not all items listed May in fact be discussed and item other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by open meeting law so would you please if you are able stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for worship stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all we will open this meeting's agenda as we usually do with um public comment the school committee welcomes comments from the public comments addressing topics under the scope and authority of the school committee are welcome at either public comment section please remember this is public comment not discussion and and limit your comments to 3 minutes each public comment section has a maximum of 10 minutes comments about individual students are prohibited by state and federal law is there anyone with a public comment this evening come right ahead all right uh first I wanted to say a really big thank you to everybody that's here first we need your name and address oh yes Cil coffin 27 oav the blue house thank you um so uh yes thank you very heartfelt thank you to everybody except for Kate because God knows the hours and effort that you put in over the last few months go above and beyond your job description and that deserves an even bigger thank you so thank you very much agreed agreed second um I wanted to do a bit of a debrief uh I'm sure everyone here uh including me we can breathe a big side of relief in a lot of ways um and could also compose an extensive list of what this body collectively and we as individuals might do differently if we could jump back in time uh someone who has herself put in some overtime getting to know the details of public school and town government's operations in lunenberg Massachusetts I would like to go back at least one decade so I could get a PhD and Ed admin something I did consider at one point in my life that didn't get so that would have been really helpful as it is um I'm left with a few takeaways that I hope prove useful to you as a governing body moving forward I hope you ask for what we need not what you think we can get political strategy is about nuance and Communications but that comes after a fair assessment of what our children need to stay safe health healthy happy and engaged in a competitive curriculum or engaged in a compe comptitive curriculum that prepares them to thrive in adulthood ask for what we me what we need and demand it if you have to next look beyond what is to what should be does this meeting structure serve your population optimally can committee members work out their policy positions ahead of a public meeting is there a better way to summarize and communicate the policy discussions and decisions that take place here can you provide child care and hold a meeting on a weekend once per quarter I don't know I'd be willing to help with that I'm not throwing that out there as a uh I'm not going to be involved can you help us set up a rotating Refreshments donation also very interested in that personally can you be creative Innovative or simply copy another town who has a higher Community engagement rate with their school committee to achieve better turnout at meetings and more participation in surveys and votes can bylaws be revised to allow for Community discussion rather than the structure of us being welcome to attend but not actually interact with you beyond these sometimes insufferable speeches with the caveat that I know these are volunteer positions the lowest hanging fruit for improvement seems to be a concerted effort between us all to improve the productivity of and Community engagement at these meetings we we could do our homework beforehand research read survey synthesize and come prepared with position statements and questions we can try our best to avoid talking at each other and instead talk with each other and truly if nothing else please from here on out let's not ask for what we think we can get let's ask for what our children need thanks thank you very much siil any other public comments this evening Mr SK brini so uh I I want to thank cibil Kaufman Mandy Gilman TJ Laughlin shashan mule Cara har harun ktz Noah Lind Tay Ferman kayn St George Joseph James Brandon Harris Cecilia Stanwick Sophia mule Owen foil and my son I was very proud when he made a comment at town meeting in support of the override I think that the fact that the override passed means that this is a community that values education it values our students it values our teachers and it values the role a school plays in that community and I think that the passage of the override and the efforts by the parents and the students to organize in support of the override is really a message to school committee that we need to work just as hard as everybody else and we need to have innovative ideas that make what we do more accessible to people and I think that one thing that's happened especially since the open meeting law has passed is that meetings in public have become cumbersome and my hope is in line with what Cil said and I didn't prepare in we didn't collaborate in our preparation great M we we can we can do better and I think that Peter and Carol's presentation town meeting was an example of how you can hit all the notes in less than 10 minutes and so I think that you know if if the override can pass we have a lot of work to do and I want to make sure that we do that work correctly um the last thing is I just wanted to say to Dr Burnham um you can you can thank your team but at the end of the day we would not have been able to ask if you had not had a vision for what a curriculum change could do in terms of test scores and we would not have had the support if the schools weren't running the way they were and we would not have had the buyin from parents if they didn't see meaningful improvements and assessments and test scores across the board and while your team is important you should get the credit I cannot I cannot lots and lots of hours by many people got to the budget that that we have so thank you which budget the budget that we have now um but honestly I I could not have cranked out as many budgets as I did without a team to work with me on it I probably would have maybe only been able to get you three so thank you very much um I extend that to my entire leadership team because they are critical in the process so thank you um Mrs brazowski hi um I wanted to start off tonight also by saying thank you uh thank you to every single person in this town who voted yes or no 1,411 people participated in the Democratic process thank you to every person who participated thank you to every citizen who paid attention who asked tough and insightful questions and who cared enough to get involved thank you to the lunenberg SOS group who advocated so fiercely for the students and got out the vote so successfully thank you to the students who made their voices heard thank you to the teachers and the staff who have had to Bear through this process and the uncertainty thank you to the superintendent and her team and anuka and Juliana who put an incredible amount of work and hours and their knowledge into these budgets I really do want the public to understand how hard Dr Burnham and her team worked there were times that a budget document would be uploaded to our drive at midnight and then at 6: a.m. I would open it up and Dr Burnham was already working on it again uh thank you again to Dr Burnham for her patience and her diligence and for not flinching when I sent her an email with 90 something questions about the individual line items in the budget I'm so sorry for that and she answered every single question with a lot of detail thank you to the other elected and appointed officials in town for working with us during such an unprecedented Bud budget season thank you to our town manager Heather Lemieux who worked hard to fill the budget gaps and work through a difficult scenario the finance committee put in an incredible amount of work and some of its members were strong advocates for the schools thank you to the select board for working with us during this season and some of their members advocacy of the school system and for their votes of support for the schools I do want to make it clear while this is a victory this does not mean we're swimming in money we purposefully kept the override to a modest achievable amount the exact amount was to level fund the schools from the previous year minus the Esser funding we had always known the eser money was ending um I personally did not feel it appropriate to transfer the burden of that money from the federal government grants onto the backs of lunberg taxpayers so there will be some positions cut this year those positions have been planned for strategically long term we had always known that es their money was finite but the override success means that we get to give students level services from this year to next year without having to drastically cut programs or staff it doesn't mean we have money to expand programs or staff or that we have a sudden influx of more money it means exactly what we've been saying level service funding the exact amount of money needed to do the same thing this year that we've been doing last year lunenberg is still at the far low end of the spectrum for per student spending in the state one very modest override Victory does not make up for years of low school funding as we have been very transparent about during this process every dollar of this override budget has been allocated and budgeted carefully next year Dr Burnham spent a lot of time preparing multiple budgets for multiple scenarios and this is part of the reason why so we would be prepared so I'm asking the board going forward if we can be very cognizant of the budgetary constraints and work within the resources allocated um and if we can just maintain this careful budgeting going forward and this very careful attention to the budget that we've had over this budget season and just keep doing that even with the passage of the override our focus is on the students the school committee has a unique charge as elected officials we're here to advocate for the students for their needs and what's best for them and to build in the best school system we can with the resources available every every budget decision is made with the goal of Student Success in mind what is best for the students and I am so happy so proud of my town that on Saturday enough lunenberg voters asked themselves that exact same question and made that question their priority what is best for the students so again thank you lunenberg any other public comments this evening yes uh I would like to congratulate the PTO on a great cruise night tonight uh was there earlier it's a great crowd and um a great event uh also want to thank all the lunberg voters uh who came out and voted uh and also want to thank everyone for uh their support throughout the process the the school committee members the super intendent her admin team also the the staff um and the uh the parents and the the students who really got involved in the process to make it happen uh we couldn't do it without a great Community effort so thank you all anyone else okay not seeing it and there's nobody online not seeing anyone else then we'll continue on to the chair's report which is basically more of the same I wish to thank everybody involved in the passing of the override whether you were part of SOS lunenberg or whether fincom or whether you went to town meeting and or voted on Saturday we are grateful to you every little bit of anything was helpful the stories that I heard from um neighbors saying their college age students came home to make sure to vote CU they knew the money was so badly needed was quite heartwarming and also the amount of our high school students that are 18 and were able to vote and did so so um it's a great lesson in Civics and it's um it was a a wonderful St statement by the community we um believe the job is done we have a attorney just double checking to make sure there's nothing else we have to do but um we think we are all set and the children of Lunenburg will benefit greatly from everyone's generosity and we thank you very much for that um on another note um funding once again that seems to be the theme of the year um the legisl legisl lators are um working in the conference committee to finalize this year's budget um there is a bill that would be of great help to us it is sponsored by masc Mas MTA and aft a whole lot of letters but um basically the Massachusetts school superintendent school committees and the two major teachers unions and the one that would help lunenberg the most there are many bills out there and I want to thank um Senator Cronin I've had a long conversation with him um in the last couple of weeks um for telling me that that he is on top of this because as it goes through the Senate which is where it's finding its way at the moment um he he is on top of it but I wanted to let you know that the bill that will affect us most is the one that is an inflation adjustment to Chapter 70 that I have been told by our MS um masc representative um Tracy novic she tells me that it will bring lunenberg around $500,000 if it passes we very much want that to pass now that was the way the bill was submitted who knows