##VIDEO ID:xyRAYsCc254## [Music] okay so I will call the meeting of the public schools to order for December 10th 2024 please join me in the to of the United States of America stands na indivisible andice in accordance with Massachusetts open meeting I remind everyone that the meeting is being recorded any member of the public would like to make an audio or video recording of the meeting please notify me by raising your hand in person or remote and say name Fus recording okay great thank you we're gonna start out excuse me you promote mik while we're getting Mike Terry would you mind reading the ement for us tonight sure public schools knowes that we are gathering on the unseated ancestoral land of the W notion we recognize and respect respect the W people including those of Sessa or quite super withit ch as original stewards of what is now known as the town of MTH and honor their enduring relationship with this land this land acknowledgement is an intentional act to counter the Eraser of indigenous people and to demonstrate respect for their Sovereign rights we are committed to educating ourselves and our students about the longstanding history of the W know people in alignment with the core values of public schools we pledge to build an ongoing partnership with want Nation thank you so much um I'll start off with our mission and vision the found Public Schools creates world class student learning experiences our Clippers are empowered to pursue their goals with curiosity integrity and resiliency and our vision is that Clippers are creative inquisitive and engaged Learners who participate in their Community as socially responsible citizens Clippers effectively communicate and solve problems that impact the world around them thank thank you um so we're excited to have Isabelle Grayson here with us our student advisor for at least today well we are have a student advisor join us and so if you don't mind sharing some some stuff that's going on at the high school or maybe a a little bit about you or what you're interested in anything you feel like sharing yeah of course thank you for having me um a few highlights from the high school that I wanted to bring up was tonight actually is um the specialty program showcase so at the high school the eighth graders are walking around and they um it's really what FHS has to offer so it's um the H courses they can take next year and arts and then the career paths um that are provided and then along with that tomorrow they're doing tours um I'm actually one of the tour guides and during Clipper time in the morning the eighth graders will come from Lawrence and they will um be shown around the school by student ERS and then some of the teachers in the career paths programs will explain a little bit about what their um class teaches and what they can expect and then fall Sports just wrapped up and we had a very successful um Awards night so that was good to see everyone's achievements and then winter sports is starting and we're off to a great start especially with hockey boys and girls are ranked one and two in the leagues for season so that's really excited to see the great season and then actually probably a few weeks ago now the theater Department had their fall play which was murder on the Orient Express and I went with my friends and it was really again I was beyond like surprise um and then soon government also met today and we work and just continuously work to improve school to the best for our abilities and one project we're doing and focusing on is to reform and better the cafeteria as it's the space where students have to hang out with their friends is really non academic and this is new or one of the ideas we had was like the new tables and chairs so possibly like high tops and then different size tables because um daily students like push together lots of chairs and gets kind of crowded so if we can change that be I love that idea yeah uh any questions for Isabelle about the goings on at the high school did you get to do a tour um similar to what you're leading and what did you think of it I did um I actually knew our toy our tour guide so that was nice she really did a good job explaining in the teachers you get to me too so you can have kind of a preview for next year I thought it was really informational that's great well thank you for offering to to leave that tomorrow you are very welcome to stay and hang out but if you have other obligations we totally understand and we really appreciate you taking time to be with us and fill us your perspective thank you thank you for being here um we'll move on to public comment members of the public are welcome to speak about items not on the agenda comments should be limited to 2 minutes in length and due to open meeting law the committee canot act on public comment items for items on the agenda the chair May accept comments from the public following the committee's discussion and additional comments and feedback can always Beed by email to school committee f. k12.us and as we've been doing recently if there's no objection I'd like to welcome public comment on um the rid Lawrence since it's relevant and then people don't have to wait that's okay all right do there anyone to public comment okay can we promote Amanda so we can hear her I want keep hi Amanda can you hear us hi I can hi go ahead okay great thank you um firstly thank you all for your time and efforts in listening to the Community Voices over the course of the last several meetings um obviously you've heard passionate input from parents and staff and community members who care so deeply um about the future of fouth public schools and I'm on here tonight just kind of asking all of you as we head into the new year to kind of take a step back and reassess the district's current needs in light of the feedback that you've received and kind of the findings that have surfaced as a result of all of this work that both you and the community has done um over the last few meetings we've heard loud and clear that something isn't right uh parents are desperate for our concerns to be heard daycare providers have raised serious objections teachers who we trust to be on the front lines of our kids development have expressed firm opposition to the proposals at hand um and yet when given the opport to resend the course that we're currently on in favor of reflection only four of our committee me committee members voted to pause the other five chose kind of the status quo and so I ask you you know what message does this send to the students parents or staff of this District like some of these votes came from members who stated that their priority is and has always been the best interest of our students but I don't know how that claim can hold truth when parents sat before you some of them in tears pouring their hearts out about their their kids' current struggles under the status quo and these are not abstract concerns they're immediate real issues impacting families across our district and so you know that being said I want to acknowledge all the work that all the parents and teachers and and school committee members are doing um despite all of these conditions you know the dedication can't go unnoticed um but as we continue to focus um over the next so oh sorry yeah just finish your thought that's yeah um as we continue to kind of focus on the three issues that were presented to us what we're trying to solve for the Aging school buildings the need for PR and declining enrollment they're all valid um but just ask ourselves like are they the most urgent problems impacting our current students today are there larger issues that we should be looking at and um I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and and thank you for letting me share thank you Amanda you have a wonderful holiday too thanks other com tonight all right um more students we are so lucky to have students from the aslb program joining us tonight to share about their experience um would you guys like to come up to the table so I'd like to introduce um Dylan Ken Kenny uh Ally Campbell Lucas bushy and chel M hi Mama to the you can just pull another a couple more chairs have enough spots to sit that way the camera will pick you [Music] up thank you so much for coming and we love to hear from students about their experiences and we'd love if you can share something with us about aslp and maybe even start from scratch because some people probably don't know what it is who wants to hi I'm buy um and basically ASP stands for advanced studies leadership program um so how you get selected for it bases on your mcast scores teacher recommendations grades and interest in stem so what the um program entails it is a two-e program at Mass Maritime Academy in B where students will stay there and get to just experience of college life classes that they can take in college and interest in stem courses while also making friends and making memories that last forever oh you should be on the brochure really well said um does anyone else want to share anything about what it was like or something that you liked about it I have something to that to ask them please so I went because um I I it's so so great that Mass Maritime offers thisam the one thing I saw in addition to you doing really academic work was some fun projects but you learn one was in the swimming pool well do you remember that project okay why don't you tell us about that project um I'm Dyan Kenny and um this past year we do thing both years I was there and we did a thing where we buil cardboard boats you're split into pods and you have Camp counselors and you do a bunch of fun stuff with them but the main like the big main event is uh like the boat race so you spend most of like most of the two weeks with your pod and like you spend like the afternoon pod and building the boats with them and the last year that this past year that I did it uh we built a really sturdy vat we actually won the race wow so there's this thing where you have pod points where you get like points for like good stuff that people in your pod do or like so like just like holding the door for people or just like excelling at like a certain subject or or like that there are teachers there that recommend stuff like that so it's kind of like it's kind of like the teacher recommendations that get you there but there's ones inside the camp I ha pot points so and then if you guys whoever wins the boat race gets a bunch of pot points so I remember my team was in last place for the Pod points but we won the race and then we end we ended up winning the entire plug cup because of that race which is really nice could you tell exactly what two don't you have two materials to build your road out yeah you have cardboard and you have t and that's about you got a limited am of cardboard and a limited amount of tap you have two rowers for your boat and then they just have to try and do their best and also every single year like the head people for the group also build their own boat and they have to Reas that it's really so I was thinking like build a boat but you're saying you like build a boat no like how big is this boat you build a boat big enough for two people oh my gosh out a cardboard in a swimming pool I was imagining like a little boat like the car races yes no they're actual people in the boat throwing the boat you do get