##VIDEO ID:03GSzUGdvyE## good evening and welcome to the Tuesday September 24th 2024 meeting of the long meow school committee School committees and other public bodies may continue to hold remote meetings through March 31st 2025 under legislation enacted on March 29th 2023 the statute chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 extends Quorum reductions for remote meetings all votes while there is remote participation must be made by roll call vote this meeting is being recorded and aired live on lctv we will begin with Pledge of Allegiance FL of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all we'll begin with correspondence the following correspondence will be recorded an emailed note from Mr Jeffrey clot dated September 18th 2024 regarding field trips thank you we have approval of minutes next there's a recommended motion I move that the school committee approve the minutes to the September 16th 2024 school committee meeting as presented we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Adam yay Zach yes Michaela yes Julie yes and yes for me as well we don't have anyone at home correct all right um moving on to public speak do we have anyone joining us at at home for public speak I don't think we have anybody if you do raise a hand all right seeing no public speak we find ourselves with business with guests which brings us to our joint meeting with the select board so I'll give you guys a moment to call your um portion of the meeting to order and then we'll jump into our work great thank you so much thanks for having us uh today um I will open up a meeting of the Long Meadow select board I'm select board chair V Mai members just please respond in the affirmative when I call your name Dan zero here Andrew lamb here uh Mark gold here Josh LaVine here all right we're set to go all right wonderful so um the school committee and select board are meeting tonight to um vote on the applicants that we interviewed last week um before we do that I want to just dive into um a couple of things um procedurally and also a um note of thanks to our candidates so we'll start with procedure first um we have um worked together the select board and the school commit to come up with a um voting process um that includes some of the following things first off is that there will be um no discussion before the round of voting prior to the first round of voting um everyone will cast their votes on their ballot they have a ballot in front of them I think everybody got one when they came in so we're good with that um and we will then um collect the votes so select board members you can send your votes down to venath um school committee folks you can send yours down to me um we will read aloud everybody's vote and record what we have if any candidate receives six votes they are thereby appointed to the school committee and we are done if we need to we'll do a second round um if we are ready to move on to a second round then whichever candidate had either zero votes and any candidate with the lowest votes um would be eliminated and then we'll vote a second round same as the first and on we go questions about the procedure from anyone yes one vacancy yes oh I thought it was two no okay quick decision time there we go that makes things a lot more simple I was looking at this and I'm like I don't think this okay hey hey that's great all my questions are done all right and so I mean uh Jamie will not be joining tonight so he's unable to join he's traveling yes sorry any other questions about procedure okay so um before we start then just I know our candidates are not here in the room with us but hopefully they are able to tune in from home and just a really big thank you to everyone who stepped forward um to fill this vacancy um when you saw a need to rise in your community you stepped forward with a willingness to serve your community and that is extremely commendable um and each of you brought impressive experience and experience um and expertise to us we really enjoyed getting to know a little bit more about you and hearing what your thoughts were and just a big thank you to everyone for taking the time to come out and meet with us it really was as Mr lamb said an embarrassment of riches um so we appreciate that all right then we are ready um we're going to dive into our first vote so you have three voting ballots in front of you take one jot down who you are first voting for and then we will begin from there you have to put your name on the on the your name is already at the top yeah put an x on whoever you're voting for I apparently I need more instructions whatever works so long as I can see who you voted for we're good thank you thank you sir and lady thank you kind of have even numbers in the end here um do you want to start us kick us off then sure sure are we going to alternate or should I we'll alternate but I'm literally just going with whatever order they have m in uh so Josh LaVine cast his vote for Estelle Jordan all right I have um Adam Rosen Bloom also for stelle Jordan ahead okay Dan zero castes vote for Estelle Jordan all right I have um sorry hold on Zach veran for bizra abibi where are isach oh there you are okay Andrew lamb cast his vote for Estelle Jordan all right Julie Morgan for Georgia Robert okay Mark gold cast his vote for Georgia Robert uh myself Nicole shaer cast my vote for EST Estelle Jordan and I cast my vote uh beneath M for Georgia Robert for Georgia Robert and Michaela Fitzgerald also for Georgia Roberts we have 1 two three 4 for Georgia Robert 1 2 3 4 five for Estelle Jordan so we will head into a second round um we do not have any votes for um Sarah Fernandez um so we can remove Sarah um for our voting plans and we'll head into a second round and will be yeah okay so we are down to Estelle Jordan and Georgia Robert we'll hang on to those first ones and you're ready go ahead and vote your second round thank you thank you thank