##VIDEO ID:Yz4RykOuwxM## good evening and welcome this is the November 18th meeting of the school committee call the meeting to order five o'clock the meeting is being both audio and video recorded tonight and I would ask that folks please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands Gody and justice for all thank you all I would ask for a roll call Sam if you could start please Samantha Vasa secretary Pamela Blair assistant superintendent for business a trulio Gordon Smith superintendent of schools Gregory Thompson Antella Rella William Strather Amy delanta emanel Garcia student representative thank you all I have minutes for approval please take a motion to approve November 4 2024 regular session meeting minutes made by Sarah second by William discussion all those in favor please say I I I those oppos nay that carries 5 Z thank you s committee and subcommittee Communications s would you like to start have any tonight okay I don't have any tonight Willam n tonight Amy on a roll I I just have two things to share the first thing is that I attended the um Statewide meeting of school committees um this past Friday in hyenas um I went to the delegate assembly and the one thing that I just wanted to report back was that all of the resolutions that were discussed that we all brought to the table as well they all passed there so that was one thing I wanted to share the second thing I wanted to share was that I attended the National Honor Society um induction at the high school last week it was a wonderful ceremony Mrs Petri I believe is the adviser she did an excellent job um organizing and um that ceremony the students were fantastic um as a school Committee Member and a mom I think I'll speak for Sarah but chime in here as well I'm excited to attend the junior National Honor Society induction um this coming week as well so a lot of great stuff we're seeing um from our students yeah good week yeah good stuff yes thank you Amy Emanuel only thing I have is that uh The Following last weekend we had of about 10 different students uh try out for all states and districts for band chorus and Orchestra I don't know how many got in but to my knowledge I know two of our band members got in very cool that's awesome great thank you for that okay um Mr Smith and I were speaking we're gonna cancel the December 2nd meeting that's all right with folks done and then then Friday this Friday at 9:30 just a reminder we have the groundbreaking for the high school if anybody can make it here yeah come on here 9:30 is when it starts um it's going to be set up outside uh between the tennis courts and the um Stadium okay you're certainly welcome to here but we're going to try to be out there for just before 9:30 all right I'll come here around 9 9:15 there will be a tense because the only rain that's been in the forecast for probably the last month I know Thursday and Friday all right we'll make it work Bo okay excellent now we have an opportunity for visitors to address the committee if anybody's interested in doing so tonight I would ask them to come forward seeing none we're moving right along we have the FY 2025 Financial reports yeah so go right to the very important Jump Right In um can I just make note that typically I do the quarterly report which would be September but as the month of September was coming along and I was working on the end of year report I was seeing a immense amount of expenditures coming through so made me a little anxious and so once I got through the um the September um Financial I mean I'm sorry the end of year report I started to focus on on the financials and what I'm seeing is um I wanted to show you the picture as of the end of October um I'm going to go right to uh page five which is where I put the uh the spreadsheet together as your financial update um salaries are on the top section of the report here most salaries are incumbered at the beginning of the year um you will see that there are some lines that show uh available balances here and those are like coaches um athletic game staff they're hourly so um not encumbered you know at the beginning of the year what I also wanted to show you was that um the projected endof year balance is there because I am seeing a lot of special ed expenditures I kind of wanted to just look and see what am what am I projecting here so at this point in time at the end of October I'm projecting about 150,000 remaining um in teacher line items uh the permanent building Subs are in with the substitute line item there I just wanted to remind people of that that we have about 385 ,000 in uh substitutes and about 115,000 are the permanent building Subs so those are not encumbered either because those are paid uh the daily rate um most of any of these balances that are remaining there like the clerical or custodial um there's uh longevity that's paid at year end and that's why you see balances there um what I do want everybody to know is we've been very busy these first few months of the school year we had 28 unit a new hires 29 PA professional new hires there's 15 leave of absences and there's 42 degree advancements um which is a huge amount that's double what typically comes through normally we have about 20 um which uh adds up to about $25,000 this year it's 42 degree advancements and that's already at $775,000 that's in addition to the regular salary does that make sense are most of those degree advancements coming from Els University or a mixture a mixture yeah y so uh what I want to remind folks is that 83% of our budget is on the salary side of the budget so uh that's $30 million out of the 35 million does anyone have any specific questions on the salary okay the bottom section are the expense line items um which again that's about 17% of our uh budget most of these line items are just spent throughout the the year they aren't encumbered at the at the beginning you know educational supplies professional development those kind of things um I do want to make mention on the collaborative vocational tuition line that's in the