##VIDEO ID:0qgDLg6ni4k## just the same it's one more thing I would like to not do that my daughter's birthday party was supposed to be in the backyard there were four holes in the ground that were're four different nests we got one of them good evening good evening didn't sound as loud one more time good evening there you go hear anything yeah I feel like it was louder earlier good evening everyone uh it's Wednesday September 4th 2024 at 6:30 p.m. I'm going to call the meeting of the school committee to order um in accordance with the requirements of the open meeting law please be advised that this meeting is being broadcast live over the lunenberg public access channel the meeting will be broadcast live through the local access cable channel and on the public access Facebook page and will be found on lunberg access YouTube channel within 24 hours after the meeting the agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of the these discussions not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by open meeting law the first item in the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance if you could please rise pledge allegiance to the FL flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you uh next item on the agenda is public comment is there anyone in the public who has a public comment not seeing any online I'll open it up to public comment from the board Mr scol bini I just wanted to make a quick public comment in response to comments that have been made previously about the idea of having a more informal setting for the school committee um and looking through the public meeting law I do not think it is possible to make it work I think that the public meeting law triggers when and you can tell me if I'm wrong three of us are in any one spot given the current number of people on the board and so it would basically be impossible for us to have a mixer where we are not an official meeting but still have a significant participation from board members so I like the idea I think the public meeting law in Massachusetts is owner us but unfortunately we don't get to pick the law we just have to follow so that's it thank you anybody else for a public comment all right thank you moving on uh next item of the agenda is the chair's report so I'll start off by apologizing it's it's been a long summer and this is actually my first chair's report so it's a little longer uh I promise the next ones will be shorter uh this summer I was able to attend a zoom with the new Primary School uh principal as well as M proski and another parent uh it was good to to meet the new Prim School principal uh also syil Kaufman a a frequent uh face at our meetings uh reached out over the summer with interest in starting a nonprofit Educational Foundation called Leaf um and was also looking for a chance to present at a school committee meeting in the fall and it just happened to be also tonight um over the summer I also met with rep Scarsdale two members of the Department of Education uh and surrounding Community leaders um to discuss Transportation issues um minimum required contribution hold harmless uh effectiveness of the foundation formula in meeting Town's needs uh inflation and the 4 4.5% cap on the student Opportunity Act which has severely impacted Towns over the last few years with uh so so much High inflation uh both uh the meetings uh really laid a groundwork for achieving fundamental change we need in the funding formulas um and in future meetings we hope to add more uh minimum Aid districts uh helping outside of rep scarsdale's District um other lunenberg members that attended was Mandy Gilman from the PTO Chris manard of the finance Caesar nulo of the select board and Dr Burnham and Dr Gilson from the school uh we await uh more feedback from rep Scarsdale and future meetings and uh building a more of a cohesive group of districts that have these concerns over the funding formula the finance committee reached out and there was concerns um the the former Town manager reached out and said that there was some updates and errors on the committee members terms uh Tiffany tavar term should end in June 30th 2024 Jee Russell's term should end June 30th 2025 the for former Town manager also reached out and uh stated that the state issued a new igr this spring on Smart growth reimbursement coincidentally uh not long after we learned that we were no longer eligible for this funding and that she wanted to put on everyone's radar the deadlines are coming up uh as soon as September 1st with the submitt by September 15th and we could be eligible again for smart growth funding in fy2 so the town should still apply she also sent a budget timeline um some of the highlights um this is for 2025 but February 13th 2025 the town manager preliminary budget presentation February 20th 2025 would be the Council on Aging and Library the February 27th was information technology and police March 6th was DPW in facilities March 13th would be fire in lunenberg public schools March 19th would be Administration unclassified Debt Service and mon Tech and March 20th would be Public Access committee sewer and other moneyed articles and then on March 27th would be the FY 2026 budget public hearing and vote on [Music] recommendations uh Miss Areno forwarded a mass School building authority uh email that they're having a a competition to uh for students to reimagine the msba logo so um I sent that along to Dr Burnham and she's going to send it out to the the students who'd like to participate it opens September 16th 2024 and the contest welcomes all 10th 11th 12th grade students attending uh Massachusetts Public School uh the school committee also received a letter from Chief gaml um and he uh he forwarded uh the letter to us about the SRO program and and how it's crucial to building relationships and Trust within the school Community the letter demonstrates just how impactful and life-changing this program is and the addition of Hank has been a blessing but is truly the combination of both officer mcamera and Hank and he looks forward to our continued partnership and growth of the SRO program um and I would like to read that letter into the public record for the school committee to whom it may concern my name is winter snow and I am currently going into my senior year at Bridgewater un Bridgewater State University studying criminal justice if you were to asked me in high school what I wanted to major in it sure wouldn't have been criminal justice being an officer had never crossed my mind that was never a career I was remotely interested in it all changed in 2019 moving schools as a junior in high school is never an easy transition but being in the 5% of minority in my new town was a new kind of challenge coming into lunenberg high I had no friends I knew no one this is not a dramatization I wouldn't go eat in the lunchroom and I'd instead hang out with the librarian in the library over time I'd see an officer pass with his Dopey smile from ear to ear and I wouldn't pay him any mind but in his hand was a lead that led to an adorable Brown ball of love at first I had no interest in talking to the officer that was attached to Hank I visited the office to solely see the dog that was just so friendly and soft that I couldn't stay away from my love for Hank grew even though he was technically a police officer and eventually My overall disdain for police officers lifted as I got to know Brad as well I'm not saying the man is amazing but he's pretty close to it Hank the adorable lab played his role well he calm me down on rough days gave me a reason to go relax in the office and even after my mom had passed and was was bait because waiting was Brad as always there with an open door and a smile on his face without these two officers in my school I don't know what I would have done the last two years of high school were the worst in my life so far if Hank hadn't coerced me into the office I would have never had a conversation with Brad to think a dog changed the course of my life Hank warmed me up to the police and Brad made me want to become one dogs are more than a cute fluffy companion they're a bridge of connection I'm graduating in May 2025 and plan to join the Boston Police Department thank you Brad and most importantly thank you Hank sincerely winter snow it's it's letters like those that we received that really um shows the great connection between the the police and the schools and uh the great resource officer that we have and the great re officer um K9 that we have um additionally our letter concerning excess uh lunenberg chapter 7 funds was sent to the select board the finance and the interim Town manager on Wednesday August 14th on September 26th the second annual town uh of lunberg official meet and greet will take place from 5:30 to 8:30 at Low Places Ranch and uh the start of school year was last week and kindergardeners were in this week uh the school is full now uh welcome back everyone and I'm wishing everyone a safe and fun year of learning and growth and that is my report uh next item on the agenda is to review and approve minutes we have regular session minutes from June 26th and July 25th um there were people absent at each of those meetings so it would be good if we could take those separately does anybody have any questions or concerns about the minutes move to approve the minutes for June 26 2024 second all in favor of approving the minutes from from June 26th say I hi hi opposed and I'll abstain uh move to approve the minutes for July 25th 2024 second um the motion is to approve the July 25th minutes all in favor say I I I opposed abstain I think I was out yeah and one exstension thank you next it on the agenda is to appr re review and approve line item transfers and warrants no line item transfers this evening and we have from August 5th to August 22nd 4 63,360 uh for the warrants the next item on the agenda is the superintendent's report good evening everyone um an update on Transportation at this time there are no students awaiting assignment to a bus and um our staff at central office have been able to answer any questions or concerns uh for any parents so there are no outstanding issues at this time uh overall we've had a good start to the school year uh things uh went very smoothly for the staff return last Monday opening day for grades 1- 12 on Tuesday last week went very well an opening day for our prek in kindergarten this week yester went very well uh fall athletic season as of this evening is officially underway uh with the first competition for varsity field hockey um information relative to the calendar year uh for our pel meetings this year Pell meetings will be held on the first Thursday each month and will be a combination of in-person and zoom meetings PTO will be meeting next Monday September 9th at 700 p.m. and the middle high school and new members are always welcome uh to join the PTO uh fall benchmark assessments our I ready fall benchmark assessments will be administered again this year grades K through 8 however this year we will administer I ready Assessments in grade 8 in September and in February no end of year assessment given all of the assessments that um grade 8 has to complete for the state I ready reading assessments will be conducted September 12th and 13th I ready math assessments will be conducted September 18th and 19th uh the spring 2024 mcast results typically by this time have been released embargoed in other words we can't share information about the results with the public um but at this time we still do not have access to the full uh data release uh where we're understanding that potentially round about September 23rd we might see the data and that gives us then access to run uh different reports uh through the state platform uh school picture day September 11th Turkey Hill Elementary School September 17th the Middle School September 18th the high school and September 19th and 20th uh school pictures will be taken at the primary school open houses tomorrow night September 5th uh is the Middle School open house um September 12th will be the high school open house September 18th Turkey Hill and September 19th at the primary school um one other a reminder for September September 27th is an early release day for students for professional development for our staff um I also like to give everybody an update relative to our next school committee meeting our next school committee meeting is also slated for September 18th the same evening as the Turkey Hill Elementary open house that said we have a couple of options that we can discuss uh this evening relative to that meeting it additionally due to the late release of mcast data I'm wondering if we could adjust our uh schedule our meeting schedule to present action plans my goals which are also uh likely going to be tied to districtwide goals and school Improvement plans uh to the second meeting in October usually we take those up at the first meeting in October uh in order for us to get a look at the data and assess what the goals should be designed to Target um I I can't guarantee that we'll even be able to analyze the data by October 2nd and have any analysis for the committee in advance of that meeting um so that's something that we can discuss as well um for everyone's convenience uh because it's a lot of information to take in uh just verbally our current meeting schedule uh would be for September 18th October 2nd and October 16th uh together with um Liz Peterson we keep a a running agenda of potential um topics for um each of our agendas and we had several placeholders for these upcoming meetings we anticipated a fall Athletics report on the 18th and quarterly reports including the fy2 budget Personnel Keystone collaborative as well as a placeholder for some continued discussion on school committee goals as well as FY 26 budget priorities for the committee on October 2nd uh a monthly facilities and grounds report an update on strategy action plans School Improvement plans my goals again which are also districtwide goals potentially and also tied to school Improvement plans and again a placeholder for some continued discussion on school committee goals and FY 26 budget priorities and then October 16th we are hopeful that we will have an FY 24 endof year report for you uh as well as our typical mcast and I ready fall Benchmark assessment report and we had planned to provide um an update on the transition to the new IE uh implementation and the use of power school as the the software platform for um our IEPs this year so you can see on the 18th a lot of it is just reports uh not a lot of discussion based topics the um Turkey Hill open house is due to wrap up at about 700 p.m. there are several members of the committee that have students that may wish to attend um that open house so it's possible where that meeting would be located um at the middle high school it's possible that following the wrap of the uh open house at Turkey Hill members could then walk up to uh the middle high school and we could potentially have a meeting start at 7:15 or 7:30 again the agenda what we know of an agenda right now is not a lengthy um discussion based agenda so that's a possibility it's also a possibility if you look at the next um sheet that we could potentially cancel the meeting on the 18th and Shuffle some of the topics that would have been on the agenda for the 18th and shift some of the items that would have been on the October 2nd agenda off to the October 16th so again um whatever the wish of the the committee is I didn't know if if other um members of the committee with no children at Turkey Hill might also be interested in attending open houses for any of our schools um so those are some possibilities for consideration um so I'd like to open it up to the committee uh to hear some feedback uh I will tell you my situation I I do have a child at tural but I also I have parent teacher conferences at my work so I will not be even available until 8:00 that evening and I would be joining in Zoom too if we if we do have a meeting um I alsi I also have a child at Turkey Hill um and was planning on coming to that meeting late and then realized you know there's three of us in that situation so quum would be an issue um I'd rather not just cancel a month at the