##VIDEO ID:FMYjOu8gqbQ## [Music] um we just had our building tour and I'm going to call the regular meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. and also announce to everyone in the room that the meeting is being recorded and we will start with the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all no visitors way all right um so if we could uh review and vote on the minutes from our July 1st meeting which was on um Google [Music] meet thank you sue for taking such detailed notes of our last meeting oh anyone ready to I can make a motion to um approve the meeting minutes from July 1st 2024 I'll second okay um all in favor I I okay I all right okay so um it sounds like there's a discussion to close have our closeout meeting be on either July 8th or the 15th absolutely um the end of the fiscal year is June a very challenging time and to have to turn around and have everything when the fiscal year ends on June 30th have to turn around and have everything ready for a close out meeting on July 1st is is difficult for the business office so we would like to request a change of date if at all possible okay and then would that help also like with the excess funds and giving us the opportunity to maybe do something with those like or would it have to be done before that cuz those excess you know I know it's complicated it it's actually really straightforward okay the the the answer to your question is yes okay so the there were opportunities had we known um in advance of noon on July 1st oh okay that um there were opportunities that we could have taken had we known in advance of new so there there are a number of different things that are being put in place for this fiscal year that will help with that okay would the school committee need to vote on what happens with any possible excess funds or is that something that you can do without a school committee meeting excess funds are just anything that would be left over this but keep in mind that the school committee has already voted to no that's true so okay and so it's tightening up the business process okay that will help us out okay um I guess those are probably Mondays right yes yes Tuesdays look my concern about July 8th oh yeah they are Tuesdays is it's kind of close to 4th of July and I know a lot of people are gone then but then July 15th I don't know if it's better but you have other school committee meetings later have you had okay attendance with the close outs being later it would be better for the town for us to do July 8th because they have to close their year by 15th okay so I thought the beginning of July was always like right at Fourth of July weekend that's true you're has landed like it's been that anyway and if we do it online again then I think it makes it the eth is probably easier than what we've been doing anyway as far as that's probably the first right so the eth is probably easier I don't I mean I would entertain a motion unless you want to have more discussion I'll make a motion to move the July 1st closeout meeting to the 8th of 2025 second okay I'll do a roll call for every vote then we know it it's just Katie yes Lori yes Karen yes Jessica yes and I'm a yes okay and then approval of Bill schedule so I see I have those are signature pages for the payroll the town likes to have a stack of those and so those are going around um so our meeting is currently out of sync with the warrant cycle of the town there was a single signature warrant on August 5th for $17,619.63 sign that's great I actually don't love the idea of the digital signature I don't get to see the warrant I like to go that I've always liked to go and I like to flip through them and see them um I don't love the idea of the digital I I said that and then you know before we can make them we can make it available in the office those mhm okay but like because it doesn't always correspond with the the town schedule our meetings okay I think that's how we've done it in the past Christina always just dropped them off at Halifax and I'd go and send them there and I'd be able to look at them and okay so I can ask you did she meet you there and answer questions no she Dro them and then if I had any questions I'd call or okay um didn't I never really had a lot I just like to be able to see them I don't want to just I feel like when it's sent to me digitally I'm blind signing I don't like to read on a computer so I feel like it's I can drop the to I just didn't I had asked you in that email chain if she I just needed to oh I'm sorry yeah she did she meet you there she never met me there she always dropped in the mention to shoot me an email they're there for signatures and I'd get there within like 48 hours I can do that okay I'd love that thank you okay anything else can I ask a question about our last close out I noticed that the amount of funds is different by um so I actually have that as part of my financial report we will'll wait then thank you okay and and that is it for Warr signing war and okay thank you and then school committee correspondence the reports um I've had a number of parents reach out to me about the buses so I just wondered what the holdup was this year fact I I was um explaining to Dr crew earlier that I need to have a conversation with the bus I have to read through the bid documents in the contract um the hold up on the buses was had nothing to do with the district it had to do with first student and I'm not extremely happy with that right now um you keep in mind that nobody got bus till F Friday so I'm dealing with the phone calls from the parents of the Agricultural students principal are probably getting phone calls from the individual towns we just didn't have the turnaround time that I would normally expect okay no I was just wondering cuz you know like I said I did have quite a few people reach out and so I just thought I'd ask and um but they didn't give any explanation as to why it was so they were working on it it was difficult there negotiation oh do we have a deadline for them like with our contract that's what I have to read through so I didn't obviously do the bid in 2020 when it went out um I have to read through the bid package and when I put out a bid for the bus service in midboro it was a uh bus routs were due the superintendent's office on August 1st to be reviewed and revised and published the community the second week in August that's kind of a comfortable schedule for me right so the first iteration that you got from first student was this past Friday I did receive um the Halifax preliminary Roots the week before that okay because they were significant changes right cuz we were eliminating [Music] sorry well and then too I wonder because I'm sure like whatever the date is is it something we could discuss later and possibly amend the contract because is I mean I don't you know like as a school committee I mean we're trying to help that's all you know we we currently have a unique situation where we are in year five of a 5year contract and and we have two option years and the percent increase from year to year is more of a preco type of percent increase and so we're not seeing double digit increases I wouldn't want to open up the contract to negotiate because if we said we'd like this here and they turn around and say Well we'd like an extra million dollars that has us going up to bid for transportation so I do need to read through the contract um it's the bid documents okay read through those and see if there are deadlines well that makes sense it's just a matter you know trying to help if we can you know as a school committee cuz you know it impacts it I don't remember ever being this late but I mean I know it's you know can I ask a question about the Contracting so if we're with the end of the contract we have this two-year option who is the group involved yeah this is only my second year in the committee who's a group involved that would negotiate the contract with bus company so there's not a group involved at all so by law uh Mass General law we have to go out to bid for the bus contract so it would be putting together the bid package and posting the bid package and then it goes to the lowest bid my understanding has been in the past three iterations of bidding the only bidder has been first student and that's fairly typical that the state has pretty much been divided up first student bids here and TR bids there and lucini ET so you know it is there a regional um situation like is Middle also a first student or it kind of all over middleb was the first student and and student transportation in America bid I actually went out to bid when I was in Middleboro and got two bus bids it was overwhelming [Music] thrilling what a Monday well then I worri too yeah I mean so it sounds like possibly in a couple years we're looking at buses and transportation being a lot more money yes which is good to know as well so they can't so if we have the extension option can they um say no we don't want you to extend we're canceling this contract or it's just built into the contract that if we want to extend it's at that percentage I believe it's built into the contract that if we want to extend okay well that gives maybe some perspective to people as to what's going on with the buses and why it's you know a little more it's not as cut and dry as taking out two buses yes yeah so one more question I'm sorry um if there is language in the contract that says first student needed to supply this information by X date would we go back to them and look for some sort of I don't know compensation something just it it depends what's written in contract um when I say written in the contract basically the contract is a almost a three-page document that says Silver Lake Regional School District 31 enter into a contract with First Student in accordance with the terms of the bid package so the bid package is the you 47 page document that says you have to have this many 71 passenger buses and this many 77 passenger