##VIDEO ID:HEDF7uZCPxA## [Music] all right it's um 6:01 and I will call the meeting to order um and just notify everyone this meeting is being recorded and also if anyone is intending to make an audio or video recording of this meeting please notify me the chair at this time is anyone playing okay all right we'll start by saying the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Ali flag the United States of America and to the rep for it stands Nation God indivisible liberty and justice for all um I apologize we're going to have to go into executive session first but it shouldn't be long but we'll have to ask you all well we have to make a motion first and to go into executive session but then we'll have to ask people to step out for a bit while we meet but it it really shouldn't be long so um one of you make a motion I know I'm not up yet sorry oh thank I dis um I'd like to make a motion to adjourn to Executive session mgl c30a section 21 A3 to disc discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining for contract negotiation and a Halifax Teachers Association and executive session pursuant to mglc 30A S21 A7 to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law approval of executive session minutes of August 26 2024 and then return to regular regular session second okay um we'll have our call vote you're welcome Lori yes Jessica yes myself is yes um so move on um review and vote the regular minutes of our August 26th [Applause] meeting I'll make a motion to approve okay and accept the moving minutes second all right um dooll call vote Lori yes Jessica yes and myself as yes and now the Moa discussion on possible vote um I'll make a motion to accept the mo MOA relative to um the Specialists that have gone to point8 um second is there any discussion anyone wants to have no no all right um we'll take a vote then Lori yes Jessica yes myself as yes and now I'll turn we are going to have a presentation on the community preservation act by nin hi I just um I'm candy nin I'm chairman of the um ballot committee to support the community preservation act my husband is also on the committee and we're here together tonight um to tell you a little bit about it and to hopefully get some support from you Halifax is the only town in the region that does not subscribe to or has not enroled in the community preservation act um what the ACT does briefly and I actually have some brochures and information that I brought look at at your leisure um oh but what the community preservation at does is it allows um communities to uh put money aside for specific areas one is historical preservation one is open space and Recreation and one is affordable housing uh and it there is an assessment that the town's people pay but there are also generous abatements that is in the legislation that we're proposing for people who simply can't afford um the average in town right now now for if we would to have it right now the average would be $88 a year of fatal money a household um Lori asked me to speak specifically if I could to um what the benefits might be for the schools and I just want to say that my kids our kids all went through the Civil through Halifax Elementary my husband was on the elementary school committee they went through Civil Lake I was on the Civil Lake school committee for a period of time um we've all everyone on our committee has been on numerous boards and committees so we're all lifelong how effect well we're a long time house residents who raised our kids yet and we've all served on various boards and committees and we're really dedicated to the town of Hala and we've demonstrated that so specifically to the schools the first thing that comes to my mind is a lovely historical district because I can remember when my kids the oldest of whom is 50 um went on field trips down to the historical district and we had a working black shop um the Elementary uh school um uh cofton store uh the museum and we have such a lovely historic district that the problem we have right now is that we can't and they saw working um blacksmith in the blacksmith shop which our children today can't sleep because the blacksmith shop is not safe to go into um that would be one area that would be eligible if if we applied that would be eligible for Community preservation funding um and if you've been to HS holidays and hals we flock to the historical district um it would be nice and and in the early days we did see when we first started holiday and Contex we did see um I am working blacksmith that's part of our holidays andex we can't do that anymore another area would be the walking triail that we supposedly have that goes behind the school it's in bad badly in need of renovation and restoration and that would be an eligible project which would allow classrooms of course and students and Town's people to go on that walk and use it it could it could be a nature trail um there's so many possibilities but right now it's not really anything for us because it's so overgrown and it's so unavailable um another area was that that I just learned about well another area would be our playgrounds um we have a lovely playground Hawks playground that could have been done in 2 years instead we fundrais for I believe six years to get what we have if a piece of equipment there or here needs to be replaced that's an acceptable uh expenditure for Community preservation funds um if we decide to expand cops we can do that with CPA funds so all of this is is funding that doesn't need to come out of six years of fundraising or our budget our town budget our school budget um one area that I've just learned and I'm still learning about is the opportunity which and this would be probably more applicable but I don't know to the regional level but is regional cooperation um four towns doesn't matter who they are but four towns in the western part of the State uh a Regional School District got together and completely renovated and resurfaced the tennis courts at the high school at theal high school which is used by students and adults from all four communities that significant and and I think actually all six town H Mar's Vineyard also have done regionalization projects with CPA funding um we're the only one in the region that doesn't have that right now so that to me is another reason that we need to get involved but even my understanding our understanding at this point is even if the other two towns didn't want to use CPA funds we could so so there's a lot of flexibility ility in that um and I think that's important if you go through um if you look at past Town reports you'll see a lot of projects particularly at the regional level but a lot of capital projects that we could have used CPA funds if we had them and that would free up more money and we believe that would free up money for additional needs whether they be Transportation costs or spend budgets or we we hear all of these or or adequate or additional Staffing so we don't quite frankly we don't see a downside to this um but when it comes to schools we really think they could be one of the big biggest beneficiaries of the CPA funding um and I think I CPA has been available since 2000 um and what what's special about it is that it comes with a State matching Grant um we raise a certain amount of money in the town through the assessment and then the state gives us a percentage when it's first started and for at least the first 5 years the state match was 100% And then the word got out and so there are almost 200 communities involved now um so it's not quite it hasn't been that and then we hit Co and then we hit the down down of the real estate market for a while and the high cost of mortgages and so the the funding has been less but it's averaged 26% over the last 5 years and we don't know of any other place you can get that kind of turn onment um the other thing that the one other thing I would say about that is um the towns that got in early like like Plymouth like Kingston have brought in huge amounts of money Kingston went in right when it started at 3% you you can assess the town gos but you can assess anywhere from 1% to 3% uh and like I said there are batement so it's not based really on the tax bill it's based on the value of your home and then you can put a bait you have the eligibility abatements but Kingston went in at 3% and have done so many projects they were getting % match they brought in over $9 million over the years and they did they just went back to town meeting not long ago and reduced it to one or 1 and a half% because they felt that the town had been so supportive that they didn't need 3% um the 3% assessment so I think a lot of towns that joined early have done amazing things um and and you can go on the State website actually the website for the state is in our brochure also we formed this committee because we really were shocked at how little people knew in this town about the community preservation act so our primary goal originally although we've been upfront since day one that we are unanimously on this Committee in support of the community pres our primary goal is to tell people about it and get the word out get the information out so you'll find in there that we also have our own website where everything that we've put out there is on our website we've been putting out regular documents answering questions um just giving information any information we can find that we think would be useful and that's all on our website we also have a uh Facebook page and everything we do goes on our Facebook page so people and then we have an email which is all in there and the email was established right from the beginning because we wanted people to be able to ask questions so we would know what to look up what to go to the state and find out and then we've posted all questions and all the answers so there's a ton of information and we're hoping that you're going to all come out and vote and support the CPA uh on the ballot it's question six on the ballot in November and we've worked hard but more importantly there's so much there that so that we hope you'll learn about it and support it and I'll answer any questions question I have a question um so you know what what would the total be that would if with if with the it's a one we're requesting a 1% assessment or we're requesting one and a half one and a half okay so what would that equal as far as funds put aside just like the total amount because I'm curious It's a little well I we have to we can only base it on the home which is now 51,000 and that and so a little over a quar of a million dollars that we would raise at the local level not counting what we would get at the state and that does change every year um just a a quick note about where the money comes from the it all comes from the the state has a community preservation trust fund and the monies from that f for that fund are all from the registry of deeds so when you take out a mortgage and you have to register your mortgage that fee goes in the community preservation trust fund if you have a home equity loan and you have to pay it out the fee is $1 some that fee goes in the uh Community preservation fund so we believe it's going to go up as interest rates come down we believe a percentage will come back up um but because people will be contributing more well there'll be natural contributions as the real estate market you and interest it all yeah interest on on the money that's there and the tennis courts back here also could be something tennis we we've actually mentioned that cuz I think that's a liability isue for the town because they're unsafe and falling AP but that would be a project