like a big piece of cardboard we have to use it wisely that's great yeah it's it's really fun to watch and there you also get points based on how well your pod is cheering on the other teams like we're all in that bleacher area and it's really loud but it's really fun to cheer on your team and see what every team is doing it's it's really cool it's a really good experience did any of you um put on Do they still do the big suit where you then you put on the big suit and jump in the water did anybody do that you did that too did you do it so what so talk to us about the big suit because I'm sure there's a lot of people around here that doesn't know what that means um so in Mar time it's around the ocean they really focus on like like so um when they go on a ship into cold areas like the Arctic they have to be ready for emergency so they have these eming seits that they get into and then if they go into the water it keeps them floating and warm so we did that but um we did it like in this little like dock area where we got into the suits with like half our pot and the other half weighted and then we just swim around and we learn how like cuz there's um this thing where like if someone if there's like not suit that's like fit for someone then everyone can like put their feet together and can make like a little WRA for them that's really cool so you don't if someone's without them you can still keep them afloat so what's the interaction with the cadetes do someone talk about like I mean so do they lead the activities to you know or is it completely separate to share a little bit about yeah sure so um so they're students at mass time and it's definitely like they have an authoritive role because they're trying to like reflect um their life at Mass Maritime as well as like teaching us so I remember we did like we practice marching with them and they just showed us what their life was like as Cadets but um I think that it was also important how they made such like good bonds and connections with the students as like we work together in our groups or um they were also assistant teachers in some of the spem classes that we would take so it was really fun um building connections with them and also being able to just see what their life was like at College yeah is any kids from all over the state in all grades or is it junior senior or is it all four grades like from everywhere I think it's just seven oh the most people usually we just we just do there's any extras from other towns we we SC them up Terry I have one question um is this a collaboration with the K Cod collaborative or is it sponsored by the K Cod collaborative but is at Mass Maron it's sponsored by okay it's they they're together okay okay but it's it's a initiative of the collaborative yeah I'd like to 20 years it's been going on about 20 years yeah I'm sorry it's didn't mean to interrupt um i' just like to give a shout out for all four of these students because um it's not just if you're interested you get to go it also is um your grades um your mcast scores um and then teacher recommendations um to get to go so obviously you have to show interest right and uh in the stem because there's a lot of um projects that you you take place but um so definitely these are um uh good students that that deserve to go and we have one scholarship winner sitting amongst us so um Sheldon um was awarded a scholarship so we had I think four total from from yes so we had four total out of um I think past Su grp so can you say what that means yeah you say what the maybe something scholarship means is it I think it was just some money to go tole Ms [Music] Mass yeah but yeah so if out of the senior year you know that's if that's the choice then you know seven and3 be yeah nothing else you can write about this experience when you if you apply to any questions yeah many it was your idea there were 178 students so it's pretty remarkable you guys got those scholarship that you got that scholarship so congratulations because that's how many were there this summer so anyway this program it's an amazing just Qui question uh what was the Highlight for each of you what was the highlight out of the two weeks that you were kind of most excited about um my favorite thing was this past year my pod was really interesting in kidf so even though it wasn't like a set thing are pod like made every single other pod do an entire like pod kickball thing and we like we played every single pod and we beat Al every single except except for one but that was because we played on like a bigger field that we weren't used to so we beat them afterwards that's great any other highlights yeah um going back to what D was talking about earlier about the boat race I was one of the rowers in the boats so that was definitely my best experience there it was really fun to look forward to as like we built the boats yeah so they had a couple of you know like special guest come they had a a magician uh and a pilot who I think also happened to actually be in the program not in the program but like working with the kids in the program uh so they had a guy who talked about Sasquatch and uh was pretty good it wasn't I guess [Music] inform my favorite part was happly meeting people from other towns it was really fun cuz you didn't really meet any like you saw in school kind like some of love that that's really nice my daughter's favorite part was mixing sodas together which I think it's disgusting but it was the first time that that was ever a highlight just like pick all different [Music] flavors I don't know what that says about me as a par well thank you all so much and Sh app thank you so much thank [Applause] you thank for the suggestion it was a great idea great to have all right next up we have discuss and possibly act on submitting a letter of interest to msba for the renovation of Laurence um uh I turn this over to you so Paul and I are going to um share a little information we we'll let Paul [Music] start briefly the authorization by the scho for the district toit statement of interest uh which is essentially an application for funding the lawence school renovation um and the application here will open up in early January uh and close down most likely mid April but the dates haven't been fully set yet um but again um they require in order to submit an application they require a statement which you see here this is from their uh requirement uh documents um and then uh they also require a similar vote from the uh from the board so um so a little bit of uh just as a reminder I've been sharing um from the uh feedback forms um those that have been positive um uh with this particular proposed plan for the renovation of Lawrence um we've had 79 total um individuals WR in that this is um what they want we've only had five that had said um that they were not in favor of it um we have um the forms have been largely positive and just recently I opened up a um survey for our um staff and um one of the questions was about the Lawrence renovation and so um it does not close till next Friday so um but we've had to date um 223 um individuals um that's 47% U have um completed the survey to date um 94 people said it was very important and 61 said that it was important um so um you know from that importance um those two categories 155 um has reported um and then we received the building needs task force recommendation um to move forward with a statement of interest um in for the U renovation um and so I just wanted to share um I just remind everyone that this seems to be uh a favorable proposed plan and I'll turn it back over to Paul so you can talk about what might look like going forward yeah so essentially once the uh the application itself of the statement of Interest isn't yet released will be released in the next few weeks U then we will spend several months go through that along with the building assessment that will be done by khabib and Associates which is an architectural firm and and their their role is to walk through the building and judge where the specific needs are for renovation the plumbing for example the electrical and much of what we've talked about uh over the last few months that and they will highlight that um from architectural and Engineering um and that study uh is done uh is funded by the town the town PR department uh as part of their uh allocation that they had approved uh last year so um that cost is Incorporated in that and uh so once that assessment building assessment is done that uh goes along with this the statement of interest and this is then found with the MBA so that begins the process uh again Decisions by the msba uh don't come out till December uh they likely contact us sometime in the late spring um and uh and tell us whether they want to come to the campus they visit the campus visit the school Etc so so if they're interested they will then do a site visit of some kind yeah I I think they'll pretty much try to get to most of the applicants my understanding but they do do you know they definitely will do so um my understanding of this and correct me if I have any of it wrong is that that starting this process by signing um the letter or voting on the letter of interest would allow us to start that company doing their analysis of the building so that when the application opens we actually have the material that we need to submit that's right okay and as far as we know um everything is still um once we apply we can always withdraw if the numbers don't look right or something changes that questions from the committee yeah um in that same being Kelly um if if we have a hesitation moving forward what if we have a change in the um the planning on how many grades are going to be at the school we still can adjust that later on the process okay so they this is the initial and again the reason for us to indicate the three grades is that the msba sets aside a certain amount of capital sure for this project and they want to know that ahead of time so they don't get short and and their Capital plan okay Al so easier to go from three to two two to three because I was just under the um understanding that we've not we collectively have not a decision is where we're Landing with bra structur so that's corre uh thank you for that clarification so you said that the select would have to approve the same letter that we do that's right okay and when would they do that they would most likely do that in January whenever we can get on to their agenda okay as soon as we would approve this tonight they would to get on to their agenda and they had them approved this well and would this ultimately then be mentioned during this upcoming town meeting or is that to early um I you know it may be discussed and we're likely to give a presentation uh so I don't want to commit to it uh because we have't even thought about the presentation but uh but I I would think that it would be a mention that we that we for but we probably wouldn't know yet right whether we were accepted any other questions Mike do anything Katrina um I well I asked Paul and you about this but I just wasn't sure if there was any problem the wording uh the Lawrence School represents sorry the last paragraph after 76 s and8 okay the Lawrence School represents B public school's top priority for renovations colon and hereby further specifically acknowledges who is hereby further