what it will turn into as it makes its way through um but but as submitted it would be quite successful we are not a whole timless Community we thought we were we are not communities that are held harmless were getting like a. 25% increase in Chapter 70 funding our funding last year which I thought was hold Harless because it was incredibly small was like 1 3 or something that is not held Harless that's woohoo you got a lot of money who knew um so we are not held harmless it it came about the year that our low income numbers rose up and those low income numbers and rising up bumped us to a different category nothing that's giving us money like they get like in holy o or Worcester or something but a little bit more than the whole whole Timeless amounts um is what we are getting so anyways if you if you wish to help then it is the bill to address the um inflation adjustment in Chapter 70 also there is a bill for 100% reimbursement in um special ed costs the circuit breaker to 100% as part of one bill as well as special education Transportation those are also bills that you may want to ask your legislator or Senator Cronin in this case though he is on it he told me he was on it um to to work towards those bills would be tremendously helpful to us 100% that's what the bill says it's when it gets through you don't know what going to Happ 100% over the 100 right now all right you can help me the circuit breaker is like it what 65% 75% something like that so I don't know that the bill that you're speaking of I have hav't looked at that but I can tell you that in the past 100% funding of circuit Breer is actually 75% funded meaning we pay the four times of foundation first and then they reimburse at 75% after that four times of foundation that's what Jay Sullivan always considered 100% funding was when we reached that 75% so 100% funding would be when we're getting the 75% back I think he means 100% back in the day I don't know if they're looking at I think they're looking to make a change they're looking to make the change I yeah I saw and I couldn't figure out if they meant 100% 75 or if they meant 100% 100% because that's pretty big my understanding from Senator Cronin was 100% what are the Bill numbers do we know I do not know that sorry so it seems like the the Millionaire's tax is collecting more Revenue I think it was over 800 million more than they expected so now they're looking for ways to spend on education and transportation so some of these bills could definitely help us out a lot so I I just wanted to address that um I think that's what I have this evening so we will move on to review and approv minutes of which we don't have any right no so we won't do that well then we'll keep going um warrants have been signed from the 30th of April to the 15th of May in the amount of 226 , 25036 and if there are questions on that those warrant um numbers please get back to Dr Burnham's office and they will help you with that and I will go on to the superintendent's report all righty um so just an update on Transportation forms we are still looking to secure forms from 34 families at the high school and 28 families at the Middle School uh we have 100% compliance in return to Turkey Hill in the primary um as a reminder the uh registration for the Early Learning Center opened this Monday um I I also wanted to comment that I I am aware that there uh there has been some conversation in the public regarding Student Activity fees um so I've asked Mr sry um to work with me to prepare an informational slide deck that we'll bring forward at one of the the June meetings great um just so that folks understand how that all works um I also would like to offer um my gratitude to all of the the people who worked so hard paid attention participated so proud of our students for for the the work that they did around the budget in so many ways um but I also want to thank the committee because it it required an awful lot of you and um you were all very strong vocal advocates for what our school district needs for funding and I think that um that's a very powerful message um I've been saying it for a number of years solo as the superintendent but when you mobilize families around the need coupled with the voices of every member of the school committee around that need it makes a difference so thank you um few reminders uh Monday is the Memorial Day holiday our schools will be having their annual Memorial Day Celebrations um at the end of the week and uh reminder that June 1st is the high school graduate ation this evening all of the members of the school committee um you've received your invitations to the ceremony um we are also forwarding those invitations up to the members of the select board um and June 5th is our next school committee meeting which will be hybrid via Zoom from town hall at 6:30 we have scheduled a special school committee meeting which will also be hybrid from this um location at the Middle High School that meeting will also be at 6:30 uh on the 12th of June on the on the 12th of June um and we have a a regularly scheduled meeting on the 26th of June also from this location at 6:30 and the last day of school is on June 12th that is an early release day for students um so we're we're in the home stretch winding down but again thank you thank you all very much for the support U for the work that so many members of this entire District do on behalf of the children whether it's cleaning the facility maintaining the facility serving lunches answering phone calls in the office for parents and the work of course that the teachers do day in and day out in the classroom that is what is most important so thank you all very very much for the support appreciate it and that's all I have for you this evening all right do we have a student representative on Zoom do not right very busy time of year for students um understand that um under old business under action we have the rainwater retention project so Mr Bernard I think you're up all right is this on the green lights on I don't see a green light i' probably shut it off then you might need oh there it is got a hold of all right so I last time I was here I gave the presentation and there was a bunch of questions and I answered the questions via email with a kind of a Q&A format so um the only thing I want to offer tonight I've been answering more questions is um just to reiterate that the um the demonstration storm water BMP is a is for education in my home opinion I think the best place to put it is where education occurs in this town right here at the high school the um students are future homeowners here in lunenberg and I'm sure they want they deserve clean water for swimming recreation fishing drinking so I request that you approve the installation of the storm water BMP here at the school um all righte are is does the plant still call for installing plants that are poisonous to humans the plants can be changed okay yeah that's very easy it is a large list of plants so I would not approve one in which we are installing poisonous plants near a group of children I could girl okay Mrs brazowski did we Outsource the design of this retention we did yep I we have our storm water um consultant for the town it's uh CE I comprehensive environmental Incorporated how much did we spend on these plans these are pretty extensive uh design the to my head sorry I don't know but it's probably it's probably between five and $10,000 engineering is not cheap okay MH um did you talk to anyone in the school district about the location of it before spending between five and $10,000 on engineering plans not specifically um I did send an email to the superintendent I I should have looked it up a while back but yeah we didn't really get into a discussion on it is the design mobile or is it only specifically for that location it's very specific for that location okay so you spent between 5 and $10,000 on engineering for a project without running the location by anyone in the school district uh yeah might you know I just thought it would go through um my bad I'm sorry okay just we just went through a budget cycle that's a lot of money yeah um Dr Burnham um in our packets there are comments from Mr santry yes would you like to review those so we've seen them but so M Mr Bernard he has those comments and the public does as well so following our um last meeting with the conversation uh some members of the committee indicated that they would like to hear Mr sandry's thoughts on it uh so I I did ask him and I do have a summary of some of the points that he wanted to uh make you all aware of because he is right now down in Washington DC with the eth graders on their annual trip to DC bless um so what he wanted you to be aware of is that the proposed location is an area that teachers and students utilize on a regular basis for um an outdoor activity area they also use it as an outdoor classroom space uh even for advisory period perod at the high school level um it is a convening location in our emergency evacuation plans it is also a convening location for fire drills um you know he makes the point that although it looks like an unused open space uh that it's actually utilized regularly uh for academic activities as well as the uh emergency Gathering location um he conveys that a rainwater Garden there would decrease the outdoor space utilized by teachers and students both at the middle and the high school um and it would require us to revise emergency evacuation plans and plans for fire drills um and respectfully uh he was inquiring as to whether or not there were alternate sites considered for the project and just for the benefit of the public we do have a a water retention um containing area uh that's located on the back corner of the middle high school was built when when the school went in and um we do have a a poster displayed in the cafeteria so that the students can see it and understand what's there so um those those were the the thoughts he wanted me to convey any other questions from the committee I would ask now in in reading your answers and questions that you sent to us the um deadline of June 30th is not quite as firm as what you had indicated um so it it makes me think that perhaps that could be a different location for this um that perhaps you would have time to to find a different location before the funding is a a big a big issue according to what you had written there it is it is troublesome to me that it is an area that is utilized in this building and all of a sudden we're being asked to do this and the other problem is is that we don't really have a problem there it's just demonstration so knowing there are problems in town um one would think that perhaps a demonstration where the rainwater actually needs to be dealt with would be a better thought that's just my own thought um I would ask for any other thoughts Mr Leighton um well I feel I would support the our facility uh director's um idea of Brooks house I think that was a great location too Central to the town um I think there can be other areas of the town that aren't utilized but are also in a central location uh I also would hope that the the town would also support maybe a demolition of the Brooks house and then there would be a perfect location for a large area that could be utilized not a bad idea there Mr Leon um any other thoughts I am concerned that we spend Town Money potentially up to $10,000 on engineering for this location um but we're using it for safety and for Education currently so I don't think it's an appropriate location because the schools are utilizing it um I I do want to say I am generally I'm very appreciative you the DPW has been fantastic about the communication lately um as as far as uh the pavement and uh the pavement management and talking to Dr vernham and rearranging when we've been doing construction on roads around the school bus routes I've been really impressed with that um just in the future things like this like this this was a huge miscommunication that5 to $10,000 was spent engineering a project in a place that can't go that's very concerning to me um but generally uh communication has been improved as far as the bus routs and everything but this does really concern me that so much money was wasted on this all right then do I have a motion um to approve or not approve the rainwater retention project motion to disapprove the rainwater retention projects in front of the lunenberg mle high school second any other discussion no oh just to be clear the motion is to disapprove all those in favor of not putting the rain water retention project at the Middle High School in the prescribed spot please say I I I post so I'll go back to the drawing board all right thank you thank you I appreciate it um next we have school [Music] choice so at the last meeting I also brought forward um for discussions um a variety of uh Revenue sources school choice being one of them and I gave you updated numbers on class sizes and enrollment and um a recommendation on a maximum number that you may wish to consider or not consider um I don't I don't have a strong recommendation in either direction um it's it's just uh given the uh the budget cycle that we just went through I thought it best not to leave any stone unturned um and bring It