beginning of school seems a really long time to go without a school committee meeting uh so pushing it to 7:30 and having an abbreviated meeting seems a good solution thank you Mr skull BR I'm in favor of making all of the meetings shorter so what if we did the reports as written reports and had them subm that's our plan okay cuz like I don't need to know n what the status of the elevator is in person nope I can figure that out by reading it uh so if we could do that I don't really have a preference about extra meetings or me starting meetings late I just concerned that I would be imposing something that is good for me on other people thank you m I'm flexible any it doesn't matter to me I I don't mind starting a meeting later um if that will keep the other meeting shorter um knowing that some of us have that preference uh it it doesn't make a difference to me I can go either way Mr beardmore I'm agree with Mrs arino I don't have a strong opinion either way one thought of an abbreviated meeting in doing it at Turkey Hill and announcing on the front end that the thing is going to be there's going to be a school committee meeting at the end of it the challeng parents might be the challenge there you know like is that we would have to take over a space that they are likely using for the open house um I know that they have a meeting for fifth grade parents about the Nature's Classroom trip oh um that is that after the open house cuz cuz we lose to that just be clear yeah two of us two of us are in the well it would be a short walk over to the high school what time is the Nature's Classroom meeting I don't know exactly what time but I think it's after the 6:00 time I think that they're looking to uh Target three and four from 5 to 6 and then grade five more so um at 6:00 till 7: okay it sounds like the the will of the will of the committee would be to keep the September 18th meeting but started at a later time if we can yeah and we can see talk to Turkey Hill kind of get a good estimate of when the parents would be able to leave get to yep the high school and we'll set time on that yep thoughts on shifting goals strategy and school Improvement plans to the October 16th meeting when we will actually have had a chance to uh get some analysis of the mcast data to inform our goal development does the mcast I mean there obviously I'm sure there's going to be an achieve a student achievement related goal but does the mcast Drive other goals outside of the student achievement potentially um it could inform uh the goal and the the student learning goal could also potentially inform a professional practice goal okay do we know why there's a delay I think it's because they're changing from the the Edwin platform where they archive all that data and we run reports from that platform they're transitioning to a different platform and I think that that's part of the delay but you guys are also going to have to learn how to run reports too okay so we should keep that in mind too yeah and uh typically there's there's a little bit of lag time between when schools get access to the data and when they publicly release the data and we're understanding that there may be literally a couple of days between the time we get a first look at the data and the public gets a look at our data um so that is not typical usually we have a chance to dig in on our data a little bit before um everyone in the public is looking at it as well s b um so then if that should be moved regardless that bottom bullet continued discussion on on school committee goals and FY 26 budget priorities would both of those things I see you have them in both both meetings on that right because I have I I keep things on the list as a placeholder right in case there's continuation or we have to bump a discussion because other things came up that have to get onto an agenda so we could be looking at that September 18th meeting is being fall Athletics quarterly reports budget person and the Keystone collaborative mhm that could be all that's on that particular those are pretty quick things they are quick I you know we could be looking at a half an hour there right yeah but to Laura's point the beginning of the school year to skip the second meeting cuz you don't know what could possibly come up you could have something pop up you could have people available for public conf yeah people may want to say something I also think you know I believe you know last year is we were on a 2-year cycle with a superintendent the school committee goals were you know we were discussed on a separate cycle I'm not I'm not sure that they have to be as linked as we seem to have them linked on this right right I think you can set your goals at any point but to start to have some discussion about what your goals might if you have ideas around what provisions and drafts the facilities and grounds report is switching to a monthly format there'll be a monthly report at the first meeting every month good yeah I if we can pull it off and I would leave it to your discretion Mr chairman if if the vice chair is willing to to to lead the meeting I got it we'll make a fact you guys can do a great job you don't have a good track record Zoom if you're still at 8 I'll be on there at 8 my goal is to finish before 8 we can do it right on and you guys will be checking out I love I'm going to remind Mr school and Bry again our shortest meetings don't have a good track Rec you are not at grey is not at this is true Dr bur did you have anything else no I think that's it I think um pending what happens with first read policies this evening second read and third read will go on onto this list as well oh that'll help to okay yeah thank you that's great that's a great idea um next item on the agenda is the presentation by Leaf I will invite uh Cil Kaufman and Tom little page up should we sit at this table and use you need I think you need a microphone you need the microphone so we'll take turns and sort of if we need okay thank you it's me isn't it feedback feedback uh so can you guys uh superintendent Burnham can you project the presentation and I'll narrate okay thank you for having me tonight while we get that queued up um we're really excited uh I'm here to represent a group of three residents and Friends colleagues who have been brainstorming about um various ways to support our schools in addition to all the wonderful ways that our town has come together just historically and over the last few months and years uh to support the when we say the schools I feels like that encompasses a really broad um thing but you know we are keeping our kids in mind first I know that each of you thinks about that and that why you're serving here so for us it was you know is there an untapped way that we can engage our community um to fill a gap and fill a need and to serve our kids better so I see it's up thank you um and we also want to introduce ourselves to the public so first a lot of people uh us included when we were starting to brainstorm ways to support hadn't heard about An Education Foundation ween sure what an ed Foundation was um so I'll give a little definition Miss and background an ed Foundation is a nonprofit organization um that's meant to enhance academic Excellence by connecting corporate and private sector funds so philanth philanthropic contributions directly to Educators who are looking to implement Innovative learning opportunities for K12 students so getting monies from the community straight to teachers into our classrooms to help our kids um it's directed by a board of volunteers and we hope and other Ed foundations in our state see it as an entry point for people or groups who may not identify as a parent or a guardian or a teacher people who are typically affiliated with other organizations um it's an entry point to get them connected to the schools great next slide please so why do we think an ed Foundation is the best choice um for our group to start um we think that teacher support um and it it'll be a teacher support and benefit that's um not available in other districts so it'll potentially be a plus when we're looking for new employees for the district it positively augments morale so if our teachers and our administrators know that the communities behind them hopefully that makes them feel good uh it shares the fundraising burden collabora collaboratively with the PTO and other organizations uh like sports boosters or those kind of guys uh it creates a funding channel for previously unaffiliated donors so we're really hoping to tap community members who may be disengaged disenchanted not just with the school district or the town but in general um and it raises expectations for our teachers so you know what is possible in their classrooms we really want them to think outside the box and know that we as the community want that for them too um we think that this is a positive thing it'll help motivate our neighbors to think really creatively about how we can support students uh and we really want it to be all-inclusive a big 10 operation to invite all citizens and bu businesses um regardless of their affiliation to join us um so we really want to focus on that educator learner initiative like really on that direct um we're not talking about big curriculum decisions things that superintendent Burnham is you know putting a lot of effort that you all are putting a lot of your time and effort into making sure optimized for the district um we want to be able to give directly into the classroom we want to focus our solicitation on large corporate and philanthropic gifts so we're not talking about um little fundraisers or you know small operations we're thinking really large scale we're thinking big we're thinking about presentations to larger operations um this keeps fundraising efforts focus on one fund for one purpose there are a lot of Ed foundations in our state and we'll see some examples in a second um that have multiple committees and multiple funds uh that go to different kinds of things when we're starting out we want to keep expectations reasonable we want to ask anyone who's interested in this operation since it's a foundational year um or in the next couple of years to contribute to One Fund and that one fund would then uh Grant Monies to individual Educators for um for individual projects so One Fund for one purpose and that's getting money directly to teachers um so so we think the operating budget will be maintained by uh volunteer administrative and community board members and I'll talk a little bit more about the details that we think might work in a minute so next slide these are just a few of um our peers in the state of Massachusetts a fun fact is that the first Ed Foundation founded in the state of Massachusetts was in Brooklyn and it was in direct response to the passing of prop two and a half so that Community came together founded an ed nonprofit um while we were doing research we found so many Ed nonprofits in other states and it turns out that my own home District in San Antonio Texas actually it's convers exist which is a suburb has a nonprofit that now supports its School District which didn't happen when I was growing up but inflation budgets etc etc the community knew that it needed to come together in a different way uh and it turns out a lot of big big districts in Texas are doing this as well so I was proud to learn that so we're in good company NeXT slide please why now so we figure this is a good time we have been brainstorm storming for the last couple of years like thinking about the override you know we don't want this message to get confused with all the hard work that people are doing to talk to State funding sources to get money from other sources we we really want this to be uh a separate conversation so the budget set for our district the override passed but we feel like people are still listening and there's an engagement in our community and there are a lot of us who want to kind of ride this wave of positivity and and helpfulness so that's why we're talking about this now so here's what we came up with Leaf it's a great acronym everybody loves a good acronym the lunenberg education accelerator foundation and our mission would be uh to be a citizen Le nonprofit Catalyst that enhances academic excellence in lunenberg schools by connecting corporate private sector funds words that I already said um but to be specific we really want the grants to support creative curricular development beyond the scope of the typical school budget so it's augmenting what we already have creative ideas reflect alternative approaches to typical instruction and incorporate tools or methodologies not currently available in our classrooms we'll see some examples of that in a second um and I'm speaking in future tense um in a lot of cases because this is still an idea we haven't Incorporated ated into an NLC and then a 501c3 so we're talking about what is still an idea we're still building this is very foundational so here's an idea of what could be funded by this Foundation Innovative academically related projects that are outside the school of the the curricular development and plan for the district enrichment opportunities that are above and beyond what's uh average and then single teacher te SL classroom in initiatives to larger scale multi- teer projects so you know we see a future where if we are getting enough funds enough philanthropic support that this could be not only classroom to you us to direct to teachers but there could be teacher collaboratives where it's by grade by school the whole District there's room to grow so all of you will have copies of this presentation a lot of the links in the next couple of slides um these are hyperlink to other Ed foundations and some samples of projects that they've done um a few of us have favorites um there's a lot of robots a lot of purchasing of robots purchasing of cooking kits um I think Tom's favorite is the nature Wi-Fi uh a teacher uh got a grant to install Wi-Fi on a nature hike so that kids could scan a QR code or do experiments while they're out on the nature hike um podcast Studios Etc so it really runs the gamut um we're looking at infinite possibilities but of course we want to um focus in our scope of work so when we create bylaws uh a grants committee would guide um the development of the grants criteria that would be very specific um and very easy and accessible for educators to understand what would and would not be funded all right right so that's the couple I've also included um some links to videos that you're welcome to watch at a different time so what we're thinking would not be funded um travel for individuals at least uh in this foundational time we really don't want to get into that um as I understand there's also some regulations uh around you know travel for teachers and students and so we just don't want to touch that until we're a little bit more established um items that would be expressly funded within the school budget um so anything that's got its own line item um School curriculum or professional development again that's just something that we don't want to touch in this foundational time because it's a little tricky Refreshments we don't want people to buy cookies and juice for a party um or you know decorate an event that kind of thing we really want to focus on um direct to student service um by the way of innovative education okay so next slide um this sort of outlines the difference um between an ed foundation and a parent teacher organization or Association um so we we want to highlight all the good work that the PTO does they're a super important part of our community um one of the things we've listed here um is that um they have a myriad of events dances Cruise Night teacher appreciation Etc this organization would not be events based at all um we're not looking to um have any kind of competition whatsoever um we're really looking to um have this grants program in place and that's it uh once the grants are implemented it would be lovely to have one event every year to Showcase um the student achievement that those grants were able to fund so that our donors could see the outcome um but that's what we're thinking so the foundation would really Target as I said um people who weren't already engaged