specifically acknowledging the rest of that sentence yeah I think the you said you copied it right from yeah it seems like you should say found public schools here by knowes and I don't know if a colon is actually is s is it what they have yeah that is so weird it doesn't make any sense I think we're safe is we the template yeah that's one of the things they do want you to exactly what they've written it might be semic hold on let me if it's semic no it's not here it is in the document oh but I had to blow it up to like 200% tell okay so there's just one one twe um and then just commentary wise I I just went to my first town meeting I was elected to town meeting when I was elected to school I still feel that we should do a feasibility study and get all the ducks in order because I mean personally I want to make sure because my children are three and six and they're going to be going through this and I just want to make sure we're doing it right for them on a personal note but also um for a town meeting I don't want us to be in town meeting with a lot of questions down the road that we can't answer but inless people have changed their mind and want to revisit last meeting's conversation I'm not going to hold up to the process um Mike did you have any questions I had one question for Paul hey Paul the the money for the architecture actually it's more than one question but the money for the Architecture Firm uh is that already been procured you might have said it but I couldn't hear you so well yes yeah it has okay and then my only followup question is that once we do that and we submit if we do have to make a change does that have the do we have a a 10% 15% in that budget for changes down the line or would that be another if we if we did have to change any of the plans after the initial one so the AR the architectural architex role is to assess the building today you know the plant the Plumbing the electrical the layout of the of the buildings the classrooms um you know the roof to U and so it's really not dependent on um you know what the grade structure is necessarily so they can evaluate whether you know two grades can go in there three grades go in there but it it's really to assess the building itself the quality of the plant um so if we said three grades down the road that's not going to affect them they're going to study that nonetheless so I'm not sure if I answered your question uh you did enough that's fine yeah no I mean there's they're going to study the full range for that building um so there shouldn't be any change coming you know we either have two or we have three grades in there they're going to study both yeah I mean more so for the like uh the electrical water that kind of stuff like no matter what happens if it's two or three those plans wouldn't change no right that was my okay yeah so no no change of whatever else happens would affect those costs of the all right thank you oh yeah since the question fusibility how much the feasibility study cost this one is 128,000 128,000 so the questionability study now because we're going to do one we would need to do one if drove through would occur later yeah let me just uh there is no money for that so this this this is a building assessment yeah uh and this is the the price of this would be around 128,000 okay I have I want to just clarify three points number one I want to be certain that we would be able to withdraw The Proposal at any time if we did not like it correct if we did not want to go forward right if we changed our mind Jing time second point just because we submitted this year it's not guarantee that we will get approved this year right it might still be next year or or three years down the line right that's right there were last year there were 125 applicants was a handful of applicants that were selected no I just want to make questions the other the last point is if members of this committee do not support it will that weaken our proposal the msba looks for strongs Community Support so uh if there was a you know a split vote on the school committee that would not part the signal strongs in my view that's not what they'll okay thank you um you know we sort of jumped right in because we all know what msba is and we just started talking about it but I'm realizing that members of the public might not know what msba is or what we're actually applying for so can you recap from the start for folks that might know I just we're so used to just you know knowing the lingo and diving in so the msba is the mass School building authority which is the authority vested Massachusetts with helping schools either build new buildings or renovate existing buildings so essentially 1% of the sales tax that everyone pays for uh in Massachusetts goes to the school building authority and they then use the money uh to help districts across the state renovate or build new buildings thanks just might be help yeah in terms of in the past I think we've been around 39% reimbursement something like that it will vary on the project there's a lot of variance on the core renovation so it's a you know that that that level may be more applicable to The Accelerated repair program which is the roof program for the windows Etc on the core program which is for a brand new building or for renovation it depends on the town the town's economics uh the type of renovation whether it conforms to the guidelines that the msba is set up right so it can vary I I I just I I don't want to you know they it takes a year for the Architects ourselves in the msba to uh come up with the reimbursement formula so I want to be just a little bit careful about okay giving a range at this point because it can substantially vary and I'll give you a prime example building in brand new uh Junior High School uh for example instead of renovating warrant you would not be able to build an auditory with any funding they would give you Z of funding uh for that Auditorium so that would lower your reimbursement level when you think of the total cost of the building versus what they'll pay for so that's an example of things that will change that reimbursement percentage yeah nothing else it's good to know that for people to know that it's not the entirety of the cost it's it's a significant amount but not will get less than you know a major city that has different economics to it so did you have a question can I just get did I get this backstage straight 1% of our Mass sales tax goes to this organization yes yeah I had a quick question um the I know there's some intricacies with the reimbursement whatnot but does the msba give I guess the question is do they give less of a percentage for a new build versus a renovation poll or is the percentage about the same if it falls into like needs like classrooms and that kind of stuff not the extras so so let me answer the question rather than thinking about it in percentage terms they give a dollar amount per square foot so they give uh roughly I think it's around $550 uh per square foot for those part of the renovations that they accept in their plan right the reimbursement formula so if you're building a new building you know a a a new building can run anywhere from $800 to $1,000 a square foot so by building a new building they're giving essentially lower percentage because they're capping their uh formula at $550 a square foot whereas renovating a building maybe closer to $50 a square foot if you know what I mean okay so it's more expensive to build it new they their maximum amount they give is around $550 and so if you're build a new you're going to get less as a percentage of of the total cost is reimbursement the square foot reimbursement is the same but less of a percentage because the overall cost right because brand new buildings typically cost much more per square foot than a renovation all right thanks so I had put um having a discussion about this and also acting on it because I didn't know how many questions we were going to have I didn't know where everybody was at with what additional information they might need so if anyone would like to hold our vote until the next meeting we can do so but is there well let me just start with that is there anyone that would like to sit and and wait until our next meeting so correct me if if I'm wrong but following my colleagues um questioning am I correct in assuming there's no downside nor risk for us to move ahead with this is that is that correct um okay so is there a motion to oh sorry I I'm call the question you don't need to so is there a motion toit the letter of interest to msba for the renovation of great second I you guys that I just like to move it along any last discussion on it okay it's a roll call Mike you want to start us yeah Mike Halen yes krina Augusta yes M yes yes yes yes yes wel also yes that passes unanimously thank you so much and thank you guys for all the information so when that application is [Music] available all right more money talk presentation on the fiscal year 26 budget [Music] no it let meare want to send it to me I'll just I can try you have do you there's two people standing over there there's extra chairs you like to okay so we can move on this is our annual budget presentation that um that we do several times for you does anyone want to turn around and face it we're all going to be staring right um again um this is the budget presentation just the overview of the budget um just so to explain uh the budget process and how we go about I cannot talk that fast all right so um we always look at our um our uh framework for success and you know what are our goals for the district um most importantly we have to identify the student needs um so the budget is always built around um our students and what those needs are um related to that is uh the staffy needs um based on the student needs and then uh we align the budget uh with those priorities so um basically the budget is always built with the the student in mind um so we uh then have to identify um and resolve such a constraints uh which we will hear from Paul later on in the presentation um and we have to look with the multi-year um Outlook so it it can't just be year to year even though uh we only present one year at a time um know that we're always looking at multile uh years as as we're looking at this so um priorities to share um I will say that um the budget is tight and um Paul will share more about that later so um I'm not asking for anything uh new in the budget this year um I'm sorry once again Terry we keep hoping for our elementary um uh World Language um you know uh program to start um but I'm G to have to teach it myself I would love that now everyone heard that so um so you know so you know we often Identify some additional things that we might be able to add um but right now with the way that uh with the budget constraints you're going to hear we basically we're staying the course and so we're not asking for so basically we need to be fiscally responsible um you know while considering what the students needs are um that always comes first um so we're going to move on to the student enrollment um this year this all of this data is based on October 1 that is the data the official data that we um submit to so our official um enrollment per grade or per school you can see uh and it was a total of 2910 excellent um so this is just a little bit about our