[Music] for [Music] [Music] recording in progress good evening everyone welcome to tonight's school committee meeting it is Thursday May 2nd our first order of business is Administrative business the consent agenda would someone like to move it Suzanne moves it is there a seconds Helen seconds any discussion go ahead Helen well I I think we always do this there's a um Memorial Scholarship in in the name of a student Mark David Gormley we do send a note to the family correct okay all right so we'll move to the votes now Stephen yes Suzanne yes Andy yes Helen yes Valerie Sarah yes Mariah yes and I also vote Yes and that moves us to the student Report with Miss clevis thank you Mr Pearlman uh let me share my screen all right great so April fbhs um hi everyone my name is Laura clevis I'm your school committee student rep and um I hope everyone's having a great evening and uh I'd also like to start my report by saying that it is May I'm so happy that it's May I have a month left in high school things are winding down but things are still busy um we got AP exams next week going to be studying for one of them um shout out to anyone taking them and also to the parents of those taking them uh I hope your students are not giving you um hell um so I am fully cognizant that my last two reports have been pretty um you know downcast you know they haven't been as cheerful as I wanted them to be and although I believe in the salience of uh really reporting on issues that affect our school Community I also acknowledge that in doing so um we may often lose sight of the things that we are doing right as a school Community uh fortunately when it comes to fomenting a sense of unity and school spirit BHS has excelled in various respects here I'll be highlighting three events that exemplify our commitment to coming together as one they have dialogue Apex s's holy celebration and Senior assassins senior assassins yep so day of dialogue is an institution in its own right uh along with day of change and day of racial reform and solidarity day of dialogue is a mainst day of our school's culture and day of dialogue took place this year on Wednesday April 3rd and it features the following events on its itinerary uh two telling our stories block uh an address by keynote speaker EV Gilbert who is also a BHS slm from the class of 2018 um an advisory lesson for those in ninth and 10th grade on Ally allyship and next Benedict's um vigil and um how to be a co-conspirator and then for 11th and 12th graders a presentation by our theater for social CL change class uh viets on the experiences of queer youth um and then after that an after school pride festival it was all very very very fun um overall this day was not surprisingly Illuminating and inspiring for one I learned a ton the day structure led me to believe that its organizers were putting more of a premium on listening than discussing discussing has largely been what we've done for years past and I thought that was was a particularly interesting choice and in retrospect it really makes sense um oh sorry um while our school is full of people who mean well but are ultimately not as aware about issues surrounding the lgbtq plus Community um it doesn't really make sense to have conversations about these topics unless we're really listening to the people who are most impacted by them issues like transphobia issues like homophobia um in order to really gain a full understanding of the impacts of such systemic oppressions uh we really do need to make sure that we're listening to the people most impacted by them and the structure of the day made it so that we were more able to to fully grasp the severity of um institutional and systemic oppression that the lgbtq plus Community faces and I'm very grateful for that and also just like the sheer bravery of students fellow students of mine teachers speaking in front of the entire school that really it cannot be understated how important that is um I get nervous speaking in front of the school committee and having all this stream live on big but I can't imagine how it feels to be doing something like this in front of an entire School of people who you don't even know how they're going to react um so shout out to everyone who was involved in organizing that day well done um I learned a lot and I am in awe of so many people okay we're moving on to the holy celebr apek and Sasa came together on April 10th this year um and we had a celebration on Cypress fields near 115 uh to celebrate holy holy is a Hindu holiday alternatively known as a Festival of Colors and it commemorates the start of spring about 15 to 20 people attended and we had a ton of fun um I admit that I was a bit um of an unwitting participant I happened upon the event rather serendipitous serendipitously when someone through um what was only I can consumed like blue colored Cornflower powder at me and then I decided to get in on the fun um it was really fun uh here's my friend Amy at the bottom uh throwing the powder I'm over there in the corner enjoying myself with Amy and Gracie and Pria and then here's just a bunch of members of apek and Sasa enjoying themselves overall a really fun time and we're moving on to senior assassins uh you might be wondering why I'm wearing a shirt uh with veto Corleone on it uh that's because I'm a part of senior assassins it started on April 29th it's happening all around Brooklyn uh parents please do not fret when you hear the word senior and assassins um I understand that that may uh spark some fear in your hearts but don't worry we're just using water guns um basically senior assassins um 200 kids are participating 200 seniors are participating we all pay $10 to enter this competition by the way it is not a school sanctioned event these are two seniors who are running this tournament and um you are assigned a Target another senior who is also bought in and um you have a week to eliminate them there are four rounds um and so far a fourth of um participants have have fallen they they have been slain um and here's a particularly dramatic reenactment of elimination starring my classmates Jason rabot and Mark trus El oh elimination um happens when you're shot with the water water gun um yeah um school grounds are not allowed if you are shot on school grounds um you are safe anywhere around the school is fair game and um places like Brookline Village coolage corner you can literally shoot anyone around Brooklyn or like I mean anywhere in the Greater Boston area so here's a dramatic reenactment Jason was the one with the water gun mark was the one with the lightsaber um I have AP Human Geography a lot in my mind right now because um I'm studying um for my final which is actually tomorrow um for it and um from unit four there's this concept of centripetal forces it's basically a way of explaining how a society is structured and um what brings that Society together it can be a certain thing it can be a person it can be an event um I Define all three of these events as centripetal forces um it really brings our school Community together and in times where things aren't as cheerful as we'd like to be or when when we're facing stress or when we're worried about something these events really remind us of of the joy of enjoying each other in community and and remind us that there is more to life than just school or what's happening out there in the world you know the these events really serve as the glue of our community and uh quite frankly and it's a little cheesy like I'm very thankful for them um yeah thank you for that that's the end of my presentation any questions for Miss clavis all right well thank you very much for that presentation we will now move to the superintendent report thank you Laura and good luck on your exam am that's actually what I was doing before I came here I was taking out my all right uh for our update tonight the first is acknowledging that our wellness policy is being recognized by the Massachusetts school Wellness uh as a School Massachusetts school Wellness champion at the John C stalker Institute of food and nutrition's 2024 healthy kids healthy program Summit taking place on Tuesday May 21st congratulations to the PSB Wellness committee led by TR Trisha ham our coordinator of school health services and to sasal Palmer our director of Food Services several members of the PSB Community Wellness committee will be attending the summit and they are looking for parent representatives from every school to attend the event our culture and climate family survey the PSB is committed to creating a culture where all students and families feel belonging in their schools and in the larger PSB School Community to help us meet this goal we have asked all PSB parents and Guardians to complete an anonymous C culture and climate family survey uh the survey asks questions that reflect the parents guarding Guardians feelings about the schools their children attend including how well schools communicate with the Guardians and how well schools support the needs of the students this information will be used to improve the ways that PSB supports students and families plant forward Foods at PSB PSB is emerging as a leader in serving plant forward menus on on a daily basis to students this school year the PSB Food Services Department signed the forward food pledge to make 50% of its menu items plant-based in partnership with the Humane Society of the United States the district's food services staff will be trained in preparing plant-based menu items during the week of May 6th to May 10th these items will be sampled in all schools menus students in all schools will get an opportunity to taste and rate the new menu new items orienteering at PSB the PSB is working with navigation games to implement orienteering in Wellness classes across the district orienteering is a group of activities that involve the use of a map and a compass to navigate from one point to another ronko was the first school to implement learning the lifelong skills of navigation and orienteering the district's uh the Driscoll School worked with navigation games last year this year we are expanding the program across the district students at Lawrence Ruff and Ridley and Baker will be getting a dose of orientering fund soon and I'll also add to this that I was at beep putterham today and uh Miss Michelle's um Miss Michelle Grey's um pre- class made a map of beep putterham and uh they gave me the map when I got there and asked me to use it as a guide as I walked around and then to have our older kids also working on this I think it's quite um quite exciting a webinar for building mathematical mindsets this information was shared in last week's communication for the registration of the slots that are available but we just want to highlight again the PSB math department has acquired 50 slots to the webinar building mathematical mindsets strategies for parents and Guardians led by an international leader in mathematics education Joe bowler of Stanford University the webinar for parents and guardians of K12 students will be held Thursday May 16th from 8 to 9:30 bowler will share evidence on the most successful ways to learn mathematics and discuss learning strategies that have been found by research to significantly improve students achievement and change students views of their own potential she will also share ways parents can help support their children building positive mathematical mindsets for the whole family our Baker seventh grade 7th graders win stock market games seventh grade math students at Baker participated in the stock market game a nationwide project-based Financial education program that introduces students to Global Capital markets through an online Market simulation platform each student is provided with an online portfolio which allows them to trade stocks mutual funds and bonds this year this year-long competition ended this past week with Baker students winning first and second place in Massachusetts Vada in finished first with a 4.56 net Equity gain and Adam Tong played second with a 36.9 3% net Equity gain a mentioned to um teacher Dylan Rossy who enrolled the seventh graders in this game so they're doing some Innovative learning across our organization the Micah concert Festival 2024 the BHS Advanced chamber orchestra directed by Nina Bishop they were awarded a gold medal with Superior distinction at the Massachusetts instrumental and coral conductors Association concert Festival 2024 congratulations to all students and Miss Bishop climate change art by PSB students climate change artart uh by our psbk through 12 students was exhibited exhibited at the Museum of Science during their climate event rise up Boston the event showcased artwork in response to the prompt what comes to mind when you think of climate change the aim was to show evolving perspectives on climate change and Inspire creativity within climate action the exhibit was organized by the Brookline exhibition a student Le group pictured here on the left comprising BHS Juniors that aims to Showcase a publish artwork by PSV students again con congratulations to all who participated and here is um some shots of the art that was submitted by PSB students more art exhibits art teachers Abigail Rashad and Megan Kaufman at the Lawrence School held an all School Arts exhibit and celebration last week the exhibition featured work from every student in the school and was a great opportunity for parents friends and the community to celebrate the hard work and learning that students have done this year and I happen to be over at Lawrence when they were setting up the exhibit and saw many not all