e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e we good good evening and welcome to the Thursday July 11th 2024 meeting of the school committee uh we will open the meeting now at 7:07 and I would ask that uh we have a motion to enter into an executive session which is preceding our public meeting uh the executive session is pursuant to mgl c30a S21 A2 to hear a level three GRE filed by the Hopkinton Teachers Association as required by the collective bargaining agreement between the school committee and the Hopkinton Teachers Association and then to reconvene here in Open Session I'm looking for that motion Move Motion by Susan a second by Jamie U because we're going into executive session we'll do a roll call starting with Susan yes Jamie yes and I am also a yes and I think we're meeting Chris uh in the other room so we are entered into executive session at 7:08 e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e there you go Miss um Susan you can maybe just side Chris over if we need one more seat is Chris up on the um we want to make sure he's up Chris L and if we could see him on one you can move down cuz right well where we going to because he's going there's Chris right there okay so you down or come over here n yeah come close and then we can allow the um applicants to come up how you doing nice to meet all right are we uh all ready to go all right good evening and welcome to the uh joint portion of our meeting with the select board and the school committee the school committee has just returned from executive session so we are running a little bit behind um but I would call the meeting back to order I believe the select board probably needs to call yourself to order as well yeah select board will call it meeting to order for July 11 2024 great so I would invite those who are here in the studio to please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of un States United States of America stand na indivisible lice justice for all all right so we're here for those um who are watching at home that may not know the next portion is we are going to make a joint appointment between the select board and the school committee uh before we do that we are going to have public comment uh and just for people who have not made public comments who might want to make a public comment the school committee uh our policy uh dictates the public comment we have here tonight which is calls allows for up to three minutes per speaker for a total of not more than 15 minutes of public comment so I would ask that people if you're making public comments to try not to repeat people ahead of you uh and to try to get a different different points from other people so just if there's a show of hands how many people are here to make public comments okay so I would whoever wants to come up first you can come up and introduce yourself uh give your name and address and then um Jamie if you wouldn't mind watching the the time for that good all right welcome hello see if this is adjusted well um hi I'm Amy Groves to College Street and I'm speaking in behalf um in favor of Kyla mcweeney for the position that you're about to hire for um I've known Kyla for for a few years and I got to know her much better this past year because she was running for select board so I went went over her qualifications very very carefully and one thing that jumped out at me was that she's running for select board but golly she'd be good on on the school committee um and I know a lot of things um about her that maybe didn't make it into her resume so I mean one thing was that she was actually trained and certified um as an early Elementary School teacher and she taught for six years um um and I don't wasn't sure that that was really clear from the resume um I know that she has two children currently in the Hopkinson schools one's in the Middle School one's in the um high school and um she does have experience working with an IEP as a as a parent so that's a good good thing um in her spare time she's uh in her seventh year is a girl scout leader so she's in right here in hopkington one of the Girl Scout Troops um I think one thing that that you do know from the resume is that she works at the director level for the Commonwealth and she works in early childhood education so and she's had a lot of other director positions before so she deals with hiring and firing and Personnel matters she also manages very large budgets she got a lot of funding from the state and from other places so she's responsible for managing those budgets and I watched her as she prepared as a select board candidate um she really had to learn as she went to learn about the Hopkinton budget in particular and she did learn it um it was a lot to pick up in a hurry but she she handled it well um she has a lawyer's background so I wasn't really s you know surprised about that um the other thing I learned about Kyla is that she is really UNF flappable I've I've seen her in in cases where everybody else including me um would be running around kind of hysterical kind of kind of upset about things and things would happen but she was just as calm as could be really friendly really affable and really well inbalance so I thought that that was a really good quality to have in a candidate for this particular position um so I think that um I want to encourage you to vote for Kyla because I think she has the qualifications and the and the temperament for this job thanks for taking my comment thank you uh good evening Peter memo zero Sanctuary Lane um so I'm um sitting here as a as a resident as a taxpayer as a father of a student who's in that school system also as a fellow public servant and first I just want to say is in all those roles is thank you to both brandan B and kylo for stepping forward I think that I think we all know um all of us being sort of in the sort of the public service and whatnot that's not an easy task to take on they don't have to do this but they want to do this and from that standpoint I think it's terrific that they're both stepping forward um that's said I think that you know from my standpoint when I look at both the qualifications um I would hope and urge that you would vote for Kyla um and I say that um because I think that you know she offers an awful lot of background in education I think it's very clear I think that speaking as a fellow Commonwealth employee um that it's no small task to a director level position um that I think she's done so I think she can lend that type of experience that I think would be something be of value to the school committee as a taxpayer and as a resident I'd like to see that type of experience on the school committee as well so thank you both Brendon thank you to both of Kyla I do urge you to please vote for Kyla thank [Music] you okay so that is it for public comment okay so just for the next part I know that the select board's probably done more appointments by far than than we have jointly with you uh but what we like to do is we like to offer two to three minutes for each person to come up introduce yourselves highlight things that you feel would be important for us to know and then we will go around and have the opportunity for everybody on both boards to ask questions go ahead Bri is there a third candidate so there there was a third candidate um but I I have not heard anything but there's still in the mix but not here this evening is that fair that is yes that is fair there actually were four candidates could they be on Zoom or no so I don't know they are not on the zoom call we we do have just for people to know that Chris Masters is here we actually had four candidates uh and one of whom one withdrew withdrew yeah we got an email did we hear of anyone else withdrawing oh okay all right so did everybody received the applications that that were completed okay yes so I think um anybody have any questions about the process before we invite the candidates up or anything that people would like to be sure as part of the process um I guess what we've usually done I think the last time we've done this with you we've after everyone's interviewed and asked their questions we've gone around with a straw pool to see sense of the room and then if if nobody had a majority we would go around a second time right I am just well I guess if there's well there are technically three candidates there are there are technically three candidates I just was wanting to make sure that everybody has access to but there are only two here in the studio is my understanding to the I'm going to just pull up on my device so I have all all of this right in front of me all right so Kyla would you like to come up and speak first good evening thanks for having me this evening and um accepting my application for school committee my name is obviously Kyla mcweeney and I as you heard I am currently working at the department of Early Education and Care I'm the director of comprehensive system supports which really tells you nothing but one of the things I do is I run a major grant program which you may have heard the governor talk about called gateway to prek it's part of that program where we give um money to local school districts to expand pre kindergarten within their communities I also work in our professional development Network system throughout the state um through this and these are two of many projects I managed oh a good 15 different contracts in addition to the Gateway to pre which we have 30 of them um grants across the state so it requires significant negotiation and budget experience I spent a lot of time working with local school districts on their um how they're piecing together funding because our grant is only usually a small part of the funding that they need they also have to leverage local funds Chapter 70 funding from the state and um other usually other resources within the town some of the times Community programs will do in-kind Services because they work with community- based Child Care programs and Head Start programs as well so this T takes a lot of work in analyzing and being able to go and negotiate with these different parties and often from people of diverse um perspectives that I need to bring together to come to Common Ground to meet the needs of children in their communities which is pretty much very similar to the work that you all do on the school committee right now um um I also as I said have I'm an attorney I used to be a special education