it being 6:30 p.m. on Monday June 10th 2024 I'll hereby call the regular meeting of the garden of school committee to order and ask the clerk to please call the role Mrs Cormier president Mrs Hurst pres Mr lafrenier present Mrs W Leighton present Mrs pavin pres Mr warts present mayor Nicholson present and Mark pelo present and the student rep is absent all present thank you very much at this time please rise to the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Ali un united states to stands Nation indivis with Li and justice for all thank thank you very much uh we will note for the record that due to a technical difficulty this meeting will not be broadcasted live but it is being recorded and will be later broadcasted on Channel 8 GV and posted to the city's YouTube page uh our first item on the agenda is open time for the general public is there anyone here from the general public who wishes to be heard seeing uh none moving on to item C recognitions by the superintendent for the fourth grade student council for 2023 2024 Dr Pino [Applause] um so school committee U this is one of my favorite um meetings where we really get to recognize some of our leaders in the district um some of our student leaders um our these are our fourth graders who are on the student council and they've been lucky enough to actually hopefully most of them have been in the new school now for two years um so they've gotten that um that experience of new school um but what's um now they're going up to the um the middle school next year so these folks we really want to recognize them because typically they do a lot of work this particular group did a lot of work a lot of very significant projects um actually um this is Miss T chinsky um she's actually could you um tell a little about about some of the projects they did sure so I am one of the co-advisors Christine rer is the other co-advisor she wasn't able to make it tonight but some of the projects that they were able to do is they did a food drive they did a toy drive they did a blanket drive so they did three drives this year uh they also helped a parent teacher conferences they helped with the PBIS Carnival last week with the younger grades they made uh positive pouches for PBIS they also just oh we had a lunch with the mayor at dun's Park um and they were student helpers in classes prek through grade three um um just helping with academics and assisting in the classroom so I think they deserve a round of applause first of all and what would like to do now is um recognize them with a certificate for their um for their hard work Dr Pino while you get the certificates ready I will say from that lunch that we had at dun Park I was very impressed by all of the questions uh that the students asked about the city uh they were a lot more detailed than I would have asked when I was a fourth grade student and I was very you know proud and impressed of uh each and every one of you who's in this room so thank you very much and keep that work up when you move up uh to the middle school and continue here at uh you know Gardener public schools and wherever you go to after we've got a great really bright group of students in this room right now I'm really proud of you all thank you go ahead thanks so when I call out your name what I'd like you to do is just come up and receive your certificate get used to this because you're probably going to be doing this a lot your time with guard of public schools especially being the leaders that you are the way you receive your certificate every hold it right hand right right that's the hand that you shake my hand with left hand you take the certificate with so I'm going to hand you the certificate you grab the certificate we shake hands so get used to that because it's probably going to happen a lot in the next several years and for the parents and guests who are here too after the certificates are given out the meeting will take a brief recess we'll gather out in the hallway and take a group picture together too all right um so now and I might not pronounce your names properly rest assured when you graduate from Gardener Public Schools we will call up your name absolutely correctly so I apologize and you can correct me and make fun of me when you come up here if I if I script your name okay so the first person I'd like to call is jcece Del [Applause] valy alexiana Draper Emma Eddie Gabriella [Applause] Eden Cecilia Cecilia Jimenez [Applause] Audrey [Applause] Keeny Delany [Applause] copas cor [Applause] Leon Henry TBO [Applause] Steven [Applause] gosin get used to that too Hy breham Chris cler [Applause] um and now just for some students who aren't here tonight but are on the student um student council I'm just going to call out their names andly Applause to the end um Leila chaffie Caleb Clark ARA Arya fors Jaden Hearn Dylan hunon Walsh Hunter kakenan Paisley Vivian nilson Genesis Ramos Caris Sal Salama caras Salama and Gabriella [Applause] scale great all right now what we like to do is meeting will stand in a brief recess the students will gather out front of the maroon curon out in the hallway we take a your picture thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e I'll hereby call the meeting back to order at 64 5 p.m. uh we are if unless there's any objection going to take two items out of order for some of our guests here so that they can get home sooner so we're going to start with item number 3626 the College and Career Readiness uh presentation that we have with director pay hello how is everyone very good so we just wanted to um share some end of the year data now that we have all of our final grades so you can talk about how his finals went and what that first experience is like um but we do have all of our end of the year data our retention rates in um and then we also have a little bit more for demographics to share out for our incoming class for next year so um a lot of the data was highlighted in the school committee report submitted um but we had a total of 64 students enrolled in the traditional Early College Academy so this is kind of the program that allows the students