you sorry all right so round two all right uh I'll start Dan Zero cast his vote for Estelle Jordan all right um Zach veran for Estelle Jordan Josh LaVine for Estelle Jordan sorry upside down Adam Rosen Bloom also for Estelle Jordan Andrew lamb for Estelle Jordan Michaela Fitzgerald for Georgia Robert Mark gold for Georgia Robert we Julie Morgan for Georgia Robert um myself V MTI for Georgia Robert and myself Nicole Shier for stelle Jordan and is that everybody one two three four five six all right um our second round Nets us with a candidate um Estelle Jordan six um Georgia Robert with four so thank you we are ready to then appoint Estelle Jordan to the school committee um and thank you to the select board for taking the time to work alongside us with this um we appreciate the opportunity to work collaboratively and um for being there letting us attend your meeting last week to go over the interviews um and also for being here tonight with us great yeah thank you so just absolutely will somebody be contacting her let her know to be sworn into the correct yes yep we'll make sure to reach out so that she's able to join us for our correct I think I start picking up food H oh there you and before we adjourn I would just uh you know I think we've said this over and over again that we had great quality of candidates and I would really hope that the folks that were not selected tonight think about you know possibly running for school committee in the future when there's an opening or uh you know uh be uh seeking appointment for a different Committee in town uh because um you know they all gave great interviews have great um you resumés and also have shown a commitment to our town so I I really encourage them to do that this is the hardest decision I've made right in Long very tough I would agree with that great candidates we really did have excellent candidates and I look forward to working with each of them in a future capacity whether it's on this committee or any other committee or volunteer in town we really appreciate their willingness to serve across the board great um so second all right all those in favor all right thank you so much guys thank you so much have a lovely evening two rounds we didn't run out of paper count one our breing the records thank you that's your average time all right so we are heading forward into um school committee announcements and recognitions um school committee chair report I don't have much to say thank you gent have a lovely evening um other than to say that the ribbon cutting at the new playground at Blueberry Hill last week was really the highlight of the week um it is Wonder it was wonderful to see so many children zipping around the playground um enjoying themselves and having just a lovely time playing together um the construction of this new playground has really been a community effort um over years of time and so just a huge thank you um to all of the families and students and um Town officials and employees who've worked so hard to make this um possibility for our town I'm really really proud of the way that Long Meadow put Equitable play as a real investment and a meaningful thing for our community so thank you to everyone for that it was wonderful to be there for we look forward to a few more um ribbon cuttings and openings of playgrounds in the coming weeks I think you have something related to one of our playgrounds in your superintendent report perfect um any other school committee recognitions or announcements all right seeing none we head into other reports superintendent sure um you have a copy of my report in your packet uh I'll highlight a few of the items um as far as the middle school project we had a productive meeting last week of the Long Meadow Fire Department Long Meadow Police Department DPW Town manager's office uh cers the design team School administration to talk about the uh to review of the proposed uh site plan and um it was an opportunity for us to really dig in and think about vehicular and bus circulation pedestrian access uh drop off and pickup uh considerations and all sorts of traffic calming measures that that could be integrated into the design of the Williams Middle School site so um I think it was helpful to the design team to hear the needs and requirements of the fire department and police department and DPW so that was great to finally get everybody uh in one room we met virtually but to be in one place was was very productive uh tomorrow we have a meeting with the mba's facilities assist assessment subcommittee and that's an opportunity for that subcommittee to learn about our project before our preferred report goes to the full msba board in October so it's a it's a bit of a information gathering opportunity for that for that msba subcommittee um curriculum and instruction uh mcast uh results were released today uh we had embargoed access to the beginning beginning last week uh we've already begun the task of digging into um district and school results families will get individual reports sometime in October uh typically we report we bring an mcast report to the school committee uh which we would be prepared to do at your next meeting if it is of interest and and I'd add that if there's anything particular that you would like us to look at with regard to those achievement and accountability results uh let us know and we'll be sure to tailor a report to your needs and interests uh and we're uh as mentioned many times before we're really off and running with um CA the the new Elementary literacy curriculum uh be Nelson is thinking about ways to sort of augment uh the implementation there's some grants that are available to us from the uh governor's office that we're looking at and then some professional development opportunities uh for the leadership teams as well uh title grants uh have been received title one two and four and uh as we projected during budget season title one