##VIDEO ID:Q0dMTFnbosU## right we are recording all right um welcome to the Tuesday December 10th 2024 meeting of the long medal 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 for reductions for remote meetings all votes while there is remote participation must be made by roll call vote um we will move uh um agenda up a bit to um approval of minutes we have a recommended motion there we go uh I move the school committee approve the minutes to the November 14th school committee meeting as presented thank you we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Jamie yes Zach yes Estelle yes Adam yay and yes for me as well we have another set of minutes yep I mooved the school committee approve the minutes to December 2nd 2024 school committee meeting has presented we have a motion do we have a second I thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote J yes Zach yes Estelle yes Adam yeah and yes for me as well all right we are moving ahead to um subcommittee reports from Finance subcommittee has a um budget item to address yeah or is this the fy2 you needed that one right yeah I think it's under the new business perfect under new business sorry my mistakes problem thank you so in your pocket is a budget transfer request a general fund budget transfer so this would um allow us to move some funding around within the FY 25 budget in the general fund to address where there are shortfalls currently based on Staffing changes that have occurred from Once the budget was adopted and approved um last earlier last year but also the top five lines of the transfer would recognize the $125,000 that was approved at town meeting earlier in November with 36,000 going to the elll salary line 34,000 for a registered Behavior Tech position um 20,000 would go to our curriculum adoption line 30,000 would be added to the coaches salary line and supportive Athletics and then 5,000 towards a stien for um some secl curriculum implementation so it would be uh we probably have to flush out because they would be a new typen but similar to the way the curriculum coordinator positions work for K5 and 6 through eight uh that would be dedicated for the implementation for f [Music] all right questions comments thoughts related to that fy2 budget transfer and or motions if none yep I move on the recommendation of the superintendent that school committee approve the budget transfers as indicated on the document FY 2025 general fund budget transfer number one and December 10th 2024 we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any further discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote um Jamie yes Zach yes Estelle yes Adam yay and yes for me as well um thank you Tom for walking us through that we appreciate the additional funding available um we're going to do one more item in new business uh the 2025 26 school year calendar um has been brought To Us by the calendar committee um and would like um some feedback related to this um Dr Shay do you want to take that one certainly uh thank you so uh per the Unita a contract we uh are required to assemble a calendar committee uh and the calendar committee's responsibility is to provide a recommendation to the school committee for a school year calendar and so uh the calendar committee met recently and unanimously decided to advance uh the calendar that is shared on the screen here uh I'll make it a little bit larger for you so you can see it better um this would be a proposed calendar for the 25 26 school year uh couple of features here you'll notice that it includes three professional development days with the first one being on August uh 21st the under this calendar the first day of school for students in grades 1 through 12 would be Tuesday August 26th uh the final day of school uh would occur on June 15th that would be the last day with no snow days so that's the 180th day of school uh and we're required to develop a calendar calendar that incorporates five uh inclement weather makeup days and so uh were we to use five we would uh the school year would extend out to June 23rd I would say on average uh we have two to three snow days per year uh this calendar also ident ifies uh the back to school nights the conference nights and two additional uh professional development days uh throughout the school year uh it also uh includes two uh release days for um curriculum in collaboration and professional development uh so that's a practice that we introduced in the 24 school year and would continue recommend continuing over to the uh to the 25 26 school year so for your consideration happy to answer any questions that you might have on the proposed 2526 school year calendar all right any questions related to this can you speak to any um feedback that we've gotten as a committee that we might want to consider the calendar committee brought this forward sure um we did send it uh off to um School staff for some feedback uh largely it related to sort of the the first professional development day the first day back for staff would be August 21st um that's earlier than normal uh but not unprecedented um I think part of the factor there is really trying to wrap up that school year before we get into the fourth week of June your your the contract that we have with our uh with staff uh requires us to make reasonable efforts to conclude the school year before that fourth week of June so uh really you almost when you set the calendar you sort of uh look at that last day and kind of work backwards from there so that lands us with that first professional development day on the 21st and the first day of school on the 26th it's a it's a decent start for students uh it's a 4-day week followed Day by another 4-day week uh to kick off the school year I think we've heard over the years from parents and from staff that kind of a a slower ramp up to the school year is good for our youngest Learners so it's a 4-day week a 4-day week followed by a five-day week uh it's worth noting uh we have a shortened week in December December 22nd and 23rd those are both full days of school per the contract we did have some folks asking uh about the 23rd and uh wondering if that could be a half day but the calendar committee wouldn't be empowered to uh make that a half day because it it's a full day by contract other half dayss are spelled out by the in the collective bargaining bargaining agreements that we have with staff so those are some of the things that we heard um but uh and you know some suggestions here in there about the professional development days and the placements of those days but nothing uh nothing really substant or nothing overwhelming I'd say in the in the surveys that we got back from staff all right thank you thoughts or feedback on this from any committee members ask one question before yeah of course um the last day you guys had to talk about that last day the 15th yeah yeah it almost yeah I I think I know why you're asking that what you wouldn't want to end on a Monday right it I just I I always like for people to participate in things the chance of participation on that day both from the teacher standpoint as well as from the student um it just seems like a really odd way to end the school year it would be an odd way to end the school year agreed if if we don't have any snow days so it it sort of um almost assumes that we're going to have a couple of snow days if recent years and historical patterns are any indication we can count on a couple of days of inclement weather so yeah we wouldn't want to we wouldn't want to end on a Monday it would be an awkward day to end if yeah the alternative is if you end it on the 17th or the 18th you know then you're into that fourth week of June interrupted by the recognition of juneth on the 19th so so far yeah well i' I've heard I've heard that from some constituents yeah so it's so if you don't have snow days we'll look a little basically we're D I didn't have anybody I think the the ideal would be to end say on the 17th but if if you plan that as your last day then you're it's likely that you're having school on the 18th or the 22nd so or even the 23d no way to plan like the night the last day just because we have that February vacation yeah it would back us up as it is we're already backed up into um into August a decent amount I think when when the uh when the winter holiday um fall breaks the way it does with um it it creates a challenge you know we have a sometimes that winter recess is as short as a week sometimes it's as long as two weeks so that really that's one of the variables that drives that last day and first day okay banking on snow days yeah other thoughts or questions good job guys it's got to be hard to make a calendar I'm impressed yeah this this one wasn't uh the calendar committee um I think settled on this option fairly quickly and I want thank Diane for setting us up for Success she drafts a handful of calendars for us to look at uh but we we settled pretty quickly on draft a which is before you today made some tweaks to um back to school nights and PD days and whatnot but it was there was a pretty clear consensus you see a recommendation yes please y I move on the recommendation of the calendar committee and the superintendent that the school committee approved the 2025 2026 School Comm calendar present we have a motion do we have a second I just can't help myself but to Second this motion thank you any further discussion see then we'll move to a vote Jamie yes Zach yes yes Adam yay and yes for me as well all right that brings us to the final item for our agenda this evening which is an executive session um not to reconvene into public session um or into open session so I will entertain a motion related to that uh first you want to do we do the motion to adjourn first or do we go oh we do the executive session sorry my bad I move the school committee meet in executive session persuing to Mass General law C 30A section 21A purpose two to conduct a strategy session in preparation with Collective bargain units a b CDE e f and H in purpose consideration of the release of executive session minutes of previous meetings not to reconvene into Open session we have a motion do we have a second second thank you any discussion seeing none we'll move to a vote Jamie yes Zach yes Estelle yes Adam yay and yes for me as well we will see everyone in the new year thank you very much