##VIDEO ID:BlyDi4BsZ3E## all righty I'll call the meeting of the for elementary school committee to order at 6:01 p.m. first order of business welcome everyone first order business is to review and approve the minutes of October 10th 2024 um I actually did have something I want to clarify on the minutes unfinished business the last item on the F school policy top of the second page it says uh Mary made a motion and after some discussion it was determined that no vote would take place and the motion was removed I think what happened was Mary rescinded her motion and then no further motion was made um yes I think it it was a very confusing and I really hate to drag it out further off can you point to where you're referencing on the at the top of page two the paragraph italics uh so I would just like to propose that we take out the sentence that starts after some discussion there okay um we replace it with M Raymond retracted her motion no further motion was made and then leave the sentence the current IBG policy remains in place if we' made a motion we would have taken a vote right just leave the rec straight can you tell me that one more time m r retracted her motion no further motion was made and I would strike out the sentence after some discussion okay got it thank you do we have to uh yes so I would move that we approve the minutes as amended it's not great okay it all in favor okay thank you okay next up financial statement and warrants okay uh 11 warrants were signed electronically since the last meeting totaling $144,200 um one on the school choice report there are two lines that are um maintenance related that are over budget um one of those is related to the Mini Splits and we have a rebate coming back on that so that'll go directly back into that account so that'll wipe out that I believe the 177,000 the 14,000 is the placeholder that we have in I believe to finish the uh walkway out back where we have to have the ramp installed there so um that will be an actual expense but there's no concern about school choice funds at this point we have adequate budget uh and the comment I want to make about general fund is that I'm currently reviewing teacher salaries and wages with the payroll department um there's an overage in one line and then a budget that has like 880,000 available in another and we did have some leave of absence that's going to free up some money because staff didn't have the full Leave paid but I I'm just still kind of working on those numbers so if those look a little funny that's some explanation for you we'll continue to work that out otherwise I don't think there's anything that we haven't already talked about as bridges in the general fund but we're in good shape we have almost 500,000 left to get through the end of the year so no concerns thank you all right no further questions and comments on that move on next up is the principal's report yeah so I share that with you a couple things I just wanted to highlight is that our student ambassadors which are our fifth and sixth grade students that kind of go through a rigorous process um they do a lot of leadership in our school they've just started a peer buddy program and they had their debut on math and science day where they work with younger students um and helping them to access the activities so this just a program that helps um create meaningful bonds with um students with and without um disability so that was new and exciting we're working to um build that um we had math and science day so I just want to give a shout out to all the volunteers that made that happen and it's an amazing day PA to with so many presenters and students were just busy engineering and um learning about all sorts of things and then we had our Pawn transformation other things so I should take a peek at it in the sunlight which You' have to get here before 4 so thank you Dina next up we have public comment all right no comment um moving on to the uh playground update go now with the playground so uh sure so uh last night we went before the CP C committee um I guess we were on the expectation there would be some discussion regarding our proposal instead it was just a rescheduling of another meeting now that'll take place in December and December 4th December 4th um one thing we did learn also in that meeting is they shared with us the amount of money that they have um and it is far below what I was told um informally off the cuff from people in town um and that they're just they're at 71,000 for open space and another 46,000 for I forget where it was coming from but about 117,000 for open space and then 299,000 for any other project um that could be added on so there are a couple other people groups looking for smaller much smaller amounts of money as well so the idea of um this paying for the Lion Share of the whole project is probably not realistic um I I started to look at you don't know present you know I'm not on you I'll log in real quick so you can present my screen but um looking at those num well actually so brief whatever looking at the numbers um I think what we can do is decrease our ask and I don't know if they're going to it's going to be a discussion because I don't know if CPC will work if they want a polished budget in front of them or they'll work with us and the idea is that we're trying to reduce the amount um so we have the the three phases to remind everyone we have the Ford uh the uh K to4 playground we have the prek playground and then we have the area of the basketball court which we said would be an add-on um priority wise I think the um K to four playground should be done first it houses the most students and we're going get the most B pay for a buck on it although the pre- pram visually looks worse um but it'll be servicing the most amount of students and looking at the Ada needs to cover five grades is probably more important than one grade if we're going to look at again priorities um that cost of that playground again the rough estimate that was [Music] $386,000 and so if we go to CPA with a request of let's say $200,000 the school would have to then figure out how come up