##VIDEO ID:AKuO0L1xNmI## 4 3 2 1 good evening and welcome to the Tuesday August 20th 2024 meeting of the Long Meadow 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 by lctv and aired live we we'll begin with pledge of allegiance of Al to the flag of the United States of America to the repblic for it stands one nation godible liy and justice for all all right we will begin with correspondence the following correspondence will be recorded a letter from Mr Bill my of Long Meadow volunteers received on July 22nd 2024 asking for assistance from all stakeholders in keeping the school grounds clean an email from Miss Elizabeth Morgan dated August 15 2024 seeking interest from the school committee to speak at the long medal Pride event on September 15 all right thank you uh moving forward to approval of of minutes we have a motion I move that the school committee approve the minutes to the July 16th 2024 school committee meeting as presented we have a motion do we we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote kichaa Yes Jamie yes Zach yes and yes for me as well all right public speak we do not have any folks here in person and I do not see anyone online all right um we have no business with guests we're moving on then to um school committee announcements and recognitions um first up just a um quick note of appreciation to all of the folks who have worked on their schools throughout the summer um so everyone who's been able to pitch in on curriculum on building maintenance on playgrounds um there have been a lot of projects going on over the summer um to get ready for the new school year so a big thank you to all of our Educators to all of our um administrators to all of our building staff and also to all the community members who were able to pitch in as well um we're looking forward to getting started next week and appreciate the work that everyone has done to make that happen um next up a note on the appointment to the school committee um as a reminder we have a vacancy on the committee right now and are looking to fill that um so anyone who is interested in being appointed to the school committee um for a term that will run through June of 2025 um should submit a letter of interest and resume to the school committee and select board via email um by no later than Monday September 9th um more information on that is is also available on the longmeadow.org front page um if you scroll down towards the bottom you can see um detailed information on how to do that there interviews for um all interested candidates will be held on Monday September 16th um with an appointment happening on Tuesday September 24th um so if you are interested please reach out via email with a letter of interest and a resume by no later than September 9th that's all for me I'll turn over to any other school committee announcements or recognitions Jamie yep just one uh arleene Miller put together a pizza party for all the custodial staff last week um she amazing job uh during this event and there's a host of other people that I I failed to you know I know arene was the one leading the charge on it so call her out by name but there was many others who helped uh it was a very wonderful event about an hour um where everybody just got their chance to appreciate the staff at climber wonderful thank you any others all right seeing none we're moving on to other reports superintendent sure uh few items for you tonight um we are I think at this time of year we we turn our attention uh to the Readiness uh for opening and we are well positioned um sort of two things that we pay close attention to is facility Readiness and uh hiring and so I'd say we're generally in a better place uh with hiring than we've been in recent years so that that's helpful we still have about about five vacancies uh in the PA professional ranks that we're we're working actively to fill but we have some good candidates and we think that we'll be nearly fully staffed in that area as we start the year uh we do need an athletic trainer um and that is something that we'll have to um send some communication to families out on that if we're not able to identify uh a trainer and if we have to rely on EMT Services we'll want to put families fully on notice um we we will by all means meet the um statutory requirements for coverage of athletic events but um we're we're working hard our athletic director High School principal Mr MAA they working hard to identify a good candidate uh for for that position uh but we'll be sure to communicate to families where we stand on that and what they can expect or not expect uh if we don't have a trainer in place um and we'll keep the school committee posted on that as well so hiring uh generally in good shape um facility wise um to Echo what uh our chair reported thanks to everyone that works throughout the year to prepare classrooms and offices and the tech staff that stodal staff the maintenance staff or clerical staff and then so many teachers are in their classrooms throughout the year the the most recent facility challenge as this committee knows is was at Wolf Swamp and we experienced um some really high active humidity at Wolf Swamp it created um some mold in the ceiling cavity along a chiller pipe and we responded uh swiftly to that there were really four entities that were involved in the response it was our own DPW team uh abide is an abatement company that joined us uh an industrial hygienist a firm called Atlas uh was involved and then our DPW team also called in Mass dph to sort of inspect our uh progress and plan to address that so spaces uh continue to be cleaned and remediated but uh it was safe to uh staff was able to safely occupy the building on Monday still some carpet cleaning uh to be done uh that that we kind of work around but uh we're in good shape at Wolf Swamp and we feel like um we'll be ready to go for the kids the other facility issue is the playgrounds um some unanticipated delays there uh some related to the um to the contractor and subcontractor