or wouldn't be a target audience for that PTO um we would have a fund application that's direct to Educators um and I don't need to read this slide to you but um for those listening actually and those who might watch the the meeting later um the foundation would not have any policy influence either so we wouldn't endorse any kind of um political action for the town um and yeah I think that's pretty much that's the sum of it so one quote that we found in in talking to peers and other communities was someone said another organization raising awareness for what schools need can only be helpful and that's very much how we feel we want this to be a very collaborative transparent Cooperative process um you we've worked really hard to do some research put that together for everyone so that you know that we're taking this seriously uh and now that this is public we're really happy um to take our egos out of it and take everybody's feedback and make this work for everyone so just a couple last things um I've already kind of touched on what Ed Ed foundations do um one thing that's important on this slide is again the collaboration so that we can fund raise differently so we can fill gaps not that we can compete with anyone else um and that we would con the board which we're in the process of doing we're recruiting other people to to join us in leadership to help found this uh uh organization we want to create that board in a way that best suits Lunenburg so kind of Breeze through the next one which is Phil philanthropic scope I forgot my water so I'm dry and tripping on my words um so we're focused in on this philanthropic scope in terms of these four Pathways we want to cultivate our donors we want to provide them incentives so you give us money we'll help connect you to other engaged organizations in the community uh we'll showcase your contact information and logo in various ways um it offers it a significant tax deduction uh Etc so and plus it's the right thing to do so good incentives uh we want to focus our philanthropy on retention so bringing people into the fold and then keeping them there and um to me this kind of networking is something that small communities are really good at so once you get somebody involved they're really likely to pass that on and it just works out well for everyone and then we hope to expand um I've talked a lot about foundational efforts and that's what we're focused on now but we of course have hope for the future and um the day when we'll be like someplace like Brookline and I have multiple Foundation committees that are looking at seal grants versus math grants versus Science and Tech so here's a pro proposed organizational chart um we'll have a typical leadership board and executive board with the president vice president Etc um but we'd also love representatives from the various Ed related organizations already in town so for example um from the superintendent office either Dr Burnham or a design from this committee either a a selected member or a designate you know that kind of thing um so that your voice is part of those Grant decisions um one good example of why that's important that other Ed foundations have talked us about is you know if in the grants reviewing process uh an application checks all the boxes um but we are not Educators nor policy makers we may not understand the Imp the implications um Tom can you think of a good example um of something that oh the park bench so one application um to a a peer organization asked for a buddy bench so funds to construct a buddy bench um and it it kind of hit all the grant criteria but somebody um from the district said you know actually that's more of like a social emotional um uh effort it's not focused in the classroom and they were they kind of re rethought what that might mean um so it's really good to have this kind of input um yes so and also input from PTO so that we're not overlapping um or so that we can overlap if we need to um say somebody put in a Grant application for something really awesome and it just needs a little bit extra funds maybe we can collaborate on that um and then obviously community members at large so we would love to get help from our neighbors and we would sit on three different committees a grants committee donor relations and the Gaya committee like I said I think it's important to keep an eye on outcome and being able to clearly report that outcome to our donors so we have a ambitious timeline here which we're still technically on track to do um we'd like to incorporate as a nonprofit organization this October we'd like to get our marketing materials up and running this fall um inaugural fundraising campaign um the fall through the spring so we're really looking to award grants by 2526 we want to do this diligently we want to do it right um want to get all of our ducks in a row so um we think that this is uh the best way forward for us so again let's do this I think this is a really positive opportunity um I'm sure that this plan is in no way perfect and we're really looking forward to your feedback uh at the moment we are recruiting board members uh we have several interested parties so we're screwing candidates getting folks together our first board meeting to review and discuss bylaws will be on the 26th of this month uh and I have some brochures for um leave behinds if you guys are uh interested in having a print out um or anything like that so I'm looking for your support uh we're looking for your support and we're happy to answer any questions you might have thank you Syble I will open it up to the committee uh what questions concerns uh feedback do you have Miss Aro yeah I can jump in um thank you thank you for putting your energy and your thoughtfulness and your organization into something positive like this um I think this could be very very helpful I the only the only feedback I have and and you have alluded to it so is just to make sure that when things go through the group they also go through Dr burum so that something that doesn't already exist isn't being asked for or something that for some reason that you don't realize turns into a major nightmare but I I think your your research is very well done um obviously this has been done elsewhere and um I thank you for your time and effort thank you thank you um thank you uh my only concern and it also is a thank you is the amount of time and effort this takes from volunteers this is like this is um this this is a lot of work um can I jump can I jump in Laur that's what I wanted to I I think this is one of the reasons that we we feel really strongly about this is it gives us an outlet to do things we're good at so um it's really hard for me to sit here and not raise my hand and ask questions I'm not as I I don't think I'd be as good at your job as you are um I think you all are are where your strengths are and this is where our strengths are so I think this offers an opportunity for people like me who um have never been able have never been able to um chaper own a field trip or um help with a library Fair because I'm working during the day and so if I can put in some effort um into things I'm good at like marketing and fundraising at night and on the weekends I would love to do that thanks for channeling your passion into action Mr beore want to Echo the the um the comments of of my other colleagues and and we had spoken briefly on the phone a month or two ago about this and and you know I I I think my my only concern is much the same as Miss Brazos is we have a lot going on in lunenberg we have a lot of committees we have a lot of active people but not enough and so whatever we can do to encourage people to be active and get organized like I think that's a good time a good thing but there's also like the okay at what point do we get to a a saturation point and and I was involved in still you know um occasionally involved with the skateboard project skateboard park project and my son's still waiting on that yeah it's coming it's coming um but you know I got to tell you I mean part of the part of the challenge has been number one everything costs more than you thought it did but that's the biggest one but the second one is is that you know that thing is we we've publicized the big donations but it's really been the small donations because there haven't been a ton of big donations they're hard to get Y and and particularly if you're not experienced in in that kind of fundraising and I understand that you know you're going to bring in you and and you're going to be bring in like-minded people who have similar experience and and know how to go about doing that and to whatever extent we can harness that that's awesome but I I you know I'm very concerned about making it sustainable because I I don't want it to be something that goes Gang Busters for a year or two years or three years and Withers on the vine when you join the school committee or something right so well and can I can I speak to that so I do think I recognize and especially every time I watch um a a town council meeting um or select board meeting um that there's so many vacancies for volunteers in the community um and to some extent I do think that a risk of forming another Organization for Lunenburg which is already a small community is um over taxing the available resources um but taking that into consideration I do think that if we're very Mindful and strategic about targeting specific audiences um that we will in a sense be able to cross-pollinate and so by bringing people who haven't been engaged in the process into it then they are easier to um uh uh talk to about donating to the skate park they might be even interested in doing crossover events for sports boosters and things like that so I think yes cross pollination I think is going to be my buzzword there good word anyone else uh Dr Burnham did you have any uh questions concerns I would Echo the same I I truly appreciate it um I was fortunate enough uh in my career to have worked at the central office level in a district that had an ed foundation and we worked very collaboratively with that Foundation to fund projects that the local budget would never have been able uh to fund um so I think there's a lot of great potential um and I get the concern about sustainability but we're never going to know until we try and if we get three great years out of it then we get three ears out of it right I think it's worth a go yeah and my concern earlier was uh whether there was going to be overlap with the PTO and I think you expressed that that it was different and I think you'll have that communication with the PTO uh and also boosters too they tend to do like more calendar fundraisers and being aware of different groups and organization fundraisers I think that's important so there is no overlap so thank you yeah good luck thanks Tom did you anything if somebody wants to join who should they contact uh so at this point we're not able to accept uh donations um but if anybody is interested in joining the board they can reach out um to us directly at Leaf board info uh gmail.com so Leaf boino gmail.com thank you and then Tom's hello hello thank you uh I just wanted to add a couple things um one is in response to uh Mr beardmore uh I understand where you're coming from um on that and I think that it's actually a pretty good opportunity um to engage uh more people like cibil who find it difficult to engage in other ways but are still looking to engage um but just don't have the time um we're trying to to set the meetings so they are not um not excessive you know they're not going to be overly long as it it will really depend on donation and Grant um proposals that come in from the Educators um but we aren't looking to to take a lot of time from people we are not looking to do um events except for that one big one we're just trying to you know boots on the ground and try to try to get some rally some support for the students here so um and then also uh from Miss Areno we have a um we're going to be reviewing the bylaws and in in the bylaws we we would really like it to say to state that the the first grp group of board um offerings that we do would be to school committee PTO um it's not going to be a requirement but if somebody uh from the the school committee or the PTO or anybody else wants to participate in that way then they would have a um like a a seat at the table a seat at the table um ahead of ahead of um some other people maybe because like you had spoken about earlier it's really important to us that there's collaboration and consistency we would never want to to to approve a grant for something that would then go well you can't do that that's part of the curriculum you know we don't know the curriculum as well as you do so we would really value your um input on that um and yeah work together as a one big team I think I thought of one more example which is um technology capacity so you can't apply for a grant that needs wi-fi robots that max out your Wi-Fi technology so it's really important to have somebody at the table who can say oh actually our plugs don't support that kind of emage or whatever it is um that we wouldn't know about so it won't be it won't be a requirement but it I would like it to be part of the bylaws where it's offered first and then even if um somebody isn't on the board we would still need to be able to be in communication with you to make sure it falls in line with what the school has a vision so can't just come in and buy a robot for the school and then have what do you guys doing with this robot So yeah thank you very much thank you thank you thank you very much and we're going to take off and uh watch the meeting virtually so thank you all for staying thank you don't let Tony talk it'll go a lot faster we know and just as a point of information the slide deck is also posted uh with our meeting uh documents found it great thank you next item on the agenda is new business uh discussion on back to school updates so you have a report um compiled uh from the principles um the typical information about class sizes at each grade level um new hires in each building as you can see the list is long uh we were very very busy all summer long uh with hiring for open positions um I don't think there's any need to go over all the detail uh however all of the principles are on the call this evening so if anyone has any questions um they're here to to answer them for you does anyone on the committee have any questions first days went well you said in your report so yeah good job yeah yesterday went well with the kindergarteners which yeah it was a very smooth opening I would just say that um a thank you to the administrators uh both central office and in in the buildings for putting things together for hiring all those people I I know the effort that it takes to sit through all these interviews and and sift through what to do next and and the time and effort is greatly appreciated do we have a list of open positions that we're still trying to hire for there are a few uh open par positions um we do I have some information for you relative to open facilities positions um but I think all of our professional staff positions at this point have been filled we we actually have all of our school psychologists positions filled um I believe our speech language pathologist positions are filled um we we were able to finally fill um an open nurse position uh and and please to say that uh Katie Maguire has returned to the staff kid I just saw that welcome back Mrs mire yeah we we we really weren't having much luck with um the the posting at the Turkey Hill level it was posted for months literally um so we needed to have a nurse in each building um so we reassigned one of the uh nurses at the middle high school because we had two in the building um over to Turkey Hill um and then posted the open position up at the Middle High School um and that's when Mrs Maguire applied so fantastic um this was a really tough summer for the public this was a very difficult hiring summer it was highly competitive um we lost people we had open positions it was very difficult hiring and so having this many positions filled thank you very much thank you I know that was a lot of and thank you y and there were uh teaching staff um that volunteered