attorney for a while so I have significant understanding of the special education laws and policies I'm also the parent of a child on an IEP um that's been through quite a process he has complex needs that are not um typical um uh profile so there's a lot of advocating has to go on with that um and I was a teacher for several different years have a master's degree in early childhood education um as well as my law degree my law degree I also worked on employment policy um employment law and did negotiations with that with um on Union negotiations for that as well how many am I almost there um look at that um so and I totally lost my train of thought there for a second excuse me um so and I ran a child care center so going back to the budget experience for 11 years I basically ran a small business I had to do hiring um employee relationships um and then build the budget from bottom up and make sure that we're doing all the spending and everything and everything within um parameters so that's all so you ready ready for questions ready for questions okay uh I want to make sure are you able to hear us Chris and clearly I can hear you fine do you want just because you're remote do you want to start with any questions for Kyla n can I just ask we have them both come up so they can each answer the same question we could typically that's not the way we have done it but we can do it that way that's fine all right do you want to sit back down or do you so okay and I don't know if Deborah anybody has heard anything from Deborah okay all right so then Brendan would invite you up good evening my name is Brendan tedstone I live on 45 Pleasant Street uh been in town for a long time my whole life um the high school in Hopkins school is built on my family's land my uncle sold the land to the town for uh for the schools uh I was a uh a member of the select board I started as a selectman went to a select board member um for six years uh we had I know uh I was a chair for a couple of those years we were very successful in managing the town uh we had a couple of under rdes uh we were I was on the elementary school building committee for Marathon school where we came in $3 million under uh which is a feat uh and that was after we built four classrooms it was a feat uh you know to ever come in under budget working with the Union is is uh is not easy so uh we did that uh I would not I'll never say I had anything to do with it it's we as a as a committee um I was a firefighter in town for a number of years um little league coach um and I've just been I've been around here for a long time I'm a nurse uh I started as um I started as a uh as the trauma director at the Maximum Security Prison out in Shirley when I got my nursing license um worked out there for a while and then went to uh I got tired of giving good care to bad people so I W up going to geriatric so I work in a in a geriatrics where I was a uh I started as a simple weekend nurse and then I went to the supervisory role I took as a nursing director role moved my way up to a different facility and now I'm at a a a one of our massive facilities I've been with this company for 14 years marann Morris um and I am the uh Clinical Director of operations I oversee our facility which is 490 Apartments uh and then we have uh two other uh assisted livings plus a home care so I'm in charge of the whole thing I'm in charge of budget hiring firing the whole nine yards so uh I've uh we've built a great team together and and uh you know it's a very easy job to go to because it's you know you're giving good care to good people uh they appreciate it and you know the teams that we've put together have have uh are are pretty solid okay thank you that's it all right so do you want to come back up Kyla why don't you both just sit here and speak all right so I do still want to go back over to Chris if that's okay just because of the the remote in the off chance that we lose uh connection okay sure um this is just question period is that correct yes if you have questions to ask of them sure uh I guess for brenon I mean both ask kind of a similar question um Brenan you know and for both of you are you guys um have the ability to attend the meetings regularly uh I couldn't find an attendance report from your time as a select board member um and then uh from miss mcweeney you know obviously you seen your resume you have a demanding job and given the time uh constraints of that job um are you going to be able to commit to making meetings regularly and uh so we don't run into the problem that we're um here replacing a member who who couldn't attend regular LLY so for me um Yes actually uh very proud to say that uh in two terms as a uh member on the select board I never missed a meeting was never late for a meeting uh and I was uh I was recognized for that so yes I have a a schedule that's very flexible uh I am able to make meetings and kind of make my own schedule whenever whenever need be I too am available for meetings I'm on the semetary commission our meetings aren't too intense I can tell you but I've never missed a cemetery commission meeting um we don't meet that often but I also have flexibility with my job so that um I work from home at least four days a week usually so that I have opportunities um to have flexibility with that and be able to make meetings in the evening as appropriate and then um Can Flex my schedule as well okay we want to go around and then we can come back Mary Joe did you have a question this is a question for both of them um given the future I uh with all the big projects that are going on and all the debt that we are acre I want to know because it's supposed to be one town you know one budget and the schools every year come in well over a budget they're asked to cut they cut and and we've been having a very good relationship um but I I for see real sacrifices coming up shortly and I I'd like to know how each of you feels we should handle that I think I did um significant um talking about this during my campaign for select board but to talk more about that I do think I have been very proud and you heard me during my select board campaign too to support the schools and their projects I think it's uh first and foremost for our town that we need to really support um the future of this town which is the children and with that said we have a number of different priorities the tax burden is getting huge as you know on seniors because you've been working on that R A lot of people are talking about how tax burden is getting and I do think that um continuing to do big projects is going to be very difficult in this climate in the town I think we need to support the projects that we have begun and have continued and then we need to start talking about where we're going to have those tough decisions and and going forward um in the in the community while still maintaining great support we have a wonderful school system and we need to put that foremost but not overspend so I feel the exact same way um what I neglected to say during my opening two minutes is that I do have two kids in the schools I have one that's a junior ones that's going into a freshman um so how having the school like I've seen this town grow from the year I was graduating high school I think we were about 74 kids in the class still friends with all of them I think um up to my son's graduation from eth grade this year there were I don't know three or 400 kids there it was amazing um the schools are really what's driving this town now it's driving our property values so it's driving you know it's bringing in some very quality people to to to that want to raise their kids here and to go to schools here and it's up to us to Foster that environment and to and to maintain it and grow it but at the expense of you know we talk about when we were on the select board when we first when I first started on the select board we always talked about level Services versus level funding we need to have we need to grow with our with our neighborhoods and with our community but we have to be responsible with our spending um you know that the fact that we were 3 million under on that on that school project is pretty impressive uh for for that committee um but yeah you know obviously anybody that's getting on the school committee their heart is in it for the schools and although my kids are going to be out of school in two and four years uh there's nothing to say that that uh you know in 15 or 20 years if I decide to retire from the school board at that point uh you know I can hang my hat and say there's been five schools built and our property values are here and our school ranking is still number one Carol is finally getting ready to retire and blah blah blah so um that's that's my uh that's my thoughts on that thank you sure thank you both for um stepping forward and and the third candidate too and um it's great to have such strong candidates um for such an important role um so we have a uh making our job difficult thank you for that it's a good problem to have and uh we take that any day um with great candidates uh what I was going to ask is um tell us about your vision for our school uh as we all know we love our school it's our greatest one of the greatest assets and um we are at a juncture where we are seeing challenges with growth with budget and um um our capital projects coming in uh line now we are mostly I'm hoping done with our school school's big capital projects but but there would be of course with the growth and other um things that we have um have to do and maintain for the Excellence but um how do you map your vision to the current um state of things and also to your experience and expertise so I I think everybody in this room is under the impression that we want to stay as our number as the number one ranking in the state no question about that what we need to do is we need to to stay there and maintain that by spending effectively and responsibly uh on the select board we were able to uh get a a an exemption for some of the seniors that like I don't mind paying the you know with the new school coming on I don't mind paying 1,000 bucks $1,500 a year additional you know in order to let my kids have such a wonderful education and live in such a great town um but uh I always use there's a woman in town that recently passed Mary Harrington and I always said you know if we're if we're building these schools and fire stations and police