Forward for your consideration but we do to vote tonight if we're going to add any right additional seats at any grade level in addition to the ones you've already voted and approved because we have to submit um the details of our participation to the state by June 1st can I ask a question laa sorry um so um how many more kindergarten I know that's not on the how many more kindergarten registrations generally like are we on track for normal we seem to be in a in a spot that's uh fairly consistent with what we've seen in the last couple of years I do know that um Mr Adams um with their secretary D the primary U Mrs caboni they did look at um birth rates um here in town not to say that there haven't been people who have moved in in um and those children are kindergarten age but were not born here as residents of lunenberg um and they are not seeing any um no bubbles no bubbles okay they're not seeing doesn't mean that that we might not right get caught with with some late summer registrations we do typically see um about 10 summertime registrations for sixth grade um um so that's you know another thing to be aware of we do oh no y we do okay yep but we we sort of factor that in um you know when we were looking at budget and class sizes and whatnot um you know Mr sry that's a fairly typical annine we've prepared for the bubble yeah okay so for first grade I know that some people kindergarten is not mandatory correct so how many more generally how many more students get added how many people enroll that were not in kindergarten and then enroll in first grade um there are a few uh we don't we don't typically see a big bubble okay um but but there are there are some that do enroll um again I brought this forward because I can tell you that we do get calls to my office every single year families looking to Choice their children to lunenberg schools what gr and the grades are typically the the lower grades is it typically kindergarten or is it cuz we're not this proposal doesn't have us adding any kindergartens because we that's pretty uncertain correct doesn't have that's that's a great I unless our is really dropped y i i wouldn't be looking to add any to kindergarten and then we would have to educate them for 13 years um Mrs Peterson is on the meeting I don't know if she's listening to me right now or if she's stepped away from her computer but she may be able to offer you some insight as to um our typical TS yes bur on here so the question really is around um the calls and and what grade levels are are folks typically inquiring about um right typically we get the most inquiries um from grades five and below um so it would be kindergarten through grade five um the also grade nine is a big one because that's typically a grade level where um kids decide to move around and go to other places so grade nine is another popular one but I do receive a lot of phone calls about kindergarten first grade sometimes THS levels 3 to five which makes sense people want their children to start in school here and attend ler school so they typically want them to start when school starts for them so I'm a little nervous about the first grade one but I'm not full my son is in kindergarten now and so I don't I think I should not comment on that because I have a I think it's an appropriate for me to I have a vested interest in his class size being small so I think it's not appropriate for me to argue against it um so I'm I'm going to keep my mouth shut on that one um just because he's going to be in first grade um if have kids in the other grades too but um we all kids but um I know it's a hard and you're not feeling one you don't have a strong feeling one way or the other though so the thinking historically for me and I I think even predating me although Mrs Peterson can weigh in on that um we've been pretty dedicated to keeping class sizes under 25 as a priority although it's not ever been in my time here expressly stated as we're looking to keep class size under 25 no more than 25 particularly during the covid years we're looking to bring more bodies into the building to keep them six feet apart so that would not have been a good time to make a shift and we've been in postco years where we have been actively seeking to close academic learning gaps and address student um mental health needs um so again adding to class size is is a bit counter to to that priority um however it is a source that brings Revenue into the district and like I said given uh the budget cycle that we just went through I didn't want to leave any options off the table for the school committee to consider um I think we we tried to make recommendations on numbers but leave a buffer for movein so Mr Adams has conveyed that typically over the summer we might get up to 10 um registrations for first grade uh kiddos that we hadn't had in kindergarten um again this is there's no right or wrong answer here Carol should I um just abstain from the conversation CU I I would suggest a modification but I also feel it's appropriate that I just then don't say anything if you prefer not to that's fine I'm just going to Mr L I also have three children at the the lower levels um and I think as a school committee we're always speaking for the the students in general anyway so I'm I'm not too concerned about it I think it's important to have small class sizes I think especially at the lower levels um and I think and correct me if I'm wrong but I feel like IEPs and 504s they're they're increasing not decreasing in the trends so I I think the the students need more supports and I think increasing the class sizes is only going to put more pressure on that um so that's my concern I think yes I understand that there's money involved and we can increase our our funding for the schools but I think there's other avenues to increase the fundings so I think we should be looking at Grants and other things that aren't going to be um affecting the Gap in learning I feel like the exchange for the funding and the the increase in the the gap of learning is not going to help so I would not support this Mr school and BR so here's the thing that I I am struggling with especially based on our conversation last time as a non-teacher looking at 3 I do not know what the additional workload is like to go from 23 to 24 or 24 to 25 and I would imagine based on conversations Carol and I have had that in first grade 23 to 24 is a lot more than in 12th grade so whatever the teachers say in terms of the workload increase I that would guide my decision but I just don't know enough about as long as we're not going over 25 I'd be okay if everybody was if all three of you were like it's not that big a deal but if you're like oh God this is too much go ahead so my concern is if we round them all up to 24 or 23 lunberg is growing it's not decreasing population size so it's not really going from 24 to 25 it's actually going 24 to 26 cuz the next year we're going to have kids moving in that's my my fear too is like you're going to have those kids and you're going to have the growing population too so that's one of my concerns Carol well I will I will say that I've taught kindergarten through third grade I would never in a million years want 20 5 Second grest in front of me never in a million years that's too many I know the world is a little different now and I've looked around a bit I do some subbing when I when I do SUB I never have 25 kids there my grandkids go to school in Worcester and everybody would think oh the big city school they don't have a class size above 22 in their school oh okay I am not in favor of increasing class size for these young guys not at all um in just my own thought and I wouldn't think um isolated five spots in seventh grade is a good idea that's like you know I I I just wouldn't do that I would leave my own opinion is to leave what we had done alone now if we were talking about a 2.97 budget my opinion might be a little different as far as not the real little guys it wouldn't be but it might be a little different but we're not looking at a 2.97 budget and I know one year I taught a kindergarten classroom with 24 kids what holy crow that was like I had a parent come in and say this is chaos and I'm like this is 24 5 year olds you know so um it eventually was not chaos but the first week it was definitely chaos um so I yeah in my um school teacher hat I would say I don't like it as my grandma hat I wouldn't like it with my parent hat pulling out I'm not crazy about it either so that's my opinion one more thing to add to I feel like when you're increasing the sizes increasing more IPS and 504s you're going to be basically using that money to hire more Tas just for the extra supports and you're not really bringing in more money to get more supplies or get new instructors it's not going to help so I think we're ready to vote do I have a um action okay go ahead I'll make a motion uh on whether or not we alter the number of school choice slots okay but what is your motion oh yes or no um I would say motion to not increase school choice slots second okay all those in favor I I thank you all I'm going to abstain because my feelings on this are solely centered around my child so that's appropriate all right so we're going to leave well enough alone thank you all very much okay thank you for the proposal though well well like I said appreciate it I brought it two weeks ago fre we didn't know town meeting t because I if I brought it to you for the first time at this point post ballot and town meeting you wouldn't have had much time to really think about it um and it would have seemed reactionary right right but again we were up against the deadline of June 1st I didn't want to take anything off the table for your consideration so so parents need to know whether or not their vote mattered this is one instance in which we can all see that we can breathe a little easier thanks to voters motivated and voting absolutely okay so um for discussion the family school partnership compact so coming to the table now um we have Meredith Weiss who is our for um El coordinator and then e teacher that means teacher for students who are learning English as the second language and Mr Michael Smith who is a teacher at Turkey Hill Elementary these uh two individuals uh were part of the district Family School partnership initiative team last year when we were doing the work that was facilitated by the department of Ed um they did such outstanding work as part of that committee uh that when I was taking on an awful lot of extra hats this year um I asked them if they would take the lead and be the co- facilitators of the culture and climate Council that we created as the next phase to the work we did last year trying to build this school Family Partnership in our Dr B can you tell me ma' I don't mean to talk about you what's her name Meredith used she actually to sit here she was right uh thank you Dr Burnham um good evening school committee um thank you for having us tonight uh Dr bery kind of stole my intro which is welcomed um we're here tonight to present uh the family school partnership compact uh but to also explain some of its intentions and where we're at in the process um so our hopeful intentions are to align the three stakeholders our families our students and our school staff uh in the ways that we can best support students in their educational experience uh clarifying expectations in my experience as a classroom teacher uh I've always felt alleviates potential miscommunication uh it helps everyone understand how they can best play their role uh in the success of the students um and again I've always felt in my classroom clear and high expectations always allow students to reach um this document can be used as a springboard for many conversations that could take place between Family School school student and student family uh about the expectations and how to uphold the responsibilities of an LPS Community member uh we feel that this should be a living fluid document uh that can be revised and adapted as it's being used uh by the district stakeholders um it's definitely not a first and final uh presented compact uh in order for it to be implemented and utilized correctly uh most effectively we feel like it should continuously address the needs of the students uh in the school Community therefore should be open to review do consistently um if something needs revision or addition we feel like it should be it should be able to take part immediately um something that had been brought to our group uh was that perhaps an attached survey or QR link could be connected so that stakeholders could provide ongoing feedback to their understanding of the document uh their utilization of the document questions they may have or um way in which it's it's being utilized and implemented so and then based on the reflective practice that happened throughout our meetings of this creation of the document um it's not something in addition to it's something that's already happening this is just a place where it's stated explicitly the communication piece is there for everyone to see now some proposed next steps from this group there's some recommendations for principles building leadership to then disseminate this information from the compact to their