that could be done in the first year if if the town chose to do that and um we could renovate in new tennis courts or pickle ball courts or both um so I think I think the reason we're excited about it um is because it's just got so much for all of us um and all ages open space is one of the ones and you know we don't have open we don't have a lot of open space that the town owns um there's a building going up in town well a few buildings going up in town that are um 55 and older country that are quite controversial um if we had been part of of CPA we could have purchased that property a year to go and we wouldn't have to build on it so I mean we have no options right now we can't we don't have a lot of clout with builders in terms of even getting them to set aside a few units for affordable housing we didn't none of that's happening right now um and it could happen very easily with sua funding I just think of all the things and I mean I was around for the whole raising for the Hops playground and so and it took so my kids were grown by the time it actually got built I mean literally and it's wonderful to drive by and see so many people at it and you think we're we have some stuff on this playground that needs to be I mean I just think it would be nice if we had some wiggle room with our school budget which we know has been a struggle to fix these things for our kids and the community since it can be used after hours I mean that's I think too the other consideration that re talked about is some of the things that need to be taken care of will need to be taken care of at some point um and right now the only option is to go for either cut budgets majorly and and no one's floating in money or go for overrides and we we all know how that works and how how successful that may or may not be so right now we have some choices we don't know how long we'll have choices but this will help us for a long time and my grandchildren enjoy the playground so thank you for your I didn't do a ton I did a little but I just remember you know like how long it and and actually Jonathan who was the community coordinator for H is on our committee and working hard so so I think if you oh sorry no that's okay I just I have a couple of questions and I'm not sure if you can answer them I think that all of these projects that you vot lined are um certainly needed it would benefit Our Town um but one of the questions I have is with relation to housing so there's a thing here that says 10% for community housing um I hear from critics of this that there is a concern about um how projects are chosen that this is a way to um take the choice away from people funnel money towards housing projects that maybe people wouldn't want they would prefer the blacksmith shop to be repaired um so I I guess two questions how who makes those decisions on what projects the town people do at town meeting and not one penny can be spent from so it has to be voted on CPA funds without town meeting approval but uh regarding the housing it's nothing this has truly nothing to do with the upcoming um NBTA Community vote right but the the CPA gives us total control over making decisions regarding housing they also support and ask us to support reuse of buildings before we look at new construction uh and and it it can be very simple it can be taking a house that's abandoned or maybe someone has an owning a family that wants their home and they can leave it to the town we can fix it up we can buy homes for back taxes often we can fix them up sell them as affordable housing with a deed restriction that when those people people sell that house they have to maintain it at the affordable housing level in perpetuity and so unfortunately these big projects take get a lot of attention but they don't have to be big like that um and this gives us a lot of control also just this week I was talking to a gentleman at the state level who said that most towns don't spend this money right away they you you have to put 10% of the money you bring in into that we're calling buckets for affordable housing some of them let it sit there for well he some town let it sit there for 15 years it accumulates it gets interest and then a big project they want to do maybe it's taking an abandoned building and renovating it into 10 home 10 units for veterans or seniors or um they would have the money to do that when the time does plus there's a lot of grant money available so this money in CPA can be used to leverage matching grants and a lot of towns have done that where they just use the CPA money to pay the their match and then they've gotten tremendous grants at the state level so I think if anything this gives the town much more control over what's do the other thing is we don't have an affordable housing plan we don't have a housing plan if we had funds we could hire um um a coordinator to develop a professional to develop a housing plan for the kind ofs and that would give us even more control that we have and we we we have to admit that at some point we have to do something with our housing we have people right in house who have been on a waiting list for decades MH so I mean it's it's well I know a lot of the towns I've seen the benefit in Kingston duckberry of people having you know and and I mean it's work for people I know that it the other question I have is it could do we could also build a senior center or renovate right yeah getting one free right well I don't know I mean I know I'm just saying like I know like there's all these things that you know we've talked about for years and years that we would have a senior center now I'm certain if we had joined us in 2000 but we can't look back we just have to do it now and go forward I think that I'm just going to aside I think that the timing is unfortunate because this this in my opinion is a worthwhile project um it's a worthwhile um opportunity for our town to invest in but everyone is so tight and stretched and and at their limit so you're dealing with that you've um you have people that are saying I I just can't deal with any more taxes the MBTA affordable housing um project I I don't even know what to call it at this point but there's a lot of like mmch of misformation and everything getting lumped together and I think I appreciate that you're coming and sharing some information um I think that people should look into what the benefits are I'm happy to hear that ultimately if this is something that's passed nothing gets done unless it passes town meeting vote which is how we do things anyway so um I just think it's I I'm hopeful that that this gains support but I think it's the timing is really challenging I hope people will understand the Long View and not look at the short I mean we if we had done this a while ago it would have benefited us so I I would just say to that one thing and that is that our tax bill is our tax bill this isn't going to change it it's not going to increase our tax bill it's not going to lower our tax bill we all just got our tax bill um what it's going to do is give us another pot of money that we don't have and also that we fully control I me it's not like the finance Community where they control the stabilization fund and they decide who gets that money this is 100% decided by vks if it passes then we establish a bylaw that establishes a community preservation committee and the state is specific about five members of that being from conservation and housing from special areas and then four member up to four members at large and then that committee studies the the towns resources capabilities needs and then they accept applications and they go over the applications it's it's quite a detailed safe net for us for our money because it's totally accountable to us but ultimately they that board doesn't make the decision it is the town's people meeting say that the decision that board makes After studying all the applications is what I would assume they would they would prioritize based on the number of applications the amount of need and then they go to town meeting and put on they give a presentation and they give their recommendations in the form of an article and so during that process if folks in the school system felt like hey this is a project we really need help with then that would be the board that would we would bring that too correct yeah and they would review it and you would from what I can tell in other towns there's plenty of opportunity to meet with them with the the board and explain your application and document your application um so I I think it's a it's a board with a big job but it's an important job yeah absolutely so but you're you're absolutely correct the timing is tough but when's it good you know it's unfortunate that that it conflicts with the confusion about um the MBTA and you're right there's a lot of misinformation out there which is what when we established our Facebook page we didn't take comments any comments because we don't want to all that misinformation and a lot of that betal so we just answer questions and post information that we stand by 100% so hopefully thank you for the work thank you so much for letting us any other question talk no thank you for coming any other questions okay thank you all right um and then Lori asked to add a full regionalization discussion to our I did agenda so sorry no it's um yeah so I don't really have like a firm talking point but we have had over the course of my time on the school committee and even before I feel like there have been lots of side conversations about um what a true Regional District would look like um at this point we are uh we are a school committee within a larger school district and our larger school district has four School committees I may be mischaracterizing it um but we all consider ourselves part of Silver Lake even though Halifax school committee is its own separate entity um and Kingston and Plimpton have their own separate School committees um but I think we all recognize that there needs to be some symmetry in the way each of the elementary level School committees do things um and although we have some standards um I think especially during this past budget season I feel like the Pains of us not being a fully regionalized School District um felt more um deep and I don't know that our budget situations are going to get better anytime soon um so I think the time it's probably overdue for us to have some s of sort of conversation about what do we do to start making steps towards full regionalization I'm sorry if I'm over stepp in Jill but no did you want to way yeah sorry I was listen so there is a community compact efficiency and regionalization Grant last year this committee voted to support the town of Halifax looking into that Grant last year Kingston applied for that Grant Kingston school committee also voted to support looking into that Grant what that Grant would allow us to do is for the town to look into to the pros and cons the benefits um and perhaps the downsides of full regionalization last year's reconstruction came about because although we may feel like we're one big District we are actually four separate Financial entities and so we can't realize the savings as a full Regional District that we might be able to to realize if we were fully regionalized that's not to say that there aren't things that people um may be concerned about with full regionalization but an an inquiry using grant money in this way to find out what are the pros and cons and then providing that information to the communities to decide what's best for the communities um is what was originally uh voted upon last year around this time to ask the