stations dpws and libraries how is that when that tax bill hit how is that going to affect Mary Harrington or some of these people that have lived here for Generations that are on a very very fixed income that literally it's a matter of you know being able to go out to eat once a month or you know fund the new DPW garage and uh it was a we were very effective in being able to to get that uh the Water and Sewer rates we were able to get get rebates for them and making so they weren't responsible for some of these increases um the schools are everything in town my my house has when I built my house in 2006 it's times nine uh the value of it has gone times nine um and that's in no small part due to the schools and the performance of our our school department and and teachers and teaching the kids and uh we need to keep that going but we need to spend uh financially very responsibly uh in order to to keep that going thank you great um as a a as a vision I imagine a time when all these School Bill projects will be done and the children have the space that they need to learn and grow and develop I've been over at my daughter just left Hopkins I've been in her classroom which had no window windows and it's crowded and it's not the most optimal place but she still got a really great education there and then um go to my son's IEP meeting in the middle school and it's like going into the mosh pit out of a concert when the the when the when the periods change you're like BL I'm going to get run over by all these big kids um so I think that's going to be amazing as we go through I also think that um Hopkin hon is a great place this is a great we have have many students we have students that are going to like if you watch the parade for senior graduation they're going to incredible colleges and universities all across the United States and so many of our kids are thriving but there's still some kids in hopkington that aren't thriving and there's pockets of kids that still need some actual support and I think there's still some work to do in areas um that how are we meeting the needs of all of our students in hopkington our diversity has exploded in town how are we meeting the needs of those diverse students um and I think in a vision that I have for our Hopkins Public Schools all those kids are are achieving as much as the kids that we see going off to Harvard and Neil and Princeton and all that um wonderful things you know whether they choose to go into you know the military or the or as an electrician or whatever all of our students need to have the preparation that they deserve and the support that they feel from the whole Community thank you okay so I was going to ask a little bit about um so in recent years Hoppington has grown a lot that's an understatement and um but it's brought some much um some welcome diversity to town that we didn't have before like when brenon grew up here um and and which is brought opportunities and challenges um and what what could you do in and if you were to have a role in the school committee to make um you know our new demographics feel more uh welcome and supported in town either you know for policy standpoint or budget standpoint so I'm going to bring back to a time at the child care C I worked in when I first um the child care center I manag was at Newton Welsley hospital so um we had a clientele that was employees of the hospital and when I first started we didn't have a very diverse background um we most of our students were white they most of them spoke English and most of them were of wealthy families during my time there we significantly increased so much that about 30% of our population didn't speak English as their first language during my time there and we had um extremely a a diverse set of families as well family Dynamics as well and part of my job was making sure that th these people were both attracted to our program so that we were having curriculum and support that allowed them to feel comfortable in our program and also um they their families felt supported while they were in our program so I think that both the climate that you have introduced and then what is happening within your schools I think can do a lot for diverse populations so I think that hopkington uh as uh Amy said you know when I grew up here it was very very different um but I think that Hopkin has certainly extended an olive branch and I think that they're they do a wonderful job or everybody here does a wonderful job accepting everybody I sit and I listen to my son or daughter come home from school and tell me stories of what happened and just the fact that they can pronounce some of these names are it it's and it's a it's such an incred like Dr Kavanagh and even before her Kathy McLoud did such a great job of really including everybody in everything and and educating and bringing people into the you know whether you know there was some issues with 911 there there's always been issues where people put put um walls up and I think that it's the norm now it where it used to be an anomaly it's a norm now for people to stand up to people that don't accept that and the fact that it's a norm I've seen my son stand up to people that are acting foolish saying saying foolish things which as a six seventh eth grader they probably don't even know what they're saying but it's amazing to see how the how we have come together uh as a as a community where we welcome everybody and there's always going to be outliers there's always going to be outliers but I think in general there's there's uh the town has done a wonderful job kind of getting everybody together and and uh accepting all thank you um kind of like Mr Manon said I'm very excited to see both of you here I know both of you the last couple months especially I think we have two very qualified candidates for this so I'm very excited for the town for this committee um with this with this position being a shortterm one you know what less than a year um to fill the Gap specifically we have a big event coming up in the fall with the HDA contract negotiation can you please tell me like what skill and approach you would bring to that negotiation on behalf of the town so in my role as in the public sector I negoti like when I was in the in the prison system we were a state of Mass employee through UMass so we had I was the the union rep there that we would uh do the negotiations uh I was a hockey player I always did the negotiations uh you know on our teams when we when we were doing the hockey uh and as a select board member um you know we we did work with the budgets we did negotiate uh contracts with DPW police fire um and you know the the negotiations have to be firm but respectful and I think that uh I think that that is a huge part of the role that either Kyla or I will fill uh for the rest until May is I think that that's going to be a hugee uh piece doing this contract for the uh for the school so uh I am very well-versed in negotiating uh I have done negotiating for let's say 30 years um professionally and um you know and you know I'm I'm I'm pretty you know I do a lot of leg work I do I do my research I try to go into these things uh as educated as I can but keep my ears and eyes open uh and go through the the negotiation process like that but you know I'm I uh I I I consider myself firm but fair as a as a negotiator so as an attorney I have a great deal of experience in negotiating and having conversations like this and um working on things like this I think my supervisor will will tell you that one of the greatest skills I bring to negotiations in my position right now is the ility to develop relationships and make people feel like they are heard when people feel like they are heard and respected in the process you're able to to increase your position in negotiating with them and I think that is really important um Amy talked a little bit about my calm demeanor I think that has been extremely important during the during my process with negotiations and working with um difficult situations and conversations I don't tend to get all all excited or get upset about things I able to maintain a calm demeanor and really work on that relationship and have those conversations that are difficult sometimes and where you need to draw a line that's hard in the sand but you're also re being respectful to the person that you're negotiating with I do think that in our upcoming negotiations with the HTA that we really need to make sure that they feel both respected in valued by us we want to make sure that our schools retain the excellent um talent that we have in our teachers because that's what makes our schools pretty good it's not the shiny Marathon school that we built a few years ago it's really the teachers that make our schools um number one in this town awesome thank you both um thank you both both for being here tonight uh you are making this very difficult thank you for that too um my question is a little bit of a follow on to Joe's uh I'm a huge fan of the Hoppington teachers I have five kids all out now and all doing great thank you to the hopkington teachers for all they did I'm a huge fan of the hopkington administrators the principls vice principls athletic directors the whole nine yards big fans of everybody there I'm a huge fan of Dr Kavanaugh and Susan and all those that came before you and all the school committees today members today and all those school committee members that came before you guys we have a fabulous system here in hopkington because the residents of hopkington w expected to support it and put you know their money where their mouth is pretty routinely uh to make sure the schools get what they need and I think we've all done a fabulous job so love the teachers love the HTA that's done a really nice job representing them over the years I think and a reasonable job representing them over the years and certainly love the administration so my question might be a little loaded after I said all that what are your thoughts about the Massachusetts Teachers Association so I have significant um interaction with the Massachusetts Teachers Association in my work because um a lot first of all a lot of my colleagues are members of the match chett Teachers Association and um all though I am not um so I am very respectful of their thoughts and opinions of Massachusetts teacher Association I do believe that each contract needs to be looked at individually and that um you