staff um the Staffing is um uh held pretty steady from last year we had 677 overall um 675 this year you can see the different categories um of where the Staffing is the one thing that you'll see new uh this year is that staff assistance and health assistance have been added into um Unit C with our teaching assistance so um changes in some of the numbers but um uh not not actually new just just a shift in the thir now um like always um you know give a shout out to our teachers and their educational levels um we have um experience uh first um you know we have the majority from um year six uh and above um although you will see our numbers slightly up with our years one to five so we're having some new teachers as well uh and then the educational L you can see um Masters and Masters plus uh the majority of our teachers um that's their education level so we're very proud of that can you just say Master's plus is for um so Masters would uh we have a master's plus uh 15 Masters plus 30 Ms plus 60 45 and then 60 and then our doctorate levels so it's the just the amount of continued education beyond the Masters um so the student populations um you can see here we've been presenting this for uh several years uh and you can see that it uh it varies some of the economically disadvantaged we have come down um slightly um from 45.6% last year to 4 1.2% um back to the levels of fy22 and um our multilingual Learners continue to grow as you can see back in fy20 was 4.4 um last year it was 6.9 and this year it has uh risen again to 7.8% population and then our students with disabilities um continues to rise as well back in uh fy20 uh it was 18.2 last year um was our highest at 23.2 and this year it uh continues to grow to 24% um just a little preference before I begin um just the uh on the revenue side I'm not going to spend a lot of time on tonight because there still in discussions with the town uh I'll make a couple comments on that U but as we come into January we did the presentation in January we'll give you updates on the revenue side but you have some preliminary figures in the budget I just want to say on for our purposes uh you know we expect no increase in the federal grants um we have expect some increase in the circuit breaker uh but overall funding would uh the grant side should remain the same so purpose really I wanted to talk about tonight is some of the uh some of the key factors that are affecting uh the budget and here's one of the uh you know the points that L was making earlier you know special population has continued to grow even though uh enrollment is coming down uh that means higher teachers higher uh number of Pas uh one8 uh as well as higher levels of other District tuition uh and transportation costs and when you combine that you can see what are you know within the budget this is one of the it's driving the budgets of every every school district in Massachusetts and frankly across the country but uh you can see in 2018 we had .894 million uh and expenditures for special education and uh and in 2025 we we estimate that that number will grow to 18 mil 116,000 so that's just one of the realities that we we deal with as the specially populations essentially has been growing significantly over the past few years um and in particular this is a uh you know the out District tuition expense uh can vary dramatically from year to year based on individual student needs and so let me just Define what inside a district tuition is that if a student a special need and that need can't be delivered here and educating that student here within the district uh then we send that student to a uh a specialized school that can provide for the education of that child and then we uh pay tuition based on that uh uh that school tuition so um this year to give you an indication uh we had uh initially budgeted $2.8 million for other District tuition uh with the needs of students developing through you know the first quarter of this school first three months of the school calendar year that other District tuition level has gone from 2.8 million up to 3.5 million so it's a significant increase from uh from where we estimated it and these are essentially new students being to schools off uh primarily off P um that is you know increased this need so uh it's not something easily uh predicted you know we take the population at a given point in time you know project that for the next year is adjustments made for students that are graduating uh you know but you may have students moving into a district you may have a need for a student develop within the course of the Year Etc that that s that number suddenly uh increases and that was the case last month that went from 2.8 million to 3.5 million so this is a significant impact not just on 26 but on this year so here's funding mechanism for that uh so the circuit breaker is our state reimbursement formula that they share um you know uh they paid for 75% of a cost that is over roughly round a dollar mon about 52,000 um so our circuit breaket for this year is 653,000 we have staff funding that takes some of that money uh from that uh circuit breaker that Specialized Staffing uh and then the 240 Grant is 850,000 uh that we use for uh other the district tuition our tuition budget line is a million 275 and then you get down to as you remember last April we drew down the stabilization fund for 825,000 with the permission of the to uh we used 188,000 of that money uh last year in last year fiscal year this year will be use the entire remaining portion of that which is the $636,000 so that leaves us a shortfall of$ 226,000 for this year so uh and if you go into uh fiscal year 26 the projection based on the student population that we have today uh would be 3 million5 roughly again very close to it uh the circuit breaker month will increase to million 36 um the grant will is essentially unchanged at 850,000 and the tuition budget line we we asked for an increase over 100,000 on this um there is room currently to draw down another 275,000 in the remaining funds in our existing stabilization uh fund uh but if uh we may actually have to do that this year if these numbers continue into January February so this is I I I just want to point this out that this is a pressure point for the budget both this year and next year it may require us to to again draw that stabilization Fund in April punish that station in April uh at the April town meeting so this is the heads up for that and uh these numbers are very sizable all right other uh budget realities for fiscal year 26 um and these are the non-salary budget increases that we need to account for first of all is our budget uh boxing expense uh is uh expect Transportation third party Transportation count is lucini that contract is out the b we expect that uh we'll have multiple bids on it but we're looking at potentially a 5% increase for the uh for the busing there's also $260,000 Lees uh from many buses and vans that we use to trans uh students uh that we now need to move that onto the budget uh so that total 370,000 you see there not District to I mentioned is we're going to grow this to line budget over the next few years U we put $100,000 because that's what we think we could bear for this year um the corresponding uh expense that goes along with uh students being uh uh educated outside the district but uh um is that we need to transport those students uh so our transportation cost is likely uh increase put $162,000 down here to C that additional cost um special ed contracted Services that's a therapeutic cost uh for students on a district uh above the tuition at 68,000 uh additional amount uh school supplies uh this a relatively small increase for school supplies and software Etc it's roughly 55,000 and the utilities uh are are going up um our gas natural gas pricing just uh did a two-year contract with the town with power options and the increase in that pricing will be 14% over those two years so that's built into that so all told the nonell increases that have to be built into the budget that we're uh proposing is roughly $830,000 it's a it's a significant amount um so with that uh uh you know we'll be we've in discussions in this town we've had several meetings our expectation is to come back to you in January and give you the full FL of what what the uh the bud sorry um so again clarification so the FY 26 projection for total out of District tuition is 3 million 4 how many students does that represent that would represent the the today's students which would be roughly today we have about 45 students out of the district uh net of the those students that would be graduating so I think uh there are six or seven that might be graduated next year however it does not take into account any new uh students that we may have during the course of the Year someone moving into the district for example and is especially so it's it's based on the current population net of those who might be gradua so let's just keep our 44 yeah that's typically okay and then of those 44 how many if you don't know off the top of your head that's okay um get back to me but how many are going today programs versus residential programs uh my things I just wanted be little be careful about we don't go too far down questions I I'm asking just because it puts into perspective the um the significant impact that that population that those those students which we have to provide free uh an appropriate education for but that's um a significant portion of the budget and there's little that we can do about it yeah that's true that I just had a quick just clarifying question um what's the difference between day and it and residential is that if a student is living like at the facility that's right thank you actually I was wondering those same questions and I'm wondering if um Sandy or someone could come in and just give us a little education more about what that is where they go what kind of needs they have not to go into their privacy issue of course but like an overview yeah like when you take someone out of the district and you're transporting them where are they going and what are they needing and I just don't know anything about that yeah um had another meeting and then I had a couple questions about the initial um so for the teachers with the years of experience and I was just wondering for six to 10 years of experience we have a low number and I was wondering if that's an attention issue we have a lot of new new teachers and a lot of teachers have been here for more than 11 years is there any problem in those mid years of their career that were losing teachers or is that not representative of a problem at all no it's not we have teachers that um to come instead we're very fortunate that that we have very few teachers that that lead so um Cycles retirement Cycles will affect that more than anything okay just coincidental um and then for economically disadvantaged students I was I kind of was trying to figure out how what we how we classify economically disadvantaged and I'm assuming we use des's standard yes um these are all Des because they don't use free lunch anymore as a standard um so I was wondering since it's increased so much is that related to co and since it's coming down this year a little bit do we anticipate that the trend might continue to go down to preo levels or any idea about that these are