##VIDEO ID:iqXW-ni1HrQ## e [Music] [Music] [Music] hi Mariah it's Betsy can you can you hear us just testing I can hear you can you hear me yes I can great thank you great okay I'll be there in 10 or 15 okay great thanks [Music] bets see just to say that I [Music] could e [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome to the October 30th 2024 meeting of the Brookline school committee uh we'll start with our consent agenda um which I always forget to move so I'm going to do that right away before I forget so I would like to move the consent agenda do I have a second I second it okay all right um Stevens the second um so I'd just like to point out a couple of um gifts and grants that we're voting to accept uh tonight one is a gift uh of 125,000 from an anonymous donor um to the the Food Services Department to support the zero waste initiative um and Stephen I don't know if you would like to say anything about that yeah thanks Andy so this has been a a donation that has been in the works for a long time and I think first of all I want to credit uh Food Services director Sasha bommer with the initiative to make this happen as a result of it we're going to have a three-year pilot for a school uh Food Services sustainability coordinator a position that's being filled by Rebecca Sal um and she's already done a lot with that position um the amount is significant too as you said it's $125,000 for 3 years and that allows us to do a lot uh towards Food Services related sustainability so uh I just want to say that I think it's a pretty big move for PSB to have this position and to complete uh the activities um towards sustainability under the Food Services Department with it right thanks Stephen um the grant I'd like to mention uh is the fiscal year 25 Meco Grant of 2355 million that's also part of tonight's consent agenda um so does anyone else have comments or questions about the consent agenda before we vote um all right seeing none Mariah yes all right Jesse yes Sarah yes Stephen yes Suzanne yes and I vote Yes as well um and the other item I'd like to point out under administrative business is that um the 2526 draft calendar um is posted along with this week's agenda we're not discussing it this week we'll be taking that up for a third reading and possible vote at our next meeting on November 14th but we've got it uh posted this week uh in accordance with our policy uh which tells us to post the calendar uh together with the agenda of the meeting before the one which we take a vote so I just wanted to mention that all right um with that we'll move to the superintendent's report Dr gillery floor is yours thank you and good evening everyone I will um share my screen here and try to move quickly so that we can get to our spot light on Excellence tonight um so before we um walk through the actual slides I want to share out an election message that we share with PSB Educators um this afternoon and one similar type of message will go out to families um this week in our community message greetings PSB as we approach the election on November 5th we want to Prov provide all Educators with resources to engage in post elction teaching and learning with their students this work is directly connected to a broader project focus on our District's Collective response to emerging world events the lessons that are shared below were created by K through2 PSB Educators this past summer and are we are eager to put them to use in our classrooms and gather feedback on how they will meet our students needs our mission in the public schools of Brookline is to educate and Inspire every student to lead a fulfilling life and make positive contributions to our world part of that mission includes providing opportunities for students to develop an understanding of how to meaningfully participate in our democracy the development of one's civic identity and learning how to engage in one's Community are critical components of a student's educational experience on November 6 PSB students in grades prek through 12 will come to school with varying degrees of understanding about the election and potential results to that end we have provided lessons uh for use in grades prek through 2 grades 3 through 5 grades 6 through 8 and grades 9- 12 in grades 6 through 12 social studies teachers are strongly encouraged to lead a lesson that provides space to reflect on the up-to-date election results acknowledging that we may not have a clear result the day after the election the lessons shared are and below and teachers may also work with their curriculum coordinator to develop individualized lessons for their class SEC uh grade 6 through 12 social studies teachers will also have time to work on their lessons collaboratively on the professional development day prek through 5 teachers are also welcome to use the lessons linked in support of Student Exploration after the election please use your discretion for utilizing these materials and previously shared election resources in such a way that both provides the necessary time and space for students to process while not disrupting the overall flow of the school day we are committed to maintaining a safe and supportive learning environment for all students at each school we'll have a dedicated space where staff and students can go to reflect and process their emotions access support from a coun counselor clinician counselors our counselors and clinicians will work with individuals and small groups of students who want or need additional support if you have any concerns regarding student or colleague please reach out to our school leader to a school leader or member of the clinical team as we navigate these experiences together let us continue to model respect empathy and open-mindedness for our students and to each other thank you for your dedication to fostering a safe inclusive environment where all voices are valued and supported so that message went out to staff uh today and like I said a similar message will go out to families uh Friday so for our update tonight um we want to highlight from the office of teaching and learning uh is seeking prek through five teachers literacy Specialists and Librarians special Educators and 6 through eight ELA teachers in ela El teachers um looks forward to support seeing them I said seeking seeing them on Tuesday November 5th uh from 8: to 10:30 as we continue our professional learning experiences we will be joined by our new teacher Center colleagues Zakia Brown and Lynette Henderson Tuesday session achieving District literacy goals the power of knowledge of a knowledge Rich curriculum and structured literacy will build upon their experience explore valuable Concepts and allow our Educators uh to practice new processes and tools for implementing highquality literacy instruction and support I noticed it so I was making sure um key topics include gaining a clear understanding of public schools of Brook Lon vision for literacy exploring how anti-bias texts can be integrated into a knowledge building curriculum and reflecting on how our identities influence our teaching practices and beliefs from the office of educational Equity oee would like to recognize the tireless dedication and commitment of the Middle School faculty um and Equity teams at Lawrence F and rle it's a true privilege to partner with our incredible teachers administrators and staff as we all seek to develop our practice further and serve all students with Excellence OE would like to thank verie Hawkins grade five teacher at Drisco for representing the Brookline Educators for educator diversity at the quarter Massachusetts partnership for educator diversity October membership meeting at the Consortium which was attended by 50 plus school districts very shared the efforts of the IND District group prioritizing this work in Recruitment and Retention as well as critical need for representation of Educators and students from oee as well Lawrence F frr and Rule are well into their Equity Cycles Middle School staff as well as Equity leads guidance counselors Vice principles and princip have already completed modules on community building circles and addressing harm or conflict resolution circles with the support of school-based administration and oee middle school staff have facilitated and participated in grade wide Community circles with students um and implemented a consistent practice of community building circles and advisory I've also started another round of school visits uh this time I'm look going into fourth and fifth grade classrooms and have just started that this week so I look forward to that um uh cycle continuing I'll be at BHS tomorrow and my goal is to uh over the course of the year I told Anthony this is somewhat am as told head of school Meyer this is somewhat ambitious but over the course of this year over my visits at the high school I would like to be able to get uh to in to see all departments doesn't mean I'm going to hit every single classroom but I'd like to be able to get into all departments across the high school this year so that's a goal that I have when visiting um the schools there so with that that concludes the superintendent report tonight and um I'd like to move to our Spotlight on Excellence as we have members here tonight we are very pleased to shine the spotlight on Excellence this evening to Brookline High Schools fiction and film course joining us this evening is um Rob primer the teacher of fiction and film I see Evan Mano teacher fiction and film I see Jason mantros fiction and film Sophie Blum kulage Corner um theater educational director fiction and film is a course that ra primco created with the librarian digital VI digital video teacher ly Cohen now retired the first class ran in 2009 and has been a powerful way to engage students who have good ideas and insights but may have struggled to communicate those when the class texts were books Rob has found that because of the accessibility of f many students who have struggled in English in previous courses find their voice in this one Evan musu one of the teachers uh of the course has worked in collaboration with the coolage Cornet theater to develop coolage classroom programs to support excit existing curriculum and a variety of disciplines including stem World Language and the humanities while simultaneously engaging media literacy skills and Foundation of C Cinema studies earlier this year Rob and Evan took their fiction and film students to the coolage corner theater to see a film the students screen Diddy a funny uh irreverent and affe affecting film about the first generation teenagers navigating the joy and Chaos of adolescence as seen through the lens of a 13-year-old taiwon American Boy students engaged in a pre-film presentation film screening and post film discussion as an added bonus students receive free popcorn and lunch this type of collaboration is an excellent example of the district strategic goal number two to develop and Implement culturally responsive Community engagement plan to Foster connection and and caregivers to the school district and the community at this point I will turn the mic over to Jason Rob Evan and Sophie so that we can learn more about this Innovative course rob you got to go first because you are the Godfather of this thank you school committee for having us thank you superintendent Giller for recognizing our work um the the course I've had a hand in for quite a while but this partnership um and she's below me in the zoom uh Sophie Blum has been uh instrumental in uh this partnership uh without her there there is no partnership so uh the coolage corner theater has made uh tremendous Outreach to the high school um the renovation is fabulous um and they've renovated more than the building this whole program is is uh a new renovation of how to partner locally how to bring more students into uh the theater again to break again through the covid sort of moras that we've dealt with for several years to bring people back into the theater and into the public space and I couldn't be more happy uh with the way Sophie has has invited us in and um and not just this class other classes uh other teachers within the school have also partnered to help develop this program uh we were just very lucky to be sort of the the test case for it um and I will I will pass the mic Evan do you want to hop in because I know you have a class to teach yeah um no that's okay they they're still not here yet class is not till 6:30 so they're okay um thank you so much Rob uh for that generous um uh introduction and for to everyone for having me here um uh particularly to you guys for um uh to these awesome teachers for uh uh inviting me along um I'll just say that you know I started coolage classroom um uh in the hopes to give um uh teachers um the um the the ability to offer their students the kinds of experiential learning that I wanted to uh provide in my own class room but never had the bandwidth or the resources to um so our goal uh at the coolage um uh is to eliminate as many barriers to access for teachers and students as possible so that they can enjoy Cinema as it's meant to be seen um uh and have the opportunity to engage with curriculum um and with peers in memorable new ways um uh Beyond um uh uh using film as a uh as a teaching tool um for um uh for core disciplines um in ways that I know Rob's course um uh really um uh takes advantage of right film has the opport is is a um uh provides a unique um uh Gateway into um analysis um and um and Academia um uh that is um uh particularly uh engaging and accessible for um uh for all students um uh but our program also gives um students the opportunity to connect across disciplines and districts um uh so upcoming programs um we are hosting um the uh the BHS GSA um in conversation with the GSA from Margarita mun um Academy um uh and um I'm really excited about the ways um that uh we can use Cinema to uh generate dialogue um uh and Community um this is a free field trip student uh free field trip program um uh that um uh provides includes lunch um and uh supplemental resources um uh and is none of it would be possible without the teachers um who move mountains um to bring their kids here um and who were fundamental in getting the program up and running um uh Mr muso um along with um uh teachers from uh Brook lines World Language Department science um and Ace Program all provided um uh crucial feedback um uh up until um uh uh that made this this program um possible um so uh thank you again to um uh Mr primer Mr Montrose and Mr muso um for um making this program possible I I'll go really fast because Evan who probably will really it'll be a mic trap moment I've actually had the Good Fortune to co- te with both Evan and Rob so it's been awesome to kind of learn um from them but terms as being the special ed teacher um as as part of the group is that what I enjoy about film or even collaborating with Sophie now that we're able to go down to coolage is that now it becomes more accessible to everybody and so maybe I'm not the greatest writer on the planet or I'm not the greatest reader but we all can watch TV we all can consume it and we all have something to say about it so that's what makes this program wonderful this collaboration awesome so can't thank you enough Sophie because before we Rob and I went to Cambridge and at one point I went downtown to watch a movie and every time we've gone someplace other than coolage it's been kind of a disaster so we can't thank you enough um yeah thank you Sophie and Sophie highlighted right the um we got to be the pilot case for the program but the development of the program itself has been in the works for over a year now working with Sophie and other teachers at the high school um other Educators across the Boston area um and Sophie mentioned the program is free field trips for students with that lunch with that popcorn included um which is huge but also like teachers working with the coolage to develop this program were provided a stipend and uh a membership at the theater um so the support from the theater as a partner to the district has been really really uh amazing in terms of the type of collaboration that's possible between our between our programs um the last thing I would add is as what was really exciting for me as part of this piloting things was the opportunity for students to do some really authentic work um in developing a program right part of their work after attending the screening was not just to discuss the film but was also to say hey you got to be the first people ever to try this write a feedback letter right now to say like here's what went well and here's what we think you want to try next or how you could continue to develop things and that that opportunity for real authentic written work um is something that I find really valuable for students and so they got to got to engage in that which was really really special as as the the guinea pigs the pilots for this opportunity for other students in the future and the bonus was Sophie provided a lesson also it got even better at the end so we got to be like assistant teachers running around and getting other other people to participate so want to thank you also for that Sophie doing a lesson playing for us and tremendous flexibility to bring in you know uh on greater dates more students