cannot look at one Town's contract versus another Town's contract and get the same um sort of feeling from them or the same experience from them um I think that's all so with the MTA I think it's you know it's equally as important to Value what what they bring to the table as well as the Hopkin and teachers as they all kind of have to work together we have to you know come up with a contract you know if a teachers if the teachers came up with a contract that wanted you know 30 30 and 30 for the next three years we came up with 0000 uh you know we're going to have to do some some pretty significant negotiating but I think that there's a lot of boilerplate um stuff that the MTA probably puts out that the HC uses um and you know they all they all kind of feed together work together and like Kyla said I think the important part is to understand that like this isn't an individual negotiation for Hopkin and but it is uh you know it's a Statewide you know it's involved with the Statewide the MTA Mr chadstone have you ever sat at a union negotiating table I have for which Union uh so the phpa the professional hockey uh Players Association and I worked with the uh as I said I was the um the union rep when I was a nurse for the uh for UMass for the Department of Corrections what did you find to be the most difficult part of at the table uh I would say when your either your players or your employees that you work with your peers expect you to go in and bring back the whole basket and when you have to go back to them and say you know we we wanted ABC all the way through Z they were happy to give us a through F we had to give G through M but n through P so we it's the it's the give and take the the rank and file they want the take um but you can't they don't like the give so it's having to explain why we negotiated why we why we settled for this um versus you know why we didn't get the whole hit and kabuta M mcweeny um as an attorney I'm sure you do a lot of negotiating in different ways have you sat as part of a in a bargaining situation no not directly okay I I did as an attorney represent SEIU members and but I was not at the bargaining table with them okay so you've had to deal with Grievances and things like that yes as an seu SEIU okay service employees industrial Union okay thank you um I have different questions for each of you um Miss mcweeney as you may know special education is deeply important to me and I think strong special education department is integral to a healthy and successful District at this time of tremendous District growth and Building Maintenance and replacement needs smart budgeting is incredibly important also given your extensive experience with education budgets can you describe your process or approach to ensure student needs are met while upholding fiscal responsibility to the community well a lot of our spending in special education um is to meet federal and state requirements and sometimes there's not a lot of varability you can have in that correct because you need to meet the what's required by federal and state law in children's IEPs how you do that you have a little flexibility in how you manage and create your different programs to meet those needs but you still have to make sure that you have the hours and the time and the ratios and staff to that have the skills that are written into children's IEPs so that's sort of a balance and um I think Hopkin has done a good job of prioritizing their special education spending um in their budget um and um we hope that we can continue that um there has been times when you know a few years ago when um it was a difficult fight um but we're able to work it out through different negotiations and I hopefully that that process process can continue can we give Mr tesone the opportunity to answer that as well sure why don't you go ahead and repeat that question can you describe your process or approach to ensure student needs are met while upholding fiscal responsibility to the community in the context of special education well I think I mean special education is giant I I know it's a big draw to the budget but it's one of the most um one I I feel one of the most important parts of our our schools I was able to to watch my daughter coach the um or work at in the unified uh basketball this year and it was you know I've done a lot with sports in my whole life and uh it was by far the most uplifting thing to see how the the kids uh you know the Buddies would partner with the athletes and see these kids uh see these kids play uh and work and score their first basket and you know it borderline tears to your eyes watching these these games um and I think hawy does a great job uh managing the the the special ed part um uh Dr Kavanaugh's predecessor Kathy McLoud I have a friend of mine that owns a corporation uh a huge corporation and his son had some special needs and came through the schools and did great and this guy offered I don't know4 or $500,000 gift to replace all the the the the the equipment the the landscape managing equipment uh because his son did such a great job in Hopkin and he moved on to Leslie College he did a great job and he's doing a great job uh with this with this corporation uh special ed is is giant it's Giant and you know we all talk about you know no no one left behind no kid Left Behind uh nothing says that more than than how we work with our special ed uh special ed kids um I do have a different question for you and to start I will say that as an occupational therapist who worked with the VNA locally for many years before moving to teaching myself I had patients who loved maryan Morse so I know it's a wonderful facility um so my question that I had designed for you but welcome to both um on school committee we address items that people in our community you feel passionately about it's important that we can disagree respectfully and move forward with our United purpose of mindfully supporting our school district to promote every student's success if you think back on your presence in Youth Sports and other activities in public how important is it to be a good role model and set positive examples to students and youth outside of meetings when serving on school committee what are some characteristics of a good role model or what does being a good role model mean to you so um so I have coached youth hockey Youth Baseball um I did not coach Youth Soccer I know by looking at me you'd think I'm a natural soccer player but I'm not um I would lead by example um I would um you know to me somebody who's played Sports at a rather competitive level winning and losing games at this level is not a big deal to me it's more about and I still to this day I still coach uh you know travel baseball softball um and it's more about you know teaching the kids right and wrong um you know do your best uh you know by all means we we keep score so I I do try to win and I like to impart that on the kids it is important to have you know to to know what it feels like to lose to win and lose graciously uh as Mr uh memo might know we we lost very graciously last year when I coached his kid in in Babe Ruth every single game that we played uh but we did it as gracefully as we could um so it's important you know it's important thank you um so I'm a girl scout leader I think uh that kind of shows some of my commitment to the community and able to that but I also like to point to my um time in my campaign for select board um I I'm really proud of the way that we conducted um The Campaign and um were able to have um reasonable and respectful discourse amongst the four of us even if we didn't agree all the time on um different um issues and situations that went on and I think that shows a little bit about my character and my ability as we move about um the community to uphold those thank you so my question's a little bit different uh I appreciate like some people have said before uh both of you stepping up I think you both make a very hard choice for us to make which is you know I think a good problem to have uh one concern that I have had uh just in the time that I have been on the school committee is the amount of turnover that we've had over the recent few years where we've had people who are unable to complete their term for one one reason or another it makes it um disruptive I think would be at least and it puts us you know in a position where we have we will have more new members on the board than we um have people who are returning at this point so two things um one is is there something that makes you passionate to come to the table at this point that would make you perhaps consider running for reelection and to want to stick through this or does this feel like a just stretching to the end of the um this term which would be the election would come up in May whoever wants to go first first um so I I just ran for the select board so I know the question is are you are you are you going to bounce ship and run for the select for B it again that was not what I was that was not where I was going that's what I was expecting to be asked today but I feel that making this commitment um for the school committee that I I need to see my uh my term through and even more to actually dedicate myself into um go and to continue on to this committee for I was asked the same with the cemetery commission if I was elected to either the select board or the school committee would I go and quit that and I'm sticking with the cemetery commission as I said you know you kind of do that with doing something else because it's not that difficult I'm chair of the cemetery commission right now by the way very exciting position in town people are dying to get in well we like to say our constituents don't complain unlike other committees but it's not always true um so yes I I don't see anything that oh and you asked what what makes us passionate so it's really exciting time to be in school committee right now we have got two big school building projects what town has two big school building projects going on right now you have an upcoming well some people might be scared away about upcoming Union negotiations that's kind of exciting for a legal nerd like myself um there's some there's some meaty stuff to get involved in um and I think that is what drives my passion to get involved at this time uh so as far as finishing my term uh yeah I've got at least my like I said my son's going to be a freshman this year