positions in the state to to qualify as a district and then from there I'd like to build in student contact positions first so that our students are not being harmed or hurt by cuts and then fill in from there and and that's basically what I would like to see happen I'd like a clearer budget put together where line by line you can tell exactly who is making what and every line is one person for an expense instead of some lines being one person some lines being three or four so I just think Clarity in the budget is really important for academic Excellence I mean I don't we're we're experiencing a lot of cuts right now I don't want to see the district that has kind of risen and become such a quality District in the State lose its ability to give our kids what they deserve and what we've been giving them what I would advocate for would be a curriculum Review Committee so that we can make sure that as we're off offing curriculum it's relevant and the students can access it and that we're teaching them in a way where they can they can access information and I would like to do that by using data because we collect data all the time so what is the data telling us is our literacy program appropriate uh how are our math scores where do we need interventionists and making sure kids get intervention early enough so that we can help them Excel as soon as possible and my my my other overarching goal and I know this is slightly outside school committee purview is to bring the community back together because I don't want to live in a place that's so divided where the kids and the families are pitted against the seniors are pitted against the single people and the young families I think that we all have things in common and I think we can all come together and figure out where do we want the town to go where do we want our district to go and how do we fund it in a way that works so that people are not being Christ out of their homes thanks thank you it's my turn so good evening everyone I want to thank the PTO and swallow Union for hosting this event inviting me to be participating in it my name is rapael GL and I'm the vice chair of the school committee and one of your dunable representatives I sit before you I thought we were G to stand I sit before you tonight asking for your support for my re-election bid I'm running for re-election to ensure duno Contin continues to have a voice at the decision making table and make sure no one is silenced I understand the importance of uniting to find solutions that will maintain our District's success with all of its stakeholders I aim to continue representing the interest of the taxpayers the parents and the students I am passionate about Civic engagement in serving our community my family has lived in this town since the 70s I attended swallow Union this this building I attended the middle school and I graduated from the high school in 2010 so I have a strong and deep connection to our district and its success my involvement in local politics and public service began early from winning a second grade student council election in this very building to serving on the high school school council the student council and as a student representative on the school committee for three years I am the vice chair as I said previously I'm the chair of the University Equity inclusion advisory committee I have been deeply involved in contract negotiations curriculum assessments and the budgeting process I've served as the secretary of the school of the school committee I've served on all the subcommittees policy budget and finance and the CIAA which is curriculum construction and assessment I'm also the legislative liaison that deals with our state legislators I'm also an active member of a prominent State committee where I continue to advocate our district and our town and strive for Equitable representation and resources but at the state level so goals for the next three years one equity and representation I'm going to work tily to look at and amend the regional agreement to ensure each member's vote is equally weighted correcting the current inbalance that disadvantage that disadvantages D I want to see transparent areny and accountability by advocating for detailed public reporting of all of our District's assessments Audits and ensuring that every success and challenge is openly discussed and addressed budget management given our physical constraints I will continue pressing for state reimbursements from our legislators and advocating for responsible budgeting that aligns with our community's educational aspirations without compromising the quality of all of our programs and in the quality education I'm dedicated to advancing evidence-based curricula and fostering professional development to really uphold the high standards of our educational system in closing I'm asking for your both to continue the work the hard work ahead my deep roots in this community combined with my extensive experience and dedication make me uniquely qualified to represent you let us move forward together building a brighter future for all of our students all of our families and all of our taxpayers thank you for your support and your trust over the years together we can make a lasting impact for more information on me or my campaign you can visit my website at rapel glad.com or my uh Facebook campaign page at rapel glad for school committee thank you all thank you okay now we can move on to the questions uh and Christina will give Ry a break to from speaking to ask you the first question that we posed and that is what qualifications do you have to serve effectively in this role sure so um as I alluded to in my introduction um I served as the president of the PTO at SW Union here for two years and I actually came into that role after only having been a family here for one year and it was during Co that my family started and I had never stepped foot in the building and there was an opening for president and nobody wanted to take it and I wanted to help because the school had done so much for my kids and so I got through my hat in the ring and I stepped in and I asked the outgoing president would you bring me in the building so that I can see it before I'm actually the president of the PTO just so I understand what the layout of it is um but that is just an example of if there is a need or an opportunity I am there to volunteer for it I served as the president for two years we brought in a lot of um enrichment programs for our kids we brought in a lot of community activities um and different uh fundraisers that we did we hosted the color run which is now was the first year we pulled it off and it's now become an annual tradition uh we host a lot of um things for the kids like the Monster Mash and um we just a ton of fundraisers to support their enrichment programs but in doing that I also developed relationships with the teachers as well and so I have a a history of of collaborating with all different kinds of groups and bringing them together to find Common Ground I've also served on the school council which I also mentioned before for three years um and our primary goal is to figure out what money we have what central office has given us to work with and where where the biggest need is and how to allocate that need and what we want for our students for the year I served on that under Mr meerson for one year and then i' I've Ser served on it with Mrs Jarvis for the last two years I think that in addition to those things the kind of the less tangible are that I'm a listener so I don't come to the table with everything figured out I want to hear from people I want to hear from the community especially at a time like this what it is you are looking for and I want to bring collaborative solutions to the table are you still in your meeting I'm okay okay sorry just it's like a voice from there um and I'm I'm not coming to the table with things already figured out I want to work together I want to see all sides of what we're trying to figure out and and try to find Common Ground among all people and so I think listening and collaboration and bringing the community and a not shutting them down is incredibly important to me thank you same question oh so I'd like to thank the last four years um is a good uh qualification to continue on um you know I said earlier I've served on all the subcommittees um this year I got the privilege of serving on the superintendent search committee chose and supported our new superintendent will be starting here soon I'm also part of the Union negotiation team uh both in 2021 in 2024 um and at all of those things I consistently make sure dunal is represented with a strong and experienced voice and that has not always been an easy thing to do but um it's happened so you know similar to other meetings um I won't be silenced and I don't agree with that and I agree with collaboration um and also Advocate effectively for the town's needs and the educational welfare of our students I know being a former student in this District what budget cuts do to kids I was there as a sophomore in 2008 dealing with the budget crisis then our class sizes went up Bel LED teachers were cut but we were able to do with what we had and that's all we could do and big shout out to the teachers because they really made it with uh having students be able to learn and continue and be successful with what they need with less to work with and they come to school every day with a smile on their face making sure those students are able to get that so I remember it back then we see it now and even though it is unfortunate um you know it is what it is at this point um but that doesn't mean we give up and we're going to still continue to look at all avenues invite everyone to the table and and get through it together so thanks next question is what is your plan or has been your approach to stay connected to the school committee me first okay so up until this point I volunteer um like I said I have my I have a child here at fall Union I have a child at the middle school right now now when I was the president of the PTO I was here almost every day doing something and so this was like a second home and when you're in the school all the time you're hearing from teachers you're seeing students you're talking to people you're understanding what's going on kind of behind the scenes it's the middle school doesn't a lot as many opportunities for parents to get involved but I have volunteered uh especially at the book fair that's kind of my favorite thing but I I've done setup and and sales at the book fair um I go to events there I have good relationships with the teachers there as well and I think so going forward if I were to to be elected to the school committee what I would ask from the superintendent is if we could form advisory groups with the principles and teachers and even students at all the levels so that we could get regular feedback about what is actually going on in the schools um I don't know if I can I can say this but over the last number of years it feels like sometimes what's actually going on is not communicated or talked about openly and I feel like that doesn't disservice to the community and it makes people