staff and family and students and maybe suggested places to put this on their websites newsletters openhouse pamphlets that sort of thing further conversation should continually happen at each of the buildings about the implementation about how it's actually going to work and live at each of the campuses including all the stakeholder groups just as we did with the the creation of the document and then in the end thank you for reviewing this compact if you have any feedback for us that we can carry on please share so maybe you could tell them a little bit about the ways in which you have sought some feedback on what you've developed already and what's sort of still in process sure um so some of the things that we did we had a a group of 19 or so 19 I the number including ourselves yeah staff and family members from different oh thank you just making sure you're on yeah from different campuses grade levels parents that had students in different places trying to really reach out to as many different um facets that as we could so we had multiple meetings where we would present some information they would discuss feedback we would pull that information all together and then go back out and repeat that process about three times until we were able to Whittle down to the compact language that you see in front of us um then beyond that we were reaching out to students in their classrooms we have some additional reach out that we would like to try continue um and then of course we encourage the campuses to reach out with their students as well think that answered the question any questions Mrs school and BR so first of all I just want to say I love two page presentations it is clear it is colorful it is short it's great I think this is a really good idea one question that I had was uh especially for Meredith what sort of things can we do that would make kids who are English as a second language students what can we do to reach out to their families to make them feel welcome to make them feel part of the community to make them feel like this is a place where you get out what you put in that jump in there for a second yeah Meredith does an outstanding job of that already and um we actually had a solid model in place even before Meredith joined the district but I will let her now explain what happens routinely so yeah you have a whole another meeting just for that I can tell you of so many things um what briefly some of the things that we do three times a year there are family engagement meetings with the families of L's and I'm even considering expanding that out to all of our multilingual families because there are some families that their students may not have qualified to be an English language learner but they still come from a multilingual household that said we meet at the beginning of the year we have discussions on things like power school which for some parents is brand new even though the information has been shared it somehow didn't get across to them so we give them another opportunity to see that if there are important dates that are happening at different campuses or just the the Customs I will say of what happens in a school system is very strange to people from other countries it's even strange to me who came from another state how things are done here in Massachusetts and then in lunenberg so just being able to communicate with them we met at midyear where we discussed testing keeps turning off um like the access test the proficiency testing that happens there preparing them for mcast so they can see what's going on with that and giving them opportunity to ask questions some of the things that happen in the in the meantime I'm looking up where a good dance class is for a particular student because the parent has mentioned that that's something that they're interested in or if they're looking for Lunenburg swag because they want to feel a little bit more a part of the community and they didn't know where to find the link for that um we use talking points as an app so they stay in communication with me in that way where it automatically trans Ates what they need and I'll get a message from a parent near the end of the day can you let my son know that he needs to come home and not stay for the tutorial program and then I'm on the phone calling the middle school secretary to get that message across so things like that are happening on a routine basis our next meeting is on June 6th and we're scheduled to be in the library space the public library so then they can interact with what's happening there at the library and then of course Kids Kingdom is behind there if they have little ones they want to go play afterward wordss or if they want to check out a book which I'm encouraging through all the progress reports which they get twice a year and I'm working on those as well so if you want any more that is excellent let me know that's great I think that answers the question say um we lost our second El's teacher early this year so Meredith has been both picking up the talking about some hats I empathize a lot but the good news is we' we've offered the job uh to somebody for for next year and we're just waiting on a formal acceptance on that so we'll be back up to full strength again y ready to on board as soon as possible Meredith has done a lot of work this year thank you it's a lot of fun come check it out currently housed in uh Turkey Hill Mrs Bowski okay um I've said some of this to Matt at the Turkey Hill thing um first of all I'm so excited that this exists uh needed to exist I love that it clearly I I love that it lays out the three parts of families caregivers students and the school because when those three things work together we get a much stronger better District the students are served better and I like that it lays out the expectations of everyone and what to expect um I think it's graphically appealing um um I like that it's short I think it's great um I do want to say like between you guys and everyone else here I'm the only one up here who doesn't have a postgraduate degree um it's not super easy to read it's not incredibly difficult I I ran it through um the fog yeah I ran it through a few uh grade level um engines to determine and it's coming out at grade 13 uh graduate levels um for some of the sentences it's not easy to read and um I think it was written by Highly Educated highly intelligent teachers who are used to the vocabulary um for instance there there are places where you use the word utilized you can just say used um things like that and I understand like Matt had talked I said well why didn't you phrase it like this and and Matt had talked about okay every sentence starts with a verb I was like oh okay that's fantastic I love that like if you look every single one of these sentences starts with a strong action verb um so that makes sense and I think that you guys put so much effort and so much thought into the wording so it's really hard for me to say I don't like how it's written because it's clear that a lot of thought and effort went into exactly how everything is written um but it's sometimes when things are harder to understand it is hard for parents to quickly read it while trying to juggle kids and everything and then retain the information easily um it's it's not too hard it's just it's when when we are writing things for parents and for students I think they should be written at perhaps like an eighth grade level or they should be written so that they are easily d adjustable so that distracted people can read them and remember them um but it's it's hard for me to say that because I understand the amount of effort that went into this and the thought that went behind the word choice um but again I guess my question is who is the target audience of this is it for teachers in the school district and everybody who's been teaching and has master's degrees and phds and law degrees or is it for parents and students who haven't graduated high school or who don't necessarily have gone to college who's the target audience for this I think the target target audience is all three I think without all three being the intended audience our compact falls short um we'll definitely keep in mind the language choice I think it was written with a professional um style so we we understand that that may need to be adapted for other viewers other readers um we've also considered ways in which we can be translated for our non uh our second uh English as a second language families so we will definitely consider that in the yeah I saw you did make because I've got my old copy here I saw you did make some changes which C like and it's edited and it's it's even better and I mean I know that you guys put a lot of thought into every single one of these starts with an natur well and that's that was part of the challenge when all these ideas then came together and we were trying to put ideas that were similar together because the list was much longer than this and all that word choice and thing and we just didn't have the heart to take anything out yet but I to your point agree on the the language Simplicity is much needs to be improved writing in simple sentence structure and simple language helps people who have a different level of reading ability as well as translation pieces when the document gets translated into the other language if it's too complex on the English level it comes out garbled in the in the translative version so when it goes through the different iterations at campuses I would definitely recommend that that feedback come from parents on where they feel like we need to pull that in a little bit more and how it comes out as translated and the students side as well um yeah so is your intention to have a different version of this for every school the purpose purp of our group was to create a compacts but we have discussed with our Council that it would be beneficial to for each building for each campus to evaluate this as a foundation and then adapt it as needed for their students for their families um excuse me specifically around grades and we know the difference between some of our high school campus and our Primary School students right we understand that the the necessity around grades is is different so the language in those areas might change but for our our intentions our task was to create one uh for the time being get us all on the same page to start with and then get started this we we feel this is the beginning but we we hope this is a The Right Start we appreciate that it's a really good start and this is a significant amount of work and the very there's a lot of thought put into this and there's a lot of complex ideas distill down uh which is not easy to do and we also wanted to be sensitive to all of the members of the group who spoke to put these expectations in there we felt it would be inappropriate to withdraw one of the items in the list uh due to the size or the complexity of the statement so we tried to make some adaptations to the language but we want it to remain sensitive of the voices that were included in the document as well so but we will certainly take that feedback yeah we appreciate that okay U Mr Leon yeah thank you for your work on this I think this is great um I I almost took it as more of like uh like a curriculum that that you're writing it but now we got to now implement it so I think like you said you're going to implement it at different grade levels in different ways and in different verbiage and different vocabulary um but I think the implementation now it's like take this and you're not just going to hand out these documents and expect parents to read through the whole thing some parents are just not going to read it but I think it's that continuous education of parents students and working with whether it's like a an activity night where you can have a presentation on some of these highlights and you're not going to probably be able to cover everything on one night but I think it's that continuous education of all these roles and responsibilities and expectations so I like that I think it what I'm really interested in is what what are the next steps how do we implement this yeah I I would agree I I think this is wonderful um and I am impressed with Mrs brazel's comment because I'm reading everything I get it you know so you know but I can see where not everybody would but um with Brian's comment and you know if you're to implement to you know a first grader isn't going to read through and know what to do obviously and that that's you know a um an obvious one but but to have a parent at a parent level people that wouldn't necessarily understand and you think we would we I would have thought of that because as we do everything here Tony has his running list of Education ease that he keeps asking us oh I got a bunch for you so um so I I would have thought of that but I I I agree I think this is great as it is and now to take it and put it into use um I think this is wonderful because it it's something that once again as you said before it's something we do anyways but to write it all down and then to remind people you need to do these things and to have parents understand that they need to do those things and the kids too so I I think it it's a great thing to have