town to please apply and look into this but we did not get the grant correct last year we did not get the grant so can we apply again or is like or like is there a way to move forward with the study I know it's expensive that's the concern so we we can ask we can ask the town once again to apply I have two out of three committees that are in favor of looking into this I do not have uh the unanimous backing of all three communities do we have to have the unanimous backing of all three communities to look the town does not so the town can apply as we suggest but not you can't do it as a district because we don't have all of the Committees in agreement we don't have that support so we can take another vote to ask the town to apply again yes and the Silver Lake school committee if I recall I I know definitely Halifax and Kingston I'd have to look at the minutes to see but I I feel like Silver Lake also eventually voted to to support looking into full regionalization so if we don't get the grant are there other options to look into it like is this information Russ could provide or like I know we had yes okay Russ can provide us with the legalities the concerns that may arise some of the misconceptions that people have about full regionalization um and that's one part but in terms of the economics this would be what the grant would allow us to do is to have additional support to look into yeah what are the potential savings which which we don't have enough Staffing to to provide that kind of in-depth study most districts don't um and that's why they offer these grants so I have a couple of questions and I don't even know if if these can be answered here but I I'm curious as to how many other districts like ours exist um where there's a Regional High School and all these you know three towns but manh is not fully regionalized either but it's two towns we're three it's not there aren't many Regional partially Regal districts left there aren't many um I I don't have an exact number for you yeah I mean that's a question I would have is fully Regional correct yes M that's what I thought free toown Lakeville is fully regionalized yeah um King Philip is not fully regionalized but they operate as as a secondary district with its own superintendent and school committee and each of their Elementary schools are their own separate elementary schools with their own superintendence and budgets so wow that feels that sounds expensive yeah exactly so I mean there's the majority of regional school districts are fully regionalized there are some examples of partially regionalized and those are some of the examples that we know of so I mean you know we voted last year to look into it my I don't know I don't want like I feel like you know didn't get the grant last year every year we put it off I feel like more information helps us make a more educated decision because I don't think the way we're running is efficient now that we already learn regionalized you know for prek then not for K through six and then regionalize again it just feels kind of especially now that we've regionalized prek it's just it seems so I don't know what the word is but nezda is an is an organization that may be able to provide that kind of a study that's independent the other thing is is that it's um it's ideal to have an independent right person come in to do that assessment um so again if they were to come in we're talking probably thousands of dollars to have that kind of study done without the grant so I think you it's something that we can certainly look into I think that we should definitely look into the grant M um I don't think it hurts to try to apply for the grant and if that falls through having a backup of what what would the cost be to perform that kind of a study so I kind of think of this and it's different but I think of this along the lines of um the different times that our school district has looked into changing the start times of schools having later start times for the high school flip-flopping things and that's a subject that's come up a few different times and you know we we've done the work on it and the research on it and we always knew that it would be a process to get it there and it worked for some um districts and it it hasn't worked for ours we've stuck with what we've done all along but I think that it's important to keep doing the work to figure out you know times change what worked 20 years ago might not work today um and if we were to you know maybe it isn't the right move for our three towns to be fully regionalized but if we were to that's not like a flip of the switch that's going to take time so the longer we just hold off even having a conversation about it I feel like we're not helping ourselves or our community at all um my personal opinion is I think we should ask the town if they will apply for the grant again um but also I would like this to be a standing agenda item where we can just check in um this year and if there are any updates progress so that we don't have to um like if things come up in conversation that we feel like hey this would be another reason why regionalization would be a good idea for us I feel like we are very constricted to if it's not on the agenda we can't have open conversation about it in a meeting that is for the public so um I'm hoping that others would be in support of that I think it's a good idea because it's kind of frustrating to be a year later and have no movement on it when we've been talking about it so I don't I don't think that's unrealistic to not have movement I just think it's it's going to be a long process I don't know maybe not I could be pleasant mean we got surprised we got the pre regionalized pretty quick it was a little painful but we did it and I mean I would also ask um you know Joel and others that are more you know experts in this area to you know bring your opinions thoughts concerns as they come up up to things that we should be thinking about or looking at um I know that we as a school committee vote on on the matters but you know you are entrenched you are the expert at the table of education so we rely on your Insight um a lot so thank you we'd be happy to so do you want to make a motion to have the I would like to make a motion to ask the town of Halifax to um apply for the grants to um pursue regionalization assessment I'm sure I'm not saying that right but also to add as a standing agenda item um the topic of regionalizing the school district will regionalization at each meeting okay I second it okay um we can have a vote oh any more discussion can we add and possibly sorry explore find other ways to explore beyond the grant cuz it took a while to hear about the grant last year we we can't control how yeah how quickly the state moves um that's it's state funded and we're at their Mercy Mercy but um what I can do is I can contact nezda and get an estimate from them to see if they even do something like this and if they don't do it if they know of anyone who does so should we make a motion for that as well or you can just ask me to do it okay I don't know I I feel like keeping it on the agenda each month just allows us that opportunity like oh Jill can you also yes we have a question about this no yeah that would be great no um yeah will you do that yes I will thank you all right I caness have our vote okay Lor yes uh Karen yes Jessica yes and myself as a yes okay all right special town meeting discussion that's you Lori right I know I'm no it's fine that's what we're here for so we have a special town meeting um coming up in December and I just ask that this be on the agenda to be mindful of the time um that if there is an opportunity if there are things I ask Jill um if we could put this on the agenda and that if Mr B could also give us any thoughts he had about things projects um anything that we feel may be needed to discuss as a possible article by the school um on the upcoming special town meeting um so that we're mindful of getting our article in on time so we're on the warrant that we don't miss an opportunity um if we need funding or support for something so Mr G did you have any thoughts um right now we're working with Mike Wallace about uh the boil replacing the boilers they're under warranty currently they're 11 years old approximately um but we are waiting for the mechanical contractor to provide us so we would have to pick up the labor cost and we don't know exactly what that would be okay but the boilers are under warranty so as soon as I think Mike gets an idea of what that would be that be something that we would go to for the war okay do we have um a sense of if we'll have that information back in time to put something on the town warrant or should we ask for space on the warrant preemptively I don't Jill do are you aware of of of the boilers set up with with Mike and where he's at like we just waiting on yeah no I think we just waiting on a quote yeah so yeah so I guess my question I'm just looking at trying to be efficient and um I don't know if there's a way that we can request something beyond the town warrant with the dollar value to be determined at Town meeting um so if we know we have this need and we don't have the exact dollar value we want to ask for on the warrant of what the labor cost would be I'm assuming we would have that information before December's town meeting is that the correct the main thing is that Kane and Mike work together on a number that gets into the warrant article that Sarah will present to the town mhm and it can always be um reduced yep if if in fact you you don't need as much as you originally estimated but the the main thing is making sure you meet that deadline okay and the deadline I'm sorry I don't know what off the top of my head and I should but do we know what the deadline is for submitting warrants I am emailing Cody had s that's why you are the best um I know I saw an email that came out um I think ceser sent it about the deadline I just don't have it off the top of my head um so would provided that we need to have an actual number um is it a I mean can you follow up with Mike lws to kind of prompt him a little bit and tell him this is something we want to put on the warrant so hopefully that absolutely keep I believe the parts are already here we just need somebody to give us a quote okay what that work would be yeah I mean I you know it's it's getting cold I think we you know we want to be proactive it broken right now they're just they're in constant disrepair we get service calls like through the night and it's just I mean they're only 11 years old they're not no I know the heating's always been kind of Walky in the it's just that there's three there's three boilers and there's just two of them just we're constantly chasing them okay so they're only 11 years old and they're still under warranty which is a good thing for us but but they don't cover labor just parts so right now the way that it we would we would put the bill for the labor is that that's the way I understand it for changing out the boilers even though it's under warranty that's I think if you bought a your boiler just because you have to install it make sense yeah yeah well I mean if it's Parts you're replacing the actual boiler not just fixing it okay just making sure I'll talk to Michael more definitive yeah so this was another question I had and I don't know if this is the place to talk about it but what prompted me to think about this is last year during our budget conversations we we talked about potentially asking um asking uh or requesting a build an article at um town meeting to charge for busing um to charge a fee for busing and I remember