to access the high school and access the college within the same day um without limitations to school time activities um extracurriculars or anything like that um in addition to that we had 102 enrolled in our Gateway program through um Gardener Academy which is our higher risk Dropout prevention um program that also allows students to accelerate to an associates degree of the 102 students in that program um we had 47 seniors and 13 of them left with Associates degrees which was um really good to see such again some of these students come in huge Dropout um Dropout risk Dropout prevention and to have 13 leave um with Associates degrees was awesome um and then we have an additional 29 in the pathways Associates track program this is a really rigorous uh two-year commitment through the summer uh 13 of those students left with Associates degrees this year um we have 15 students um who are retaining 100% retention rate this year for the pathways program um overall for all of the you know for the early college academy and our Pathways program we have a 95% retention rate for the year we only removed three students total so that was really exciting uh the rest of students did maintain their 2.0 GP a to stay in the program um some other really nice highlights from the end of the year I mean if you look at the credit counts that are in there and again they're in there so I won't read them all off um they they accumulated a very impressive amount of credits so um combined they ended up I think within the entire program about 3,000 credits total um and that's just for the Pathways in the ECA um the Gateway students um all together 102 that some of them take non-credit forces um they accumulated about another 2500 credits so um pretty remarkable amount of um college credits that were required by the students within an academic school year um the other um classes that we offered was our Fitchburg State business track classes our Mount lausett auto tech class and then our English 101 and 102 um so those were an additional 42 students um who had access to college level classes um so all in all between our Junior and senior enrollment we had 39% of our Juniors and seniors this year access some sort of College access class whether that was through Auto Tech a single seat in 101 or the fully immersed program so um a lot of the times we kind of look at like getting that number up to that 50% line is really the goal have 50% of our Juniors and seniors engage in some sort of college readiness some sort of college he course work um so getting up to almost that 40% is is quite um an improvement from last year so we really excited with that um for next year we have 102 students slated to go into Early College from 64 so we will have a pretty significant increase um Pathways is also full at there 22 students for next year so that is having about a 10 student increase in that program as well um Gateway is actually going to be capped next year so we are not looking for an increase in that program we're actually decreasing the number slightly um again it is a high needs Dropout prevention program and we're finding that when you um have full enrollment you end up with students who are better fit into either pathway or ECA but are just doing it to access cuz they're from sending school you know and we also just don't have some of the resources to support you know 100 students at that level so um they are capping that at about 80 this year so we're not um you know expecting obviously growth there that is not the goal we want to service that population well and service them you know where they need it so um yes so that that's where that is going to stay but we do have a really nice increase for both um in programs next year um some exciting additions for next year we are finally adding on a I don't have a name welcome to make suggestions um some Early College Bridge programs so for years we've been trying to get off a nth and 10th grade program a kind of an on- rant program this is really not um designed for the AP students we're not trying to take AP and then give them this in nth and 10th we're really trying to increase access so our students um who are underrepresented in higher education especially nth and 10th grade who do not see themselves as college students and are not enrolling in honors classes or AP classes we're really trying to give them a class that allows them to access some college career exploration that they don't feel like as honor as an AP um and it gives them the skills to be prepared to go into this program we're really excited about this so we'll have 20 students in the n9th grade 20 students in the 10th grade who will be in this this early college Bridge um the state calls it early early college I think that sounds terrible so open to suggestions of thingses um so that's going to be taught by Miss Tino it'll be taught actually through Mount WUSA credentials so this will allow our nth and 10th grade students to like learn how to use blackboard learn how to use I connect all those really really fun things that we have to do junior year at the beginning of but they will have all these skills learn how to appropriately write essays and emails to professors and develop these kind of College and Career skills in under um you know in those underclassman grade levels so by the time they get ready to start thinking about College and Career applying into these programs they're they're hopefully more prepared um and then we will also be adding in our MVP program so we had orientation this past week um with Fitchburg and git so all the students were there so we have that is full across the board we currently have a wait list of five students for the gardener sections Fitchburg is slightly under enrolled um so we have an ad drop period at the beginning of the year and we may be able to fill some Fitchburg spots with our weight list if that if that works out um so we will have 20 students total 10 in carpentry 10 in electrical um and they will be in for a 990 hour vocational training program with montech so um that'll be a really um exciting program for our students who