with 186 um you know that number partly you know we could look at choice we could look at even putting on warrant on and do a combined kind of approach or do a triple approach apply some Choice some warrant some CPA um and looking at you know how do we we could also tighten up the project itself um when I use the word tighten make it sound like it's loose you know um see if the town can come in and do portions of that will that effect bidding I did have a conversation with Chris Miller with the DPW um you know he said that that is something they could come in and do um and do it probably rather quickly the question is how will that affect the bidding of a job where someone comes in and they lose a big portion of the labor cost there which is probably obviously the um big portion of the profit margin so you know still it could be done um we also looking I'm talking with the town regarding Ada grants um and what what's happening there we tried that in Sunderland and had no luck there was no money available for Ada for the Sunderland playground um and or additional ones in uh sundland looked harder than Conway but Conway also did there was nothing that was really available but we can look into a little bit harder and that could come off the school side of that so you know the meeting's in December so I you know kind of reacting off of last night that's kind of what I plan to move forward for it I don't know what the appetite of the committee will be to put have very little left in their account they spent a ton on the 1888 building and I believe the library before that right so be be between I'm not sure about the library but they spent they spent a lot of money already up so um yeah so I don't know um where we're headed on that the other thing is that this is a a very heavy m material cost so between the playground equipment and the rubber surfacing like that's probably what the rubber surfacing is 152 yeah yeah no it's definitely over three it's the majority of the project so there's really not going to be a ton of legal room to save money because the equipment is super expensive we can buy it ourselves so that we don't have to pay a markup to a contractor so we'll do that but the rubber surfacing has to be done by uh certified playground installer so not going to be a ton of wiggle room yep so what you mentioned something about talking with the town about 8 grants what is that have you heard anything different than our last meeting around that or um yeah I got a note yesterday actually right before the meeting um um as you know they're kind of influx over there and just mentioned that they will look into there could be possibility of that but again it wasn't um and that came from Chris dun um but I don't know of any so they would say the school is not part of the Ada assessment in the town they would have to add the school on and then there was a cost to do that um between1 and $20,000 and so I didn't really know what he's talking I had to kind of catch up with him on that but I see that yesterday before the meeting so I don't know about that does Sunderland have a town planner no and does con have a town planner no I guess I'm holding out hope that maybe someone who like is a professional at this may have a different angle I have no idea but right it's it's nice that we responded at least so I think the the way to go is that you know we're going to you know go to the CPA for a set of Mount and then the other Mount that you know we have to come up with is going to kind of be the wiggle room in the sense of can we get grants to lower that in the end if you're somebody watching it's about the taxpayer right so that you know wherever we save money from one pot or another it there's savings to the town because both are coming either from you know I look at CPA you we all pay you know as a dear for Resident we all pay taxes to that for projects like this and so you know going to a committee that's overseeing that is all fine but that's the whole purpose of CPA money is to pull money aside so you don't have to go to Warrant every single time for projects like that um and to be able to offset that kind of cost to the town where the other way we would go is go to a full warrant I mean if we didn't have CPA we would we' go to the town for $300,000 um and that then they would have to figure out how to come up with that the select board would figure out whether or not they pull up in free cash or what hour they want to pay for it um so us coming up with a strategic way to lower the cost to the taxpayer and effect on the town coming from different Pockets I think is a probably smart approach um it's I we do it all the time in other how we fund other things in the school we pull from different accounts we spread things over multiple years we've done in different counts talents for different projects so to me it makes sense so we'll see if that if that that committee will buy into that train of thought and so I'm also presenting tonight for your train of thought too and your thoughts on it and um yeah and such I did also they ask for a recommendation from the rec committee um outside the recommendation from um that carry Road um and so I did send a letter I talked to somebody on the committee they received the letter um they forwarded it to everybody on the committee but they have not met to take any action on anything in the last since that letter was sent about three weeks ago so um the other applicant that was there was also waiting on a letter from the rec committee as well all right questions thank you all right yeah I guess we'll just wait and see what's that just wait and see it I mean it's wait and see I mean it is I mean we we enter the project come in big and then reduce don't reduce and then come in kind of deal um I have other ideas within the project I think the ad alt could be done we could break that up as well and we get the asphalt done by the town as or did it as part of this project that around the basketball courts I think is in worse shape than the swing set so we could leave the swing sets alone and then just take care of the asphalt around the the