of the projects but many of the projects as they were being set up uh for exhibition there as well as the outside play structure exhibition that uh I saw the middle schools having ton of fun with at Brookline High School Liz Brenan students in AP Art and Design held their senior thesis show in the stem Wing the exhibition featured a body of work by each student along with an artist artist statement to illuminate the sustained inquiry process that the students have engaged in this year the work in this exhibit was thought-provoking and stunningly crafted and congratulations to all the students for their high achievement in the PSB visual arts program pictured our paintings by BH students uh miael at top and Leah Fox there on the bottom again some very beautiful work by our students the Roland Hay School hosted its annual International night in April more than 33 countries were represented in this uh celebration of culture cuisines and Community diversity the event was attended by over 450 community members with more than 100 parents hosting a nation table or volunteering for the event shout out to the Hayes International night Committee comprising of uh Lisa Yun rhs poola rosi Yin ly chin Theodora conis Sasa and vice princial kurtan Patel who planned this event and again a few images there of uh the parents caregivers kiddos and faculty appreciation May is traditionally known as educator appreciation month um so we want to shout out to everyone um working in in and around our school system but we want to highlight our School principles um May 1st was school principal day we want to acknowledge the immense contribution of our School principles toward championing championing education and cultivating positive learning environment teacher appreciation week is May 6th to May 10th we extend our gratitude to all our teachers who Inspire support and Empower our students each and every day your commitment to shaping young minds creates a brighter future for us all and National Nurses Week is also May 6th through May 12th we want to thank our School nurses for their tireless dedication to the health and well-being of our students your compassion expertise and care ensure a safe and nurturing environment for learning Asian-American native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander heritage month is May 1st through May 31st Asian American native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebrates the vibrant cultures Rich histories and contributions of the Asian-American native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander communities from President Biden this month we celebrate the Asian-American native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities whose Ingenuity grit and perseverance have pushed our Great American experiment forward again and there'll be several events in and around the community um for this month Also may is Jewish American Heritage Month President George W bush Proclaim may as Jewish American Heritage Month in April of 2006 since 200 7 presidents Bush Obama Trump and Biden have all issued proclamations for Jewish American heritage month which celebrates Jewish Americans and encourage all Americans to learn more about Jewish Heritage and contributions to the United States Jewish American heritage month is a time to recognize the enduring Legacy resilience and contributions of Jewish Americans who have sh shaped our nation and finally our school visits for the month recently completed have been Baker F frr Lawrence Pierce Drisco beep and Baker again and then you see the upcoming slate that starts tomorrow with Lincoln and RL um and so again our Focus for this month for these visits this year have been around student engagement so uh walking with building leaders looking at engagement and learning in the classrooms and with that uh if there are any questions I'll take those before we turn to our Spotlight on Excellence any questions for Dr gillery she's here for the spotlight all right seeing Oh Suzanne I two things if you don't mind um I just on the surveys uh for families did we give it online is that that's online that's on that's been communicated through the newsletter okay thank you and secondly though I think you're about to say this but I was on the wellness committee and the committee members put in hours of time on the wellness so I'm glad they're being recognized absolutely for the hard work and and the good product that they turn we turned out awesome awesome anyone else I all right so we'll go to the spotlight on Excellence with that tonight we shine the spotlight on Excellence on our PSB School nurses from Silver Spring Maryland May 2nd 2024 through Globe newswire the American n Nurses Association the Professional Organization representing and investing in the interests of all nurses is proud to lead the annual Nurses Week May 6th through May 12th celebration this year's Nurses Week theme is nurses make the difference to encourage nurses healthc Care Professionals employers Community leaders and the public to recognize and promote the vast contributions and positive impact of nurses worldwide as we prepare for nurses week we want to call attention to the sheer influence of nursing of the nursing profession I am profoundly grateful and honored to stand among the dedicated individuals who are making the difference in their communities every day said AA president Dr Jennifer Kennedy nurses contribute to the health and multifaceted ways as Educators activists innovators and caregivers the list could go on and on we are all indebted to nurses and we hope all will join in celebrating nurses during this special time of recognition awareness and celebration and tonight we shine the spotlight on Excellence on our very own PSB nurses we credit them with promoting and supporting a healthy school environment for both students and staff at this time I will turn the m microphone over to Miss Trisha laham thank you very much thank you so much for your words and for acknowledging the nurses in Brookline I have four of the school nurses with me tonight who will each speak for a couple of minutes um so they can show their faces if they're able to um I would like to say that much of what the School nurses do is really to ensure that despite whatever health issues our students have have that they have access and are able to participate in their education we know that School nurses make a difference they play a pivotal role in improving the health and well-being of our students through the many aspects of care we provide at a very basic level School nurses keep students in school the CDC cites that more than 40% of school age students have at least one chronic health condition for which nurses provide IDE necessary care and support which contributes to improved attendance and academic performance I am so appreciative of the work that our nurses do every day their advocacy for our most vulnerable students their skilled Hands-On care assessment treatment education their collaboration with staff and Outreach to family all done to meet students needs and ensure a safe welcoming environment for all of our students students I thought it' be fun to share a couple of uh data pieces from September through April 30th the nurses have had neurologic issues ADHD anxiety depression life-threatening allergies daily medication administration daily procedures and so much more of those 58,000 plus roughly 97% of these students of these visits have resulted in students returning to class after assessment and treatment during those visits nurses often make a phone call home who parent or caregiver interestingly um we average over 1,250 phone calls a month to families another kind of fun fact is that nurses have seen an additional 597 staff and I'm sure that's a lowball number and most of those staff also return to class we've performed 11,000 mandated screenings and made appropriate referrals and that doesn't include the expert screen that we've done for all seventh and ninth grade students I guess it shouldn't be surprising that many students in Brooklyn identify their school nurse as a trusted adult in their school our students are in good hands I'm going to ask our nurses to speak a little bit um four of our nurses are going to represent the rest of the team and talk about some of the meaningful work they've done this year it can be a little tricky to speak about the work we do while being cognizant of confidentiality but we will make our way through that um I'm actually gonna speak for Jana young the Ridley school nurse who unexpectedly and last minute was not able to come tonight Jana was going to speak with permission from a student's mother about a beloved seventh grade student at Ridley School this little boy died just before April vacation he had very complex medical needs Jana and the nurses at Ridley advocated for this little boy from the moment he entered School in second grade they collaborated with staff they had multiple conversations with various Health Care Providers brought the parent in and created a very strong homeschool connection and while I'm really speaking about the nurses tonight I can't ignore how wonderful that entire school was to that child they embraced him and allowed him to have as normal an experience at school as possible it speaks to the work that nurses do it can be challenging it's often rewarding and sometimes it's heartbreaking I'm very proud of Jana and her team of nurses at Ridley and now I would like to turn it over to Elizabeth Hendrickson who is our districtwide float nurse extraordinaire good evening I would say as being a districtwide um float nurse it's a great opportunity to work with a great group team of other School nurses as a systemwide nurse I'm able to be supportive and get support with my fellow nurses I'm able to help to keep everyone working and making it into the building and into the classrooms returning back to classrooms throughout the day I also as the assistant wi nurse I get to see what each Clinic has to do I have I work between from prek all the way up to the high school so I get to see the different you know struggles that each Clinic has like just because a school building only have maybe four or 500 students in it the acity of care that we have to give at a any moment besides the regular stuff we do every day we have the support of each other I know if I have a question I can reach out to another nurse with the other sub nurses I also reach out to them and let them know but extension I'm at for the day if they need support with anything because things come up and we do support each other and I also would like to say you know the office staff the principals custodial staff they also support us when we ask for assistance and things when we need supplies I also know that Trisha tries very hard to support each school with the amount of staff needed which at times it can be a struggle when we have sick calls or people who are on extended leave but we make it through and I um I just I I I enjoy the float position some people would think it's hard yes there's times I get pulled to another school within the middle of the day but I'm able to switch into that role because I pretty much know each school and the needs at each individual school I also feel like I'm a beacon for children of color to see me in this position and I have been part of Brookline for over 27 years so thank you for that opportunity and I think that's about all I have to say and I just you know hope Trisha continues to get the support she needs to give us the support that we need each and every day to keep students in school and keep everyone happy and healthy thank you thank you we have Janet Campbell another nurse extraordinaire at RL school thank you Trisha and thank you also for this recognition um I would like to say as both Trisha and Elizabeth have said that we don't work by ourselves we don't work as an island we rely on on the other nurses and especially I rely on the rumal team every day guidance school counselors um I reach out to many times because it's not possible for just one person to do everything that's required for all the students um rle has four type 1 diabetics that are very labile they're up and down most of the day so that does take a lot of time we're also one of the host one of the rise programs in Brookline um one of my my um passions this year was to get involved in attendance because I'm seeing a lot of students miss school um with tardies and absenteeism I know it's I feel although I don't have the documentation I feel it has become worse since covid we have a lot more anxiety um and stress involved and getting kids to school as I'm sure parents know is very difficult so we we work very hard to contact parents make sure there's an excuse and um just encourage them to come to school um I just think that we need to have a an attendance policy that we can follow up on as I as far as I know rle doesn't have a a standard policy right now but that would certainly be helpful and one I just wanted to do a quick student highlight of a student that has arrived at rle um I won't use any names but he was here in second grade he's from Ecuador he has what um a diagnosis of CMT which is known as shako Marie tooth syndrome it's a debilitating um neurological disorder and it becomes progressively worse as they get older um he came in second grade he was walking he came back this year not walking not able to move his limbs below his waist and it has been a very difficult transition for him to associate himself into the eighth grade students but this child is so resilient and so wants to be there and just makes