are not looking to do postsecondary you know postsecondary in regards to tradition four year um our demographics that I I did want to share out cuz I was not able to include that in the school committee report um you know we really excited with the students who have um chose to enroll in this program so we are more wish I had more females fortunately I have one female out of my 20 um but we are 80 just under 80% of our students are low-income 11% of our students are elll and 52% of our students are currently on IEPs and about 50% had applied to Monch and got denied so it really showed us that it was the population that we were looking to capture and students who truly were looking to go into the the trades um had tried to get into this program or denied from this program um so we are excited to see that this this particular group of students is the one who express interest know I just threw a lot of data and end of the year stats at you any questions at all or um feedback at all I I just want to say I'm just really impressed with everything so many good things happening for our kids here in this District thank you for everything you do it's fine I get the best group of students look at he can tell you I just get to annoy them all day long and thank you very much much thank you uh next we'll take item uh 3628 out of order two uh for director mcaffrey to give her report for the school health services hello everybody thanks for having me um I want to thank you all again for your continued support of nursing services in our district we have we've been really well supported by you guys and this is why I can share the great work that we've been doing because we have enough nurses um we continued this year our um cqi project on multi- lingual Learners and looking at that population and making sure that they're connected to all Healthcare indicators um making sure they have CP a dentist health insurance um so really I pulling out that population looking through their charts making sure that they're connected so that all their healthare needs are met because we know that when their healthare needs are met then they're better ready to learn and come to school um so we had to develop a poster on that project for um dph because we are a recipient of a dph grant that we've had for over 20 years in this district and that's part of what the work that we do for this grant um our poster was picked out of three out of probably like 70 or 80 one submitted to highlight at this conference that was really um great so I did include that in my report so I'm not going to um go into detail about the whole thing but I do want to highlight that um our goal as our School nurses had a team goal this year to take that population and improve at least by 10% the amount of students that had access to all of those health indicators and we smashed that and we raised it by 25% so we did a really good job that was a lot of work and um we feel good about that also out of that project we had identified of course we had a um increase in our Refugee population right um in the the folks at the shelter so that really increased this project by a lot this year because our numbers in the district of multi language Learners went way up right think we had 22 maybe doubled over yeah dou like that um so this became a much bigger project this year I just want to want to mention going through all of those students um when we were working on this we realized that um those students at the shelter um did not have access to dental care and we were able to quickly make sure our forms got translated for our in school providers because we have smile dentists and caring for kids that come into school and actually provide dental services in school so even though they didn't have the forms translated in Haitian Creole we were like we need these translated right away we need to work with liaison we need to make sure that these kids get signed up so that they can get dental care in school and they did um and and that was really great um let's see we also had um identified a couple of students um that had just come into the district got identified by actually the ell um teachers that these kids need glasses I know they need glasses I know they can't see um so through some work especially um Tina rasac which I have a little report at the end she does a lot of health care coordination in our district as the um nurse care coordinator she got right to work on these kids we screened them they did fail their Vision screenings we were able to with the help of the Lions Club get them transportation to BJ's Optical they had no medical insurance BJ's op did the eye exam there then when it was time that the glasses came in they actually came to the middle school and did the fitting and and everything right at the middle school so that was a great um Community Partnership that really helped these kids um let's see so I have a little bit of um data to share um 82% of our G public school students accessed the nurse at least one time this year um and more students visited the nurse 10 or more times than students that didn't visit the nurse at all I was like wow that's kind of crazy um this next piece of data I have is really important to me and I look at this of the year what is the time in and out of the health office because I want to make sure kids aren't waiting because if a kid is down in the health office and they're waiting for a half hour and they're missing their whole math class that's a big deal so if you look at this um we can pull reports out of our Software System on the in time out the vast majority of students are in the health office for less than 10 minutes um but really 1 minute 3 minutes 5 minutes they're in and out and we're getting them back to class and that's great because that's where they need to be unless they're two second and then they're going home if you see on the other end of that chart greater than 60 minutes it's kind of cut off but that it kind of spikes up there and that's because sometimes they can't go back to class and sometimes they don't have a ride home and they just have to hang out in the