the um they changed the the the title so economic disadvantage it was called for a while it's also low income um you know so I I mean that's that's our you know residents and whether they qualify or not oh no I'm just wondering as a as a district we seem to have we've increased in the amount of students who qualified so I'm wondering that if anybody has any idea if that's directly correlated to co and whether it might come back down that we had a shift in the um what qualifications our there were it was a few years back um I I don't remember what year I think it was 2021 Katrina if you see the big jump uh the state had CH the definition they change the definition and guidelines as to qualified for that right from 29 and half to 33 it was kind of big jump around that time and it was because state hadif that response to to do so we've been seeing um so this is five years but this trend goes past 5 years so I think if we were to take this back 10 years or even 15 we would see the steady it's just that it happens to it's just a snapshot yeah but it's weird because it happens to be the the years since Co so it's hard to you don't have the same pers we might want to actually add more years for that normally 5 years would be plenty but because we have the weird Co outlier it's hard to separate that and they Chang the qualifications right at the same moment so that's um and then kind of a similar question I guess about students with disabilities it's just gone up so you know seemingly dramatically in fiveyear Span and I was wondering if there was any more information about what kind of disabilities are being diagnosed and is there a trend of you know are there more ADHD cases or oppositional client cases are there more behavioral disorders trending here in this increase is there any breakdown of this that would show just out of interest um you know are we getting an increase in in a certain area or is there no interesting data within that snapshot I with that specific data I really do not want to make that comment without looking at I can certainly follow up and give you a report but I'd rather pull the actual data before I okay make I'm just asking uh kind of in light of these fouth and behavior issues in general um and the increase here I was just curious um I might suggest the same thing for these for the students with disabilities and multi we go back a few more years I mean I know we have it yes seen the presentation it's always five years but because of give more perspective maybe comparing it to some other schools I'm sorry to make people do all this work but I mean in isolation what does that say I mean I think if you want to do couple of their Cape schools or Statewide or something if this is going to be a major P presentation like I said I don't like to add for [Music] TOS one other question is um do does msba take into account the number of students who are economically disadvantaged when they are awarding funding yes they do the Dynamics the demographics of so an increasing number over time that's right and that's one of you know so the you know the more that population higher the population more reimbursement in terms of budget Realties significant of non-budget salary budget increases this is just assumtion could be yes okay so this assumption they could go over the 830,000 that's right okay I wouldn't make the Assumption on the down side but I would definitely say that well that's why I'm concerned about the upside not the downside question okay um all right so we'll have another update at our January meeting when we know more about revenue and and then I can't remember is it the next meeting after that that we vote for Bud yes we have two more two more on budget so oh you're still on director we have a an update um on Food Service funding which I have to say I'm reallying for know a lot about just briefly this is the um uh just updated the service uh the level of funding that we receiving uh this is our p&l for the Food Service uh through November but let me CAU you we've not yet received a reimburse for November uh but we if you look at the bottom of the page you'll see our starting balance to the Food Service account was 1,316 uh and to the far right you can see our balance right now is MIL 55 you can increase that by about 160,000 when we receive no urement um so we're actually in very good shape is the point of this uh if you if you look at August for example uh the second from the bottom number a total loss of around 70,000 that's as we're restocking you know resupplying all the kitchens and so on and there's also uh some capital expenditure for dishwashers uh uh ovens uh refrigerators Etc that goes in there so there's some Distortion in the August numbers for that but uh the point of this with the new staff with the uh additional staff with the uh add changes in the menu and so on we're in very good shape for Food Service uh just so people have an idea um we roughly get uh around $4 to student just uh in reimbursement for the federal government uh and state government the state prob to small um our participation rate uh those students that are actually taking breakfast and taking uh uh lunch uh has gone up significantly and that's a huge goal that uh we had Dr door set and uh made the changes at the end of last year uh to give you an idea we've gone from roughly 40% participation level our goal is to get to 60% which is considered to be a very healthy number for school district we are right there where uh in levels of participation so we you know so we're hope to be at the 60% by the end of this year can you say what those changes are like what has is it just the quality of food it's the the change in the food the kids are more involved um you know in you know able toest we have the the monthly Harvest now yeah um so there's there's definitely a shift in in the in the in the food but we're we're seeing up direct correlation this year and making it more f for like breakfast putting uh you know putting it out there say walk in they can grab and go uh rather than you know decour to your cafet and this month was is carrots I think I mentioned that when I was thing so we had um the carrot cake um which was different I quite delicious and now we're having a carrot Curry over chicken and think that's Thursday because I'm on one of I had R reviews from several six and seven year olds at Mullen hall yesterday about the cake like cake cake cake so they're going to have curry chicken on Thursday um I'm pretty sure it's it's either tomorrow it is Thursday right I thought it was th myal to go Thursday um I mean it's all the schools it's not necessarily all the same day I'll let you know yeah but no I think there you know it's just the you know we're introducing new new items um uh every you know trying every week to have something new but definitely the Harvest of the month around you know so great yeah um so I'm guessing that the revenue lines for the cafeteria revenue is just extras because everything is free right lunch is free so is this when people buy extra things go back and if they buy a second portion or they buy they want two right can you said $4 per student reimbursement from the state is that day per per is that the state or the federal that's the federal that's Federal we also get it from the state right yeah it's state in pennies okay the federal all pennies up we'll take them yeah we'll take take all the pennies other questions about lunch this is great it's so helpful to take these deep dives into like small pieces of the budget I really appreciate it so will the federal government start start deducting because AR there eight states that do free lunch in the nation now is it is it just eight states that do not give free l no that that give free lunch yes so the government's probably going to take away money from those eight states wouldn't you think we praying that they do [Music] okay well you're going to be here fig we'll make it worth your while these are uh so Qui up thing on our go four action plan which is OS that we set up couple months ago and U and let me just uh highlight a couple of those continue to grow uh opportunities to educate students on environmental schoolarship and sustainable practices explore and improve new and existing strategies to reduce waste increase energy efficiencies through exploration of electric buses and opportunities solo options and the final goal was uh improve healthy uh schools through a partnership with farming F to bring fresh nutritious food to the breakfast and lunch program and improve green spaces at the school so let me just quick update um you know one of the things that we're doing environmentally reduce our carbon footprint here describe it uh the other week um us at La school when we met uh We've uh cut down on the occupied times at the school for when we heat the building up um and we've been able to shave several aisles at each School uh so that we don't bring a building from say 60 Dees to 70 degrees to early and waste the energy in doing that um so far with that you know cutting down of several hours who've actually outside of the admin building had no complaints a few complaints with the admin building because the boiler actually broke fixed but uh but we have no haven't had any complaints so that strategy is working that could have a significant uh impact uh a positive impact uh on us the other uh item I to mention here our action plan is that we've engaged with power options uh and theic uh they are the Consultants that help us plan through how to get to the point of electrification of our Fleet so this would be a long-term plan uh they now have the data on our Fleet internal Fleet uh as well as the bus RADS from uh lucini uh this is a Consulting contract that is doesn't cost us anything it's part of the uh uh the federal program uh uh Biden's um infrastructure program um and it's piday for them so they are consults we've hired them to do this work uh U so that's that project has been launched uh and we're ready to uh go to the town on in the April town meeting uh we had the language for what we would need to put forth the solar project we'll probably name three schools North found with East and uh the high school [Music] is schools for parking campes covered parking Camp so we'll be ready for that opportunity once all the Dynamics uh and uh and access to the uh the U you know Electrical uh electrical system is allowed we'll be able to put these projects forth and have Sol projects for our schools no sound this to talk um and and the last bll point was the healthy schools part fing Sal L mentioned we had kale and carrots with the two vegetables that we had they were sourced locally uh K was fromet Farm uh and the cars were from Peak Tree Circle par I think uh actually you're right paron and I think Peak Tree Circle is next month is going to be apples so um both of those big success so beond [Laughter] [Music] finet it's good it's good so um will we need then to have um on our agenda something for the warrant or whatever the April so that's prob January as well okay okay good any questions on go four let me just say just give a shout out to the Food Service uh to the whole group they've done a phenomenal job to to see those changes and participation you see the excitement in the menus uh the staff has been you know you know not it's really been working High