their time to be on committees all summer too oh yeah thank you yeah thank you to them and thank you to the all the volunteers on all the hiring committees um but this is impressive ready so I just wanted to say something uh our neighbors had a kindergarten start yesterday and my wife and I go for a walk every day every night and we saw them and you know we talked to them about how the first day was I remembered how scary that first day was for me and uh I just wanted to say that the team at LPS made such a good impression and it was clear to me that the parents felt like it was an opportunity that their kid was excited and that they felt that this person was that they their kid was going to a place where all the people would make him feel safe it was really really nice and I I just when I came to lunenberg my first point of contact with anybody in the town was Chrissy Carboni and again that's the person they mentioned as being just lovely so I I wasn't there we don't have any kids at the LPS anymore but it seems like you put a team together that did the same thing for them that they did for me and my family when we came so I think they deserve a special shout out yeah I'm I'm really excited about um how the the team at the primary school in particular is setting up I think it it was a really good fit all the way around um and Dr bethanne Cormier has not yet been able to join us as the assistant principal at Turkey Hill because she's still fulfilling her contract obligation um but I'm sure that once she joins the building will we'll see something very similar when um when is she starting uh her contract obligation would carry her uh through so that she wouldn't be able to start until October 8th however um I had a conversation with the superintendent and he's working to back Phill as soon as possible so it's possible um that she may be able to start in a couple of weeks um but worst case scenario uh the first part of October um and happily we have a very uh experienced U principal in Mr Ivon so um you know he's been he's been doing a great job uh carrying that that ship on his own uh for a few weeks and we're helping out uh as needed um to make sure that he has what he he needs until she can uh on board but I I'm sure that we will be equally excited to see the the team Dynamic that sets up at Turkey Hill as well we're really excited about uh the administrators that we've been able to bring on board um very lucky to have such experienced folks thank you for this though thank you uh next item on the agenda is the FY 26 budget timeline and priorities so you have uh an outline uh this outline is also available uh on the website um put together by Dr gillson uh it doesn't really deviate from what has been our past practice so if anybody would like uh to make any suggestions for a different timeline we are certainly open to hearing those thoughts from the committee M my only comment is the same one I make every year which is we got to rectify the dates between the finance committee and the school committee budget hearing I strongly believe that the school committee should approve a budget before it is brought to the finance committee Y and that will need to be resolved right I I think that truthfully the only way to resolve it is for us to change our timeline and accelerate our timeline um is there a reason we can't accelerate our timeline we we can it's just you'll be voting on a final budget um um the first meeting in March and just just for context uh my first year here setting the FY I don't know 20 budget I guess uh it would have been during 8 1819 the school year 1819 um the budget hearing for the school committee was held in April and it was at the request of Mr beardmore at the time on the finance committee looking to have an approved budget come before the finance committee that we moved it back a month into the second meeting in March and now potentially you know kind of further compressing and uh having a a voted budget the the challenge there though is not so much about bringing forward a budget and having you vote that first meeting in March we have to post in the newspaper right uh full seven days ahead of that budget hearing and in that posting We have to specify what the dollar amount and what the percent increase to that budget is which means we would have to know those numbers by the very end of February which sometimes is when we're finding out what our health insurance inses so it it there are some challenges with further compressing our our was this calendar derived from the proposed calendar that the former Town manager brought forth or was this you know was there some consultation with the interim Town manager and the chair of the finance committee uh the inquiry went um to the chair and I explained you know what our timeline date-wise would would be um and the the date that was part of the Town manager's timeline is what came back that said possibly in the coming months there'll there'll be some more conversation yeah I mean there there's a lot there's a lot of water to flow on the bridge between now and then I just wanted to raise it as an issue um I I did listen to my 3 hours of finance committee meeting today and um this was brought up and um the chair of the finance committee did have that same March 13th date on his um he's trying to accelerate it faster on his end so that they are not writing their Town report as they're walking to turn it in because they also have a nightmare at the end of their season but a couple of things he did suggest as long as we're talking about this um was they were talking about maybe putting three departments a night in instead of two well that would make a really long meeting but that that's one possibility they also thought um commented that why do they even listen to Monte Tech because you have no choice in what you pay them anyways it's very nice to know what they're doing could they come in early when we have time and we'll find out what they're doing but it it takes up their time at a very critical night I uh right they have them down on the um 19th after after us so maybe if they settled that we could slide in but um but that was another thing and um they said that if we feel like we're going to be in trouble like last year to let them know quickly so probably well are we declaring that right here tonight I'm just saying so with my comments when have a handle on cost for next so there are a few things that um are impacts that are unknown at the the moment um this evening you'll be ratifying one of those previously unknown uh you'll be taking up the uh contract for the Paras um you'll we'll talk about this shortly it's a one-year agreement for the current year so we still don't know what the impact to FY 26 is because we will Begin work on that 3year uh agreement in a matter of a few short months actually um so until that's settled that's still an unknown with an impact to FY 26 and at the moment um contract negotiations with the teachers are ongoing um so that's a rather signific ific unknown um we intend to start working on the budget literally in a matter of weeks for the other non salary type impacts to the budget um but honestly th those are the big ones uh th those are the two largest group of of staff that we have um that's a big Unown known it's a big unknown and I feel like it's a budget season too so we see numbers as they come in too health insurance will be something later on to our bus contract up we would have to go out to bid late December January so it's this year yes more this is going to take longer than we want it to take it it always does and I I'm not kidding when I say it's going to be another tough year I really truly believe that that is going to be the case there's a big been a big hullo in lunenberg over the course of the last month or two about boards following Charter bylaws and policies last year we did not have a fiscal forecast which is a violation of our Charter we got to the um we got to the warrant late the warrant deadline was surpassed by at least a couple of weeks and the finance committee still did not have a report in the warrant and no real H came out of any of that rather it's how we amend our policies was the controversy recently and my reason for bringing that up is is I think that this needs a look the the reason why this timeline is artificially backed up well into the month of March town meeting is the 3rd of May is to allow for time to print and mail the warrants and it's 2024 I can get a physical mailer to my customers of my company the day after tomorrow if I call the right number tonight but but lunenberg cannot get a warrant in the mail in less than a month apparently so I guess my point is is why are we putting ourselves through this and and I can't get I've never been able to get a straight answer to that question and I I think that given what we've been through the last year I think that we that question deserves an answer SK I 100% agree I have never been in a town that had a town government style of governance Ohio where I come from they think this is crazy uh I I kind of think it's quaint and nice but I did not realize that that was the source of the delay and for it to be such a simple Logistics question that has never been answered strikes me as nuts like and we did violate the policy last year by several weeks so this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard like why can't we get an answer as to like who's our printer like if you if you're serious in saying you can get it the day after tomorrow I don't even that's like unfathomable to me that we need a month it might need to go to the state it might need to might be I don't know well all these Massachusetts state laws are the reason we have to do oh Massachusetts open meeting law is a disaster but I think that the fact that we have this issue that we know what the questions are and who we need to ask and we've never got an answer is bananas like who's who's the person like do I need to go to Carter do I need to go to zoom but yeah this is crazy if it's like every board in town is backed up because we have a printer who apparently is like Yan gutenberg's Last Apprentice is cranking the stuff out by hand [Music] on anyway I agree with Peter so can we crazy at the all right so you guys when you say in several weeks are going to start when would a fiscal forecast when do typically it comes in January January and that's and it mentions in the policies the town's Financial policies um that the budget cycle starts with the fiscal forecast at a joint meeting of the yes select board finance committee and school committee I yeah the are we going to talk about those po we are okay because I have questions about that too um are those policies that were shared with us that we're going to talk about later are those existing policies or are those new proposed I would save that for it's a very nuanced answer there any other discussion on the FY 26 budget timeline and priorities I wish we could move it sooner but I understand why not and also January to a Maytown meeting does seem like it should be enough there was I heard there was an override that passed that they had plenty of time to plan an override and it actually passed so it's possible um I would just ask that if there are that was a good looming terrifying issues we talk about it as soon as possible or begin to talk about issues that are going to arise that are were previously unforeseen but you know that's how we did it last year too we started talking in October about the looming issues for this year it is a whole new season it's it's a budget season it's not something it just comes out and that's it right it's going to take some time Mr skull bre one thing that I will say is that going through the budget task force process with Renee mki and Evan Waters and the people from the town and I'll give her uh special praise Dr gillson we were able to get like a a much better picture to our sister boards about the needs that we have in terms of salary I think that one of the driving issues that we have is retention and I think that ution is obvious and I think that we have done and I'm not saying like me but you guys have done a very good job of communicating that to Renee and to Evan and to the people in the town so like if if we're going to try to say like what's the scariest thing it's retention and what's our biggest cost retention and I think that for the first time we've really said what is the town placement among comparable towns and what is the school district's placement among comparable towns for salary and I don't think that we have identified a solution that will solve all the problems on the budget task force but I think that it is fair for us to say that the people on our sister boards are aware of what our big issue is and if that's not our big issue then I mean kind of God help us but that that is it right like if we're talking about like the the the possibility for a crisis it would be retention issues around comparable pay for other we had a a really challenging year last year throughout the year with people for various reasons vacating positions during the year and uh we had significant challenge attempting to fill them there are some professionals who would never leave their current job in a district during the school year to take a lateral move to the same job in a different District that's pretty rare but they would potentially make that move at the end of a school year for the start of another school year um so it's a challenge for sure when positions are vacated um again a variety of reasons a spouse is being relocated for work we lost a person uh somebody deciding not to return after a leave of absence um others finding dream jobs and opportunities and taking them uh I think in some part like I've said before driven um by some level of anxiety around uncertainty for job security when we're talking about major Cuts right all through last year's budget cycle um so you can understand why people would explore options and if they're finding that they could be paid more um then they're they're taking that option so um last year we spent a lot of time trying to fill positions and um find alternate solutions to fill gaps and the time effort and energy spent there is time effort and energy that is taken away from the major focus and that's forward progress around impacts related to uh teaching and learning um if we can't find way to get us to a place where we can provide uh more stability in our staffing we we're just going to continue to have years like this which is not good for the kiddos in the fifth grade whose teachers in but then out on leave and then you know extending a leave and we're okay well you've had one sub subtitute in for 4 weeks and now there's a different substitute in again not already well versed in our curriculum here temporary like those sorts of impacts to student progress they're they're real um and I would be very happy not to have multiple years particularly consecutive multiple years of that kind of um tap dancing to to keep it all going uh to make sure that the kids are getting the best experience that we can possibly provide as we sort of Patchwork things together this the one thing that I will say and this is something that Renee at the last budget task force meeting made a comment about comparing our peral expenditure to per pupil expenditure and then I looked at the data about teacher pay and while they do have one rung that is below us everything else is higher than us and that pointed me to the conclusion that retention problems exist in two ways you could have a retention problem in the sense that people don't want to stay but you could also have a retention problem in the sense that people don't want to come correct and so and we did lose candidates that were the first offer and it was declined because they were making more where they were or they also had other offers pending or on the table and there were either a better salary benefits what have you and they made a choice to go elsewhere the thing that I will also say though is that we we've been able to bring on some very seasoned uh experienced highly qualified professionals so there is something about lunenberg that when you've been in the field for a while you recognize that