basketball hoops and um that would be a huge Improvement for a small cost and so that number that ad Al could also come down um so you know there's playing around with that I think these numbers were estimated High Shelly corrected that sometimes some of the other estimates that came from Berkshire design um we estimated low so you know I also think what happens is you know this quote was from originally I think the summer and by the time that we're putting this to bid it's at a minimum nine months later right right so is rubber up or down yeah exactly right see thank you all right next order of business is the CPAC annual report presentation Ashley or Hol if you're out there [Applause] welcome hi hi I'm Holly Johnson the co-chair of the CPAC I'm here to give our annual report um this is based on last year's numbers um we decided to in report for the previous year at the beginning of the next year we felt it was kind of getting lost in June uh thank you for adding us to the agenda tonight as you may know this in the state of Massachusetts each school district has to have a special education parent advisory Council or CPAC and our duties include advising the school committee on matters that pertain to the education and safety of students with disabilities and evaluating the special education programming and provide feedback the CPAC has submitted the a copy of our full annual report to all school committee members I believe about a month and a half ago I'm just here to give a summary of the report and answer any questions you may have um we always want to thank um all the administrators teachers related service providers and IAS in our district for their dedication to our students last year we held a variety of meetings uh business meetings with administrators connection meetings that provide CPAC updates answer questions from families and provide emotional support we had family picnics where we helped families and students to connect to peers in other schools um the Federation for children with special needs provided a presentation on understanding the IEP we also had family support group meetings um every month during these support groups through our monthly newsletter emails and our private Facebook group we help families by answering special education questions connecting families with each other giving referral information on services and Specialists within the community and sh in local events we would also like to thank the special education department for financially supporting our Zoom subscription um most of our meetings continue to be over resum and our Mass path membership and that membership gives us um the opportunity to have a trained special education Advocate provide a basic rights workshop on understanding the IEP um we gather data from each School Deerfield had 82 IEP students which made up approximately 26% of the total student popul there were eight special education teachers for a student to teer ratio of 9 to1 of the 82 iup students 12 were school choice students coming into our district one H school student one private school student and one um preas student just receiving services and they had one out of District placement we reviewed the district policies and procedures gathered State data talked to administrators throughout the year used family reports and the district Serv data when we created our report the bsea is a state agency that helps with the IEP development process this year this year our district had 10 rejected IEPs that's districtwide the sea does not U record data for individual schools desie handles complaints that alleg a school is not meeting legal requirements for Education through the problem resolution system or PRS this is a process in which fam staff or community members can bring attention to special educ ation violations within the past year PRS investigates claims and determines whether a school is in compliance or non-compliance with the law last year PRS reported that there were two complaints filed this year um as we do most years we collaborated with Ken fandino to create a districtwide survey that was sent out on parent Square last year we got only 32 respondents which is only about 11% of the IEP families and only one 504 family responded that's down significantly from the previous year here in our role as a CPAC we are not able to determine the accuracy of family concerns our job is to support families educate them about their rights and advocate for systemic changes based on what is brought to our attention in addition to survey results we include concerns brought directly to CAC from families throughout the year when concerns have been raised multiple times by multiple families we feel they need the attention of administration and school committees this past year we added a bullying question to the survey and in addition to the responses to our survey questions we heard nearly a dozen complaints about bullying for the school year brought directly to seac um also at The District's absenteeism meeting bullying was mentioned as a cause of high absenteeism rates um it's concerning that the survey showed respondents were more likely to feel uncomfortable reporting bullying to the schools after they had already reported an incident preventing bullying is a component of the IEP and we have concerns that this component um use some improvement overall family engagement was down as I mentioned um every year families say that communication has improved and they say they want communication to improve so I I think that it is steadily improving and um families still want U more communication um they want more training um so they can activly participate in their child's IEP and five four plan um families report that they have time transitioning between preschool to kindergarten um and 6 to 7 which um we hear that every year those are difficult transitions um we continue to recommend professional development for all teachers and staff on the frontier Regional Union 38 School District special education procedures manual and that this document is distributed to parents special education teachers related service providers