##VIDEO ID:KKKsaovcTqQ## I I feel like I'm just one member I'll explain later more all yeah bring it up tonight too yeah there's two parts of recording in progress live over the lunenberg public access Channel this meeting will be broadcast live through the local access cable channel and on the public access Facebook page and will be found in lunenberg access YouTube channel within 24 hours after the meeting the agenda lists all the topics which may be discussed at the meeting and are those reasonably anticipated by the chair votes may be taken as a result of these discussions not all items listed May in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by open meeting law uh first item on the agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance if you could please rise I pledge allegiance to the flag flag of the United States of America and to theic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you uh next item of the agenda is an executive session to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel or to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations Mr chair with non-union Personnel could I suggest that we go out of order and hear our uh uh student Representatives report before we go into executive session zero second second uh all those in favor say I I I I all right thank you uh we will now take the student Representatives report thank you um so so districtwide there is no school January 20th for Martin Luther King Jr day um for the primary and Turkey Hill there are parent teacher conferences both online and in person on January 30th and that means a half day for the kids at both the primary and Turkey Hill for Turkey Hill the winter activities are starting next week um Monday January 30th is the week they start for lunberg Middle School there's a red carpet dance on Friday January 17th that's also one the quarter ends for both High School and Middle School uh the enrollment for Washington DC the 8ighth grade trip remains open till January 15th and the after school music program is starting up for both Middle School and High School uh lunenberg quarter 2 ends Friday January 17th and National Honor Society is now offering peer tuting peer tutoring that is all thank you thank you thank you motion to enter executive session is there a second second and then read and we'll do a roll call vote uh Mrs brzowski yes Mr beardmore yes Shambo yes and Mr Leon yes thank you we will be back shortly e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right it is 6:57 p.m. we are done with our executive session the next item on the agenda is public comment I'll open up to public comment from the public if you could raise your virtual hand or unmute yourself seeing no public comment from the public we'll move on to public comment from the committee um I just have a one bit of uh just want to advise the committee um as I did a couple of years ago in a similar circumstance I was invited yesterday uh to participate on a Fitchburg Access TV show next week it's called fitzburg lemonster area politics um it's hosted by a classmate of mine from lunenberg uh and uh and so I've this will be my second time uh sitting in on that show he asked me for topics uh as potential topics and I suggested chapter 7 defunding as a topic aren't you Brave um and and he went ahead and I I've been advised that he invited a member of the lunberg the the lemonster school committee to also participate so um that will be taped next Wednesday I don't know when it will air but I just wanted to advise the members that I'll be engaged in that conversation sounds like fun should be any other public comment from the committee all right seeing none the next item of the agenda is the chair's report want to wish everybody Happy New Year um on January 1st the Mass state Senate and representatives were sworn in I ended up congratulating our legislators I did want to also mention that Senate President Karen spilka had called out K through2 education funding in Her speech um for reform as a priority uh to tackle review this session uh that they need revisions and to re-examine the formula uh and that communities are struggling throughout Massachusetts uh and also Regional School transportation and special education needed to be reviewed on Sunday uh President Biden signed HR 82 into law the Social Security Fairness Act and that was all I had uh next I ad made the agenda is review and approve minutes we do have minutes in the folder any questions or comments Corrections on December 4th 2024 minutes seeing none I'll look for a motion motion to approve the minutes of Wednesday December 4th 2024 second any discussion all in favor say I I I motion passes thank you next item in the agenda is to review and approve line item transfers warrants and donations we had warrants from December 16th 2024 to December 19th 2024 totaling $237,000 2027 237,000 271 and there were also um a few donations uh for acceptance this evening um you have a memo from uh principal Squire there is is a donation in the amount of $30.3 from Box Tops um for field trips um there's a donation in the amount of $13.51 for art supplies from the cultural Council that was the their remaining uh aror money that was allocated to them for the res the artist and res residence program um and another in the amount of $1,560 from the PTO for stem and reading materials all of these uh monies will be deposited in the gift account any questions