feel disconnected and as a parent who has kids who have frequently come home and told me things that are not being communicated outwardly I think that we need to to really start to hear from the people who are in the buildings and understand what it is they're going through and what they need and what we can do to help make them able to do the best job that they can do and so that is something that I would advocate for I understand that there are rules around whether school committee members can have conversations with teachers without the superintendent's Buy in on that but I would I would ask the superintendent to please create these advisories so that we can get there should be a regular feedback loop and I know that on this at the state level there's not a teacher rep on the school committee at the state level I don't know I know we have a CPAC rep who's a non- voting member on our school committee which I think is a wonderful addition I'd like to see a a teacher maybe a rotating um position of teach of teacher come on regularly to kind of update us on what's going on I just think more communication with the buildings is essential thank you so um one of the the big things for me is communication and transparency um I flop for it I do it myself um you know we utilize office hours here which um we started last year for budgetary purposes this year we created something new making it a hybrid model so that if you can't come to town hall you can sit in your living room at your office wherever you are and still participate so we're trying to boost participation throughout the community um I also believe in site visits and the day today it's wall Union going through foring the buildings seeing the students in action staff um you know and it's great so um let's see what else also just since we're such a small you know community and a lot of us know each other from other things many of you have found me on Facebook or have my number or my private email my school email you know and some of you call me and that's all fine I don't have an office but my virtual office door is always open um and I welcome commentary and I welcome suggestions and solutions and you know none of us on the school committee currently none of us have all the answers we rely on our neighbors and friends um for suggestions for help for other solutions that we may not you know need which is collaboration outside of school committee um I also believe in a community-driven approach where every stakeholder's voice and value so maybe not at a school committee meeting but at office hours maybe with the Town Administrator which I have a good relationship with um you know and various other forums something like this we can just you know even mobile office hours kind of like an ice cream truck that says office hours you just drive around town and people come over and tell you what about schools you know just anything to really open up the lines communication and keep them open not just open them keep them open um and prioritize communication with everyone as one of my leadership goals meaning listening to all so not just the Town Administrator not just Municipal officials not just the budget and finance person but community members the seniors who I'm uh um Thea on the Council on Aging um you know and and even students I said before I was a high school rep on some of these committees on the school count on this uh school committee and they valued my opinion they asked me what do you and your students think or talk about or this or that or what do you think of this new curriculum we're doing you know so it really comes from the administration too having that strong partnership and and really looking out I'm excited the new superintendent is coming I'm excited to see his new approach I'm excited to see what he brings from Maine um and hopefully we can all rally around him and support him and you know climb back up that help and continue to be successful so thank you thank you my third question is what is your approach to problem solving how would you approach addressing the current budget crisis the district faces I'll just keep switching back okay so I've alluded to this already for problem solving my biggest approach is to listen to to people I mean I listen to everybody's ideas and try to find common ground and try to find a collaborative approach forward the budget crisis that we have right now is is significant and what I what I think that we need to come back to is again we have to look as a district at what is our top priority what are we trying to achieve as a district and what is our town trying to achieve and in many ways I feel like we have to go back to the basics and we have to fund those things we have to come back to this kind of overarching what is the overarching value that we want to create in our community and that is where we start and then as we are able to come out of the current crisis that we're in then we can add more things back to that but right now I think we get we get as basic as what are our goals so school committee when the when the final school committee for the year is set on May 22nd what is the school committee's goals for the upcoming year when the superintendent comes in on July 1 meeting with the new superintendent to discuss what is his vision what is the school committee's Vision what does the town want to see from us what are we going to deliver to them and how do we fund that and then we build on that as we go forward and I think a lot of what is going on right now is we we have have to stop convoluting things and we have to come down and distill things down to to Basics because we don't have the funds to be excessive about what what we're offering and what we're trying to get out of our district so the budget crisis um it's an important one um and it is a crisis uh but it depends for me on the situation how to respond with what's going on um and a big thing in conjunction with that is to rely on clear and transparent um communication with thorough data analysis meaning how is anyone supposed to make an informed decision about anything in life without seeing the whole picture so whether it's numbers uh budget um cuts curriculum whatever it is we need to see the whole thing and not just the good parts of it not just one graph maybe the other six graphs that tie into it um and really through all that through clear uh transparency you can make an important decision a better one um I also strongly continue to advocate for the district to strictly adhere the two and a half budget in um increased limit you know our new superintendent said during his interview you know he wouldn't go past 3% so I hold him to that which I think a lot of people in this room and in the town will hold them to as well but um it'll ensure that the district maintains a balanced budget while still providing essential services for the community um this is what the crisis is so if we go with it head on we can manage it and like we did in the past and like we always do because gr D school is a resilient District we will get through it um and we can avoid burdening the taxpayers with excessive tax is by keeping the budget increase at a reasonable level and so you know when he comes in he's going to be able to look at what just happened and hopefully have a plan not all the answers but a plan on how to move forward and I believe this is the most responsible and fair approach for the district and its residents and just lastly continuing to pressure the state officials for promise funding including the full reimbursements for Chapter 70 the charter schools and the regional transportation as legislative liaison I talked to both our Senators and both our Representatives um Senator Kennedy rep Scarsdale three days ago Senator Cronin last week uh representative Sena the week before and continuously pushing brought and IND unable need help and even though the House of Representatives that started their budget process Chapter 70 came up for aote and it did in fact fail all of our legislators have assured me they are going to continue to refile continue to fight and continue to move forward the Senate has not conducted their budget process yet but both of the Senators have pledged to push forward on their side as well um so we all know state government and just government in general is a little bit slow but I believe with my relationships there and other relationships in the state level you know we can really try and make some movement here I think former school committee members former Municipal officials would agree that these legislators although a little different this was not on their radar before it is now because we are not the only District handling this issue um our neighbors are handling it as well um so they know what's out there and people Mo thank you thanks our fourth question is what is your plan to ensure the quality of the school district remains High so a large part of that in my opinion comes from ensuring that the curriculum that that we're teaching is accessible to all the students and that we're constantly reviewing data to understand are our students meeting their benchmarks and if they're not are we getting them intervention early enough the earlier you get the intervention the faster the student can start to succeed in school and so I would want to see I would want to be sure that our interventionists are available at the elementary level where they are needed and also if there are issues in the middle school I know that there's a lot of us issues right now with the math performance in the middle school and it sounds like the interventionist at the middle school is not going to be available in where we're sharing with somebody I want to make sure I would push the superintendent to make sure that where kids need the help that they are getting the help and that the curriculum that we are offering is appropriate and is accessible to kids in a way where they can relate to the curriculum so that they can Excel with their program I also think because the cuts that we're going through right now there's there have been more cuts to to teacher positions which wasn't originally part of the plan and so what I would ask of the new superintendant is that when he comes in to look at the budget and to look at the cuts that we had chosen to make and get do you agree with these what do you think the impact is going to be are you comfortable with this and then as we roll out the year I would want regular um feedback from the principes in the buildings and the teachers to understand how things are going with the cuts that were made and how we can get them the support that they need if things are not going as well as they want the academics of the district cannot slide because the district is too at this point we have to keep that performance up for our students so yes we do have a high performing District so my plan I guess would be to continue to work with the assistant superintendent who is the head of the curriculum districtwide um makes all the decisions writes the grants for um certain different curriculums but with that uh make sure and and really advocate for evidencebased curricula um and continuous professional development