all in one spot thank you who at the graphic design most credit over here we knew we want it visually appealing we did the the good search on Google and said what do other people do visually I'm like we like that look let's see what we can do with it very nice we end we ended up eliminating the non-graphic version because we felt this one was just better for for any purpose so agreed I just want to as Laura mentioned it I grabbed three sentences and I put them through something called the Gunning fog index which was a standard developed by a newspaper man uh and they averaged out at 14 which is a college sophomore and on FL concade it was grade 13 yeah I mean it I did not even pick up on it but Laura Laura's point I think is uh definitely well taken I think it's something you guys like it's not you did it for a reason and I get it but I think she she's writing that it probably needs to be simplified a little bit but I loved it I thought the visuals were great two pages is great but Laura is definitely correct generally when you're writing like for marketing materials like when a newspaper's writing you you want or an article you want to be writing and generally they you aim for about an eighth grade level um not because you're writing to people who read at an eighth grade level but because their brain can better focus at that level where they don't have to focus and I know as a parent if I have to read something and I need to think too hard about it I can't do it while I'm doing a million other things so like if I if this came home in a backpack I would have to put it aside until I could focus and not be holding kids or juggling things um that's just something to keep in mind as far as who is the target audience it's good information thank you yeah thank you oh I also want to say I really like the idea of adding a the QR thing so that people can give you got someone on on tap to help us I I think that's an excellent idea not that I'm good at that kind of thing but other people are you know okay anything else did you guys know this was going to be this much work when you signed up we done the first year so yeah we we kind of knew what we were doing that we knew signning up for thank you I know I know this was a lot and they signed up still anyway I know anyway you're welcome this was a lot I think school Community much better better partnership thank you thank you very much that's awesome just say on the side this ties back to one of the goals right okay um facilities update Mr HEI good evening good evening Eric hee facilities uh director of uh grounds for the school um I have a an update that you guys should have m on um all the projects that we're currently working on right now we have about six of them um that we're working on our first uh update is the U High School field turf field feasibility study phase one um we are working with Collins engineer to um evaluate the drainage problems that we have at the turf field so um we recently had um them come out and they deployed a drone um over the field to calculate um the elevations uh of the um the walls and uh the landscape and they also identified through GPS some of the uh drainage locations and by marking all those they're able to get a sense of whether or not you know the pitch of the pipes are generally in the right locations um so they came out and they did their study and um May 29th we're going to meet to discuss their findings um when they came out um I did we did have a significant rainfall um prior to them coming out and I was able to capture pictures of the water problems uh that we had uh where there was um water literally draining through the lower part of the retaining wall uh where the where the sidewalk is uh you could see the water coming just draining right out so that indicates that there's obviously um some drainage not properly put there um for whatever reason there's there's a problem and they'll they'll figure it out what the problem is um and that whole wall is also starting to move forward so but um we're about halfway through it through the analysis um they'll come out we'll sit down talk about it and talk about our next steps so um our next uh update is the turkey hill exterior door upgrades um we have secured a an architect to uh review the exterior VES that we have to put in there and we have to do an architect because it's an exterior part of the building and it all has to be uh certified by a an architech so um there's a reason for doing that and then we've got 14 doors uh exterior doors that we're looking to replace uh around around the building um then we have the Turkey Hill security upgrades and that is um you know for the door swipes and the cameras um upgrades so we have um a consultant on that it's a mv5 and what they will be doing is mapping out all the the layout of um all the Cod swipes and all the the camera locations and we'll be coming up with the specifications uh to uh put out the bid and um they're going to be helping us um get all that information together and sent out um and then we have the Turkey Hill fire alarm upgrade or um modifications and again we have nv5 uh working with us to map that all out and get ready to get that out to bid um which we plan on getting this uh all out to bid for the summer and all the work being done over the summer wow um so it's a lot of work um there's a lot of stuff there that we have to look at um but we're makinging we're making good progress on it um the next item is the primary school uh AC Mini Splits um we have secured dayon applied um as our contractor and uh we have mapped out um all the equipment that we needed for um putting the AC units on the uh second floor on the uh on the school and um they are starting to deliver some of that equipment for the summer um so that'll be coming in within the next week or two so that's we'll start uh storing some of that equipment in the building right so that's moving along and we have the primary school uh security upgrades which is the um you know door access controls and security Keys um for primary school and again we have nv5 uh secured to help us out to document that and and um get the specs and send that out to bid um so I'm hoping to meet with them uh relatively soon I'm hoping within the next week or two to be able to sit down and get further into it and then we had uh what's completed so far is we had a school truck that we had uh purchased not too long ago and that has been um that has come in and is now um is part of our Fleet so it's registered it's working um everything's good so I'm taking it off the list terf the stickers are on it it looks all nice yeah so that's that's a lot a lot to have worked on and we appreciate the update and everything that is being done do we have any questions from Mr heee and that doesn't even address all of the day-to- fixes and problem shooting getting other contractors in the elevator that still is problematic and so on and so forth I will say that just an update on some of the buildings um we did some work here at the high school we've had some complaints on you know uh rooms getting too warm and um um areas being too cold and I was able to get a controls guy in to look at our system and we were able to make some some good progress okay today so uh we were finding out that the system was calling for 100% heat in some of the classrooms so yeah it was getting it was getting warm in there and um uh we were able to make some changes um with the system and uh I think it's it's going to make a big difference and people are going to start noticing it um and we've identified some areas that we need to to work on and improve um and as well as you know upgrading some of the um thermostats um so we will create that list and gradually chip away at it and um get things to a normal Level Playing Field uh but it's going to take some time to do sure but there's a lot there to look at cuz we're looking at three schools so everything I do here I have to do that with every school and it's it'll take some time to do but we'll get there I have no doubt that things will get a lot better great Mrs pelski you had a question question I always do I'm sorry um okay uh is the you didn't the the window film was approved that was just approved okay my question though is the window film going to go on the new vegetable which I assume is going to have Windows is the new vegetable going to have Windows or is it going to be Rick we haven't the initial thought is Windows M but we need to discuss that um it hasn't been designed yet so we don't know yeah so once I sit with the architect um we'll have that conversation and see how it fits in the project if if we can put some type of security film on it um will do it okay uh what is the timing as far as um the vestle and the security system are they happening at the same time because I imagine it'll be timed out there's there's certain things that have to be done um like we have to get the vest ofal in and built before we can put in some of the cameras and door access swipes um and some of the fire alarm upgrades those will come after those will we'll coordinate all that so do you know roughly you don't know I don't I can't ask you when it's going to be alls I can say is the plan is to do it over the summer and we will do our best to make it fit within this summer yes like okay um that's the plan you're going to be busy yeah I know wow he's not actually buing the v no I know but this this is a lot to coordinate a lot of simultaneous projects this is um yeah uh so we have nv5 is doing the engineering survey for the fire alarm and the security um uh my dumb question is daon who do they currently we current who's doing the Mini Splits the D who do they we currently use them for something else they they are one of our vendors for um the air handling units on the roofs of every building or just the high school and um primary okay oh so okay I just wanted to know um and they're going to be doing the Mini Splits too yep okay and those are actually getting delivered like they're ordered and they're on some of the equipment is is starting to come in so it's it's going to be tight but we we're working on it okay um and we had talked before about the Fieldhouse security system yeah is it possible to roll that in no okay just because we've got them out here already and like and the well the funding was allocated as part of a well yeah but can we so I can't I can't expand not expand the funding but can we while we have them out here working and we're spending a ton of money with like nv5 is doing two different projects can we add on the Fieldhouse that's a separate quote that we've gotten so I have I have quotes on all of that okay um we need the funding to be able to do it okay um work in progress okay I just wanted to check in on that it's not like when I have a contractor out and I'm like hey while you're here can you also that government doesn't work no and that's and um wow okay you're going to be busy and very busy but he's doing a great job yeah and these are great appreciate it great updates and um thank you you're welcome anyone else I was just wondering about the doors at Turkey Hill you're anticipating those would be done over the summer as well yes awesome it's going to be a TI um I am I'm anticipating that it might be a little bit into the school year but we will work it so that uh we'll be strategic on what doors we hit first um so but yeah it's it'll be tight um Mr heie this is tremendous progress and we are just delighted yeah we thank you very very much you're welcome thank you okay um topics for the delegation so what what I wanted to do we initially wanted um our delegates to come and speak to us because when we have that big huge meeting with the select board it's really their big huge meeting and we get 33.5 seconds per person to ask a question or something um they did the best they could but in that particular format it's very difficult for us to focus on what we're concerned about so I spoke to um the delegates um and we initially tried to get them at our last meeting but they were in the middle of doing delegate stuff I mean that they had to do so they couldn't do that um I know that representative Scarsdale is doing this huge round table kind of thing and I told you that's not what we want we we've already done one of those we we would like so so before I attempted to get them to a date that they could come even if it was representative Scarsdale one day and Senator Cronin in a different day or whatever because people's schedules are what people's schedules are and um the Senate is somewhat different than the house and in their schedules and um she said it would be helpful and I think it makes sense to me if we gave them topics that we may be asking them about and um I would ask I mean obviously if you know what your topics are you can tell me but if you could think about it before our next meeting and um or send them to me prior to our next meeting then once I have a good list of what we want them to talk about it makes more sense to schedule them to the one thing I I go ahead I know this is my only issue I only want to put one on the list okay for this very reason I think I know where you're going but go ahead the the busing bidding process in the state of Massachusetts is