or comments I'll look for a motion move to accept the donations with gratitude I can second that any discussion all those in favor say I I motion passes thank you I think I think okay next item on the agenda is the superintendent's report an update on our search for uh a director of facilities we interviewed a very well qualified candidate uh in the last week uh however we anticipate that salary may be a barrier uh for this particular count camp candidate uh however there are other candidates and we are uh setting up interviews with another applicant um hopefully later this week or early next um msba as a reminder the S the msba is conducting a Statewide survey of school buildings we are gathering information that they require as part of that process we will be participating in Virtual interviews with them and then following those interviews they will conduct site visits of all of our schools as well as TCP because the Ace Program is currently housed there uh these visits should be completed uh in late January or early February additionally and I mentioned this uh at the last meeting uh the msba is is going to begin accepting statements of interest on January 13th the eligible uh accelerated repair uh program projects uh for the 2025 cycle include roofs Windows Doors and heat pumps um based on uh the monies available for the door replacement project at Turkey Hill we will not be able to fund replacement of all the doors at Turkey Hill um we can have a conversation at the next uh school committee meeting after uh Dr Gilson and I have an opportunity to attend mba's webinar for superintendant um on the 21st we may want to consider putting in a statement of interest to get the rest of those doors funded we may not um but we'll have additional information for your consideration um following that that webinar an update on the 911 phone upgrades almost complete the only thing remaining uh is to fully transition the phone system and that will happen on January 21st um Power School breach there was a communication pushed out today um we're going to be receiving additional information from power school regarding what was accessed for us um our it Management Consultant is also uh looking at what was accessed uh and when we can provide additional information with some details about what that what was accessed and what does that mean um we will definitely uh send an updated communication out to the committee and the families as well um a few calendar reminders uh January we are off cycle the entire month of January so our next meeting is January 22 that will be hybrid from the Middle High School at 6:30 uh schools and School offices are closed on Monday January 20 20th for the MLK Junior uh holiday uh parent teacher conferences are January 30th at the turkey hill and the primary school and term two ends this Friday January 17th and happy New Year to everyone thank you thank you what questions or comments do the committee members have um for the power school breach uh you had said you had a meeting there was a not a meeting but there was a probably a very large so was it a systemwide breach it w they serve yeah Nationwide and it was a nationwide but there are different portals within power school and we need to figure out which in our system uh was accessed and what information is in that portal there may not be anything of consequence in that portal we need to get to that level and figure out um what's what's happening but just know that our it Consultants are also digging while we're waiting to get more detail from power school and and again if there's any concerning information that might have been accessed you know personal information uh we would want to convey to families what what that information uh would be as well as what does Power School intend to do next to mitigate the okay yeah were they forthcoming during the meeting today was it I think it was more or less um we know this happened we're digging in we are going to communicate with every customer to inform them exactly what was the breach in their District um and they would be in touch uh in the coming days with each individual District that was in impacted okay and the IT Consultants other districts they serve were also affected I didn't ask them if they also are working in other districts that were impacted um I'm just curious about that if it was to make sure it's not us specific or something about the way we're being serviced by power school or a level of service we paying for or something like that and make sure other districts were affected too y so once I have more information either from our Consultants or from power school I I'll provide everybody an update okay I guess I'd feel better if it happened to many other districts yeah that that was not a pleasant email to open nope thank you other questions or comments from the committee members will the facilities and grounds report include some detail in terms of what happened with the funding and arpa and that sort of thing when we get to that part we can speak to all that yep okay for the facilities director position um are we confident that we're going to be able to fill that position as as it is at this point or should it be looked at whether to divide the position or look at increasing the salary so um we have when we have had a high highly qualified like if you have a background in engineering you are a highly qualified candidate to understand all of