for our Educators uh Jesse puts out a list of the roved um recommended curriculum for the state and it's my view that we should be following that um and if we don't we should be looking at ways to do that um also investing in our existing teachers is the most effective way to optimize our budget and ensure the success of our students our teachers are our most valuable resource and by offering them with continuous professional development opportunities we can unlock their complete potential and assist them in providing even more value to our school and Community by investing in our teachers and we have some magnificent teachers here spend the day with them we are essentially investing in the future of our students and these students are from swallow Union all the way to the high school pretty incredible I used to be one of them but um you know they're achieving at high levels and we want to make sure they have the opportunities and the resources and the tools they need to continue to be successful after and Beyond this year thank you our last question is where do you think we can save or cut costs with the least impact on services unfortunately I I think impact has already happened um to Services unfortunately um so what I would like to see going forward is for student for people for teachers who interact directly with students to be the last impacted because right now what we're dealing with is buildings that are going to have Librarians they're going to have Cuts in nurses they're going to have Cuts in counselors in some ways these are people who are the first line of defense when a student is is under duress and I think that what we need to do as a whole is start to plan our budget based on only the 2 and a half% increase and and put a budget together based on the town's means and then figure out from there what we are able to maintain and if we have to make Cuts before we make cuts to actual people are there other ways that we can go about saving money so is it is it Contract Services is it percent increases for employees like what is it that we have to go through so that we can have the least impact to student facing teachers um unfortunately I feel like at this point and it was made pretty clear last night despite all of the comments that were made at the school committee meeting that there is there is no willingness to go back and re-evaluate the allocation of the budget at this point and so I don't think any progress will be made on that until July 1st um so that that's what I thank you so an idea a couple things here um two school committee meetings ago the superintendent brought up the fact about Administration Administration ERS and raises and uh it's no secret a part of the budget 85% is salaries and benefits um for me and I stated this at the meeting I think that we have fantastic staff in B to here and they deserve more than we can literally give them and that's you know because of the budget crisis but looking at our Market baskets and Market B it means our districts we canare ourselves to one of them another high performing District act in boxboro um actually their model is they take their administrators and tie them into teachers in Unit A which is teachers and they all get the same so if there's a budget increase for teachers in the union administrators get the same administrators don't have a union um but that way they still get raises it might not be as high but it'll be fair and again because of the budget crisis we're in we can't really do a lot more than that um as a committee though and this is important it well it was stated last night that an operational audit would be conducted in the district once the new superintendent comes in that was the first thing I was going to really push to have an operational audit of this District done a through z now my colleague reminded me um that there's a price tag to it I think $100,000 around there and who's going to pay for that right um but there's other firms there's other companies that do it there's other ways there's grants out there there's got to be something that won't affect the taxpayers here and our friends over and gron but will still allow us to see what's going on proc everything curriculum budget Staffing and the like literally everything a z and then lastly uh collaborating with our neighboring districts to reduce costs on shared services uh potentially Transportation maybe professional development I mean this is where I have an issue with the market baskets because we can utilize our friendships with Westford Academy with ensboro high school with North metal saxs they might not be the same enrollment totals they might not have the same demographic or monies that gr dun May and may not have but they are neighbors what what um North Reading Westwood and masanam in other districts that are so far away you know what if we want to combine with PD and we need 20 teachers to do a professional development we only have five North Middle sex wants to do the same program they have 15 you need 20 neither district has 20 well let's combine and there's your 20 so of course there might be some legal e there might be some other things to work out but we're all in education we all teach Massachusetts Frameworks a Frameworks um there's got to be a way to collaborate we do it as a community we can certainly do it as a region School District thank you those were all our Advanced questions to the candidates so I'll open it up for Q&A for those in the room and those on Zoom we'll start with people in the room just go over the rules one more time just raise your hand if you'd like to ask a question you have about 30 to 60 seconds to ask your question make sure it's a question not just statement uh the C each candidate will respond 30 SEC 30 to 60 seconds participant who asks a question will get a followup if needed and then the candidate can respond again um when you're called on by moderator or Tim or myself then um please state your name and your residency because we're only letting Dunstable residents ask questions since it's is the dunable only election um and please be respectful so I'll open up to those in the room first and then we will turn to zoom see if anyone has any questions I'm not going to talk about budet and if this is the spee is right here so if you could just like make sure you're speaking clearly so everyone can hear you on on Zoom um although a very important important topic as the budget think people had enough so I'm G to try something different one of the things I attended um during the whole budget override process was a coffee hour with Lacy and um Jason and um I I don't again know I don't have kids but I have pres with kids and I've been speaking to my sister her kids are um friends done in Florida he had told me about some apps and things like that they use um as I don't have kids I don't know what's being used in schools and I know you mentioned advisory groups possibilities you mentioned also something similar you know getting the community involved would you Advocate and again I don't know what the legal issues are an advisory group that includes people from the town that may not have ks in the school system so they don't know they might have some great ideas they have no idea it's being used would you advocate for something like that may I ask you a clarification yes are you interested in learning more about what's happening in the school and or are you interested in giving idea to the school for how to do both okay so I'm just wondering if we would both advocate for something like that I know you mentioned teachers and school members and parents but also BR people but not otherwise okay um so I'm one of the people you're talking about I don't have kids in this District either but for me fighting defending and advocating for Quality education or a good education or high performing education you don't need kids to do that so I would suggest so in turn yes you know I would advocate for that um you myself all of us we are part of this community you know um I can say we're we're 01827 so it doesn't matter if you have kids doesn't matter your religion what color you are we're all dunable so um you know an Advisory Group I'm not sure I mean we do have student uh School councils in every building which is open to staff community members administrators I know cuz I served on it and so you know they do kind of more Improvement to the building what does our building need you know what do we you know what are our goals for our building you know what we want to see but um you know they could maybe do another component too half and half um trying to reduce the meetings that everyone has to attend obviously but you know so in short yes of course I would advocate for that I said it numerous times I believe in open dialogue in everyone at the table matter economic status and the list goes on so so I think it's a wonderful idea one of the things that um that struck me in in a lot of the meetings that the town has had because of the budget is that because I don't feel like the schools have necessarily an open door to the community and there are of course a number of safety reasons why that may be I feel like if you don't if you're not active in the schools right now you don't necessarily know what a 21st centur education looks like and so when we talk about the budget or we talk about the Chromebooks or we talk about whatever it is that our kids need sometimes it's difficult to visualize that because I know like when I was in school in the 80s we had pencil and paper right it was a lot simpler back then and it's not the classroom doesn't look like that anymore so I think having community outreach and a and a venue for community members to give ideas and also to learn what the education looks like in the schools today is a wonderful idea because it then it opens up the dialogue and it creates transparency and it also when you talk about then the school budget if you were to want to talk about that you it has meaning to you to everybody because you know what the school needs to run and to function and you've had a different educational experience maybe you you have things that you can contribute and I ideas that you can contribute to to how we can do things differently I I think it's important I mean I think what I would like to see going forward in general is just more of a relationship between all of the community members so that the school becomes an integral part of the community and and and the town is proud of the school and and understands what's going on in this school so yes thank you for asking just starting the room shift so Jack Street um that um our oldest is 28 and he went to gr gille we have three children that went to Grant gville and um they've done exceptionally well in the world I think they're productive and happy and kind um the only thing that any parent wants right um and at this point in time after serving on many boards many roles where no one else volunteered I jumped in and learned um as many people do in our small community I feel that our district has the best representation on the school committee that it's ever had for in 30 the 28 plus years that I've been here receiving accolades even from my