really deserve a lot of credit for that it must be so satisfying for them to know that so many more kids are y yeah are enjoying lunch now that they're making it instead of defrosting it awesome thank you thanks Paul all right Henry you ready my goodness I'm ready upate us absolutely um I have that [Music] work not working did I not do that right I think it's yeah it's mine and I was hoping that so I'm gonna try that again boomy is that it all right so um I would love to say that the three out of the four people that were sitting out here for the um the mass Mari time uh three of them uh were dealing with uh with me in diversity and I got to talk to Miss Campbell about getting her daughter involved because uh all three uh two of went to uh did went and and did held a banner for the juneth uh juneth Banner this uh on this Sunday as well as Dylan and Travis should have been there but he not Lucas should have been there but uh he had to work but he's now a member of our um student uh advisory so those four students I gotta work on Campell but those four students were fantastic and I want to just make a shout out for them um when we talk about making uh my vision is bom the Beloved uh Community I've always wanted to make sure that what are the barriers for keeping people from doing that that's that's the Dei work is like what is it that what what prevents people from excellence and so that's what we've been doing and I'm going to just talk about three different uh things goal two you did goal four I'm goal two I should have been first but that's okay so we'll talk about a a quick update and goal two I have two members here of my um B diversity Council uh Mr M I'm glad that you're here and you stay stay with me I'm so GL and Miss Baker is here as well as uh members of the council and then uh we're all celebrating so F 250 will be we'll be talking about that as well uh so when we did our audit we found out that an issue that we had was that our schools that means teachers staff parents they basically said that our reporting schools reported that code of conduct needs to be applied more fairly and equable to all students and so when we talked about how we're going to do this what we decided was that our system that our system to address those things were not we're not um we're not um unified and they're not conforming so what with the update I'm giving you is that I've been working individually with um principles and assistant principal and actually collectively and we're just talking about how we're going to line it up how we going to make sure that by the end of this year we're ready to have a unified uh system so that in the future we can start looking at any kind of barriers so that's that's been going on even today was a good uh session with um some Elementary uh um administrators so that is just letting you know that we're we're going forth on this the council um which I'm please members from the my Council can speak up on this we've always said our motto is To raise the value of diverse voices within um public schools and we want to make sure we're doing that I love the reason that we're doing diverse um diverse voices is that uh we want all schools to reflect that uh students belong there because we feel that belonging Fosters achievement but I'm not doing this for for if I'm not doing it for achievement or Excellence I I'm wasting my time but this is our our goal is that we want high achievement for all students we want Inspire Excellence for all students so so that's the reason that we're doing this and so our plan for our Council has been uh we want a pathway success program which is um mentoring we're talk about the little more board basically our alumni coming back and telling them their story of success and that inspires our students to say yes I can do that um and also we have a mentor Mentor coming in and talking to students and so we did a couple of things this year and I could believe look at look at Mr Matthew up there I can't believe I had you guys already up there last time so one of our goal was um to talk about U providing diversity in a sense of um choice and um and so what we did is we felt that we need to make sure that HBCU are elevated so that uh students can have a good choice to do that and by the way any student can um apply and go into it um but we want to make sure that we have presentation to our stud students and say hey this this is this is an actual um opportunity for you and so uh Travis you came up M you came up and you talked to our kids last year we had 10 kids this year we had 20 and I I'm hoping for more more the next year so we've seen that progress uh this year was a good time to do that and not only did we talk about that but then later we actually said all right we talked about it it sure was so awesome that in our college fair in October uh we had last year zero this year we have five uh historically black College University that came in there uh they were uh there and we see them as good mentors possibly to talk to our kids that say if I'm going to choose this school um we have a network of individuals that could talk to students and say listen I can help you with uh with your essay I can help you with that um so we have this network of people that can help kids it's another option give an option to do uh to do excellence in uh areas yes come on you know you want to speak this Baker she's like I don't want to speak but no I I just want first of all Yes I need to correct for the record as a co-chair oh I try to make her chair for this but I'm going to own it I but one of the things that we some many of our kids of color are are also financially struggles so applying to colleges is very difficult HBCU have a program where you have one common app it goes out to 51 different universities in the HBC pathway so that was important for them to get this information I've been trying to get HBCU at the college fair for 10 years and thanks to the math when I'm just a chance meet meeting and it happened we were able to bring this to fruition this year and we hope to continue it we we've got the guidance department on board with us wonderful we had a wonderful meeting during the lockdown but got a lot of information shared with them because one of the first things was related was well all of them are so far away that's not absolutely true we've got HBCU in Far North as is Lincoln University which is in several in Pennsylvania in Delaware they're not all south of Mason Dixon line and I had to share that with an individual let you know um I my own daughter got accepted Spellman CH not to go there but she got accepted spell but um she had a thing for she didn't want to be in Atlanta but this represent we had seven that accepted but we only had five that showed that day um we had University we had Morgan State Clin is where the maps are from um we had this gentleman's from Southern so my cousin came she's on the cake and she I didn't know until last year she was from Lincoln which is in Pennsylvania so we're hoping to include more next year um and grow this also I'm in touch with the United Negro College Fund who they know early enough they would like to join us next fall so I the earlier I can get a date the soon and what we can do and Morgan State is in Maryland so we have some contacts with with them so that that's been very successful our next uh what we've done last year we've had these pathway success and I I mentioned before we haven't had the first one yet but this week will be our first one and what it is is basically uh alumni comes back uh Alum divers one I comes back and says Hey listen let me give you a let me give you my story and we get students right students to hear their story and say yeah I can do this you're you're from this area I'm from this area I'm a diverse student you're a diverse uh lumni and we can do it so it's been very good who's this uh who's this week this weekend we have the granddaughter of Emma Barrow um Raquel Lo and we've also had her sister couple years before Co we had Michelle malado came and she's a state rep in Virginia so she she came in did one um this week it's Rael is an acupuncturist so I'm I'm going to be there but we also we do this um um through Zoom for several people our very first one was in Te from Texas and it was um um Jerry Palmer who's an 85 graduate of balet who went to morous and he went to um Howard and he works for TV one if you know Black Entertainment Television um and then he turned around and decided after all of this he wants to be a lawyer so at the age of 50 he decided to go to law school and he shared that with the students and he says you can change your path anytime you want it's just what you decide to do and that was a zoom and we had we had a full Auditorium that um and at the high that was at the high school we've done three now at lawen and this will be our fourth and then we're going to start back at the high school this coming um Year we're Alo bringing in the Bela twins I don't know if any they're going to come and share for the you know Native American in their pathway and what they the work that they do um we've had uh Briana Johnson who graduated in 2010 um I can't think she's in her 30s now she was my former student in sixth grade I've had she I got to get a brother next but she um shared the business world she she's in the business world and and her pathway that way and she was also um on on the zoom call but she had a whole present because that's what she does she does organiz organizing entertainment and corporate entertainment for her she works for Squarespace and so when they want to get somebody like she was at Red Sox game with 20 clients and her grandmother but you know kind of that kind of word and so she explained what that was um we had Christine Pina who didn't graduate from com high school but went through found high school until lawence but um she works she's the third command at Porter smithp School in in Connecticut which is I don't know if if you know it's a very well known um girls school and she's the kind who can pick up the phone and call Oprah and say can you be here and Oprah will be there um she can get blood from the stone she's the fundraiser she she's in charge of the they I she drove me past one of her B $2 billion um building that she raised the money for for their new um cafeteria Wing so we've had across the board different different uh lots of different people we're going to have Bill and Stephanie Andre that the high school February February February and Bill of course is a retired teacher and and Stephanie now is at Lawrence say an adjustment counselor so we're trying all different areas all different Pathways but one of the things is to let kids know that you too can do this and the one message that all of them seem to give us all is you need a good support system turn to the people that you trust and if you've got a dream it can be realized it may not be the easiest path but we'll help you get there absolutely absolutely fantastic and and and so the the ask I want to make sure I get uh to add to it the ask might be um if you know anyone alumni diverse background is you know not um I would love to have him that come back and talk and that'd be a nice it's a nice uh situation so that's an Ask uh anything on the uh on your presentations and uh you know you did that mini presentation even though he