bananas it is not a business it is not competitive and we are spending more and more money each year simply to maintain the services that we we get and it is vastly outstripping what the rate of inflation is and as long as we only have one option we are essentially held hostage so after the town hall meeting with the select board I sent proposed legislative changes to a very esoteric part of the bus approval process that would maintain uh records and require proof of competitive bidding in order for your bus to be approved by the department of sa regulation or what I forget what it was for the state of Massachusetts we need some kind of relief and a a legislative fix that would Target the busing companies would not require an additional expenditure by the state or by the town of lunenberg or by the school district this is not something that we need to have like a huge bill passed it's just a little tweak that would give us some potential relief we just got to make them bid against each other again right right and like for whatever reason Market forces have not been successful at doing that so let's nudge the market a little bit that's my only thing that's your only thing all right I got it I got it uh Mr Leighton I think it would be that state funding um has a minimum that goes along with inflation that they they're supporting the towns and the CI cities that are not getting inflation adjusted increases um that lunberg especially is having a hard time not getting an Upstate Aid increase uh and then my other one is and you mean Municipal not just School you mean Municipal I think Chapter 70 funding I think it's it is really Chapter 70 funding but if they can help out the town that would be great too yeah um and then the other aspect is the additional revenue from the millionaires tax that at 800 million they should be um getting additional educational funds um again for especially the towns who are not getting the support that they need from the state okay um I know that representative Scarsdale a lot of the work she has been doing legislatively has been about uh Regional Transportation reimbursement does that affect us at all in any way no it does not affect us at all so that seems only town that seems to be the bulk of her focus is on Regional Transportation that affects lunberg not at all it doesn't help us in any way so I know she had shared on Facebook she had shared someone had shared to the discussing lber site about Margaret Scarsdale helping out with education and here's how she's going to get our cost down and it was all about Regional Regional Transportation that helps us zero so I don't know if she doesn't know she does i' I've talked to Margaret about this we're Regional or if it's just lunenberg not she represents other towns and we are a small minority of her electorate but Regional Transportation is not going to help us and I I just want to make that very clear that that is that is the legislative that's not helping us at all right um I will say that she called me um and we had we we've had a I've had a lot of conversation with all three legislators I since I like the fall I well not the fall because that's when I was supposed to call them and I didn't know so probably like since January I have had a lot of conversations with the legislators and um Margaret has focused on the earmark for us and um the earm mar may come through and in this case if the aach because the override passed if the earm mar does come through that will be she was working on the enhanced 911 that would give us $67,000 and that's what she was pushing for us okay so just so you know it's not that she has forgotten us has not at all but I I I speak to her fairly regularly so I can um I will mention that but that will be on the on the list as to what she would be doing that does not involve regionals and because we're not harmless we're not held harmless which I thought we were I'm going to be honest but but I think it was 2019 that um Tracy walked me through it and no we're not held harmless maybe it's also asking about making that adjustment too on the held harmless number I I think the held harmless number is ridiculous and I know that Senator Cron has been working hard on that that's not going to help us in particular but he's also working on the inflation rider for um Chapter 70 and the 40s money the 40s money it's just gone is formulaic um it's it's not just gone it is just gone right now um it could resurface it depends on the population of the people that live in the 408 smart growth and that's a reimbursement so we that's that's a reimbursement thing so um I can't it's not it's not gone but formulaically we do not qualify any longer but we could again depends on who moves in unfortunately that's that's the way that particular fund is is listed I I have been talking to them um so once again I will reach out to Peter because I know he has ideas I think the other part too is letting him know that we had to pass an override to get the funding because the state again wasn't funding us to the level we need that was part of it yes and we're not going to be able to do that every year no and we have really good voters in lunenberg well yes we could say that we were the only time around to pass the override so maybe our elected officials should pay attention to voters in the town agreed that would be nice okay all right so I will reach out to Peter to make sure he knows to get me anything and if you think of anything else before the next meeting let me know and then I'll have a list put together and then I can send it off and try and we can try and schedule them whether they can come together I know they prefer that but one at a time I'm okay with that too I you know whatever works and hard to get you know okay so now on to new business then we have donations yes this evening um we have a check in the amount of $24.90 from Box Tops for Education that would be deposited in the gift account for the primary school and that money would be used to uh support upcoming school trips we also have uh a check in the amount of $21 from Box Tops for Education that will be deposited into the gift account at the the Turkey Hill Elementary School and I would recommend acceptance of both I'll make a motion to accept the donations with gratitude second all those in favor I I now I think as As a matter of public service and because it can't be hard how do you do that like you you used to cut off the box top and send it in with the kids you don't do that anymore I think it's you scan a QR Cod on the code it's an you put the app on your pH and you say where you want that money to go and then you just um you scan your receipt okay we need to publicize thank you I'm doing it right now thank you Mrs Liz what's the app called doing it's literally Box Tops I'm doing for Education because that is such an easy way for people to get funds into our schools and like the dinosaur over here we cut them out and we brought them in and some poor parents sat through and figured out the box Toops so um thank you so we we need to do a publicity thing on that maybe in a newsletter send home how that works because it should be more than $21 and $24 there there's if it's in an app how easy is that even I could do it so I think I I think that's something we need to do okay I digress moving on um um thank you for hanging around so long the new IEP form y I'm just going to introduce you all and then move on from there so this year as you know we um desie is moving to a new IEP form that's going to be implemented next year for all of our students that are on IEPs um through a grant we were able to have um we were able to have nine of our staff members and these are three of them that went to extra trainings and took the lead in learning the most in the district right now about the new IEPs and be able to roll out professional development to the staff um and they'll be answering questions too for for next year when when we start that process it been great a great resource in moving this process along and it's awesome to know that we have people in each building that now know what's going to be going on for the most part because some of it is still up in the air um but so we have more lizik we have lauray Laur Shay and we have Josh kosal um middle school middle school high school high school tonight um and so some of them presented to pack the P this year some of them presented at professional development for staff and then the last presentation of the year is to you all and so they've got a PowerPoint that you all had yes that you all have and so they're going to go through that for you just to give you a little overview it's not anything it's not going to be in depth um but just to give you an overview as to what that new IEP is going to look like would you like another microphone we're good at sharing you're good at sharing I'm Loud by Nature so who wants to start okay well so so basically we went to the trainings and we um were trying to figure out all the new forms uh and and what the difference was between the old IEP and the new IEP I'm not going to go through all of it but what's nice is that a lot of things that were kind of um an add-on like the whole autism piece of things is more embedded uh there's a lot more that's going to be more embedded in the um in into the IEP and more clear to hopefully clearer to parents as they get to know the form um and driven by the Yeah so I think I mean I think the department of ad's main focus in in changing this up was to find a better voice through the students and families um so the documentation that we presented with some of the examples in that slideshow kind of highlight um the different formats um the opening page um really looks at a bunch of questions that are student driven and looking at student student goals um over time um and those goals um and objectives that we write within that IEP will be tied to those students um aspirations after school um they want to make it as real life is possible and have the students moving towards um goals and objectives that will make them successful once they're they're move on out of school um the forms and documents um have changed this I P like moris said includes a little bit more where some of the other stuff was sub separate such as the transition planning forms and things like that that's a big piece for us at the high school um we really work with the students once they turn age 14 we work with them on some sort of transition plan from um school age into adulthood whether it's Independent Living skills life skills that sort of stuff um they there's a lot more verbiage in it um and so I think and again uh speaking to the uh presentation from uh Meredith and Matt earlier um I think the goal is to have um language that is both student and family friendly um but really explains what's happening a little bit more in depth than we currently do um they've broken out some of the the areas um and really focused on social emotional learning behavioral stuff um with some of the pleps that we went through um in previous years so um there's a push on making sure students are in the least restrictive environment um and that they have access to any sort of accommodations or modifications that they would need through the process um I think one of the again it's it's a work in progress we we all have been through trainings we've trained the whole train the trainer model um we've all presented to our our various um colleagues at our our grade levels um um but I think it's honestly not something that we're going to have a ton of questions on until we actually use and manipulate the document and go through the meetings we've been told from other schools that have piloted this year that it it is adding um a significant amount of time onto the meetings which will be taking uh teacher reps and things like that out of the classroom a little bit longer than we normally do so uh we'll get a feel for that and a feel for the process and try to stream line as quickly as we can um right or wrong I don't know unless it's initial by the time they get to the high school I feel like most of those parents have been through this quite a bit um I tend to uh and again this is me anyone that knows me knows I'm kind of off the cuff but um we really cated to you freshman year and our goal by the end of that high school is for you to be as independent as you can be um so learning to advocate for your stuff self that sort of stuff so the ultimate goal um if reachable would be those students by Senior Year have a significant decrease in services from where they may have been in kindergarten um so with that said my point being is that those meetings I think tend to go a little bit quicker um the transition from 8th to nth grade is involved for all we've done a better job in the last couple years of getting into eighth grade meetings to try to ease that transition um and then when they come to high school with their first ninth grade meeting you know we take some time go through the Hoops of what high school looks like um but as they go into that sophomore junior senior year sometimes parents are like I've been doing this for 10 years I'm good let's just go through what we need to go through and I'm out so um but the the biggest change is