us feel so proud and great that he is so invested in his education that it makes every day that much better for us um I just want to invite any school committee members who feel that they would like to you know tour the school look at the school see what we do on a daily basis please we welcome you at any time and um if you come in I will look forward to seeing you thank you thank you very much and we have Jill Seaman Chandler one of the High School nurses who is actually in person at Town Hall uh good evening everybody and uh thank you so much for this recognition I want to agree with my colleague so much on what a team effort this is uh so many people uh throughout the buildings um in terms of our clinical at the high school we're really lucky to have uh such great clinicians in the way of social workers psychologists uh guidance counselors uh we couldn't do it without them I also want to shout out my um fellow nurses at the high school Megan day April Armstrong and Kate Donnelly uh together uh we make a great team I wanted to focus on just two things in particular in terms of thinking about uh things that we do on a daily basis to help kids stay in school one of the things I've been saying to kids in my 12 years as a school nurse is I know you don't feel 100% but you're not giving yourself enough credit you can do more than you think you can do I didn't get to say that as much during Co when we really had to any sniffle students had to go home so I'm I'm glad that we're able to test that resilience a little bit again and that shows up a lot in the high school in terms of um anxiety and mental health challenges a lot of students have great teams in their parents their caregivers their outside therapists their um you know in school supports and still they need reminders at times when days are tough that they don't need to go home they have a lot of coping skills that they can employ uh and so what we see is we have a lot of students who will come to us and I just can't do it today I'm tired can I rest can I go home and so as School nurses uh we really work with them to interrupt that sort of cycle of anxiety right because we know that if we let the student go home they're going to feel much better in the interim uh they're going to feel so relieved but then the next day when school rolls around again and they're facing the same fears the same anxieties it's going to happen all over again so what we like to do is work with our team in school give them our ear send them to their support people and then you know actually try to get them to go back to class and even if we can keep them in for an extra period an extra two periods that's a success and that's a student knowing okay I used some of my coping skills and I completed the whole day I completed part of the day and that gives them the strength to do it again the next day uh so that's one really important thing that we do um all over the all over the district but especially at the high school level there's a lot of students uh in this day and age dealing with u mental health challenges another thing I want to highlight is um at the high school we have a really important concussion protocol we deal with at least 30 to 40 concussions every year and it used to be that students would stay home for several days in a dark room right gone are those days we know that uh the risks to that are too great because as students are off of screens and in the dark they're then growing depressed they're disconnected so we want to get them back uh as as quickly as we possibly can so we work with our um you know parents caregivers outside providers and especially our athletic Trainers for our um in student or in school athletes and we have a whole protocol of having students come in they uh fill out a list of concussion symptoms each day and we can watch them based on their own numerical data their numbers of how their symptoms are between zero and 10 we see how they're doing we get their Baseline for the day and we tell them if you go to class and all of a sudden your headache goes from a 3 to a 5 come back to the clinic and rest we'll see if we can get you back to your Baseline but again we try not to send them home we try to keep them in school as much as possible uh until until they're able to recover and get back to school um with those accommodations that we've provided them so thank you again so much for this opportunity uh thank you so much Trisha and I really appreciate it thank you very much for presenting your experiences as nurses in our schools and all the heroic work that you perform on behalf of the school district and for uh our students any questions or comments from school committee members Mariah thank you um I just wanted to um say what a great recognition this is for such a wonderful team and I just wanted to mention that we had our own experience with this concussion protocol last year and I was incredibly impressed by how it was handled by the nursing team at the high school um the care and dedicated attention they took when my my child had a concussion it was really spectacular and it made it possible just as Jill said for us to be able to um have her go to school um and be able to take advantage of school as she could and not have her over do it and not have her be at home so that's just one really wonderful example of um what the nursing team has done for us and of course I could go on and on but I'm really grateful to the team and thank you anyone else all right Dr Giller awarded to the public school the public schools of Brookline spotl Spotlight on Excellence is awarded to the school nurses with particular gratitude for our dedicated school health professionals who provide creative and collaborative ways to offer and support and promote a healthy school environment for both students and staff congratulations to you all thank you thank [Applause] you yes congratulations indeed and with that we would be moving into public comment except no one has signed up for public comment this evening I know much to our Collective disappointment so we will now move on to presentations and discussions of current issues discussion and possible vote on the 2024 annual town meeting warrant articles specifically article 10 Appropriations 28 38 39 40 and 41 now I understand there have been some changes that are recommended by the advisory committee and I think Helen's probably in the best position to go over that well actually Dr Gibbons and I are going to do a tag team I'm going to sort of present the the bigger picture of what uh where we've been and then she'll go through the details of the numbers all right so who wouldd like to go first uh I'll go first all right go ahead H um so as many of you may or may not know and I think some of you were at there have been probably six maybe seven advisory both subcommittee meetings and full advisory meetings on the school CIP um it's it's been a a tough time let's put it that way and for the most part um as Dr given will will tell you in in real numbers things have worked out quite well in terms of our school budget for uh the cips as you may or may not know there was $25 million this year in free cash that money is assigned because it's onetime money um to the CIP and because that's also one time money to be used and uh this year we were um actually originally given quite a bit of money over a three-year period Dr gibons will go into the detail of what we end where we ended up um uh the other piece um well I think I'll stop there and maybe you'll give some more detail I'm happy to answer questions um uh about some of the more problematic issues that happened at um uh at advisory with regards to the Baldwin School great can you hear me you know sometimes you have a hard time hearing me um so I'll try to lean in and um uh first a few things yes you can pick it up closer to you so you don't have to bend down okay that's a little better yeah save my back um thank you so a a couple of little details if you want to make note on um appropriation numbers uh and I had a conversation with Melissa uh just a couple of hours ago to make sure that when you're voting we're voting the right numbers as they um will be presented so I'll just do a little housekeeping on that and then I'll talk a little bit more about you know what this all means so uh to begin with uh it's worn article 10 um the appropriation line item for the first uh item which is school Furniture of $200,000 is 59 uh the next item is appropriation number 69 and that is for the renovations and upgrades of uh actually deferred maintenance as we refer to it uh for our schools uh the amount there is uh 2,983 675 uh the next item is appropriation number 70 and um that is Zer it it will still appear for the time being as appropriation number 70 uh but that number has been moved to zero I'm going to loop back to that in a minute to explain we have a different um uh approach that accomplishes the same thing I'll talk about that in a second um appropriation number 71 is next and that is for long-term capital planning study for the schools that uh number is now zero uh again I'll I'll talk about that in a second and then the last one is appropriation number 72 77332 for classroom capacity and that is as we presented it so those those are the numbers now I'll I'll tell you the story so can I just sure for one second so there's one piece that I left out so there's the advisory committee's recommendations on the CIP and then there's the select board recommendations and they're not all the same so Dr given will sort of go through that as to where where they're the same and where they aren't um and the hours that we spent with the advisory committee going over this so before we go down into the Deferred maintenance category which we refer to it again in the article it's it's called Renovations and upgrades to school buildings but before we go there um and talk about some of the shifts there um I do want to um uh talk a little bit about the IEP accommodations so there's a lot of dialogue here around uh should that be uh in capital is it considered Capital uh they Define Capital as uh projects that are $50,000 or more and did that really meet the mark you know we we talked uh quite a bit about that because some of the items in our our line items and deferred maintenance for example are under 50,000 but categorically if you put it all together it's more than 50 so uh we we talked a bit about that does it qualify as capital or not in the end um the idea that there would be money set aside for IEPs there was it did generate some interest there and so where uh we settled on that is that um the town is going to set aside in their Reserve fund $100,000 for uh IEP accommodations two facilities this isn't for uh our operating budget type of thing but if we do have a facility related item that is driven by an IEP that we don't have in our budget it's you know it's something that has come up um and we need to access some money that uh we would have that set aside in the reserve fund so uh goal accomplished just not not in the way that we had anticipated I also want to remind the committee that we had submitted for 50,000 like it would be a recurring amount of money in each year um Melissa and the town had front loaded it with 200,000 so the reserve fund is 100,000 so I didn't want to folks to think oh it's half of what we asked for no actually twice as much as what we asked for for the current year and part of the thinking on that too is that when they funded our capital for the year they funded uh fiscal year 25 um and 26 so uh the $100,000 50,000 for the first two years and then we can um see to what degree uh we access it over the next couple of years um uh so we can gauge what uh atide might look like in the future so that's the IEP so although it's zero it isn't it's it's it's just going to sit um in a different locations set aside for us um on the next item uh 71 uh previously 40 on the long-term capital planning study it was interesting really because um there was the the capital subcommittee of the advisory C committee um started off talking about how Capital planning was essential and best practice and all of that um but they didn't seem to feel that um funding uh a study for us at this time was necessarily um uh as well Justified as they would like so um more conversation to be had and where that wasn't essential to our daily operations in the next couple of years uh we felt that uh we could pass on that for now regroup and re-enter for the upcoming year uh actually two years because uh as you'll see in a minute um they funded us for two years so just so that people are aware we did ask for this last year also we didn't get funded so we're but and and one of the reasons that they stated was well the population's not going up anymore so we really you know and you built all these schools so you don't need a capital plan okay so those are um uh the appropriation items um now we'll take a deeper look at um the Deferred maintenance component what I provided you just um you know for me I like consistency and when I show you something in one format I like to keep coming back to that format um I think it it helps us um to develop uh um it helps with sensemaking as we're trying to process numbers uh for those who are not number processors uh but what what this first uh summary table does is it it provides a summary of the information that appears in our budget um this our school requests for this year then what was in the town budget um the financial plan and then uh the warrant article as it's uh currently um constructed so you can see those High L numbers I just