middle middle there there is about $25,000 in special ed Oak tuition so I do need to move that up on the next report you'll see that that will change because I'll move that up toward the special ed out of District tuitions hopefully that makes sense um so what that does leave in that line item just so that uh you know the vocational tuitions have increased over the last few years I think Co has changed some things and we have $447,000 um in uh collaborative folk tuitions so on the bottom section there for the expense I do anticipate um being able to uh project a balance of 40,000 there so collectively with the 150 from salary side and the 40,000 on the expense side I project about $190,000 remaining um in the operating budget which again will be helpful uh with special ed expenditures that I'm seeing any other questions I mean the out of district is running in the negative right now that's just a very small amount yeah so what I so uh the way with the tuitions because with special ed we have three funding sources we have the operational budget the it a grant and then on top of that we have circuit breaker Revenue which is reimbursements from the prior years special at expenditures at 75% for those that qualify um so what we uh try to do always first is to uh expend our operational budget lines because there is uh something called maintenance of effort that we need to show that as a as a district we are um continuing to to support special education and not just relying on like federal funds and state funds so this is where as these expenditures were coming in and I was seeing more and more of them and I started to really you know take a step back and look at my operational lines I said wait a minute here I can't so I stopped cut off the um the operational budget and then shift it over to circuit breaker and idea so of course the next one after operational I try to then go to um idea gr we want to use up the idea Grant uh funds and then uh lastly the circuit breaker because just as a reminder circuit breaker um those funds that we get in as a district um can be rolled over into the next fiscal year to help offset budget expenses okay so then why don't we go to the next page which is your grants um most of our grants are entitlement grants meaning that we get them every single year the title one title two title four I always give you a write up and back in September um you all approved all of the grants I just want to remind you that Esser 3 that's the big one that was $2.2 Million which helped us significantly over the last three years um the last of those funds is for the Meadowbrook playground project which is coming to closure right now it's it I believe that this week they're supposed to come out and put the fence in and so this will be zeroed out and I'm really we're all very excited about that whole project the other grants are just um as I said the entitlement grants and uh I don't know if anyone has any specific questions on the the grants I will say as the grants are so the way the grants work is as they are expended then I request a monthly draw down from the Grant from Desi so you spend it and then you get the revenue after the fact okay so the third page that's the most important right now is our revolving accounts and um start at the top uh I put a negative balance there for um athletic because there's still revenues that's going to come in and the reason I I changed this out because as I was looking at the bigger picture I don't typically put in the the encumbered for revolving accounts but this was a significant uh amount for special ads so I felt compelled to just bring that clear picture to all of you um so I think it's important we just go right to uh the circuit breaker account which is showing we rolled over a million 38 uh the revenue to date is 86 2,000 we've expended 667,000 the encumbered $2.7 million this is in addition to the operating budget this is in addition to Ita so at this point in time I'm projecting uh 1.4 uh million doll deficit that's where I needed to remind you that we're going to get $823,000 in additional Revenue but that still leaves us with a projected 646000 deficit which wouldn't really be just to be be clear in the circuit breaker um circuit breaker line I will have to move those expenditures back to the operating budget to show the deficit there and then hopefully transfer funds from then if we go down to school choice the last line there I'm just going to remind you when the school committee voted to participate once again in the school choice program it was discussed having the school choice funds become a possible resource for the special ed agree accounts when unanticipated costs occur so that would be my recommendation uh we do have the funds there at the end of the year there's going to be $952,000 I am hoping that things will change and that perhaps we won't need the full amount um there's the possibility with circuit breaker um when you do have an absorbent amount of expenditures you can apply for uh circuit breaker something relief is yeah yeah um thank you thank you for an extraordinary relief um which uh there was one year that we received about 3 $150,000 because the expenditures were up and the good thing about that is that cannot be rolled over it's it you have to use it in the current year we won't know that though until April when that happens so um I just wanted to throw that out there to you and is this pagey detailing where that came from yeah so I just want to then the last page there I tried to break it out to show you exactly what special ed actually looks like the operating budget I listed out the accounts there there's about $2.1 million in the operating budget lines there the grant the idea that's $894,000 and then circuit breaker Al together $2.7 million um I you know there's there's a few things that I think have happened here um I think it's important to recognize that it is a volatile account and it's changing constantly move movein move outs uh kids could be in the district in a in a having some