busets and you're going to run routs to these schools at these times but your experience in working with metal bar is there's usually some sort of information in the bid package that says you will supply this information too I'm just asking put that in there because I didn't like getting B fruit St at the last minute so it's not boil BL that's like your wisdom and experience you're like I'm going to put that in there was really experience it was just wisdom I think I think it was take the compliment experience well it's good to know because I don't think any of us were on school committee when the last um contract was done so it's helpful information to all of us thank you all right um report of committees which I imagine not many of them have met um policy no no all right negotiations we're September 12th we have meeting September 12th we have a meeting right uh Pilgrim area collaborative um I've gotten some correspondents we have not met yet okay Ethan re uh yes so a couple things um spoke with Dick steel and he's getting ready for some fall after school programs that include uh a gym activity so after school sports a stem program and possibly a computer program so that was not flushed out yet but that sounds helpful um we're waiting on funds to come through so that the gym floor can be redone and he will be adding two pickle ball courts to our gymnasium is that town fun maam yes thanks um there's a possible dance for fifth and sixth graders uh a social for Friday September 6th again it's possible nothing is set in stone yet they're still in the works of that and the next town wck meeting is September 4th at 6:30 at the Town Hall kitchen thank you PTO okay capital budget I think it's met admin review they had a meeting you made that one sure okay so on June 11th Dr crew shared her evidence uh to show that she's working towards her goals uh this is a formative year um the only feedback from the sub committee was in reference to communication with Town officials during the budget season uh apparently several town wanted more communication earlier on during the budget season uh we also met August 6th and 14th to discuss possible renewal and negotiations of superintendent Cruz's contract and our next meeting is Wednesday September 25th okay de IB sub committee we have not met okay all right principal report do we want to do Union 31 oh cuz we did have right I'm sorry I it's a little further down I just skipped it Union 31 okay so our last meeting was July 15th we voted on our new assistant superintendent uh contract so welcome Dr Cliff Clifford um and our next meeting is Thursday October 17th at 5:30 at the high school where we will be reorganizing and possibly discussing the superintendent's contract okay now we'll turn the time over to Mr bod I just want to say thank you to Mr Dan santis for all your service here and good luck in your new position we'll see you all yeah you'll see you haven't gotten rid of any of us but you know it's been a long well it's been a good N9 years so thank you love the district love to he'll be missed he won't be far so all right so school council we have we have not met yet so um first meeting will be in September where we've been informed some people are not returning so we'll have to find some new members that will be joining this school Year's for ccil team and one of the first tasks will be working on the school Improvement plan devising it and propose it to you and the policies are you still working on those policies I know we got a little sidetracked by the budget but yes I mean the handbook is just the handbook that's my just something that's it continues to be a work in progress cuz we're trying to streamline it a little bit easier so that'll be a big Focus again this year as well uh building usage form so we submitted the building usage form the draft of it in July and you would asked if we share with the Selectmen and then share it with attorney du so we did both of that it was clear with the selectman and also attorney du um who advised us add the rules and regulations onto the document itself so we did that and copy if people would like to take a look at it the rules and regulations are add it on the yeah so let's uh make sure they got everything we missing a page on [Music] I all right I'm missing a page here I can email it up to you one second it would oh you're going to you put it in can you put it in the folder for tonight I don't know I can give it to who has access to it I can't put anything in okay Karen usually does it but send it to can I send it to you okay perfect um again the only change was just adding the rules and regulations to it so do you have access that look great because I do if you need oh okay go ahead then I was going to try I've never tried ment I can also pull it up on the screen that's easier I know that's why I was this first paper a big is it easier if I pull it up on the screen it should be right now I see got it there it is I'm just going to change the name of it so that it matches the naming conventions that c to use so the last two pages the rules and regulations are the the pieces that we at from the original form we started life for cuz you're to have custodial um staff come in on the weekend is the rate higher than during the week I think it would be right it would would be yeah so I wonder if that's something that should be added in the fee schedule just letting people know that Saturdays and Sundays um can I just say I don't know that that's necessarily A Deal break or only because from I my experience hiring like a police detail we know that the rate fluctuates based on who's available so I think it's you know I I think the just letting them know that there's a fe is probably fine and you don't like just speciically box yourself in right if something changes maybe you know we don't know I need a good point to bring up and then if fees are charged because it says you know waiver of fees possible who where does that money go does it go to the district or building use goes into a building utilization fund which is held on the town the town yes so they decide so for example in our fy2 budget there were um forgive me came 6050 a little under 60 a little under $60,000 of maintenance facility costs that we moved from the operating budget into that account essentially wiping out the account for now okay any discussion or no I just think this is um a good inclusive document I'm glad we reviewed it give feedback I think just really um protects the town and the school so okay thank you for doing that part um would anyone like to make a motion to approve the um building use form the all the topex Elementary School building usage application I'll make a motion to accept the changes the updated building usage giveit a second I have a quick question before I do a second if a if the PTO doesn't event are they also filling with storm out yes well at least when I was P President we had events I had to fill out the qu the building I just want to make sure that for instance um the the part about it's so it's 13 paragraph 13 that talks about the decorations I just want to make sure that whoever is in charge of setting up the event is aware of these rules cuz sometimes when you're delegating out you might say can you go set up this room or decorate this room but they may the person setting it up may not be the person that actually read the rules so just clear communication amongst everyone um when they've delegated a responsibility to make sure that they're not using things like tape and things like that that could destroy our building well I think the PTO in the past um is aware of any restrictions with tape or whatever and has been good about communicating that to whoever is using it I don't think it's been a problem for a really long time we have a routine where yeah and we schedule a meeting to have a person in to walk through with those conversations have build use com what they awesome are you suggesting that if that's outlined here that if the building isn't returned to the state it was given in the is relable with damages is that like are you looking for language around that not necessarily I just want to make sure that all parties involved in the event are aware of the rules not just the person who's signing up for the the building usage on that day well ultimately the person who signs it is responsible yeah yeah so I mean that's how it's always been and I really can't think of a time it's been an issue except for maybe some pizza in the gym once I don't know wasn't that a long time like someone PE leachers that was before they were done any done but beyond that like I feel like it's been people are fairly you know take good care of it we haven't really ever had I mean that I'm aware of I mean I haven't my kids haven't been in the school for a while but I don't think we've ever had to collect for damages or anything we people I've been real great so I'll second the the motion okay um girl call about Katie yes Lori yes Karen yes Jessica yes and myself a BS okay we are on to achievement Cort all right this slide over here back in July the star Benchmark data instead of comparing um year to year and you asked if we could do it by cohort so what we did here is we took that data and we just kind of shifted a little bit here and we have Ela on the left and math all right so this is FY 24 so this 2028 group is our second graders and then the 27 group is third fourth fifth and sixth so if you follow this red group here is our second grade this would be be a third grade fourth grade and fifth grade Sports and if you follow it this way this is how that cohort scored so third second grade was 48 third grade was 61 this year and in second grade they were at 44 and then this group was fourth graders and this is where they were third and in second and so forth so this is fifth it goes down we didn't have any testing in fy2 that the color coding is the same group of students am I understanding that right or did