mentioned when um walking you through the uh article 10 Warren article and then um actually I didn't update the change column so I apologize I'll do that so when we post it on the website that that's corrected okay so uh if you if you can take a quick peek and I'm not going to go line by line but for me I like to tie things up in a bow a little bit and and for us we haven't actually looked at deferred maintenance for months now and um so I thought that it would be helpful to see what was actually supported for Appropriations in a in a way that um we understand it which is by school and project so um first if you look at um FY 25 and 26 if you total those two if you turn to the second page you'll see the total you'll see that it totals up to uh the warrant article appropriation 2,983 675 in essence um everything we asked for except for at the Baldwin School was funded and so I I think that uh that makes for a good um budget season in fact when advisory uh committee the members that were present voted on our operating budget it was 18 to1 and of course we have uh the support of the board of Selectmen as well so um I think you know uh we should all take a moment and it was a hard uh hard choices were made but um the consensus and support in in the community um seems to be um um right right there with us so um advisory committee again they they voted for everything on our all of our Capital appropriation set the two we zeroed out um uh but on deferred maintenance it was at the Baldwin School where they kind of had some uh some angst and um in the end without getting into the back and forth of it um I'm just and you can certainly ask questions no question um is a is a bad question as they say but it really comes down to um they uh under the line item of building alterations and repair repairing walls uh that that appropriation number was um really uh uh eliminated and that that creates a problem for us because there was a mistake when it was uh brought forward from the um um in in people's notes um and because we have done repairs on the walls and everything and I've talked with the uh Town um building staff and and we're going to figure out a way to to you know kind of have to course correct within the appropriation that we have but um that was zeroed out it was 200,000 and included um a Lula which is a low let's see uh limited access low incident or something I don't have the acronym right but in essence it's a way to be able to provide uh access for folks that uh are challenged uh to get between the first and the second floor or the lower level or upper level whichever way you look at it um without having to go out and around um out out outside so that was um advisory uh committee was pretty adamant about not funding that I wasn't there that was while I was out so I can't speak more U deeply about that but uh that was re removed moved at least for the time being we can certainly go back and request that again um the other item that was uh eliminated was the new drop ceiling in the lower level which was $10,000 so that was eliminated so in the end um um uh the amount of money that is being um brought forward by the I've got to I always have this backwards no no no wait I I'll get it right this time the the select board not the board select board as you call it here um is different than what advisory committee is bringing forward on a warrant article so what I have here is what the select board has in their article okay um and that will allow us to complete um the work over at Bald with the exception of uh the Lulu and the and the ceiling piece there and there we'll just we'll just have to do something else in order to get the ceiling um to to uh you know where it's flaking and all of that we'll have to do some repairs there so that's the news there another piece of this though is that attached to um the warrant article is some language that's a little different than we've seen before um I don't consider it to be problematic um the appropriation is uh the full amount of the appropriation but um as we move through and Implement these projects and of course it's over two years so we're not we're not Clairvoyant we can't look at a crystal ball and say you know this is exactly what it's going to cost two years from now especially with the market the way it is right now um that we would have the ability uh should a price come in uh more favorably on one and less favorably in another school that all all we would do and this is for transparency and and that's you know I think that's a lesson learned something that uh that we thought we were being very transparent others didn't get the message so now we're going to amplify um this aspect that if we need to move money between one section one school to another that um we we prepare a statement and make the request to the board of Selectmen um and copy the advisory committee so they'll be well aware um of the actions we're taking should we need to make a shift from one um one site to another um so that's that's really in short you can read um the language that they put forward but that's uh that's my Readers Digest um um uh uh EXP for what the language in the war article um will state for that and Baldwin is going to be voted separately it's not if I can correct yeah so that's not the what will happen there are going to be two comp may I at this point or is that okay yes um there'll be two competing um motions uh well actually there'll be an amendment to The Advisory committee's motion uh by the board uh the select board and the select board's um um Amendment doesn't really doesn't give us everything that we had asked for but the greater majority and provides the flexibility that we need to be able to move monies and that that Charlie Simmons needs because that's what he's always done you know sometimes you can't get to something sometimes a worker you know the company doesn't show and so you have that extra money you want to be able to spend it we have eight weeks in the summer it's not a lot of time time that's one of the things we should probably talk with the select board about because they meet every other week in the summer and if something comes up and we need to change it how do we go about doing that so that's just dawned on me now but um all of this took probably 40 hours of meetings and going and visiting the Baldwin School for 2 hours 25,000 ft how many square feet is the building maybe maybe 40 yeah but I don't think so um and with the advisory committee who have a belief that this is a town building and not a school building and it's been made very clear that this is a school building which is under the custody care and control of the school department unless we were to make it Surplus which I will never vote for and I don't think we would ever want to do that we did did that once with the Su school on Cypress Street that became Apartments it was a mistake we could have used that building in many ways um we we need our schools and we need them to to be able to uh to be in a respectful manner renovated um an advisor is 180,000 that they're recommending in their um recommendation to town meeting on the warrant article doesn't do that in a respectful manner so um I'm hoping maybe they'll you know the select board did try and come to a a um a um what's the word a compromise uh with the with advisory with some you know controls that advisory was upset that you know we went ahead and did work on on Baldwin uh with monies that were left over from last year um because we couldn't get things done or things came in cheaper that was basically the issue uh so uh it's uh TBD what's going to happen at town meeting or whether things might resolve beforehand I would hope they do because we there's no reason to take up town meetings time with all of this you know it's it's really well anyway that's that's my opinion have any votes been taken by select board or advisory committee so so these two competing last are now are now set last night the advisory committee voted 17 in favor of the 180,000 at Baldwin and the uh 17-3 and um zero extensions uh all but Baldwin passed 22 to nothing they they approved it they approved you know our uh yeah th those have all been approved but the um this one um area is where we're we really have a a very significant difference of opinion Town Council said that this building is a school building until we make it Surplus um they seem to think it's also a historic building which it is in terms of its age uh but um and that then triggers the exterior of the building which we had unfortunately put up some uh wires that shouldn't have been on the outside of the building should have been in a way that was more historically sensitive and it's been fixed I was over there today I've seen it it's fixed um so that's yes I'd be happy to answer any questions I I have a couple I I don't oh and one other thing so Dr given and uh Dr Gil wor at some of these advisory committee meetings that went on till 12:00 at night I just want people to be aware of what we've been doing yes so is there a bathroom in the lower floor yes okay so so that at least that's taken care so funding for that bathroom is in the board of selectmen's proposal I don't believe it is in no it's not in the Comm is not supporting the Lula or uh work um on the on the lower level which would include the bathroom on the lower level right because aren't we hoping to use that for uh conferences shops staff meetings it's the entire lower floor that they're they're taking issue with um and so the difference between the 180 and the 275 in terms of work is that they're not um disputing that the work on the on the upper level needs to be completed we're saying we also need the lower level for a variety of reasons that we've got into in depth with them um but they they really feel and this is Helen can they they're arguing that it's a historic building and that um we should be um trying to preserve it in any way we can I I wasn't there of course when the when the walkthrough occurred but from what I'm gathering from listening to the conversation and dialogue is that it almost feels like they they believe like the area is painted down there the wood is not preserved it's it's light blue it has was used for an early childhood classroom or two down there so work has been done to the building in the past we've used it in a variety of different ways but they're they they are um taking issue with well they're saying that the preserv what they put into their conditions of even the 180,000 Appropriations that we first get permission from the preservation commission which to the best of my understanding does not have control of over the interior of buildings it does over the exterior but not over the interior um they also I mean they've they've tried to put all sorts of conditions on on the money on All the Monies that we're getting um and it's been uh it's been tough yeah you know it's uh it's I mean with all due respect one of the memos I read was well was not a friendly respectful me that that was nicer than what they said to me in person I mean I'm dismayed that that was the tone yeah it's totally disrespectful so to the school committee and to the staff even if we even if we differ we should there should be a different tone yes Helen are you recommending that we adopt the select board Amendment yes definitely so the select board has actually P has actually voted already so they voted uh the same night as the advisory actually before the advisory voted The Advisory was told of their vote and still uh did not compromise to go to the select board's compromise what was the select board final vote uh oh they were five to oh well no uh Mr uh van skak wasn't there so there was four to to it was unanimous based on the people that were there yeah it was unanimous of the people that were there so do you have a motion yeah we so I move that we um we vote let me see where the the Appropriations um we vote as um Dr given laid out the numbers um and I guess uh I think that I agree with her in terms of the 250 for the capital planning this point that's it's not worth um going over that and they did find everybody found a reasonable solution about the reserve fund and I think it makes sense it's something that we don't know it's going to come up and when it comes up we have to do something that's what a reserve fund is for so I would um but these numbers so the 29836 includes the 275,000 for the correct okay so then I would vote how should we put this together vote what's here uh except for zeroing out by the select board perhaps yeah well the the select board has to do just with our uh the Baldwin School correct um but they also they such as Baldwin because the appropriation here item number combines the two and then the language that will be used as a part A and A Part B separating out Baldwin from the other but they do have language differing language on the A and B components that help also not just with the Baldwin School but with the other and so again we want to um adopt or or support the language that was approved by this uh select board at their meeting on Tuesday evening which is as I've described so we'd have to go to them if if if if something um some amount uh in one project was significantly higher than than we had um allocated for it all right Mariah has a question go ahead Mariah thanks um I I think I think you maybe just answered my question but but my qu I'll ask it again just to be sure my question is so the amount we voting will include the allocation for Baldwin yes yes at the level this of the select board okay and is the select board submitting an amendment for that too yes okay