services and then and then it's deemed necessary to outplay them and these can add up very quickly as you can see we've got a change in placement when I go back to that snapshot I took uh for the budget purposes back in like February I was expecting that student to be at an expenditure of like $33,000 the reality is there was a change in placement $256,000 another one uh I was expecting just add to them sure so the challenge here is that as you're developing a budget as Mrs Blair was saying um you're doing that in December January and February um and you have all these projections because you're looking at the um the changes in placement so these were students that were already out of District they're already placed out the unfortunate thing is that there's a few things going on one obviously you do have annual um meetings anyway that doesn't always necessarily change a placement um what's been going on the last few years and I think it's now starting to catch not only LPS but probably other districts as well is that some of the um out of District placements schools with whom we have a longstanding history are no longer accepting some of our students and so in team meetings such as the uh example here that happened in May where you had a $33,000 placement obviously there was a team chain and you went from 33,000 as the tuition for last year and this year the tuition became 256,000 that's an incredible increase and it's an entirely a change in placement in terms of it's a new out of District placement it's not the the old placement or old school why are those schools no longer accepting they're they're just more selective they can they can be more selective because we're one of many we're we're not the only only group asking and so if and many times we what we hear is we don't have the staff to handle X um and so it becomes really challenging to find out of District placements when you have um some situations where you have an incredible comprehensive list of needs put it that way there there's one on here that's out of state day tuition is that there's nothing within area that that was it's a very specialized y very specialized program does that does that also come with Transportation costs yes okay yes so every time that there's a and that a district placement an excellent point uh jumped one of the other pieces is that circuit breaker over the last two years started to recognize Transportation part of the funding formula remember with circuit breaker your reimbursement rate is 75% of eligible costs that are above the threshold threshold I think last year was around 52,000 I around 52,000 it's only those expenditures above that 52,000 however when they've added um transportation first um all the reimbursement goes to instruction and um tuition then whatever is left over is reimbursed for transportation and they had so many um requests for re for transportation that last year's requests were funded not at 75% but at 40% so that reduced um our expectation of circuit breaker Revenue this year by at least 150,000 150,000 we also had a circuit breaker audit that they came in and um and again I want to remind you that when I say this it's really a minimal amount when you think about that the revenue that we get from the circuit breaker reimbursement at $1.6 billion the audit um we had to take back $ 39,6 40 which again is a very minimal amount for all of the paperwork that's that goes into that report um oh what did I want the other thing um that became very apparent was that at year end in FY 24 so at the end of every fiscal year as we're putting things to the the budget to closure typically a business manager uh we can legally prepay for special ed tuitions and um it's very prudent to try to do so if you can for obvious reasons so typically before before uh we had all that uh Esser funding it would be about1 to $200,000 at the end of the fiscal year that we try to prepay into the following year with Esser for the last three years it's been more like 300 to $500,000 just because it frees up you know it's just trickles down it's just the the way it was at the end of FY 24 so as these things are happening kids move in it takes a little bit of time to for all this to end at at at year end I was not able to do any special ed prepays so if the year before I did a $500,000 prepay and then this year I wasn't able to that's another component here another you know piece um also I just want to remind everybody I was out with surgery from mid-march till almost the end of April you know working at home for after you know about a month and so I'm not sure if that that's also a part here I just need to say that because I do as you can imagine feel immensely responsible I mean it's my it's my job to bring you the good news but it's also my job to bring you the bad news and this is definitely um we have a we have a place to correct this for this year but it is going to have a Snowball Effect for FY 26 budget how can it not I mean if this is a million dollars yeah yeah and again real issue that's that it is a real issue and you're hearing districts talk about Esser funding and the Esser cliff and we you never voted to you know you didn't want to add in bodies new positions new positions however what is real is that these behavioral issues are real out out here in the world and and we're not any different and we still need to um to take care of the kids and and so how did we do that through contracted Services which is an immense amount of money you know I have some of these contracts that were like two to $300,000 a couple years ago or before covid that now we're at like 7 800,000 like we're paying outside vendors to come in to help us you know because we need the help we can't do it with just the way so we and we've talked about that over the last few years um during budget so do we know on a state level to that same uh um point if all communities are in need of more funding as it seems we all are ding the letter collectively together is the state historically match that or are we going to be