didn't have a full but just talking about you going into uh the historic of black University that was that was actually a nice little this is what you could do too any any um was that was that pretty good or um nothing to really add other than um the date of the college fair and the high school coincided with an event that is held for HBCU in Boston so that was the reason why why we could not get more participation because there were about three schools that wanted to come down to family but were committed to that event on the same day so they couldn't come down so I don't know if something could be done we as far as plan you know the next year good but bookending their event would be great so that we got to work on that we definitely work so that's you know we're doing stuff I'm so glad we have Community Partners so to me can tell me where I'm going on so I'm so glad for that um and then again uh we're celebrating we are celebrating all the time we want to be fantastic uh the found 250 as you know is a uh town uh Community Center you need to lead all the celebrations uh I'm liaison in there and they said we can't have celebration without kids that's I love how they said we can't have celebration about kids and so they want to find out what are ways that we can engage our kids uh there stories there some fantastic stories that we can talk about kids being involved in uh there and so uh this Sunday I was not only looking at juneth Banner but I was also Lor can can verify but she was with me I we also at the uh F 250 banner and the kids held the banner and that was kind of cool to say this is the beginning I don't think this is the only thing we'll do other things but let's start let's get the banner uh that's incredible I like to point out oh can you see it there's a if you haven't never seen the uh the the symbol we have here there's a person rowing this is a story we're gonna have to figure out I'm G not tell you right now but we're going to tell the story this is a Young Elementary School age boy and he's the polar R of found so what be talking about I want kids to know that story and say hey uh age doesn't matter you're going to fight for Freedom let's do that I feel like in in uh in F we have people fighting for Freedom like at all ages and I want to have that happen so that's going to be a great story stay tuned we'll get you some more and that's that's all about me thank you any questions thanks H I love it ter I was glad you mention Emma Baris she was quite a woman or a principal Legacy with her kids so the principal that was here is that Mr bar the principal at the T ticket Elementary that was out George SP no no way back when this was in elementary school my husband attended school here um the principal's name was Mr Barrow no well hers without the on Barrow but we we also have her bio someplace we can look it up and I text her daughter all the timea I want to say one thing austa yes you were on my interview committee when I first came to F I'm Happ that job thank you thank you for your years of service aw I'm sorry it took you 10 years to get to where you are now a lot of it is just conversations and language and the way that came up it was very organ I ran into Mr M's wife China at another vent in cayenne and we were just sitting there chatting and she says I live in fman and I what and so then she then I didn't even because I had been retired so I didn't even know she was at one point a town uh F School employe MH um cuz she ran the schoolagy program and work coach it but I didn't know them so because now now we're all family but so in her what she was doing that day we brought that to F you know trying to bring that emate that and she you're very helpful and SP all because I got to meet these wonderful people um yeah I just had a question you know in terms of kind of the equity audit is this kind of based on evaluating the schools based on like support that's out there for all the students in terms of how they're treated is that what kind of the basis of the equity was comprehensive it was comprehensive many different things it was the the surveys the the different groups and so they they brought them all together and said this was one of the equity uh concerns and we said let's that's a good one to address so that's the one we address this this year okay okay um and so I was just wondering if so in terms of a unified system so they were finding where things weren't unified across was it across all the Four elementary schools or between kind of Middle District um and so you know were they also looking at you know in addition to race kind of gender identity sexual orientation kind of uh mental emotional physical ability like was is that all part of the equity AUD in terms of and that's and be able to determine uh what barriers might be in that you know we we deal with the system of identifying um any kind of U referrals so we can say any any kind of biases that way so yeah we are looking at each one and at the end of the whatever we do we our goal is that we it's not predictable that we can determine oh this is these are the people that supended that's what I want right now it is PR but we want at the end of our whenever we do go one and go go one and and say that the place found is a belonging place and we're going to make sure that kids are supported in whatever can be so that's that's part of the version okay last questions for and team awesome thank you so much apprciate it thank you guys appreciate you [Music] superintendent thank you so I want to um Begin by thanking the U Town Meeting members um for um I mean it went on the blanket so uh the support that we continue get um you know meeting after meeting year after year uh from the town is so important and so as you know we're focused on our uh the renovation of laws and that's a major um ask um um we are paying attention to every single school and the needs and that's what goes into the capital budget and we'll continue to do that um so that's extremely helpful and so appreciate um that the town supporting us and one of they ask just as a reminder um that you approved was the um $150 ,000 to redo the uh project Adventure at the high school um and we have um I have to tell you between the project Adventure which is the only School in the cake and one of the few across Massachusetts that has project Adventure uh I mean it's it's a really nice offer and the kids love it it's um you know it's not only the the course that they have to take once but there's a lot of electives uh in that course and um you know and and also for the PE department since we're talking I know tonight's a big big event over there but um the the PE Department we have a state-of-the-art Wellness Center and you know it's just we we have a lot of offerings at our high school and I just um but for the town to support not only all the maintenance issues um that we have across the district but to um to be able to redo um a very popular um uh PE uh offering at the high school um you know was 30 years old it need to be redone um you know safely and be able to move forward but anyway thank you town meeting members um and of course it always starts right here the school committee members so thank you appreciate that um next I want to um uh talk about um our safety coordinator so Paul stefanelli um has resigned um he is moving uh South to warmer weather um so we can't hold back for that but um but uh he um so he's already he's already moved but before he left um we had a interviewing team um PA Dart was part of it and Paul stefanelli and um and some others and um we interviewed and we uh were able to hire a new safety coordinator um that just started um last week and uh so Mike Harley is our new safety coordinator uh he is a retired police chief from well Fleet um he also was recently SRO uh at NSA um he um is experience um specific experience um extensive experience I should say in crisis management uh to mitigate risk experience in investigations and um to be able to provide training so we're very happy to have Mike cley with us uh so we were very fortunate um we'll miss Paul Paul was a great addition to um the school district um and we think that Mike's going to be a awesome addition as well call was part time full time part time a lot of that has to do with retirement I justar yes thank you so much for U mentioning the wellness center of the high school which is absolutely amazing and the project Adventure course it's actually more than 30 years old I know that because my freshman year no compliment so um the project adventure of my freshman year was required by all freshman and um we had to take it in the fall and in the spring and then through the years it had since uh grown and um you know several years later I can tell you for example my husband took it every single quarter humanly possible um he loved it so much and I know that there are have been um dare I say a generation I guess of students that have completely loved it so I love that there uh the opportunity is still there for students I love that coach degy is really embracing this um I love that uh we are um not just updating it but also expanding it and um I'm I'm grateful for the land that we have back there I'm grateful for the program I'm grateful for the instructors that we have so thank you for highlighting that um high school has a lot of things to offer and um that's a big one so so at one point the school committee visited it years ago and a few brave souls so we'll let the younger ones a field trip coming on that sounds very fun scary to look at let alone put your foot on it it's all I didn't get a chance to read my sports section yet what is the event tonight that you mentioned there was some big event at the beginning um so tonight at the high school um the eighth graders so as our student advisor had mentioned um the eighth grade students go and they have um you know just a lot of the programs that they get to be yeah learn about as eighth graders okay I thought you say sports event was but I am getting ready to talk about sports um so I don't know why I can't project but I had this picture to project but um this is silus bner so then I'll tell a story but um meet silus okay so he is a junior um he is the cross country Champion division 2 Champion um this year he um ran in the Foot Locker National Championship qualification run he uh made the top 10 for all of uh New England and he qualified for the national race in San Diego um on December 14th so he is headed to San Diego to run so um an excellent R I just have to give a sh that that's just huge to to be the the state champ and and move on to the National so AES that's great okay so what do um I have um pass around all right so this is um so this is really special and uh next Tuesday night and we do not have a school committee meeting so next Tuesday night um at um the gallery on Maine uh we have our High School uh AP Literature and AP art uh studio art students uh so they it will be a reception um if you can't make the reception um the their work will be displayed for a while but the reception is always nice because you get to talk to the students and they get to explain their you know creativity and how they get so it's it's a very special event so I just wanted to give a shout out to that are they reading TOS can I actually yeah you want to yeah so I've been on this trip many