I mix it up the the color coding this color coding you mean is all this is second grade got it so it goes the cohort actually goes this way okay just trying to probably could have done it better way so if I'm reading this correctly our sixth grade cohort yeah for ELA in 21 was at 52% for ficient yes then they went to 45 and 43 then up a little to 48 but never got back to the 52 were at in 21 correct and 21 wasn't the full test is that correct this is just star oh this is just star sorry okay right I'm sorry mcast data so um and then this is the same setup for math it's just we did the same in red is the second grade scores each year and then if you that actually sorry that should have changed that same thing here there should have been 2028 2027 so forth sorry about that so it's interesting that fourth grade from 2022 to 2020 they've had huge jumps yeah have you which is great like that's is that something explainable like something that you can attribute it to it for FY 24 yeah well no for from 22 to 23 to 24 they've increased a lot mhm in math was there different curriculum was there so I'm trying to think oh wait that's the co year isn't it I'm 202 fourth grade feel like wait isn't that the um is this one we made a a staff move try do you remember I think we made a staff move here for this fourth grade group and then that same staff person was here it was a different staff it was broken up into a different team at that time in 22 we're getting our in third cre consistent four are not consistent test scores are lower so scores coming in and that six grade SC just the only grade that I would say would be consistent in that any idea why just into some of our star data might not match up entirely with mcast just because we adjusted our star Benchmark is we added a fourth benchmarking period and we moved the dates around a little bit so we're not sure if our fy4 scores will truly match up as they have in the past it star has been a really good indicator of where we would land but since we adjusted some of the Benchmark dates and added a benchmark instead of doing three typically we added a four but we're not so what month was this Benchmark given this this one was given uh it was at the end of May okay so not quite checked out from no we thought that we had really solved everything by doing the third Benchmark like in March before mass and to have it kind of out of the way but we realized that it was it was a little too far outside of the window and then we still had 10 11 weeks left in the school year so there was still a lot of growth that could be made in the school year another thing got to compare is star was not us what called constru respons additionally response way in do contri back that you do not have to work out multiple step problems so much on Star assessment compared to when do you like to see more consistency but those are all kind of variables why the numbers could be off and Dr fre you said that you are eventually going to be moving to towards a districtwide benchmarking did I understand it correctly we do um we have a um a districtwide benchmark calendar um that's developed with the elementary curriculum coordinator and the principles and uh they're they're looking forward to a consistency throughout the district and so will there be a writing component to that because both the ELA um mcaps and the math Ms have a writing component that star does not test on them we introducing writing benchmarks this year okay we are 36 take all three K1 teach yeah just to go back to your question about that bring 4 the 33 to the 60 I don't think it's really that remarkable I mean it's 177% but the one below it is 14% And the one about is 19% and with these percentages remember we're talking about 100 kids so that percentage is really just a matter of a kid or two someone having a bad day so being six so I'm just want to throw that out there I know it does I think it's because the first digit is a three and a six so it looks like woo but it's really it's not that different than the fifth grade go just want just follow up on that I just want to clarify too the fiscal year 21 was the mcast that was really um not the same Cal of the Cs that we currently are using so it my it seems like it's reasonable that the numbers would have dipped in 21 to 22 which some have gone up some have gone down but if you're looking at a robust all of this is Stars I don't know if their testing is more robust then am I wrong in the way I'm looking at that no I I think you're you're spot on there and I think that's that's the case there there are a lot of variables that come into play with it but uh but I mean like a true measure of how we're trending would probably be the lookout 22 phical year 22 onward mhm I mean that's just my geek analysis for I guess that work the other thing I'd like to request when we do get the mcast data because I know part of using the star data was to um have not just a once a year measure to see how much it does match up because I'm concerned if we aren't catching things by the star data I know you're working on something for the district but just to make sure things are matching up in a way that we can make sure we're not getting too surprised by student performance I guess is what if you could yeah match that up when we get the actual mcast data that would be great yeah and then this is just um showing growth percentile really like to see anything 50 or higher um and again we just kind of kept the same kind of platform here uh you can see in in math over here we had some nice spots where we had had hit the 70 growth percentage which is really high growth that we're seeing but again we're really looking at um anything over 50 and over can you remind me what measures the growth percentage again is it the beginning to the end of the year or they it goes from the fall score to the spring score okay and actually it goes fall to winter winter to spring so we' like to see at least at 50 or higher but is this an average of all four or this is from just beginning of the year to end of the year okay so it's the beginning to the end of the year is okay yes in mcast growth percentile is comparison to students who scored similarly the year before okay so good to know wa that's all I have for the cohort data thank yeah thank you all right leave that there I'll go back to next item all right next up we have uh new staff okay so we have a total of eight new or reassigned staff for this upcoming school year so one would be our assistant principal as Brian has taken on the new role of Elementary curriculum coordinator so we have we're close to to getting a person in so we had assembled a team of staff there was eight of us that screened the candidates that had apped we pulled in a group to interview and then we narrowed down to finalists so we're pull up we can mail somebody down did you include any parents or school council folks on that I did not have any any at that time so uh I I had at on the group it was the school psychologist the adjustment counselor special ed teacher DLC teacher uh Brian was on it I have an office uh secretary was on it and I had a a classroom teacher there okay our our new office parent professional replacing Kim s is Kelly Smith kindergarten teacher Miss Laura heene who's here tonight our former reading teacher we have a grade six teacher Alexander Huntington we have a new speech pathologist Lindsay drulard and new PSL teacher Eva G our behaviorist uh is also TVD uh we work with Dr Jenner's uh shared position over in Kingston and we have many new it's so Kingston went down to .5 or no I okay sorry go ahead yeah so it it is in kingst but it's like preschool oh and so um we had closed one of the classs so we have some additional professional supports and professional a little bit of salary that we can use when we getting more more students with who require some bcpa interventions so partnera so they'd be in the preschool and in Halifax okay it wouldn't be a shared cost what it would be is whatever the point FTE is for Silver Lake would be a contract with Silver Lake and whatever the FTE for Halifax would be for Halifax however we believe similar to the way we um planned with in uh instrumental that if you have um a position that's full-time you're more likely to attract candidates absolutely does that impact like ability to get health insurance if you're halftime Silver Lake halftime HS so that makes another yes that that's another sort of barrier like even though you made it full-time like you know so it depends on what the the breakup is who will carry the health insurance oh but they still can get health insurance Yeahs oh okay so they can at okay so yeah that be a huge absolutely question thank you and the last position that we have there is custodian Tom's being mid Shi person um fer for distribution fer that's in the F two oh isn't the football already started yeah I'm ashamed to be part of the football community that this just came out because and I will say this openly I've been telling them since February to get this fly in front of the school committees because my children are big we're a big football family so this is insane to me I think I I mean I would propose that we pass it so that they can so kids can know for next year to register cuz I think this is the first time I've seen a subil lake youth football liar since I've been on the school committee other than the camp we've seen the camp one but not the actual registration and how effects numbers in silver football are low so does this mean when this goes out they can't register anymore but they we might still I don't know I'm not on the board for Sil football based on a team do you think they could add people or I mean I just potentially I mean they already I mean games start on the in September potentially well cuz they already been going they've been going since it's done two weeks for 2 and a half weeks this is insanity to me that they're finally just getting this out to us and