there are things other than just the salary and people are making a decision to come to lunenberg for those other not Quantified factors um I can't speak to that directly but I'm sure you could have conversations with any number of the um the administrators that we've hired and they can talk to you about what they see in this District that makes it very attractive for them um when you have younger teaching staff younger professional staff they don't have uh the perspective and wisdom that comes with years of uh experience in a variety of ways to get to that place where you can recognize that there are other things besides just the salary um but I will say we are falling further and further behind and the salary even for those folks who are looking for the other factors that would bring them here in spite of those other factors are going to say no I I cannot take that kind of a cut right and the folks who joined us took Cuts they they absolutely did um I'm grateful for that but I think the town needs to be prepared for the fact that we are going to have to overhaul the salary structure to retain teachers and to continue forward progress on student achievement yes it is not just a tweak here or there we are substantially behind even poorer towns that are are comp towns based on all sorts of data indicators you know doct Gilson one of her slides to the last meeting showed that even though we had slight increases on people expenditure when you factored in increases in inflation we had actually not just flat funded but we had reduced funding over the past 5 years that cannot be sustained we do not have the capacity to do that and I if I'm wrong if there's another issue that's scarier like the elevator that never seems to be fixed let me know but they're both working right now yes but we really need to put some effort into communicating to the the people of the town of lunenberg that like the education that you expect that is a hmark of this town needs to be funded fairly thank you I'd uh like to move on with our agenda the next item on the agenda is the 2024 2025 school committee goals so you have last year's goals we can review those uh and then discuss potential goals for this year here we go so our goal last year uh first goal was it is the goal of the school committee that the 2024 2025 budget we approve supports our prioritized programs and provides the students of lunenberg with the best possible educational opportunities action steps the school committee will carefully consider the superintendent's proposed budget paying close attention to funding in the areas of differentiate instruction Equity family engagement and priorities established by the school committee in light of the sunsetting Esser funds the school committee will collaborate with the superintendent during budget development by making priorities known and the benchmarks were passage of the 2024 2025 budget that reflect school committee priorities as well as the best possible educational opportunities for lunenberg students any discussion on budget goal one wasn't easy but we did it exactly that's what I was thinking I think the check the big dilemma is whether we want to continue something along the the budget for goal in the future this needs to be number one budget for next year too is other than the part about the suns setting us our funds but we need to continue yeah I think it's a the the I think it's a goal but I think it's a the context is different now you know based on the things that uh Mr scholman bre and the superintendent just talked about right our we need to be thoughtful about the budget this year in terms of our ability to sustain what we're doing um in a increasingly competitive and inflationary environment um and we need to speak with exactly the facts and figures that you've just cited and make that case um and we need to partner with our staff and with our unions and with our administrators and with our parents and students as it turned out last year as well which we didn't really project and you know uh but but I I think that you know that all they that community that we talked about as part of a community engagement goal a couple of years ago is these things are coming together and and we need to Foster that thank you I would add to this also about partnering with um the town and and the work that's being done in the budget task force I think we need to somehow weave that into this goal somewhere yes yeah so my thought is you guys give me feedback I'll come back with a draft and we can go from there sounds good to me all right any else on budget uh goal two was policy it is the goal of the school committee that updated relevant policies will be developed approved and put into practice action steps policy will be reviewed Andor developed in the areas of equity family engagement and athletic head injuries benchmarks the review and approval of these policies we made some baby steps it was a very busy year but yeah we did yeah we've got some first reads here and and the we talked about we've talked about the athletic H injuries there's a first read policy coming out today so I mean that's very timely going to be three more ratings before that becomes policy are there thoughts on continuing a goal on policy I'm not sure that it's I'm not sure that it's goal worthy at this point like I I'll talk about later on tonight in athletic advisory we're going to bring forward a a policy uh revision proposal for fundraisers and you know that and those things should come along as they come up but I'm not sure that they're goal Worthy yeah all right goal number three was communication transparency it is the goal of the school committee that all business ex executed is done so in a transparent Manner and is communicated to members of the school community and the community at large action steps information regarding differentiated instruction Equity prioritization of budget items athletic funding and sources plans regarding Turkey Hill Elementary School and all other school committee topics will be presented in open meeting with necessary documentation available on the school website benchmarks minutes taken in Pack videos we documented this action I'm I'm just going to bat ourselves on the back and say we did a great job and I think that the fact that the budget the override passed and that the budget worked meant that people finally got behind us and I think that part of that is because Dr Burnham and Juliana and uh and anakah did such a good job of constantly revising budgets I also think that Carol did a really good job of duking it out with the powers the be and I think that Peter and Carol their presentation was not just content perfect it was Pitch Perfect you had the right people making the right appeals at the right time so I mean when we were in the mud on the B bus policy I was like this is never going to work we're never going to get there there and then to have a budget override pass I think that's proof that that's working and that it's doing a good job I think the transparency is what got it done the fact that weely very open about it we went through the budget line by line we answered like the hundred questions and I know it's irritating and it makes for very long meetings but in the end I mean we we went by the budget line by line we pointed at everything we knew we were open the community about what was happening and where the needs were and I think that really is helpful and it's also how government should work yeah I I think we need to be thoughtful about how to sustain this yeah I think you're right um and I I I think that there's an opportunity potentially to add to it with you know the topic that came up that I raised at our last meeting around agility when it comes to Communications and as issues come up what what can we do to ensure that accurate information is used in response to misunderstandings or mis misinformation um and and I don't think that we have that agility right now and I I think we need to be thoughtful about how we can put that into place and into practice so just a little background information for the committee um a couple weeks ago my team uh sat with the administrators for one of the town the local uh Facebook pages um and we talked about the challenges of misinformation being communicated and um we I think uh had a very good meeting and um seems to me that they feel comfortable that when they're seeing information uh that's being discussed that they know that we're a resource that they can reach out to us and we can provide verification as to whether or not the information that is uh being discussed is accurate um so we're we're making a a little bit of progress on that front as well that means that the community views you as speaking with credibility which I think is important well I think I think it's also about trust um and I think our work over many years of of trying to be transparent um being open and accessible having meetings responding to emails taking phone calls um people start to understand that they can get their questions answered um and they start to trust that a bit right um so I I think it's a combination of things um but that takes time to establish um you you know someone new could come in to the role and they're they're going to have to work to establish that trust and Rapport and credibility all over again um but it can be done um looking at the goal Three Turkey Hill stands out to me now I just I think buildings I think we talk about the football fields the the buildings in Generals in the facilities maybe the a goal around that uh kind of continuing to see it through I would like to see a plan of record by the end of this year that was the term that was used somewhat squishy a few years ago when it came to TC pasos but I I would like to see a plan of record by the end of this year with respect to both Turkey Hill and um the uh the athletic complex and I'm not quite sure how to how to define what the record or the plan should be at this point you but what that mean does it need to be acknowledged by town meeting or something I'm not really sure but and then I'm not sure how feasible that would even be at this point but I I think that we need to drive to some sort of resolution on those two uh areas I I think I think you're right I and I think it's important that it be captured in public record um Liz Peterson is able to go back and verify what was agreed to when with transition of buildings back to town so on and so forth because it was recorded recorded in the minutes um so getting the information and sharing it publicly that can happen um but I think honestly part of the challenge friend is trying to find places where certain key information can live and be archived and be accessible because that's one of the challenges that we've had with turnover in key positions where are those records right um so I I I think it's really critically important for the historical uh Yep they're accessible we can go find them um this is exactly what was relayed to the community publicly about any number of things so um I I do I think that that's important so on that subject if you're looking for another potential topic um and was a very good segue when you talked about the archiving and continuity of of information um I perceive that we have some operational challenges in lunenberg that directly relate to our ability to retain good employees because they get burned out running into drop balls and cleanups on aisle 5 and and friction in the course of getting their jobs done because there's nobody to receive the request or it doesn't get processed or whatever the case might be um there's a gentleman that spoke at last night's select board meeting uh Logan oconnell who is a 2020 graduate of lunberg high school and is a very recent uh employe new employee of the town in the building department and I would encourage people to go back and watch it it's it's on YouTube it's probably the most wellth thought out thing that's been said in the select board meeting in months um and his his uh which is I guess is not a high bar but tou um Mr OK connell's comments were about um process and documentation and and what I would Define and continuity and um and quality at the end of the day he didn't use that word that's my word but it it was really about quality and and you know this might not even be a one-year goal this is a big thing right but when we're talking about being a good employer and and and delivering a quality product those are the things that I think we need to be mindful of and some of it's driven already by by you know statute and mandates and those kinds of things but there are other things that we put into a policy but I'm not really sure that the implementation of that policy is is documented or the processes are clear and so I I'd like us to at least think about how we might be able to improve in that area do you think that's connected to finance would you consider that connected to finance um it could be cuz I'm wondering even if we can connect it back to budget and finance kind of yeah it could be I mean I view this as more operational than than than budget um cuz at my I had on my list was munus like something better so that's both by the way I you know I view that as budget and operational are you talking about the documentation part that the young men was speaking about which by the way very proud he's a one of our graduate because he was extremely intelligent made a lot of great points last night um but are are you talking about the documentation part or the the specifically the operations and the well they're they're linked right so for example I'm going to make something up because I don't know the details of any of this right but we we put out a policy that says um reimbursements need to follow this policy M right and a a memo goes out an email right to the to the the staff that says this is the way we're going to do it right okay well half of the math department quits next year we get a whole bunch of new people where do they go to know that this is how you process a PO or a get a get a reimbursement or whatever and they we could very well have that completely well documented I honestly don't know but but my sense is is that there are a lot of things that kind of fall into that category of well talk to you know Mr Smith and he's the one who knows how to do that and and okay well if Mr Smith you know retires tomorrow then what and and I I just and and I I just I get the sense that um sometimes our errors are related to people not knowing where to go how to how to raise an issue how to get an issue resolved and that leads to frustration but is that more of a townwide side or a school I think it's both I honestly think it's both um I I think it's probably worse in the town side um but I but I think that we have we suffer from some of those same ills Y and and if you if I'm wrong I'm wrong like you know tell me I'm wrong but on that particular example um it's documented in multiple places um but teachers don't naturally go to read every word in all of those documents so so in order to make sure that everyone would follow that particular process we actually added a slide that outlined the process on the mandatory trainings that everyone has to do at the start of every year so that it wouldn't continue to be a problem where people didn't follow protocol and process and it's a problem I think it can be a challenge too if people aren't doing it as part of their daily routine if it's once a year they're doing it or once every two years they might forget something or it changes there are also things that you know I I brought up at the last meeting um and again we don't have to capture all these in goals but that directly relates to the public perception of us which is hiring right what is our hiring process at a high level and is there any transparency that comes along with that can the public understand what are the vacancies when a vacancy is closed is it resolved and publicized how that vacancy was like th those those kinds of things and I understand like in the summer when you guys are going through what you're going through and you're trying to get you know teachers to volunteer their time to be on a staffing committee or whatever that there's a lot of ad hoc activity but but at a high