came in about $137,000 less than fy4 we've already accounted for that obviously during the development of the budget um ruler implementation I give you some information on that uh K8 schools uh in classrooms are utilizing uh the ruler Charter tool it's it's a way to develop some shared agreements at the classroom and school level so we're excited about that um substance use uh lessons are being revised and ultimately implemented in our K5 classrooms consistent with what is what is required uh special education uh new IEP uh is is we're of and running with that um professional development is ongoing I'd mentioned to the committee that um sometime in February we will experience a Desi Review called an integrated uh monitoring review it's essentially an audit of our special education practices so um as that's ongoing we we'll keep you updated and obviously share the results of that with you uh when they become available probably next year uh technology uh shout out to our Tech director Antonio Pagan and his team for uh installing a new firewall and um it's a great additional protection for uh for the network and for our users uh and I may have mentioned at your last meeting that we are also moving towards the implementation of securely classroom uh it's a tool that will allow classroom teachers to Monitor and manage kids Chromebook use so we're excited about that it'll take some time to to implement that and there are layers and layers of tools that we can Implement over probably a few years uh but it would give teachers sort of a a thumbnail View view of uh students Chromebooks and they can manage the sites that kids are on really efficiently so um that is coming soon to a classroom near you I guess um couple of dates uh Center School playground ribbon cutting was schedule for Thursday we had to move it to October 8th October 8th for the Center School playground ribbon cutting wolp swamp they are in the process of Hydro Seating and cleaning up the perimeter of the playground but it appears like it will be released next week is that fair to say um so we're excited about that we'll also do a ribbon cutting at Wolf Swamp at some point um so grateful to the committee for spearheading and and helping lead that initiative to get the new playgrounds at each of our elementary schools uh great project awesome Endeavor um concert season coming up LHS uh chamber concert on the 22nd and if you're available uh school committee we'd love to have you at the leaf Awards uh ceremony it will be held on the 24th October 24th at LHS at 3:30 so um if you're able to you can mark your calendars we'd love to have you there it's a great celebration of all the creative projects that leaf um energizes and fuels and funds so um a lot there but happy to answer any questions that you might have all right other administrative reports a question yep I was just curious I was looking over the dates there's no school October 3rd and it says rashash Shana is that for rashash Shana rashishana yes it's on it's on rash that's on Thursday the 3 that right yeah and there's no school on October 14th um that is Columbus Day indigenous people's day okay yeah I was just curious because there would be school on Yom kapor then no if it falls on a school day when it's recognized I thought it was the 11th I'm assuming it's Sundown on Friday that the that the that the observance begins but we we can you're right it is double check us on that if that's okay okay I just wanted to make sure cuz I was like yeah two days later than okay mind I apologize no no we always want to get that right so thanks for thanks for double checking on that and our chair had to step out so yeah uh any other questions rep all right student representative report Andrew is not here so no student representative report um L pbec uh no report thank you yeah seal or energy and sustainability sorry um nothing other than we have a meeting on October 10th wonderful seal yes what the next meeting for seal is on October 16th and it's going to be a presentation you can come in person here in the special ed office um or you can come on zoom and it's going to be a presentation with Dr OA about the Middle School building project and the district Improvement plan and um how it relates to special education all right wonderful thank you uh subcommittee reports no report from Finance um policy sub update we back to you policies J iie and acab are posted to the district's website to solicit public input they will come back to the committee for approval during your meeting on October 22nd 2024 all right great we have no other subcommittee reports and no ongoing business which brings us to our new business talking about English language Learners he's going this isari uh as um so n RAR is our director of student and family support and uh she has she might be making our way and there she is all right welcome uh n I'm going to pull up your slide down welcome go so uh a familiar a familiar face by now to the committee in the community Nilda rosar is our director of student family support and uh Nilda has uh been a great leader of English language learner Services um and uh it was really one of the one of the goals of our central office reorganization uh and when the office of student and family support was created was to ensure that we were uh equitably and adequately and appropriately serving uh English language Learners and uh so we have um like many communities uh experienced an increase in students need needing uh English language learner services and nild is here to talk us talk to us about that tonight uh we have a recommendation for you but it's also an opportunity just to maybe step back and take a broader look at how we support the increasingly diverse needs of the LPS community so uh thanks for joining us Nilda thank you so I'm Nilda Rari the director of student and family support this is one of my favorite topics um to talk about especially because