our systems um when we have somebody with that level of qualification and experience um we have a little uh pocket of money within the uh salary uh line that we could apply and increase the salary for that position above what is in the budgeted line right now that said not every candidate even one that we would hire uh is going to come to the table with that level of um background expertise or experience um so we're we're being selective on that we don't want to put out a high salary for someone that can't you know rise to that that level of um service for the district um we have had conversations about uh and we are pursuing a conversation um on Friday um when we put the the bid out for the turkey Hills study um many of the packets that were submitted um in included uh experience uh providing House doctor services so we are going to be meeting with the folks who actually won the bid because they were one that included this house doctor service um and we're curious about what service does that Encompass if if um we could lean on them for higher level um portions of the job like a 10-year facilities plan being drafted out or um you know development of a detailed um Capital plan and all of the work that has to go into getting some decent numbers to put on that Capital plan or uh acting as the project manager for any capital projects that are funded um if that's the kind of service that they provide then it might be a good thing for us to contract Service for those types of things because that's not a day-to-day sort of thing that's a need but we still need somebody who's capable of the daytoday running and managing the facility and the grounds um and it's a big job um a few months ago maybe two postings ago oh uh we we interviewed a candidate who stopped us uh as we were answering his question about uh what are the responsibilities of the job and uh he stopped us and said you're describing two jobs and I said yes we are he said that's not doable you you need two people he said I am not the person for for this position as it is if you revamp the position and create two positions from it uh please do reach out I would be interested in in applying at that time so it is a significant challenge because it is a giant job for the school department um however like I said we have an applicant that we think absolutely uh has great potential because they have um experience in a municipal school department facilities uh Department currently um but not as the Director level more the the the next step down as a manager but if you've worked for a number of years under a really good director you might be ready to to make that jump so we'll see there I feel good that there's there's a candidate that that does uh show some promise but we'll know more after we go through an interview process with that candidate and the first candidate hasn't gotten back to us and fully declined the position um so we're we're constantly uh in flux and and getting ready for we've got to move to a Plan B because this is becoming a very difficult position to fill as a single position so we may have to come back with a redesign of the department stay tuned thank you uh next item in the agenda is new business action item LHS scholarship donation I would like to introduce George wer he's a former Alum of the lunenberg public schools and he has donated $115,000 in the amount of a scholarship award to honor one of his former teachers Mr Vincent Joseph so I'm going to turn the microphone over to George and I thank him for his thoughtful gift to Lunenburg and if you can unmute that would be perfect can you hear me now yes perfect okay good evening Dr bur everybody else Dr Gilson thank you very much uh just short and sweet this is the uh the second of uh of of two scholarships the other one you're quite aware of the Pete Lincoln uh very different and focus in the sense that that's somebody is going to Liberal Arts maybe following his footsteps this one is to a uh to an athlete uh that obvious ly is pursuing College um much much in the line of of uh Vincent Joseph uh grew up in lemster uh had no money had he not been picked up by uh um Bridgewater uh there was no money they took him on one semester he ended up turning that into four he ended up turning it into a teacher degree and he was just an incredible uh adviser to our class but uh a great great uh uh teacher out of lunenberg system so thank you all for your time uh uh Dr Gilson uh can can kind of take it from here but thank you thank you we appreciate your generous gift thank you for your donation much appreciated any other discussion comments um so yes uh first of all I um was not a a student in Mr Lincoln's classroom but I was I was a student in the school where Mr Lincoln taught I I never had the the privilege of of having him in class um but I've gotten to know him a lot over the years as you know he's very active in lunenberg and um he was not only an exceptional teacher but is also an exceptional member of our community uh and and as a result of that um I did not have the privilege of of uh knowing Mr Joseph uh it was a little bit before my time um but I can only imagine uh what an exceptional uh uh mentor and teacher he was um so I want to take the opportunity to thank you for both of your donations and honoring um both of these uh outstanding uh contributors to uh uh to our community um more more personal than even that for me um my daughter was actually