um again the the coolage this program um it's a gem within this community and um you know the fact that we're able to to make a small use of it is has been fabulous so again it's great thank you you are also kind um uh your your students feedback you know fueled uh the uh the changes that we're making to this to this program um uh as it as it goes and your continued collaboration um is what gives me a reason to keep working um so um thank you so much um and I'm really excited to work with uh continue working with um uh these three um and um uh the the high school middle school um and uh the community Beyond any school committee members like to ask a question or make remarks I just see General joy around the table it's about that's about the sum of it and thank you Dr Fortuna for uh identifying our Spotlight on Excellence um with this group so the public schools of Brooklin Spotlight on Excellence is awarded to BHS fiction and film course with deep appre appreciation for spearheading this Innovative program which promotes Community collaboration to provide a culturally responsive Community engagement plan which Fosters connections among caregivers schools and the district and the community so again congratulations to you [Applause] all and with that that concludes the superintendent report and Spotlight on Excellence all right thank you Dr gillery and thank you to our guests thanks for joining us and for your work for our students so this brings us to public comment uh we have five speakers signed up this evening so each will get uh the floor for three minutes and our first speaker is Julian Rico thank you hello all my name is Julian and I'm a representative of the Brooklyn High School Ai and education Club two years ago jbt knocked on the door of Brooklyn high school students quickly learned of its power and teachers struggled to combat it plagiarism and misuse of AI POS serious threats to the learning of Brooklyn students a coherent and concise townwide AI policy would help schools and teachers address this issue additionally without a town policy students could be confused on how to properly use it in hangam a student sued their high school because they were penalized for using AI however an outright ban fails to address the problem because kids will still use it secretly furthermore it doesn't prepare kids for the future where where they will inevitably have to use AI responsibly and effectively therefore I'm advocating for the creation of a use-based townwide policy that teaches students how to use AI due to the fast development of the technology we have to be able to adapt to new capabilities of AI with a set of values in stone with which to judge different uses exact plagiarism directly from an AI should always be cheating uses vary though and we have to consider creative scenarios where AI is used as a thought partner in brainstorming a tutor in problem solving and an editor in revisions Studies have shown that structured AI use in high school doesn't hinder student performance on tests while unstructured or Freer Reign use does hinder it an AI policy should draw clear lines between these beneficial uses and direct cheating we also believe that in order create a policies we must reflect on the value of Education I hope everyone can agree that school is vital for developing necessary cognitive skills such as critical thinking creativity comprehension Etc however the role school plays in preparing students for the professional world and their careers is less clear Brookline High School Prides itself on its excellence and the success of its students part of preparing students to be excellent is teaching them how to use new technology like AI in both educating and preparing certain uses of AI can play an impactful and beneficial role the choice of what uses we allow depends on what the purpose of school is AI is moving fast and it's powerful we must harness its power for good instead of letting it run rampant thank you thank you very much uh Julian um I just wanted to remind folks that um we do listen very attentively to public comment but our policy is that we don't respond on the spot so you know not hearing from us doesn't mean that we haven't been paying attention um all right our next speaker is tall kennet hi can you hear me hello yes we can sorry so tal kennet uh purest BHS parent so I want to talk about the calendar very briefly I watched the discussion about it and next school year June 18th is a Thursday uh juneth is a Friday the last day is supposed to be the Monday June 22nd uh we've had no snow days in about three years now there's a good chance that the Monday June 22nd will remain the last day of school so I think it's pretty obvious this means June 18th will in fact be the last day and in practice and June 22nd will be a day in the books with very low attendance um and even if families aren't actually going away they will be signing up for camps and camps are a full week thing so I think the introduction of juneth as a Federal holiday really means we need to aim to have the last day of school by June 18th uh because in practice every day after that we'll have very little to no learning and learning is the foremost Mandate of schools so next year we're actually kind of lucky because we have an early Labor Day and two of the current five category one holidays are on a weekend what happens when all five are on a weekday and we have a late Labor Day there's a whole additional week of school in June probably guaranteeing that we need to go well past June 20th in spite of it being a very low learning uh period at the meeting several of you raised some really great points uh first that the line between what is a category one versus Category 2 holidays become more and more blured and poorly defined this means there's probably more requests for category one holidays that are probably in the pipeline and rightly so uh second while the initial justification for closing schools on a category one holiday was low attendance it's not actually clear anymore what attendance would in fact be during the original Three category one holidays so the yiur shashana and Good Friday so making this definition much harder to Chase and several of you also mentioned this is a hard conversation and the reason it's hard is because taking something away is always hard but not being fair is also really hard so I therefore would like to urge you to dare to go into the direction ction several of you mentioned close schools only for mandated federal and state holidays and professional development days save as many learning days as possible in the middle of the school year when they actually count the most there are at least two ways I think to do this one is to just Rea find category one to no longer mean school is closed and second is to make all the holidays Category 2 and then fix Category 2 so that students who don't attend on these days are accommodated but without impeding learning for the rest of the students who are attending and I really trust that you guys can do this um and so that's the note about that and just as an aside I counted 34 lines below the calendar and two columns of 17 this is really hard to read and it's sort of a mess and it would be great if you could like categorize them by colors so people could actually see what this calendar mean that's it thank you so much all right thank you very much Miss kennet people are laughing because you ended exactly on the three minute uh timer so um all right our next speaker is Bushra yusf oh there hi I'm so sorry that was a struggle hi my name is Bush youf can you guys hear me we can okay hi thank you so much for for your time and I'm going to keep it very short because I was not very well prepared for this uh but I am here to speak about the after school program um at Florida of reallyy the Des program um I just wanted to put in my input that it has actually greatly affected Us in in a go way my son Zaron YF goes there uh to F frr and he is in the second grade and he has been uh part of the Daya program ever since he started um kindergarten so I know this year there's a lot going on with it I still have not gotten the whole story of it but I know it has to do something with the rent and high rent and the program at the moment being suspended so I would like to see if at all possible whatever needs to be done it's not just me I have spoken to other parents and it helps us so much we live in the Brookline housing and I know a bunch of the parents I don't know if any of the parents are here from um our site or not but I can speak for them it helps our students our kids um lot it helps us a lot with the um with the schedule and you know it keeps our kids uh active in a way because it give them the after school opportunity to be still part of um some sort of um either after school homework help or Sports just to stay active and on their feet um I know winter coming up and my son has been questioning every single almost day when are they going to start desp when are they going to start desp so if there's anything else I can say I'm I'm sorry I don't have a speech prepared for this I should have I guess but I'm requesting for everyone to please reconsider this and I really want this program to be running again um whatever you guys on your end have to do about this so I have other parents I don't know who else is here this is my first time um joining a meeting like this so please work on it and if possible at all to reopen the program um as soon as possible because we're desperate for it thank you so much all right thank you very much much Miss Yousef and next up we have sadf [Music] kazmi hi everybody um as was mentioned I'm SF cosmi I'm the mother of two students at Lawrence uh I was here a few weeks ago to speak about the 2025 2026 school calendar I'm here again tonight in response to the open meeting complaint that was made against the school committee concerning the discussion of the school calendar on October 10th and I am definitively not a uh uh an expert um in town government or its procedural requirements so I just want to acknowledge that up front uh but I was a bit surprised and disappointed by the open meeting complaint and so I wanted to make two points on the record for this group and for anybody watching um which I'm sure they're many many people watching uh the first is that um there are a lot of engaged members of the Brookline Community which I love um and who have a passion and interest in the public schools I like to think I'm one of those people although my consistent engagement is you know um sometimes not that consistent um as a result People review the school committee agenda and other documents that are made public on the town website um on October 10th the school committee um the school calendar rather was on the agenda um and in fact the entire reason that so many people showed up to discuss the 2025 2026 school calendars precisely because it was on the school committee agenda uh which was published on the town website and not because of any additional or inside information uh on what would be discussed or or what would be the nature of that um of of the meeting and the discussion within the meeting the second thing that I wanted to share with the school committee and more broadly with the members of this town is that I do believe and I also hope that others in this town believe that there's space in this town for all of us there really is um and that acknowledging and embracing that makes this town better and not worse thank you all right thank you very much Miss cosmi and lastly we have Kiara far all right good evening everybody can you guys hear me we can wonderful um thank you for uh giving me some time um I'm a resident of Brooklyn I have two boys in Fr frr one in kindergarten one in fourth grade and like many like many parents we chose Brooklyn for the quality of its public education yet last year uh in the last year or so we've seen some worrisome patterns towards taking resources away from the students at frr the foreign language is not taught any longer for K through five the extended day program for kindergarteners which had access to the frr library until last year is now constrained to two kindergarten classrooms thanks to the flexibility of those two teachers which limits the kids ability to use other spaces and now as Miss yusaf pointed out a couple of minutes ago the daily after school enrichment program at F frr desp has been suspended until further notice now deip is the program I particularly want to emphasize today in my remarks but I also want to point out the worrisome pattern um I understand that the email that parents received from deset only paints one side of the story and I really don't want to take one side or the other what I'm here to emphasize is that the kids and their families are really bearing the brunt of these breakdown in negotiations the kids and their families are the ones that are left with no after school activities that they have counted on for many years and I struggle to believe that no agreement is better than a less than ideal agreement for both the school and the families of this community as to the school budget I'm actually an economist so I understand that the school wants to monetize the spaces it has so that more Financial Resources can be collected to advance the admission of the school and maybe create again a foreign language program but changes to rental agreements need to be carefully agreed upon If a landlord landlord doubled rent overnight we would think it absurd and other sources of revenues could equally be explored for example my understanding is that f frr is mostly closed during the weekends why not finding opportunities to monetize activities during the weekend such as sports activities that seems like an untapped source of Revenue that could allow to subsidize some afternoon programs like deip now I'd like to emphasize to the school committee that these type of decisions don't affect all kids and their families equally but actually end up creating even more inequity in our community that's because the rich and wealthy residents I guarantee you will pay any way to be able and be able to afford expensive foreign language programs outside of school expensive Al alternative after school activities and maybe even send their kids to private schools alog together this pattern will leave behind those in our community For Whom the public school and desp are really the only way through which their kids learn discover and explore during the weekdays now I know and I thank the public school committee for reaching out uh I know the public school committee is working hard towards resolving these impass and tonight there's a vote to allow for flexibility in rental charges which I hope will be approved so I thank the committee for the work on making the school facilities access accessible to students both during but also outside of normal school hours and I do look forward to Daya being reinstated in early 2025 thank you right thank you very much Miss farinato and that brings our public comment to an end for tonight and takes us to our segment on presentations and discussions of current issues uh so our first current issue is going to be a discussion and possible vote to approve modifications to the mini CIP allocation for deferred maintenance um Helen do you want to walk us through the background here so I think what I'd like to do is just sort of set the stage and ask um uh Dr given to walk us through the actual spreadsheets sure I think that's probably a better way okay um the capital subcommittee as many of you were there met last week and we discussed these uh CIP request EST for this year as you can remember usually we need to get that in by September but we were given some dispensation uh due to a number of factors that were going on the town felt it was okay that we could as long as we voted tonight uh could submit our CIP requests um the CIP requests as you'll see pretty soon are divided into different categories and Dr given will be going over that and it's over a number of years um just so that everybody knows we did vote to U recommend the CIP uh to the full school committee uh that you'll see uh and asked uh Dr given to fill in some pieces that had been left out which she will be doing so Helen does this mean that we're dealing with an with item a and Item B together um yes okay well B will follow a um okay I just wasn't sure whether what you've just said is is about a b or both um well it's sort of about both we will discuss and and U see what was approved by the capital subcommittee what information was lacking within there that people wanted to have and then I will ask for a vote is that okay um okay so we're discussing the FY 26 CIP um also the mini CIP in particular the Deferred maintenance aspects of it which we need to break out separately because of the way town meeting we're going to have to vote the full CIP request which you'll see that um Dr given has that in one slide okay okay it sounds a little complicated it's pretty straightforward I think yes Dr G thank you yes absolutely Betsy can you I'm visual so I think it helps to uh oh little tiny here we do yeah so this process um is different than what we've done in the past because uh the town um graciously provided us with two years worth of of funds we