it's so personally connected with my identity and who I am I um was raised with two Spanish-speaking parents did not speak English and through targeted support through Springfield Public Schools I was able to gain Proficiency in early Elementary years and then obviously go on to graduate from Columbia University I'm not bragging but it's it's the American dream it's the American story so I'm really proud of that and that's something that I hope for every child that through that structured and targeted support they can um continue to excel in Long Meadow Public Schools um this program has really been bolstered by Janine Preston who was our elll coordinator she's established the program she supported our elll instructors we have three total teachers but Janine has been the lead in getting students scheduled in providing the teachers the support they need the professional development and ensuring that our families feel welcome once they arrive um so one of the slides talks a little bit about our growing diversity and this slide certainly does not reflect all of the diversity that exists here in Long Meadow um so we've seen an increase in our Hispanic and Asian enrollment over the past 10 years and we know that the Asian percentage doesn't reflect all of the countries all of the languages that are within that 10.5% currently Long Meadow is higher than the state average for um Asian student enrollment um the state average is about 7.4 we're at 10.5 um and then we've seen our Hispanic enrollment increase as well so we know that um we believe um that diversity is an asset I think the school committee and Dr OA are always supporting things that are related to diversity and Equity um so this is exciting to me and it should be exciting um for all of you to see that we have families that are moving to Long Meadow um that continue to see our schools as a great opportunity for their families um so as of June and I put June here but really it was August um through September and Diane is here and she helps register some of our students so she can attest to the influx that we saw this summer so we had 11 new students identified for elll testing and support these 11 new students do not represent different families they might be a few students from the same family um but with these 11 incoming students we notice that there is now a need at our elementary level specifically at Blueberry Hill and Wolf Swamp Road because students entered with emerging proficiency so when they enter with emerging proficiency that means that they not only need their classroom teacher who's offering high quality instruction we follow the sheltered English immersion um model where language instruction is happening all the time for all kids our teachers are culturally proficient they are um teaching Linguistics in many different ways we are using cka which helps and they have an aspect of it that's essential for English language Learners um but it doesn't negate that these emerging proficient students still need targeted support that targeted support looks sometimes like one-on-one targeted support or a small group where an elll teacher who is certified to do this will pull them aside and then give them some targeted instruction um so that they could accelerate the best part about our English language instruction is that our students do show um proficiency increases within 3 to 5 years so the majority of these students that enter with emerging proficiency leave um proficient and no longer need the elll support so we're doing what we need to do to support our students we have 41 students across the district that need um elll support and that could look differently depending on the student profile um and then we still are required to monitor formally limited English proficiency students so that means they've tested out of elll services but it's still our responsibility to monitor how they're doing in their coursework um that includes connecting with their teachers offering any interventions if needed looking at their academic grades and seeing like are they doing well even though they tested out of this targeted support we're not going to just let them um flounder and struggle we're going to ensure that they're still successful without that structured support um the languages that are spoken I just um decided to type them in just so you can get an idea of um the diversity that we we have when families register to enroll students they identify their home language and I took these from our home language surveys the ones that most recently came in um and that is something that you know all Long Meadow parents and families should celebrate that they have this level of diversity in their classes their their children I'm sure are going home with different experiences different cultures different stories um so it benefits us all to have this level of diversity I just wanted to speak to the levels of proficiency and how that equates to Staffing um for students so if they enter at an an entering level or emerging level they that means their access level their English proficiency they score it at a level one to a 2.5 and the state recommends how many hours of targeted ell instruction um they should get so that equates to about 2 hours and 15 minutes of elll instruction that's what's recommended as best practice not necessarily regulated and it may look different it may look like a morning 30 minutes for literacy and then an afternoon um targeted support in some kind of like sentence writing it could be um going over common idioms with students that need additional expertise or additional practice um but that they would get in totality approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes so that one student throughout the school day could be with that one teacher several times throughout a day um and then the hours decrease with your developing proficiency and you would be more and more with your