all fighting for the same dollars and thus terms of circuit breaker not get the same circuit breaker funding because what I see is we spend more on special ed costs we should get more circuit breaker next year yes but if every district is under the same pressure correct because and the state bucket there have been some years when we weren't at 75% if you remember when I first started like 10 years ago I used to say well here's a 72% and here's 73 which know when you're talking about that large of a number that percent can be significant um so yes that very well could happen Greg I don't know Jordan was recently at a a meeting State Association um both superintendent Association and and probably I would imagine business Managers Association are looking to Lobby um the legislature for this year to look at uh especially the transportation fece where people were expecting to be reimbursed at 75% and they got reimbursed at 40 to 44% um and so there may be if we're successful in that that lobbying of the legislature there may be um some Gap filling there yeah with extra money what we'll have to do going forward is continue to work with our state senator and to reps to make sure that they keep circuit breaker at least at 75% if not it has to be done with the legislature right but if every district is facing this exact issue will they be able to sustain it without massive increase in the circuit breaker funding itself which yeah I we're definitely going to hear a lot more about this because not alone I we also have to deal with it then on a local level and then do we start the conversation in terms of funding funding special education at a higher level LEL which means increas a significant increase over yeah level Services yeah it could meet another one or two% fully fund yeah even if we were to use I mean we would be fortunate this year to be able to lean into school choice but that wouldn't be Su do it this year but we get the million prepaid that we're going to now use and not leave prepa or not prepaid but the rollover of the so we're not gonna have of the million for next year you're not going to roll over Circ what I'm saying yes thank you I just want to make sure it was clear that I don't for having any rollover which starting next year without the typical rollover circuit breaker that we've relied million in to start potentially potentially yeah potentially I have you still have to play out the rest of the year looking at because remember um encumbered is not expended yeah so we have to look at that and make sure but I got to tell you or what they are that go even higher yeah because I I was really really hoping that as as I was was delving into the detail and and checking and I was really hoping I was going to see some kind of duplicate you know from idea to circuit breaker or to the operating I'm not seeing it I I really wish that I had better news but but but this is what I'm seeing I mean there's always the chance as Gordon says things change very quickly um I also put at the bottom of your sheet I just wanted to let you know there's other things that happen like um last year we had a DCF placement um which came in like mid year so what does that cost us this year $774,000 that we weren't anticipating we had another DCF placement with a tuition cost cost share of $220,000 so there's there's a lot that's out of our control and um yeah is the transportation IND District transportation that's inclusive of the um shift to using the trolleys as well yes yes everything still that high yeah and again as as you said every time that there's a movement or a new placement transportation and some of these are really I was really again delving into the the weeds of all of this and it could be $400 a day for a student at at 180 you know school days sometimes you can try to cost share with a sometimes these kids camping on a bus with somebody else they have to be by themselves so there's just there's a lot and then and then behind the scenes any of those additional Therapy Services sometimes they need a oneto one we had a student um that came um unexpected um into kindergarten this year we needed a onetoone nurse we had no choice had to have a onetoone nurse uh with this students so you know sometimes they're Med medically fragile sometimes it's um behavior um but there's a lot happening in the district so I wish I had better news to tell you but I I do think that going forward um I don't think I will be doing a quarterly to you I will be coming you know after we get through Thanksgiving I'd like to close out November and come back again in the December meeting to just tell you because I feel like this is going to be we need to just be on top of it and and again as as Gordon said things can change quickly um they are incumbrances which does which doesn't mean that they're expended but there's a very good chance that they are going to be expended so I think in January potentially maybe we should meet with Tom honor whomever else Kim and whatnot just to start this conversation we'll have a better pict sure perhaps then right and then of course um now that I've gotten this threaded meeting over with was looking forward to I now need to start working about you know FY 26 to move all of the bargaining units up so we can start to take a look at that as as well um and again um as a reminder we did uh have a new contract with Unit A and some of those uh rates were you know pretty significant but um yeah just just another moving piece that's all and professionals um we had moved them up because they were so far behind in their hourly rate so you know there's a lot of moving pieces um but again I'm going to continue to monitor the accounts and keep you apprised of the situation and if fund transfers are necessary that'll be later yeah so what I thought I would do now is I I needed to show you where the operating budget was because again as I was seeing these come in and I said wait wait a minute I can't I don't have the budget line so we moved it to circuit breaker but we don't have it there