had requested money for fy2 and and actually initially the uh the town administration had provided us with uh another $4 million you know so we were kind of excited but as it went through the process uh of town meeting um additional resources were allocated to us with um an understanding that uh if um we weren't going to spend the money exactly as uh presented that we would go through this process where the school committee would review what the changes were and then uh once you approve that then we would go to the board of Selectmen and we would notify the advisory counsil of these changes um and so part of the CIP um vote tonight is regarding that approval process which is different than the typical approval process um so we struggled a little bit trying to figure out you know how to present this uh since it was you know kind of Uncharted Territory you know how to present this information is clearly as we could we got feedback from the capital subcommittee and the document presented to you tonight reflects the feedback that they had provided to include information about last year so there'd be Clarity around how much money was approved at town meeting and people could tie all of that together um I also want to say that the Deferred maintenance is part of the CIP so CIP is uh divided into several categories um some are improvements and some are deferred maintenance and the majority of the money that's set aside in the CIP is for the Deferred maintenance and so we spend a lot more time on that um uh going through by school building the types of things that um we are seeing boots on the ground need to be attended to so uh so that's why uh time and attention is given to the Deferred maintenance piece if I could just add one thing so in years actually in all my years on the school committee we've only voted one year CIP every year we've never had a twoyear amount of money to work with so that's part of the issue that's that we're trying to work through uh to make sure that we maximize the use of these funds right and of course when you're when you're in the middle of developing a plan um you're using estimates and then when you get into implementation you know the costs may come in different sometimes higher sometimes lower sometimes as you uh drill down into a repair you find that the scope of work changes and so it modifies what you actually wind up doing so all of those things um result in prices being higher or lower or are priority shifting because something that might have been um putting in oute Latin when we were looking at this last year might need to be moved up because you know repair costs have gone route four or something has just failed and so we have to be able to make those adjustments so uh what we what we did um again based on the feedback we received is is what you'll see in the Deferred maintenance is we gave an explanation for what shifted right so people could follow along a little bit better for you know what we had completed um what is still work that needs to be done some things we shifted out and some things we shifted in um and we tried to give an explanation for um each of those moves so that folks when they looked at it could say okay in FY 25 and 26 these are the things we believe that uh were most essential to be done and um as we move through the year um we had to make some adjustments um and so this is how uh we would like to move forward with our deferred maintenance allocation for 26 and then the impact that that has on 27 8 29 up to 31 so that's what's before you um so there's two votes um the Deferred maintenance component of that is again for you to um you know hopefully approve uh the recommendation for reallocating the funds already um provided to us through town meeting and then we would go to the board of Selectmen so that's one vote and then the second um if you look at uh uh the document that is not as dense the spreadsheet that's not as dense it has our classroom capacity it has FFN um all of those part of our plan those are more for improvements as opposed to deferred maintenance um one of the new items that's uh listed there um well actually it was there last year is this request to have a long-term capital plan um we feel it's really important you know we we can provide um our practitioner eyes to the work but it's ALS also good periodically to have somebody come in and conduct a study uh so that things that you don't see um are added to the plan and uh there's there's some schools that have been renovated and are are more modern than other schools and um and so we would like to have uh a fresh set of eyes look at that in addition there's some areas that we've talked about over the course of the last year plus um that are are area where we would like to see um improvements one of those is our our climate control in all buildings we've made great strides thank you a building department in town for supporting the funds for that uh but we're not 100% And so we want to make sure that uh those improvements are um front and center um also we would um and so part of that study would be to call out you know what our options are there also gender gender inclusion bathrooms that's that's a topic that's come up as well and some um of our schools have gender inclusive sus I'm sorry climate control is a study that's what that repres that would be part of it that would okay there's two parts to that sorry that's what I thought but then I thought you said it was a study just now the FY 28 expenditure yeah so part of the long-term um study would include a review of um of uh Alternatives or ways that we could maybe consider uh getting ourselves to 100% in every school so the study would include looking at that gender neutral bathrooms you know um and other things and then we also you know to put kind of Park some money um in the plan um in 28 through 29 and 30 we also put a bucket of money so that once the study is done and they've identified um um ways to address that that we would at least be flagging that you know we'd anticipate that there would be monies required uh out years so the study for the upcoming year is really important because it will um provide us with additional information um that we can refine our requests for in those Improvement areas so um uh FFN you know 75,000 we're requesting for that and I think that concludes what we're asking for in FY 26 that's in addition to the money we've already been allocated for deferred maintenance so that's why there's two votes one is to um seek approval for a capital Improvement plan for the areas that have not been funded for this year and then to help us to be able to move forward with making modifications to deferred maintenance which was already funded by town meeting is that clear as mud better oh good y so just for those who don't know what FFN is it's uh Furnitures fixtures and equipment so it could be it's mostly in this category Furniture like um this last year we spent $150,000 on buying new um tables for the high school uh cafeteria so it would be those kind of big purchases that we need for um you know certain schools if it's just one or two things I think we do that on our own but we also when we build a new school we tend to furnish it and then use those Furnishings that are still good from the old school uh to fill in where we need to so just an FYI before we move to questions and discussion would someone like to make one or more motions I would love to make a motion so we're going to do the first one first motion one that's on your sheet here and that maybe you can put up on the um uh screen to approve the modifications made to their 2526 deferred maintenance project allocations as presented in the FY 26 Capital Improvement plan and submit this request to the select board at a duly noticed select board meeting for approval so those are monies that were already appropriated that we said we were going to use and weren't able to use last year but we are going to use this year and in order to use those monies the select Board needs to approve it you got it that sound good yes do we have a second thanks Mariah all right any questions or discussion on this motion Carolyn thanks um I have a I have a little question that's completely non-controversial and thank you Susan and Mariah Helen for pulling this all together and making it really clear even though this is something I've paid attention to for a while and I'm on the subcommittee I'm always Hanging On by a thread and this is really helpful um I will just say it as an aside because I even still struggle with some of the nomenclature so maybe other people likely other people are brighter than me and don't struggle as much but I do just want to say um so mini CIP and deferred maintenance is basically just maintenance like if you have a house and you got to make sure your furnace is working and you're patching holes in the roof and you don't have leak pipes so um and that's not a criticism of the nomenclature but sometimes I think that sounds more complicated than sorry and in the past sometimes it was because sometimes it was to make a new classroom so it was walls and and furnishings and everything that you had to do to split up a classroom and make it into two when we were growing so that was another that was inside of deferred maintenance not CIP in the mini CIP that makes that's why it started that that ter and then as we saw that there was maintenance that was you know getting deferred we it sort of shifted a bit but that makes complete sense it's both that makes complete sense um thank you and I'm so I'm interested in the study and I just wanted to know super quick I I see it says Town School long-term capital plan so are is that something that you or others are in conversation with with our partners on the towns side and does that mean sort of looking at all of our buildings under one study or like or only what we call school buildings in that elusive definition of what a school building is yeah it was to look more broadly um so that we' have uh information um that we could you know use not just schools because we have the same taxpayer base and so looking at it more holistically serves everyone so when you're looking at sustainability or you know I I don't know what the status of gender neutral bathrooms are in the other buildings but if if that happens to be an area that that uh needs attention that we should be looking at all Community spaces so um spoke with uh the town and and and the town felt uh that that was an important uh thing um to have move forward um uh for Town buildings as well some of them I guess have been as ours you know have been renovated more recently but then there's older buildings you know that may need the same type of a look that way you'd have one firm that does that you don't have a separate study here and a separate study there it's it's really good if you can have one uh study done by the same party to the same uh set of eyes so that's the idea all right Mariah and then Stephen thank you and thanks Susan for um all the work that went into this um I have just a couple questions that popped into my head since we talked about this at Capital um and one of them actually was it's sort of a it's a question relating to what Helen just said and a question that came up because I understood that this was deferred maintenance however what you just said was that it wasn't always deferred maintenance and included aspects of classroom capacity but we have another line for classroom capacity which is actually a code word for leases and so I guess what I'm wondering is um there's only one thing in here that to me is like a gray area of deferred maintenance versus classroom capacity which is the Lawrence locker room conversion conversion right which so it made me think and this is probably I'm sure this is incredibly annoying to bring up for because we if we moved it if we moved that $250,000 from deferred maintenance to classroom capacity it would upset the balance of what town meeting voted um from last year on the other hand it would actually be like it's just sort of an all like a appropriate descriptions kind of a thing so I don't know what to make of that but when you just said CP was actually these other things it sort of I don't know it it engaged something in my head in the interest of clarity I wish we could move that 250,000 into classroom capacity because that's what it's doing I don't know I'm just sort of throwing that out there as a thought of like how we're properly allocated I think we could look into that for next year but I think at this point we need to get this over to the select board and to uh Melissa to to put together the total CIP I wonder though if 's an opportunity to make to work with Melissa to make sure that the wording that goes into the CIP might be flexible enough so that if it if if for whatever reason someone were to complain that it shouldn't be in deferred maintenance that the wording of classroom capacity wasn't just limited to to leases such that the dollar amount could be shifted over well like so we wouldn't lose the you know and again it's sort of just about like accuracy and refining yeah yeah and and again it would a little bit mess up the vote the two-year vote that town meeting took um but I feel like this is more like a procedural paperwork Precision thing like so anyway I'll leave it at that that's my first comment my second question is you said the town supported the long-term capital plan is that being jointly submitted or is that still being submitted by PSB but with like what does that what does that look like well we were the ones that submitted one last year and the year before and the year before maybe year before I don't know see the one the year before so I don't but but previously it wasn't a joint it was a school's one so is this one jointly submitted it's it's to say that there there's there is some need on their their part too to document similar things so whether it's put here or there we just you know wanted to but they're endorsing it yes okay great and then my last question is just um and I should have asked this a capital but I hadn't processed everything for the climate control and gender inclusion dollar amounts that are in the out years are those essentially just placeholders for now or have you actually sort of preliminary Al preliminarily allocated them into yeah we have identified the schools that have not had renovation projects okay um and but we don't have like great detail there's there's plumbing codes and everything that have to be looked at around that we learned that um when we were working on Lincoln this summer and so that's what kind of triggered for us you know hey somebody needs to take a critical eye and look at you know know what are the options here you know if we're going to be updating and renovating bathrooms that are in older buildings and we should attend to that at the same time and so um that's really why we we kind of pulled that out also recognizing um you know that there are improvements you know and now you could say they're deferred maintenance because the you know the wear and tear in those spaces are great and so so sometimes it's it's like Helen said you know is it an improvement or is it a right and so we were just really trying to we keep trying to refine and I think that as we refine we have these conversations and then we all have more clarity around why we're putting what where um that one that you had mentioned uh has been a line item in the Deferred maintenance budget for a very long time um and I I I know that there has been work that um we were hoping to do anyways there some could be deferred maintenance just because the space needs that anyway right and some of it would be to um look at it um differently than what it is which would also be part of the study we have at the high school um money set aside in the in the Deferred maintenance budget for uh converting I think one space into another space another type of space there so we could look at look at that um in different schools um to make sure that you know we're looking at all of our spaces and making sure we're using them to uh uh leveraging everything um to our best needs and uses at this time so and just to follow up is the gender inclusion everything you have penciled in there that's really bathrooms or it's other things just so it's really is gender inclusive bathrooms as opposed to gender inclusion unless they say locker rooms for example at at the high school or something or in another space could be that as well thank you we weren't limiting ourselves so we thought we'd be broader until we got the study done and then we could we could you know again refine Stephen and then perhaps we can vote on the first motion thanks I I'm I'm still in the beginner's course here I I'm still trying to make sure I understand the motion so the motion is to is to approve the modifications and send this back to the select board and the the specific modifications is the the actual modifications are represented best by those arrows on page three so what what accounts for the differences are these just better understandings more up-to-date understandings of costs and pushing it towards out years for what we didn't get to to date is that some it's update so it's a combination of those so some of it's update on costs so for example