an awardee of the Lincoln scholarship four years ago uh and she uh attended Salem State and then suffk and is now a graduate student uh at Pace University in New York uh studying playwriting and intends to be an educator uh so um thank you she was in fact our first recipient and uh U not that I don't want to waste any more of your time but when you see a guy like Pete Lincoln out in the hallway every morning hugging everybody it it didn't need to be an honor student it didn't need to be uh you know an exceptional English person he hugged those kids that came in late smell a little bit like alcohol maybe a little bit of weed I can tell you it's probably the only hug those guys got and uh he would grab them do a noogie on their head uh and you would see it day after day and uh that's what impressed me I had him twice and I would look out and he was always in the hall talking to people and uh the same same type of person with Vincent Joseph but yes your daughter was the first recipient of that award as a matter of fact any other discussion thank you so much for this this was very generous and fantastic thank you so much and I would agree we thank you very much for your generosity and um your gift will touch many children so thank you well thanks I'm going to go ahead and sign off but um Liz Peterson can can talk to Dr Burnham I do want to follow up in the spring Liz has got a pretty good idea of that and so does Dr Gilson on another thing that I'm thinking about doing but uh I've got to sign off we're getting ready to have a winter blizzard here in Atlanta Georgia oh jeez I made a decision about 20 minutes ago uh we're going to go ahead and uh close down at noon tomorrow uh I have 189 workers in my plant and uh I don't need need anybody on the road late tomorrow afternoon or certainly on Friday so so I'm going to go ahead and bid off and uh wish you all well and happy New Year be safe stay warm safe thank you thank you all right I'll look for a motion I would move to accept the generous offer of $115,000 for a scholarship in the name of Mr Vincent Joseph second any discussion all in favor say I I I thank you the motion passes the next item of the agenda is action item Transportation contract okay um you have a packet in your folder which basically describes all of the increases in the transportation bid you were notified last week that on first um glance at the bid it came in at 10% for the first year of an increase um I got on the phone with Bob D and um we looked at ways that we could spread out the impact of this bid across the span of the contract I will say this is where we landed as of this morning um with the first year being 6.76% next year 8% following year the third year is 3% um I was talking with him at um the latest around 4:00 this afternoon and we're trying to work out a little bit more consistency so we don't go up to eight and then down to 3% so a little bit more stability um is what we're looking for before we ultimately settle in on the number and award the bid so that's what we're working on do you need action on this tonight or can we table this for another evening if you think there could be a change percents I think that there might be some action tomorrow however I'd like to keep in mind that it takes I have to post tomorrow in the central register to get it out by next week um so can we take action based on the fact that there it could stand where it stands now but it's possible there might be a change and I would notify you of that change if I get one tomorrow Peter could you explain the process like because I understand we put out a bid for a threeyear contract yes you have been effectively negotiating a 5-year contract do we now need to rebid this is that is that what you're describing or no um I put out an option to create a threeyear year bid request with a 2-year extension okay which means we're not obligated to the fiveyear package uh but if it Bears to be an advantage to us then we could continue after the third year is up and at the rates that they specified um as part of the 3 plus two um bid so the plus two represents basically an option to extend yeah yes that's correct okay mhm those rates guaranteed yes with those rates guaranteed which I think could be very important um and if not we're not obligated to accept we can just simply after 3 years rebid it out which um most likely it would be the one bidder that we've continued to have which is deboss um and so you know it anchors Us in either way I mean there's a no fail is not a a fail option here and if they can do right byas then that's really a good a place to work with for the public watching at home uh the over the five years the uh the increase the first year is 6.76% second year is 8.09% thirdd year is 3.07% fourth year is 6.91% and the fifth year would be 88.0% any other questions or comments from the the committee M um first I would like to thank you for working on this and working with debus and trying to get it a little bit more even I appreciate I know that's extra extra stuff and um I appreciate that so I think if if we were to motion that um we accept the bid from debus because we know that's the only bid we're going to get even if we put it out again um we would accept that and um encourage further negotiation to even out the values then um would you like to make that motion yes I will make that motion to um accept this bid from debus with the caveat that we would authorize