health office for a couple hours um but as you can see most of the kids are in and out quick um we had 88% of Health office visits that were able to stay in school so they came in they were seeing they were able to stay in school I'd like that number to be a little bit higher but there's a lot of reasons why sometimes it just doesn't happen um let's see lots of visits I about 95 visits per day on average throughout the district is what the nurses are are seeing in the health office and those visits do not count all the health screenings that we do that are required by the state of Massachusetts so I that's important to know on top of the visits we did 4,217 Health screenings this year that consist of hearing screening vision screening postural screening which is where we check the back and height and weight screening and 81% of those screenings if they were identified that they needed a followup and they needed to be seen by an outside provider wrer they were seen and we got that referral back which is also important that we have a high number of that coming back and then I just have a little report from Tina rasac who's our nurse care coordinator of the tremendous work that she does and I just can't say enough how much all the nurses do but having this role with our district again thank you so much for for the support that we get as as a nursing team because the things that we're able to do for students and how we connect them and how we we better their outcomes is phenomenal um and that's it does anybody have any questions great job babyk you you the team thank you thank you very much uh next we'll take item number 3629 out of order our grant administrator update directed done hello glad to be here thanks for having me um so in your report I provided some more detailed financial information about each individual Grant and sort of the priorities um that each Grant addresses but here I'll give just some more general information um so the uh FY 24 grant funding total was about $2.9 million um which consists of both entitlement and competitive funding which is broken down a little bit more in your report um but it's nice to note that even though like our priority shift based on our district needs every year um and the available funding sources through Desy and other sources that we've seen pretty consistent with our grant funding um year over year SS up by 22 in the kind of postco era um that total of funding does not include Sr three and um improving ventilation and air quality grant funding which is for a very very specific project and Still Remains just through this fall um but our entitlement grants as always uh help the district supplement the local funding um for services that relate to everything from literacy to preschool um to to professional development ESL services supports so many different programs throughout the district um and so we just strategically plan annually throughout the summer um and then just kind of continue moving forward just based on what competitive priorities come up through um our grant makers the district um this year's priorities also included Early College which you heard a lot about Innovation Pathways funding um from Melissa we also had some competitive funding to help support um six teachers completing their ESL certifications this year um to help further just support in the Gen Ed classes um our teachers that are able to better support our multilingual Learners and then also just create a pipeline through the future that if we have any retirements or anyone leave the district we have six um people on the bench just waiting for those roles um we also had some competitive funding for um Behavioral Health Workforce Development which helped with some professional development and also um a crisis response RBT position at the elementary school um we had some funding in support of our homeless student population at the emergency shelter which was really helpful to help meet some of their needs um and then also funding to support um research and development professional development for a new history curriculum which is something that desie has created as a priority um we're also this is FY 24 is also the final year of two of our three-year grants that we've been um working on for a few years now so our mental and Behavioral Health Grant which you guys know as the 332 Grant or 311 Grant um which has supported a lot of growth um in our mental health progam programming in all buildings through technical assistance um with the May Institute and also professional and curriculum development um in our mental and Behavioral Health um programs the other Grant closing this year is the bar Foundation grant that supported our professional development for our district and building Administration as well as teacher leaders in both Garder public schools and lemonster public schools and then district and building Administration in winchington public schools as the lead District um we are currently in the works um of looking at the next next funding source with the bar foundation and hopes that we can continue this pipeline um we've seen a lot of great progress we just um underwent a sort of progress monitoring study with attuned education Partners to really look at um what we've done so far where we are right now and kind of what our next three years look like um and so we're in that process in this summer we'll finalize kind of our next step strategically and then also how basically writing the proposal and what you know our continuation with lemonster and wichon and kind of how those priorities fit together and then different things that we can do separately um to continue supporting that work for as the lead district for all three of those um I know before I mentioned that the essr funding is not included in the total that's because um we are closing that Grant so that has to be um allocated by September 30th so we are ending our covid funding um we have to liquidate by December 31st we are able to apply for late liquidation if the project that this is slated towards goes over time so we're kind of working on working directly with the