that student piece they want a student voice really heard through this IEP and they want the goals and objectives um catered towards life goals and applications so um it seems like and and the content is all very similar the formatting is what's going to look different and that'll be something that we'll kind of navigate when we start using it whatever platform that we're going to use um and what what that looks like on the the the websites yeah I'm not I'm not sure I think this is good information but if it's not I apologize uh I believe everyone knows or you're going to find out we're make I think we're making a transition from Frontline uh which is our current um IEP documentation platform um and tying it in with power school which we currently use um we did have a brief training on that it sounds really exciting I think some of the things it's going to alleviate is those two systems talking to each other and updating some of that demographic information and things like that um it's also um I think the IEP this new IEP format is going to be much uh user friendly for parents and and gen ad teachers um the way it's broken down the way modifications and accommodations are chunked out um are much the their the way they present it visually is much cleaner than the Kent I where it's like embedded in this crazy mess of information um so with that change in the documentation and the change in the platform we're using to Power School um it's it's going to make it a lot easier for Jad teachers to access the information they need to make sure that they're providing the accomodations and modifications they need to in their classroom so again until we really manipulate the document and and have a few meetings and see what's going on um I'm sure we'll have some feedback and changes and would love to have discussion about it we offered the same thing with the parent advisor group for the special ed that once we get going if they'd like to meet again you know early in the fall and just kind of discuss where we think we're at and how it's going um we can do that so I think until we actually manipulate it we just have the general information on changes my role is a little bit different because I'm not a teacher I'm the school psychologist and team chair that runs the special education meetings so one of the things that I've been looking at in terms of the parents voice and the students voice is what can we give them ahead of time so we can get their voice incorporated into the document so we have it kind of live to go into so it'll generate some more thoughtful discussion um I know several parents have reached out and said you know meeting is going to be very long we're aware of that that's what we're going to try and put some systems into place to streamline things but be sure that the voice is heard I did have one meeting where a student came in the parent requested kind of a trial run and it went very well it was lengthy but I think we learned a lot in that one kind of practice um student did very well was very well spoken so that was helpful for us to see so it'll be a work in progress but we are aware we want to be respectful of the staff and the parents' time that they're taking you know to be at these meting meetings and develop a well-written IEP questions Mr Leon thank you for your work on this you you seem very knowledgeable of the topic uh one concern I would have was the regular education teachers going into the new form and reading it do you think there's going to be a need for training at the beginning of the year for this we we we've started that process uh last PD day we spent some time going through just kind of what we're discussing now showing them different forms and documents uh showing them the typical Pages they would look at as far as current performances and and accommodations and modifications um but ye yes um I think as we get moving through um we're going to need some training uh if we do Transition over to Power School uh fully which I think we are um and um them accessing it uh is definitely in the works for further training yes thank you well I'm I'm looking at it with my former teacher hat on and the first thought I have is is this going to take I mean once it gets going is this going to take you twice as long initially I I I anticipate that something we could do about that but obviously we can't I mean it's state form but but um that was my first thought is like oh my goodness you know and and there is some redundancy in some of the forms it's broken out and there is some redundancy so I think wills it looks like some things could be filled right yeah so that they've explained it to us that basically once you work within the document um it's pretty fluid so if there's a question that like the answer is no to like the next six pages go away you don't even see them so it's not like you're looking at like you know that it X's out certain sections when you answer things specifically so so that would be help yeah but I mean for us I think once we get in a Groove and we had talked about running um I don't know what you want to call it but like basically a database with some common objectives and things for specific things that might help us streamline some that process or um things like that so I think the initial push will be I I like it I'm excited about it so I think the initial push will be a little bit crazy but once we get through it it will be good I I'm looking at it and as a classroom teacher I think I would like it too I think it would be more informative to me as to what I need to do in my classroom just as a quick look you know um yeah I mean the ACC I mean to get into specifics but the accommodation and modification sections I mean chunks it down specifically to what happens in the classroom what would happen in like a um like a gym or art class um where some accommodations May apply specifically in a math class but not in English class I mean it gets that broken down where before it was just kind of this one section with accommodation and you had to figure out if it applied to you or not yeah and then you go into the teachers room and teachers talk like I'm doing this for this kid and they're like well I'm not should I be doing it so that I it makes it much it much clearer so okay Mrs breski I got three things number one you guys are doing great Outreach on this like you have been fantastic the whole team has been amazing at letting the special ed parents know this is coming and the training and talking us through what's going to happen and how things are going to change how things are going to stay the same um you guys are doing a really good job with the education component of that um I'm really impressed uh number two how long are we talking as far as the meetings taking longer twice as long or like what time I have no idea I think I think it depends on the grade level um if I were chairing at the younger level I would think it might take a little bit longer by the time they get to me things have kind of narrowed down a little bit more so we already have a lot of that work done um I don't know TimeWise I think it yeah it dep I think it depend dep on the type of meeting uh you know our initials at any grade level are are probably the lengthiest um three years where people have been through it we have a little bit more to recover cover with reports um you know if it's a re it depends really what it is I I would say I would anticipate doubling whatever the normal meeting time is and those already fluctuate so that's a lot of resources okay that's a that is a big consideration that we've been talking resources that being us yeah I mean you you sat in on a couple out of districts right that were like 3 hours oh my gosh y okay hopefully once we get good at using these and and frontloading some of that information it will pair down but I think initially they could be lengthy yeah and I I think as a whole state yeah I think as a whole state they're looking for feedback on the process when we start when everyone really starts rolling with it so Juliana does a good job job with with that sort of piece um so I mean we'll provide she loves sending forms and surveys and things like that so well we call her the QR Queen I didn't even know you were still here anyway she uh you know we'll provide that feedback and again I think the states I mean they had a huge team that kind of looked at this and went through it and rolled it out um but they're also looking for direct feedback from people that are using it every day so I think within the next year um you know they'll they'll get that feedback and things that need to change change I don't think they want their intent is not to spend three hours on one meeting so okay yeah which leads me to my third question which is my perennial question which this is a state mandate the state handed this down were we given any extra money from the state for the extra resources that the school needs to use for this new very extended form that's requiring a lot more resources from our school system so not resources as far as what we're going to need to run these meetings but the 274 Grant this past year did afford the money to be able to give these lovely people an additional stien for them to be able to do the training and do that professional development so professional development was small amount for the training but not for the additional Personnel hours that are going to be needed for this yes that that's yes that's not going to be and I don't think they could really quantify that in any way until they see what's going on I'm hopeful that there I'm hopeful that I'm hoping that next year the 274 Grant will again be dog dogar earmark so that we can use it for the new IEP for whatever way we decide might be a good way to spend it but the 274 is always a professional development Grant so I'd like you to be able to is it specifically special education development gr okay yeah good that might be a legislative priority is when things come down from the state required of us where is who's going to pay for it right that question when we deal with the state pretty much everything we do day to day day after day year after year is an unfunded mandate oh yeah I'm going to keep pointing it out though every every change from the state that comes it's going to be was there money associated with the newly or maybe make some changes that cost us less money please well and I recently had a conversation with a parent who asked kind of the same question about the time for meetings because they wanted to be sensitive to their employer and they said you know we can work as quickly and efficiently as we can and you're a lot at time and they said well would you you know we may have to have one meeting and reconvene another meeting so I think we're just going to have a number of situations that in the moment we make the best decision that we have you know with our staffing and respectful appearance because it is a considerable amount of time for you know working parents to be out of work or whatever their circumstances and when is this rolling out this fall this fall fall okay it is it didn't get delayed okay thank you very very much this is the training that you guys are putting into this and the Outreach is fantastic thank you Mr school and bini I have a very basic question what is the source you use for determining children's diagnosis do use like that DSM do you something else it depends on disability category um you know medically based we have our outside documentation for medical providers if it's a specific learning disability um if I'm running meetings I go through the state checklist to identify what type of model using discrepancy or you know for a specific learning disability so it depends on disability category and so these are really basic questions for you right it like physical disability What would the other categories be so there's Health there's intellectual there's a de heart of hearing there's specific learning disability social emotional impairment Autism Spectrum Disorder so I I I'm sorry I asked the question in artfully the not what is the diagnosis but like you have like a bucket for physical disabilities a bucket for emotional disabilities Y and then an a a bucket for like what's what are the the big categories those are the ones I just listed oh jeez yeah all right there's lots of buckets yeah there's many and then within those there's different criteria that we meet okay and the overall process is a referral would be made they would have both psychological and achievement testing done through the school and within that meeting we would determine eligibility or not eligibility based on those findings some families do um come with documentation of disabilities from either primary care or outside neuros pych Val does that help it's very help yeah yeah okay it's expensive though but the the process from the last the IEP that we use now compared to this new form that process itself wouldn't change you know that's still the same um needing the documentation yeah okay anything else I'll just offer this having experienced being a special ed director my hats off to our special ed director as well as to all of our special Educators and this evening sitting before you are three of