us having the conversation when we were talking about ways to um decrease the cost of busing versus cutting um cutting buses and that has been um a conversation that has gotten a lot of attention from parents um and feedback from parents about um the changes that have been made to the bus schedule so I thought it would make sense for us to talk a little bit or get an update on how the new bus um process is working I'm going to ask during his principal update I we've prepared just so yeah just I don't want to get ahead of it's kind of a different subjects than what we're no I appreciate that the only reason I bring it up here is is there is there something we should consider or is this something we should talk about for our annual town meeting um so we I we were advised in the past that we weren't allowed to charge for busing as part of a um regionalized District however as you asked me to point out possible benefits if we were a fully regionalized District Halifax would be eligible for that Regional Transportation reimbursement okay thank you yep um Cody got back I'm sorry Town manager had got back to me the town meeting warrant articles are due November 4th okay and our next meeting is November is it it's it's after that so if that's the case and we do want to try to put something for the boiler on um how can we you can Rec you can ask for an amendment to include the estimated costs as presented by principal bodry and the facilities director upon receipt of those quotes and that would allow Sarah to present that on behalf of the school committee okay so should we take a vote now at this meeting to say we would like to add that as a warrant okay and then in November's meeting we will provide the detail of the estimate is that or we'll vote of the actual estimate is that correct process okay so I'm going to make a motion that we add a article to the warrant um and submit that to the town to add labor costs for um repairing the boilers second um take a vote Lori yes Karen yes Jessica yes and I'm yes all right um Town Administrator meeting discussion Lori again oh all right so I'm just going to I just wanted to note that we had this meeting really um so there was a meeting in September where um the three town administrators invited representatives from each of the school committee and Sarah and um Jill and um to kind of talk about the budget process and how we can work more collaboratively um I think it was a really positive um discussion and it talked about um I I think it in my opinion as someone who attended it brought to the Forefront even more reasons why we should be functioning more as a regional um a fully Regional School District um there are certain bylaws that Kingston has that conflict with the timeline um of what our budget process has always been um that's not something that applies in Halifax but again like the I that's not that's Kingston's problem but it affects our um our entire School District um so I just wanted to kind of put it out there that you know given all the the uh starts and stops and conversations around school budgets and um budget cuts that um I think it's a good sign that our town administrators um wanted to have this collaborative meeting um there was a lot of information shared um they're they're going to um look to start the process a little earlier um or at least the conversation process a little earlier so I don't know or Sarah if you have anything else you want to add I just wanted to point out that um the meeting happened and give a little update for the public thank you anything you want to add I I would just add that I started working on the FY 26 budget back in August so uh keep keep in mind I started working on the FY 25 Budget on December 1st so already I am months ahead yeah and that I think that can't be understated that last year's um budget had a lot of different um unique challenges yes it it it this is not it's not the same every year there were things that happened last year that probably won't happen this year but um we learn from what we experience so seems like there's lots of lessons learned so thank you all right thank you and then we have the fundraising policy discussion that Jessica requested um so the Boosterthon I love the Boosterthon I think it's great but I don't love the idea of kids getting IND idual prizes for their families or getting donations I feel like it's then kids are coming home and saying well I didn't get this now I need you to donate money I don't think kids especially in the elementary school age should be thinking about money at all and who has more and who donated more and I don't think that it's fair to the little kids that are thinking that so I wanted to um make it that a fundraising policy that individual prizes can't be given out to kids based on monetary donations do we already have a fundraising policy for like as a school policy Okay do um I haven't looked at it so do I have it in in another email I can find it but it it doesn't say anything about like that I just I mean I thought it was just me and I had then been talking to other moms and a lot of and parents a lot of parents feel the same way about the the individual prizes and then like I know my son went to school with like $6 of his birthday money so he could get a keychain that is worth probably 50 Cent so it's just you know I just it's not fair to to the kids that are and like to the parents that can't afford to to donate money and then they I see your point but then if we I mean then how what about Scholastic Book Fair like you know some kids can't afford buying books and I'm hesitant to make policies like that it's and I did see the emails sent to the PTO and I thought their response was really yeah the the Boost be changed I know so I I hesitate to make a policy just because and we couldn't make a policy tonight anyway it would have to go to the policy committee and then it would have to be written and then it would have to come back and be voted on but um because there's different things that can happen as far as rewards for participating in the fundraiser um I I hesitate to make a policy just to because I think it opens up a can of worms as far as what fundraising can happen and so um I think in this case the PTO is extremely responsive and listening to people's concerns and we if we don't make it a policy then I think we should make it so that the Boosterthon does change to not give out individual I think the PTO did say they would do that yeah they will but I guess they been has to do this before and haven't I invited Keith over here he's from Boosterthon so knowing this was going to be a topic of discussion so yeah so Kane asked me to join the meeting um I guess I'll stand up I have to acknowled right oh sorry I have to acknowledge your ability to speak sorry sorry yeah it has to be the chair but um no it's okay I'm sorry I just it's just following protocol um anyway no but you you're welcome to speak and um yeah share about awesome which it is it's a I mean it raised $37,000 so I I mean and having been on the PTO I know that's unbelievable for not that I shouldn't say not that it there's work to it but after being PTO president for two years to see that kind of money is really amazing so I you know I feel like this is definitely something that can well and I think that's my my job working with PTO working with G um is to really customize the program to best fit every school every Community obviously everybody every school and Community has a different stance on whether or at with individual prizes where they're at how much they want to fundraise with booster so I started with booster back in 2017 I'm born in Norton born in ad raised in Norton like total local guy um but loved what user brought um to schools and just raising the funds in a short amount of time does you know major things for schools um the my job is to help customize the program for whatever that school is doing of course booster over the past 20 years has seen that when you do individual prizes and students are motivated to go home and talk to their parents that's where most of the fun like the the fundraising is at its highest level the fundraising piece but sometimes there's some you know give and take on how much we raised $337,000 in individual PR does that mean we you know might raise $34,000 if we're doing a little bit different prize model um some of the things that we do is whether it's a tiered prize level where everybody's earning the same thing all together or hey we're still doing those individual prizes because it works really well but then at certain points during the program everybody's getting something whether they can financially contribute or not when everyone got a t-shirt right everybody gets a t-shirt everybody gets to do the the event the other piece is that it is a character enrichment program so um it's something that I know we're working on a lot more of vocalizing but this year students learn all about Focus creativity what it means to be a life learner trustworthiness respect these are all lessons that the students are learning throughout the course of the day Halifax has uh our full service so with that there's team members on campus we're interacting with them we're spending time with them in the classroom being these posit positive role models um so this is something that all comes with the program as far as the prizes go there's no right or wrong way to do this booster uh originally you know they're from the south and they just said hey everybody does individual prices and since we've since boosters moved up into the Northeast and we've just seen it our job is more to customize rather than just set the agenda our job is to customize that program for what works best for the school and for the community um that's I mean I sat in a post program meeting with Kane and Liz and and Wednesday of course and um it was uh very clear that you know maybe the individual prize model isn't going to be the best but like I said there is some give and take on how many how much funds are going to be coming in if we're not individ if those students are individually because they want to earn that next price level so um but just I want everyone here to know from a booster standpoint like there we are not there's no tie into a certain type of way we're doing prizes it really is about us sitting down at a planning meeting and saying this is what we this is the plan that we would like to see forward and then deciding on what does this look like for fundraising and how can we adjust that based on the fundraising needs so um yeah I mean this does anybody have any questions about that I mean I I feel like I would rather leave this up to the PTO to work out you know and if there's concerns you have like as a parent you could talk to the PTO about it but I feel like we shouldn't as a school committee involve ourselves that much you know I will say your concerns are heard by Liz in the PTO I know that that's why I'm here MH it's important to me to let you know that I care about the School in the community and that I want it to be the best product we can put out there and and have it be for exactly what you all like the entire Community want support yeah we can leave I mean we can leave it to the PTO it doesn't I guess need to be a policy unless it comes back again in a couple years that we want the individual prizes again but I mean I have kids in the school and more coming in so it's it's concerning for me for kids to be worried about money I mean I sit here once a month give my time to the school so for my kid to come home and be like oh I now need you to donate money to the school it's like okay I will