friends in gron who feel that we're super super lucky to have the representation we have now with raap and La what would you bring that's different to what's happening now that's a great question um and I'm glad that you feel that way about your current representation because that's very important um I don't particularly like the division that I've seen in the community and so part of why I got involved and I said this is because I would like to create more collaboration with our community and I would like to hold the superintendent accountable for a budget that the town can actually achieve and I'm not sure that those things happened in this gogr and I think that it's okay sometimes to run for something that you believe in and it that has nothing to do with the person you happen to be running against so my choice to run has nothing to do with Ry it has to do with me and my desire to get involved in the community in this way I served on the PTO I made contributions to swallow Union I've served on the school council made contributions to that I've started getting involved in the town of Dunstable and I want to do more and when I asked around for here's what I want to see happen here's what i' like to contribute to the community where do you think this would best how could I best do this I was told well the way to affect that change is school committee and I think I would push back on the superintendent I the superintendent is works for the district if the superintendent is not giving you what you want to see you have to push back on that and so you would get more of that for me more put more push back to to ensure that the superintendent is responding to what the community is asking for um I also think it is important and I understand will differ here I do have kids in the district I have four they've gone through every school I think it's important to be connected to the school in that way I think it adds a different level in my opinion it's just my opinion and I I'm a collab ative person and I bring different people to the table I don't expect everyone sitting at the table to have my opinion nor would I want them to because the community is not made up of people who are exactly like me and so I think the more people you can bring to the table from different backgrounds with different opinions the better Your solution is going to be and so that's why I think I'm a good choice for this position to ask question you can have follow so I'm confused okay because you talk about bringing other people's feedback in which I think is so important and Raph talks about the school councils which have seats on them specifically in the charter for community members and then you talk about collaboration but then you talk about pushing back against a superintendent we're entering into a new superintendent a new era new goar arounds it doesn't sound collaborative to me it sounds like there's a lack of listening although you say you want to listen we T you've talked about bringing community members in but then you talk about pushing back and I think I'm still confused as to what's going to be different just last night at last last night's school committee meeting there was an issue and both of our repres both of our Representatives ly and Ral received appes for being um facilitators in the room for opinions to be heard and I don't see how you're how you're actually giving us a concrete as to how you're going to be different you say you're saying you want to be and you have different opinions but I'm I'm still not seeing the connection of it how it isn't just getting tax dolls from us it's about getting money from the state it's about getting reimbursed from State mandates it's it's a bigger issue than just what happens here because 2 and a half% isn't going to cover contract increases and such so how do you see it going differently with you our representative well I'm sorry that you don't see what I'm saying I I appreciate that you don't think that I I mean I guess my my biggest contribution and I'm and I'm sorry that that you're not getting the that sense for me is that I I when I say so all right let me be really Frank the school committee brought a budget to our town that we couldn't afford and we' voted it down now the raises that you referenced a couple weeks ago at the school committee meeting have been in the budget the entire time and so what I don't understand is why those raises were not called out when the school committee could actually do something to change the budget that didn't happen now our current superintendent is very good at putting forward what she wants and getting what she want wants and what I'm saying is that if that is the personality that comes to the table and I don't believe it's going to be the personality that comes at the table on July 1 but you have to understand what your community is willing to absorb and the both communities it's not just stable it's scotten as well they were loud and clear we are not passing this over at but the fact that it was presented to us as a possibility that we might pass it the number was way too high and so I'm saying say that you have to have a a beat on what is going on in your community and you have to be able to communicate that to the superintendent so that you actually get somewhere in the middle of what you all need because what happened to us is for the school we got very little of what we needed because the ask was too high so that's what I'm that's what I'm talking about and I and I don't think that you need to surround yourself by people who feel the same way that you do I think you you have to listen to all opinions and by listening to all opinions then you move forward in a consensus that represents the community the best and I you know that's that's what I would bring to the table so I'm let Ry also responds I know it's directed towards her but I want both candidates to be able to respond to the question so a few things um you know I'm going to bring myself back but when you have this position position you learn from things you learn from mistakes you learn from your colleagues you learn from what happened the last year and what not to do and what to do and what to do better um it's very easy for someone who's not involved and doesn't go to all these meetings to not realize the nuances of stuff so when you join any organization you might not know all the rules A to Z and that's completely fine right it's a learning thing but there are there are policies there are procedures there are things that you know people just don't realize because they don't do the research or look at it and some of their big things they won't do they're going to realize they can't by law by policy or in my case being in the minority for four years um I brought up some of these issues in my term and because the school committee was in my opinion a rubber stamp body for long time since 2017 there wasn't a lot of questions asked it was put on display last night when I ask questions I get shut down so I've never given up I continue to fight for DST and you know people can say oh you should have done this why didn't you do this why didn't you do this and it's like what people don't realize is we don't come to just two meetings on Wednesday night it's easy for anyone to come for to a meeting for an we meet with select board members administrators I meet with legislators I meet with the superintendent I've said and relay these concerns to her prior to any Vote or any budget coming out and we know the current superintendent sometimes not um willing to listen to certain things but that doesn't mean we're not doing it and because some people aren't in those closed door meetings or aren't involved or just not paying attention it doesn't mean the Reps aren't fighting still continuously um I would have to say that because of some instances and how I've been treated as a school committee member um and my predecessor before me she left because of this reason and only stayed for one term was because she was shut down and didn't feel um listened to but she did all the right things asked the right questions showed up um I can say in four years I've never missed a meeting I've never missed a vote never missed a sub commmittee meeting I'm sick as a dog and still drag myself there it's because I'm dedicated the people trust me and its experience and you know the unfortunate side of being an incumbent is someone can just sling mud whenever they want right but um we're working we're working hard so um you know we'll continue to so thank you thank you both thank you um I think you had your hand yes um just Sarah um I'm not supposed to make a statement but both those answers are L like those are re best me of them I really want somebody to fight back more and I understand that there's a lot of constraints on down being in the minority and I feel um you know we go to school committee meetings and we see the tension and we feel that we see people trying to fight back and it just doesn't seem to be as easy as possible we we weren't in the position that we're in them um so thank you for running and thank you for all that you do on SCH commit you um I wanted to talk a little bit about curriculum I don't know too much about it but you both kind of mentioned it um you brought up Ry that the curriculum um you want more transparency in it and you wanted to maybe use the ones that were listed on the Dey website um and you wanted to be able to have a proven track record a pro a curriculum that is is um proven successful over time so I was just wondering how we could do that because you mentioned in the middle school I think that the math scores and the English scores the reading scores that are um below grade level and how would we determine if it was the curriculum or pass to the school budget or something else and how how can we get the data points and the success rate on on the is the curriculum right now we're using bie recommended or is there better curriculum okay so um couple things I might need you to re Reay the things but um so I was more talking about literacy um literacy is important for me I went to this school and I was one of these kids who I trouble read I was pulled out I guess by an interventionist um you know and I was reading below grade level so thank God for our teachers here at SW Union the reading specialist and everyone and you saw tonight I can read right um the program we use I think was F right and I think the district recently shifted back on it for the earlier years here but before that they in some cases still use those Z coton and that is not aent um it's not on their list um there's a bunch of uh articles um universities uh school districts Who come out and say this is not working this is not evidence-based you need to stop you need to change it you need to figure it out you know um so in retrospect why would we use that here why would we give our youngest Learners something that's not sanctioned by the the department desie is uh Department of Elementary secondary education so some people don't like Mass framework some people don't like you know the state's involvement over stuff but if they say a we need to go a we can't just decide to go D now um in this