yes thank you well is it an amendment or there just they voted their well it's the advisory committee motion so the select board would have to amend it yeah it was an amendment that's correct and there were also amendments to some of the um the the piece about the utilization of monies left over in one budget from one school being able to be used in another school and that we need to confer with the um preservation that that's not in the select board vote that wasn't the select board vote okay sorry that is I'm reading it right here all all right thank you then maybe you so how do we take so the two changes are it increases it it reinstates Baldwin and then but there's a clause where you have to the select board has to be notified of any changes yes yes I'm going to read the language so you have it just for clarification so the amount again is combined in the in the appropriation item that's presented and then there's a part A and A Part B part A is for our General deferred maintenance at the schools except for Baldwin and here's the what's the word that they use the uh the language that will go along with it um conditions of appropriation thank you condition of appropriation thank you between us it's a tag team yes yes so so this is what a will read 2,708 th000 to be spent in accordance with the revised School building Capital uh CIP allocation for fy2 which is the which is in essence the detailed document I gave you tonight on deferred maintenance okay that's it's not it's in that same exact uh layout but it's it's the same um same as I've presented tonight um dated uh April 12th uh this is what was brought forward um and all the dialogue at this at the uh um AC meetings uh included included in this combined report any here here's what the conditions are any school department approved deviation to the amounts shall be subject to the approval of the select board at a duly at a duly noticed select board meeting and with the prior notification to advisory committee so that is for our broad everything but um Baldwin okay so is that a preapproval is that yes it's a pre-approval yeah before we spend it before we spent is and subject to the approval yeah and this is a new this is new this is not requirement that's never been the case Charlie has always been able to manage the the total amount the bottom line the bottom line and make sure that he doesn't go over right because we still have the same bottom line huh we have the same bottom line we have the same bottom line but it ties his hand somewhat if he has to wait two weeks for the select board to approve something we only have eight weeks in the summer right and it's it's ask them to approve a a a transfer a transfer from one basically project to another or might just to shift it from one it's not even really line item Appropriations shift because the we have one line item still as we have in the past it's if we're going to use it for a different project right then it's it's it's like amplifying that to the public uh so that um you know there's transparency I I'm not as concerned about that because okay what what happens inevitably or typically is that you have to go out to bid for most of these projects so when the contracts are awarded for each component we'd be able to see generally if we're up or down so we should I I believe not maybe in an emergency situation but some of those projects have contingency um and so I I think I think it it's reasonable but if it isn't then we'll know next year right then we we can ask for different kind of a modification but because of the bid laws I think we'd be safe I I the other thing is it can be used for the same building right so if it's left over for um Baker it can be used within the baker to do a painting of another room or something like that if we so determined so I'll read the second one that doesn't Bri you have another question yeah just to clarify sorry the select board has to approve or they has to be notified at a meeting uh approved by the select board notify uh notification to the advisory committee thank you and that's not up or down it's just if we're going to go over and one and we need to take money away from another one it's the shift between okay so the second I'll read that one just just for the record um $275,600 commission that was the piece that was added uh for purposes of maintaining the historic character of the interior and exterior of the building so again the the select the select board's um motion is that um we would review and um and consider you know the recommendations of the preservation commission um on the interior next year and we have done that so the building uh the staff uh with our public uh building Department did meet with preservation on Friday they reviewed everything we were doing on the inside and on the outside they made some recommendations on the exterior which as Helen said she was there today and have already been done um so that from the street um it doesn't compromise the view from any angle from the street um uh the pipes and and uh utilities are now are are now hidden from view so that was a recommendation that had no uh issues with any of the work being done to the inter ior so we've we've actually met that uh requirement but there but it's nonetheless in the motion um to signal that uh that that's important we acknowledge it uh We've we've done that um uh the difference is uh between this and the advisory committee is they want approval from preservation that's my understanding I haven't read their motion correct um or their Warren article or whatever words you use here from the commission not from the right to that it has to have permission uh by them and I think there's other language to around uh use of the funds being 180,000 and there's some restrictions uh strictly oh that it can only be used upstairs floor not inth that's kind of the basic difference in the language of the two so that's as clear for 275,000 for 275 7 is that enough doesn't look like that's well we had 300,000 that we used from the FY 24 CIP which is what they took Umbridge with okay all right so the two in combination is what the project cost one funded out of this year it'll be it'll be enough for us to get people in into a clean and painted space there may be other things in the bathroom and the and the bathrooms on both floors will be and both floors fixed because the one downstairs is horrific the rooms prepared is it great it's better now okay but even even the select board's request doesn't cover the full renovation of the of the downstair excludes the Lula and the um drop ceiling in the lower level okay which are things that we can live with at this point they're we're not required to have Ada no because we're using less we're spending less than 30% of the value of the building okay so you're not required however if we did hire a staff we would have to to put it in and then Charlie has Ada money to be able to do that so I think that it's a good and I believe they increased the money that they had originally allocated to us the 4,700 right that would have covered us for three years not just two they reallocated back to Charlie's accounts mostly Charlie's accounts yeah one of the the complicated pieces is that they're coming out with the budget that's different than the select board one and it's going to be a long night at town meeting for that and and there was some I thought some good dialogue around that um you know the idea that there's some more immediate needs in the earlier years on the town side to fund that for some of the roads to fund us for two years instead of three and then we come back and and and look I didn't think it was we only asked for one year of funding we got three years of funding they brought it back to two years of funding so I mean we're we're we're okay in that yeah are there any other questions so you move whatever it is that was just so Helen do you want to move the select board recommendations as of their vote from April 30th yeah the full select board recommendation as of their vote from April 30th all right is there a second Steven seconds Steven your vote Yes Suzanne yes Andy yes Helen yes Sarah yes Mariah yes and I also vote Yes uh Val are you there no okay all right so we will thank you very much for that explanation it was definitely complicated and for attending all of those uh meetings that were hours long and went deep into the night your dedication ad delegate next year [Music] so that brings us to FY 2025 budget actually one more issue on article 10 somebody needs to draft a statement for town meeting uh you have the most knowledge on this I'd recommend it be you but I think Dr given and I will work on something that the as a a model of what you've done in the past that I could look at yes uh so okay typically when school committee is taking an opinion on a warrant article we'll have have a brief write up it's a page usually just explaining why we're taking a certain position and what our vote was okay we probably have some of that content in the prior two memoral I wrote last week yeah yeah all right yeah it's going to be hard I I don't understand how they're going to explain this to town meeting and get a vote when there are two separate ones coming through but but it is helpful because then town meeting will have a statement saying school committee unanimously supports the select board yeah and it's recommendations and its Amendment before town meeting and some town meeting members will look favorably on that because they'll want to know where we stand on an issue that's relevant to school committee absolutely good um just a question if select board is going to be recommending more spending than advisory committee then just do they also have to propose a reduction somewhere else concurrently or can they simply ask for more in this place and not worry about so I part Melissa reallocated stuffff the things that they took away from us they put into roads and that was a big one but another few other categories I see Melissa figured out a way to put it back I think they're balancing it off the roads because they put so they put about another million dollars into that and so at least um you know what I heard in the conversation was that it was going to be balanced off the road so anything that uh was added here and it was a million over what DPW had asked right it's so the advisory committee was you know fussing fussing around with the money but it was always giving people more than what they'd asked for and taking away from us all right so now move to fy2 budget updates yeah so uh Dr Giller and I and Helen actually uh attended the uh select board meeting well first of all Thursday night um the night the never ended uh we presented at advisory committee and was well received I thought uh they had a lot of good questions um that were on point and in the end they took a vote to support our budget uh 18 to1 and I think it might have been one exstension but I I I don't recall off the time I head if it was a no or but it was overwhelmingly supported by the advisory committee and then we presented on Tuesday evening at the board of selectman again they were very complimentary um very supportive uh was my first time meeting uh many of them in person I've seen them in little squares but so it was it was really nice they have quite a lovely space up there um so yes well received uh there as well so um what our uh final bottom line number um is that's moving forward that will be on the warrant um is 136 m847 619 which is which is a little bit higher than what we balanced our budget at um and that is because we're using the um uh numbers that more were more recently published uh through the uh State budgetary process so it made it a little bit more favorable for us uh as well as for the town so so we're moving forward using uh those most recent numbers um and so it was favorable not not huge money but um uh we can use a little uh a little circuit breaker uh so to speak within ours because as you know in this year's budget um you know we're we're running over in significant ways in some of our accounts and I captured as much as I could when I brought forward the fy2 budget but unfortunately as we're sitting here today I didn't catch it all right I did couldn't see it so I couldn't include it so this will this will be good because it'll provide us some stability next year and not go in next year feeling like we might be um in deficit going into the year Susan what was the difference between what we voted and what was approved um uh 800 13 you mean Delta yeah about 200 oh wa 200 what, 200,000 thank you yes I mean that's not to the penny but around that yeah does that give us the opportunity to talk about restoring anything that was cut I wouldn't advise that given um that there are some things that I don't believe are included in next year's budget that um uh I think we're a little a little bit short in some of our special education accounts still based on what I'm looking at right now so I don't I don't want to that's that's probably not going to change and I haven't closed the year yet so I'm a little concerned about that right now Stephen okay you think you could let us know if there is an opportunity to revisit any of will thank you well any other questions all right thank you very much for that update we will now move to the assignment of students to schools revised policy second reading in possible vote Mariah would you like to address this no go ahead okay so this is where as we talked about in the first reading we're looking at passing a pilot policy where for one year this coming year we will allow uh parents and caregivers