and their schedules some relating to weather some relating to some missing parts that particularly is the issue at at Wolf Swamp so we're hoping to um pour the final surface at Blueberry uh tomorrow morning at least that's the most recent report so after that surface cures blueberry will be ready to go for the first day of school uh a week from today uh Center School just learned just before the meeting that the poring of that surface will likely get delayed until uh for another week or two and then Wolf Swamp is behind that because they're waiting on a a critical part so uh project is um like all things that you try to plan out and many construction projects nowadays uh didn't go exactly the way we had hoped but uh Town manager's office the DPW they are staying on top of the contractors as best they can and the subcontractors and so uh when they are complete we'll be sure to have some events at each School to acknowledge All The Advocates on this project and and also the town officials and town committees uh we'll be sure to invite them to some opening events as well so um we're excited to get the playgrounds up and running but uh we're still working through the final stages there um and other than that um the other things that are sort of occupying our time is making sure that we have um gone through all the Chromebooks um yeah to make sure that those are ready for redistribution to the students as early as possible as well so uh Tech staff is working hard on that so we're we're in good shape um and um a lot of thanks to our custodia crew maintenance group for doing all the work they do throughout the summer to get the spaces ready so happy to answer any questions you might have on any of those things all right thank you have one question sure um will the kids at Center and will swamp be able to still go outside for recess or will it be like a construction zone yeah that's a great great question um so Wolf Swamp we're fortunate that it's spacious and there'll be plenty of uh Room For Recess there Center School same thing they'll be able to have their recess but they might have to contain it uh to the hard top or even to the front of the school so we're actually meeting with um principal Hutton tomorrow morning with DBW just to kind of plot that out uh just to see what areas we can uh fence off from the constru ruction area so the kids can safely have recess it might um the you know Center School anyone who has been to Center school's opening day knows that it's quite a community event out on the playground where they welcome kids and families so we we'll have to sort of we'll still be able to welcome families and kids in the way we have in the past but we might have to sort of change the location of that entry on the first day of school so that's something that principal Hutton's working on as we speak I would imagine so yeah all right thank you all right all right so moving on then other administrative reports um just briefly we are hoping to have the bus routes and passes mailed tomorrow um working with lpve they are introducing the my ride K12 which is a parent communication app to provide parents with um estimated arrival and departure time time so that they kind of have a a better window of where and when their student will be home and what time they'll be dropped off if they're running late so it is scheduled to roll out we will be attaching information to the uh letter that goes out informing them of the bus stop and times and then the information on the app and how to access it so hopefully that will improve communication especially with uh the challenges with Staffing with drivers and bus is being late getting to the schools in the afternoon all right great thank you you're welcome um any update from our student representative yeah just a couple things um so fall Sports began yesterday so good luck to all of our fall Sports athletes um and then on Friday the 17th so last Friday all students at LHS received their courses and schedules for um the year and they can now meet with counselers to resolve any sort of schedule conflicts I know Mr Rosemont sent out um a signup genius link so hopefully if you haven't done that yet there should still be some availability for tomorrow and then on Monday the 26th is our new student orientation all right wonderful thank you Andrew um other reports um lpvc energy and sustainability or seal any reports from those oh I have a report yep go for um on September 7th there's going to be a back to school meet and greet at Bliss park with all the seal members and Nicole Paris Crow is going to be there I'll be there and it's from 10 to 12 did I see that already yeah all right wonderful thank you any um update from lpvc Zach they start again in September no update all right great thank you all right subcommittee reports um we have no report from Finance um policy sub is meeting next week on the 26th and curriculum sub met on Thursday August 15th Michaela can you take that one yeah so we met last week and Nilda aari presented to us about the new state Frameworks for health and wellness and she really discussed how thoughtful and collaboratively um the staff here and took the new information from the state and has looked it over and worked together to um update the curriculum and she's going to present to us all later at some point in the fall right wonderful thank you uh no report from evaluation sub and we are on to ongoing business Middle School building project Dr certainly uh it has been a busy summer uh for the building project and the and the um our design team and our administrators who are involved in the project and so it might be helpful just uh take this opportunity to update the committee and the community on a few things so um so this is our uh our project schedule you'll see uh that we are really in the middle of a long road and there's some uh sort of dense milestones in the middle of this of this journey and we are uh We've sort of gone through in May and June we uh submitted a preliminary design