business office to kind of sort through that right now um we are using $35 million worth of funding to support the hbac project at the high school which you guys know are very well familiar with um and so in the event that the project is not complete we do have some time to continue to liquidate the funds Beyond December 31st as long as we apply and are approved with the federal government um and then lastly just over the summer we always strategize on our fy2 entitlement grants and then continue to just identify our distri priorities for other competitive funding opportunities that might come up um and so we always look for feedback on the programs that we have and we're grateful to everything that you guys do to help support those initiatives and if you have any questions feel free to ask great job yes thank keep some money coming I just want to say uh Director D and I met with our City's grant writers last week and in the feedback I had from the debrief from meeting with all the different departments that we met to that day uh even they were very impressed with how much uh you know Courtney you really just do for the district um a lot of different places have individuals who you know you look at a Grant application sometimes it's you know it's black and white and there's other times there it's gray in the middle and sometimes it's a little both and uh Courtney's you know realized and the uh grant writers even said this too that you know you just ask the right questions and put the questions out there and for every questions you just got to get to the root of the problem and uh you know those gray roots you fill in a little bit and you get that black and white answer and that's where you get to go from the end so just thank you very much from everything that's going on I really appreciate that thank you thank you thank you Corney Dr pel it's one of the best things you did is to chase her out of your office and put her in the in the grant program all right moving back to the top of the agenda items uh item D the consent agenda this was included in your packet is there a motion on the floor Some Mo motion of Mr lrer is there a second second motion made by m second by Mrs Ward Leighton is there any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor say I I oppose nay motion carries next item reports of subcommittee's Finance subcommittee Mr lren thank you Mr Mayor the sub Finance subcommittee met on Wednesday June 6th um as usual we just reviewed the expense report um and we just various questions were kind closing everything out now um pretty much we're all answered uh Miss BL even brought up a line item on our it line item was unusually negative Mr HW was look into it but he believes that the charge uh bills were charged to this account that would have gone to the eate account um we checking into that um we also uh let me see Miss plen asked um if there were any outstanding legal bills Mr Ark did not believe there to be but would uh double check on that and um you know we do have a spending freeze in effect uh so that slowed down the increase uh in the negative um for the negative line items uh um we also reviewed pictures of the work that's being uh done uh in the auditorium at the high school pretty impressive they built a whole subfloor in there that was really cool uh I actually want to go see it in person but that was neat um and also at the end of the meeting we also are presented with a a item of um from the ID depart um a list of items from the IT department uh that were declared Surplus uh these uh items all these items have been harvested for any salvageable materials on them so we can use them to repair other things so whatever was left over is now declared Surplus um and that was pretty much the end of the meeting um but if I could I would all uh I'd like to make a motion everyone received a list of the uh Surplus items in their uh packet and I'd like to make a motion that we uh declare um the items listed as Surplus I'll second motion by second by Mr Schwarz to declare those items as listed in the packet as Surplus is there any discussion on that motion seeing none we'll put the matter to a vote all those in favor say I I oppose nay motion carries that was it thank you Mr chairman next item on the agenda is the policy subcommittee report Mrs Hurst uh we met on May 15th um and tonight there U seven policies for first grade um we have JJ OA field trips imga service animals and schools ji students rights and responsibilities jic CFA hazing um j i CF a e is hazing uh jic Alcohol Tobacco and drug use by students prohibited and jie Pregnant students so those are just for your information I would like to say though too that um the policy subcommittee um I wanted to thank everybody for all their hard work we've been able to keep up to date with um a lot of of the stuff the even the things that the state has sent us and um Dr Goen has been instrumental in in in keeping us on track and up to date and um I know that some people think that policy probably isn't you know a really wonderful things but um it's very important and there's so many different pieces to it and we have to collaborate with special education or um nurse mcaffrey you know people for for different reasons and everybody has just really stepped up and we've been able to do a really good job so thank you to my fellow school committee people who are on the committee with me thank you very much any questions comments concerns on that report moving on to item F uh zavan all your and thank you Mrs her I meant to say that too I want to start off by congratulating our May Wildcat winners Natasha AI ceron sepa travan merchon James Gray and quinon weler I want to thank them for being such great uh Gardner High School citizens and representing our core value so well the all School Art Exhibit was held May 1st in the high school gym students from all grades were able to display their wonderful artwork the Garner High School PR was held at the Colonial Hotel on May 10th and 250 students attended the students all of amazing and a great time was had by all the music boosters held their annual