I've been saying since February to get me it but um I'm confused about this causing more confusion why are you sending me something I can't sign up for I'm not against the idea I know do you know what I'm saying like I think like I think it needs to be going I I would I would only vote to get it out just so that families know that we do actually have a football program yeah and not just a camp um can I can I just make a a suggestion though I I don't know that maybe it would be better if they send a different type of fly um and my only hesitation is we as a school committee routinely in the school routinely gets complaints about timing communication things that maybe they didn't get as quickly as they would have liked my fear is that this could look like the school was negligent in getting this out to parents and families timely and I don't know that we need to open that door I don't disagree with you yeah I can I'm very happy to go back to them too if that's something that I can do and just say hey you're too late let's I'm all for it listen to what we I think it's a great thing I love the three towns doing things together but I just feel like it would cause a lot of unnecessary emails if we send you're right I scanned the QR code and it brings you to a Facebook post from February so Mr V when did we get this for approval hey not all of them come to me I'd have to check they got added to our I wonder if there's something some communication that come can come from the secretary that says if this is an urgent issue that needs to be approved before the next school committee meeting then this course of action should be taken so I know that when they come to Karen she explains to them the policy she also shares with them the date of the upcoming School committee meeting okay sometimes when people get them in too late she just lets them know the next one isn't going to be until this date yeah but I don't know if this came to Karen or if it went to Ellen it got added to our folder on the 22 I checked that I'm it's no fault of our school committee I'm just like the numbers and football has been declining like rapidly and I I'm I'm honestly I think it's a really good A lot of people are think like oh like you don't want your kid to get hurt concussions all those things kind of things with football and I get it but also football has so much discipline it's 3 days a week and school starts these kids are coming home they're having they're eating their they're doing their homework they're eating they're going to football they're coming home they're going to bed and it continues like that through high school I just feel like kids don't get in trouble when they do things like that so I just feel like it's a good disciplinary sport for kids kind of bummed that Halifax doesn't really get it because it doesn't Kingston's much better at getting out getting it to Kingston not toax and it's not our fault it's not the school's fault it's the the board for it's the board for silver football that their fault um maybe feedback like to how I don't know I should just not offer on SCH but please do I hope that they watch this get like BB I know that yeah I mean having worked with different organizations that represent all threee towns gold Stones included um it is sometimes challenging when the activity takes place in a town other than malax to have Halifax representation amongst the organizers um and there's obviously a trickle down effect with how Halifax um gets the communication I've seen that with lacrosse in a whole bunch of different sport the soal like youth football meetings and votes are in Halifax so it's just like silly I in or used to be I've been there's there's a couple board members that are that are I'm just I'm just like I've been saying it for months like perhaps we can encourage the organizers of organizations to come and present their Flyers to us so that we have a better understanding and maybe they could have altered this for our request well cuz it says registration is open and registration is in fact not open anymore so I post it you're right I would want to put it I'm not against it at all I mean my son you know he's playing in college so yeah started there right and it's a good or it could be a great like last year the first graders there was two kids that played from Al or second second graders when my kid third grade second graders two kids they were in the same class and one was my son and like nobody else played a lot of people didn't even know that it was an option cuz I never saw anything go across our laps last year well it depends too I mean it depends like I anyway yeah anyway I I not to get too far off topic but um question that we do not approve the Silver Lake Youth Football registration flyer for distribution um and um just add a little thing in there that maybe alen or Karen can reach out to them and explain the reason we're not approving it is because the Timeless has passed well just that it's not accurate anymore correct simply not okay we have a second second okay um Katie yes Lori yes Karen yes Jessica yes myself is yes and the other one does Scout Girl Scouts does anyone know about the dates on that one line up okay so it says Wednesday September 25th from 6:00 to 7:00 no I think that's great cuz actually from my own personal experience I feel like Girl Scouts wasn't well advertised and my kids were here so I mean I think these Community I think these programs are fantastic and any involvement children can get into that's my feeling about it so and making you know helping parents know cuz activities are scout leader I fully support as a Silver Star Girl Scout leader I support soone want any more discussion I'll make a motion to approve and distribute the Girl Scouts fer okay second I'll second okay uh Katie yes glori yes Karen yes J yes and myself as a yes all right next thing all right so then we are now on to a little update on the water so we have all the drinking supply lines have been tested and the report shows that all are under the recommended limit platform Water Supplies have been shut off signs have been posted um not for them to drink it uh in the common areas the gym Lobby bottle filler and it now has a filter that was placed on it from the summertime it still needs to be tested and it is turned off until the end would do test it a lot throughout the building has been flushed throughout the summer there were new gaskets on the water M that were replaced this summer by norber do we have a date for the testing on the JY uh I do not yet I M Wallace is working on a date he just has to get everyone back in before he can reest that area I said that's like a big one just because the gym it is hopefully be on it I think he know he know all of it's use all time there was no detection of aestus or PC which is sometimes not theing pipes and the test results were from June 5th and they all indicated that um it's a like a 20 Page document I think share a copy with you all and the only one that was a little elevated at first was the one that was in the gym Lobby before we had put the filter on but now the filter is on and we should be good to go but it needs to beest and once this is resolved how often will the testing happen to make sure it will definitely be tested every year okay um but if if you want to test it on a different schedule then we can talk with the town and like while I'm just wondering cuz I don't want to find out after you know so I don't know I mean the filters I obviously will need to be changed there's like I mean I would be curious what the whole protocol is to manage that's suggested so that we can make sure we're following it and um you know like changing the filters as often as necessary and um so are we all out of like pull and spring bubblers like the water DRS the only one that we have is in the nurse's office has PS in there but all the other ones have FL uh Builders off so okay can I ask a question kind of pig back La said can we maybe have something brought to this meeting next month that outlines what the kind of maintenance schedule is to monitor um the water just so that we have a document bu the public just kind of a close off of this cuz it has been something that parents in particular have been very um you know in tune to want to know more about so definitely give that no problem and do we also have a dollar figure how much we've spent to remediate this [Music] problem I think it was one that was shared last year but see what ex that you can give it to this next meeting I just I want to have a good idea of how much we had to spend because of what of us I I remember we had a running document I'll I'll find it for you okay great for next Meek and donation okay to the so the PTO has as that they are looking to donate funds so they would like to donate a total of $25,000 $10,000 that is to supplement uh cuts to teaching supply lines the account the account line and then $115,000 that was originally they wanted to help funds to Hero Academy but then they had said we weren't able to pull that together on last year so they HED to offer this as an after school program possibly since it did not getm the hero after school so they looking originally they said they wanted to help out with that but since we weren't able to pull that together so they were thinking that they could help this year we're able to pull it off like an after school program that's similar inside support students so my question is normally when the PTO donates to the school for items we don't have to vote on it what why what's different now that we would have to possibly vote on it is that the amount or so so typically the PTO any donations made to the school budget should be approved by this committee oh so this is a like they want to actually donate it to the school budget not just like when the PTO like pays for something or that's the way I understand it and I think they were closing out their fund or whatever they process was but they that they