at the rle school uh we had set aside a half a million dollars in FY 26 to do flooring but when we evaluated the flooring there there's some that's in fine shape and so why would you tear it up and replace it if it's in fine fine shape I mean we want to use uh our taxpayer dollars uh you know to the best benefit and so that number has been reduced to $100,000 based on what the actual needs are well that then frees up the the capacity that was in that line to be allocated to something else so some of it is refinement of scope of work and costs based on what we know now and then others are you know needs that we thought we could wait another year are are in front of us now we have an oven that needs to be replaced and and a few other things in the kitchen dishwasher and things like that that need to be done now we really can't wait and so we move those things up or they're newly identified because of course last year we didn't have a director of operations and I was just walking in and so um when Charlie and I uh worked with R to put this together um we knew that there were things that we were missing and so said that so I so I guess I'm just may to rephrase it okay so it's the it's the number it's the cost that's changing that we're seeking approval for but it's also the period over which it's being spent we also need to seek approval if we're Distributing over different fiscal years that I guess that's what I'm trying to understand from the arrows because we're pushing it to FY 26 do we need to see it was approved for 26 too so is is just the cost differential that we're seeing is the cost differential and the um and if we were going to move or add a project and we've added a few things here in order to get funding for it and move it between the different areas new it right okay short answer is it's book but we're not pushing anything outside the period or during which the the work was expected to be done we're not seing approval there are two items that we moved out um that I noted and they're in cafeteria and kitchen and because we want to have the study done um uh to look at I see and that's in that's in the smaller yes so where you get there's there's a notation section I think I modifications I think that's why it's called the many yeah so I I I I would say moved out two years or I mov something in a year or something like that on a particular line so you would know what's what we've had to reprioritize and we attempted to explain why okay thank you Z and nothing prevents us from requesting more changes as long as we go to the select board correct and notify the advisory committee corre so once we get kneed deep in this work if the pricing comes in better we might have capacity again and then we can we can shift and likewise things might not go favorably so we might have to make further adjustments in certain areas all right I think we are ready to vote on the first motion all right so um Jesse yes Sarah yes Steven yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Helen yes Carolyn yes Val are you there yet yes and I vote Yes all right and chair votes yes as well so okay that passes would you like to make a second motion Helen I'd be happy to to approve the FY 26 School P Capital Improvement plan in the amount of a, 236,000 furniture fixtures and equipment at 75,000 and long-term capital plan at 400,000 do we have a second that should add up to the I saw Jesse's hand first so he gets that honor um all right is there any uh discussion or are there any questions uh for this motion specifically um all right I see none so we can move to a vote um Jesse yes Sarah yes Stephen yes Mariah yes and I'm just hoping you will explore that bit with um Melissa about yeah just providing that flexibility so we don't get locked out by accident thank you Suzanne yes Helen yes Carolyn yes Val yes and I vote Yes as well all right so we are through I think the first half of current issues the second half is a series of budget updates and budget related items so um Mariah why don't I turn it over to you for this segment and you can direct traffic sounds good all right okay so um everything here we we discussed at Finance last Wednesday and some of them are um recommendations that came from the committee and others are just brief reports so you all have in the papers in front of you uh a a summary of the FY 24 budget status um the close report um and so the year ended up closing at an expenditure of 131.8 million as you see in the third column there of expended um and I just want to provide a couple of um updates that we talked about so if you recall the original budget was 130.7 Million um there was a request made to advisory at the close of the fiscal year um just after the close in July that um that had advisory committee uh do a reserve fund transfer of just under 494 th000 and of that money PSB ended up um needing to use 405,000 to close the year and as you see there was a surplus at the end of just over 89,000 so I just want to highlight that while 405,000 is um a large amount of money it really represents 3/10 of a percent so 0.003 um of the budget off so quite quite close to the overall budget um and of course if we were 3/10 of a percent under um it would be a different story but still it's a remarkable um close for um and I want to say thank you to the team for all the hard work to to bring that to the close um one of the things we talked about at Finance one of the questions was if you can see there is um surpluses and deficits in the categories over to the right and I asked if that was informing the fy2 budget and the answer was yes and that's why the fy2 q1 report which we were going to see at Finance but we did not we will see it next month and so that information is informing the fy2 budget and we will get an update at Finance next month on that any questions on the fy4 close Caro what happens to the Surplus [Laughter] what what happens to the Surplus where is that 89013 go so it gets rolled back into free cash and then it gets certified and then it gets redistributed into the waterfall okay that's what I kind of thought and sorry I should know this does is there a free cash within the school department or do you mean goes back to the town to the town okay thank you um any other questions on FY 24 closed Susan did I miss anything no okay great um next one um so possible vote to authorize the finance subcommittee chair to review and review and approve Grant applications between Finance subcommittee meetings if you recall this was brought up at our last meeting I previewed it for you all we agreed there should be a vote we agreed we would wait for the vote um this is the vote Finance also considered this last Wednesday and approved it or recommended it to full school committee unanimously um I'm not going to talk about it all again but let me know if you need me to remind you of any of the Salient details okay the only other thing I would highlight is that um having gone through this process once we learned a little bit about how we want to make sure it works and I'm going to make sure that the stuff comes directly from Susan to me if we have any of these that come off cycle so that is the vot oh thank you for the moving okay so for those not on the finance subcommittee and the change you'll see is that um um let me can I summize yeah anyone want to Second it first so discussion um there's two changes that are going on one is that we are shifting grants from accept not just from post acceptance review or not just from post awward review to pre-submission review so that they are aligned and any school committee questions or concerns or resolve pre submission but because of that it means that there can be timeliness issues if a grant is due let's say in 3 weeks but the next finance committee subcommittee meeting isn't for four weeks so all we're doing is granting the finance subcommittee chair that approval if something has a timeliness aspect before it can be re um before it could go before the full Finance subcommittee to approve those and just to be aware even if you approve it and you send it in you don't have to take the Grant if if I mean there is that possibility I don't think that would happen very often but and the plan is to still like to report out on any of these that happen off cycle so are we ready to vote all right so the motion has been made and seconded so I think we are ready to vote um Jesse yes Sarah yes Steven yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Helen yes Carolyn yes V yes and I vote Yes as well okay I'm gonna skip three for a minute um and just jump to four and then we'll come back to three if that's okay so number four um Finance subcommittee reviewed on Wednesday and um and so part of this is about as Susan mentioned earlier last year we did not have a director of operations the year before that we had updated our building rental fees um and so due to the transition of all of this and the changes um it seems clear that there's been some miscommunications with certain parties and so we are um having the staff um this is a vote to authorize staff to review and align prior year meaning FY 24 and current year fy2 building rental fees and charges so that if there was any sort of miscommunication or miscalculation in fees um that might have Arisen from this transition and this change in fees then staff can go back and um just work directly with the parties to um negotiate the any any modifications that need to be made so um Finance again uh approved this unanimously so I'm gonna move it I'll second it um I have one question or well Stephen you go first uh yeah I have a question so would this mean that once so this is for so for instance you Dr given or or Joe Albuquerque to negotiate directly and would this mean that it does not need to come back to school committee for an amended vote right okay thanks yeah I had basically the same question would we even be notified when something like this happens or no in the same I mean these are all sort of operational things yeah so yeah no can we vote can we vote uh I see no hands up so yes Jesse yes Sarah yes stevenh yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Helen yes Carolyn yes B yes and I vote Yes as well okay then the third one Finance all set we're going to crank through this we're ahead of schedule and I will get you home and for my part we will leave early um so the next one is um going back to number three is possible vote to authorize the administration to amend the Eastern bus company contract to add the roots needed to transport students to the Fisher Hill Campus during the peer School construction project so we also discussed this to finance and approved it um and I just want to highlight a couple points and then admit that I am still confused after the vote a little bit so but but with that said um if other people have questions we can get get to that so the important thing is that um the reason this is coming to school committee instead of the school instead of the peer School building committee is that the Eastern bus company contract is actually with the school with the schools not with the building project and so although the funds for this are coming out of the building building project the contract itself is with the schools and the other thing I want to highlight is that um while I don't understand the math Susan is sure that the math is Right which is great and so um with that math the the total cost of the um additional the total additional cost is actually less than what was originally projected in the um budget for the $1.5 million in relocation expenses that this is being funded under so the good news is it's projected to come in less than it was originally um less than it was originally estimated at and so Finance also uh unanimously um recommended this to full school committee and I'll leave it at that in case there's math questions or other questions or other comments maybe can help if there's some confusion because I see some confused people we in this school building project have a a code that charges everything to the school building project but for instance we are doing something together with the DPW that helps them but they wanted under this under the contract the contractor to do it and so therefore DPW we estimate the cost or know the cost and DPW pays that amount so that amount is charged to DPW instead of to the school building project so this one would be the opposite where you know we know what the cost will be and the school building project would re would pay I think directly directly yes to the uh bus company those costs but but you're not but the administration isn't seeking permission to what's the permission that's being to still approve the contract the school committee has to the contract the number of routes is basically what needs to be amended and if you look at the document that Susan provided the first paragraph is essentially the contractual language which um and so it'll it talks to you about the number of buses and what's going to be added and where they're going to be added and blah BL laah so that's that's what's going on so it's a lot of details but essentially we don't get involved in the contract negotiation we're just authorizing staff to approve to be able to amend the contracts but what we have been able to do over the last few years Susan did it last year is really renegotiate our bus contracts which up until recently there was like one game in town one company and then we've been able to I think there's some a few more now that that uh we can now really have competitive bid but I do have one question wait so it's so it's a change in scope at net savings that's what's being sought thank you stepen that's very well said wait I'm all for it yeah can I ask my question um so I'm a little confused there's three two buses with three runs but then there's a extra bus and that one is if we need it yes well there's two things first of all the amendment to the I think you have to talk into this because nobody can hear yeah I can't either you know um I realized last night as I was texting with some members that I've confused people by trying to be efficient and my efficiency uh made it more confusing so there's there's two items what's really before you is the amendment to the contract I was also then trying to provide information that would be helpful for for the building committee so that they would know how to amend their budget and I merged the two into this and I confused everybody so um what I need from you is uh to be able to amend the contract so that the bus company um and the school department um I have an agreement about how to pay for the Pierce runs so that's under our that's what I need from you the other part was the cost is less than what was in the budget so I put that there and then in the process of trying to explain it all I've just uh confused everybody so apologies for that so does that does that try me again if I didn't so I think so um and the one other thing is if we don't use a bus or if if something we can change this too this is what it we would pay isn't that correct like if a bus doesn't run one day or something like that yeah yes we don't I mean that's their business they've got to transport the kids so if some bus goes down or something they've got to figure out how to backfill the runs but in essence uh this will um put us on record and and uh commit to the Eastern bus company for the next three and a half years um to provide our students with transportation to which was not in the original budget which is why we're in the original contract which is why we have to amend it all right I don't think I'm gon to make a motion to do this thing that's written there I'm still gon to make the motion second it and then we who who second I'll second it okay Stephen Caroline go ahead thanks Susan yeah um so I'm still slightly confused about the sort of how there isn't how there is a bus dedicated to doing these runs at 710 and 745 that isn't dedicated that isn't contracted just for Pierce but I'll put that aside and so I'm assuming that bus somehow is it's doing double duty so that's a bus that's okay just but I do have a question where the memo says and we know there are three runs three runs one at 710 two at 7:45 at least that's the morning and that's what's asked for but then on the second page it's 3555 * 2 355 * 3 is not 127 800 right so the so the difference is is the way the contract's structured for pricing is that each bus you paid by the bus not by the route yep okay and the way the contract is written that each bus can do two runs so if you have three runs three new routes then that is the equivalent under the contract pricing structure to be two the equivalent of two buses it takes two buses under the contract to provide three routes okay okay one bus is two routes and the next one is one rout that's just the way the pricing structure is laid out in the contract so there's two parts going on one they have to bill us by the bus not by the route and so according to the metrics it would be two buses not not three even if they use three buses to do it yeah the pricing structure is still for every two routes it's one bus it's just the way it's written uh I understand that that's a confusing the other part is that the daily rate instead of being 555 is 355 or instead of 550 it's 