so we got four years of high school four years College probably some grad school so I'm here for at least another 101 15 years I would say you know uh God willing um so I'm not going anywhere I have had a passion for this town since I was just a young kid a very young kid um and you know I got as a volunteer in the fire department when I was 18 years old uh I worked on that as long as I could my schedule didn't really at that point where I traveled a lot it didn't it didn't allow me to to stay with it uh however once you have me as a friend or as a partner constituent you have me forever um I did not want to leave the board of Selectmen but I'm a firm believer that after a certain amount of time it's time to go and I think the two terms was fine with me and I thought that there were a lot of new people coming in with a lot of fresher ideas that might have benefited the town so I stepped away um for the schools it's the same thing I I I'm going to see it through and I would love to at some point when I die I'd love to have a rock put on the on the common saying that this knucklehead did this this this and this for the town and thank you very much it's a huge part for me uh it's it's not just for the schools it's for the town of hopkington it's for me I teach my son uh and my daughter also that it's very important to give back uh my son we you know we do uh some work for some people in town that that are going through tough times we try to help them out a little bit um and my daughter same thing she does a lot with the with the um unified group um and I think it's just very important to give back I have the ability to give back I have some institutional knowledge in the town um which helps hurts uh you know to be quite honest it it it's I think that I'm very Progressive on uh you know working with people and working with committees um but you know when I when I go to the wayb back machine in my head I'm like well when when I was in high school we didn't do it this way well when we were in high school you had nine people so um so yeah I think you know my my uh my dedication to the town is uh is unwavering and once I commit to something I'm there like I said I never missed a meeting uh as the in six years uh on the board selectman and select board and uh you know took my first sick day in 14 years last year when I got Co so I'm a I'm a once I commit to it thank you so just want to do a scan of the room if there was anything else that people feel was not um Chris are you looking to yeah I just had one other question for Mr mcweeny um you know I don't view the school committee as a par Center political entity and nor do I think it should be um I did see that the httc was encouraging members um to speak tonight publicly and send uh emails to uh the school committee and possibly the select board so uh little concerning to me and um just wanted to hear from you how we can be assured that you'll act independently and uh not be influen by um maybe what the hdtc would like um to see happen on the school committee I can assure you that we within the hopkington Democratic um Town committee have differing view points often and no one sets any sort of agenda for anybody who's serving in any office who has any affiliation with the Hopkin Democratic town committee um and so I I come with no preset agenda and um they are simply supportive of me as a colleague and friend know Mr tedstone if you wanted to add anything I about political affiliation so the the the town uh Democratic committee uh does not influence my decision making Fair all right so we've had some pretty extensive questions we have lots of information ahead of us I think we're ready to go ahead and uh make a straw vote unless anybody has any other okay so going to start with you down sorry Nancy can we make like comments before we yes so yeah absolutely would invite people to make comments in what your thoughts are in your thought process it's not a binding thing it's kind of what you're what you're leaning towards what you feel is the in the best interest of um the school committee the schools and ultimately the town and the best fit for um being on the school committee at this point so uh Chris again I'm always mindful of the fact that you're out outside of my line of view so I want to make sure that we start with you sure um yeah I think as members of the school committee and select board we were elected really to represent the interests uh of the citizens of the Town um you know I like elections I'd much prefer if this was uh an election to to replace the school Committee Member but I know the protocol is for us to uh vote and appoint someone um however I I did think back on it and we do in my opinion have a pretty clear mandate from the people of the town that um I've had a chance to vote for two of the applicants and twice uh the town has spoken and overwhelmingly voted in Brendan tedstone um in uh elections that were uh a crowded field of four people he had the most votes in each election um you know and I just as I look back on that um you know the town had a had a chance um to kind of voice who they want representing the town and I think we have two very obviously very qualified candidates um but for me um you know Mr tedson is really the only one who see received overwhelming support from the town um and I would you know urge the other committee members and select board members uh to really keep that in mind in in a situation where we don't have a dedicated election for this position um the town had did have a chance uh um you know in recent years to kind of voice their opinion for at least two of the candidates uh who have raised their hand for the school committee position thank you Chris Mary Joe do you want to go next or there somebody else that wants to jump in yeah I have another question okay go right ahead that's fine uh I come from h a town Two Towns away and my parents were like all parents like these parents and we had to have we have beautiful new schools and we spend a lot of money and in the town and everything and 40 years ago I moved here but the town got older and five schools that I went to are gone they've been turned into something else or they're they're gone and I think moving forward in the future I want to know how people how people feel about doing things that temporary or modu more modular I'm glad we have modular in one of our buildings and and what can can we do and now we have two empty schools you know are going to be empty and I mean I'm just looking at these buildings have all been converted well some of them are nothing one's a ball field that got taken down but five you know and now they have to build a couple of new schools but it's it's just the way populations go if if the population here gets really older the kid the number of students is going to come down and and I really think that looking to the future we have to look at do we continue on this road or or do we get to a point where we say we've got to do something new and something different so I just looking for some ideas so can I just jump in ahead of them just to for clarity we actually have modular classrooms on two of our buildings and it at the Elmwood School there are modulars that will be moved from the Elmwood School to the Hopkins school at the end of um once the Elmwood now charleswood School opens yeah yeah it's the beginning and with the you know like I said the seniors and I don't want people to take what we have done for the seniors and and the exemptions that we have made are not going to make huge differences to them and part of that is because we are not allowed to put a a price or an amount on them that we want to we have to follow the state guidelines for exemptions and they're very very very small actually so we you know if if anybody wants to deal with the legislature and tries to find a way to make that a more home rule idea uh then I I would appreciate that too so right what do you think well I'll try to decipher that um I don't so the the one thing I'll I was going to point up that we have a lot more modular classrooms than than just the two schools um but I disagree that you know the population's going to get older and go away we don't know it it's it's an opinion um however as the town as you've seen when I was growing up you know my mother had the house at you know where we grew up raised us we hit College we hit adulthood we got our own place my mom's still there so in in that demographic it's it would like in in that in that uh you know to follow that it would absolutely um you know we're we're being built out we're not going to have that much room uh the growth is going to slow however in today's society uh in hopkington it's not uncommon for people to come into the town for the schools go through the schools and then rather than have your kids go out either and and start their own lives in their own houses they'll sell their house to another family that comes in with two kids that want to start in the prek to and then so you know my mother at the house that we grew up in they were you know they the town lost money putting us through the school system because they were just two of us and the taxes were you know it was what it was once we left my mother was still paying the taxes in town but she wasn't taking advantage of the services uh there weren't more kids coming in I think Dr Kev you'll know it's like $115,000 a year to to put a student through school uh just slightly under 16 so so that's a $30,000 draw at my house on Chamberlain Street that was gone but my mother remained and still paid the taxes the same taxes whether we had two kids in or not now as the the children Branch out and go do their own thing they generally sell their house and buy a brownstone in Boston and another family comes in with with a kindergarten Age kid or two or three or four and you never you never like you you you're not Treading Water you're not under spending and then overspending you're always going to be a financial um burden moving forward so and with our school staying as the number one rank it's very attractive for people to come in from everywhere um uh to to come live in hopkington I believe that cycle will continue as long as our school ranking is is uh is as as positive as it is I agree that's been what has been happening recently and there could be I mean schools and looking at population a difficult thing to nail we if you've sat through the building