want be able there were a number of concerns with the Hero Academy that I I think um I think think you if you vote to accept this money you should make it contingent upon um legal recommendations with regards to this type of programming after school it's one thing to have separate programs it's another thing we have to have very clear and um defined criteria as to who's going to attend so is that something that would run through Dr pan re see them to select those individuals because this was to help students who were off PL correct well not necessarily the learning Gap correct so would they be open to having it like next summer yeah to doing it next summer instead of having it be after school like okay well it's like a lot this for regardless of how you operate you have to be very clear on your criteria I think this is kind of a one time thing Karen you were there last year they were reorganizing their accounting and I think was it was it they weren't incorporated or they were nonprofit or something so they were getting into a little bit of Pop water so they need to remove the money so they had to get because they were they want a lot of money in the account to fund all these things but I think they have to Wi the clean so this is kind of a one year fresh start I think in order to do things accurately and my concern is just that the school committee needs to be careful about how it approves proves the use of those funds because you need to have all those pieces in place before you can assure someone that you're going to spend it in that way right so is it reasonable to say I mean the teaching supply line seems like teachers always need supplies so that seems like something we could approve um is it reasonable to and Karen you might have a better S for Mr dantz to ask the PTO if um there are other line items that they would be willing to let this be used for um only because we have to be careful and I don't think we should approve the money if the plan isn't defined then it's it's like there's definitely a need for money in our school budget um you know maybe Mr B could um come come with some recommendations on what other line items or or Sarah what other line items are um in need I I there's so many I don't want to like start and the first thing I think too like is Staffing cuz I feel like that's where we took the biggest hit and I I mean 15,000 isn't going to save a job I don't think but I don't know could it help with like certain things are I don't know like it's I but also we have to determine what it's going to but I don't feel particularly comfortable designating it for the Hero Academy cuz like you said we don't have all the details of that and I'm not sure I also don't think that I mean if the PTO is trying to kind of clean their books as they reincorporate there may be limitations for the organization on what they can give the money for um so I I just I feel like you need to have a more in-depth conversation with the PTO um in it would probably I mean I think we should try to find a way to accept it no I 100% want to accept it I just want it to not you know to be all you know how following everything we're supposed to do and then um I can go back to P yeah is there a time what Sor I think ran is corre with everything he say and then when was this voted my sones on the spring so I'm guessing was the Miss meeting like was it voted on during meeting if it decided to donate these funds to know I don't I never heard this conversation and it could have been James completely frur arm in on May 10 so I don't know if I miss a meeting but I know I never heard this conversation um and I assume that would had to have been voted and yeah discussion about what it was being allocated for did they just email you saying they want to donate money I have email but I I'd have to go back and check on my PTO minutes to see they vot what they voted on or not voted on to be like done by a certain date for them on their they stand that need to this doesn't no it doesn't have a date as to when do you know when first meeting is I can ask any pie can we leave that part open and wait till next meeting yeah that's like thank you but we need to abolutely I mean ideally it would be great if there can be some sort of conversation um in September or excuse me yeah or maybe if the PT come to our next meeting perh Y and are there questions that you would like me to ask at their first meeting if that happens before our anything I should do in the conversation well I'm just I mean as far far as how often do donations like this occur well in Silver Lake it's for the high school and middle school like we have donations regularly at the elementary school again not necessarily as sizable or as often where in Kingston they have the foundation for Education that's usually an annual donation um again they you can the PTO can donate the money for it my concern is them prescribing particular program that hasn't been clearly defined or vetted through this committee as well as through um your your administrators so I I would recommend uh something like you know playground equipment or um technology that isn't currently paid for through the budget something above and beyond um which is what they've typically Done Right which is something but it sounds like they're trying to make up for things that we were cutting from the the initial budget and they can make those kinds of line item donations but this is beyond a line item donation this is saying we want this program and we can't guarantee them that we be will be able to provide that to say that the donation is to the Halifax uh school budget and leave it to us to prescribe where that money is spent they could do that as well I think that well also I hesitate to do something a onetime donation to start a onetime program it seems like it's not the best use of the funds because but it could be like a gateway to see like if if that actually does help with these numbers later like we see like we can do like additional something to see if these kids coming in are actually like increasing these star numbers and case study almost yeah it's like a it's almost like the PTO is like allowing us like a test r to see if it works and then if it does we can try and find it somewhere else to help the other kids that do need that extra push I mean I agree with you but I also feel like it's not sustainable with our current budget or sta level like we' cut back key positions and I don't know we're asking re to do more work um on a really thin sound to be good I I love the idea of that program I think it was um it it's really a shaming that it didn't exist but I also think like um sometimes when someone is donating or an entity is donating they want to have some skin and how that money is spent so I don't want to be disrespectful to the PTO be like can you just give us some money like that that feels very um very rude so I feel like a nice meeting in conversation um maybe Mr B put together Sarah or Dr Pro what are some things that were caught that feel like it's feasible rather than just say we're just going to add it to the budget where we think I think the teaching supplies is BR because that's always the need um but I feel like there's probably other things that would really enhance education we just need to figure it out um and Jessica to your point I really want us to think about how we can make that work next summer I know our budgets are always going to be a problem but it seemed like it was a relatively low cost investment for a huge gain and that's why we're all in this um you know that's why we're doing this for working so we should prioritize that do we need to take a vote or anything and just so uh you could vote to accept the 10th ,000 for teaching supplies and we and ask principal bodry to go back to the PTO to see if there's something other than um a program that has yet to be defined and um approved that they would like to help enhance the learning experiences for students in a different way I would appreciation like to make a motion for what Dr Pro said can you say move to something you say just have to be the chair um I'll make the motion okay okay well and yeah I'll make the motion that we accept the $10,000 from the Halifax PTO for Teacher school supplies and that we will invite the PTO to have a discussion with us and also ask principal bodri and Sarah to ask what possible things we could spend it on so that we're not this is the longest motion ever um so we are not approving a program that hasn't been FedEd yet and um is that good defined thank you second okay Katie yes Lori yes Karen yes Jessica yes and myself as yes is are we able to send the thank you letter to them or that or do you want me to make a motion to send a thank you letter all right I make a motion that we send a thank you letter to the PTO for their very generous donation second okay Katie yes Lori yes Karen Des yes and I'm a yes okay who would write that letter is it from the school committee or from typically it comes from the building principal okay on behalf of the school committee that's how it's handled in most districts can I ask a question before we move on to the next one um can I ask numbers on the class numbers oh that's a good question I had a couple moms ask there's like a the class of 20 whatever it is when my kids is in asking what the numbers were for our classroom but also like what the overall numbers were do we have a kindergarten number yet and all that uh right now kindergarten is at 83 and that I think there are do more in the queue that are coming in uh first grade is at 90 second grade is at 67 third grade is at 68 fourth grade is at 78 fifth grade at 68 6th grade is at 82 what's that total sorry I could add it up but this total is 536 that's a lot lower the master we had a big sixth grade that went out was definitely high in the mid90s getting people that have been coming in kindergarten is pretty high again it's decent yep when I guess you have final number by