes um it is 99% done they're doing a little bit of work around the edges but for the most part it's done there has been since I brought it up I'll I'll explain there has been an issue with with noise from the ventilation system that both the town and now the construction company and the manufacturer are looking at to figure out why it comes on at various times it's not constant but it is a problem for those living uphill quite noisy yeah quite noisy people who live higher from rooftop are making noise keeps people up at night yeah yeah we've gotten a lot of emails about it they most of the times I've seen if it happens at night then people who are get are hearing it it's a there's an issue getting back to sleep right that was in one of the letters yeah there's a whole bunch of parents that are most of it lately has been during the day but whatever it is they're looking at it came through town is aware of it the U contractors the OPM so everybody hopefully by next meeting I might be able to report back on what what's happening that I think that's it for me all right thank you so that ends our short u subcommittee reports for today uh does anyone have any new business before we go to Executive session okay I see none so I'll move to meet an executive session pursuant to Mass General laws chapter 30A section 21A for the following purposes purpose three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the Brookline Educators Union unit a grievance if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining and litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares and purpose 7 to review and approve executive session minutes from the following meetings November 14th 2024 and December 19th 2024 do I have a second thanks Suzanne Jesse yes Sarah not here oh stepped out would you like to vote to go into executive session or not you vote Yes great uh Stephen yes Suzanne yes Helen yes Carolyn yes Val yes Mariah yes and I vote Yes as well so so we will not be returning to open session good night recording stopped