355 and that's to account for the fact that we're not actually adding buses we're adding routs that's why the pricing is less yep as well as not three roots to because we don't get we don't pay based on Route we pay based on bus I know that probably isn't helping you understand at all this is the heart the B problem that we all know we know we know multiplication and we don't understand why it's not 3 * 355 time 180 or two times 550 time exactly it's like okay I understand it it it took a lot it it took it took weeks to be able to get us all on the same page at least the contract makes me feel better about our own ability to get on the same page yeah yeah yeah I think the important thing to recognize is we got economy of scale you did you know and and Dr Givens did a great job of negotiating this so thank you yes yep so before moving to the vote I would also like to thank Dr given for negotiating a change in scope at net savings as Stephen said sounds good um all right so Jesse how do you vote Yes Sarah yes Steven yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Helen yes Carolyn yes B yes and I vote Yes as well could I be recognized to say something oh yes um I I don't know who was the person who used to say to our student representative at this point there might not be a lot that's super interesting for you and you should go home and your homework because it's senior crunch time and college like early decision time so can I say that this time yes I hope I hope you understand that Karen oh I mean at this point actually the colge application process at this point actually like the college application process like our deadline is November 1st at least for early um I've submitted my stuff so you know I'm just kind of here for the ride um you know congratulations you know being here is like my kind of way of celebrating the fact that I got it [Applause] done get yeah okay so we are actually ahead of schedule now as we come to our school committee actions that may that may not last long um so the first school Committee Action is um I hope this really doesn't take over the meeting U it's a discussion and possible vote on that long list of proposed resolutions at the masc annual meeting and so the purpose of this discussion is to instruct our delegate to the meeting Suzanne and the alternate is um is Sarah um on how to vote when these come up come to the floor okay so um all of you have a copy of the resolutions the proposed resolutions and um Betsy has also circulated the minutes of the government relations subcommittee meeting from October 17th where uh the subcommittee went through all the resolutions one by one in the hope that the full school committee would then not have to do that um so to structure this conversation um I thought what I might do is so there are four categories now of motions um of uh resolutions after that subcommittee meeting they're the resolutions where the subcommittee recommended to the full school committee that we vote to support um there are the resolutions where the subcommittee recommended to the full school committee that we vote to um to oppose um they're the ones where the subcommittee recommended to the full school committee that we abstain and then finally there are five where the subcommittee couldn't really come to a conclusion and thought that the the committee should discuss so um Suzanne I could certainly use your help in presenting the outcome of of the subcommittee meeting but let me go through quickly um just what are the resolutions that we uh recommended supporting um and then if anybody wants to um wants to reopen any of those um they might speak up now can I make a motion for Sandy um well motion if you have a specific Motion in mind go ahead um I thought that it might be clear after we've discussed them and then we'll know exactly what we're voting on well what I'd like to move to the floor is acceptance of the support not support and abstain recommendations of the government Rel ation committee okay that will that will take care of part of it we would still then have the five resolutions left over that we need to discuss correct sorry move that do we have a second for Val's motion what the support yeah they're not the minutes weren't distributed so we're not yeah I was going to ask if it's any is there any way that I happen to have my laptop so I'm opening those minutes is there any way that that can go up on the screen um without too much trouble the minutes themselves the minutes which have your or could even the the subcommittee chair which I guess is you that's me just summarize I could that's what I was about to do um Valen proposed her motion um I'm happy to second that um just in order to have a motion on the floor and then I can specify exactly what the motion is by reading out the recommendations so um all right so that's the motion and and I've seconded okay so the the resolutions that we recommended to support are numbers three 4 and seven um so three is on safe storage of firearms four is would um you know call on the legislature to make it legal to have video cameras on school buses to catch people who are not obeying the stop sign on school buses and then seven um is on fully adjusting Chapter 70 aid for inflation okay so those are the resolutions those yeah those are the ones that the subcommittee would like the full school committee to vote to support um in addition there are these expiring resolutions that may come to the floor again and of those uh we wanted to support the one on poly styrene um Part B of the educator diversity and professional licenses one yeah so that that's that's about lure um the part that's not about the mtel exam so um okay you said you wanted to support what was the other one uh Part B of the educator diversity and professional licenses uh expiring resolution so that that would um uh that calls on um the state to change the law so that educator lure is done by a body of educ that where educators are at least represented which is currently not the case uh 30 I think yeah yeah um yeah unfortunately these aren't numbered the um exping ones the document itself hasn't over yeah yes that so that one is on page 30 and there's a part A and A Part B so um we would like to support Part B and oppose part A you're going to go through the rest I'm going to go through the rest we're only at the beginning of the list okay um we also wanted to support the funding of Transportation costs for students in foster care um also the expiring resolution on um access to menal supplies and the one on Charter School Reform if these are brought back to the floor okay so that's category one the resolutions that the subcommittee would like the school committee to support category two the ones that we would like the school committee to oppose there's only one such and that's part A of the educator diversity and professional licenser one um that has to do with the mtel exam that Educators have to take um speaking for myself uh having taken that exam I I think it's quite appropriate that Educators should be able to pass that and I don't think that it should be abolished that's are you speaking for yourself or the oh well that was also the well I I think that's what I said at the committee and um the committee seemed to agree with that so yeah okay so so that's category one category two category three are the uh the ones that we would like the committee to abstain on these are resolutions six um which is the rural school yes so these These are basically ones where we didn't feel like we knew enough um because they're kind of specific to rural school districts or Regional School Districts so number six8 which is on funding for Regional School Districts um nine wait I'm sorry eight is on Equitable funding for non- Regional School Districts which is us right um no we don't have the high Transportation costs we don't no no compared to them no no so this is sponsored by the Plymouth school committee I think it's about towns with that are geographically maybe very large and have high Transportation costs but they're not Regional districts and so they don't get you know the special Provisions there the special education Transportation costs aren't considering this it's it's literally like in in municipality Transportation this is I to my understanding it's just in in town or in city transportation okay thank you not especially reg under a separate um yeah it's regular red Transportation yeah um the other the two other resolutions that we wanted to abstain on were nine on grants EV msba grants evaluation for chapter 74 and 10 um again uh something about vokex um and we would also like to abstain on expiring resolutions on child poverty um and climate change if those get brought to the floor uh we did not agree on which one poverty and children um child poverty yeah um you saying we did not agree on that one what it I did not agree was the to one we so I I believe we we bring that to the whole committee oh okay well so I guess I misclassified that I thought we had agreed to recommend exstension but you're saying we some of us wanted to support and some wanted to oppose right okay so uh no for child poverty what was the other one um other than child poverty you said climate change my goodness which is where oh now I found it 32 and you said you were doing what with that abstaining we wanted to abstain yeah okay so that that brings us to the end of Val's um motion right so we have not yet covered um I guess there are now six things that we need to break out and discuss separately the on that you the ones like for example resolution one that you did not mention yet means those are ones we would discuss yeah so the remaining ones are numbers one two and five um among the numbered ones and then the last two expiring resolutions in the document which are prohibiting the use of Native American mascots and uh full funding for um Ida okay so sorry can I have a moment to process yeah it's a lot so we'll give it a couple minutes anyone who wants to ask questions about the resolutions so far and then we can maybe vote on this before going on to uh the remaining ones so the ones that you didn't mention like mandatory recess School anti-racism those are or what are those that not in the motion at all they're not in the motion yeah meaning we'll discuss them still Yes okay we'll discuss them after voting on thetion this is like to the consent agenda of government relations we're doing right right although I don't yet sense consent so we'll see um well it's your proposed s of okay can I ask can one can one split A and B the way you did I mean I guess we can but like what does that mean well the convention did last time um I think I mean both of them both versions passed but by different margins so so clearly individual committees can split their thank you so you know just a reminder these resolutions uh come to the masc convention and um they really are uh they are brought either by masc executive board or perhaps by a school committee and so um it really gives the MSA masc uh direction for the priorities on on how they do advocacy how they push for whatever the resolution is saying um and sometimes there are many long conversations at the convention at this part of it at the business meeting and sometimes it's very short so just I I would like to make a request to remove climate change from the consent agenda cuz you requested to abstain from it and I don't know why we would abstain from it or maybe you can explain why you thought you should abstain so that I would understand that yeah um do you remember how the discussion went Helen or Suzanne look I have to look at it again if I remember correctly and my memory might not be that good um it was just so broad that it didn't make sense you know it's like it's like motherhood and apple pie I think that's what we said you know and so what are you really voting for what are you trying to push at you know for instance the mass School building authority gives extra points to every District who who does more sustainability stuff within their school buildings you know that's there uh right away uh for districts to to be able to I don't know it just it just felt like it was too vague and you know I mean if you're doing a resolu how much bandwidth does the person have anyways masc um I think we have one lobbyist um how much bandwidth do they have to really do stuff so yes it's nice to vote for clim you know to do something about climate change but just didn't feel like it really made a a difference with what they were proposing I do think though that the second resolution resolve Clause talks about specifically like funding for infrastructure needs um and extreme weather events so I do that's FEMA not necessarily I mean I think that like you know there can be additional building programs and I and it talks about state and federal but the federal like for example the green school bus um program that's this past year this would be advocating for more of those kinds of programs I think that was a doe program if I recall so I guess my point is I think that to me this is specific and that it's asking for those kinds of funds we know that the federal government is exploring those kinds of funds and to the extent that the the State Association of school committees can can further lend its shoulder to that cause I feel like I would like to see us not abstain but say yes do you want to move to amend the motion to take this out of this one out of the motion and discuss it separately I would I would prefer to move it into the yes bucket of the consent agenda is there a second to that I second that all right well let's vote on it um unless there's further discussion of this amendment maybe I'm not reading this correctly but the what they're asking for is to INF to advocate for infrastructure needs state in state and federal emergency funding for disaster relief yeah it's both it's both disaster relief and infrastructure fund the paragraph beforehand is just you know advocacy right action on climate change but this one is not just talking about emergency funding but infrastructural funding too okay I'm are we still voting so yes so we're now voting on Mariah's amendment to change our position on this for abstain to support Jesse yes um Sarah is out of the room uh stevenh yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Helen yes um Carolyn yes B yes and I vote no all right so that's been amended thank you all right any other uh proposed amendments or discussion of the main motion can I can I just hear the um the subcommittee's thinking on the poverty and children uh submission wait I thought that was coming to us for as a Comm that comes to the whole committee no they they disagreed and they said it's coming oh I'm sorry sorry so I had misclassified it and then we uh we took it out of the motion yes it moved to a yes in the consent agenda all right um I am just checking to see whether Val has a hand up because it's hard for me to check I'm just ready to vote on the amended consent agenda okay um it looks like we all are so um let's start with Jesse yes Stephen yes Mariah yes um Suzanne yes Helen yes Carolyn yes Val yes and I vote Yes as well all right that brings us to the remaining six resolutions um let's start with number one development of an alternative to high stakes MCAS testing so the minutes say that the subcommittee does not have a specific recommendation but suggests that the full school committee review and discuss this resolution so this is not to be confused with our upcoming discussion of whether to support um you know abolishing the MCAS as a graduation requirement for individual students and those things they're sort of they're not related right well they're related but they're not identical right well you can do one or both or neither dependent I guess is the way I would describe yes okay I have a question on this yes I have my hand up too that's Val and then Caroline um so this is essentially I just want to make sure I understand this assuming that no on to one this would be like our like a backup is this I guess my question is is this what we've been voting on historically on mcast for for masc or is this different from what we've historically been voting on suan St yeah so Val here's my confusion it's looking for it says at the top development of an alternative to the high stakes mcast test and then is third therefore resolved is that the masc urges Massachusetts to enact a moratorium on mcast testing effective immediately right and I thought we'd been voting on a moratorium or at least it had been titled a moratorium in past years but is this we have we have voted and masc has that they have that resolution that passed in Prior years okay so is this this so this is really about an alternative to the version of that or I'm just but I don't know what this other third one means is thir therefore although I think the what you see immediately is the moratorium and not the development of an alternative but the title is alternative we get the repeal before the replace on this one yeah so I'm trying to get a sense of the committee at large um do we want to take a position on this one well I was going to this isn't an answer to your question except I was going to raise exactly what Suzanne just said that when I it's it's more than just the develop alternative I