Wednesday or well when kindergarten we'll see what happens when kindergarten register they I mean the registration has come in but we screen kindergarteners on Wednesday and Thursday so we we still do have people showing up at the door so okay and roll before October 1st [Laughter] please so we should definitely have all of our final by by Friday who to that point do um you see kindergarteners registering after the first day of school is that something we've seen I think so definely I mean every family situation is and I think that um we've had some that you know registered way early and then we have some that are just coming now their um own situations have changed so we do definitely people that are still registering so we could be at 90 could but I not asking for that I'm just I'm thinking it might stay in the mid 80s probably probably good number how big was the class that just graduated I'm sorry how moved on sorry was it 9 cuz there was like 24 in each class we some that were at 25 the first graders almost so it's yeah it might be similar to that first grade class but it was a little bit higher so I want to say it was like B 9s okay just curious do we to make a motion on the 15,000 I kind oh we did okay thank you anything else I don't think so any other questions all right Sarah thank you you're welcome um I put in your folder the um a revised close out so thank you first of all thank you for moving next July's close out meeting up week it gives us an extra seven days um and you'll kind of understand why that's so important after I go through this so on the end of the fiscal year is June 30th and on June 30th we have to make a decision of what are all of the encumbered funds that are real incumber funds and I had to have a difficult decision with people and say if you you have a purchase order something that has been ordered and you just haven't received it yet or if you have had a service uh contract where somebody came in and did work and they just haven't invoiced us yet those are the funds that we will carry over into the next fiscal year so My having that conversation in the business office and having that conversation around the district was a surprise to some people so I had some things show up after the closup meeting we had um we had course reimbursements for teachers that were submitted to me um around the 8th of July so fortunately the town accountant and I had a meeting we were talking about these they're referred to as prior fiscal year bills we were talking about the prior fiscal year bills because normally you bring a the prior fiscal year bills to town meeting in the fall to be paid by the town um and so I was talking to the town accountant about this and she said well what types of things are you looking at and I explained that we had some course reimbursements and she said that they hadn't closed books on the town yet and asked me to revise this closeup report so if you were to compare this close out report to the one that you saw on July first you'll see that there's at the bottom there's three course reimbursements that were added didn't make a significant difference in the amount of money turned back to the town but these are things that will not be going to town meeting for approv any questions about the revised Clos out so basically before the town received its total of money that we voted on we told them that we're going to take out or we decided to take out these additional funds didn't make the cut I mentioned that we had things we were going to ask the town for a town meeting and the now retired accountant said to me wait a minute let's do this yeah so do we have a brace period do we because we voted on a total to give back to the town in July do we need to vote this different total today CU it's and and here's another question on top of that what happens if we don't give that money back to the which money the the um the grand total close up money we have so then we have to we do have to okay so the principls the directors made requests of the school Committee in January of 2023 the school committee approved a budget it was approved by the town that money is only good for the school to spend between July 1st and June 30th okay so whatever we don't spend by June 30 if goes back to the town that's state law and you you may recall we froze the budget because we had a number of lines that were overspent so I guess like the the question that keeps kind of rattling around and I know that um it's been a discussion amongst taxpayers in our town is what other ways could we have used is there another way that we could have used money that we had because we froze the budget because we recruited we were left with this excess of money is there a way that we could have negotiated something with the town like is there a way that we could have added that money that we had to cut painstakingly from this year's budget so this is this is where you benefit from hiring a school business manager who has been through several rodeos if there is money at the end of the year traditionally what any school business manager would do is one of three things you prepaid tuition for outo district placements you move money into your circuit breaker account to carry it over into the next year or you make single large technology purchases I I bought $150,000 worth of flat panels one year on June 30th in the town account said to me I see you bought flat panels and I said yes I do okay so again last year was an extremely challenging year you were put in a very difficult situation as a midyear higher trying to figure things out um even with your wealth of experience um there were so many different variables I'm just saying that to prose um is the reason that we didn't do those things because we didn't realize with all the moving pieces happening how much money would have been left the moving pieces that you're talking about I think are the moving pieces for FY 25 correct so I'm kind of talking about like you are one person with a finite I didn't number of hours to do work and our Focus was 25 I didn't know until noon on July 1st whether there was EX money or there was going to be a deficit and we were going to need to beg the town for money so there were certain systems that were in place that made it so when I printed a report and looked at the number in the bottom right hand corner the number was not the number those systems have been dismantled changed now you have the number okay so so is that a one-time occurrence um is that's something that will happen every year which is why this extra week Noe okay so it is a a process issue yes not a timing issue do you want to hear I asked uh Cody Hadad about some money after our last meeting would you like me to read his response good conversation especially for public record when it has been a huge question amongst taxpayers so I sent them the note that we have the money that we voted on last to send back to the town and was basically asking is there a way for us to get it back you know what can we do so he said thank you for providing the update as a department of the Town it is important to have funding within the school budget not utilized as this is how we fund our capital projects for the town including HS if all departments continuously spent their entire budgets we would have very limited funding available for capital projects as you mentioned this will close out to free cash and our financial team will need to make a recommendation on how to best appropriate our free cash we can certainly look into placing this in our stabilization fund and the next time the elementary school has a capital project utilize that portion the certification of free cash is something that happens naturally through the town submitting information to the Department of Revenue free cash may not be certified in time for a special town meeting this fall but Halifax has historically appropriated free cash at the annual town meeting in the spring that should not be an issue another way to possibly go about this would be if HS has capital projects for FY 26 we could simply appropriate the free cash to to those projects at the Springtown meeting at this point there's nothing further for the school committee to do so this is somewhat of a process that happens with the budgets every year where they do expect us to send money back so we it's it's a little bit it's not like saying oh man we could have had this money cuz it's not really how you know like it's it's kind of a it's a so I mean I thought that was a really good expl explanation of what needs to happen with the money I mean we and I'm not sure how we could have changed anything that occurred by knowing you know I just think it's really important that we have that conversation part of our public record and I would like to ask that that statement from Cody be added to the meeting minute since you read it that I'm sure you can send that to to um because I think it is a really important piece right to understand how the whole no I agree and it was something we all were trying to understand at the last meeting so so the other question I have with regard to Cody's email is um he mentioned that if we wouldn't have time to do this for the fall town meeting is he talking about I believe there's discussion of a December I believe there is a town meeting that's happening in the fall at some point I don't so I wonder if there is one happening in December and I might have just made that up um if we could put something um if there is a need for this school we can put something into a December town meeting it sounds like the only way we could do it is if we had a capital project that we could request but so I guess I guess my question then is to um Dr crew and and Tain to say can we be prepared um to think about what our wish list would be um to try to find a way to get something on um the whatever town meeting we can get it together for um I know that there's deadlines to submit the article I think we you