say the language that is shared with the students we never mention the word money that's something we we not we not mention we mention fundraising we mentioned helping your school um we don't talk about prizes we talk about working together as a team we do ni challenges yes one of the things that we might do is um is do a incentive where the the class working together that raises the most for that one particular night might do a fun thing with the booster Pon team yeah I like like that was good that was like the pajama day and movie day and stuff like that that's great just know the the team in booster's language is about I wouldn't think that you would I just the kids already know anyway and like they're showing off the little keychains that they're getting or their bracelets or whatever it is that they're getting and then the other kids aren't getting it so then it's yeah something something that booster does is everybody is just in the in the just the basic Pro like the regular like standard program um even for registering students earn a keychain so there's zero there's zero Financial contribution even if a student's like hey uh my family doesn't have internet we can register them they'll get a keychain just just for just for you know we call that our participation so but that's just the standard I'm I'm not like franking on Boost toon like I think it's it's great like I love raising money for the school it's not that I don't likeon I just the only problem I have with it is the individual prizes for the little kids because I mean my son's six so to think like oh Mommy didn't give any money you know and I I've heard the same concern with a lot of other parents and I totally get going to the PTO so I did that but a lot like I just for the public here like this is this is what we do here like we're working for the public I wanted to just let it known like hey I'm I'm working on this for our kids too like if I we change to a policy or we don't I just a lot of other parents stepped up I had some messages on the side from like a post or whatever saying if they didn't like it either their kid came home crying blah blah blah so I just just you know I'm not like ranking on the Boosterthon I want our school to get money you know I I like Book Fairs I like all the all the fun stuff that the school is doing to raise money it's just the individual prizes I don't want my kids or anybody's kids to think like we need to bring in money so I can get a prize I just don't want kids to what money during the day there's you know can I just add I wish Katie were here because um back in the day we were co- PTO presidents in the middle school and we did a calendar raffle fundraiser that was at that it's really hard to raise PTO money at the middle school because you're there for two years and you're gone and usually by the time the kids get to the P to the middle school they're the parents are tapped they're done they've fulfilled all of their fundraising um um so we did a big fundraiser and we brought in over $20,000 which was the biggest fundraiser to date and it was a small group of people that did it we were really mindful of the whole we don't want kids to have um to feel separate we tried to work out rules where as long as you sold a raffle ticket you were entered into like random drawings and stuff but we still had individual incentives and the only reason I'm bringing this up is it is so hard it's the same five people that are trying to figure out how to make these fundraisers work but I think everything you're talking about is definitely important um and warrants the conversation and I wonder if there's an opportunity to have like I'm not I can't remember who our PTO Le is on is but um to have the like a chat like feedback after the fact like when you guys are thinking of these big fund verses can you like here's some feedback we got from parents can you think about this I think that's been happening yeah honestly like from from the exper like there were good emails like you know it's I mean they got back and they got back to me quickly it was I'm not not right on the PTO either I'm not you know I just no I like the PTO I like funders like kids in the school yeah no I'm trying to lend support and to what you're saying though because I mean I I was a girl scout leader I hated the cookie prizes that all the kids we decided as a troop we're not getting those prizes nobody gets prizes we're all just selling cook and earning money for the troop and that's it so I completely understand it we as a a school committee have to be aware and guard the culture of the community and the values that we want our students to have so I think I appreciate you bringing it up I just um it's so hard to fundraise so it is and very few people participate in it and you know I mean feedback is always important but Karen what do you want to say oh just want to read you're done uh I just want to Circle back and make sure that we're all clear with the end result here because Jessica I heard you say that we don't need a policy unless we bring back individual prizes and I feel like that's sending a message to the PTO that they're not able to make their own decisions according to us here as a result of this meeting so I just want to make sure it's clear of what it is because as it sits right now the PG is able to decide what they want to do for fundraising and how they do it it's still they still own that and want to make sure that's clear well my request the word unless made me think differently no I understand what you're saying and my request also would be is that people attend PTO meetings and discuss it or email like I would encourage communication because when I was PTO president which I know I keep bringing that up you know we'd have a lot of feedback but not much support and so it's you know like if you have concerns absolutely bring them but also you know like encourage people that maybe are talking to you to go to PTO meetings and you know just like we do the same thing with no exactly that's what I'm saying and communication is important you know and the ability to discuss things openly and honestly and transparently is really important so but it is nice to hear from boosters on that you have the opportunity to customize things so that's my job yeah so and just I mean another fun fact is uh this year 74% of those funds came in from non-parents so when you think about you know you're raising $35,000 $37,000 and 34 of that is not directly coming from the parents um that's a big win for the community it is because you know parents are always handing out money you know y up for support no I know believe but just know your concerns are heard I heard those from Liz the PTO Aon um in our post program meeting she was very clear that hey um there's you know there's been some talk about the individual prizes and what this would look like and you know I should heard yet when we sit down at our planning meeting like we will address that and K had suggested that hey that's actually agenda on our on our school committee I said great can I come I'd love to just talk to them and let them know that we're on your side we're on everybody like we're here to serve you there's no agenda for booster except for to make great experience raise you the funds that you want and try to keep everybody happy all the time well that's not always possible that well thank you very much are you conversation okay we'll move on all right approval of Bill schedule Sarah yes um so our meetings were out of sync with the warrant cycle and there was a single warrant on September 3rd for $ 9,910 64 and then there is a warrant current circulating for signatures tonight for a total of $88,700 mou MOA um so that's what we met on Pilgrim area collaborative um we met on last Thursday um they did a reorg of um the group Kendra Stetson is the chair Sheil Lon is the vice chair um Amy Courtright is secretary wow a lot of really people yeah yeah um so they um they voted to um add $225,000 which is standard every year to what they standardly add every year to the fiscal year 26 retiree health benefits um they also voted to renew a line of credit of 250k for emergency line of credit salaries again it's a standard um request and that would just be if um there was a an disaster and they needed that to cover um salaries um the executive director offered a tour to um anyone in the um pack um board that's interested in touring the program right now there's 112 students in the day program um and 100 a little over 100 in extended services programs um they had some reloc relocations of their offices in the ply area um their central office is now at rosnick Road they' moved from pouth Pilgrim Academy um and their bridgew Bridgewater office moved to Plymouth Center um they and this was what I thought was the most exciting news they are applying to be a service provider for um a uh students that are over 21 from over 22 so students can be um cover under an IEP and receive pack Services through the age of 22 but they have applied um to DDS to be certified as a provider for the age of 22 to 30 um which is a it's a really key point in um life for most kids there's a wealth of services available up until the age of 22 once you hit 22 it's a little more challenging to navigate services so um Pilgrim area collaborative is going through this process to um hopefully be approved to be a service provider by DDS um for these these kids in that transition period they're not kids adults so so yeah lots of good updates great all right um Katie's not here so I have her um Youth and wreck update so um Fall Dance on 1025 for fifth and sixth graders they're waiting on Town admin to okay the money to refinish the gym floor with two added pickle ball courts they're also refinishing the walking Track behind the schools and hoping that will be done before November 1st it will take a few days and um Katie said she'll be in touch with ukaine to work on dates for that um after school programs are up and running Sports stem art and board games um they're adding they are investigating adding computer technology and a program similar to the show Chronicle where kidss interview others on interesting places or people in town that sounds so cool boys and girls travel um in and in town basketball are now using the gym Mondays through Thursdays 5:00 p.m. through 9:00 p.m. so that's the update for Youth and wreck um PTO hey there so first of all I'm not on my phone I stopped by my house to get my Chromebook and J think you grab the charger so I am using my phone so I just want put that out there I am sorry sorry for that so unfortunately I missed the first PTO meeting of the year um so then were meeting again well they're meeting again tomorrow and I will be there and I just want to say that it would be lovely to see more and more people I heard there was a lot more people at the last meeting which is great um to be there to they're very welcoming of all the feedback I gave or questions that I have so definitely um would recommend anyone um that's interested in going try to attend a meeting they would be happy to have you okay is that it no that's fine capital budget I don't believe met admin review has met and um right yes and I think they have another meeting coming up this week yeah I think you're right Thursday I think anyway okay d i subcommittee we did not meet okay Union 31 has a meeting coming up October 17th October 17th okay all right um principal oh sorry I'm sorry so can I so I don't know where to talk if I talk about it Jo the PTO thing but are we revisiting the thing about um when they were trying to offer us funding and we talked about the Halifax