to move to another part of Brooklyn and elect to keep their children at the same school if they so choose now the reason for making it a pilot and not a permanent change is we don't know whether this will create some kind of SE change in enrollment balance and so we wouldn't want to uh cause difficulties on behalf of the district if this becomes the impetus for major enrollment shifts but by the same token we do very much value as a committee uh School stability for our students and would hate to see students essentially forced in many instances to leave their home school just because they've in some instances moved a few blocks away or even to the opposite end of town so we want to give this a try Helen so I had asked a question like last time uh to get some sort of feedback from our staff from Dr Giller who has to deal with a lot of this and the other staff did we get any feedback Dr Gill so none more specific than what we've already seen and so I think um I mean I I understand now sort of the spirit of what's Happening Here but I think um you know we if we go through with this uh we'll certainly make sure that we're keeping track of it and so part of this is that the way that the original policy or the policy that we've been operating under states that if you change school zones you need to change your schools um and as um as we're monitoring a number of other factors like the you know the shifting of Pierce the reopening of Driscoll uh in its new spaces all those types of things um I think it will be interesting just to see what this actually produces uh as well um I'm not I'd be just cons curious as to how parents are going to react to this when they do move as such because they're going to be moving you know most folks are in their neighborhood so they have that aspect as well but now you're moving across town in a new neighborhood potentially um as well um and then you know then what's the buffer impact so it's it's all of those additional things that then will start coming coming into fruition here so if we were to just do the figures on that for next year you know to to keep the policy the way it is and do the um Counting that basically you're asking for correct David yes why wouldn't we do that before doing a pilot Poli let's see so the problem the challenge is right now my understanding is that uh it's in the single digits the number of families that request for their children to remain at the same school when they move across town but even though it's in the single digits it's generally not approved and that and that's across the way at least anecdotally from what we were hearing earlier in the year and so uh what Megan guy has mentioned is there's no real way for us to gather data and what would happen if parents affirmatively know ahead of time that they'll be allowed to do this it's different where it's up to the superintendent's discretion as opposed to how many people would elect to do this if they know that they have an affirmative right to do so uh so absent a pilot policy we're not going to be able to really gather that data I suppose in theory we could leave it to still leave it to the superintendent's discretion and maybe in the hope that you would Grant it in all instances as long as there's not anything that's uh getting too crazy in terms of enrollment shifts and look at the numbers that way but yeah I mean I think we have open enrollment people can I mean I right where I had we moved from uh the Ridley to the RL area we put our kid into rle for whatever reasons we had the neighbor across the street their student was at Lawrence they kept him there you know it's sort of like I'm not sure I'd like to understand the problem more I I you know that that it's really an issue and I don't know Dr Giller if you've had to refuse very many students to remain so when we when we review the um the co the cohorts there we are looking at um the distribution that we look at across all um ac across all schools to try to keep those sizes uh class sizes as close to each other as possible and so you'll see and you he'll teachers oh well this school has a lower number of students than we do so why are we you know that perceived inequity uh exists out there um in the cases what I generally do is look very closely at what our office of registration is seeing with the kids we're looking at you know how long have they been in the school because right now you know a kid that's been in the school and they're there at eth grade um they move in that middle school year we tend to allow them to stay if it's they're early enough in their educational career we figure that that's an opportunity for them to then be in their home community and move uh with that cohort up to the high school um over the course of time so um I do review those with the office of um registration and if there are sort of extenuating circumstances that um they're moving out or they are for a particular program like you know some families want to be in Lawrence because of the French uh that's there those types of things so we Tred to consider all of those um requests when we are when we're doing those but there are some denials I won't give the impression that we don't deny there's some but we try to approve um more than we deny in that instance um and then there are times when there may be a number that are trying to move into the same school and then that's a factor so it's never a consistent uh type of decision you're looking at it based on um the scenario of the moment Mar thank you I have a question about the Rev language of one year my question is what is the proposed term of this one year is it like tonight to April 30th of next year or what what is the time period that we're talking about and what is the event that occurs in that time period is it the sale the moving the time that the per the family request to stay because it would be very I think people would be very upset if they thought they were in in within the one-year window and then found out that they were in a gray zone of not being in that one-year window well those are important points so why don't we spell out what those dates would be that is if the committee wants to move forward with this I still do make one other comment actually just about Helen's questions go ahead which is just um Helen we had a couple cases of this last summer which is why this originally came up and um it sounds like historically it has been few people again I think there's the whole question of you know there have been few people because they haven't wanted to risk moving schools which was exactly what we heard last summer but if in fact it is very few people then that will be helpful for us to see um that there's really not this huge impact so it won't be a big deal if it's as small as we think and if it is as it said it's only one year and so I do I do hope that people will support the pilot just so that we get the data and can understand better I do think it's particularly challenging for families in Brookline um as they try and preserve their children's relationships at school with other children and with trusted adults and also balance it against this incredibly challenging real estate market and so it's really helpful to provide people with that slight bit of additional flexibility if we can and it still requires them to transport their children in most instances but if it's a special education family than the IP might require Transportation Mariah I want to ask you a question because I'm really following your logic and I think that um that I I would like to give families this Choice um I'm just a little bit interested in the timing so when we looked at I'll just take the Lincoln School when we looked at the numbers of the class sizes in elementary for next year when we were proposing that and looking at um how many teachers we had in different places all of those numbers were right up against 24 and so is are we really able to say to a family that we will grant this this next year for everybody or are we going to need to have the superintendent be able to sometimes say no that really doesn't work I'm so glad you asked that because I actually had a second point that I wanted to ask which is exactly on this there's a term in the policy it says unless unless there are extenuating circumstances it will be granted but the definition of extenuating circumstances was not present and your example is a perfect case of is that an extenda circumstance or what is an extenda circumstance I I just think this is going to be a very difficult policy to to figure out to do it right you know and I I I think to make policy on one or two cases is not the way to do policy and I think that we have the Open Enrollment policy which I totally support and I think is important we have the uh commitment from the superintendent that seventh and eighth graders wouldn't be moved which is critically important for them at that age group unless the parents want to um I think I think we have to give our Administration some some leeway when we if we don't want to go into cost overruns about getting another teacher you know um in a classroom uh you know things like that there there are unintended consequences I think of this policy Sten Stephen I think um I think it's still worth trying out if we can get the the policy um if we can get the policy right and I think we can Define extenuating circumstances to be if the classroom size is already at uh already at class siiz guidelines I think that is the definition of the extenda circumstance I I don't know that there are are there other extenuating circumstances is that what is an extenuating circumstance what else would it be I don't know I mean I can't think of one I'm just sort of wondering how different that is than to keep it under the purview of the superintendent as it is currently if it actually if we have to have it ultimately be that way then maybe we just keep it as it is I I guess I thought that part of the purpose of this policy was to create um a a positive mandate for the district so that families um recognized that they had the power to keep this that they had this Choice uh rather than the status quo which is which which is more prohibitive yeah exactly I I think that is why we want to do it and so the question I'm asking is just to make sure that we really know that we can Do It um so that we're not promising something that's not possible but I agree with you that is a good reason to have a policy like this I think the way Stephen defines extenuating circumstances would work because parents would be in a position to know so let's say it is Lincoln that they want to move into and Lincoln's at the top of the uh classroom guidelines so they could be notified right at the outset we're not going to be able to Grant this request because Lincoln's already at the top and we're just not in a position to open up another classroom for your student but at least parents would and caregivers would know that at the outset and if the request is for say uh hay and maybe there is room then that'll be different but at least they would know from the very beginning rather than sort of leaving it up in the air to discretion with unknown parameters I have another comment David on that go ahead uh just that because we still have not have a class- siiz guideline document and one of the things that is um critical as we've discussed this year is that those numbers are not set in stone and so and that there's lots of other things that go into the size of the class like the classroom physical size for example so I guess I worry about you know saying like oh well the class isn't I'm making it up Lincoln but Lincoln's a good example because I think they have some funny class shapes there classroom shapes like oh well the classes are like 22 each so the parents are allowed to transfer the student until we have a policy around classroom size it feels like there is or even if there I still feels like that's a challenging Benchmark to use Suzanne well I've been thinking all along I guess I'm out of Step here that the request would be to stay in your District even though you've moved not requesting going to a school where you don't live so I'm I'm a little confused about our conversation right now well there there could be the potential that you have more families moving in to that particular neighborhood and so they would want to go to their neighborhood school and maybe they're being blocked from that if someone who's now in another part of town decides to stay but you're certainly right those numbers would already be baked in uh and so we could utilize where we register new students accordingly and at least for North Brook line we do have a lot of schools that are reasonably close to one another Stephen but I think I think the logic is the the inclusion definition of of being able to get your your education in the community where you live so to to to deny that opportunity to new students coming in to preserve the old students I I recognize that you're trying to preserve a continuity of community experience but [Music] um it seems like I'm boxing myself into a corner I don't have a way out go ahead now that's a different scenario than I was to was in interpreting this one-year pilot so are we now suggesting that if if if lonus is at Lincoln and I move to Baker and I want to stay at Lincoln I can stay there but then Stephen moves into Lincoln but because I'm in seat number 22 now Ste Steven's not living in a buffer zone at in Lincoln step's living squarely in Lincoln's zone now we have to send step to another school because we've allowed that or we have to now add