program to the msba and that that was essentially just to identify what some of the design options would be and you'll see that the current arrow is approaching the time where we will submit uh this is a major Milestone a preferred schematic report to the msba um the plan tentatively is to submit that preferred schematic report to the msba on August 29th following a building committee meeting uh next week and so with that preferred schematic report uh the building committee will identify a preferred design option that will be Advanced to uh a full schematic design and so it's an exciting uh place that we're at um recent activity has included a a Butters meeting on August 15 2024 it was uh well attended we had not opportun to talk about the site selection process uh a variety of traffic mitigation strategies uh that we are uh considering an opportunity to take in some input from the abutters as well and and heard their perspectives and their concerns uh we also didn't really get too much into this but we were prepared to talk about the sort of overall option for design and the aesthetic and how we can create a building that complements uh the community and the neighborhood and uh really the sort of the the massing of the building will will be an important factor in making sure that we come up with a design that is suitable for for the preferred site the preferred site uh identified by the building committee has been the Williams Middle School site candidly the abutters brought us um some concerns about uh about traffic and uh the impacts to to the to the to the neighborhood um we will continue to to listen and gather their perspectives I think uh one of the ideas that came out of that meeting that seemed to gather some momentum was having uh in a Butters working group that would sort of be a standing group that would work in an advisory capacity to the building committee so I thought that was a great idea and just a way for us to continue the the communication Loop between us and the butters uh the site has been identified through a through a preliminary traffic study as as a feasible site uh that's just a sort of preliminary traffic study a more detailed study would have to um take place at during the schematic design phase uh so we'll continue to uh stay engaged with our with our neighbors there and make sure that we're doing our best to address any concerns that that rise uh the design team is very sort of behind the scenes but actively studying existing conditions at the Williams site and that includes uh the assessment of existing utilities and what the requirements might be and so uh studying everything from fire hydrants to storm water requirements uh sanitation requirements and whatever electrical service might be required at that site as we go go forward um and certainly with uh turning this into sort of a highly energy efficient building uh the services that the electrical service at least that is extended to that site would have to be uh would have to be addressed all things these are all things that can be incorporated into the overall project budget uh and then the design team are Architects at jwa are working with their Consultants to um identify cost estimates of this preferred schematic design options and the the uh the preferred the options that are being studied further for cost estimates are those that are here the a basic base repair at each site the msba requires that information they want to know what a base repair would cost at the Glenbrook site and what it would cost at the Williams site keep in mind those first two bullets would only be schools for um 345 students I think it is so um the building committee really has um you know has set those aside as potential options because they're it's not a solution that would incorporate all the students all of our middle school middle school students uh the we're also uh coming up with cost estimates for an addition renovation at the WMS site and then new construction at the WMS site the sort of three of the one of the variables rather that is that will influence the ultimate costs if the if we chose to go with a new construction would be whether or not we opt for an auditorium a cafetorium or a gymnatorium and so that's something that these are all things that the building committee will learn more about at its meeting on August 27th um so yeah next steps is that at August 27th meeting and some of the things that are lined up for the agenda include a report out on the abutters meeting an update on the site investigation uh a review of those cost estimates and potentially the building committee could vote to uh potentially select a preferred schematic design and submit that to the msba uh based on the information that they receive on the 27th so uh it's an important meeting it's an important stage that we're at um I can pause there I can show you just some of the early early uh designs uh associated with each of the options that we're studying but I don't know if anybody has any questions to this point questions as of them I can't see that let's see NOP n not see any there so again a listing of the preliminary design options that we are um developing cost estimates for um are listed here and then again um just some of the what it potentially could look like this is potentially what the footprint of an ad Reno could look like you'll see that um anything boxed in the dash lines would be new construction but you'd see that here in the in the sort of upper part of the building there would be an attempt to save uh the auditorium in the stage and some of the peripheral spaces there in um in most of the cafeteria as well so that's the sort of a rough look at what the an ad Reno option would look like at the Williams site for 665 kids the design that seems to be um Gathering the most attention is what we're calling a curved spine uh part of the thought here is that it would be an optimal design for the shape of the site but it would also be an optimal design for uh natural daylighting and