classroom teacher or with your content Area Teachers if you're at the middle level or in your subject area courses if you're at the high school um and I just wanted to emphasize again again our our teachers are um some of the most amazing teachers I've seen they all support English language Learners whether they need the targeted support or not so here are just some quick things that they do one is developing language support throughout the the classroom they may have a word wall in their classroom that's related to scientific Concepts it may be related to art Concepts and they leave those words on the wall so that students can continue to learn learn and grow um we believe in inclusion development uh mentally appropriate supports and assessment our practices are all research based um in Long Meadow we don't purchase a curriculum unless it's evidence-based and um specifically the CK and bridges have already been targeted for helping elll students um we follow the compliance with desie standards so we routinely adjust our protocols and practices to ensure that students are getting the targeted hours that they need and then we collaborate closely so the elll Educators work with the classroom teacher connect with the families and then we ensure we have um everyone included on the student support plan and then our program does have positive outcomes and reviews we are going to receive a visit from the state in December um they're coming to check in on our program and ensure that um students are growing and accelerating and I'm really proud of the program and I'm sure they're going to be pleased um this slide it it is complicated but what I was trying to show is that if we have 11 students that enter our district no one student is the same so it's similar to um looking at every student as if they have an individualized learning plan so student a um this is just an example they have entering proficiency emerging proficiency they are going to need 90 minutes of targeted language instruction when it's time for literacy and reading you may have the elll teacher there sort of coaching and guiding as that student moves through the lesson there's structured groups um there's ongoing Family Partnership and engagement does the family need a translator at the meeting does the family need additional Services outside of school tutoring outside all those things are things that we think about and connect family is with to ensure that they're getting everything they need um student B is now developing we may offer push and support during writing instruction maybe they're already aware of the speaking and listening component to language but now they need some support because not all English is spelled phonetically some of it is you know very different so now this student is going to develop some targeted writing support um and we're going to continue to work with the family and our goal for student B is now to decrease scaffolds and Foster Independence give them the confidence you could do this and sort of shift to that next level student C now is at reaching which means the state said you've acquired enough English language proficiency you don't you no longer need that targeted elll instruction but we're still going to monitor your progress we're going to ensure that the elll teacher commits to a few classroom observations you if you need structured support you are provided it and if content Area Teachers have questions about your progress they might be collaborating with the elll teacher to develop some strategies to promote your success um So currently we have three El teachers and our need is much higher now that we have students that entered at student A's level um so we need more of that targeted support and more of that push in support and one piece that I would love to continue um to do is to support the student Seas we have a larger group of students that have um tested out and long Meadow's um academic program is very rigorous and I know these students are very capable and they could do the work they just need a little bit more of that targeted support and I just want to say that this is not a temporary support um it in a lot of ways it feels temporary but I do think the growing diversity is going to be something that we're going to have to reconcile with will always be here I think L Meadow has many families that move in from Springfield College like professors that are living in town Doctors medical professionals Educators and these communities find Long Meadow to be a great place to raise a family so I imagine that's something that's going to always stay um and then again this is something that um I found and just certain things that I think about as a language learner like if something's a piece of cake imagine explaining that to um a student like why is that a piece of cake and like going over how that came to be I'm going to hit the books please don't add fuel to the fire um it's time to break the ice you don't want to miss the boat and um it's time to hit the sack so all of these little phrases that we know are common in the English language but just imagine a student in elementary School hearing all these phrases and thinking like can somebody just stop and explain this to me um so that that's part of the targeted language support and then we have a language Rich learning environment I uh typed up some of the words that teachers use all the time like it's time to analyze synthesize develop uh collaborate work together all those like school specific words that are really really hard to understand but commonly used in order to be a good student on any given day and then the last um slide I just thought this was an education week it says that learning how to teach multilingual Learners makes better teachers because they learn how to diversify their strategies and they learn how to reach the needs of all kids and they don't rely on just auditory teaching they rely on