committee presentations there's demographer demographer you know trying to make predictions about things and right now nobody's been right um Mr Clark and I had a conversation the other day about this and saying you know let's hope we're we're getting it right and hey if we have a a little too much room in our schools that's not a bad thing because I think our teachers and educational leaders can be really creative about how they use that space in the schools and um how they're managing um different programs um within that and that also might be able to help with some of our other budget um um pieces with that in our programming um so it it is a fluid thing it's hard to nail down and I think we need to forecast and think about that and how we can manage that and how we can make use of the space thank you did you want to add any comment and it come back to you in the STW we two great candidates it's takes a little B to digest this okay so we'll Circle back to you very good yes please uh so we're making our comments and our selections initial selection yes yeah um so again we have two great candidates and very thoughtful and um well thought out um discussion uh response and making it even more difficult so thank you for that but this is great I'm really happy to see both very competent uh candidates and uh before I um talk about my um selection or my choice I I want to make it uh very clear that I do commend both of your services Brendan you've been um involved for such a long time great uh contribution to our community thank you for the service at silic board and other places and I have worked with you and got an opportunity to know you and I found Brenda nothing but very kind and dedicated for the town so I want to make sure that's also out there um just because we are having a contested position and uh selection shouldn't take our eyes off of you know everyone's contribution and um everyone's uh qualification and dedication so certainly I appreciate that and um Kyla has also demonstrated great service to the town and uh knowing her personally I know she's been uh very vocal about causes School sped and um is a wonderful candidate and um the second thing I also wanted to uh bring up is that um I I am certainly um thinking through and processing a lot and my thinking is always focused fed on what's best for the town and what is the best suitability of the position for the time and for the uh based on the criteria we are thinking and the qualifications that we have and um there's no pressure on me from anything or anyone and uh people who know me and knows my life story or been in town for the last 6 months knows that I know a thing or two about pressure but uh it's it's completely independent thinking and uh then coming back to this I do feel that you know again both are extremely strong candidates uh I I am looking at a portfolio of uh criteria where I want to see you know educational background uh the negotiation is definitely one big item the budget and understanding of the town uh mechanics where you all you both have been very strong and I loved your vision and definitely you're passionate we both have kids in school uh where I see a little bit differentiating and uh this is very hard again I think as uh it will be for all my colleagues is that Kyla's uh educational um affiliation background and insight certainly stands out and Brendan certainly has other um Forte and uh strengths uh for the school board for that reason Kyla stood out a little bit um more suitable in my mind okay so I want to thank you both for your patience and you both answered all our questions really thoughtfully so I really appreciate that but I don't want to drag this out um much longer but my vote tonight would go for Kyla um and I think they both would be qualified they both have the experience but um my vote is for KY tonight um so I think we talked about a lot tonight again thank you both extremely qualified you know I I go back to kind of what's best for the town and I'm thinking about the schools the schools have always been the backbone of this community they will continue to be so it's it's how it's why Hopkin is the town it is today um and the town has supported that you know we've seen that we've got two very exciting school projects coming up um I think everyone in town is excited to see those come to fruition um but as we take on the debt for those things I think it's also a time for the schools to support the town as well and with that in mind you know again I I think I don't think I know both these candidates would be great on this committee um but specifically I'm looking at things again I brought up you know the the labor negotiation this fall and I look at the rest of the committee and as Nancy pointed out before there's been a lot of turnover and one of the things that I like that we have on multiple boards and committees is diversity of backgrounds and opinions and outside of Nancy I don't see a ton of experience negotiating on behalf of the town we can all talk about negotiating in our private sector jobs you know it's what I do daily I don't pretend to know what it's like to negotiate on behalf of Hopkins I think that's a very different thing that's a learned um experience and so looking again at this labor negotiation coming up I think it would be very helpful to have someone that's been in a position to negotiate on behalf of this town before and that's why I would vote for Brendan tonight for that reason specifically so um if this was not a contract negotiation year and we were picking a a school committee member for a you know another year that would run again and have like a four-year term if you will uh my vote would be for Kyla because I think as a school Committee Member a generalist if you will I think she's could be a great fit and I think her background and knowledge of how it all works um you know as an educator herself and with that experience in passion and and her law degree and negotiation and so forth I think all that would be a great asset to the community so I hope if it plays out in certain ways that that is a future uh opportunity for the town and I think the town would Embrace that at that time given that it is a contract negotiation year given that I have sat with Mr tedstone and dealt with contract negotiations negotiations on behalf of the town of hopkington uh I support him for this particular eight or nine month gig um I'm particularly part partial to miss mcweeny uh I have sat at contract negotiations for teachers I know what that's like I know that it is always important to have someone who has the legal knowledge and the technicality of wording to help you out with situations um I am also extremely impressed with M mcsweeney's um resume and her you uh ability to deal with Million Dollar Plus budgets and knowing what is necessary um I think she would also understand that if we do not meet the needs of the students if if things become tight certain sacrifices would be very difficult to make in terms of of uh teacher numbers and things like that that might have to come down to it so my my vote would be with um Miss mcweeny thank you both for being here I am also um preferring Kyla tonight I think the resume and consistent Integrity through a difficult process during the last election and dedication to moving forward with school committee um plus all the contract negotiations and legal expertise is quite valuable I appreciate you both for coming forward so want to Echo all those before me that really are grateful for both of you for standing up uh I think it makes a tough choice I think you both offer some really strong things that would be beneficial to the school committee in an Ideal World we'd be able to choose both of you um really I would enjoy being colleagues with either one of you uh a couple of things that have been said have stood out to me uh one uh is that it's not a political position uh and I I appreciate that that has been brought out um just in terms of we all come from slightly different backgrounds uh we do probably lean more one way than another uh I would say there are a lot of things about each of you that probably not everybody knows I've known Mr tedstone probably a little bit longer but I've also come into contact with you at um many different school things and are most recently the forums that we had for the schools I think there are some things um about Mr tedstone that I think you have a quiet way sometimes of and I don't think quiet is always the word that comes to mind when people think of you but there are quiet things that I know that you do behind the scenes uh I'm thinking of for folks who were at the louder Mill hearing my understanding was that you walk to select board members out who might not have otherwise felt like it was a an opportune thing to do I thought that was a standup thing uh I would say that my preference for this remainder of this term until May would be for Brendan uh and the reason for that is not based just on qualifications for either of you uh it's really based on and it's not the contract negotiations alone because I do think contract negotiations are a big piece of it but if we rewind a little bit back to December when we were sitting here making an appointment for the school committee at that time um as well the the piece going into the budget uh and the experience with budget when we have already um two people who are new to this process I think that having somebody who's been through it is an asset um I appreciate that both of you are willing and interested in seeking to continue on with the school committee I hope that um both of you um will step up um again in May but so that would be my my piece and I believe that circles back to Mary Joe well I I mean this is just incredible Kay's friend of mine makes me an Irish bread going to make me scones I mean if that's a bribe good one but um and I've known Brendan since he was a little boy his mother and I used to sit out at the baseball games together cuz I had two boys of that age too and his brother Luke and uh we served as select people I have great respect for for both people and and boy do we have two outstanding candidates tonight and it's really very very difficult for me but um I know that Kayla has wanted to get in really involved in the town and and I think this is the position for her right now so I would vote for Kayla tonight okay so that brings us down um to appear to have a 54 split