District curriculum is headed by the assistant superintendent technically the school committee doesn't have the authority to say like it or not this is rules you need to change the curriculum we don't have that Authority but we can bring up questions which I've done to bring up suggestions which I've done and some of my colleagues have done about this very thing um and it's evidence-based there's a whole you know all these podcasts all these um studies all this thing that say use the science and breeding one of the State Rep Ro Dan SAA filed a bill in the house to make um the signs of reading Universal the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts districtwide from amers all the way the king and everything in between and it was voted down but in that budget in the governor's budget there's $3 million set aside for early literacy now there's no bill attached to it but it can't go away so that's what they would use if districts started to mve over for funding or grants or whatever ever so we can so they the state can help move and shift the districts and the Department of Education to use the evidencebased curriculum so whilst I can't even though sometimes I'd like to barge into the assistant superintendent's office and throw down a study and demand there change this and do this and you can't do that you know it doesn't do any favors when you're screaming at someone in a hallway you know um under collaboration you really need to come together so I'm try to keep our answers under two minutes I thought there were time sorry I don't but I I know other people have questions and we haven't address so want you know structure to know so I'm still learning a lot about the curriculum and so here's what I'll tell you that i' that I've learned so far is the District was using this literacy curriculum called Lucy ckins and it wasn't just the district who was using it it was many people using this so it wasn't like we were doing something that no one else was doing but it was teaching literacy in a way that where it would have a word on a page and a picture and so what the teacher would do is say say it was cat it said cat and there was a picture of a cat and the teacher would say well what does the SE make well what does the picture look like that's a cat and so the child was learning like I'm looking at the sea I'm looking at the picture oh that must be a cat but unfortunately with that process which many many people were using and Lucy ckins in my opinion that very wealthy on this program that she that she pushed right and but what was happening is what I learned in the the research I've started to do is that we're actually not born our brains are not born wired to read they're born more they're pictorial and so it's a process to teach a child how to read and this method of teaching although widely adapted was actually not effective because you were getting someone who was guessing they were not learning to sound it out they didn't understand what the letters but the sounds that they made but that the word came together long story longer right so GD is like okay this there's a lot of issues that are starting to come out about this curriculum what do we need to provide our students to get them back on track the other thing is that you know our reading scores down so the it's there like the evidence is there right that this isn't working so when you start to get that feedback through testing and and even just talk to a teacher how's it going you know what's what's working what's not working when you start to get that feedback and you're realizing that your curriculum is not helpful to students well what are we going to do to fix it well phonic right you probably had phonics right I had phonics I know that they've started to bring it back into the curriculum phonics is tried and true right you got to teach kids what what sounds letters make how to put them together how to create a word it it works every time they've started bringing that back into the curriculum now and kids are their reading ability is getting better the other thing that they're doing is classrooms are now filled with decodable books and what that so the simple term is or the simple description is you have books with words in them that kids at that grade level should be able to read and they're using their phonics and they're going Act kept and they're reading simple sentences and now their brain is making a connection between the letters and the word that it makes and then you're providing texts that are culturally relevant to students so if a student is reading a text and they don't understand like say it's about butterflies and they've never seen a butterfly they've not they've never been outside of a room they have no idea what the outdoors looks like they've never seen a butterfly they're going to have kind of trouble seeing themselves in that text so you have to make sure that the text in your class room reflect the students in the classroom that so that they can pull something out of it and that helps them understand so that's I got to wrap it up okay anyway I'm really excited about this if you ever want to talk about literacy I'm learning all kind of stuff about how how the P the child's brain works but anyway the the most important thing is getting your data I have found that sometimes data seems hard to come by in the district and I think it would be great if it was regularly discussed and then when we when we find problems in an area we look at well what's going on here that we need to fix and that that's what I was referring to thank follow go to Nikki and then you um I I want to sort of bring it back to last night and what the teachers were bringing forward um sorry can you state who you are and where you're from thank you ex- teacher at 12 EX teer at the middle school and constantly trying to be as involved as I can be but with this Administration the door has always been shut um so and by the way we have an expert here who went to columia studied with Lucy cofins and now is a complete advocate for phonic and she's on the school committee and has been shut down great job oh my um but what I want to get back to is before Laura chesson and even before before La during the 2005 2008 and Beyond um there were 300 more students than gr SCH and there were half the administrators but there are I think that's a serious problem because we were an outstanding District then I don't see how the increase of someone supervising someone of supervising someone ends up benefiting Any teacher and any kid so what's your it's like having big brother B so the question to me is how are you guys going to because you can't go in and change those line items how are you going to work with that new uh superintendent as he comes in and I think he's going to be an open book for you to work collaboratively to break down some of these lines that are laid out legally but which you should have be able to express opinions about and advocate for that kind of achange the results are there you can see all the testing and everything else from from that time period and Jack and her family perfect examples of kids came out of that they got all the special needs so how are you guys going to not go back that wasn't going back that was empowering teachers to do the work they know how to do and not hiring people who really have what going on except for Big Brother Big Sister um stop so I guess uh one of the things the school committee mentioned about last night was having the superintendent come in early in May rather than waiting for him to come in at the end of June His official start date is June 20th um the current superintendent's official end date is July 19th so there is a month of transition between the two administrations which is uh in my opinion good and helpful and with that the school committee has set aside their own um meetings with him um I think it would be a mistake to think this new superintendant doesn't know what's going on here so um I would hope that when he comes here you know he already has some sort of plan of action and to get started um some of my colleagues and I individually and together um have talked about some things budgetary matters um uh policies um and a few other things that we would like probably at the front of the line um but you know it's kind of this give and take process he's new um so we need to kind of Shepherd him along if you will but also not lose our sight of what we want to continue to do as well thank you can you just clarify are you asking how we're going to address certain Lin items I I'm just I just can you clarify I think line items can come out of it but I think to look historically at and listen to teachers like Kelly CL came I don't know a month ago and presented information to the school committee she's been here for almost 30 years they have the history right that other people don't have and they can talk about what and how decisions got made in the way that they were so um I feel like what we saw last night was a CH and Iceberg and that these people have been coming Time After Time After Time and to be empowered and I think that if who the school committee I I really appreciate how people performed last night it was clear that the people on the school committee are ready for a change themselves but to seriously talk with the superintendent and say I'm probably talking tooo much well I I mean I I'll answer what I'm saying is encouraging him to sit down with the people who have lived through this and who can actually provide ways that it was effective and we had successful students coming out instead of shutting them down how will you approach that with a new superintendent and realize that it isn't in your prw right well I well I think the most important thing for the new superintendent to do and what I would advocate for is to put to put the power back into the schools the people who are running the schools the principles know their schools well they need to be allowed to do their job they need to be allowed to run their school and I'm a we have some of the best staff and the best teachers around why don't we trust them to do their jobs that is that has blown my mind for years now I have experience with these teachers with my own kids and I understand like that that's just my experience but I would trust these teachers I believe that they know what they are doing what they need to do it how to get it done and the principles in these buildings know their staff and they know their kids and so I would be advocating for multiple meetings in the beginning to get to he's got he's got to learn the the community right he's coming into a community that's well-formed he has to learn the community and I think based on his interview I'm hopeful that he is a collaborative person who actually trust the people who are in the roles and so and and I would like to see Le fewer layers and more Independence given to the individual school so the principles and their teachers can can teach their kids the way that they see fit I think you that's you you that's a priority and you make it very clear that that's a priority and then hopefully by doing that some of the other things in the budget when I'm talking about building a