Multi multiple modalities and couldn't all students benefit from something like that thank you um so um the the the service Gap that that Nilda has described is one that we really need to address um our recommendation tonight would be to um add an additional either halftime elll teacher certified unit a teacher uh or the sort of an equivalent budgetary uh commitment would be a a full-time academic tutor um so uh the solution to this service Gap really depends on what the applicant pool looks like um if we went the root of the academic tutor then that person would be deployed more towards doing some of the monitoring and observation work that Nilda talked about if we had the elll instructor the halftime elll instructor they they obviously would be more engaged in direct uh elll instruction so um that's for your consideration tonight uh and Mr Ma I'm certain could EXP explain the the budgetary implications for us so uh happy to answer any questions about the the the service Gap that we've identify that we want to fill and or anything about um supporting elll students in general I thought they'll did a great job so happy to answer any questions you have or I have one question um is it still to get certified as an elll teacher in Massachusetts do you just have to pass the mtel or is there more to it now uh for our you would pass the mtel and be certified and the tel yeah just oh did you have another no no no go ahead um you know we we talk about the you know likelihood that we are going to have continuing and in and hopefully increasing needs you know with this program um you know talking about the budgeting you know we hear the recommendation for um you know a halftime instructor or or a full-time um full-time tutor you know is that really just to cover things now or is that looking to for expansion to be able to handle future needs of the district or are we thinking that there would be you know further um Staffing requirements needed in the future so I I think that addresses Who We Are currently and our current needs um and then we won't necessarily know because typically we make um Staffing requests based on projections um and last year when we came with Staffing projections we certainly did not think we would have 11 um new students over the summer that would need additional elll services so this is a very hard thing to um staff for because it essentially is a moving Target could we always use use elll support I would say yes budgetary wise I don't know if that's phisically um uh manageable but I do think the 05 is to manage what we currently have especially that need at the elementary level and that need will stay there because they there's no way they're going to be you know we have an entering proficiency student um we currently have four total um at Wolf Swamp and one at Blueberry it's not like if we get a0 five magically they're going to be at reach we hope um we're able to quickly do that but typically it takes 3 to five years for them to be able to acquire enough English proficiency to be able to work independently without that targeted support um so I do think that 0.5 helps service who we currently have in our schools yeah I mean I think Nilda did a nice job summarizing that I think it's for the needs we know of today yeah and again when we built this budget back in the winter of last year we had no idea I mean even in June we didn't know this need was going to exist so it's hard to say exactly by the end of the year will where we will be and what our needs will be we're hopeful um that with the 0 five or the support position it can support the students I think the applicant pool might determine which direction we have to go with with the school you're already starting a five position you know I'm not sure what kind of candidates will be out there to fill that portion of a position if you if you did that full-time tutor how would you cover the elementary needs you would those like emerging Learners would you shift services or yeah I think we'd probably have to make some decisions about Staffing and you know putting the available resources where they're most needed so the the tutoring resource would probably be committed to the students who are just need the observation um some of them are at the elementary level but it is a um it's a bit of a Rubik's Cube trying to put together uh arrange schedules uh for students who are stretched out over four buildings so yeah I'm just wondering like are they is it totally interchangeable like if you hire the academic tutor you just kind of Shuffle things then the elementary emerging needs are covered or is it like we get the tutor and that would help be helpful but next year we'd still need we'd still need somebody to cover those Elementary School would we you know try to hire on like a normal cycle for the El for the for the 25 26 school year would we be in a place where we'd want to hire a full-time again I think it really depends on you know the enrollment patterns and and what we need I think we we try to develop Staffing that's related to the needs uh you know do we anticipate that need will grow in this area my crystal ball would say yes um but where it's going to grow and when it's going to when that's going to surface is hard to see yeah I know I know we can't predict whether it it'll grow I'm just trying to get a sense of like whether they're truly equivalent in terms of like if you get what you can take if you take what you can get with the academic tutor is still not quite going to fill the need because we can't Shuffle yeah that much round can we ask you that unfair question it I would prefer the elll tutor um to offer that targeted support oh sorry the elll teacher that could offer the targeted language learning support um because they would be certified and and best equipped to support but the full-time um position you may get more candidates so it is challenging but the need really is the um English