don't have the historical knowledge I don't know historically it's been called moratorium but I guess my question and maybe none of us remember is was it just a one whereas clause on moratorium or did it always have these whereas Clauses but with a different uh sort of lead you mean therefore Force Val yeah yeah sorry so like was it called moratorium but but it had alternative as say the third Clause whereas this one says alternative but has Mor torium down lower B I'm just wondering if the text is the same and it's just the heading that's different or if it's actually a different resolution I'm looking at 2023 and I guess being new [Music] um it would help me just to understand a tiny bit more so were we to vote Yes on any of these that means that we are authorizing Suzanne to go and say the brook school committee agrees right with these resolutions that are put as a sort of internal resolutions of can we call it mask or do we not say that sure it just seems easier and and the effect of are the resolutions they're resolutions they the mask does not create they advise on policy of course as we know but they're just ideas nothing becomes law as a direct result something that Mas does at its convention okay I'm looking I'm looking at last year's from the minutes it's in our booklet um it came up they had this last year's resolution seven it's the same but it's different oh no it'sing I think that's the point it a different heading but it has the same it's the same therefore it doesn't say therefore it says um be it resolved and that motion was taed last year oh really and what did we do I don't remember okay I don't have those notes we supported it unanimously supported it support it again this year but including the part about develop an alternative I guess I that that gives me pause is the develop an alternative I would like to see that localized and be you know um I I I don't want to do another mcast so therefore be it resolved further resolved that masc urges Massachusetts to develop an alternative to the high scks mcast tests if that word alternative means a different test not sure that I it doesn't necessarily it could mean the alternative is is that they turn it back to the local districts and they uh Define what it means to be a graduate so it doesn't it doesn't mean that it's a state required alternative so would anyone like to make a motion on how the school committee should instruct our delegate on this one either to um vote Yes or to abstain or to vote no I I move to instruct our delegate to vote Yes I second all right um no more discussion we can move to a vote Jesse abstain Sarah sorry we're voting on resolution one right now yes and Mariah's motion to instruct Suzanne to vote Yes on resolution one no no Mariah yes Suzanne yes Helen abstain yeah Carolyn uh I'll vote Yes yes and I'll vote no all right do we have count please I have four yeses three Nos and two extensions all right motion passes it passes with that yeah four to three um all right uh resolution two was to increase the compulsory attendance age from uh 16 to 18 here it um it was mainly that we were a little hesitant uh cuz we weren't sure whether they were under intended consequences and things we hadn't thought of on the face of it it seems like a good idea to require people to stay in school until they're 18 um we didn't have enough confidence in our own knowledge of the the whole picture here is that a good summary of our our discuss is it possible for you to comment on the difference between going to school at 16 to 18 so unless other members have um interesting can I ask a question of L yeah sure L is it possible for someone at 16 to um either move into what would be considered an internship or vocational training or some sort of some sort of day activity where they wouldn't be considered a full-time student but could finish their I I'm just trying to think of is there a way that someone could be 16 years old and be on a path to a high school diploma at some point meaning at some point in a I would just point out that the first where as Clause includes an equivalency component yeah it says equivalent accredited education program I don't know if that's exactly what you're thinking of but it sounds like it is based on your description of vocational programming okay so I would move to instruct our delegate to abstain on this one as there a second for Carolyn okay um any further discussion before we vote Jessie Yes Sarah yes stevenh yes Mariah no Suzanne yeah I'm gonna abstain on the abstain Helen um no and Carolyn yes no and I vote Yes I think the eyes have it on that one yes five yeses five to three to one okay yeah sorry can I ask go the most we've ever had yeah so sorry that's okay Caroline then Helen okay um so if we if a if a vote to instruct um Suzanne to abstain fails then what is her instruction then we could switch to yes or no have to we have to then vote Yes or no okay yeah so well so we can't just sit there and look pretty she has to do something I have other things to do as well um so what did we V just on this one uh that's my motion was to my motion was to instruct you to abstain so it's a yes to abstain yes to abstain thank you and Helen so one of the things that happens at MEC is people put amendments on to these so for instance if there were an amendment here that were to say um you know that pending some sort of agreement with the school in terms of getting their GED and uh being able to go into a a a program that they could get into at 16 I I could be okay with that but so it depends you know oftentimes the person who's there needs to use their judgment too so we should suan if she changes her well you know we'll never know sorry you can't imagine you're sitting there among you know 300 361 people and trying to get count to vote and also sometimes during the discussion as we mentioned earlier sometimes the discussion goes on and on and we still don't seem to be where we want to be and they'll they'll send it off to a task force to study it you know something like that so all right resolution five was about aligning taxing Authority with the required local contribution I think the issue here is that um the required local contribution is often based on property taxes which is so that that part of the tax base falls under prop two and a half um but the required local contribution has been rising at a faster rate than that um and so this is trying to address that I think the subcommittee felt like this was this required expert knowledge to understand that maybe we didn't have and I have not so far been able to S of get more uh more clarity on this um so since I haven't I would suggest um abstaining on this so I'll move to abstain or to instruct our delegate to abstain um can I make a comment which is the can I can I see first whether anyone has a sec can second that otherwise okay Caroline so go ahead Mariah um I would vote against the motion to abstain I think that we should be very supportive of this and I think that there is a huge interest or a huge knowledge base about the limits that prop two and a half places on us I think that we see the impacts in our town and our schools and I think that um being able to um to be able to um have this kind of matching would make a big difference and I won't call it matching but yeah mirroring that would make a big difference and how we can be effective in um our ability to keep Pace with the needs of both the tenant schools so I would be supportive I mean in our case just thinking very parochially are our increases driven At All by changes in the required local contribution or is it more just you know we we have a budget that we put together a budget that meets what we think are our needs and that's what's Rising not because the state is requiring us to contribute something um I'm not sure what I if I follow your question exactly but what I would say is that we had a long protracted discussion last spring spring and the spring before and the spring before and the spring before and probably every spring about the challenges that we have in fitting within our allocated budget so if we you know these are the decisions we're having to make and I think that funding flexibility would really change how we think about where we want to go Helen has our hand up I'm not sure this gives us flexibility because I think we're above the contribution Susan maybe you know more about this that's sort of what I was asking yeah yeah my sense is that we are way above what the local contributions but I don't think that's the there are communities that will only give exactly what they have to do but I don't think that's what this is saying it's saying that the 2 and a half% cap is matched to this state level that the 2 and a half% cap would be increased to the state level so if they're saying you have to increase by 5.3% is what they have in the eth whereas Clause the whatever it is that the Statewide the 2 and a half% would be increased to the 5.33% that's how the says that's how I understand it calls for enactment of legislation of what they require us to do no it would increase the the town's Levy limit yeah the levy limit is what's in the therefore Clause therefor okay I mean I don't think this is the way this is going to happen but I do think that like prop two and a half is a limiting factor and the more that we can shine light on the this policy being damaging to the sort of structure of municipalities I think it's okay so anyway that's why I want us to actually vote Yes instead of obstain okay well I you you've convinced me I can't withdraw my motion but um anyone anyone who wants to because that's not how it works but anyone who wants to amend it can do that can I ask a question sorry can you um Can somebody just like summar get bumper sticker this because I'm I apologize but I don't fully I didn't pre-read this and it's not my wheelhouse just in ideological terms this is saying we support in theory being able to override prop two and half without an override locally as a ballot question that's the way I read it I wouldn't call it override without override I would call it mirroring to this other Benchmark or and what is the Benchmark it's this um local contribution percentage increase yeah I'm Helen can I ask Susan and Susan if you don't have the answer don't don't be uh I don't mean to do this but how much over our local contribution do we do do you know I don't know that I'll thank you but a lot but a lot okay that's the point I'm trying to make yeah that's kind of what was asking I what's helpful to do is to read the paragraph um that starts with therefore and I think that that is where you get the levy limit yeah I'm amending Andy's um abstain to yes in his motion direct the um direct Suzanne to vote Yes I'll second that I'll second okay um Sarah spoke first um any further discussion before we vote he told me I he couldn't withdraw but we could amend so yeah oh that's a just to be clear the reason I don't think we can withdraw is that once a motion is made and seconded it doesn't belong to the person who made it it belongs to the committee right so I can't just unilaterally with that's why I was interrupting you before it was seconded yeah okay all right um Jesse how do you vote Yes Sarah yes Stephen yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Helen I'm gonna abstain uh Carolyn I have to abstain because I'm sorry I don't fully follow abstain and I'll vote Yes all right on the amended oh um I guess we Sorry y that was that was voting on that was voting on amending so now we have to vote on the main motion as amended yep okay Jesse thanks lus let someone thanks for keeping us honest yes yes Sarah yes Steven yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Helen yes Carolyn this is my real eain all right Val now sorry I off what was the question oh so we're now voting on the main motion as amended oh yes and I vote Yes as well okay uh that takes us to resolution five oh no that was resolution five thank goodness um so we have there were two others at the end uh actually three since we added um poverty okay um so I think with the poverty one the we sort of had the same uh issue with that that we did with climate change which was that it seemed um very Broad and um said lots of nice things but you know at least part of the subcommittee MC should maybe sck more closely to um can I make a comment Andy it's narrow remit yeah Brooklyn school committee has been a supporter of the um food schools advocacy for the past two years which this would fall in if you look at the bullet advocacy for nutrition programs that erad eradicate hunger among children um and we've also listed as our own um programming support pre kindergarten programs for all children that's one of our guidelines I think that we've ALS multiple of the bullets here actually within our own budget guidelines and our own priorities so to me it might be broad but these are because these are Big broad issues and we should be supportive I actually agree Mariah and um much of this is what we was trying to be done with Community Schools and I I would fully support that and I would just highlight to it so support for a revenue stream that supports these priorities so that's really important as well so I move we vote Yes or we direct Suzanne to vote Yes a second okay a second um all right um I see no hands up so let's vote Jesse yes Sarah yes Steven yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Ellen yes Caroline yes Val yes and I will abstain on that one um all right so we have climate change right we haven't dealt with that one yet or did we we moved it out of the original motion but that means we have to no we moved it into yes we moved it into yes consent all right so that leaves just two um there's the um Native American mascots one wait what about mandatory recess um oh have I taken the out of order I don't know but yeah mandatory recess you said two but there was anti-racism Native American ass there's four more oh there four more yeah yeah so first mandatory recess um page 32 right so the expiring resolutions that uh masc says when they're good for 3 or 4 years and if they feel that they should still be active resolutions they bring it back under expiring resolutions so these have passed uh in your booklet it tell tells you what year it was passed but they've now are coming up for expiration and they're asking us to pass them they're looking to see if we're going to pass them again to to keep them active I mve to direct Suzanne to vote Yes I second that which one are we on man mandator mandat for what's the is there an argument against that or for an exstension or for no I think we were very confused by the language in the therefore um paragraph what does it mean to call for at least 20 minutes of free play Recess which cannot be excluded from structured Learning Time requirements and may not increase the total number of hours required in the school year that was the part that we didn't understand like it tied it into their first we Clause right when I read this that if you take recess out of time learning calculations yeah it affects total instructional time so some districts got fancy and reduced recess time so that they got on paper more instructional time or just reduced instructional time so that's what the therefore ties into when I read this and I interpret it a little bit similarly but a little bit differently in that they're trying to remove the incentive to gain back instructional time by sacrificing recess if you say that if you explicitly say that it is instructional time because it can't be excluded from structured learning time then there's no incentive to trade recess for something else and so that's what they're they're trying to didn't we discuss that here don't we have a policy similar to this I think we do we have in our wellness policy our wellness policy the difference is we can't count the 20 minutes towards our 900 hours right they don't want you to do that I I move that we direct Suzanne to vote Yes I think I already did that once but I'm doing it again second can I ask a question I I thought that there was an issue I thought we voted no on this last year because there was an issue with the school contract that we wouldn't get our time on learning lonus am I misremembering that well but the thing is it says here this is including Ed in time on learning the 20 minutes oh Mike sorry sorry Val I I don't remember what we did on this one last year but also I think if there's legislation it changes what happens if that's the case right it changes our time on learning hours yeah Andy um can I move a as well the last sentence seems to have something missing I mean is maybe just in how it got copied or something has a bar I think it's supposed to be an in it somehow got typos capital in in the school year all right so uh are we ready to vote on this one I think so Jesse yes Sarah yes Steven yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Ellen yes Caroline yes B yes and I vote Yes as well we don't have any left okay so I think we still have school committee and racism prohibiting use of Native American mascots and full funding for idea I I thought we said vote we voted just to support that did we okay yeah I don't think that one was controversial okay yeah wait what did you just say no that wasn't included in the none of those