level like that that information should be clear and and by our experience of last month it definitely is not so again people don't necessarily know where to go look right um our open positions um we 've done a pretty decent job of keeping up with uh including them on um the business office web page um it's not on the main page you'd have to click to get to the business office but the open positions are there the challenge with the website is you could put a link to employment um and we can certainly look at that it's just that the more direct links You' put to things then the list becomes so lengthy that people are missing that in the list it it's it's a challenge right um but that information is available and we do follow a process um when we're interviewing right having committees um representative of folks that are going to be working alongside the hire and um we have defined questions I definitely got the personal my email to my personal email asking if I was was willing to volunteer to be on the hiring committee yep yeah so anyway I I just you know but these are my thoughts I I I get the sense that there's you know I I want to be as good of an employer as we possibly can be and I I get the sense that there's a lot of frustration around around do you know the the things that exist outside of direct instruction with a with a student right and and the the processes and and and you know in my job we get surveyed twice a year and you know we keep track on on employee opinions about things and track it and then there's open comments and you know what are the worst things about your job well this this this and this and then the manager say okay well we're going to pick a few of those and go aim to fix them right and and we we have a mechanism for that we have routine meetings um with the Union leadership uh for uh most of our unions scheduled like routine and that's where those sorts of uh issues get brought forward um and we work hard to resolve them like in that moment right come come to the table with the solution for things so um it exists to some extent um I think we I think we've had some good discussions on the um the school committee goals I think if you have any additional information please send it to me any ideas and I will draft up some for our next meeting uh the next item of the agenda is the town Financial policies so you received a rather lengthy document all of the Town policies um we're still in the process of trying to check and cross reference any policies that the school committee has that might not syn up with the expectations in these policies um I'd invite Dr gillson to come up if she has any uh thoughts to to share um regarding the review of these policies I think the one um the one policy that stood out to us as um really being problematic um is the the policy around grants because it's looking for pre-approve of every single Grant before we submit the grants and there are certain grants that we they're they're entitlement grants and we submit them every single year and we typically use the funds for the same types of uh either staff or materials or what have you Scope that's so outside of our scope of oversight so one of the things that we considered um we could add to um the the reorganization document that we follow every year when there's you know following the uh Town election and we do the reorganization you always make a motion and take a vote on allowing water in the auditorium during town meeting you always authorize continuation of all policies that are in place we could add a motion to authorize myself or designes to pursue um any grants that uh would align with and further support the work that's outlined in the strategy the goals uh the school Improvement plans uh the SOA the student Opportunity Act plan that we have to submit to the state um because basically that's what we do we pursue any funding sources that further the work that we're trying to do we also get um Department of Public Health Grants uh that our nurses uh oversee and execute so for us to have and sometimes the announcement of grants that are available at the department of Ed the turnaround time is sometimes you got a deadline in two weeks so for us to have to schedule a meeting that would have a quorum to get prior authorization in order for us to submit on a deadline that that can become very uh cumbersome so that was one of the solutions that we thought that would make it pretty straightforward and simple that annually prior to the summer when the entitlement Grant allocations come out and we have to draft and submit our grants to the state um that maybe it's a a sort of overarching blanket authorization have for for us to pursue and submit all of those grants have these been adopted as the official policies because further no Grant fund shall be used to supplant an existing expense for the purpose of diverting current funds to another use I mean so so my take on this document this this was done as a project that was kicked off by the previous Town manager and it was a state agency that came in and and audited our materials and looked at our Charter our bylaws our policies and best practices that are are uh uh you know in place at at the state level and came up with this document and you see at the beginning it is not a policy it is a financial policies manual and what it does not articulate is in any given line in any of these sections it'll tell you what we used for for references but it does not tell you what specifically any of the language refers to back in a policy a bylaw Charter or anything or it's just best practice in a recommendation so what I don't know still is would the select board just adopt this and it supersedes all policy and then somebody has to go in and Redline policy do we have to go does the town need to go in and make changes to policy for this to become a thing like the the the adoption of this to me is very problematic like I just don't have they voted on I don't no nothing it's been just circulated for comment feedback so feedback like you know my I I actually think it's a really good document if it were all true and in place but the question is is how do you get to you know number one do you agree with everything that's in it and I think there are some issues there but number two is how do you get there and and there isn't a clear road map in my mind for how you do that and and administratively because we are part of the town we do have to conform to select board policies particularly when they deal with the scheduling of the warrant for example or or those kinds of things but we are technically not financially we are we are we we are technically separate in terms of policies so our own policies would need to be audited and adapted for this to be put in for us to comply with it right so and we don't know what any of that redlining is we do not have a Redline version of this to my knowledge or or a cited version of you know what what comes from where so it's a in my mind this is a it's it's a problematic document right now skull and Brea so first of all like looking through this when when we first got it I was like why is this so big and now that I realize that like no one's voted on this this just seems like either like a bunch of suggestions or science fiction about how some outside auditor wants lunenberg to work if you read the details most of it is rooted in our existing policy and bylaws and Charter like it it does reflect how we how we do business in lunenberg but there there is additional best practice in here we don't do that we don't do and it's not clear like what would actually need to be instituted in policy to get there right highlight what's it doesn't highlight the changes here's the other thing what purpose is there in us spending any time looking at this when we have because some turmoil on select board and no Town manager on a long-term basis because well I think the concern is if the the select board does say past this manual then we have to follow it my my initial thought would be I appreciate appreciate the the work that Dr Burnham has done with this and Dr kilson but maybe it's first giving the interim Town manager the feedback of our concerns maybe they can make changes and if not we have that backup plan mhm how does that sound that works cuz I think you guys are the experts at the what the concerns are relay those to the town interim Town manager and then we can go from there but like just as a procedural question if he's the inter Town manager does he have the authority to put these in place without the select board no the select board has to okay so if he doesn't have authority and the current select board is somewhat contentious are we that hey you never know if they'll vote it through got a spite maybe all right so we should at least put our I give I give them more credit than that they I don't think that these are the issues that are contentious with the select you know like they're going to look through this yeah I you know I I don't take some time though right right but it's good to give them the feedback that's what they ask for we're going to give them the feedback I think they need the feedback in order to move forward who's our liaison we don't have a leison a select board okay I I'm keep an eye I think if they give us the feed we give them the feedback they'll give us the feedback as well the grant things especially are concerning because I don't know if the townside is aware we are we well as an example grants come up all the time through the department of and we're looking right now at the possibility of pursuing the prism Grant um if this were in place I would have to schedule a special meeting of the committee to to give us authorization to submit the grant no suffice to say we don't want that far outside our scope that's not again which is why I say if if we have to have a workaround a directive an annual vote right that a approve moves my leadership to pursue funding sources that align with and support what's been outlined as the work of the district either through the strategy superintendent goals uh School Improvement plans our uh student Opportunity Act plan um and I also think that there there is potentially very good reason for that policy in other areas where you don't have the you don't have the breath of professional staff that we do where you've got a Committee Member or a junior employee or something that goes out and solicits a grant and gets it and now all of a sudden there's all kinds of strings or Riders attached to that grant that that you know become problematic and I think that that's really the where you know where that comes from all right moving on with the agenda uh next item on the agenda is an action item facilities and grounds report you should have that in your folder and I will um uh just ask you at the end of this to um just accept it as a report of progress um facilities Department current open positions we have four full-time evening custodian positions open still sharing oh sorry thank you um we have one part-time evening custodian position open and one maintenance position open um since we've been struggling uh to fill uh the open positions um we've come up with a plan uh that we're going to try to fill some student custodian positions and at least give some extra Hands-On to help the full-time custodians um that we have currently um stay tuned we'll we'll see if we're successful at all in in uh in that approach uh relative to capital projects the primary school AC Mini Splits project is complete um we came up just a bit short in terms of the funding because costs increased um so there is still one classroom on the second floor that will need to have um a unit installed as part of phase two but we were able to install six units that would feed 12 classrooms so those are all second floor yeah so the second floor the second floor is done except for one classroom so project didn't at the end of the day touch anything on the first floor I don't I don't I'll double check but I don't think that there were units that were in I'll I'll double check okay there might be one or two down on the first floor um so again that that project there's still a phase two in addition um on our Capital plan that we'll get to shortly um there's also um a minisplit project for Turkey Hill on the capital plan the phase two is also in the capital plan the 10year capital plan um but we are hopeful that we're actually going to confirm that there's a meeting tomorrow with Mr blat and a representative from um the green communities at the state level um to talk about the potential for any of the projects that we have on our uh Capital plan uh for funding and we think maybe that these projects with the mini splits because we would use them for supplemental heat oh that that may make them eligible so we'll we'll have more information for you on that but phase one at the primary is done um Turkey Hill the window security film that was an fy2 Capital uh funded project uh that's already in progress um Crews have been on site uh this week and um they're working with us in that from 12:30 to 3:30 they're working on the exterior of the building and then after school dismissal they move inside to apply film uh from from the inside of the building um there is one uh of the the windows the window panels uh in the front lobby area that uh is cracked that does need to be replaced and as soon as that is replaced and that's on order already um they'll complete the application on that one panel um the the main part of the project should be done within the next two weeks maybe 3 weeks uh with the installation of that uh glass panel relative to the replacement of the exterior doors um the security uh upgrades for the access um and the um security camera uh installation for Turkey Hill and the primary as well as the Turkey Hill fire alarm system upgrade uh those are all temporarily delayed because we had to do asbest testing in order to put the rest of the project out to bid the initial part of those projects was bid out the Architects are in the engineers they're looking at the the the projects to get the specs to go out to bid this has delayed any forward progress ress on that the work's been done we're waiting for um the final report uh of the assessment and once we have that we should then be able to move forward with bidding out the rest of the projects do we anticipate that the asbest issue is going to increase our costs there's potential there there's potential there um we'll have to wait and see what what they provide for information and then what the engineers who are waiting on that information have to say about it um so stay tuned on that uh again it's been frustrating to have this delay but it's what needs to be done to make sure that it's done properly and safely so one one thought on this and this is frustrating to me as you know I've already expressed that to you um these we should try to ensure that the bid schedules of these are synchronized and my reasoning for that is that there is these projects were approved separately on the capital plan Y and if we're in a position where we need to work with the town manager the finance committee and the capital planning committee to come to a resolution on do we do do we do none of them because the because the price came in too high do we do two and not a third like those kinds of issues are need to get are going to need to get discussed but if you only have one of the things it becomes a kind of a nonstarter in terms of looking at that based on the totality of the available funding so there most of those are hung up pending this report and then once we have that information we'll be working with the Architects to get the bid out the door for all of them you said all of them most of them are hung up waiting on the report which one isn't the door replacement the um security access at Turkey Hill the security access at the primary and the uh fire alarm upgrades replacement parts uh uh at Turkey Hill there's no there's no asbestos at the primary school okay right that's okay but they're likely going to work in tandem to do that to do those projects the other thing that we've been tipped off by um The Architects uh they suspect they highly suspect that uh for the security uh upgrade projects um