language learner teacher to support the elementary students that are at emerging proficiency and Julie I think we're putting forward both options in case we're not successful in hiring the candidate as a certified teacher we have the tutor as a fallback without having to come back and delay the process even longer our thought was if we could post both positions kind of as anticipated openings see what kind of candidates we get and then proceed based on what works best for us if we have a candidate that fits the certified five position then we would want to move in that direction but if not it allows us to move quickly with at least some support and then figuring out schedules and where they're best could be utilized yeah that makes sense I'm just trying to understand like if they're not an equivalency like there's a possibility that we could try the academic tutor and find we still have the same need even with even without adding to the number of elll kids we could come back the next year and be like we still still need the elll teaching support which is I'm not arguing against yeah yeah in which case we probably would pull back on the academic tutor position right right that makes sense right since Jamie's not here what are we looking at for the numbers I mean that's always it always depends on where we hire somebody so knowing that you know by the time we post it and hire somebody you're you're going to miss 20% of the school year give or take um you know you're with a 05 position you're probably looking at somewhere between 30 to $40,000 so and again a tutor would be less even at a 1.0 position because of their salary schedule is different than our uh certified teach Unit A positions okay we know there's so much money in the budget so tutors aren't certified at all to teach they um Sometimes they come to us as certified teachers it might be someone looking to you know essentially break into long metal Public Schools but it's not a requirement of the position and I just want to be um mindful that when we do talk budgetary like constraints that we are like if just in case we have any of our families that are tuning in I want them to know that obviously we are always interested in supporting targeted student needs like we wouldn't say to a student who needed a ramp like do we have money for the ramp this year um so I just don't want anyone listening to think that we're um we're just we're definitely seeing the need and and that's why we're are here today to make sure that they get the support that they need well like we we have legal requirements to support El students right it's almost like not a not a choice in the way that some other things are choice right it and it's and it's a service area that's receiving more scrutiny as as Nilda mentioned um it will be part of our the Desi audit that I referred to earlier there's actually a civil rights component to it uh as well and so we'll need to be sure that we're appropriately staffed and appropriately serving kids yeah yeah I don't I don't think anybody here is saying that they don't want to support or like add a we just want to find out what the the best way to move forward is and and seeing this as something that we may have to revisit in the future yeah definitely yeah that's why I was thinking like oh if a tutor came in it's so easy you can just take the mtel and become certified that's what I did so you know if they were already certified to teach then they just have to go take that one test and then they have the certification we've had folks that have started with us as academic tutors and and they're working their way towards certification and they're acquiring the PD that they need to become a certified teacher yeah that happens yeah and that's something we could certainly do like help certify help support y yeah that's a great idea but at this time it seems like because we don't know who's going to be out there that we should move forward in both directions in the hope that we can support this in any way we can MH okay and I I'll be honest with you just a personal note um I was a special ed teacher and I wouldn't have thought to become an elll teacher it wasn't like something I started and thought I would do and I somebody was like oh I think you should go get this certification and I did it and switched positions and I really loved it so I think it's great if you could get the best candidate and then help them train them and like taking the mtel you know you could get all the information you really need if you pass that test you'll have all that information you need to really give that targeted instruction thank you I did not know that about you that's wonderful yep so our chair is in here oh so now we're moving on to Transportation uh well we would need a um a motion and it's not on here we didn't uh we didn't provide the verbiage suggested verbiage but it would be to to uh Tom's always helpful with this yeah I mean so it would be um Mo a motion to approve the addition of a05 eell teacher or equivalent 1.0 support staff position to the 2425 budget did anybody get enough of that I can try it I think you can say Dian in I moved to what was it uh of yeah the school committee approved the addition of a .5 elll uh teaching position or okay I move to approve the addition addition of a 05 elll teaching position teaching position or the equivalent of a 1.0 support staff position to the 2425 school budget the equivalent of I don't know why I can't do this the equivalent of a 1.0 um what was it support staff position to the 2425 school budget okay we have motion do we have all right Julie yes Zach yes yay yes for me too thank you next one okay now Transportation Transportation yes all right thank you so much thank you thank you uh so this next item is uh informational and doesn't require any action necessarily on the part of the school committee but uh you know this year there's I'd say in many communities