on that just by my count there may be people who were weigh by the arguments of others that that spoke earlier um but I would seek if there's somebody who would like to make a motion or if there before we go into a motion if there's anybody who wanted to make any other comments before we go into a an actual decision okay is there somebody who would like to make a motion uh to appoint the next I can do that I make the motion to appoint KY maxini for the um School Board member position okay so a motion by sh is there a second on that second second say expiring at the expiring at the annual Town election okay so since we do have a member who is remote we are going to go around and do a roll call vote so we'll start with You Chris it's a motion to appoint uh Kyla I didn't hear so yes or no is the no sorry yep that's okay okay so we'll go to Mary Joe yes Mary Joe yes okay shy sh man yes Amy yes Joe Clark no Brian her no Susan Stevenson yes Jamie Rona yes and I am a a no so that um brings us back to I believe the 54 split okay thank you both very much um that that puts Kyla in the five4 split I do appreciate that we were able to express um all of our opinions and that we came out with one person who will be joining us so the next steps for you would be to be see our town clerk or probably our assistant town clerk at this point um to be sworn in uh and then we do have a meeting our next meeting that's scheduled is for July uh 25th it's actually a daytime meeting so thank you both for being here tonight it was a long process um congratulations congratulations congratulations thank you all so the select Bo will adjourn motion to adjourn second motion by Amy second byard meeting all in favor I okay and thank you to the select board appreciate that have a good night thank you as well oh hi to see you great to meet you guys hi nice to meet you nice to meet you all have a good night nice to meet you look forward to seeing you more uh in the fall for our budget stuff see see you all right so that then brings us uh into reports okay you should have got this cooking earlier it was there and it didn't uh okay all right so thank you this is the superintendent report for uh Thursday July 11th 2024 um and one of the things that's interesting about the superintendent's report in the summertime is that you you struggle a little bit because not a lot is going on in our Public Schools however um just in the last couple of weeks in dribs and drabs data starts coming into my inbox and I thought some of the stuff that people are sending me in terms of the data that they keep within their departments or about the kids um is really very interesting and so I thought I would just share some of that with you tonight um so we did look at a little bit of this the high school guidance department will send out a report at the end of every school year just letting us know how many students went off to fouryear colleges two-year colleges and I like what uh lee rco does here because she'll tell you you the number of students and then she'll also tell you the percentage of the class uh we had 280 students in this graduating class uh we have 95% of them or 266 266 students who are going on to further education um some of the interesting data there might be that um our International students you know that we have them every year uh five of them have decided to return home and that's 2% of the graduating class uh 2% of our kids also five students are going on to a gap year for example so that's what's happening with the class of 2024 uh she also gives us the College Testing report so that we have a sense of how our kids in really pretty much in terms of the mean are doing on the ACT the prea the PSAT and the S um it's always uh kind of neat to look at the PSAT so our kids are taking this typically when they're 10th graders and on the evidence-based reading and writing test the mean is at 588 uh but the by the time they're juniors and seniors and they take the SAT that number goes to 631 uh the PSAT is the qualifying test to become a National Merit scholar we had 18 commended students this year five semi-finalists and that constitutes 88.2% of the class of 2024 and I'm not sure what people know about um being a National Merit scholar but it is super competitive to get to that level I think of um of knowledge and so it's it's really impressive to have 88.2% of your graduating class um reach reach that milestone for National Merit whether it's commended semi-finalist or finalist we have also started to gather some preliminary Ela mcast data and I know that you can't see that up on that screen because it's very far away from you um but if you've been on the committee for some time you know that one of the things that we've been working really hard on is getting our kids to do more writing and writing in the service of reading it has lived in my goals for the last couple of years and we did bring on three years ago a director of literacy at the middle school level um so this is preliminary mcast data it's not likely to change but because it's preliminary and it hasn't been you know fully vetted and released yet but one of the nice things that we are seeing is that so the average percent of possible points so for example if you could get 20 points and you only got 10 we would say that you are at the 50th per. uh and what we've done is we've crunched those numbers for the entire sixth grade the entire seventh grade and the entire eighth grade for writing um in 2023 the percentage was 48 in grade 6 this year it's at 60 in grade seven it was at 54 last year and that was actually significantly higher than it had been the previous year so we were we were excited about the seventh grade scores last year and that's risen to 57 this year and in the eighth grade it was at 48% last year and now this year the eighth graders in the aggregate uh got 56% of the possible points so that's really exciting uh data and it's going to be interesting to see what that does to our overall Elam cast scores at the middle school level uh Mr Bishop was good enough to take some of the prelim preliminary High School Ela mcast scor numbers and in 202 three 1% of our kids were not meeting expectations this year no one was there 10% were partially meeting and this year it's 7.7% so when we take a look at this 11 and we look at that 7.7 now when we go to our meeting and exceeding expectations it was 89 in 2023 which is enormously High We felt great about that 89% it was a much bigger number than it had been historically and this year um I really had bumps when I started to look at those numbers the grade 10 students were at 92.3% meeting and exceeding which is astounding um you know typically way more than 10% of the population the adult population in the world is not reading at a 12th grade level and you know our our kids are uh right there and so it feels really good and I want to thank the high school teachers the subject matter leaders the assistant principles Mr Bishop um Sarah Elum who is the uh English department chair there and uh of course Mr LeBron these numbers are phenomenal I can't wait to see Mr leod's report in the fall because I think it's going to look phenomenal our Middle School librarian keeps data which I didn't know she did but she does um this year she had 950 students out of the 997 actually used the Middle School library physically they checked out 3,392 books the majority of those books were graphic novels and uh manga um she herself taught 230 lessons in addition to checking out all of those physical books they have online resources uh she checked out 15,6 ebooks 58 magazines 1,262 audio books and 150 classroom books so there is a lot of literacy going on there and she added 753 books to the collection at the middle school library um so I was really happy to see this data and now in a totally different realm um the mental health collaborative curriculum which is a curriculum that we use in our schools uh if you look at the xais that will tell you where the students were in terms of the per percent correct on a particular question so question a is right here the first time the kids took this test and this was without any teaching 20 22% of the kids got it right which means that about 78% of our kids got it Incorrect and so after the instruction when we look at the post exposure number we look at the Y AIS and you can see that it went up to about 45% of the kids got it right so still 54% of those kids uh were or 55% were not getting that that question correct and so these live in the category of stubborn misconceptions which is really kind of fascinating to me so I had asked um Abby what those stubborn misconceptions looked like because I'm wondering where our kids are sort of struggling to grow and so in terms of our stubborn misperceptions um the first one for example which was letter a is suicide in young people is the result of the stress of being a teenager that statement is false but more than 50% of our kids said that thought that that was true most people who experience traumatic events will develop a mental illness that statement is false but again more than 50% of our kids thought that was true feeling sad about a loss will often lead to depression that statement is false but more than 50% of our kids thought that that was true um asking someone are you thinking of harming yourself will not encourage them to act on their thoughts that statement is true but about half of our kids still thought that that statement was false and if you are worried about someone who you think may be suicidal you should ask them directly are you thinking of harming yourself that statement is true but 50% of our kids thought thought that that was false um so this is just the kind of data that trickles into me at the end of the year and you can see it surrounds things like mental health or Library use or high school guidance or preliminary um mcast results and so there's just I guess so much data that's really fascinating and that's what I have to share with you tonight it's just things that have trickled in and I thought it was kind of kind of great little data nerd I am a data nerd and and our people have really come so far not just accumulating that data but using it so it's nice I'm thrilled about Ela go ahead Sor you um it's so hard to see from here are those things that um should show up in packets that we get that we can we always post these to the website the day after okay the meeting