because they're going to have to run wiring and they're going to have ladders and clippings of wire and all of that um that they aren't going to want to work with us and clean up right work with us do work at Night clean up have the kids in during the day um they want an uninterrupted six to 8 week window where they can leave their ladders and they can clean up after they're done um we'll see we'll see what we get when it goes out to bid but there is a possibility for those projects that that may have to wait until June because they're not going to work and do what they can during December break and then come back during February break and then whereas we can likely work with um the vendors who are going to replace the doors because we can do them um over time yeah is there any other questions or concerns about the facilities and grounds report I look for a motion I'd make a motion to accept the fac fa ities and grounds report as presented second all in favor say I I I I'll oppos thank you thank you I appreciate these being monthly next item of the agenda is first read of the policies we have student travel policy chapter 77 766 policy facilities policies oh boy I move to wave first reading of all of the above can I just ask a question yes there hasn't been a second yet one second any discussion Miss Aro my my question is that I think 353 on our list is twice did I miss something did I did I not read that correctly I get 353 security and then 353 um edits public safety policy I think is the same thing something see something was twice unless somebody caught it and fixed cop of copy of draft of edits that so there is a policy 3503 that is um security and that speaks to doors and locking of doors y um and then there is 35031 which is security cameras in the schools right but but you have 353 security and then copy of building and then on this list and it's slightly different and I'm just wondering why they the same number if you look at security 353 it has to do with I see what you're saying do you know what I mean yep just confused so that just needs to be um edited so that the 3503 is listed one of them is 3531 yep but we're missing the reference to 353 as the overarching right right right something is something is a and the other question I had was on 35101 environmentally sustainable practice is that new cuz there's no redlining and it says it was approved has approved yeah um on on February 15 uh 25th of 2015 2015 but there's no red line so I don't know where the change is no I don't did we talk about this it's possible that this was one that we did not recommend changes I I'll go back through the notes and uh double check okay this might be just one of the policies that was reviewed but not but it was fine brought forward for revision okay those are my questions now you may go ahead any other discussion comments All right so we have a motion on the table to wave the first read of the policies listed and there's been a second all in favor say I I I all opposed motion passes thank you um anybody listening might want to know that these policies are they on the website because we didn't read them so yes okay sorry thank you that's very helpful all right next item on the agenda is a donation so there are no donations this evening but um I'd like to be able to um carry this as a standing item not here under new business but um somewhere up above with approved line item transfers warrants Etc um because often times we will get information from the schools after an agenda has already gone to post that they have received a check from the PTO that they want accepted so that way if it's just a standing item I can let you know that there are no donations or that we do have donations and then we can accept them and then not have to worry about revising um agendas if something comes in late thank you uh next item on the agenda is old business action item FY 26 draft Capital plan so I did um I did survey uh the members of the uh committee uh to get their thoughts on priority rankings for each of the projects that you wanted listed under FY 26 and I uh provided you some analysis with mean median and mode good job good job this is what happens when the chair is the math teacher I enjoyed it um and I just left um the last slide wa the last slide so this is slide 49 is the so that we can I can just make some not about what the committee decides relative to Priority ranking yeah so going by I guess I'm going to try to take the lead on this one so going by the the median and the mean they both number one was the driveway Primary School $30,000 so I would say potentially and it had the mode as well number one um so I would potentially start that if we can do a rough draft of a uh a list and then kind of go from there and have a discussion okay what's mode mode is the most often thank you okay for the people out there all right yes for the people out there doing a math lesson you're teaching us one way or the other begins with m o and most begins with m o so that's a good way to I went to Wikipedia after our last meeting but I didn't have time today good one and mean is the average mean is the average median is the middle number so when you list all five of ours which one was in the middle yeah so it really statistically we're really close um so same thing for the second one the mean and the median were the same uh for the second ranking was the playground at the primary school $30,000 as well oh wow um didn't show up as the mode the most often the uh most often was a three interesting and the uh it was interesting the hot water tank actually was mode was to so that might be a a discussion too whether we move the hot water tank but the hot water tank and the um the hot water tank was the next on the mean and also it was up there on the median tied for the second and the median so I think those are kind of interchangeable but I think we could go by the mean it's it's still pretty close hot water tank was then the the third third yeah can I just sayy Hill $20,000 Mr J something about the playground if there is a close call in the ranking I think we should favor doing the project that would alleviate the worst possible liability for the district and the playground remodel would be that uh I think that's the discussion I think we should have if we want to move stuff around and again I would also go back to the the capital planning committee will also make their rankings and finalize it in the town manager as well so it's unfortunately it's not fully up to us but we can at least send out recommendations I feel like the driveway does need to come before the playground I do too though I would hate to put that much money into the playground to move it to move to have to move it I I think they got to go together I I you know in in my mind it's one two yeah yeah okay all right so then the next one was the hot water tank so we had three was hot water tank after that we're looking at and again it's it's either or the mean versus median and the this one is really close uh the generator at the primary school and the safety film at the primary school can I yeah yeah misso why is there a dash under mode there wasn't a mode so if there's not a number that's most often it doesn't have a mode oh well see there you go okay the the only concern I would have on this one is that the safety film we've heard from Mr beard Moore that it is not a popular topic so I would lean towards putting the generator first and then the safety film but I'm open to discussion on that one I'd be fine with that and then following that is the last three and these were all really close so I am open to discussion on this one is the utility pickup truck security camera and the safety film of the lunberg middle high school I don't think they're going to want to fund the utility pickup with plow I just it's going to sell well yes it's possibly security camera then utility pickup truck and then safety film yeah I think Middle High School the security camera server is out of its time then I think that probably should go yeah ahead of safety film and utility pickup truck you refresh my memory on this is a existing server today that we're just routing existing cameras back to that server or does this relate to the the cameras that we're looking to install as part of these other Capital planning projects I don't I I can't recall exactly if they're connected or not um it's the central server that we have currently uh is at its end of support stop um the useful life on the servers typically a 10-year window so uh we'll be on borrowed time uh without any support which tends to also mean security updates if it's out of a support window it's probably not getting security updates which would be kind of ironic on a security related server yeah do we do we have the ability to spend less and Route this traffic to some kind of cloud service has anybody explored that um they have actually explored but I do believe that this uh camera system is going to require a a central server because there have been discussions where we have moved things to Cloud backup um so anything that's not cloud backup yet I think is because um it requires a a server but I can get some more information for you on that well I'd like to get this done too so um okay all right so can we go down our rough draft of what we're thinking and have discussion from there yep so what I heard was one is the driveway two is the playground three is the hot water tank four is the generator five is the safety film at the primary school six is the um security camera server seven is the safety film and then the utility uh pickup is last so discussion Mr feore for what it's worth I was the loan Ranger on the utility pickup and put it as number one and I think my my analysis on this was polar opposite of of most people on the committee it would appear but my my thinking on this is that we cannot put ourselves in a position where we we are unable to look we have a we have a staffing problem right now with our maintenance and now we're about to have critical equipment problems where we if we had staff we couldn't even use them because we have equipment problems you know this is this is a truck that is on its last leg it's kind of Beyond it and and we've we've got to maintain this is all part of maintenance you know and and in my mind we we got to have it and and I I I understand that you know there's a there's a history here of well we'll get a hand me- down from the DPW or something like that those proposals are not on the table right now there's there's there's no rescue plan when we have a vehicle that is beyond its serviceable life and and we can't do it um so anyway I that was my thinking on this I understand if it's not the pleasure of the committee but um but this is important equipment why can't we talk to the DPW about a hand-me-down truck cuz they don't have any hme Downs because we're we're we're pressuring them to extend the life of their vehicles as well and they've got they've got vehicles that are you know long in the tooth as well see my my concern on that and why I did not rate it high was that all this discussion about everybody's all going to S Kumbaya and work together and some you know they they want us I didn't think it would get through Capital plan I don't think it's the year for it and and that was why I didn't do that I agree that it is a vital piece of equipment but I didn't think it was going to get through Capital planning yeah I'd also worry about vehicles I don't know what historically been the past of accepting but I feel like sometimes they just don't support vehicles on the capital plan we got one now I mean we we we are funding Vehicles you know I mean we just but and we just did one yeah we just got one we just got one um yeah I agre I don't think it's going to fly this year because we got one sharing resources is the seems to be a focus so I don't think it's going to get past which is why I rated it lower I'm trying to think about what we can sell and what we can get um although I do agree we're going to need another pickup truck Mr skull one thing that uh Ezekiel from the town has talked about in the budget task force and he's been awesome like really really great is trying to figure out ways to save money by sharing costs and expenses and procedures between both the town and the school I would be shocked if there's no proposal from the budget task force that doesn't involve some pooling of vehicles and so if we put that as our number one and then you know the budget task force comes out and says like well why don't you guys pull these then it's like we kind of wasted our shot so that is the only concern I would have and why I didn't rank it highly but I think that you're right in the sense that if we don't we need to we need to do everything we can to shore up the maintenance and upkeep of the buildings while we have a staffing shortage and the C is an easy way to do that but I'm just concerned that we'll put all of our eggs in that basket and then the budget task force will come up with some plan about how to pull resources and pull that from out from under us and I look at it too is that the the the capital planning committee is going to make their own judgment too on this after hearing from the superintendent I think a lot of times maybe we look at it from an educational standpoint too it's like you see the playground it definitely needs to be replace but you don't want to replace it before you replace the driveway and figure out where the location is too so I feel like there's a lot of planning going with those too and I think that the driveway is a request that uh Public Safety will be behind as well that driveway is too narrow and it is it is a hazard and we really is possible it's I was was there the day that the fire alarm went off at bus time and that was and and the kids ran and it was it was a nightmare because nobody could get through and parents were it it's I there's no doubt that we got to deal with that I'm happy I'm happy with these priories any other discussion on the order um I will bring up that I was the number one on the security camera because if the security camera can't secure what is the point so um that is why I did that I mean if it no longer is receiving any upgrades um what kind of good is that what it what that means is is that it's it's more vulnerable right so so the server is going to continue to run the server will still run it's still it's still operating but when you when it ends the end of its support period typically a manufactur is no longer sending security updates for the firmware or the the the operating system of that particular server so when vulnerabilities are discovered the kind of things that hackers go after that they're sending those vulnerabilities are not patched and the the server becomes more vulnerable right so um it now there's literally millions of servers out there that are out of Tolerance right like that's why we run into security problems all the time so my thought was looking at the list I wanted to double check but I'm like the next one it would bump would be the the safety film of the primary school and I feel like I I would prefer to have the safety film of the primary school than the security camera server at this point was my thought can you read the list again Brian as B in order yep driveway the way Playground hot water tank generator safety film at the primary security camera server safety film at the middle high school and utility pickup with a plow I'm happy with that any other discussion do we need to make a motion on this one going to check yes it is an action item FY 26 draft Capital plan okay motion to approve the above stated priority rankings for the FY 26 Capital plan a second any discussion um all in favor of the drafted Capital plan say I I I I opposed abstain thank you motion passes next item of the agenda is the par professional contract ratification all right so um you have before you uh and mou the only the only challenge is that uh what was provided to us um can we by the uh Union references a three-year agreement and it's not a three-year agreement it's a one-year agreement that was my one question um I tried to reach out uh to the union representative to verify that what they all ratified IED on Tuesday last week was