and instructional assistance on a yearly basis um we also recommend that the district creates and distributes an IEP timeline teach she to parents and special education teachers on a yearly basis um we think that the CPAC information could be made more readily available to families currently it's hard to find CPAC on the website um and we would like to partner with the district to increase Outreach to families um especially letting them know when we're holding trainings um we also recommend that all administrators special education and related service providers ATT and comprehensive professional development on the stress that families of students with disabilities experience and how to best and engage and collaborate with these families the districtwide anti-racism and Equity initiative continued um to include a variety of minority U populations um continue to work on including uh students with disabilities um we recommend all staff and administrators receive training around the bullying policy restorative justice the use of the district's procedures and how to make families more comfortable reporting bullying to the school we would like to partner with the district in creating a plan to ensure I ap's properly address The Bullying issues and we also recommend that families are made aware of the district's bull bullying policies reporting procedures and who to contact for counseling Deerfield had a 15% response rate um about 12 families and results were mostly positive they parents liked um the staff and they like their streamlined IEP meetings um again negatives include communication um just an improvement on communication we recommend getting more data on how the school can improve its communication with the families and we would like to partner with the school to increase awareness of CPAC and hopefully get better responses to this year survey um we actually already had a chance to meet with with um Tina and some folks from the school and we're already putting that plan in motion we've distributed the flyer um we had a great meeting and um I think that we're on the road to get better survey or more survey results this year which would be great um I can answer any questions if anyone has any I just want to say thank you I appreciate hearing about the survey results especially over time how the answers are changing questions uh regarding families being able to easily access information on CPAC um being easy to find on the website seems like it should be an easy fix yeah I think that that would be be helpful um and we did create a flyer and had some ideas on how to get the fire out to families um more all right any questions comments all right thank you very much Holly thank you H thank you thank you have a good night all right all right next up FY 26 budget so we're in the earliest stages of budget development uh Tina has submitted a template of requests needs wants whether that's salaries supplies materials facilities related anything that she thinks that um we need additional funding for uh and then we have scheduled the three of us a meeting coming up first week of December to go over the first draft I've started building the first draft this one's going to be tricky because we're in negotiations and we don't necessarily know what we're going to settle on and when we're going to settle so um it could be a little bit challenging budget season but I just wanted you to know we're in the works in the early stages so you'll see a first draft hopefully in January all right thank you very much for all that hard work all right mou on the new sickly Bank Amendment Dar can you walk us through that sure so um you received a copy of the the uh Amendment what occurred was the association came to me at uh last spring at the end of last spring and asked if we could do an amendment to the um agreement U regarding the sick Bank um and they really wanted to have something in place for this school year because um they felt it needed to be addressed sooner than later than waiting for the next collector bargain which you know is is undergoing now but so this is for this uh is for this year but basically um the big it's a big change in the sense that the old sick Bank um you would apply to the to the bank and basically you were applying to ask staff to donate days this is a true Bank where the days are actually going to be put in advance and then the um committee the six Bank committee which is made up of school members and Association members would be the gate keepers of um that if you go when you read through you can see all the different language that's put in there um I think when you look at this is this is a uh something that's in the contract that's a benefit to our to our staff and if they want it to work better I think there's we it's you know it's in our best interest to have a contract that works well and parts of the contract that um um especially a benefit that works well for them and the last one wasn't so this was a was a great working group we took a couple times to meet and um kind of just hammered out this and so the idea is this will be in placed this year and then be negotiated into the current agreement um the current negotiations for the next agreement so um I guess I'll take any questions on it or if I missed anything I just do you want to clarify who was in the working group sure or not not names but just like it was like you know it was a member from each bargaining unit each committee send somebody and um and so as well as the association and you know it was a good was a good warm-up I thought to negotiations sense of we and it was something that to do that in negotiations is also there was a lot of back figuring it out together what's the best way to work so it was it was nice to get it done that way um I will say there was also a couple of times going back and forth with the lawyer just to make sure that everything seemed right in terms of like legalities this has been reviewed by Council and approved so for your approve for your approval and I just the experience Mary and I had because we were are part of the sickle subcomittee all these committees um