and it just goes in really as a report because um that way because it's not something you're voting on okay um and there really are days where we're even throwing something in at the last second but I had this done for a while and I could certainly send it to you earlier or I could even send it to you while we're all sitting at the table just so you have it on your machines great absolutely that's perfect thank you mhm and that's all I have for you so thank you okay I have a question about that one about depression um I'm assuming that they know the difference between the word depression and sadness so I do wonder about that I'm really depressed is I'm not feeling great as opposed to I'm depressed there's a researcher um at Oxford University I think her name is Lucy folks and she's done a lot of work on something that she calls incident prevalence um and I've just really been reading this stuff for my own personal interest but what she talks about is we use so much of this language now around Mental Health that our kids take these terms and they sort of just internalize them and so some kids will say oh I'm so depressed today but really they're just sad today or they're feeling a little down today or they're not themselves today but they use a sort of technical mental health term to interchangeably I think with other things so that might be the reason for that one um but it is interesting that our kids seem to think that when you feel sad on one day it can lead to depression but clearly that statement is false and our kids didn't think of it that way so we have a lot ofal and really the mental health collaborative curriculum is really around mental health and stigma like why is it so stigmatizing to talk about these things or to talk about yourself or okay other questions just want to make sure I can't see Chris up there Chris do you have any questions no no questions okay all right um then if that's it for that I will go into the school committee um chair report just to say that payroll warrants S2 4026 s24 Bal have been approved warrants 24-8 s and 24- 81s 24- 82s 24- 083s 24-8 4S 2-24 d85s 24- 86s 24-87 s have all been approved um so all right this um moves us down to leaon reports we are going to be doing our liaison appointments at our next meeting um since that will be our first opportunity to be a full committee so that um I don't know if there was anything on CPAC or anything that think so okay all right the next item is the item a of new business which is the digital Wellness project incentive sure this one should be very easy and very pleasant um the Metro West adolescent Health Foundation had put together a project where they were interviewing some young women about um the digital world and sort of their mental health uh Hopkinson was a school community that uh engaged in the project and if you did you would get $1,000 and so uh Wendy MacArthur who is the librarian at the middle school that we were just talking about and Heather Abrahams who the librarian at the high school we're both parts of this and so what we're asking you to do tonight is to approve that $1,000 so that each one of those Librarians will get $500 sort of equally split so that they can get materials for those libraries okay it's great so I move to accept the $1,000 incentive for the district second motion by Susan second by Jamie we'll do a roll call starting with you Susan yes Jamie yes I'm a yes Chris yes okay it is unanimous and so passes uh with a great uh deal of thank you all right so that moves us into Item B which is the hopkington high school point for wellness teacher okay thank you um so I'll start by commending Mr Bishop and Mrs hanscum for their sort of out of the box thinking on this one we pretty much went through the entire 23 24 school year with a vacant 1.0 PA professional position at the high school um and you know due to their ability to think outside the box with scheduling and be really flexible with scheduling we weren't out of compliance um but we do have worries about going into the 2425 school year and ensuring that uh we are taking that position and making sure that we are maximizing opportunities for our students on IEPs and for our general education students so what Mr Bishop is proposing is that we take the 1.0 par professional dollar amount eliminate that position and then transfer that into a point for wellness teacher and the two classes that that person would be responsible for is to we would add a unified physical education class to the high school so we would have unified PE we already have it in the middle school we want to bring that to the high school and then the second thing that that person would do is that person would function as a point to math specialist and that person would either support students who are um foundations of Algebra 1 students or that person would co- te with the person who teaches foundations of Algebra 1 but we really do need the support in the math and um we're sure that this person can do that could you define what a wellness teacher is it's physical education Wellness oh the word for PE yes that's right yeah okay I'm old so question um well comment and a question I love um it sounds like our unified PE is moving forward in a very positive way I love that that is expanding and moving um through the district the so it's not really a point for wellness teacher I'm assuming it's a0 2 and a point2 or is that same person going to same person we believe yes naturally we would have to pose for the position and interview but okay y okay are there any other questions on that um position okay um I have a question so is the reduction of the PA position we don't expect there will be students that need that coverage or the Flexible Staffing covers that need for assistance to a student directly the Flexible Staffing will pick up some of the IEP coverage however I'm really glad that you asked that question uh because I have sat with Mrs hansam and Mr Bishop and uh their belief is that this will not ever put us out of compliance so we should be perfectly fine that way um I had said to them that we really need to make sure and you know we were able to do that in the 23 24 school year so I'm I'm confident in them that when when they say that we won't be out of compliance that that we won't be this just popped into my head so I apologize for not asking this earlier but are there other vacant prep are professional positions at the high school that you're aware of do not think that there is okay all right so this this was the only unfilled one okay all right if there are no other questions um would somebody like to make a motion and move to approve replacing the vacant 1.0 paraprofessional position with a point 2 Wellness teacher and a point2 math specialist teacher okay motion by Jamie second second by Susan we'll do a roll call starting with you Susan yes Jamie yes Amy yes Chris yes okay that is unanimous uh and thank you to Mr Bishop and Mrs hansam for working on that all right so we are down to item C which is the Adaptive playground designer Susan that's you thank you um so as you recall at the last school committee meeting the school committee uh accepted the Grant from the CPC in the amount of $100,000 for the playground design um the Adaptive playground committee uh put the RFP out for the designer and um through interviews and their um proposal evaluation selected the highest ranked designer which was the beta group um so we began um fee negotiations with beta to fit within this $100,000 Grant and the fee uh proposal at this time is 63,800 um to be awarded to the beta group great thank you there questions on that okay is there somebody who would like to make a motion mood to accept the bid from beta 63,800 we do not have any old uh business listed uh in terms of the we we need to do the items by consensus but just for folks who are at home uh we did go into executive session at the beginning but we are re-entering executive session rather than adjourning and we will adjourn after the executive session so just for Clarity on that so want to go ahead with the items certainly yeah as superintendent I recommend the school committee approve the items by consensus as outlined in your agenda are there questions on the items by consensus or anything people would like pulled out I just have one question on the minutes um I know at the June 20th meeting for example uh Chris had a bunch of questions for the um Engineers for Hopkins and the minutes reflect just that they answered questions is that because we are um recording the meetings and so if someone needed or was curious to see what the questions were they would go back and watch the recording or should the minutes be capturing the gist of the questions and the answers I assume it's the first but I was just curious so I think it's a little bit of both to be honest that we we do a higher level on that and people are able to go in to look at the recording um but the higher level does meet the um what is required under the open meeting law but it is important we and we also do Post post so that people are able to click the link to get back to the hcam recording anything any other questions okay is there somebody that would like to make a motion relative to the items by consensus I move to approve the items by consensus okay motion by Jamie second by Susan roll call starting with you Susan yes Jamie yes I'm a yes Chris yes okay uh so that is unanimous and so passes and then I would uh seek a motion uh to enter back into executive session pursuant to mgl c30a S21 A2 uh regarding the level three grievance filed by the Hopkinson Teachers Association as required by the collective bargaining agreement between the school committee and the hopkington Teachers Association and then uh we will adjourn um from executive session before you vote can we just tell Chris that the previous link is still alive yes did you get that okay okay okay thank you I move with we recess into executive session you got read the whole thing now or you can just say so moved so moved okay motion by Susan is there a second on that second second by Jamie Susan will start with you yes Jamie yes Amy yes Chris yes okay and so we are adjourning into executive session at 9:42 and we will not be returning to um the live uh recording here so thank you very much for all who tuned in for our meeting tonight uh have a good night and I will see everybody in executive session recording stopped e