add additional staff go ahead I I believe that the policy of the the district policy already allows for that um Linus that this there is no guarantee if I recall correctly that a student will be placed in even if they're in the that District that's that school's like core District um there's no guarantee that they will be placed there it's it's still dependent on availability I don't think the buffer policy says that Mariah from my recollection I may be old old on that say what I don't think the buffer my understanding of the buffer policy is only in the buffer areas will you not be assigned immediately to one school or another depending and it's because of the size of the classes but kids who are right around the school would would be able to go to that school because they live right there that's the policy I remember okay I could be misremembering I thought it said that no student was guaranteed anywhere but I could no no no no that would reak too much Havoc for people to try and do that as it is it's it's complicated enough um well when I had to reenroll my kids a couple years ago and we were in Lawrence Pierce I was told that we were not guaranteed we were guaranteed neither Lawrence nor Pierce due to District policy no neither correct neither or one or the other not like we were not guaranteed either one of our of our spots it was all based on availability that could have been a misinterpretation by staff at the time but that's absolutely what we were told well we need to look at the policy then because that's not my understanding of why we did buffer zones and how we did them but you're between the two so it would be one or the other cuz you Wen in the buffer zone but it but it wouldn't be you could be assigned to Baker I mean do we currently have students who who are out of District out of buffer assigned to a school that we don't have can request no I'm not talking about that I'm just talking that we assigned that we assigned not that I'm aware that we know of yeah yeah I mean we're not we're assigning I don't get that type of date on the regular yeah now but we do know that there are a lot of kids who go to schools that are not in their um buffer zone or be by parent parental choice and the permission of the superintendent we allow those things so I don't know all right so uh Stephen how do you balance sort of your concern about the new students coming in to a neighborhood school and others who want to stay at least for me I think that's where uh Sarah's Point comes in that if we Define extending circumstances to mean that certain schools that are already at the classroom guideline level fully understanding that's not at Shin stone that number can change but nevertheless we do have guidelines that the parent and caregiver could be told well sorry we're we're up against that number so we're not going to be able to accommodate that request but if they're not up against that number then it would be accommodated yeah I mean where my mind goes to but then then my mind then I start to wonder okay so then when are they informed because I just don't know the logistics on this when when do uh parents get to move into the district and get assigned to school because they because I would think they would get uh first dibs up until the up until they reach the the the rough guideline recognizing that we don't have an official guideline and at that point if we're still within the guidelines that the student should should be allowed to continue at the school if they wish to continue at that school that that seems to me to be a reasonable policy if we can enact it that precisely does that make sense everything that's been said has made sense to me it's just that we already have a policy that says at the discretion of the superintendent so it seems like like we might not really be in the place where we can make a new policy um is there a chance that what we want to do is keep our existing policy and put in the language that the superintendent does tend to grant most requests like just put something positive in to make families feel more comfortable or we'll attempt to maybe we'll attempt to accommodate the the family's request right the superintendent will attempt to what is our policy right now what is do we do we currently attempt to fulfill that request can I make a motion to send this back to policy sure sure doesn't seem ready yet it's fine thank you all right so so I might seize the mic at this point unless David you want to lead the tributes to yourself but we um we now have The Melancholy task of saying good to our outgoing chair and outgoing School Committee Member so and David joined the school committee back in 2018 after a very hard fought election um you've been I think policy chair as long as I can remember since 2020 I believe and vice chair from 2020 to 2022 and since then you've been the chair um and yeah while serving as your Vice chair I've often had the thought that um nobody now remembers who uh was the backup first baseman for the New York Yankees from 1925 to 19 19 39 and the reason for this was that the the starting first baseman was Lou garri one of the all-time greats who managed never to miss a single game during that 14-year period um and David is like that right being your Vice chair has been the world's easiest job because there's basically nothing to do right you're incredibly dedicated you never miss a meeting and you're also very good at handling these sort of um these tricky situations that come up when everybody is uh is up in arms right so um you've done an amazing job of of keeping the school committee collegial um and in keeping us focused on the welfare of our students um think I'll turn it over to Suzanne for some more remarks yes so um David was my vice chair when I was chair during the pandemic which was an exceptional time and um but I I think what I really want to say is that you actually have a very soft heart David you you have the um attorney facade you know but we know when there's some somebody who wants to speak you let them speak and when and you encourage that and you encourage participation not just for our members but with the public and I think that that's something that um has really helped to get us through some really tough topics and issues and challenges and so I learned a lot from you in terms of having kind of a you know this facade that says yes we're business and and you know I have a heart and I want to hear from people and I am willing to listen and change my mind and go with what it is that people need so I want to thank you very much for your service and for what you've done and wish you the best and maybe you'll be a voice for the schools on the select board and we can open it up to anybody else who would like to speak Helen yeah I'll I'll say a few words uh I want to and I want to thank you for all the hard work you've done and the past two years have not been easy being chair is a enormous task getting married and having a baby while you're being there is even a harder task and then going and leaving this school committee which would have been an easier task you decide to now run for now run for uh select board uh which I'm sorry about because I would have liked you to stay here and uh and help us through another three years but I understand your desire and so you'll be missed and thank you for everything you've done Mariah thank you David it has been such a pleasure and like everyone else I will miss your um extremely diplomatic caring humorous demeanor on the committee it's been a really um you've been a wonderful presence um and I am very hopeful that we will continue to work with you on issues around the town and really wish you the best in in your next chapter thank you just a few things that I don't think have been remarked upon uh first I believe it was Babe dalren who is the backup first baseman for L Garrick second I think what a lot of people don't realize is that prior to no offense to any previous chairs but prior to your chairmanship I think we were very slovenly and as a result of you we've all started dressing a lot more Nic L I think you're a very Dapper chair and I think we've all stepped up our fashion game as a result of you I think um I think I think you're an incredibly reliable trustworthy dependable and pragmatic problemsolving person and just having such a grownup in this position and you were preceded by an absolute grown-up as well having these grown-ups share this Committee in chaotic times in a difficult place with difficult issues facing up facing us it's just it's um it's terrific to know that we are LED in this way it's just it's it just sets a tone that we're going to be professional and get things done and we're going to work towards Solutions it's I don't take it for granted there are not a lot of places in life that are so LED diminishingly so so I think of that when I think of your work here so I'll miss having you on this committee thank you uh so Betsy what do we have well before oh I'm sorry yes I'd also like to say it's been a pleasure to uh work with you here uh uh David was on my interview committee and I remember one of the questions and it sticks with me each and every day uh the question was um around how will you uh work with parents who are often um wanting what they want and how will you be able to tell them no and that sticks with me each and every day when I'm dealt with a challenging situation so um why is why is questioned then and it permeates each and every day throughout the organization so thank you for your leadership of the committee and I too wish you well on the next leg of your journey thank you um so as a little Parting Gift Betsy and the school committee would like to present you with your school committee gavl um this is inscribed David a Perman Brooklyn school committee 2018 to 2024 you go thank you very much this is really nice yeah yeah yes so when you go on to the courts you'll have your own gavel great I love it yes here we go it works this is great thank you very much I'm not sure I'll ever make it to being a judge but just you never know fantastic I want to thank all of you you've been superb colleagues I've really enjoyed working with each and every one of you uh your dedication your compassion for our uh children and our for our Educators for our staff it really comes through in um all of our meetings when we're thanking people for coming on and appreciating all that they do and those in the public who watch our meetings may not realize everything that goes on behind the scenes in terms of not just preparing for the meetings but helping things run and all of you do that from responding to lots of emails to attending lots of other meetings that aren't school committee related to Preparing reports to very in-depth research uh Stephen you're uh you provide very in-depth commentary on issues that you're passionate about so particularly literacy but other issues as well and I've learned so much from listening to you talk uh Suzanne your professional experience as an educator is very clear in a lot of your commentary and you're uh able to very deafly sort of bring people back on target when sometimes we might go a little far a field and uh so I'm very appreciative for that also you are a great mentor to me as chair when I was your Vice chair and I really appreciated all the Insight that you provided for me uh Andy you've been an excellent support as Vice chair uh I enjoyed a lot of our post school committee evenings where we go out and grab a drink and about you you came once actually one time you didn't invite us again uh you've been an invaluable resource and you're also very thoughtful on the issues very in depth you take meticulous notes on absolutely everything so nothing escapes you very detail oriented you've done Yan's work on the negotiations subcommittee uh leading us through some very tumultuous times but quite successfully and I think that we're in a much better position today largely thanks to your work uh Helen your institutional knowledge is remarkable 30 plus years you're an encyclopedia of all things Brookline schools uh tremendous resource in this community I'm hoping you're going to go for the record for longest school committee tenure in Brooklyn history it's going to be tough I understand Michael Driscoll went 40 something years I think 45 I don't think I you want me at 90 you can do it though I'm pulling for you pulling for you Sarah I didn't get to serve with you very long but I appreciated our discussions around uh World Language and uh the very thoughtful considerations that you put into that and the charts you developed and you really try to help us understand what was taking place at the school building level uh and I I think that you bring a very important perspective to school committee given that you yourself recently or an educator in the school district so thank you very much for that Mariah your financial expertise uh has really served as well there was a period of time where you were really our de facto deputy superint attendant of administration and finance before uh Dr given came on and the amount of work you've done is really impressive uh you've helped build budgets you've helped explain the budget you always make yourself available I don't know how you do it with three kids and a full-time job and you also manag to travel a fair amount but still attend meetings no matter where you are uh so thank you very much for your dedication uh to you Dr gillery uh you've done an excellent job of providing calm leadership through turbulent Waters and uh you are always maintaining equinity I think we're similar in that regard and