either but I need to shift it back to um the operating so we can see it and then request the transfers uh from uh school choice and it's up to you how you would prefer I do that do you want me I could wait a few months to see or in you know when I come in December after the end of November's um totals I could move things over and already request some of the transfers um maybe that's best right okay that's what I'll do for you okay any other questions for Pam tonight thanks for being on top of it Pam better to know it now than to out in January gives us more opportunity to proactive better news yeah yes I sure hope so hoping that encumber doesn't become expended all the way right we'll be sharing a lot of this information even more specific specifically um with the leadership team on Thursday so that we can start to be more strategic and how we're looking at many different things okay thank you Pam for that uh we accept the financial report perhaps oh yes thank you a motion such we're not taking it move to accept the this what was the date the October 31st 2024 financial report as presented made by Sarah second second by Anella any discussion all in favor say I I I those oppos nay that carries 5 Z thank you again Pam appreciate it okay back on to advertising in school district property okay um in your packets you have uh the draft that you saw at the last meeting and that was advertising on School District property khb and I believe you also saw kb- which was rules and regulations and this was modeled after both West Springfield's policy and actum box boro's policy and then um through the discussion you had asked uh that we look at a request form or um yeah I guess it would just be a request form because the other two districts that we modeled it after actually use it as a district fundraiser but uh in this case this would be more around historically looking at what comes to East Long Meadow school committee Town groups that have donors um who may be business owners in town and then they usually thank them or they have some type of sign might be advertising for the business so um kb- is a way for those Town groups whether it be the rec department or um a booster group or some other Town Affiliated group to put in a request uh that would come to all of you and then ultimately if approved um it would be voted on at a school committee meeting and then signed um by the chair also I updated the um at least in draft form the use of school facilities because this could trigger as someone's filling this out it could trigger the request to um advertise so um and that actually was Mr Thompson's idea he picked up on that as I was discussing it with him he said oh we should probably have two links so you do now uh if these meets all of your likings do we have I just haven't seen in here a way to support the organizations who will be coming to us with a timeline like if you want to put something up where how far in advance should they be trying to get onto our agenda and should they make that appeal would it be to the chair would it I mean that we can certainly uh take the requests here in central office and then set it up on the agenda um for the school committee but it's an excellent point you're always looking at school committee meeting times um so I would say least 30 days in advance when you want that advertising we should probably rules and regulations maybe good start and then we can put it also yeah and then in terms of I see on here that we have a contact person on uh request to advertise on School District property the actual form we I know like for instance we've talked about the duration being for for some purposes uh the length of a of a sporting event right but there like even now there's current advertisements for certain events on school grounds that have since passed so do we have like a contact person for removal because it shouldn't be on the school so remove a sign right now we don't have any contact people but uh we could there are a lot of signs up right now like for not the attendance ones 5K runs and runs there's some up for like cross country there's some up for um fairs that are in other towns and like just making sure that we have a mechanism here that says if they're going to be on school grounds for the purpose of of advertising for an event should there be something that says within a week of the events letion like it has to come down or something to that effect and well so I think we should add to this form duration of sign posted and then we'll have in writing when they expect the sign to be put in and when it's to be re i' also add and then it will no it's not that not Point go ahead please I forget now talking about the dates I was agreeing with you we should put the dates that they wanted advertised and where like where's the yes which locations are then it gives the school committee in the future the chance to approve it or not based on duration based what it says location yeah it's not like the stuff that's up there now is they're wor the events on those signs we not it's not going to come here they didn't necessarily bring it bring it to the school why wouldn't they it really shouldn't be doing it right right but if they do want to do that well I don't know that we're going to encourage sticking in the ground signs is that allowed by the can okay that's what I'm saying like it would be potentially something but then to the point like they should come down after the event occurs right yes which should be stipulated in how long they if they say the events over November 15th it should be out November 15 yes and then the same thing with I know one of the things in here says sorry I feel like I'm jumping around um public service announcement or announcement of events directly related to the services of the East Public Schools or East Town departments that one is an exemption and an and an exception that it wouldn't have to come to school committee however we should still have some language there that they also they need to take come down because sign ups