and it the previous policy was like a little bit vague you know I think the intention was there but it was vague and so as a committee we were like in charge of approving or not approving and because of that vagueness it felt kind of tricky in some ways so this is like four times as long but more clear clear and you know I would imagine maybe employees donating to this they think maybe would feel better about the language in there yeah I was happy to see this changes I know the old policy was in need of an overhaul this just good I did have a question of clarification so I'm looking at Unit C and it says there's a maximum of 50 days in the sick Le Bank every employee is putting in one day at beginning of the year I think how many employees are there total across the district if you in Unit C I mean at most it's probably I don't think it's more than 80 it's probably around 80 but everyone's putting in one day but not they have a option to opt out so we're assuming not everyone will do it I wouldn't think it's yeah un has more turnover than un and so people who may or may not be um in their first or second year may not see the benefit of that or want to give up a day or those kind of things so um I was just curious the maximum number seems low to me but I assume the people working on this have figured out the logistics and there's also more specific language around catastrophic illness or injury which is kind of key which just not there before right so it's there's maybe it kind of like Narrows um the type of situation that might come across the si le um l in the threshold just so I understand this correctly the midyear deduction so the at the beginning of the year the pool will be will be collected and then if there is high usage and it falls below 50 there would be a return to the staff to um put up to one additional day into the pool to reimburse it okay but no more than needed we're not just going to ask for it just to refill it if someone came and needed to access it and we did didn't have enough days to fulfill that request then the committee could consider a second but the maximum in a year an employee would have to if they're opted in would be two that would be the um it just says a midyear deduction maybe necessary so and that would up to one midyear deduction one and so at that point I mean that would be far exceed anything that we've ever had in the past and um you know it' be a really unfortunate year if there was that many catastrophic um things going on but um yeah at that point the committee it'd be it' be you it can't answer all things you know what I mean the the the policy not the policy but the can are all things in the sense of what if you had 10 people you know that and we won't have enough you know what I mean and then it wouldn't we wouldn't be able to answer their problems through the contract it helps from a communication standpoint it's like those outof pocket expenses for healthcare where you know you you're capped at a threshold and so just knowing that it's it's two at most and also for if we did have to do a second deduction there's also a line in there that if an employee has five days or less that they won't have that second deduction that's right I have two questions what does collective how many sick days do they get currently in their contct unit a gets 15 and Unit C gets 10 and is there a stipulation after a certain amount of time in the district they can get paid for them upon retirement upon yes in the contract they there's a depending on where they are on the certain day of entering the contract was a payout things so very difficult to explain without without it in front of that's okay I was just it was I didn't take a look okay thank you I'll check it out today any other questions on that all right well yeah this looks great good work everyone's involved we okay so it's not a policy it's not a policy It's anou So you you're going to vote in the one thing it's not doesn't fall into your policy policy what there we are voting on this you are vo right just to clarify so your polic you have a policy about voting policies that you will do a first reading and then a vote because it's an ongoing policy with the district this is anou with the association which can be done immediately without not considered a double read it's the business of the committee can we take them together the two M yeah you can do would anyone like to make a motion to approve the to M for new sick Bank leave for Amendment for unit a andc contracts so thank you seconded there's no further discussion all in favor I thank you car you'll get a copy to sign okay all righty School Improvement plan so um you have the school Improvement plan in front of you and sorry it copied like this so it's front and back but you had to flip it over um we have let's see it went through staff it started with ilt went through staff and um through our school council so that we could get representative from families Educators um um so we have three goals education programming curriculum instruction culture and community relations I think it's interesting to highlight if you look at the last bottom of community relations and task for completion we're looking at supporting the transition from prek to K so we are taking information that we're getting from um you know CPAC and um just our our families in general um lots of things here that are already things that you're hearing about the initiatives that are happening in the school and of course there's a lot lot more that's going on this is a year long plan so our timeline for this is within a year and we added progress monitoring so you can see or we can see how we're doing along the way and is this our first read of this no single policy so it's developed by school council and then goes to school committee for um approval all right all right anyone have any questions thoughts then i' be looking for motion to U approve the school Improvement plan for 2024 2025 or we can take few more minutes don't to rush like just a minute yeah okay yeah the culture and behavior committee was that the group we had a report from the end last year