know we've talked about different um pain points um and not you know having these conversations and being like Oh we've passed the deadline for submitting an article um for the warrant um I think we just should learn from every pain point that we had last year um and be prepared um if we can think about how to um enhance our school on in a really difficult budget year I'm sorry Jo so there there is a capital plan that principal Bodi puts out every year and there's still items on the capital plan that weren't um addressed this year so in terms of a Capital project um we already have a running list but I would recommend that principal bodry meet with um our facilities director um to go over what those projects are on the list and and help prioritize some of those projects yeah I think that's that's kind of what I was getting at thank you in that way we could prioritize things for health you know for elementary school that you know might free up money somewhere else and like so we don't possibly end up with a water situation or something like that well one of the apps that the town wck already came to us with was the bleachers how they're unsafe and how they they need to be replaced so um I'd like us to consider that as the capital Town uses it a lot to exactly that's I'm think it's not just our elementary school that's using those bleachers and so that's a good idea but I mean the sort of this whole process is for us to think about how we can best ize the budget for the school absolutely I have a followup question on the tuition reimbursements um is there a memor random of agreement with the teachers that they need to submit those reimbursements by a certain date for credit for that that calendar year or fiscal year off the top of my head working with four different contracts I don't know the deadlines okay for the reimbursements um I would have to look at the H teachers contract okay I just want to make sure that we're not having a deadline that's close to that July 1st date because I think that that's setting us up for people who are procrastinators putting in stuff last minute for accreditation or for reimbursement and so the I think to answer your question is that we're not going to run to this issue again with reimbursement because I have asked um the assistant superintendent's office to encumber the funds when the courses appli for so if you apply for a course at Bridgewater State and you're going to be reimbursed whatever the maximum is allowed by your contract then that money is going to be set aside and it will be encumbered in the system already so when June 30th comes we just need to ask where's your paperwork for this is there system already set up where a teacher has to let the assistant superintendent know that they're going to be enrolling in a class okay there's a course approval process for the reimbursement and for credits towards M changes perfect and that's great standard in any District okay so then financial report there was a a financial report in your folder um I know usually I run through piece by piece by piece but realistically this is um this is essentially one and a half months into the the budget season so if you look on the last page of the report you'll see the range to date that's the amount of money we spent in August well up to this point in August um next to that the Year date that was our toal expenditure in July and August out of the budget and then we've encumbered so out of the uh 7.46 5 million we've spent $132,100 [Music] and so we've encumbered the payroll and at this moment in time the budget that is available for the rest of the year is 2,338 4786 we haven't encumbered Transportation yet they over the next month the business office is going to work on setting aside all the encumbrances for all of the contracts so that we've already committed that money for the contracts and all that will be left in here will be the expenses that were budgeted for I like that a lot thank you and the terms of those contracts are due before June 30th I'm assuming so like if an invoice from first student comes in they need to submit that before June 30th so that we can do our closeup first for student is very good at the end of the month getting up so at the end of aug August we're going to get a bill for 3 Days of Transportation so um they're they're very good at getting their bills out so I think our school year ended on June 14th and I think the 15th and the 16th we had the bills from first student um there are some other vendors that we have relationships with that are not as timely Timely and so then it's it has to be a case of we know it's going to be uh built to us and having the money in C and that's where we need to tighten out some things any questions about the financial report I don't have any do any know all right and now Dr Clifford and welcome to the district hi everyone than thank you for having me and I'm really excited to be here I started on August 1st so almost a month um in the um shared folder you'll see a curriculum instruction and assessment update um and I'll just go over a few things um briefly um the first being that um teachers participated in the studying skillful teaching course which happens every year it happened this year at the middle school the research for better teaching um group came um they were taught by Christina Lance and reallyy they uh the teachers were there for 4 days um working with Christina from RBT and then they'll also be doing four more sessions um with her during the year virtual sessions so research for better teaching and the studying skillful teacher I'm really excited that that's part of the contract here and that's part of the work that the teachers do it's foundational you know information that is just really good and sound teaching so that's great that's awesome the second thing is Essa title one through four grants and so also another piece of the work that I do is completing the title grants um and you can see from the information um these funds when improved by Desi will fund Title One programs which include tutors interventionists at schools also These funds include title two which supports our new teacher Reduction Program and title three supports El education title four supports professional development and help support the strategy for district Improvement and titled Title 1 2 and four are submitted for all four districts and title three is just submitted for Kingston so this year I needed to submit different grants for each one of the different schools and each one of the different titles so that's waiting to to get approval from first it goes to Sarah and then it goes to the state and then they go through it and then hopefully I get then they let me know that yes it is approved and then funds can be used to support those things so those are the title grants the next piece is the new teacher orientation program which was held the other day on was it I don't know it's been a week it's been everything's gone by so fast I can't even remember what day it it's only Monday like a week that just kept going um was held on August 21st um at the high school all new teachers came and attended they were able to hear from District leadership um from many of us here about different things in the district they were given a technology update and then um then they got on the bus and they went to all the towns and I got on the bus too was a good tutorial for me and and Steve wett does a great job he's he knows a lot about all the areas so he gave us all the information then they went back to their schools to talk specifically about um things that were relative to the that they in and on the TW August 19th we had a district leadership team meeting a full day at the middle school where we focused on the strategy for district Improvement updating the plan a clear articulation of the work ahead for this year under each of the four goals um we were able to spend time working as a school-based leadership teams too so school teams got together and worked on their own School Improvement plans and things related to this District plan and shared those with us so those were all pieces for that day and the last thing is on September 3rd so right now we are we are busy planning and getting our final pieces together for the professional development day that's going to happen on September 3rd for all faculty and staff students will be attending school on the 3D the day will begin with all Elementary faculty and staff at kis um meeting to conduct Ela mcast analysis with a focus on alignment to the Massachusetts Frameworks for ELA and at the high school and middle school The Faculty will start the days at their prospective schools and then come together for Department work which will be also mcast analysis relative to their content area and um alignment to the Massachusetts framework and the objective of the work is to use the analysis of the most recent mcast preliminary data for 2024 spring of 2024 to see areas of strength and areas for improvement and make make action plans for those improvements we're fortunate that we have preliminary data um for MC for spring of 24 and we're fortunate that we have a professional development day on the 3D it's a very quick timeline between when that data was released by the state which is very recent and then now having the time for teachers to work together to make sure that the results the item analysis how did they do each grade level um in particular we're going to focus this day for the Elementary on English language arts and then um matching that that up with the alignment with the with the Frameworks and seeing things that we're doing well and things maybe that we need to work on and plans for those and Brian and I have been working closely on this with the elementary principles and I've been working with um secondary team migua Mela Gil in particular at the high school with the with the curriculum coordinators to get this all rolling and going um for September