budget back from zero that's part of what I'm talking about what do you need to create a district what do you need to have in your schools what are we left with if we do that what's the number look like that's that's part of what I'm referring to yeah still have a question yes you heard me a little bit when you said there was no members hurt me a little bit no what I'm sorry you said there was no effective school committee members I was on it just make feel B who are you first of all Ryan play I'm from Dunville um I am gonna ask about the budget because I I think without resources none of this is possible and my schools my kids go to the schools and I think next year is going to be just as bad as year I hate I hate to tell people that the way the budget is constructed so I'd like to ask specific throughout the budget so both of you have made accountability part of your platform going so far as to say you would hold each line of the budget to account with the new superintendent and have seen that from both of these candidates Mr glad you've been on the committee for four years you voted for all the budgets that passed to include the override budget that was an 11% assessment increase to the town and included all of the items that you said were going to be held to account is you publicly supported the override which included the same amount of of funding I also supported the override both of you have said you're going to keep it to 2 and a half% this was a 11% assessment increase and over an 8% increase to the school budget and if you extrapolate that into the future they'll get 10 and 12% increases so there's going to be major Cuts this year and there's going to be major Cuts next year unless we get more specific so although I believe in performance and curriculum I would like to ask about budget so uh giv that accountability is a central theme to both of your campaigns and that neither of you Mr GL you just said in your in your answer that you haven't been able to advocate for budget cuts in the last few years because think you said you were in a minority on the school committee and said drill you've never done this before so you don't know what it's like to have to to advocate for this so what are you going to do specifically to push for this accountability that you're making Central Parts your them so that we can actually have budget piece in commun that's a long question yeah probably to repeat it I had thoughts while you were talking and I've got to get them back hold on um can you actually repeat it but just cut off that first part sure so far neither of you have demonstrated to me that you can hold a budget caleg you as a school Committee Member and you have never been a school Committee Member and your advocacy for the override so what's going to be different in the next three years how are you actually and specifically going to hold a budget to account so we can have budget piece in this Comm no um has experience you want to start with that information it sure so no one has a crystal ball right the reason I voted in the superintendent search committee for this candidate for his first interview his second interview and his final interview SCH commit is because I thought that he had the most experience in level-headedness with his budgetary process and his history he said it he wouldn't go he's never gone above 3% I understand Maine is completely different than R unable or his wherever his district in M staro um but for now when he comes here I assume this will be one of the first uh statements from the school committee collectively we got a message loud and clear from the majority of Old Town saying no to an full we know there will be more Cuts next year I think so far maybe 10 and they probably climb higher and in 2027 another 10 which I also clim higher um as you know being a former School Committee Member you can only tell him certain things you can't even tell him stuff be quite honest it's a collaborative relationship we don't have that authority to say you have to do X Y and Z you have to cut it you know this and this and this and give them specifics we can go after the whole um um piece of it like when it's broken down into operation Staffing and this but we can't say we want it at such a percent so yes I did say stick into that and I can keep advocating for it and he should see the history realizing we can't afford it and hopefully together come up with some sort of solution but I mean it's a reality it's math too basically I mean we don't have the money to pay for it so it's G to have to come through more cuts and more this and more that and no one likes it but and we can't force them to do it either we can only advocate for so much um I wish we could do more on budget stuff on curriculum stuff on on everything but as you've seen and you know firsthand sometimes when you ask the hard questions it's been turned away and that too I hope when he comes here and starts he brings a new working environment with him so that people can ask these questions and not get shunned or shut out or silenced and and maybe we can actually have a long productive dialogue whether it be at a meeting at executive session good professional consultation with Union whatever it is but to be frank we don't know this guy quite yet and what he's going to bring and all the so once we meet him and we tell him kind of what our expectations are and then he may have his own it's just about compromise and again I have paid in some of my colleagues I have faith in this new person and we're going to get it done yeah so I just want to thanks for bringing it up and I'll acknowledge I was a supporter of the override um and my thinking behind that was two fold the first is our our Town's budget was it was a single budget right it was municipality and school combined last year we had dun had a municipal only override I voted in favor of that and it didn't pass and every time I see a police officer I I apologize um but this year coming around I I felt that the the municipal side desperately needed the money I knew the school side needed the money as well I wasn't sure that they needed the entire ask but I wasn't going to nip it right that was not my place as a community member and so what I had been hoping would happen was that dunable would pass the override regardless of what gron did and our Municipal Services would be funded and then the ask on the school side would be less either because gron didn't pass or because a new superintendent came in and made different choices that that was my goal which is why I advocated for it I understand that that makes it hard to believe that I could be fiscally responsible so I appreciate that but just so you understand my rationale there the first thing that I would do for the budget is bring dunable to the table and I would bring them to the table all the time I've I've spoken with some of our Advisory board members and our select board members and they said to me you know we finally got asked to participate this year when there was a budget crisis right and we have this huge override ass but we're part of this District too we want to seat at the table 365 days a year and so I said to them okay you why don't you have it I don't understand why you've never had it before so that's the first thing you have to work with both towns you have to work with the select boards The Advisory Board you have to understand what their means are and they both belong at the table even though our percentage of students is lower than Groton so I think the the Tricom group that was formed this year to help with this override decision is something that we need to build on that we can't go back to the way that it was say 10 months ago where dunable didn't have a seat at the table so that that's the first inter thing I would say last night if you watch the school committee meeting and you heard the teachers give their statements if you ask the teachers if there could be other Cuts other than the ones that were chosen to be made they will tell you that there are many let's ask them right let's get information from them where do they see the waste because they see it they absolutely see it and and so we have to stop that and figure out with the people in the classroom what do you need what is excessive what can we cut so that it doesn't impact your job and that's what I would do more of is actually reaching out to the people who are doing the job every day and finding out what they need and what they don't because lots of times those decisions are made at a level and then when it when the people who it's impacting don't agree with those decisions does that make any sense to you it doesn't make sense to me and so I would want to bring them to to the table early on to figure out what are their ideas for how to get from A to B and I also believe and I don't have experience with contract negotiation so I'm just going to tell you like what I would like to see happen if you have a district and you have a certain increase or a if you when you're negotiating your contract and and that's where that's administr ERS it's teachers it's everybody what is more important and this is act I'm honestly asking this to the people at the table is it more important for you to have such and such a aola increase or is it more important for you to save staff we have to come together and figure out like they need to be part of that conversation so that we understand if they if contracts are requiring certain increases every year and our town can't sustain those increases we have to put that on the table and discuss it and so those those are the areas that I would look at to try to to try to get the budget under control does that answer your question it does follow my wife doesn't get of Me Okay um so 2 and a half% on 13 million and I didn't look up the numberers I'm just doing rough math 325,000 or about what the town gets for new Revenue so in order to hold the two and a half there going to be massive cust of the school do you or do you not support well can we make other decisions with the money that we have to avoid some of the cuts that might have to be made if we didn't that's what I want that's what I want to look at I don't want to I don't want to start from the status Flo are you done yeah oh okay I am um no don't get wrong so um depends on what the 300,000 is would be no if it's oh Municipal two two school budg pretty much wipe up any increases for the entire time right question so in the past you voted for override because you wanted to avoid that but you're saying now that you're going to hold it 2 and a half% so I'm I'm asking if it's more than 2 and a half% are you going to continue to hold it to two and a half you you know part of me wants to say no you know you don't want to get rid of all these services but you know we have to look at it do I want to slash $300,000 out of dun's budget and lose Highway fire police and the list goes on the Town Administrator and and sharing our already shared town clerk with peil and you know all the other services we have no of course I don't want to lose any of those people those positions those staff quite frankly that's the definition of decimating the town which means the state would