for for this a little bit of a random question maybe it's like kind of oddly specific but I just remember um Laura talking about summer school um and how there was like an idea of maybe thinking about it in a less traditional way as a way to sort of like bring some students kind of up as we were talking about scores and things like that I know that's not like specifically listed here at least what kind what I can see but you know is that sort of also on the horizon as part of an improvement we are still talking about it yeah um we have no plans in place yet but we're still considering like different ideas about how to get um gu more intensive focused and intentional services in place too so we're still talking about it you really can't put everything in a school Improvement you know yeah Encompass everything yeah ready one I'll make a motion to approve the school Improvement plan yeah yeah I yeah we can further discuss or we can vote okay sorry I'm not rushing you am I no no no discussion from perspec all right in that case all in favor of the school Improvement plan thank you all righty um reports um um as your delegate I uh WR up the report the um the delegate session from the conference um just very briefly um our uh resolution on R schools passed with U no with only very minor um votes against uh there's an mcast resolution that obviously the resolution was written and sent submitted before question two was um approved last week um so that resolution was amended to be a little less forceful it didn't didn't feel like it was necessary to call for moratorium um there was a resolution on uh fully adjusting chapter 78 to account for inflation and that um was got a strengthening Amendment on the floor just uh more clarification more timelines on that one um everything else passed and as always I I really enjoyed going to the conference it is really valuable experience I recommend it to anyone took a number of good sessions came away with a lot of good ideas well did you want to add anything about the conference I was I was really impressed with the conference I thought there was a lot of um it was a lot of perspectives and just a lot of great sessions that as a newcomer I was able to um really get a footing on what you know what's happening so um I would I would second those thoughts that if if folks have an opportunity to take part next year it's it's well worth it I I plan on attending okay thanks all right collaborative I think there's not been a meeting collaborative is not that okay great superintendent report um no formal report but I did just want to do two updates you know we did have Lyn lions come last night um we had about 100 people in t just under 100 I think um so was a fairly good turnout um she does an amazing job of just talking about anxiety and and um a parents role and working with their teens through anxiety and causes and strategies and such and when we talked about we heard from CPAC I mean this is part of the district's response to doing more social emotional awareness doing Outreach to parents um ly Lions is probably the best that you can bring in um at a school district our size and even um and such um and she did also did a programming today with the SEC with the secondary with the uh with Frontier I sat in on that as well it's very similar to the parent programming in the sense of with the messaging was but through the lens of how teachers can be helpful the students who are working through anxiety um you know she also has her message in there as well about not enabling anxiety but working with strategies to um that's kind of her Baseline message is that don't enable somebody um who's having anxiety issues by giving them crutches you know alone you know crutches are needed for certain times but really to build skills to get around anxiety so that they can conquer that in life so it was really good and um they will she'll be returning in January to work with our um unit 38 teachers and um and staff and I think you will enjoy it at least you will enjoy it um I also just wanted to kind of update that our strategic plan survey did go out this week as well and so we'll be collecting that data as well um we did complete the coffees and conversations um at Dearfield we had a great one I mean small turnouts overall um but it's what I kind of expected you know two three four people at each building um and you know just it B great conversation and P as well we had a um good good Insight on different things and so again we'll be compiling that data along with the um survey data and everything else we can gather to develop the Strategic plan that um will be reporting back to you right that's time we go all right thank you very much the survey looks good I was able to dive into it last night and it's it's got a lot of angles to it okay thanks we did do the survey we did run it by um the uh I can't think of the name of the group cmsi what's that was it cmsi yes cmsi we did run to by we did send our draft to cmsi they made some minor edits to it but they thought it looked good as well so we had a third party um cmsis who did who did our Equity audit so we did have a third party group look at it just to make sure that it wasn't blatantly bias and way and it was up to they do a lot of surveying and collecting data from districts so they thought it was very good so just when when people know that say it out loud it's not just kind of created behind the scenes by two two people in a smoky room I guess my only concern with the survey is is if there's um there it's a lot of reading and writing involved and if there's any barriers to families um so I don't know what considerations could go go into those accessibility components but just a food for thought there that's a good point in some parts it's confusing me if the rank the rank order what I was kind of I was thinking for a minute we think at the end of that I was like I wonder it doesn't frustrate people but all in all the questions seem well rounded so all right that's we got on the agenda so like to make a motion to adjourn you to stay here all favor thank you very much meeting adjourned at 5 6:46