for certain things have ended Y and there are signs up on almost every piece of school property for certain such as I think you have basketball baskball right now that sign up probably has come to a close three weeks ago I think we need sign police in this town sign police the job here no thank you committee it's my job to be informed this informed that's right great then who's responsible for policing and or taking these things down the hope I like would be the person is the contact UM now there is no design ated person sometimes it's the superintendent when he gets out of his car at the top of a driveway and PS it um other times it might be principal custodian someone uh and we try to pull them maybe that more timely fashion yeah and maybe like I don't want to say consequence in that way but like if they're not taken down like next time that might not reflect positively on you being able to continue to utilize school grounds it's true no it's very true like I agree yeah okay maybe that said would it not be easier to start at a clean slate so if we approve something like this then we remove everything that shouldn't be there and then we know we're we're starting at a clean absolutely yeah yeah so on the form uh kp- where it says please provide a description of proposed advertising requested duration to add to that and I think we need to put specific things yeah you need to give them specific sign location yeah location sign posted something to that effect should it be like what kind of sign it is when should that should be down here right yeah and request a banner is it a yeah starts to become cumbersome a little bit I I'm not a huge proponent of it coming to the school committee only because umbers some but I don't know who else will look at iton would but got other things and I think there's other the schools to be doing as well like I would have put that on a principal like a principal going have to go out and walk their to make the determination the application could go to the principle but I don't know that we want to do that okay I feel like that's like another layer for the principal to handle as opposed to bringing it here where okay here our meetings are set up in such a way that we could handle that as opposed to asking principl keep on vetting advertisers I don't know I agree most of the um signs that have come before you historically have been banners that they hang from the fences I don't think you've had many that have come and asked to do a they haven't come here and Lawn sign so to speak they're there they just go up they which I mean it's smart it's very clever like you're getting a a it is very clever an active inventing the rules it is but if they're going to continue to want to do that they also have to be brought into this F as well so really you could give them two choices um you'd say is this a banner type advertisement or a um lawn sign type advertisement and not many varieties just that's imagine that most of these will be pretty non-controversial and we won't have many issues but I like that it's a safeguard it does keeping our families and our little ones safe from things that go against our mission so I'm sure this will be like it'll be okay once it gets but and then for the rules and regulations the first page item C commentary advocacy or promotion of issues candidates campaigns or organization of social political religious or rhetorical nature how does that impact birchland as a voting site because even right now there are probably close to 10 political signs still up from the election so I know that we have certain see we do need sign police though I'm not I know but that's how you get rid of them somebody has to go pick those up that but again like they're supposed to even on that night of like would that mean every candidate would have to come here because technically they're standing on school grounds is that going to be an exception that we list I would recommend listing that as an ex and I agree with that and technically they are supposed to be holding the they are not to be planted in the ground and left and so if yes and so yeah I agree we should list it as an exception and then the ones that are left up now are a lot I'll go get them have to go get them I'm just saying I can get them I'm drive there every day it's more just a matter of there Sarah after the meeting of in this piece like that that's just needs speak good point too like it's and that's the whole point is to clean it up and that's the only way to do is to set set parameters so I like it any other thoughts on the sign usage you have more s b above it talks about tobacco is that also inclusive I'm not sure of the distinction between the two or do we have to spe vaping product generally in our policies we have included Vape as part of tobacco I you may be right I'm not not tobacco in nicotine yeah nicotine so maybe nicotine products Let's uh stick a comma and Vapes in there perhaps and only because if we're trying to get this up and sustainable should probably try to make it as all-encompassing as possible tobacco or nicotine products okay products containing nicotine and then so then that would become like number four for exemptions and exceptions would become election day protocols could um speak with the Town Clerk and just see what the town procedure is there and just a line on the ground yeah that's the right but don't talk about removal you're not supposed to be there no it's supposed to leave with the people right not suppos to be a sign without somebody ahead yeah we should just okay take care of it Sarah the positive thing is you know who the person is to contact for a political campaign no doubt whatsoever your name is right there ready for you we want to do the revisions one more time and bring it back I would like to do the revisions one more time fair enough he'll be it thanks Gordon Gord you're welcome writing process is a process this doesn't negatively impact advertising for any of these restrictions potentially impact especially ones that mentioned bars