come in in receivership and take over make all the decisions there would be no elected officials and we would basically be handing the keys of the city of the town to the state so do I want that to happen absolutely not but at the same time as you know being a school Committee Member a former one taking some of these votes and supporting the overrides in your tenure it's a really tough decision and at the same time too you don't want to decimate the schools you don't want to upset these Young Learners and have them not be prepared for the world so I can say all this now and it is very much true but when it comes in front of us we are going to have to look at it you know in the summer um we rten set up Bron set up their own Tricom Board of the Town manager the select board the um finance committee Groton representatives and School administration I spoke with our Town Administrator and I said I think we need one not to rival them but to mirror them so we can do what gr's doing so I was on it Jason was on it um superintendent business finance Advisory Board select board and we started that process collaboratively already um both towns felt that why do the same thing separately when we're talking about the same thing so both were in essence dissolved and joined together so I believe that can still happen that can still go on it still needs to be um talked about and get from both sides because whatever we do groton's not going to be on the same numbers and on the same staff or whatever that we are but they are going to lose things things too so it's really this collaboration piece of trying to figure it out what are we going to do and also with the legislature and by that time hopefully chapter 7 will be voted on again be in the senate or in the house or a collective committee and you know it'll trickle on down here I mean we can spend all night predicting the future but I mean it it's hard to and we don't want to go down that rabbit and look at issues happen than I was just surprised you say you're going to pull it to that's why I was asking question we want to be budget conscious right but sorry SAR y I'm Sarah Keeny I live on Street um my question and I'm gonna go back to and you both know me so um back to I don't remember what month it was when we had a meeting at the Town Hall when there was rumor that we were going to be regionalized as a parent of three young kids like that scared the CB out of me and we move specifically to this town to for the school district for the town for the services how are you going to ensure as a school committee member that someone like me should just pack up and get out of this town or that that you're going to ensure the quality in the school district for young families it was great in when Roy was there it was great when there but like how do you ensure those famili that have young kids and see this happening and are like holy crap what are we going to do um because I'd love to hear success stories but what about the people who have come here for that I want to you know and I don't want to fear longer but like that's how people are feeling that have young kids in elementary middle and high school at moment um as we hear all these Cuts so as a school committee how are you going to ensure these families or these people with kids um not just P up and leave which will then also have a detrimental effect on our community at large not take it first um so the first thing is I I know the meeting that you're referring to and I think that I'm not you're not asking this but I'm not a in favor of derealize um and I think that again we have to figure out what kind of a district we want to be and what kind of a town we want to be and then we have to fund those things within our means and there I mean what I could I could sit here and tell you all the the problems that I know about and they're at every level right so I think part of it is the budget cuts that have been made the management of the budget recently in the last handful of years has not been done in a way so that we can preserve student contact positions so I would want to bring that back bring as many of those positions back and find other areas to make pets um I mean there's yeah I there's like so there's there's so much that I want to talk about and I know I have two minutes um I think that at the elementary level we need to ensure that our classroom teachers have the materials that they need and have the support that they need I think once we can start to put the decision- making back in the buildings and if we can get feedback from our teachers to understand what cuts they can live with and what cuts are D detrimental then we can start to rebuild the district and it's not going to happen overnight I mean my my older kids were here in 2001 when we had a major budget issue and they lost their librarian and my younger stepson who was on an IEP lost some special services that he needed I mean it was horrendous it took it takes years for those services to come back so I feel like we are sorry sorry they're still not bad those cuts never came back well the librarian did come back and she just got cut again the only one she back she just got cut again yeah so I guess what I'm saying is it's not a it's not a quick fix and and so I don't want to mislead people to believing that you know next year everything is going to be better but I think what what we can do for our children is preserve their classroom teachers and preserve the people who they interact with regularly and and really start to take in the the advice of the teachers and make Cuts in other areas and not the areas that they've been made and I do believe that the district can come back to where it was um and I'm and I'm not positive that I've answered your question but so it was about derealization was it it wasn't necessarily but that's the meting that brought so many to to more than I've ever seen actually no you're right that's that's the first time we've seen that's the first time we've seen people really get involved at that meeting um so here's the thing I'll say this because of that convers so I'll say this um I do not support the regional a cross the it's it's no one can persuade me other this um and I feel it's important to explain the entire process so for derealization actually happen think of it like a divorce the but there's a lot of Hoops we have to jump so process but I want to know what you would say to reassure these families that they should stick it out because you're going to represent these families going to make us feel like we're here because of the school district so I guess but it's important then part of the process is the school committee has to vote the selectman has to vote goes to town meeting and all these other Hoops Assurance is that we won't go through this process so what I'm saying is I don't believe the current school committee there's seven members you would have a majority to push that through I don't support it I know rep Stone support it I'm pretty sure my colleague in NV doesn't support it um not to mention because of these budget constraints neither town can afford that by law you need a superintendent a head of um uh special education and a business and finance manager three positions they all make six figes so we don't have the money to afford that gr doesn't have the money to afford that so right there you can't even D Regional public opinion doesn't support it I as soon as it was brought up by dunable Municipal officials at a school committee meeting I met with them the next day and pleaded them to not go through with the situation especially because of the budget fund they wanted to put a non-binding referendum on the April 2nd vote which we also advocated to them do not do because you're throwing in a giant situation to I don't say fear monitor but make people nervous on something that's not even potentially or going to happen so what I say to families I want to reassure to them and quite frankly I know a lot of families who have left who bring their kids out of districts to neighboring districts and it does hurt me because I went through SW un all the way to high school finished all grades and had a good time right and I would wish that the kids after going through the same buildings going through the same um teachers and and and life as as student would enjoy that as well and for me to see a district that I love that I'm very involved with separate and collapse and and whatever on my watch is not going to happen I after the budget vote failed a school committee member from the Gren former one said I believe because he was not happy with the town's decision thought well maybe we should be regionalized but the funny thing is that was the same person who pushed back against D school officials who brought it up in the first place to say that's never going to happen so I want to reassure the community whether you have kids in the district whether you are young family or your kids are about to graduate I do not support separating brot and dble out of a Regional School District I believe uniting and coming together there's a reason why we merged together back by in the 70s and you know are we perfect do we have problems absolutely but our problems our financial problems and everything else would be way worse if we said before I go back to you anyone else who hasn't asked a question yeah and I don't think you said your name where you're from before if we could just do right ER 153 off stre I'm think thisas question but I'm not sure um I know I have a theory and I'm not going to pick on GB if this is happening across the board we talk many people have mentioned techic and it all started prior to co it's not just GV it's at the state level it's at the national level so I know I have a theory as to why that is but I'm curious if you guys have theories and if so what are they is it just the curriculum is it something else what are your thoughts on I didn't understand the question I don't know if they you sorry scores have gone down not just in at GB they've gone down at the state level they've gone down at the national level since 2017 so it's not Co this was prior to co I know I have a theory as to why that is testing scor have gone down why testing scores have gone down and um so I'm curious if you have theories and if so what are they again is it curriculum is it something else and you know CU big piece of correct me if I'm wrong big piece of being on the school committee is you know talking about policy King and things like that oh um so I read an article the other day um educational weekly or one of those educational journals um and they equate which made me think of this that the reason some students not going to use the co example right but the reason some students are struggling um not really understanding having trouble reading having trouble you know with mcast whatever the case may be um I think is because of technology I don't want to blame technology and obviously it's 2024 AI we need to move in that direction but I someone alluded to the fact that you know um way back when they used to use pencils and paper I mean graduated in 2010 and we used pencils and paper so it's not like thing but now they use