Energy Efficiency and what what is seen here is what the um what that footprint would look like with a with an auditorium a new Williams with a with a new Auditorium this is a a new Williams with a cafetorium you can see that it's a it's a somewhat more compacted footprint um and again this I think we just need to do some additional study on the advantages disadvantages and the costs associated with cafeteria versus Auditorium versus gymnatorium to the right you see um on the right hand side would be level two so this would be a a a two-story uh middle school and then just a real high level look at what the uh site might look like with each of the uh design options here and so this is the the curve this is how potentially the curv spine option with the auditorium would sit on the site I show this because the the roadways that we are uh that the design team is uh studying and developing options for provide us some options really to mitigate some of the traffic concerns that we've heard you know the the the length of the roadway the number of cars that we can cue the length of the load and unload Zone the separation of staff parking from the car line and the separation of those two things from the bus from the bus loop as well which potentially is at the uh at the south side of uh this site here so again you know all of the the eventual design of the roadways you know really needs the full attention of the design team we need uh feedback from a Butters from from Long Meadow police fire and DPW we've been actively involved with them as well one of the requirements of Public Safety is to make sure that there's sort of 360 degree access to the site and so the design team is coming up with some options in response to that we'll we'll have we have a a a meeting in early September with uh police fire and DPW and the design team where hopefully we have an opportunity just to literally sit around a table with uh you know big maps of the of the campus to really start to think about how traffic will will move uh in and around and off the campus this the curved spine with the cafetorium again just I'll go sort of back and forth you can see it's a slight more compact design but overall it's situated on the site in a similar way and then the curve spine with the gymatorium so um the building committee will dive you know fully into these options at its meeting on the 27th and hopefully have some really robust discussions about what the what the best preferred solution is for us so um appreciate your your your time on that and uh look forward to updating the committee uh at the conclusion of the um the building committee's meeting on 27th so all right questions Andor comments from folks it's just two questions I'm going to come to the building committee meeting VES um the road uh Williams If there has there been any discussion and taking part of that road to help with the traffic flow um within there I'm talking actually on Williams going this way yes there there has been discussions about kind of opening up a turn lane yeah and that needs to be more fully studied and really understand what the impact of that would be on the neighborhood but yeah would allow some additional cars to queue up as they turn onto the campus and then not Brock the flow cuz you're going to double probably double the traffic there right my my quick uh my high level summary of This is is really that that double the double the enrollment doesn't necessarily have to mean double the traffic in other words you know there's so many elements that can be designed into this campus and around the campus to make sure that we're moving traffic uh more efficiently frankly a lot more efficiently than than we are right now there's so many so many features of a well-designed campus that aren't currently in place at the William site signage roadways wider room load ways better unload loading zones you know um there's a lot that can be put in place to really move things along efficiently there is some there is some discussion of that and just um the making the schools look similar is that a topic too or is it just based on the site we're just so constrained by the the the layout of land in terms of the sort of the outward appearance the the overall sort of aesthetic about yeah I mean you drive around around the other towns other towns are way more you know I feel like we're very much like the UMass campus you drive in and go what architect designed what in what time we're kind of like who like what you know what I mean usually have similar designs but our buildings have nothing that's similar yeah you have this you know very New England the center school yeah and then everything else is like the biggest M mismash of like I don't know who right you know this looks like it's going to be like a whole different than everything else yeah I I don't think they've gotten that far but I know they have begun to study the local architecture so jwa has toured the town and they've taken photos of historic buildings and existing schools and does that come back to the committee to pick and choose that that'll come back to the building committee so that building committee will kind of go hey this makes the most sense and they're going to come to you with yeah there there could be there could be sort of satellite committees that advise the building committee you know so there could be a a design uh committee there could be there could be a team of Educators that are involved in some of the furniture fixture and Equipment decisions so that makes sense I think the you know the building committee my sense is the building committee will want to gather input from people that really know you know best design practice so yeah okay yeah thank you other thoughts comments questions all right reminder that um meeting on the 7th is open to the public and we'd love to see as many folks as possible um turn out to find out a little bit more before that preferred design schematic all right so where are we oh um masc conference um just a quick