and taverns impact sponsors the fireworks oh most definitely um or the concert series because that is all placed on school grounds there are no Barn bars or taverns in East meow they are all restaurants but this language says in their name if it's as that let's Recons that because that's been an issue in town that we specifically don't have bars right so if a local restaurant would like to advertise we would not like to turn them down and that is in here right now that we're let's look at that wording and just because it says the word bar Tavern it talks about bars and taverns yeah that's a great point out we can say that restaurants are allowed to advertise without but it are other food establish may not using its advertising text the words bar Pub or Tavern or other similar words name of their establish establishment how could they okay good point we might need to that's a no that is yeah a yeah I mean we could we could not allow advertisement of bars but just don't limit the name part of it yeah the language because there as I said there are no we used to have one bar we don't have any bars anymore right The Meadows used to be the only bar in town yeah the song I think song all right are we done with no hey we have a a check uh from the office of the sheriff to accept have the details uh check public records request this was a um a subpoena for public records yeah but they just gave the the check and she'll deposit it into the GI I take a motion to accept the for make a motion to accept $7 um from the office of the sheriff hon County to the Mountain School fund made by an second by William discussion all in favor say I I I those oppos nay that carries 5 Z and the next one Pam a little bit yes I definitely check yes I had the uh the wonderful pleasure of speak speaking to Mr William Carlile um he lives in uh Florida uh he was from this area um he had reached out to the high school and was interested in donating like 2 200 shares of Apple stock and they weren't sure like what to do with this kind of a phone call so anyways I began I reached out to him and over the past few months we've been going back and forth he is he is amazing as I said he was 90 years young um he's quick as a whip he um a railroad conductor in his past um he uh started to uh invest in the market and did pretty well at it and at this time in his life he uh would like to um as I said donate the the shares of stock to East Long Meadow he would like to start a scholarship um called the William J Carlile scholarship in memory of his daughter roxan Carlile who uh graduated from East Long Meadow High School um unfortunately she got cancer and passed away when she was only 23 three that's why he'd like to do this in her name um his only request is that uh this money does go to um students who are going into the medical field uh to help people obviously he doesn't he doesn't really care if it's a doctor a nurse a CNA an x-ray technician a PA as long as they have a financial need and he'd like to leave that to the high school administration to make that determination so he's working on the the shares that I mentioned and that's going to take a little bit of time but in the meanwhile he felt compelled that he wanted to get this scholarship started immediately so he sent a $40,000 check for us to um get deposited I've already started to work with town on this and um so like to bring this for your approval so we can get the scholarship started the plan is that this year um he anticipates that the 2500 shares which is about $600,000 worth of I mean he's extremely generous man um and and he's just he's was a lot of fun to talk to um he anticipates me about $30,000 a year in interest so of the 40,000 he'd like 30,000 to go for a scholarship at the end of this school year um so one recipient that is that is to he said I don't I'm gonna leave that to the administration they know the students that are have a financial need as long as they have a financial need I don't care if it's one or if it's 10 you take the 30 and um as long as they're going into the medical field of some sort to help people people so he be able to the journey or at least maybe do like a video or something you know I didn't go that far Frank did ask Mr Paige asked for his information so he could reach out to him as the principal of the high school to thank him so I don't know if Frank has done that yet I'll certainly U make mention like a zoom interview great reent be able to hear from him that's an extraordinary gift it sure is yeah so we just need the school committee to officially uh approved accept the scholarship and the town will set it up and start the process um I moov to accept uh the $40,000 check for a new scholarship for the William J Carlile scholarship in memory of daughter roxin Carlile question made by Antonella second second by Sarah discussion thank you yes very nice extremely um all those in favor please say I I I those opposed nay that motion C even thank you I'll give them a call tomorrow thanks let them know okay the final thing on our agenda is the April 3rd 2025 field trip to New York City to watch the Broadway musical The Great Gatsby this is a music department field trip set for the spring uh they hope to have up to 90 students join them so that would be almost our entire music department I think the band's somewhere around 60 70 chorus you add in another 25 am I right man somewhere in there are you going on the going on it I'm going on the all right nice um and so it's it's not only a day where they get to take in New York City and see the Broadway musical Great Gatsby they also have a workshop prior to seeing the musical um for about an hour or so with the um actors who will then be performing later that day in the musical pretty exciting show the price oh right here sorry questions comments it's a great opportunity for our kids to be able to go out and do this I mean I wish it wasn't so much money but 175 yeah I know it is I mean for the bus and the ticket but and they may if they get approval they be able to do some