hero would that come up in a different space um it's not really a PTO update but I don't know what we're doing I don't know if we talk about that um what do you think we're meeting with PTO Friday to talk about ideas for IDE we'll just circle back to it again and can I think it can just sit wait then the agenda for next okay all right yeah we're meeting Friday the 4th 11th 11th I mean 11th sorry K will you provide that as part of your update yep all right Kane sorry it's time for your update okay uh thank you I I think first foremost thing is introducing christe luon here as our new assistant principal welcome started on September 11th and she's she's done a great job just jumping right in and you know trying to figure everything out where everything is and learning names and um it's been really great to have her on board so thank welcome thank you and we have the added bonus of having still Brian is still in the district so he can still kind of we can pick his brain and in the building a couple of times a week so it is kind of The Best of Both Worlds to have both of that so Mo thank you um so bus rots is that can I address the bus rots so I know that was asked yeah um so the the bus rots we've been looking chrisy and I actually looked at you know a whole bunch of different things with with buses if at least seen any changes we have not seen any changes in terms of parent drop off or pickup um the numbers seem to be pretty consistent right around 70 or so um and there hasn't been that's pretty much what we were working with last year um maybe we have a few more bikers I've noticed at least this year compared to last year but again it's it's less than 10 it's it's pretty pretty small number but they're not causing traffic issues or anything it's you to tell them to get put their helmets on as the biggest tassled at those guys but um so we haven't seen anything with parent drop off pickup the we actually went back and we compared like bus misconduct slips that we've received we haven't seen any difference from last year to this year which we were kind of surprised we thought that you know having more kids on only eight buses compared to 10 you know that there might be an uptick but we did not see any any noticeable change with bus slips like that um the the I think the biggest change that we've noticed is the adjustment to group stops so that's been a big shift for families I think that it's been a little bit of a growing pain somewhat to uh work with families a little bit to be at the group stop or you know it's or we go out and see that I've driven around town to see if like oh is this is this the best group stop or can we scooch it down the road a little bit so that's been the biggest hurtle I think is probably working with the bus company and maybe making some some of the adjustments with the group stops can I ask a question so how is it with the buses I know that it's been an issue in the past so the bus is getting here on time for the teachers under of workday they are they have been getting here actually before 8:30 so it's it's been noticeably different um because before last year we were really struggling it was at we had three probably three buses that were here after 8:30 but by 8:30 they've all been in I me at the end of the day for the teacher workday to end that the buses were coming at the end of the day it's a little bit easier for dismissal because there's only eight buses so it's I mean that only adding two more it does cuz we would just do them in the waves that are here so they what I've noticed they've been here it's been pretty quick so by like 250 I think we've been able to do that5 is the latest whereas last year we were probably pushing three or a little after three okay um we are trying to work with the bus comp there's I'm not sure if all the routs are perfectly balanced because we've noticed that there is one or two buses that the it's it's packed and and where there might be an opportunity for us I don't know how easy it is for the bus company to maybe take like a chunk of it and like slide it to a different bus but um there are one or two that are that are pretty significantly packed that maybe they could but I don't know how easily the Shi that would be for the bus company but but they've been they've been we've been working with them and you know we've been talking with the bus drivers and the families that you know was basically the group stops and family has been more accepting than that I think that used to be the norm group stops and it's actually nice to walk around my neighborhood in the morning and see people talking and at the group stops because I think that's how I got to know all my neighbors my kids love it actually yeah no I mean and like they look forward like I actually think like for a community and to remember like some of these folks their kids might you know like you know their kids might be young and don't remember group stops but the whole time my kids are Elementary School it was group stops and I feel like with Co and you know we got away from it but I think it's actually as long as it's safe a great thing to have happen again and it's so much more efficient oh absolutely I mean it's it would literally be making stop like every every house if you get Stu behind it then you're and so I mean cuz I don't know what the Like rules are like I think you like kindergarteners you can stop at their house but as long as we're I just I think it's great for our community I know it takes a little more effort I remember but um again I love it when I see people out talking after they put their kids on the bus like I don't know not like really good I I just not every situation is a little different so I think I I try and you know be understanding where some of those group stops are the speed of the the speed limits on certain roads is no I mean that's what I'm saying as long as it's safe that's you know but the group stops itself I think it's a great thing and it's great for our budget and it's great for our community as long as it's safe and the environment and the environment yes that's true I do think it hasn't had a huge impact from going from 10 to to 8 that's great changes really hard like I think initially people panic panic yeah I mean you you especially morning routines are difficult and people know what they know and they don't want to how is this new thing going to change things but you know it sounds like it's it's pluging along so it really is it's good and and I and I do you know give kudos to the staff that did the parent drop off and pick up they're they're pretty systematic in how they do it so because we keep cars off the road on 106 so they have a good system in place that make sure the cars are in and out pretty quick so they did a nice job over there all right um Flyers do you want to go with Flyers there a few Flyers that are in there and Southshore Children's Chorus got cup Scouts and then there was the natural gas one that I believe came up last year you guys want to see them or okay do mine my like I know it's you want I pass them around okay and then the natural gas one is one that we also did last year yeah I remember that it's like a little it has like a little pamphlet to we had a lot of conversation with that one last year yeah yeah here sorry different I don't think so I think when's a little bit more I don't know I believe they had like a k to2 version and then they had like a 3 to6 version I think they the flip that they did I that difference okay I just wonder what new singers welcome in September it's October but they don't have I don't remember where we landed on the eversource stuff last year to approve it to approve it yeah so anyone have any discussion or um I'll make a motion to um distribute the eversource Cub Scout and Southshore what is it children's Children's Chorus flyers for for dispersion second all right thank take a vote Lori yes Karen yes oh sorry Jessica yes myself as a yes thank you MH and just on school council we are going to start up our first meeting will be in October just like it was last year um we just have new members that are joining so we have new teachers that are on and obviously Christy will be on but we're also looking for a new Community member so we're looking at Poss we had officer McIntyre was our person last year but we have a new SRO that we're looking at so officer Simpson might see if officer Simpson be willing to help us out for our community person what's the DAT of your meeting it is it's the last Wednesday of the and you can have the meeting even if you don't have the Community member correct like yes yes we can so October 30th y that will be that first meeting okay and parents that were on it last year they asked to stay on for this year so they are continuing this year okay we have our new meeting and share out at next me that's how what's the enrollment right now 532 right week that's what we're at okay and how how big did Kindergarten end up being 82 82 okay all right anything else okay thank you uh Sarah good evening everybody thank you madam chair um so I think I explained last meeting did I explain last meeting that I was going to be presenting differently I don't know we I have so many school committee meetings um so what I want to say about the budget document that was put in the folder for you is that we have a an increase in Services assessment and student supports through special ed um the increase so far this year has I'm sorry the known increase this year is $186,000 we have a placement that was budgeted for for this year which turned out to be um we received what's called an Lea assignment a local educational Authority assignment where the student um is the programmatic responsibility of our spe special education department but the financial responsibility of another District so we had budgeted 155,000 in tuition and transportation for this student and um and somebody else gets to pay for it which makes me kind of happy so overall right now we have a $31,000 uh increase in our special education services Assessments in students supports other than that are there any questions about the budget anyone no no all right okay no um Christine's not here so the only other had town meeting warant article so we have prior year bills bills from FY 24 that we received after the June 1st closing date I am going to be submitting a warrant article for town meeting for $5,995 60 in unpaid bills okay so we received those after the June 1st close out and after we turned money back to the town correct correct okay just want to make sure I got it all straight so when it comes up at town meeting can you just give me that last figure again yeah $ 59.93 thank you 60 got it thanks so much okay sorry I didn't mean to skip that second thing um Christine's not here so no report tonight from special education Dr pan is not able to be here today your St all right hi everyone hello um um I have a few things on the curriculum instruction and assessment update uh the first thing um on the update is um a curriculum review cycle and you probably saw the documents um the guideline or the guide for the curriculum review cycle um people might wonder why a curriculum review cycle um the reason for that is because there can be lots of lots of things lots of curriculum that people want to look at to change it's helpful to have some kind of a system iic way to look at that um so that you're not trying to adopt all kinds of curriculums at the same time but that um there's sort of a a process um sort of a scheduling and different phases that um we can go through and get um voice uh teacher voice get um Family voice and things like that so