a one-year agreement because that was what was agreed to in our last session right um so it does State the dates yep correctly so I think it's more of a typo and we can do a motion with the edit revision there was no confusion over this with the negotiating team it my thought is if the association needs to go back and vote again they can go back and vote again but our vote my guess is that I'll be able to confirm that they voted a one-year plan and we just need to edit this before it's signed okay yes that's fine um and uh this agreement was also provided to the town manager uh for review who is also on the meeting tonight to uh vote I don't know if um other members of the bargaining team uh want to offer any additional comment um yeah I'll comment um this is I've been on the school committee for two years and this is the third collective bargaining agreement that I've negotiated and they've all been pretty different um this was probably not the easiest one that we've done but it has been probably the most professional and overall all inspiring negotiation that we've gone through um the the negotiating team for the par professionals Union brought forth a number of asks all of which I think we agreed were very well thought out and and reasonable uh mostly language related things that um you know we we ultimately adopted in in the language or worked through some logistical issues to to make sure that they were in fact workable um and and fair and I I think that um there was a real partnership throughout that negotiation that this needed to be something that was uh fair and respectful not only of the the the par professionals themselves but also the importance of the job that they do and the criticality of their role to our operation um the the one area that you know I think we all have come to realize is that there just just like we were talking about across the board in terms of our our overall uh salary schedules there's a real challenge there uh based on what is a living wage depending upon how you define that um the the avail ility of hours this is not a full-time year round job um and comparative salaries and and hourly rates of par Professionals in other school districts that are drawing our people away and and so retention became a a very important topic um what we came to realize was that we could not financially meet their ask over a three-year period without putting ourselves in a financial straight jacket really when it comes to out budget years in 26 and 27 and so as a result of that what we agreed to was a one-year contract at a what I consider to be a very modest raise um at 4% um with an agreement that we we are immediately going to you know get back into it and look at restructuring their pay scale because the issue is not just the percentage of a cola or something like that but it's also the structure of things like you know when does longevity come into play and how does that relate to you know a start date and when somebody came in at a different level of the pay scale and those kinds of things so there's mechanical changes that we do need to address um over time but it's going to take a little bit more time and more financial resource to be able to do it in a way that I think we all agree we would like to be able to do it um so my thinking on this is that this gives us an opportunity um and and my pitch to The negotiating team collectively was let's put ourselves on the same side of the negotiating table here and and come to something that we can work together on for something that makes better sense for a long longer period of time um even though we can't do it at an accelerated pace for this current fiscal year um and and fortunately they were uh they were amenable to that strategy and I'm I'm very appreciative that they were thank you and that required a lot of trust and compromise on their part so there there was a lot of trust in that in the one-year agreement that next year we do go back and open it up to changing the compensation package and getting back into it again like Peter said is there any other discussion on the par professional contract I just want to thank the negotiating team for the time and effort put in and all the thought that goes into that it's very pleasant expecting it to be so pleasant they're they were they drive a hard bargain they're very tough they're great people yeah like yes the Paris do a lot in the schools a lot all right so I look for a motion to ratify the par professional contract for one year as proposed motion to ratify the par professional contract for one year second any discussion all those in favor say I I opposed abstain should we um should this be a roll call vote because Mr tanzini needs to cast oh yeah sorry yeah we have to actually have a yeah roll call vote Dr Burnham Mr terenzini I that was an i yes Mrs brzowski I Mr beardmore I Mrs arshambo I Mr school brini I and Mr Leon I thank you good catch next item on the agenda is a discussion uh C update yeah you you might remember that uh naen Lorenzen came before you uh back in June I believe um and gave you some information that we thought that Turkey Hill was going to be eligible for this and we would move forward um but in the end Turkey Hill was in fact not yet eligible so we just wanted to provide that update that it's status quo thank you any questions or concerns thank you for the update on that I was wondering all right next it the agenda is reports we just go down the line if you have any reports yeah we got nothing um I have several um the uh athletic advisory committee met met last night we approved several fundraisers that um I need to put into a me memorandum to the superintendent and I'll copy the members of the school committee um we also discussed going to a um a different meeting format uh so rather than a meeting every um season um where it's very difficult to figure out who are the right people to be there what are the relevant Sports can we get them there on the right night oh somebody's got field hockey had a pasta dinner last night and couldn't be there um that we were going to do an annual live meeting um that would include a student representative faculty member as outlined in the the policy um and really be a reflection of needs and asks and wants from the uh the Athletics Community um and that we believe that we need to go to a different system for approving fundraisers um which would effectively be mostly driven via email um and left to myself or whoever the school committee representative is and the athletic director to approve and inform um that will require a policy change uh which I will be bringing shortly uh as a as a proposal um the capital planning committee uh met a few weeks ago to discuss our calendar and uh asks of department heads in terms of sort of a a compulsory requirements for um the presentations that they bring forth um we met with I met with Mr terenzini a couple of times over the last couple weeks to discuss that um and we'll be bringing forth a a schedule a proposed schedule literally within the next couple of days um and the town manager uh selection committee uh is due to meet next week uh to discuss proposals for a uh recruiting firm um we have a bid we have bids are out and I think are just due now and we'll be uh looking at those And discussing them the um the finance committee and select board approved a $115,000 transfer from um uh the uh Reserve account uh to to fund the uh to fund a selection uh or a recruiting firm to assist us in this process so now we're going through the acquisition process to to get it going thank you um I have the middle school council is meeting on the 24th of September and I already gave away some of my fincom stuff but um on the 8th of August Mr Lon met with the um finance committee and talked about a possible change in in health insurance for a suggestion to look into a HS a hdhp see I can all those initials in there in other words a high deductible health program um and they had a lot of questions and they were interested and then on the 22nd Mrs foil met and spoke about um this discussion and she explained the necessary process to make that kind of change which would be it would go to the health health insurance committee that is in um that meets regularly anyways they met on the 21st as Le would have it and um she suggested that the proposal go to the select board so I I assume that's what it's going to happen to that yeah just waiting on the select board and the interim Town manager see if it proceeds um they also had I I didn't watch the whole meeting on the 8th but um on the 22nd they also had a huge discussion with the financial investment advisor regarding trying to get higher yields to Investments certain without getting technical this was like a two-hour discussion and my head was swimming but he had things in three buckets and certain certain um funds can go to higher yields now because there's a new um Mass General law that's allowing that some things cannot go to high yields at all all because they Ed for expenses and such some things can go to sort of high yields which are on this list you have to pick from that the state allows but um there are certain things that can be moved but the town to a higher yield which would be like a 60% stock a 40% Bond um the town needs to vote this change in and that they are scheduled to hopefully do so at the special town meeting um Mr Bernard was there explaining chapter 90 funding currently in his account there's $2.4 million but there is much work that is underway so after that work is underway is paid off there is $1.6 million available for future funding our sidewalk project that we had approved through opa but then we asked for the APPA funds back and that it went back and forth a million times is coming out of his chapter 90 funds and it is twice as expensive as the quote he gave me so um so anyways but that project is underway the engineering is is being done currently and then once the engineering is complete that will go through so I was glad to hear that and budget I already talked about so they that's what I get thank you I've talked about budget task force throughout the whole thing uh the last thing that we did was we went through and looked at costs and expenses for the town after talking about things that generated Revenue our next meeting which is next Monday will focus on uh gathering information about needs and wants from stakeholders in the town and in the school district namely the unions and for unrepresented noncollective bargain to people their uh office or department managers talking about what they need in terms of funding and salary increases and things like that the hope is that we're going to like turn the corner and then start discussing proposals um and I I will say that Ezekiel has been really really good at staying on top of information so I I think the the proposals are you know I'm keeping a running list of the proposals some of them are like you know save $87 but others are like real big deal changes that could result in you know significant funds for the town uh and one of them was the thing that Carol just mentioned about allowing The Prudent investor rule to apply to town assets and so it's uh I I'm hopeful that there will be things that make the school district function better and that there are some things that we can do to get more money but I do ultimately think that no matter what happens we're going to have some kind of proposal about taxes which you know people love to hear that I will remind everybody Oliver wend Holmes taxes are the price of civilization but no one wants to hear that thank you uh I have none at this time uh next item on the agenda is public comment I'll open it up to the public is there any public comment from the public seeing none I'll open it up to public comment from the committee seeing none next item of the agenda is topics for future discussion is there any additional topics you'd like to add so Mr chair I just wanted to say something I made a comment I don't know like 6 months ago about looking at the school cell phone policy I did not realize that everybody on the planet has an opinion about cell phone policy so I would say you can always bring it to policy and bring it back to us right it is it is coming and I just want to prepare if this's actually uh something they could stun at the school committee I imagine that there will be if it this is the only thing anybody's everever reached out to me for ever not even the budget so like I don't know why everybody's fired up about this but I think that we'll and it's obviously not ready yet but I think that we should probably have a discussion item on an agenda later down down the line literally dozens of people like I don't even know more of a discussion corre guide policy for correct I think there's because the problem is is uh there are strongly held beliefs on both sides and they are not resolvable we get Dr Burnham to bring in some people to have that discussion with us yes that would be great thank you any other future topics for discussion lock off and you can always reach out to me your Dr Burnham too uh next item on the agenda is executive session to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-un Personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union Personnel can I get a motion I will to adjourn to Executive session and then uh adjourn afterwards is there a second a second um all in F did you have public comments we did so I think when I was in my car coming here Mr SC was too talking as I run up the stairs maybe I missed it is there any chance that a public comment can be made uh if I can get a motion to reconsider draw my motion to adjourn motion thank you motion to allow public comment is there a second second all in favor say I I I all right public comment is now open well thank you um on a lock with 91 Main Street you guys are so lucky I was driving home from work and I literally pulled up front as Mr SC was giving his report I checked the agenda I was like perfect timing for public comment um but I started listening when you guys were finishing up the conversation about Capital plan um I do I do I I like the order that you guys had everything including in particular that truck coming last and I'll tell you why and actually I'm going to try to actually tell you something that I think it's more doable I was just at Hen for a couple weeks ago around lunchtime and there was a DPW truck parked there just the kind of truck you guys want with a little you know the into the bed with the um I don't the utility boxes but it had already some rust on the thing and it has the plow adjustments so what I think it be a really good I I understand you know getting hand me- downs and all but when you're buying a brand new truck the truck is getting a lot more used for the life they will have if you start using where it will get a lot of miles from so if we start a new trucks on the DPW you know we can even start talking about schedule like uh you know trucks after so many years they are up for grabs by the school that will force the town to then give the DPW a new truck um but you know knowing that we have chapter 90 funds of the tune of 1.6 million you know maybe this next round we can suggest the DPW in capital plan to fund their loader and a new truck for them and pass that truck down to the schools because I think you know it's necessary um but more importantly I think well just as important we need to start talking about you know if the schools are expected to have hand me downs when in the life cycle of that and after so many years you know maybe that will become a automatic grab by the way that is done the senior center a few years back did a grant for a bus or a minivan that they did all the work and when they went to get the grant they were informed that Mart gets that truck or that V and after so many years then the senior center can actually have rights to that so that is kind of a practice that does is it exist in public sector so that's all thank you thank you thank you and thank you for making the exception motion to adjourn uh motion to enter executive session and then adjourn afterwards second all those in favor say I I I oppos thank you we will go to Executive session and ajour following have a good night everyone