theme basket Extravaganza on May 11th turnout was great and they were able to make a lot of money to put back into our music program seniors from the class 2024 went on a field trip to Chucksters on May 14th they were able to participate in all kinds of events activities eat good food and hang out with friends on a beautiful day Gardner public school was awarded the site partner of the Year award by mausa Community College for all our work with our Early College Gateway and Pathways programs the spring concert was held on May 15th and it looked a a little different in the high school gym while our auditorium's HVAC system is being renovated but the band in chorus sounded as good as ever a group of Rob of our robotic students completed competed in the annual robotics competition on May 16th and won the judges award for design complexity and build quality on May 17th um our multilingual Learners went on a field trip to the Southwick Zoo most had never been to a zoo before and they had a wonderful time seeing and learning about all the new animals Garner High School welcomed all 7th grade students to the high school on May 24th for tours students were able to see the building meet teachers and learn about our different clubs and offerings the annual Varsity athletic banquet was held at City Hall Auditorium on May 24th students coaches and teams were recognized for their accomplishments throughout all three seasons this event went really well and Auditorium was filled with athletes and their families Gardner High School Gardner middle school and Gardner Elementary School went to the Special Olympics our band played and students cheered as the students left for the event this is always a great day for our students and their best buddies senior activities include B boret thank you thank you uh senior barbecue and a bagel breakfast and they were all held the week before graduation these are always fun events for all our seniors the Garner High School graduation for the class of 20124 was held June 1st or June 1st 120 seniors graduated it was a great day for the students their families and the school staff that is all thank you zavan any questions comments concerns good job uh moving on in the agenda item number 3623 uh Miss Hurst uh mentioned this earlier these policies were included in your packet for first read and information for a vote at our next meeting in September uh so uh we will deal with that at that time yes Mr H Oh I thought you ra I thought wanted to say no I I just was like I don't I couldn't figure out what you were doing no just saying in your packet no vote tonight vote at the next meeting all right there we go no that was on me I was saying confusing cuz I was thinking ahead sorry for doping off no hear me uh uh item number 3624 the 2024 2025 school calendar this was included in your packet and requires a vote uh this evening is there a motion on the floor Mrs attorney I'll make a motion that we change the February 5th half day to February 6th from the previous calendar vote that we had is there a second to that motion motion made by attorney P second by Mrs Cormier to make that Amendment to the school calendar is any discussion on that motion oh and we need to make that Amendment because of mcast testing that day needs to be a full day for the mcast testing that's why we had to change it is there any other discussion on that motion seeing none we'll put the matter to a vote all those in favor say I hi oose nay motion carries item number 3625 superintendent's evaluation attorney P um so obviously it's the end of the cycle for the superintendent evaluation and of course we are very lucky to have Dr peligrino as our superintendent um this is um the cumulative evaluation it was the combination and avered out of everybody's um individual evaluations there's the progress towards Ward the goals which as you know we go over the goals at the beginning of the year mid year and then this is the end of the year review um overall we as a um school committee said that Dr pelino met his professional practice goal the student learning goal the district and the district Improvement goals um and then in regards to the different standards that they ask us to evaluate um overall Dr pelino was seen as proficient we're not really given many options um when we're doing this evaluation but um overall it was a proficient evaluation for Dr pelino and I make a motion that we accept the cumulative evaluation as the school committee's evaluation of Dr second motion made by attorney for second by Mr Schwarz to accept the evaluation as presented is there any discussion on that motion thank you for everything you do Dr than appreciate it all those in favor say I I oppose nay motion carries and I have one more thing yes um to make a motion that the superintendent receives his raise as per the contract his contract is there a second second motion made by Atty and second by m l to uh Grant the superintendent the pay raise associated with his contract and the evaluation that he has received is there any discussion on that motion see none we'll put the matter to a vote all those in favor say I I oppose nay motion carries next item on the agenda is the curriculum coordinator update this was included in your packet for information item number 3627 is there any discussion on that motion oh excuse me discussion on that item seeing none thank you very much Dr Goen moving on to item number 3630 special education update this is included in your packet for information is there any discussion on that item thank you very much director West next item 3631 the special education parents advisory Council update Mrs HST they're um getting ready to put together a calendar for next year already they're they're very proactive they've been they've done really well with Outreach and it's it's it's you know they've been very effective with everything um I I did see something about um from another District where they were having pizza with the superintendent so that like piqued their interest and Dr pelino agreed that he would have Pizer with the so you'll be getting that invitation I'm sure next