this is this is an introduction of a curriculum review cycle like I said it's in in your documents um it'll start this year um this year it starts with math um and the review for math will span over the next 2 years and then next fall we'll start the process for it should say um science Technology and Engineering you can see in the back of the of the of the um thing that I provided the over overview for several years and basically the twoyear two-year review will continue in all areas have been through the curriculum review um it's really again implemented to support thoughtful and Contin Improvement to align and support with the strategy for district Improvement to make sure that the curriculum that we're looking at matches with our um District Improvement plan with our school Improvement plans and that also it's aligned to the Frameworks and other things so that's just something I wanted to give you an update on so it will start with math this year I met with um the K through6 curriculum person and the 7 through 12 for math we met the other day they've met again and and they'll be sending something out to um faculty to ask them to be part of this twoyear curriculum review process um and the needs might be a little different K through 6 and 7 through 12 It generally involves also suring um entire faculty and staff students and parents just to find out what do you think about the you know this curriculum or do you have any this is a way to gather information from them so we'll go through that and then we'll go through it for the next content areas and then we'll be sort of a revolving cycle that will go through and like I said it lends voice to people to be able to be a part of that and it's a good way to also plan for Budget pieces so it's a that's part of the phase two is to make sure that we're not trying to do everything at once but there's a process and a way to do that second thing I put on the um update was about September 26 um we on the afternoon of September 26th educator spent time looking at their goals making sure they're connected to the strategy for district Improvement School Improvement goals and looking at mcast and local data um because goals are due on November 1st for educators um the third thing is on November 5th um we'll have a professional development day during this day K through two educators will be working on learning more about structured literacy and the science of reading we're going to have a professional development um provided by the stern Center which is really Umar largely an OG Affiliated group so really looking at structured literacy and the science of reading is sort of a overview um informative piece for K through2 teachers and then grades 3 through six we'll be examining um more about writings instruction genre study and common assessments and also um Brian and I met with a a group of um Representative members from the different schools um to talk about what would what should we do what would you like to do and really involving teachers and that picking up from what we worked on on the 3D kind of focusing on the fifth so we'll meet again and then we'll have a final meeting as a as a collective to kind of get the uh ideas that teachers have about things that are really helpful for them and then 7 through 12 they'll continue to focus on Department work from the 3 and then other Educators in specific um groups or departments will also be participating in specific Department work things that need to be continued from the September 3rd work and things that they need to focus on and incomplete the other piece is a literacy needs assessment so um this this may seem in in uh in um contrast to what I said a few minutes ago about curriculum pieces but one of the things that um and looking at the data early on mcast data in particular um I I along with some other folks thought it would be beneficial and helpful to have what we call literacy needs assessment and what I mean by that is sometimes if you're if you're looking at data you're not sure is it alignment is it um due to specific things what you really need is a group to to look at all the things that you're doing and say okay this is your data this is your curriculum this is your instructional practice this is what's happening as a collective K through 12 um and these are some suggestions we would make these things are going really well continue doing it these are some areas that we think you should look at and these are some things you could do so really it's A needs assessment that would eventually lead us to A literacy plan so it's again a strategic approach um and it it felt a little bit that this was something that we needed to embark on to at least start the process to kind of move things forward in some ways so that's just a little bit about that and something we'll be working on um and then the fifth thing is school data team so at all the schools they've been meeing to look at both local and and standardized data to figure out um intervention groups that need to happen and ways that they can inform their instruction and um address some needs and the last thing is the National Society tomorrow night at high school so that's it in nutsh Great any have any questions how do you um decide what to do for the professional development days like what drives the you know where does it come from is there teacher input or is it looking at data or yeah it's accomodation of a lot of things I think the first thing is for for me I'm coming here was the strategy for district Improvement right so what are the things that we said that we need to do in the certain categories and usually a part of that is looking at the data to examine that to figure out okay we need professional development in this area or teachers need to work on this thing and then also another piece to it too is teacher teacher voice and having those conversations like I said Brian and I met with a group and we'll meet with them two more times and also um talking with the principles and the department or curricul coordinators at the 7 through 12 level too so it's like a combination of all of those things okay those EDS I feel like our Ela we still I feel like they were really good um in general so I was just surprised to see the grades 3 through six working on all of the writing stuff because I feel like they're doing such great work already so I just was surprised to see that I was just curious yeah I think last year as I understand it in at last year in March they worked on common assessments writing common assessments the teachers did and um now it's sort of solidifying that work and making sure that um everybody's got the pieces that they need they wanted a little bit more time with that oh great okay and then for that literacy needs assessment so who would be doing that work that just be in house y um that's a group called The Hill for literacy and so it's a group that is um like lots of groups keys to literacy different groups will um conduct conduct you know um a literacy needs assessment they're expert they they understand all of the um systemic pieces of reading and writing and and can look at what you're doing and just kind of give you um analyze that information and give you a report on on what they think and what they see so my concern is just budget so where is that all set like we've budgeted for that and at someplace and it's okay dollar signs when I see that like good question okay and um I think that's it thank you for answering my questions appreciate it I also really love the memo like honestly like it was great to have all this to read before the meeting like I loved it thank you that was great info it's nice to have times CU you know there's such limited time we come in and we're getting so much information it's nice to have the anyway thank you anybody else all right chill so um the first thing there's quite a few things um tonight in your packet you'll find The Homeschool enrollment for both K through 6 and through 7 through 12 you'll find that Halifax is represented by the yellow line and from last year um we have an increase in home school enrollment from 11 students to 17 in grades K through six um whereas at the secondary level we have a decline uh in Halifax from 7 to 3 but you can see all of the community is there represented on the chart um the next chart is the um student enrollment and once again Halifax is represented in yellow and you'll see that the the overall population hasn't been fluctuating greatly the biggest change in the the elementary schools is Kingston is showing um an increase over the past several years and then if you look at 7 through 12 um a little increase for Kingston uh Halifax as well but um a little decline for Plimpton so the enrollments are represented there visually but then you'll also see its impact in the October 1 chart which you're familiar with and you recall last year we added prek as its own separate category and we also added the um uh special education programs for our older students at secondary level in that uh final column you'll see that Halifax has a grand total of 1,69 students across the district Kingston is represented in green Plimpton is represented in Orange and then the overall total of all of our schools were at 3,610 students in the district combined if you turn to the second page of the enrollment chart you'll see how this impacts our assessments the first assessment is the Silver Lake assessment um for FY 26 and that is 32.6 I believe the font is so little I apologize uh for Halifax this year as opposed to last year it was 32.5 and the shared cost percentage this year is 27.3% versus last year it's down from last year which was 28 I think it's a six it is the same thank you that's um so those are our enrollment charts that we typically um provides you at this part of the Year also in your packet you'll find our budget timeline and I think it's really important to note we um typically by regulation we get our our budgets uh approved uh within uh by March and that allows us to get a number to the towns uh by regulation and that is the authority of the school committee and so it's really important that the the school committee uh has an understanding of that timeline regardless of the fact that some communities may want the budget earlier this sometimes they ask for a budget before it's required by regulation MH um the other thing I want to ask you is how would you like us to proceed we're already beginning we're already starting we've set up meetings uh to start planning our um our budget season and typically what happens is we get input from our special education director with estimates for the upcoming school year we get we get uh requests from technology and requests from curriculum instruction assessment uh from our curriculum coordinator in the past and they present um at our uh joint budget meeting in November but really at at this point of the year we start putting together our school budgets and thinking about um what it is that we're going to need for the the next school year and so in the past traditionally we have generally provided you with AEV Services budget and then anything beyond level Services we present to you separately again we are going to be having a meeting with the towns but we start this process sooner so what is it that the school committee would like to see from us in our preliminary budget um definitely level service you know I mean that's and um I would like to see the possibility of cost savings like when we went from 10 buses to 8 buses is there places in the budget where we can have more savings by looking at enrollment and you know how things are you know just for