computers they do math on the computers they do um you know reading from it but they also use screens and Technology at home um iPads phones laptops whatever it is which according to these articles diminish children's ability and actually want to learn and the teachers see it and it's a catch22 because that's the way literally the world is moving with technology but at the same time too you don't want to be buried in screens all day so it's this this notion of you know maybe there should be less screens during the day uh in schools um I don't know what that would look like because like I said they do everything on streams but think of it they do academic stuff 9:00 am. to 3 whatever the hours are for each of the buildings and they go home what do they do they're on Tik Tok they're on Facebook they're on you know whatever they're on they're texting their friends you know and based off these articles it's just saying that desire and that want to learn isn't there anymore because you can Google things now because you can use chat g g whatever the thing is you know there we go thank you it's been a long day um you know and it's kind of like you don't really have to use your brain as much so that's what I think so I I don't um I haven't done research on this data what I would do is I look into it and go back to on what I'm thinking I'm I'm not necessarily sure that I agree with with my opponent's take on it I would wonder if it has to do with the curriculum in terms of are we giving students what they need to learn and is the curriculum geared towards testing only so is there not a deep understanding of content and I'm I'm not sure about that I I would love to hear your theory even though I know that's not part of the question but um I wonder if the curriculum recently has not [Music] been if it's not been comprehensive enough so that students are able to take what they're learning and apply it in a broad way to the testing like if they're only do you know what I'm saying like if you're only being taught to the test and the question comes in a different format is is that causeing issue I don't I'm not sure I don't and and I'll just be honest I'm not sure but I yeah we we asked online anyone on Zoom um no one has said yes but I'll just put it out there if anyone wants to come off mute and ask a question anyone on Zoom please do so now if otherwise again um so are you suggesting then that the curriculum isn't appropriate for the testing no what I just said was that I don't have data on why the test stor are so you don't know so I don't know okay okay perfect I was just wonder and then I was going going back to another thing that you had said about contract negotiations and how you would like to see them go where you talk about um eliminating positions or not having an increas in Pay are are you are you saying that that's not what happens now when negotiations I would know I wouldn't know what okay so you were just saying maybe that's what was happening no what I was saying is that I think that in order to support increases for staff and administration it has to somehow relate to the increase in the town's taxes right you can't expect everyone to get say I'm making this up okay this is not actual a 10% increase if the town's revenue is increasing by 2 and a half% that is not a sustainable trajectory so all I'm suggesting is that in negotiations that those things somehow come together and are tied together you can't have people asking for something up here if the town can only pay for something down here and you do understand that our Educators do not get 10% increases I absolutely do understand so so by saying that though it implies that that isn't happening in negotiations and that our negotiations aren't happening with the state which you don't necessarily know that how do how does that happen in negotiations do you are you in you might not even be in those I don't know how it happens so we are in negotiations now unfortunately and because it's about personnel and we talk about it in executive session I can't by want talk about it's not public knowledge because of the law yeah exactly right so it's not like I don't want to answer it and I hate not being able to um but they are own and we are looking at you know ways to treat them fairly and and and you know continue to keep going but um really all I can say just like left it D there to suggest that do we have a question what's it she had her hand up the question for both candidates yes well back to the negotiations any is teacher performance included in not at all and what teacher um value evaluated on on I just find it disheartening that you know one of my kids several years ago had a teacher and my neighbor say oh my goodness my son had it is terrible and he's in college and the teacher still here so I me just saying like with those negotiations with those raises are what is what are they based on pendants the teacher there every day so um I guess two part questions so teacher valuation they're done by the principal of the building um kind of again we don't get we're not privy to that information we don't deal with that uh the superintenden sees those I believe as well um and then your other question was you there was two like what are they evaluated on disc it's not that we can't discuss but you know I mean I guess it's their performance their you know just like any job performance but because they cut first one the last one to hire is cut that's still true that's a thing here yeah some of our staff some of the staff we recently just cut are new teacher that just right of course you have a question from uh I have a question online I'd like them to be able to ask he's been waiting Matt can you can you hear me great um I just I hear a lot about the you know the increase the 2.5 limiting you know the increase is 2.5 how would you both suggest that we do that when gron has all the power and we're very limited on on how we can work with them on the growth where they can they're able to increase the school's budget without an override where we would actually need one based on what they're able to raise for that Matt can you just quickly state where what time you're in oh I'm in D thank you did you both hear the question yeah I did um so Matt I think just as dunable was brought to the table this year for this budget C people and I know this is new for denable we were asked how much we could contribute I think that we have to continue the conversation in that direction and so because our Revenue stream is smaller I think that the conversation has to lead with Dunstable and so that's what I would advocate for does that answer your question uh yes it does okay so um it is true that as long as I've been on and probably before my time um Groton usually comes out with uh their numbers and what they can afford and for the longest time dunable being the smaller partner um just had to go with it um in my opinion it's the first year and a half now that we have Town Administrator and I've worked with three or four here that um is really involved uh is a good Town Administrator always there for all of us um advocates for us when we need it um so it's true gr uh this year in particular dunal came with what we could afford which in the past has never been a thing um I know some Gren reps and some Gren residents were not too happy about that and think that they have to come and bail table out all the time and what they don't realize is we don't have the businesses they do we don't have the population they do you know we have uh 3,300 around and they have 10,000 um so when they when you know we all come to the table and we were able to tell them what we could afford um that's when they adjusted their number and that that's when you get kind of the push back so I don't think and I don't want and I don't promote this tip Fort between towns and we're better and they're better and they you know this and that right but um you know it's it would be feeding off of and and continuing with the tri board we created that you were a part of that we you know bring for the next cycle bring us all to the table now before we didn't have that it was created in July August so now that it's already created fill those POs you know same Town Administrator same town manager the selectman The Advisory Board finance committee and the rest of them and now we know what to do from just this last year alone and what not to do and what to ask and where to ask and where to go and and all this other stuff so I think it's been a learning curve a little bit um everything is new sometimes and new you know it might look scary um but you know hopefully it'll work out um does that answer your question M do you have any followup no that was good I you know that's I think it's a it's a balancing act between the two towns really and um you know I look forward to the future with that thank you anyone else on Zoom okay given that we're approaching second hour I everyone's tired but what's that I you have a question well about the teacher contract and negotiations and no saying I think we should limit it to the to questions for the candidate St I would suggest the candidates although some may know this already look back at the history of what teachers have given up racis Health why the health is high because they low percentages during that whole time of B so that's I guess that's not a question but it's hopefully you don't have the answer okay I thank everyone very much for coming this is very informative you got a closing statement if you like you do not have to usually how it's done so that was I did say one minute closing for the candidates but if you're tired and just want to go home like that's fine you have a closing St so I'll just say that I appreciate uh people watching on Zoom people coming out tonight um you know this election is important um both towns are watching unfortunately but it's a good thing um and I just want to say I have enjoyed working for the town dble I've enjoyed the relationships I've created over the years um I really look forward to hopefully continuing on as your representative and um you know more information on me or the campaign Raphael gl.com or rapael GL for gdrsd on Facebook um you all know where I am so you can always contact me my door is always open and I look forward to talking to people I haven't met even more so after campaigning so thank you all and don't forget to vote on May 21st and I appreciate it and I just say um I just wanted to thank the PTO for putting on this event it's a very busy time in May for the PTO in the school and thanks to all of you for coming and everybody on zoom and for your thoughtful questions um the best thing that you can do is learn about the candidates and go exercise your right to vote on May 21st and one of the things that I've appreciated most about running is just meeting people in town who I wouldn't normally have come into contact with and hearing from them and hearing from them about what they'd like to see what they think is working well and what they think isn't working well and so I just thank everybody who has spoken to me and given me their feedback and thank you guys for coming thank you thank you both for coming take care and