year but um yeah they've done a really incredible job I'm very proud of what they've done thank you very much any questions comments concerns on to item H Communications Dr felo you know um I just want to say I I speak with a lot of my colleagues um you know other superintendents and comparatively um I've got it easy I have I'm I'm saying that with you know I have teachers who work really hard um this year was another grind year where we're trying to get kids back on track after covid and you know all the different things but they're working really hard um to meet our kids um to meet our kids needs and that to me makes my my job easier I have administrators who you saw three presentations tonight and I have gungho administrators who are always going above and beyond um leading helping to lead the districts and together we're we're moving the district forward our indicators are all going in the right direction um everything from school choice to mcast to um every indicator that we have attendance all of those things um I think we've done a really great job and that's all because I have um their um their hard work um and then lastly of course is the school committee I mean I get a lot of support um when I when you have concerns you come to me directly I'm able to address those concerns hopefully to the best of my ability um but I I just this is a great District to work in and you know frankly I'm just really pleased um to be in a district that's moving forward in the way we are um and in the end we have great kids um so this is just a great place to work for and I thank you for letting me um to stay on and thank you for my evaluation thank you very much any questions comments concerns on dr's reports thanks for being our super uh final uh comments of the school committee item I miss word Lon thanks um it's the end of the year it's a great time for just reflection and appreciation um and it's I feel like it's not very like uh fancy and sparkly but just a blank like it thank you to everyone who works from for Gardener Public Schools um from the teachers to the office staff the custodial um and uh our tech people I I I could name all the Departments but I we would be here for a minute um it's I I I try and like see it from the different angles as like an educator and a parent and then I'm here and I it all works it's all a very well-oiled machine it's a very um collab we've got a very collaborative um Community when it comes to this it's very clear that everyone's here for the benefit of the students for the community um and just making education a priority and I don't think you could really ask for anything more so uh thank you everyone for another wonderful school year and um have a fantastic summer take care of yourselves Mrs H um I had the pleasure of being at graduation um and the the theme seemed to be during the speeches was about change is okay and um to really do things for yourself not because you think other people want you to and um I thought about how kind of profound that was because I remember graduating back a zillion years ago that U you know I wish somebody had told me that you know and I thought too about what what it took to get these students to where they were and how they you know and that they're encouraged to think in different ways and it was just a really a great day and it was great to to see all of them um the students who were here tonight um it always makes me feel like it's kind of a renewed thing like okay I'm really glad I I'm here and I do this you know and I see them as upcoming leaders um zavan I mean just having you here has been great this year I um the student involvement and the presentations tonight were just it just shows the dedication and the commitment to all the students in this district and it's just a beautiful thing thank you thank you to play um so the end of the year always is a little Bittersweet right because everything is ending and the kids are happy to be going to the summer but the ending does mean change and other things that are happening but um yeah the graduation speeches I thought it was so great and I also think it's great that we focus on the kids during graduation and that they're really running the show right because it is about them um and also I do I want to thank everybody who puts does all the work they have to do for Gardener Public Schools including the teacher staff administrators parents the kids everything that they do because it is I compared to other districts I mean we get the the list of the news articles every day from masc and to see all of the struggles that other districts are dealing with right now and that we're in such a better space compared to those districts it's just it's nice and refreshing um and I'm glad I don't have to deal with most of those problems right now um but no I'm just this has been this year I think you know like you said It's a Grind but um I think it's where everything is falling into place and moving along well and four and a half more days so thank you very much thank you zaven any closing thoughts for the school year I think it was really fun I really enjoyed this school year really gave me a breath of fresh air lot of opportunities a lot of learning I really enjoyed it thank you Mr Schwarz I've had a busy past two weeks attending all the great activities going on in the in the district it all started off with the uh Elementary School band fourth grade band got a Gold Award and uh we celebrated that with your presentation of a certificate from the city and also representative stefanic uh from the house the state legislature got an award so that started that and a few days later was the dear graduation at the middle school on the fifth grade and then after that we had a fantastic High School graduation and a and a gider Academy a graduation on the same day so we' been very very busy and uh enjoy every activity and I think this Thursday we have a seventh grade promotion coming up and the little kids getting into the big time going into the into the eighth grade and the high school so that's my report thank you very much Mr leer thank you um just want