a greater focus on um transportation um like many communities we've experienced some scheduling challenges largely due to a bus driver shortage at the lpbc and and again probably a nationwide shortage uh in fact there there's been some discussion with some lpvc districts um with the governor's office on on trying to provide some relief in this area so uh so for that reason for you know the some of the discussions relating to our middle school project and even I'd say what we are at least anecdotally could point to sort of new home to school commuting habits um that maybe have Arisen since since co uh and so so you know given this we thought it might be helpful to just share some of the the busing Basics with the uh school committee and so there's a a document in your uh in your packet that um provide some background for you and it explains um the students at at which school which schools are eligible and which grade levels are eligible for uh fee based transportation and where uh free transportation is available to students so you'll see that um students who live more than two miles away from school and are in grades K to six are eligible for free transportation and again tonight we're only talking about regular education Transportation this is not meant to be a a discussion of preschool Transportation or special ed transportation or metco Transportation so this chart sort of breaks it down and and uh I'll I won't go through every detail here but you'll see um what the how many students access fee based transportation in grades K through six and how many uh access fee based transportation in grade 7 through 12 um and then even students in grade 7 through 12 are are eligible for fee based Transportation if they live more than 2 miles um so some sort of basic additional information for your consideration uh annually we have about 275 to 300 students who are registered for bus transportation and I use the word registered intentionally there um this is not to say that every day 275 or 300 students ride the bus but that's simply the number that is registered um we have obviously as I mentioned transportation services are provided by our educational collabor uh Tom works with the collaborative to design routs that mainly run and stop on on Main arteries for efficiency purposes uh the the increasing costs associated with Transportation I think have been well documented and and even reflected in our budget uh this year we with the lpvc we have rolled out the my ride K12 app it allows parents to uh track uh their children's bus so that they know uh if the bus is running late or arriving early and um we're not a community that is uh dependent on regular education busing we only run uh contract for four buses regular education buses with the with the collaborative um speaking with the hamon wilam superintendent earlier today and I think there're somewhere around 38 buses to serve a comparably a comparable size District so we're fortunate that we have an infrastructure of roads and sidewalks and crossing guards that allow for uh commuting to and from school we have two tiers uh the first tier runs to serve long M High three buses uh serve the students who access fee based busing at LHS and then at the second tier we have buses that serve Williams Glenbrook and Wolf Swamp there are no buses that serve Center no regular Ed buses that serve Center and blueberry uh and um each bus that's added to the fleet in Long Meadow is uh cost $72,000 in change uh and that's reflected in the FY 25 budget uh Tom works with families to collect those fees and establish weight list if needed uh we do provide relief to families uh with uh with financial challenges if if the fee is a is a a problem for them so we just wanted to kind of get this information out there as sort of Baseline information our sense is that the committee might want to to take up uh some discussions on uh busing you know if not now perhaps some point in the future particularly as we look forward to a new uh Middle School potentially uh in a few years so uh for your for your information and your consideration if you have any questions we'll do our best to uh provide answers or if there's additional information that you're interested in we certainly can gather that and bring back to you at a future meeting so uh for your for your discussion and information only any questions or comments um I know we heard from some parents early in the year about buses arriving late like how much has that tapered off speak to that or is it not tapering off no I I I think it's gotten a bit better especially in the morning I think the new app is helpful I think the shortage that um with drivers that the collaborative is is still dealing with um is causes that problem so I don't think it's as bad especially as it was in the first week or so of school I do think it's kind of helped settle down a little bit um with new drivers understanding The Roots You Know students riding for the first time it does I think the first two weeks of every school year are always challenging with many factors busing just being one of them so I think it's gotten better um I know in the afternoon we also had a lot of issues last school year with the buses being running late specifically on the same route which caused some some issues for families so hopefully the app will at least keep them informed and that was some of the challenge people didn't know whether the bus was coming or not or when it was coming to make other arrangements so hopefully the app at least will improve on the communication between the collaborative and and families any other questions all right thanks all right y appreciate your time on that so we have no executive session so we have one last recommended motion I move the school committee adjourned on September 24th 24 School commit we have a motion do we have a second Julie yes Zach yes Adam yay yes for me as well thank you everybody