note and reminder that the um annual uh Mass Association of school committees Mass Association of school superintendents joint conference is um coming up in hyanis on November 6th through the 9th um if anyone on the committee is interested in attending um it's always great to have a good showing at committee at those conferences um and be able to collaborate with other school committee and superintendent districts across the state um on topics um related to education so if anyone is interested in attending um reach out to Diane um to coordinate and then we're headed into new business school calendar 2425 we've had a request so thank you yeah once again back to you we had uh a earlier this month a request from uh long metop Public Safety to um have us consider the um impact of the of running school on Election Day on November 5th and it started with a request from uh Public Safety it really came to us from uh Chief John Dearborn who serves as the town's Emergency Management director so Chief Dearborn had um with along with the town manager and police chief stocks had sent us a request to consider closing Center School on Election Day and so Center School was identified because it's proximity to the polling place uh they expect that it's going to be a very active election day uh and that there will be um considerable amount of traffic and congestion uh it' be a very busy area and so for election security and overall Town safety and preparedness they had asked us to close Center School uh on that day as we thought about it uh it seemed that um Closing one school always presents sort of operational challenges for us and it challenges families who have kids in different schools and so um our recommendation to you tonight is to accept the request of long meta Public Safety and close long metal public schools on November 5th uh we have this was a the solution that we would um the adjustment to the calendar would be to uh make October 4th uh day of school October 4th currently on the current 2425 calendar is a professional development day so we would simply uh switch those days and the fourth uh would become a day of school November 5th then would become a professional development day um we did run this through the calendar committee the calendar committee um uh sort of was queried via non survey and they were unanimous in supporting the uh flip-flopping October 4th with November 5th so um for the committee's consideration to adjust the 2425 school year calendar to make November 5th a professional development day and to have a regular day of school on October 4th all right any discussion questions and or possible motions you got it I move the school committee approve the amendment to the 2024 2025 school calendar to move the professional development day scheduled for October 4th 2024 to November 5th 2024 thank you we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Michaela yes Jamie yes Zach yes and yes for me as well can I a quick side note um that I just want to underscore that this is really more about preparedness that there's not any uh report that police or Fire or the town has received that you know sort of suggests that this is a imminent safety matter it's really just the police and fire want to be in a position of preparedness for that day and they really want to be attentive to the controls and election Security on the 5th so makes sense all right thank you thank you all right we are moving on to acceptance of a donation um we have a few gifts from the school um and we have a form filled out on gifts for the school and we're going to hear a little bit more about those um two GI to Long Middle High School yeah I might need some support from Mr Ma on this one the uh I know you've been in touch with uh the donors uh there's uh been a donation for an automated timer for the track team uh and are you able to take this one a little further yeah they um through some fundraising of the boosters for the track teams they've raised some money and also received a donation to offset the cost so um we hope to have this equipment in which could be used I believe for both cross country and for Traer so hopefully to be put in use this fall um don't recall exactly I think it came from the cap bosic Foundation $3,000 all right great and there there's one other uh donation on here that in in my view doesn't need action by the committee a local um restaurant had offered to um cover lunch for the Longman oh high staff on Monday Monday yeah and uh it's really your donation policy relates to things that become the property of the school district so this wouldn't become the property of the school district but it is a very nice gesture from from the from the restaurant and LHS would like to um take them up on that offer but I think the only one that really needs action in my view by the school committee is the uh automated timer all right um we have questions comments possible motions yep I moved the school committee accept with genuine appreciation the two gifts to Long medal high school as described on the gifts to the school document dated August 20th 2024 we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Michaela yes Jamie yes Zach yes any yes for me as well thank you to our donors for both of those gifts um we have one final motion remaining for an executive session um and we will not be returning um to open reconvening an open session anyone would like to make a motion yep I move school committee meet and executive session persued to Mass General law section 30A section 21A purpose two to conduct a strategy session in preparation with collective bargaining with Unit A and purpose seven consideration of release of executive session minutes of previous meetings not to reconvene an open session thank you we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Michaela yes Jamie yes Zach yes and yes for me as well thank you very much have a wonderful beginning to the school year and we will see everyone again in a few weeks thank you Andrew good night Andrew