fundraising okay I mean is there any kind of plan for students that able to pay um there's always a plan uh that if students aren't able to participate and like to participate okay I move to approve the April 3rd 2025 York cityway musical The Great Gatsby as presented motion made by Sarah second by Amy discussion all in favor say I I I those oppos nay that carries 5 Z thank you let Mr Henry know excellent any have fun okay with that we have come to the end of our more question sorry um advertising I just feel terrible the the dugouts now have been vandalized twice since they've been built I feel as if we need to have a plan because those some of those funds did come from advertisers and now had graffiti on them two times what do you propose we have cameras on the outside of the building but they don't face that area the cameras don't have that range no that's what I mean they don't have that range I mean the cameras for new building here we let them get ruined no I'll there that kind of range but you'd have to upgrade most the camera you pick anyway watching I just feel it's terrible for anybody who's investing back into the community to have what they've put back into the community be def face not once but twice not complete like there's plans for beautiful artwork by local artists to go on the back of those that's can we have chap Williams just send a car by once in a while just to start that process yeah we I we've talked with our school resource officer but the unfortunate thing is the cameras are probably your best deterrent but not they're not um fallible no they're not as we have graffiti here and we do have a camera that faces the athletic um athletic stadium and fortunately it doesn't necessarily always pick up can we put out like some kind of reminder to students like through the principal saying like remember like if you def face School prop I mean those are school property right that was our con when you build these they then as a result of being on school property come perview of the school district so I just feel bad like there no I understand um and there is some lighting out there I don't think there's a lot of there's not a lot by the Fields there's by those fields there's more by the soccer fields so they have another project in mind I don't know if they've mentioned that to you I don't know if within that we could think about lights on both dugouts to help get up the area I think that's more of a reasonable response than cameras on I mean we have dugouts out here gonna watch light kind of thing o light or maybe or just lights on you know yeah it's a sidewalk there like the sidewalk they have those like solar power ones yeah like May the principles reminding F yeah I mean part one or two or three individuals to send it out to every kid but those one or two or three individuals are potentially harming property that is going to be used by more than one or two or three individuals yeah I don't know I mean it's still up there now like it's yeah unfortunate like and they're going to become diversity fields for the short term yeah like in terms of their use and stuff so I don't know just figure out like if they're in process of being built we should be doing something to stop that before they are finished and have that artwork on them right so um we've already been discussing with it what and if we would be able to upgrade over there in terms of cameras and we can continue that discussion and who's going to watch all these camera this is we have how many cameras in the district watch this wait wait till hear this I hundreds it's like what are we watching it's craziness then what about like what we do for the Vape detection if somebody's out there it triggers it like if someone's out there past a certain time like how expensive that system was I think reasonable to start with light some lighting just some basic lighting if possible and then to if we continue to see conversation with Chief William thoughts as well may July and October to have something vandalized twice yeah that's a short amount of something it is disappointing and it's it deters people from wanting to redevelop back into yes no we should take care of it and now that it's on school property us okay I want to think if if when in the spring we have AC is going to increase and so that may be a deterrent but it's it's in these this time frame where don't have the I'm just saying that we don't get we do have graffiti every now and again on high school um but this is a short time span yeah no it's a good point have the same right but because it's not that common to G Gordon's point this two Shall Pass probably I think that's a higher risk little thing though like no it's you have golden to go up to your high school and graffiti it but that's kind of less like it's right would be more kids would be more apt to do it on something like well keep Williams radar if we could get some ideas from him perhaps get future plans for lighting we'll talk about to the group about their plan and maybe that would include some lighting okay thanks I do know cameras expens your lawn chair right I'll hold my the new buildings approval for gra the whole time but I I know that in terms of keeping the cost down and running the behind um the scenes management of the cameras that software is is pretty expensive and so then it would be an annual budgetary cost for either the IT department or the school department yeah but I say one thing sorry um completely changing topics just for one last thing um I was really happy to see the signage and with the attendance messaging um at the drop offs I it was really nice and the consistency across and everything I just wanted to make mention of that I thought that was great thank you I will mention that on Thursday because that's a that just came in we excited looked good yeah else no thanks SAR all awesome points thank you I would take entertain a motion to adjourn motion made by Sarah second by William discussion i i i those oppos nay that motion carries 5 to zero thank you we are adjourned