can you share some of this information pertaining to HS at the next um School Comm are you not allowed to Sor we have we have to wait until the it's official data and not okay all right yeah usually usually they the prary data is there until the end of September say okay then they can let it go up I just think be fascinating It is Well when we can hear it I'm excited to hear it any questions you said that the third is concentrating on um Ela is there going to be another day to look at math as well yeah we right now we've been we actually we had some conversations already about some of the other PD days that we have this year and kind of laying like kind of organizing that out Ela in particular is something that um is imperative to to us to get started on for September 3rd but math definitely will be another caveat will be um we'll be creating um a curriculum review cycle which the first content area will be math and so ran and I and others have been working on that too so you're going to hear more about that but yes we will be do and then I'm assuming similarly with science as well yes okay I'll have data yep um I would I'm sorry I'd be curious ious to see a syllabus for the um the study skillful teaching if that's available just to see teachers are yeah there is something that they usually um provide as their you know information or their that they share out advertise of course and that kind of thing yeah okay thank you all right any other questions Dr thank you today we held our opening um our opening day our our district welcome and convening this year's theme was outer space um every year our leadership team Works uh together uh over the summer to update our strategy for district Improvement um focus on uh what our next steps are going to be for the upcoming school year and prioritizing um how we're going to spend the upcoming year to try to meet our goals um and as you can imagine sometimes that's um dry so we try to come up with a fun theme uh for our opening day to welcome everyone back it was wonderful seeing everyone and I wanted to thank Dr pan re for providing an overview today on the new um IEP expectations to the entire staff she'll also Pro be providing professional development um for our special education staff uh tomorrow as well so um she did a nice job introducing it to everyone who may not have been as aware of the upcoming changes um our special education staff is uh is well aware but um it was nice to have her there today to be able to go over that with our our faculty um we as I mentioned we spent uh three days over the summer working on uh our strategy for district Improvement goals for the upcoming school year we also held a title 9 uh workshop for all of our administrators uh because of the change that are coming so we anticipate uh that our policy subcommittee um will be reviewing the um the new legal changes that have been made to Title 9 in the state that will be upcoming as a uh a policy subcommittee conversation and um we also were busy this summer hiring a number of new leaders across the districts we want to thank our new HR Director Liz grindle for uh jumping into action as you may imagine the last couple weeks before school starts can be pretty um overwhelming and Liz has done a great job of keeping up with all of the recommendations coming in from our principles we have as you know our new assistant superintendent Dr Chris Trisha Clifford it's been a long day um we have our athletic director at the high school Rick Swanson we have an elementary curricula curriculum coordinator Mr D santis who's here tonight our HR Director Liz grindle our integrated prek principal Sarah chick our math coordinator at the secondary level Dan Korea and our special education coordinator at the secondary level Elizabeth McKay so those will all be new names and faces throughout our district um that we introduce today at the competing as well any questions I will also have in your oh in your packet is our um as our most upto-date strategy for district Improvement for your review uh I hope to at our next uh meeting share with you our upcoming goals for the school year and changes um as we look forward to the upcoming school year but we wanted to present to our staff uh today and uh we'll be working and finalizing with our administrative team at our first admin uh meeting in September great thank you oh sorry I don't know this is your thoughts about the I um revisions [Music] but I've been told that the meetings will likely be longer all meetings like the emails do Beil be so I'm concerned about that for coverage because it's to hear with teachers from classrooms and get coverage for those teachers and I don't know if there's been thoughts about how to try to that's a really great question one of the things that we're PR with theis is that to be honest with you teachers belong student faing they shouldn't be doing clerical work or facilitating meetings if you have plenty of teachers special education teachers and plenty of Staff that's great but the meetings are going to be longer and the paperwork process is going to be longer and that's all the time you're going to take away from from student facing and instruction I don't know how that's going to P out it's a mandated um requirements so we're going to see what happens this year but it's my intention for next year to put that in our budget so that we can be prepared for that so that we don't have to do that I do expect and I'm hoping that our teachers like relax it's their only human and in this particular school we have a high number of students with disabilities 54s ands and if somebody's case loow is 20 to 25 students that means they the entire meeting process they are facilitating the meeting bill is also there teer school psychologist time is also there general education teaches bre education teachers and service providers so it it's going to take a little bit longer probably at first after the first year it may take less but it's very student focused and really getting to know your students really individualizing that I need people follow the tool around the room because it's meant to be you know an engagement tool for discussion so it's not like you can just check box and so it's sort of TW full there's one that there's a lot more paperwork for the special a teachers but then the meetings themselves are also like the J teachers out of the room for those longer meetings so those are the two concerns I have one is is there a way for you to use other funding to have those special ed teachers write the I APS outside of the hour so do that by contract that maybe that PTO money could be used for that this year here and now because they've got to start because it's a learning curve right it's going to I I have no idea but I would imagine it's going to be really hard for them to get started with writing the new IPS right so could there be some sort of funding for them to get paid outside of their contractual hours to do some of that work I don't know is that that a violation of contracts we do we don't have additional funding as you know we cut our budet that we were saying that we don't know what to do with it it would be for a certain sector of students and a certain sector of teachers and it might yeah um so I watch so that one of the other things too is that student services ons have to be told during the school day not after the school day um no I at the writing I don't I don't how that's going to play out I I think the writing piece is the most simplest part because the platform that we have is very sequential and you click this box into the data you click this box once you have all the data from the meeting the evaluations entering it is going to be a sequence process I do believe that but I do believe the preparation for the meeting and the me facilitation and then Gathering all the DAT going to be and then the coverage for the Gen teachers again we cut Paris so now it was a it was a struggle to get coverage before and now I don't know if there's a plan in place to to kind of get ahead of that and think about these meetings that used to maybe be 45 minutes but now be well over an hour hour and a half so I would encourage bill to work with with Kane and I'm going to be a presence in school until you get your assistant to it's here to help to maybe can schedu them cre way so that the substitute needs as [Music] as I think it's good that they're standardizing and I think it's great I think it's a good plan but it's like here go go do all this with the resources that you have and not give you more additional resource that you need to you actually P up try to it off anyone else okay um I'm going to do some dates to remember before we um vote to go into executive session so August 28th is the first day of school September 2nd is Labor Day September 3rd there's also no school for the in service but there's in service for teachers September 26th it's an early release 8 through 6 and 7 through 12 everyone's October 7th the dates are not correct here October 7th is the school committee and on October 14th is Columbus Day um would anyone like to make the motion to go into executive session to not come return to open session school gets out at 10:45 10:45 okay if anyone's list yeah High School does not get out at 10:30 it gets out at 10:45 on the early release day on September 26th thank you everyone shows up at 10:30 where's my kid you're welcome I'll go ahead I'll make a motion um to adjourn on this meeting to go into executive session uh pursu with chapter 30A section 212 to conduct strategy sessions and preparation for negotiating negotiations with non-union for personel superintendent and not to return to open session an executive session pursuant to mgl c30a S 21 A7 to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law approval of executive session minutes of May 6 2024 second thank you all right uh we'll have a vote um Katie yes Lori yes Karen yes esica yes and I am a yes thank you everyone [Music]