were included in your con yeah I think I I may have messed up in getting to the very end of this document we got let's just keep going let's just accept the consent agenda for what it was right okay okay we're almost done one yeah two three I have three more yeah so skull committee anti-racism you know I think that I I seem to remember a discussion of this way back when um and the we we had some issues with the language that therefore be it resolved that all the school districts in the Commonwealth should guarantee that racist practices are eradicated that just seems uh how how could we possibly guarantee that I we would love this for that to happen but it's not something that any any district and guarantee I think they um I think they tabled it last year yeah I'd also say that the last line seems to reflect the last phrase all lives cannot matter until black lives matter seems to be maybe representing a period in history or something is that in 2020 it seems to have passed in 2020 yeah so I think the world's different today so would anyone like to make make a motion on this one I move that we abstain I'll second Jesse yes sarra yes stepen no Mariah I'm a reluctant yes but frustrated by the wording yeah Suzanne yeah I'm going to abstain all Helen abstain Carn yes Val I'm gonna stain but if Suzanne gets to better language I'd love for her to vote something else um I'll vote Yes on instructing Suzanne to abstain but yeah I wouldn't mind voting voting yes on a better version of this um so what's what are my instructions to abstain to abstain unless it gets better in which case you can vote Yes what was the um count um Jesse uh we were did the motion is to instruct Suzanne to abstain to abstain yeah yes Sarah yes Stephen no yes Suzanne abstain Helen abstain Carolyn yes Val and and I vote Yes this is going to require quite a spreadsheet I don't actually think it passed Andy had five yeses and I had four I thought it was four four and one no from Stephen oh it was Jessie Jesse Sarah Mar whatever and then chair and Caroline yeah five so that's five okay so prohibiting the use of Native American mascots um the subcommittee felt unable to take a position on this one we're fine with probably whatever position the school committee wants to take I move that we instruct the um representative to vote Yes to it then I second that I mean if the NFL and MLB can get this right I'm not sure why schools all right Jesse yes Sarah yes Steven yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Helen yes Carolyn yes B yes and iote yes as well um just a not to Benny Brookline did this right 20 years te there are a few holdouts in the state at this point um okay I think we're done right because the idea one I'm not sure we voted on that one oh we didn't vote on that one okay we recommended supporting I think that was an oversight on my part to not include it in the in the motion earlier um so I guess we have to vote it separately I move yes okay um so Jesse yes Sarah yes Stephen yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Ellen yes Carolyn yes Val yes and I vote Yes as well okay done with that Suzanne now knows what to do I do okay this brings us to the next uh School Committee Action which is a discussion and possible vote to support a yes vote on question two on the Massachusetts ballot uh which would call which would eliminate MCAS as a graduation requirement so um on this one so thanks to Betsy for reminding me of the last time that the school committee took a position on um a ballot question which was in November 2022 when we voted to support the fair share Amendment right so the the Practical effect of our voting to support uh or oppose a ballot question is simply that it's like we're not going to use District resources to disseminate um our endorsement right it would just be that the chair would inform I suppose the yes campaign um if if indeed we voted to support uh uh yes on to and they could then use our endorsement on whatever campaign literature so we would join uh the many school committees and um and City councils that are listed right now as supporters so that would be I think the only practical effect of of um a vote to support yes on to okay move yeah are there any questions just on what what we're doing what this means before we go on to the substance um sorry Carolyn I think I do understand what it means and I listened to your discussion I I watched the tape of your subcommittee discussion um and you guys were really clear about that the effect is to join a coalition and allow our public body to be named in campaign literature and on a website [Music] um I wonder if the motion should include that sort of uh for the purpose of to be clear so how would you word that yeah I think we it could just be a motion to that the school committee supports yes on to and then you know it's understood or I'm saying now that we would not be using District resources to um to to publicize that but that you the chair would contact the yes campaign just to inform them of the endorsement they would use it however they saw fit okay that's if we acted that way because well I would amend it so that it's not for fundraising purposes of any kind vote you mean the vote is not for right that whatever you're instructing I don't think you should instruct I think we should vote to support or not support and let the campaign contact us about use so the um according to the minutes of what we did for the fair share Amendment it says if the motion passes Miss federspiel who was government relations chair at the time will inform fair share Massachusetts so it's not about instructing but it's about just informing of our vote were you just had two other sentences that you were adding which I don't agree with which which sentences to include us in this way and not this way and no that that's sorry that that wouldn't be an instruction to them to do something it would just be that what I imagine they would do which is that we would end up being listed on their website along with all those other school committees but we we wouldn't be telling them to do that they could if they wanted to right Andy can I ask a question yeah Mariah has a question um is it clear that the word support here actually means endorse and if not can we just replace support with endorse because support is a much broader word it could mean many things right but endorse is pretty clear and we've been using the word endorsement so I would prefer if it a friendly amendment that the vote is to endorse a yes vot I don't think there's a motion yet so you're free to um well it's as possible vote to support a yes vote there's wording on the agenda anyway I would I guess I would if when the motion is made I would move that it says endorse instead of support Jesse I guess my question is are we voting here as voters are we voting here as a unified group are we voting here as representatives of a school district who what are really what what will be the the Optics from the outside looking at the school committee weighing in as a group of individuals and at the same time a group can I speak to that yeah K and Mariah I mean I can I can offer a thought that's related to when the the um yes campaign has a website and they have a list of 20 odd um out of the is it 360 School committees in the state so 20 odd um have taken this position as a group so it says like it would say they would list Brookline school committee so I can't answer like super technically if if the question is more for Andy but I think the Practical effect would be it would be so it's not we're not being asked to say what we think and what we intend to do when we go as individuals to The Ballot Box but to say the Brookline school committee endorses is is joining a coalition of Endor this question I'm saying the Practical effect would be joining a a coalition that's like on the website it says Coalition and when you click on that it says like whatever school committee well I don't think we're actually joining a coalition I think we are voting it is as a school committee but we're not joining a coalition we're just giving our I'm just saying that's how it is on the on the website it says Coalition okay Mariah um this is sort of an answer to your question but maybe also not an answer to your question question which is that this is not the first time that the school committee has voted um on mcast and there's sort of a long history of that and so to me the um the venue might be different but the sentiment is a recurring sentiment and I don't think it is a particularly um it's not it's not an A change in practice as you've demonstrated from previous ones it's not a change in practice on the topic it's sort of consistent with prior practice and so that's my sort of thinking about where it all fits with the committee um putting itself out there as a body is there's both the topic and the ballot sort of Prior practice we move in um yeah so I guess we don't actually have a motion yet so does somebody have a well formulated Motion in mind yes Ellen I I put forward a motion to support a yes yes vote on question two to endorse endorse a yes V on question two I sorry I'll second that how about on November I'll take that okay all right does anyone have comments now if anyone has comments on the substance of of M of the mcast graduation requirement yeah Caroline um well I'm not going to comment on the substance of the mcast graduation requirement cuz that's not what we're voting on we're voting on endorsing the ballot question yes so you have more to say about about so I want to focus I I just want to stay really focused on on on what we're voting and some of you probably know I have a master's degree in education and I worked for fair test um which has a long history of um of studying and and advocating um against the use of standardized tests for high stakes decisions so this is a topic that is um near and dear to my heart and um I think I'm I've given a lot of thought to personally and I've given a lot of thought to this vote and I I watched your um conversation at the at the subcommittee um and I feel concerned about using our Collective platform form um as an elected body to um to influence voters to take a position um that's that's political and to um yeah to use our our position that way I actually looked um because I really did want to give this thought um and some of the emails that we received sort of spoke to that um we received a bunch of emails most of them were about the mcast itself some of them were about um taking this position as a school committee so I actually looked up um and mask does have a legal bulletin um that is regarding School committee's authority to take positions on ballot questions um this is from their legal council I've been asked by several individuals whether a school committee could legally take a position a ballot question um it references Anderson B city of Boston which is the the case law that's um sort of the foundation for the campaign Finance law guidance um and other related guidance so this bulletin sort of says you can make an argument for it being okay obviously as long as you're not using public resources um it concludes by saying school committee members should be familiar with at least the following interpretive bulletins and it lists four bulletins um conflict of interest law ethics law and it ends with a bold most importantly I strongly recommend that prior to engaging in the above referenced matters which include many traps for the unwar you seek the advice of your local Council um and I I don't think we did that so um I feel like we can take positions even publicly as individuals we could cast our votes on this agenda item and even say what we think as individuals um my my feeling is that it would be imprudent for us as a committee um to use our influence uh on on this political question do you think that uh taking a position on this would put us in hotter water than taking a position on the share Amendment for example well I wasn't part of the committee then so and I know there there's precedent but that I'm just speaking to the to the hearing now so I I wasn't part of those discussions um and again I will say I know there are a handful of school committees that have chosen to do this the vast majority have chosen not to um if 20 some odd have then 290 some odd haven't so um um so that's that's that's my thinking on this um that's my my concern and again I think that there's a way for individuals to to say what they think um and again that position is not directly related to my own sort of um personal and past professional um feeling on this but so so those are my thoughts I see Sarah's hand up I feel like then maybe we've spent enough time on this because um we we sort of have said that we so many of us believe that it would be great to not have the mcast be a high sticks test Caroline just said that more or less herself and I do think that we are able to go out there as individuals and state our position and so now I'm uncomfortable if we take a vote and um there's you know a couple of school committee members that want to vote no and their name is implicated with the rest of us that feels like it's kind of counter to the way that we usually think about things where we try to discuss and have some consensus between us and so it I guess I'd like to move that um we don't take this vote yeah I don't think we canot vote we can we can vote no um Mariah I mean we have votes where we don't have consensus all the time so I don't I don't see that like if we don't have a 9 to0 vote that that means like part of and even what we discussed in our Norms last week was this idea that sometimes decisions are made and then you move on as a committee to support the committee right so sometimes we just don't we don't we're not on that side and that's just the way it goes that's not about this issue that's just about everything right i' would also like to suggest that the masc has come out in favor and made the statement so our our association of school committees uh their executive board has supported this so they have come out if if they felt it was inappropriate for school committees to uh come out one way or the other on it I think they would have let they would not have done that and they would have said something to us about that us meaning all the school committees so that's the that's the job is to communicate with us and that's why I looked up the This legal no I understand I understand what you're BR just on this particular vote Stephen I guess I I just want to say that um totally respect your point of view on this Caroline I think that's I have no beef with that argument I only would say that I um don't want to overestimate what I think the influence of the Brooklyn school committee is on the voting public and I think um I think you know we're involved in education policy matters on a pretty regular basis which makes me feel uh the right to to weigh in as a body as a public body on matters that directly pertain to education policy Statewide to the extent that we're perceived as a body whose opinion is worth considering whatsoever so because of its relevance it seems to me that we that and the lack of a conflict of interest I think it's reasonable that we can weigh on it but totally respect your your thinking on this all right I think we can vote Jesse abstain Sarah abstain Steven yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Ellen yes Carolin no Val yes and chair votes yes all right so I will communicate the result of that vote to um yes on two all right this brings us to the last of our school committee actions which is to review uh the open meeting law complaint filed by Maria kogan on October 22nd 2024 against the school committee um so let me open up the complaint and summarize what I take to be the main point of it and then describe um how I would like the committee to proceed for now and then we can discuss whether folks are okay with that um so according to the so the alleged violation um is that um the docket for the meeting at which uh Eid got added as a category one holiday um said second reading of 2526 calendar and possible vote with no mention of a possible new school holiday and no mention of what the holiday was so that that according to the um complaint is insufficient notice of the sort of substance of the discussion that that went on um so I think the way uh oml complaints against public bodies often get handled is simply that for now we refer it to Town Council who has expressed willingness to draft a response um we would then meet an executive session at our next meeting on November 14th uh to go over that response um with Town Council and um it is okay to use um purpose one of uh to to meet an executive session to discuss um oml complaints against public bodies so that would be my proposal um I don't know whether we need to take a vote um does anyone have any any other ideas on how we should proceed you had said to delegate to the chair yeah I mean you're not saying that now well for now right it would be we would be putting it in the hands of Town Council and anyone any member who um you know wants to speak to Town Council about this can do so um in the meantime we should not be speaking about it to each other though until we meet an executive session to um to review whatever draft he comes up