that we're very unflappable under pressure and I I I note that in your demeanor and your leadership style and I think that's very important especially in a community like Brookline where there's so many deeply felt uh passions uh Betsy okay Betsy you've been a superb executive assistant to the school committee extremely helpful even aining sometimes on substantive issues we're facing but I actually find that very helpful uh whenever we're looking for any kind of resource you provide it for us in very timely fashion you seem to work 247 you're sometimes sending emails at 5: in the morning on a Saturday and that really speaks to uh your dedication uh Valerie uh it's been a pleasure serving with you as well uh the input youve provided especially around special educ ucation concerns you really opened my eyes into a lot of issues that uh have been of particular concern to you and in your baile Wick of experience and I enjoyed collaborating with you in a lot of policies that we were able to Usher through on behalf of the district uh I'm also glad that you've been able to very capably lead our new subcommittee uh for deij and have really embraced that work um you similarly have a very busy schedule and still manag to participate in a lot of the toughest subcommittees being on negotiations on deij working a lot in special education uh very impressive and uh school committee would definitely benefit from you sticking around a lot longer I I also want to thank our Deputy superintendents who are here Dr given uh you've really put us on the right trajectory in terms of improving our financial systems and providing a lot more transparency around our budget process process you explain things very clear your presentations are uh quite useful in explaining complex issues in a way that uh a lay person can understand them so thank you very much for that the district definitely is benefiting uh from your service here and same to you Dr Fortuna since coming on board as the uh running our curriculum you have done uh an excellent job of Outreach and listening to stakeholders during some challenging times and you always have time for people and you're very patient and you're crafting together uh some excellent curricula that I think are uh Community is going to very much look forward to so thank you to everyone I am going to miss you all uh depending on what happens on Tuesday we might still be working closely together but even if Tuesday doesn't go my way I'm not going to disappear I'm very committed to our schools I'm very committed to the town uh definitely going to still be around still be involved still sharing my opinion perhaps more than you might like you might sometimes hear from me in public comment strictly limited to three minutes good one Andy okay thank you yeah all right thank you very much again everyone and thank you to the public and to our community it's been a pleasure serving you and interacting with many of you and feel free to continue reaching out to me so with that we will now move on to subcommittee and liaison reports Helen Capital Improvements so I I thought I'd take some time today we did a lot of the capital stuff but to talk about uh some of the meetings that have happened for the pier schools just to keep you guys up to date to know what's been happening we had a school after the select the building commission voted the uh um the first uh part of the project the um what it called the first GMP um um you know to to demolish the building thank you um uh we decided we needed to have a school building committee meeting which we had and on that same night we actually had a community meeting which was one of the uh first of two that we will have um uh well probably three but but uh two for the article 97 we needed to um have a public meeting where people could come and talk about uh the article 97 issues and get information about it uh ask questions um and that meeting went very well uh there were about uh I don't know how many participants all together but not not a big amount but they asked good questions we were generally favorable for what we were doing um so that was the community meeting the fiser hill Association uh had some concerns about the uh Newbury college and in talking with Carlos rreo the uh chair of that Association I'm actually on the board of that Association also I suggested that we have uh Jamie yadov come and talk to the neighbors to see what their concerns are we had that meeting on I guess it was just this Monday um and it was really I think quite a good meeting Jaimie did a superb job of talking about being good neighbors talking about you know making sure that we have communication that she would let them know the the association know when things were happening at the school that might affect the neighbors you know whether it's back to school night or um some sort of picnic in the park or something like that um so um there were some good questions some good some good Sugg suggestions from The Neighbors in terms of um issues about traffic and that'll probably be the most complicated getting the two buses that we have to uh bring the middle school students she estimates there'll be about 200 students uh at the facility sixth seventh and eighth graders so that meeting went very well um the moving out um of the school will happen in June um and uh the um actually Karen King and Sarah Gooding have worked incredibly well together mostly Karen in terms of the logistics of the move and Sarah in terms of getting the spaces ready um I a real shout out to both of them to making those buildings ready and for this coming September and for the stuff to be moved because everything's going to be moved out of um Piers by by July um you know and that's that's a lot of things to move classes Library Etc um I think that's all on Pierce on May 8th um I have a we're going to have a capital subcommittee meeting and at that meeting we're going to be talking about school playgrounds not combined Town School Playgrounds but the ones that are owned by this uh the school RS the playgrounds um and the ones that um are in need of uh repair so that will be the first item on that agenda and then the second one will be um an update on the CIP for the summer um some of the bids maybe that we've gotten in and some of the the plans for that are there any questions did I leave anything out no okay all right uh Suzanne curriculum yes we met uh uh on the 30th I guess that was just Tuesday yeah um so we had a curriculum subcommittee meeting we really had two topics one was uh we learned about a proposal for a driving school at the high school um they're calling it buckle up um and uh they went through some of that and some of the kind of the logistics and what the vision was and the plans and um essentially we we came up with next steps which are some meetings to talk about some of the details and how that might work whether whether it would be through the high school maybe through Bas we're not sure but um there will be uh future meetings to work with Finance as well as curriculum and as well as some of our people uh at the high school so stay tuned for that is the idea that this would be set up as a revolving fund what would be its that's kind of what they're thinking but we have to work some there's a lot of details yeah I mean Susan shaking her head so we haven't worked out the details and so it's not clear that we that the high school will do it um there's certainly some enthusiasm for it but it's we're we need to think about some some more which is kind of at the vision visioning stage that's where we are and then our second topic was the literacy needs assessment and um Dr funa took us through uh some well Michelle did actually most of Michelle Herman took us through uh some of the um the results from um the literacy review and um it's quite complicated and detailed and so um we listen to what what they said um in particular uh we're going to let uh Dr Fortuna's group uh kind of sift through all this information they shared some of it with us um and then come back to us with a literacy plan and that's what we will bring to the whole school committee the literacy plan and we will do that we think maybe June 6th so stay tuned for that um there is a fairly lengthy report I'm sure you could get a copy from Dr Fortuna um don't do it Steven's read it I have it read it all uh it is it's it's pretty lengthy and it's it's a little confusing um so that's the work that we did uh on Tuesday afternoon any questions for Suzanne or anything you want to add all right next up Valerie de J thanks David um we would be meeting on Monday but because it's election Eve we're going to wait until June when um the committee is reconstituted so no additional update all right Finance Mariah uh we you already got some updates on town meeting status and um we ended up skipping our last meeting that was going to be April 24th and I believe we have a meeting coming up in two weeks all right Valerie government relations um thanks so the the house budget we talked about at our last meeting right now we're awaiting the um Senate Ways and Means budget and that is due to be out on Tuesday and then amendments if there are any needed for um town and schools by Thursday we believe so I will um I'll have a better update on the Senate uh at our next meeting but it moves to the Senate next week all right thank you question go ahead Helen so uh Val do you think the Senate will go along with what the house recommend Ways and Means recommended for Chapter 70 um I I personally think so but um I can let you know for sure on Tuesday but I I do think so okay all right that's helpful this is early too for them to finish isn't it oh it's it's not finished Helen yeah I know it's not finished but usually it goes into July and sometimes August so well they they still need to reconcile right the house and the Senate so this is just the Senate piece and then then they need to reconcile so it will will be July okay great thank you sure right uh Suzanne negotiations yeah we have two uh issues going on right now um I'm not really in a place to talk about them publicly but we are going to Executive session this evening to talk about them more okay uh regarding policy um we as a school committee received a letter from the American civil liberties Union regarding the hate speech policy where the ACLU expressed some concerns about potential restraints on on First Amendment Free Speech Rights Town Council and the Massachusetts Attorney General's office are both looking over this draft and I expect that by June we'll have uh some kind of response from both are there any additional liaison updates Helen I'm sorry but I forgot to say one other thing you you reminded me because of the ACLU there is also a an appeal by 30 Neighbors at think of the Pierce school about the curb cut uh to go into the garage from Harvard Street and about um wanting to not have cars come in and go out on uh on Harvard Street even though they used to go in and out on on School Street the other piece was um there were two issues well that was one uh and the other thing had to do with the left turn lane both of these are issues for the transport part of the reason I didn't bring it up right away I didn't think about it was uh they're both Transportation board um decisions on these uh issues and so I guess they are appealing this to the select board is my understanding so if uh if a car entrance on Harvard Street were disallowed that would cause pretty drastic changes to the design no well I think well I think the harder part would be the staff going in and out of the garage through one uh entrance and ex on Washington Street right because there will be no entrance on School Street anymore so there will be no it's not even feasible to do it with the new design the way the building is put together um you cannot uh get in on School Street so it would have to be the one entrance also the town has requested that we split the garage and have some not a permanent barrier but there is a fence between the school parking and the um Town parking um I think I don't know I'm not exactly sure why but that was a town request it wasn't uh or maybe it was a school request to but I'm not sure about that so there's there's a number of issues that it affects um when when we do that and so I'm not sure where where it we end up all right any other additional Aon updates Suzanne yeah I just want to uh remind us that the caval award winners will have their uh presentation on May 7th at 3:30 at the uh in the stem Wing at BHS it's it's just a wonderful appreciation and ceremony and so if you have a chance it's worth coming yeah May 7th 3:30 all right is there any new business seeing none I move that we meet an executive session pursuant to Massachusetts general laws chapter 30A section 21A for the following purposes purpose three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the Brooklyn Educators Union Unit A and per a professional unit if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares purpose three to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining with the Brookline Educators Union unit a grievance if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining and litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares and purpose 7even to review and approve executive session minutes from the meeting of April 11th 20 24 is there a second Suzanne seconds your vote Stephen yes Suzanne yes Andy yes Helen yes Valerie yes Mariah yes Sarah yes and I also vote Yes we will not be returning to open session so for those of you watching good night everyone recording stopped [Music]