more cost saving um uh personally that's what I I don't I mean I'm not speaking for everyone but I mean I it's I mean if there's things we can look at you know to see if we can change because that was a significant savings without a lot of impact to the students we're finding out you know the buses are going really well and so if we can look at places instead of this is how we've always done it to maybe we could you know so that we can preserve um teaching positions because I know and last year we did end up with the budget being more than the year before but we still had to cut so much so I'd really like to head that off and see if we can look at different things and um so I just to be clear we we can't charge for buses like that's not allowed or is it cuz I feel I feel like we've gotten yeah CU cuz I feel like like last year we missed like we talked about it and then it was like too late to ask the town or something like if I'm yeah and so I mean just like looking at different ideas of what we can do to help preserve staff basically so is charging for buses how much would it be um or what would be effective you know I don't know just looking at various creative ideas to reserve staff because I don't want to we'll get an answer from desie okay but I I I was under the impression I my memory was that we found out that we couldn't because we we had this conversation during CO as well if youall I but then I thought we found out we could and I don't know I just yeah on definitely had a conversation last year we talked about it and we were pursuing it and when we got to the point where it's like oh so let's put that on town meeting we'd missed the deadline to get that on the warrant I thought because the regionalization that I think you said we quit at the elementary level that's yeah not at the 7 through 12 level because they're reachal us but right we share buses yeah so so it's intertwined yeah so again no I know all for reasons it doesn't make any sense it's not as EAS you're not independent sorry and we don't want to do independent buzzes because that will be even more money so we it's it's such a delicate balance all the time yeah so it is but we'll we'll get a we'll get we'll get an answer up front so that we don't even have to worry about it if it's not even in the realm of possib yeah know that just things like that you know where can we M possibly you know in um you know even PTO still is offering US money so is there a place we can use the PTO money to help free up other budget items you know so things like that like I I we really need to be creative at this point I'd like to talk I mean I don't know I don't know exactly how to map it out but I mean like we we took things out of last year's budget which you know we're learning okay wasn't as bad as we thought it was going to be in some instances um but we also took some of the things that we wanted to do like the Halifax Heroes like is there a way that we can put some sort of a independent like add-on lists well I think that yeah do you know what I mean so like yes here's the level service budget but you know what would it what would we need to add to the budget to achieve these extra things that we wanted last year that we couldn't fulfill but I would personally rather add staff back before we do but I I feel like I feel like we need like a a list and then we as a committee need to prioritize that list as to staff should be first but and codal you know all the things like I would rather you know I mean I agree with you it's good to have a comprehensive list so we can make the best most inform decisions but my personal priority would be to add back staff but and I'm not saying it yours isn't I'm just no I'm just putting it out there I I mean you know there was a lot of feedback within our community about you know this is this isn't a lot of money to put this program and the reach would be Broad and Jessica I know you felt really strongly about that so like I don't want to Discount that like we we shouldn't consider that again like it should be back on the table that's all I'm saying okay right yes K so just like in the principal report how we addressed the impact of the cut for the buses is I think that that's something we should look at too what's the impact of the custodial cut what's the Imp no I agree cut so I think that that's really important information if you could do sort of the same thing you did for the buses for us like hey you know we found that that you know we really need more support in these classrooms and we need some of those pairs back or whatever it is then that would help I think everyone to make better decisions about going forward where we need to put money back in the budget okay so the the next item is um just an overview and I'll try to go as quickly as possible because I know it's getting late um but our opening day for staff took place on August 26th and this year's theme was outter space and uh we introduced our new staff at this meeting and I if I recall we were able to go over that list with you but um we hadn't hired christe yet so so welcome christe um on the next slide uh you're already there thank you we set academic goals in each of our schools and to try to meet these goals we implemented Panorama assessment in October and February and used those results to address uh students social and emotional needs we continued the implementation of Second Step at the elementary and middle school um and we updated our website to improve accessibility with translation video and sound next next slide we use data to inform our instructional practices and to support students in the least restrictive environment for our students with special needs we launched a comprehensive data dashboard to help us to monitor student growth and achievement throughout the school year and you may recall our principal shared the results last spring um we will have another update on our mcast results uh this late this fall um at our how in our fall November probably meeting okay our uh mtss Team our multi-tiered system of supports team work to Define expectations for all support teams in each building so that it's consistent across the district we partnered with Chris Taylor and teachers 21 to examine our data and expose learning gaps for our student subgroups next slide we continued uh ubd curriculum units designed and implemented common assessments and Benchmark calendars and we completed learning tours in each of our schools to help build our instructional leadership capacity as as a district we also accomplished another a number of structural changes including consolidating our HR related data to establish greater position control we made a number of changes to our financial structure in order to meet Desi and state regulations and we participated in numerous school committee and town sessions to help explain and support these changes in our multiple budgets the result was the passage of each school committee approved budget in all three towns and an updated Regional agreement to include prek at the regional level next slide so the the result was greater transparency especially with regards to special education and Regulatory Compliance um these are were the actual number of changes that we made last year so you recall we added prek special education programs K through six are in the um Elementary Schools they're not considered Silver Lake anymore out of District um expenses for students from your town if they're in grades 7 through 12 plus in prek are now part of the silver L budget we updated all the shared cost contracts so that they would be aligned with the regional agreement they had not been and we extended this we put the extended school year program into the school budgets where they belonged and uh the 240 Grant is now used to pay for out of District tuitions by District rather than individual positions which was much more difficult to track um so this is um hopefully will help to streamline and it allowed us to eliminate a number of revolving accounts which um sympathize things yes it it'll be better for all of us to be able to see them more rly so um greater budget transparency in compliance with laws and regulations so these things have been in place for for for decades we took care of it over the last two years um with the the changes that we took place and and uh the end result were those changes last year to our budget so this year um the leadership team renewed its commitment to our goals and vision over the summer and we continue to make sure and want to make sure that all students have access to high quality learning experiences that are aligned with our state standards with this in mind we have worked this summer with our principles assistant principles coordinators and directors to address achievement gaps next slide our group leaders um presented updates to the SDI and each of the groups presented each of these objectives um students again will be surveyed this year in the fall and winter help to help us support students in need we will expand second step into the high school this is our anti-bullying and pro-social skills curriculum our principles will be focused on ways to improve parent and Community involvement in our schools um for objective two we will continue our efforts to align the curriculum with state standards to make sure all students have access to grade level expectations next slide as we update our IEP 504s and District curriculum accommodation plan we will also create a plan to assess their effectiveness as we Define our plans to improve our co- teing model next slide this year we'll also Implement a formal curriculum review cycle which was presented this evening and uh next slide objective four for as always we will work to provide training and professional development opportunities to support these initiatives which we also talked about tonight as to how we make these decisions with regards to our budget process we will work this year to align our chart of account to match with desie after we took the numerous steps last year to clean up long-standing practices that were not um appropriate as a partially regionalized School District so um those are some of the things that we'll be working on structurally this year at as well and these are part of our goals in your packet you have a copy of this presentation as well as the draft strategy for district Improvement which is what we uh updated over the summer with this with the help of our principles coordinators department heads central office staff great any questions thank you and each School makes their own goals as well right yes so they also the school Improvement plan um that is worked on with um the school council should align with the SDI but can also incorporate other needs that the school council and school have identified as particular to their school okay when can we expect to see that for so we we can propose a draft forer November okay great great all right you're done yes okay all right I don't want to cut anyone off like I did earlier I had a lot tonight so sorry oh no it's good um so October 14th is colum dates to remember October 14th is Columbus Day um October 17th is a joint meeting of Silver Lake and yion 31 um October 21th 24th is an early release for grades K through 6 for parent teacher conferences November 5th is in service for teachers November 11th is Veterans Day November 14th is another joint meeting I guess with Union 31 and Silver Lake um and then November 25th is our next meeting so anyone would like to make a motion to a journ I'll make a motion to a journ second uh roll call Lori yes Karen yes Jessica yes myself is yes thank you everyone [Music]