times and um I was on this trip this year and so this trip was a I actually mentioned it at our last meeting it was a um it was AP Bio AP English and AP art and uh they go and they look at we went to the New York City Natural History Museum we went to a um um Broadway play and Juliet and uh walked through Time Square Etc and the students based on their experience and what class they are in whether it's AP Bio art or English they can either um write a poem or story uh do a a piece of art or um I believe and I could be wrong on this a small project on like a bio project that was a new piece this year so I'm not entirely I'm looking forward to what um the students um present next week at the gallery because the bio portion was new this year but um it was very exciting the kids were so engaged it was a beautiful day in New York City um they the weather was [Music] gorgeous [Music] were um the kids had lots of questions they were engaging they were you know speaking to the dosin they were managing themselves they I mean excellent group of students excellent instructors I can't say enough about it and if School community members have not volunteered on any of these trips you should because they again they FF and to the amazing instructors and thanks for asking and FF um supports us I was asking about the format I'm planning to drag a three and sixy old so um and then just REM this is H our winter concerts um so more fond is tomorrow night um the all all four elementary schools will see all schools Elementary concert is next Monday Lawrence is Wednesday uh and um the high school is um Thursday so just reminder they're wonderful um and just hope you can J thank you thank you so much um can I also say that um I want to give a compliment the Christmas parade I shout out to Dr dor and um Miss Sosa for being in the prade but the Highlight for my family and Melissa oh [Music] did it was you were all bundled up um but I the Highlight for all of my family were the marching B great so um thank you for mentioning that and this year um I think it's been 5 years since U moris Pond is actually launched and I don't know if you noticed the little the small drums so these are new this is the first time they've U marched uh in the parade and we um these are the drums that we worked hard last year to get and uh so that um they could actually the drummers could actually March in the band there was over 100 Kids uh at the mors pond and it was it was amazing I just want to shout out um but you know the other schools were always there but it was nice to see um Mor P back into the yeah you know they they keep marching too so I know at least one um student that graduated who was in the marching band at pal High went to M MH and was in the the Thanksgiving the Thanksgiving thade yeah it was great you could actually you could actually see them yeah it was right in the front y so they keep marching long after the the mor SP christas uh okay great moving on let's do some routine business we have the minutes from November the 12th um and November the 18th is the copy that had an edit and it was the one that was at your seat so is there a motion to approve the November 12th minute I'll Melissa is your second thanks Terry any um any edits or great H it's a roll call Vote Yes krina yes yes the yes yes yes yes and so yes that's unanimous thank you so much and then for the um November 28th um 18 that's a thank you the one that are at our seat the 18th there a motion for those moel and Terry you want the second sure thank you discussion on the 18th um I had one tiny edit I don't know Shar I guess it didn't get into the print but is it in the final second the motion to tery Terry to approve inop oh one was our great Mike first yes AUST yes okay yes they pass um with one exension oh my yes well and reports anybody have a report chry okay um from VIPs I will say the student of the month is named Robert sinins and it will take me a half an hour tell you everything pass to Rob awesome and um last week I went to a retirement party of Patty Malone Patty Malone I think it's 44 it's 40 plus years worked at um B and so someone with that many years deserves some recognition guidance dep Department and um the kids that she helped get their paperwork in um you everybody who has teenagers get the college Stu she would harass them more than parents she really deserves a shout out if you haven't read the article um go to the website because there's an article in her um that Sarah Murphy wrote thank you get all the details 43 44 was amazing thank you any other reps the uh I went to the tech meeting to teach for learning um we in that meeting divided into two groups one of them was discussing Ai and I was not in that group The Tech Tool library was my discussion um they were trying to create a crossover guide and a resource for students all the way from P to 22 years old teachers substitutes Tas parents so that everyone would understand the tools we have and how to use um and so the the three steps that they decided to do next was onboarding um making a onepage guide so that everybody you walk into the classroom you can have a little printed guide for I think like five they had like five programs that they were thinking would be the top ones that it would be good to have everybody to have access to um and then ongoing education for teachers maybe doing teex bites which is something I guess they used to do they would email it out a little um summary of a lesson or description of how to use something or at a staff meeting they were talking about having someone stand up and have a little presentation about how to use a tool and then 5 minutes for everyone to try it on their computer um and also then adding um education about new tools and features for teachers so they can get updated the AI group decided they wanted to make a survey about um AI for teachers so we can figure out what issues and concerns and questions the teachers have um and I for myself I mean I learned so much during the meeting because I don't know about the tools that are in the school um so I always learn a lot but um I was surprised to find out that the well someone told me one of the meetings um that the Tas the teachers assistants don't have any formal training or on boarding before they're in the classroom and so the um feeling of the person speaking to me was that they make mistakes or they don't know how to use the tech tools and maybe a kid doesn't want to do something and they'll say I don't know how to use this or it's not working and then the person's like oh okay so they were suggesting um maybe one thing we could do for them was to have them attend a tech meeting and we could do a little training for them during the tech meetings um so that's was a good meeting thank you any other there was a wellness committee meeting at Lawrence but I came to the wrong site because I don't read my emails that well but I want to remind everybody about the wellness fair at the high school in March and he may have other things that happened uh we talked about um using the social media more um and um putting out um little clips about what we do for social emotional learning um so it's all on the website so we we have that up that's been one of the the goals of the and accomplished it's on the website but not necessarily sure everyone goes to the website to read everything but if we took every you know like little clip every so often and put it in the and and kind of get people back to the website that would help and then the other thing around um the nutrition is being able to put out on our um social media um a picture of you know some of the meals and then um and then give a little clip about that so those are two things we're going to start increasing on social media if you get the word out about what what we're doing we'll help Mike in his kale recipe that he's looking for that was such a good idea we we do actually have that recipe um so we are starting that um the the chef's corner and we're getting all the recipes that she's creating oh good so but we do have that recipe if anyone wants it because it was very good awesome Yes um last Wednesday we had a deib town advisory meeting and as part of that um there was a presentation by Joe FAO um I believe he's with the town of BP boun County Human Services Department um and he gave a presentation on um a website that they set up uh called network of care where organizations can can join and there's a vetting process I think his Department kind of vets it um anyone you know looking to offer any kind of support services um and such and um yeah I think it was more in the interest where the de committee was looking to be a part of it in terms of a supportive organization um but I fig it'd be a good opportunity just to mention that out there for people looking for support as well um just yeah any any kind of services some like there was a large large list so just wanted to mention um negotiations is ongoing um we have a meeting tomorrow and the only other thing wait isn't tomorrow oh yeah no Thursday I just don't know what day the week it is yeah tomorrow is not th we're going to we're going to theond concert tomorrow night first Junior hoey and the only other thing I had was to make sure you um scheduled your mid cycle meeting Sharon had sent out a list of times for those sign up Lots open still so get I couldn't open it for some reason okay send you separately we'll pick it up me get your pick if you go in quick yeah there you go all right um any ask thanks okay great so um I'll make a motion to move into executive session with just to strategy sorry be request for information oh sorry um it's not there it's usually lump together with I was just that um person I'm forgetting his name who has emailed us several different times about the parking and the students driving and the buses you just wrote back is Jeff yeah Jeff um I was wondering if anyone could come back to a meeting with information about other districts that have um his email was about students par driving and parking at the school instead of taking the buses and having the empty buses and Terry responded very well but it made me curious if there are other districts like you said that have a pay to park scheme for their high school students um to encourage using the buses so I was wondering if anyone knew anything more about that we used to do it but we decided not do it I mean because having a car is such a privilege it seems like segment of so okay but I'm going to just pause us there because we can't discuss it it's notest for information yeah I will follow thank you no problem okay uh any lastest yeah I think at the conference it was mandated that we have to have a a seat bus service we just can't discuss it tonight because not agenda so we can bring it back another time all right so I make motion to move into executive session with respect to strategy for litigation purpose three with Faba units a b c and d and to strategy in regard uh to bargaining for FDA units a b c and d having these discussions in Open Session might have a detrimental effect on school committee's litigating and bargaining positions school committee will not return to public session thank you all for coming second it's a rollen yes and yes that pass unanimously so we're in executive um Mike we're gonna jump off this link and send you okay by email