the most outstanding special Educators we have in the district but they're really outstanding I think in any District um and they stepped up to to take lead on on this and um they've invested a lot of their time yes there was a stipend but there's still a lot of time um and they are going to become the go-to people in their building um so my gratitude to all of you for stepping up to take the lead on this because this is a big shift for a lot of people thank you so thank you you thank you thank you thank you for waiting so long know all that exciting stuff was going on outside um next we have the 202 425 school committee meeting calendar yep it's just a draft um you can take a look um the dates are you know fairly standard the first and third Wednesday of the month and I've indicated dates that are off cycle but if you think that off cycle dates should be relocated some house um we can certainly you can provide that information to me and I can um revise a different draft for you um no need to approve this this evening it's not like it's a an urgent Rush yeah we generally do want at the end of August sometime we do but this but that's usually just put together well yeah this's no turn over in this in this committee oh did you win I did I guess excellent I didn't even I wasn't 100% sure I like somebody sent me something that I did but I never conf you got more votes than even people voted I think that was like yeah my from Chicago okay yeah it wases you have to go get swor in again I think okay oh maybe yeah may you can't even be there I got to go training again oh man that was terrible congratulations no you don't have to do the training just on train but I do think you need to be SW might we might want to think about a different type of Workshop I think that was the plan is that so I can but that won't be me so I can surve everyone for their availability in August and we can you know come up with some ideas around a topic for our Workshop yeah can we put on here also a building maintenance plan so we can I very much want to so we can put on a building maintenance plan but as you can see Mr heee um has an awful lot right now I know he's still delving into and coming to understand all of the different facilities and the needs very longterm plus we were already starting to look at the capital plan literally we've already started looking at the next iteration of the capital plan but it is on his his list that he he wants to do a facility plan okay he's on The Rao radar it just is not something that's a quick turn around I'd like for it to be something that's a thoughtful document and that's thorough so um it it is on the radar okay um and we will get to it as soon as we can but I I I wouldn't even expect to see that in the fall okay the the capital plan allocated money for the Turkey Hill study who is in charge of overseeing the Turkey Hill study Mr he oh my God okay the film as well can we clone Mr HEI I wish I could okay and just as a reminder we're still short staffed we have open custodial positions so are we full of he's also helping with the buildings cleaning the buildings are we full up for maintenance staff right now no okay so we're not full in maintenance either right now we have two out of four positions okay so he really does have his hands full it's not that we don't want to be able to provide you a facility plan we would love to be able to provide you a facility plan but at the moment he really does have an awful lot on his plate oh no I meant like yeah for the next year's calendar I would like it on the calendar between well I if you could afford me the opportunity to figure out when it's reasonable to expect it and I think I'm going to need a few more months um but honestly it is on our radar our list of things to do and yeah KN when the Turkey Hill plan is expect might also affect that because correct that would help us yeah it's going to give us a lot of information a lot okay okay so moving on then we have public comment have a lot questions one left okay one I I would like to make a public comment congratulations Anthony I just check I did just check I should have check well I I got a really authoritative text from somebody and I just assumed it was right but this is the first time I checked official ones official numbers congratulations and welcome back thanks yes welcome back if I could I would like to offer up a public comment as well you may um this afternoon I was invited to help out um you may recall that last year um Christa Pama who was one of our first grade teachers her class uh did an seal project and it was the Hanks for Hank oh my gosh um and they had their lemonade stand and they raised money and they bought all the little stuffed tanks and now they got so many that we now have the Hank awards at the Turkey Hill on the primary well she inspired uh I think her entire first grade uh cohort uh the entire first grade engaged in a project today um they became aware that there are there are students who families rely heavily on our food pantry and they don't always get to have birthday celebrations because money is tight so today they packed 90 celebration boxes and they are either graduation celebration boxes or birthday celebration boxes and um um I volunteered some of my folks up at TCP that I know have um SUVs we're going to go down and get the boxes from the primary tomorrow and bring them up to the food pantry they will be available to families through the pantry oh my god oh that's wonderful so I have um I can coordinate here they did a good job Sign Up Genius I bought five it was like sign up to buy five birthday banners the parents donated all of the materials so if I if I'm lucky enough to be able to coordinate ha does something like that every year she does something like amazing Community inspired and the kids just they learn I'm sharing with the folks at home uh on Zoom some video footage of all the different things that were donated I'll drop these videos into your folder um lots and lots birthday candles and banners for happy birthday or congratulations the children made handmade cards either birthday cards or congratulation cards and those went into the box as well it was extraordinary extraordinary it was an amazing thing so shout out to all of our first grade teachers all of our parents who donated for this Excellent Adventure today it was awesome this was all the first grade all the first grade all the first grade did this and to all the kids who helped it was like an assembly line they packed the boxes the boxes just went down the corridor until they got into the library they were all sweaty and like sitting up there so if anybody doubts the need for Mini Splits we can send them a picture from today cuz all these kids are out there just like sweating on the second and thank you to the first grade teachers it was amazing thank you to Mrs Pama for thank you to her for inviting me to come help pack the boxes today because I think that that's the best time I've had in a really long time is her last name pal p a l m a okay I wasn't sure if it was a Massachusetts accent thing I'm trying to find it and just one more um aside I dropped into the folder and updated superintendent evaluation folder and in that folder um there's a timeline and a howto but if you need any help with any of that um certainly um email call uh we we can walk through it either on the phone online or um in person so that meeting is set for that's the 12th June 12th so I need your completed evaluations by the 5th okay okay on some of you are very efficient and I already have them but and by the fth um we're hoping to have some preliminary I data to to share with everybody um but uh early reports from Mrs Scott are that it's looking pretty good in in a couple of grades in particular so yep we're we're uh looking forward to that well those were all wonderful public comments thank you so much um committee reports anyone oh I have them um the uh Pell met but what we talked about was the new IEP form and how there will be a presentation on that and we went over and there was the bylaws um uh the Turkey Hill so that um was there anything else I don't actually cordella is going to be the new yes and there's a new chair um and if you have a child on a 504 or an IEP you should uh come to the pel meeting because it's very easy they're on zoom and they last for less than an hour every time because very good about that and it is fantastic um they're so easy to go to um and it just is full of very useful information um so we went over the IEP and the B uh the Turkey Hill Elementary School school advisory committee met on May 5th and we went over the family school compact which will be presented at the May 22nd school committee meeting which was today um things are getting busy at Turkey Hill the field trips busing for field trips is getting very very expensive um so that's making field trips difficult because of the busing costs um and uh so the fifth grade is going to the woo or maybe they already went did they already they may have already gone but fifth grade is going to the woo uh fourth grade is not they are doing two in-house experience field trips they already had one um they are field trips at the school so the first one was animal Adventures came and brought a bunch of animals for the kids to touch uh my kid got to touch an alligator which I was apparently very exciting and there was Hedgehog um and this was uh entirely free to the kids thanks to the PTO um and there was a little bit of money left over from last year's U refund from that field trip when they were in third grade uh they're also doing an earth dome which is a giant inflatable planetarium that is coming um that is I'm not sure what date that's going to come but it sounds really neat yeah I really want to go but apparently I can't but it's the uh Earth Dome and that's going to be these are these are good experiences because they're going to be more individualized and the kids can go in smaller groups uh third grade also was doing animal adventures also free thanks to the PTO um June 5th is field day with uh rain dayed to June 6 and they are sending out Sign Up Genius and they're going to need volunteers for field day uh June 12th is the last day of school and it's a half day for all students which I know we already said but I'm going to keep saying because uh my daughter's first year of school I forgot so I'm just going to keep reminding people um so Turkey Hill also sent out an optional parent input survey for placement and they're encouraging people to fill it out um it's a survey it was sent out I believe a week or two ago and I think the due date is actually in two days and um you can fill it out you cannot request a specific teacher and the survey is going to be shared with classroom teachers so the classroom teachers can see and use that to inform um classroom placement and uh it was teacher appreciation week two weeks ago and we appreciate our teachers very much that's it okay okay anybody else PTO had a meeting the meeting was about the event that's out front uh for anybody that didn't go the the event was a collaboration with the Lions Club Lions Club the food pantry and the boys and girls club yes so it was Mandy Gilman Mandy Gilman's mom and then they got everybody to do all kinds of things because that's what they're good at that's a powerful force yeah uh it was very well attended it was a bucolic evening and a small town it was wonderful uh somebody brought a Japanese domestic Market R32 which was delightful for me to see cuz I never seen one and somebody also brought a Shelby Cobra so that was awesome and that was why I got here maybe 30 seconds late you did just F you didn't like our fox body Mustang with dead mice in the back seat we could smell the grill grilling Grill grilling absolutely um I have something from Master planning Master planning has the next public meeting on May 30th I have to send you the flyer to send out um it will be May 30th at 6:00 at smoke stackers once again and they will be open for their menu for those that enjoy their evening cup of tea um and what they're trying to do at this point is this will be the launch of the next survey they're trying to take what they have already and pulse it down so we can see exactly what we're talking about um I think it's important if people are able to go however May 30th is also our senior Awards night so I will not be attending because I have to be there but um if you are available on May 30th it is well worth the um the attending and get get an idea as to where our community is thinking they need to go so that's what's up there so now we're up to topics for future discussion so we are going to put um the legis the delegation topic list on again so we can deal with that um what else did we need to revisit arpa funds have to we want to discuss about the arpa funds because our thought was they should be returned but we may have a request so we'll let's talk about that um anything else no all right that sounds good so next on the agenda is executive session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have Det Dental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares make a motion to go into executive session at 8:48 p.m. and ajour following second all those in favor I I