with okay Maria um so from what I understand typically when there is a complaint like this it is remedied by simply redoing the vote at at a future public session so would you be possibly coordinating that action with Town Council um for our next meeting or a subsequent meeting that could certainly be part of our discussion yeah but like we could even maybe obviate the executive session if the remedy is simple since we've delegated to you and Town Council to figure it out um yeah so maybe we should put it to a vote um just to make it clear if if in fact you want to delegate it to the chair and Town Council to resolve for now however they think best which may involve a draft response to be discussed at the next meeting or just may involve remedial action if we think that the think I think you can literally revote it and then tell the ago's office that you have revoted it at a not at a noticed in a noticed fashion and then that sort of concludes it but again you'll talk with Joe about it okay whatever that wording is yes that's the motion to make so just be so it there there are only two options right to delegate you to discuss with Town Council sorry so we can delegate you to work with Town Council and then if what I'm understanding is right there's only two options either we respond or you decide with have to respond response is the response could be but our response could include we're just gonna could include actions that we take to to remedy if indeed we think a violation did happen okay which so far I I I can't I can't speak but also Andy a violation like you don't you can sort of you can you can put aside whether or not a violation occurred and simply revote to close the book on a viol being ongoing but again doesn't us of the responsibility to respond to the no but my point is then you still have to respond but you've already sort of address like either way you know you could say you know anyway you don't have to get into the detail the point is you can remedy it and then respond and you can talk about Town Council yeah all right so maybe yeah does somebody want to make the motion basically by reading out the this docket item um I move that docket item yeah sure I second it okay so to refer to Town Council for an apprpriate response and delegate to the chair um the authority to coordinate with uh with Town Council so move okay all right um Jesse yes Sarah yes Steven yes Mariah yes Suzanne yes Ellen yes Carolyn yes Val yes and chair votes yes okay that does it for our school committee actions we move on to subcommittee and Le on reports yes Capital Improvements Helen find something to keep us here um so uh we met and we've discussed all the things for the CIP so that's there's nothing there to report out um Pier school is moving along well if any of you have gone by it you'll see lots coming down and um it's really exciting and it's it's moving along well um there also was um a Crossing that was deemed to be somewhat dangerous for students on School Street that a temporary one because of the um the south side of School Street the school side being closed by the contractor students couldn't cross the street and go up at Harvard Street and would have to go to the um well decided to go across uh and there was some markings in the middle of the street but it was found to be very dangerous so what they've decided to do to make it simple is to C close the crossing sort of put a um black out the crossing put a barrier on the other side of the sidewalk and and signs that say go to the corner of Washington and School Street and cross there to get to the bus so that I think was a economical and good uh suggestion for uh for everybody because it's not just students anybody else who would cross to go over to the library or whatever um that's a a problem um that's about all for that right now uh there will be a school building committee meeting on the I think it's the 14th of December I can't no 14th of um um November and uh we'll be discussing budget at that time and um I think I think I announced it our last meeting about the estimates the 90% estimates but in case I didn't announce it uh they came in 400 and I think 880,000 under budget which yeah I guess I didn't announce it I'm sorry thank you um which is really great um you know and now it'll depend on what the the real um when we go out to bid what the real cost is uh but it's good to know that um that it did come you know the estimators at least felt it came in under budget and um the climate according to um the our owner project manager is quite good for construction right now so that those are those pieces Val I don't know if you have something on um uh Driscoll indeed I do uh we have a Driscoll School advisory building committee meeting on uh Friday at 8: am very very short agenda for some um close out items to vote to recommend to the building commission um I thought that we had heard that the playground was going to be ready at the end of September and it's not and I'm just wondering if there's a new ETA for the playground um which part of the playground the new ETA is before it freezes too much before it Freez okay thank you so parts of the playground just to expand on B parts are open already and parts are not and we're hoping ding by well and there are pieces that are also getting um some modifications made Mariah and Helen so that's why there's also a little bit of remediation that's happening on on some of the open areas and um things like looking for shade additional shade for part of the play areas that will be voted as a recommended item to to the building commission on Friday morning can I ask you a quick oh sorry not I don't want to get to off track um shade does shade mean trees Val or like big sail shade things what do we do for shade right now they're talking about um the sale pieces there are significant amount of trees but right now they're they're talking about adding um sale to the specific area as the solution that's that was the recommendation from the design team one of if I could expand on that one of the issues with trees is you usually don't want to buy them too big to begin with so that they can grow quickly smaller trees grow better than bigger trees when you uh transplant them and so it's going to take a while for the shade yeah no I think that the sale things are are really cool and I wish um I think they could are probably needed in in at other schools too yeah sounds great all right is that if Capital Helen okay uh curriculum Suzanne yeah we had uh a meeting yesterday yesterday was that just yesterday time flies um and we went over mcast Trends and Analysis uh Dr funa LED it and uh so there is this presentation they did in color it was pretty with slides um and there was a lot of information a lot of data so um um if you're interested in this you might either either watch the recording or look at the the slide deck online um just to give you kind of an overview um so our accountability how we perform against other districts in the state we outperform 97% of them we're at the 97th percentile this is just overall um and our accountability is between 87 and 97 percentile so we're doing well that way um our growth uh student growth percentiles in English and math were uh English Ela was 58.8 and math was 59 uh 40 to 60 is average when you hit 60 you're doing a lot better than others in that cohort so we were very high at 58.8 and 59 so that was very good news um and Ela 70% of our students made or exceeds uh expectations with an average score of 512 the state average is 500 and in math we were 73% meets or exceeds expectations with average scale score of 5133 so again we're above above the average um we looked at uh students with IEPs uh that's more of a challenge for us uh student growth was was pretty good 52.5 and Ela and 50 3.9 percentile in math um but our percentages that meets and exceeds was 33% in ela and 34% in math so that's certainly an area to take a deeper dive and to look at and then we looked at our Els our English Learners and uh their growth percentiles in um Ela was uh 60 61% our former elas we have to track our our elas after they become after they graduate as English Learners uh for four or five years and so our former elas uh had a growth of 64% 64 percentile so that was very high and in math again we were at 66 percentile um and uh for our forers we're at 64 percentile so lots of good growth uh still some some discrepancies and some of the um of the subgroups and but uh the feeling is that uh the work we're doing especially in early literacy is starting to pay off and we're starting to see that coming up through the grades um and that really is not doing Justice to the meeting but that's those are some of the highlights and our next meeting is this we've changed it to November 2 25th yeah we had to we had some conflict um yeah so that's it for for curriculum all right thank you Suzanne uh de J Sarah nothing new okay uh Finance Mariah we've just had quite a bit of that um was there anything but wait there's more um I promise to be quick yeah that's my my shtick so we met on October 23rd and a lot of the things that we met about um we've discussed tonight earlier I'll just highlight a couple of other things so at our meeting in addition to um the discussion we had around the building fees we had a broader dis and the vote that we took earlier we had a broader discussion of fees and um what Susan uh um suggested was that rather than taking up fees in their entirety every year or taking them up every couple of years but having to take up the entire list of fees that essentially they get chunked into a three-year cycle and so for next year um our plan is or for this year like this year to look at this year for next year um base and beep fees and then we are still finalizing the fees for the following two years um we discussed about to make the fees more balanced to we had originally talked with um the materials Fela on about having that fee be discussed next year um but we talked about pushing that to the following year I've reached out to the materials Fe fees Liaisons I haven't heard back from them yet um so we're figuring out the fees there um we as I mentioned earlier we and we'll be bringing back the discussion of base and um beep fees at our next meeting which is November 13th um as I mentioned earlier the fiscal the q1 report for fy2 will be deferred until our next meeting um and we had a nice um uh update again of the review of position request document which if you all recall is the document which let us see um from month to month any changes in Staffing and the source of funding for those and this is I think turning into a really great reference document for us because it um lets us see net cost of any position changes where the funding is coming from where that position might have been originally so it's a really great way in between um budget books of being able to follow the bouncing ball on the different positions and understand why you know perhaps there was a Pera at Hayes this or last year and all of a sudden this year there's somewhere else well we actually have that documentation so it's very helpful um those are the key things I think I want to mention from the meeting in addition to the many things that already came to this group tonight the only other update I'm going to give is the accounts payable um warrant which over the past three weeks or I'm sorry six weeks was 3,368 659617 I just wanted to highlight that among those six weeks the smallest one was the smallest um warrant was 118,000 or so and the biggest one was over 1.5 million so just to give you a sense of some weeks it's just very different depending on what's coming in um one purchase or payment that I just want to highlight for the committee um beyond all the normal ones that you that I sometimes tell you about and there's different things happening um is uh the payment signed off on the payment for identity protection for the um social security number breach from last fall so if you recall um there was the um inadvertent release of some private information and staff had um a certain amount of time to be able to opt in to credit protection and that time I believe it was close to a year has elapsed and so now the payment was issued for the um for everyone who is who opted in and then so that payment was affected so I signed off on that one and that's I think all I have to share thank you thanks Mariah um policy Stephen thanks Andy um all right so we met on the 21st reviewed the attendance policy that's j3 for those of you tracking at home um and the code of conduct that's j8 um I think we made some good progress in the attendance policy see less so in the code of conduct where I think we struggle to figure out what exactly a review entails um and then we the meeting started off with uh discussion of the climate and sustainability task force recommendations three of the four subgroups presented their recommendations and there was some some useful discussion around those recommendations that I think are going to help those subgroups polish them before they present them to the full school committee I think in December I think that was the plan right December okay so coming up we have a bunch of policies that we're still working on one is the student code of conduct the next is the mobile device policy which we are drafting from contributions from principles which have already all of all of the schools have their own mobile device policy so the challenge there is coordinating them and standardizing them and then the other which is a lighter leftt is reviewing the remainder of section J most of which doesn't seem to require much in the way of changes so that is the remainder of November there's some conversation going on about possibly scheduling an additional meeting in November um we should figure that out this week thanks all right thanks Stephen uh are there any other updates from leison I'll do one um I'm the bef liaison um and they had their annual um potluck uh which I went to and Dr gillery was the special guest straight practically straight off the plane from Ireland and gave as you can imagine what I found to be a fascinating um and would be even if I wasn't married to somebody who was born and raised in Ireland a fascinating account um of his bef sponsored trip through Ireland um it was just really interesting I felt like there were like five or six different whole topics that he just mentioned that I would love to hear like a whole half hour on hint hint um so that was really great and uh the bef's always just great to to uh to spend time with thank you any other updates Stephen I met a couple days ago with the Brookline safe roots to school they are are looking for an for support from the Brooklyn school committee for um uh support on bike Lanes on Washington Street so I will send around the kind of support that they're looking for more specifically in an email is this something that they're going to want to have docketed in terms of a vote of support well they'd sent me an email or they sent us an email a while ago and it wasn't the ask wasn't clear so is it the the ask is more is clarified now I can I can tell you what it is it's uh they're supporting protected bike Lanes in both directions along the entire length of Washington Street from Beacon Street to Route 9 um what the specific request is from the school committee I think I could further clarify how it pertains to uh school committee interests so that I could send an email does that help it be a vote um they haven't asked for for a specific votee from the school committee now suzan yes not quite it L on but um I just want to say thank you to all the building administrators who have welcomed so many school committee members last week and this week I I've really enjoyed it I think all of us have um and it does take time away from their day but they've been very generous with their time and I know many of us have gone to many schools and um I want to say thank you to the build and administrators for making that happen all right um would anyone like to raise any new business yes Stephen um I just wanted to ask uh Dr Giller if we had a schedule for the selection of a new Ela curriculum I know that's a do Fortuna question but I thought I would just ask sorry to hey Dr funa there you are I to respond to that for um we're looking at early December for the final selection and the what we're doing now is we're Gathering teacher feedback on the three um programs that were put forward by our literacy Specialists as meeting our needs and we'll be having a community Forum um later in November great thank you Dr foro you're welcome I'm gonna ask a follow up is there what's the wasn't there like a group that was going to be the selection group or is that that wrong there was a group that um vetted um seven programs and narrowed it down to three and now what we're doing is we actually opened it up wider than just a committee to um all of the teachers we're going to have a parent night we're going to have a school committee night um with our curriculum subcommittee meeting um Suzanne and I have to talk a little bit about that um some more but we decided that more input would be better because this is such a large purchase for the town thank you all right I see no more new business so the meeting is adjourned thank you