to wish everyone a good summer um uh also want to thank all the uh the teachers and and uh actually everyone in the school buildings that are actually making our school district uh such a good school district um that said uh they still have fantastic lead and it shows and all the years that I've been on and I probably say this every year in June you make our job easy because you do such a good job and it's very much appreciated and I think it shows in all our schools you know how well um so thank you that's thanks thank you Mrs Cormier it's always hard to go last you guys so much I agree with all of you um there's been a lot of Celebration in the past month and it's always fun to go and see that but we have to remember that there was a lot of hard work to go into those celebrations and I just appreciate everybody who got those kids to that point where they can be in front of their parents in front of their their Guardians their families and smiling so proud at what they've done there's a lot of work to go into that um and Jen mentioned earlier we don't have a lot of choices when we fill out that evaluation I think we all could write books on how much we appreciate you Dr pelo you do make our job very easy um and it makes me very proud to be part of the school committee to know that you're leading the district thank you uh I have a couple things I'd like to throw out uh first off I want to congratulate all our graduates from gner high school and Gardner Academy but I'd also like to thank all of the benefactors who established the scholarship funds for the awards night that we had over $500,000 was given out in scholarships to our graduates this year and that's just our graduates in the graduating class not those that can apply each and every year for their four years uh that there in high school we're very blessed and gardened to being part of a as generous a community that we are in in that we're able to do that year in and year out for our students and our graduates uh I'd like to uh say some congratulations as well uh first to the students who were here from the fourth grade uh student council I gave them their you know their shout out while they were here that I was very impressed uh and then they uh presented me with a picture of us at the park that they all signed so this will hang in City Hall just like the one from last year so uh I want to say thank you to uh those students who participated in that uh and to the students from the third grade uh two of their groups had their tour annual tour of City Hall today and the other two will have their annual tour of City Hall tomorrow uh so if any of you around tomorrow morning at City Hall at 9:30 and 11:30 we'll have some third graders here touring the building and seeing how things work here and uh having a Q&A session throughout City Hall uh and then for the elementary school band uh Mr Schwarz mentioned that the uh fourth grade band took the gold home at the Great East Festival uh and we thought that was great and then I got a phone call the following uh Friday to let me know that the fifth sixth and seventh grade band all took home the gold and the fifth grade and sixth grade chorus took home the gold and the seventh grade van took home the Platinum medal uh excuse me seventh grade chorus took home the Platinum medal and the other ones uh everyone in our music programs at the middle school received gold except for the seventh grade chorus that received Platinum um I was so excited I left my house and I met the buses at the high school when they dropped them back off after now granted all the students to run back to their parents and get to bed after the day at Six Flags but I I couldn't be proud of uh of those programs that are there so Bob we got to figure out what to do with those ones now that we uh set the bar High a little bit for the uh fourth grade band uh just a reminder from the library that our summer reading kickoff is taking place on Wednesday June 26th at 5:00 p.m. on the front lawn of the garden of Public Library uh this is a different than the year past where before it used to just be the mayor going and reading a story uh we turned it into a festival so they'll be bouncy houses students who are participating in the summer Recreation program that director Fort puts on can receive their uh t-shirts and registration packets at that summer reading kickoff event um there'll be games there'll be a whole big thing that uh Stephanie Young our new library director has put together for that one so if you're looking at uh a fun way to kick off the summer for our summer reading program uh that's going to be again Wednesday the 26th at 5:00 P p.m. I just reminded there's no meetings of the school committee currently planned uh for over the summer unless we have to call a special meeting at any time um and then just to talk about a little success story for some of our alumni uh our 20 class of 2022 salutatorian Alex luer and our former student representative Gino DeVito uh began their movie producing this week uh Alex is directing a new uh movie and Gino is actually his assistant producer so they started filming up in York Maine this past week uh and they are filming in the area too there's some stuff in hubson some stuff in Gardener St stuff around the area uh for their new movie Summer interlude should be hopefully done by the end of the year so just a quick shout out to some of our alumni who are one sat in this room and then another one we heard from at a graduation ceremony before just to wrap things up that way and then uh because I get to sit up here and see things out there happy birthday Mrs Hillman not to Wednesday but the ladies at CAC gave me these earrings and so now I can tell them I wore them on TV well happy birthday to and thank you for everything you do for the school committee really appreciate it thank you uh any other final questions comments concerns if not is there a motion to adjourn soov Z second motion made by attorney p and second by frer to adjourn any discussion on the motion hearing none all those in favor say I oppos say nay thank you very much Happy Summer everyone