Dr gillson to continue to work out a more even spread over the first three years can I yeah I'm sorry don't be sorry I'm not good at this you're very good at this um again I want to go back to Pro process when you said you want you need to post in the public register what do you need to post we I need to post the awarding of the bid to debus okay okay but I also before you bid out anything you over a certain amount you have to post in the central register for it to be advertised to all of the eligible biders so you have local businesses that all read this Central register post yeah but we're the B we've already posted we've already made the invitation to vid this is that was posting the award okay yes um absolutely so what is not posting it cost no it's not the it doesn't cost but what I'm getting what I'm getting to here is I don't want to accept anything that we might be able to get a better deal so my what I would recommend is that we authorize Dr gillson to settle the contract for for a vote and and we can vote to validate or or um approve that contract and at a later meeting but we authorize her to negotiate and settle on our behalf specific to this contract would that that be sufficient enough for you Dr gillson yes I I think so but I don't want to I guess the the difference that I have in terms of what you your motion was that I don't want to accept anything specific with any specific numbers or language at this point I'd rather I'd rather Empower our agent in this case Dr Gilson to negotiate on our behalf M like to revise or withdraw withraw my motion and hand it over to my friend Mr beardmore I I move that we authorized Dr Gilson uh to negotiate and finalize this contract I will second that any discussion all those in favor say I I I the motion passes thank you and thank you Dr Gilson all right next item on the agenda is a discussion on the lunberg municipal building design plans so we had a meeting on Monday and uh the plans are definitely coming along getting closer uh the architect met with us for the second time now um with a a revised plan and layout um Michael Ray Jeff who is the chair of the lunenberg municipal building design committee um stated in that meeting that he was planning on meeting with department heads on Wednesday Wednesday morning so I will turn it over to Dr Burnham to discuss that he did meet with department heads this morning uh In This Very Room and uh solicited their feedback on the design that was provided um we are one of the Departments that was able to provide feedback uh Liz Peterson is um sharing the screen uh so that everyone can see what that design plan looks like at this time so Liz if you could scroll yep I think if you can go back back one okay there you one 125 okay this the one so the areas that you can see in blue that's the existing Ritter building with uh on the far right hand side that's where the main entrance of that building is um the area that you can see that's purple and green with some yellow that would be the town Department offices Liz you can go to the next screen this just indicates that we would have both the upper level and the lower level of the existing Ritter building next screen they have mapped out um offices and provided assignments to those offices and spaces um I met Mr Jeffrey said sent these um drawings out by email uh Monday evening at approximately 10:50 p.m. um I met with my team on Tuesday morning and we took a look at this and uh started to discuss what we would provide for feedback um in this particular slide you can see that the entire lower level of the Ritter is dedicated to the Ace Program um there's a counter a reception counter with the executive assistant sitting out at the counter um it is not appropriate at all that Liz Peterson be the person at the counter to welcome everyone that comes into the building not appropriate we don't currently have that position say that again we don't currently really have that position we do she is my executive assistant noer at the TCP we do not have someone correct so although we we do have now a senior uh doing some hours greeting people at TCP oh for the senior tax uh work program good too yep um you can see that there's a uh a dedicated Title One office a dedicated data office the data office for those of you familiar with you know the staff at at um central office that would be Heidi spin um she's also um accounts payable um the title one office we we have two coaches um I don't I can't say definitive because there's no square footage provided um but I'm not sure that we would be able to fit the two of them into that office um we would not there's no uh space designated for Penny bornean who is HR Support for the HR office uh nor de Barrow who is our Central registar currently when people Reg their children for lunenberg public schools they come and they meet with Deb Arrow they bring paperwork that is necessary uh copies of these documents have to be made uh we need to see original documents in some cases um most of the time the children are coming along with the parent for this process and this is not a process that takes 3 minutes at a transaction counter um Deb actually sits with these families and provides them information answers their questions reviews the paperwork makes the copies gets them back the originals that they need it it's a process um and there's no dedicated space for that position at all right now but she would need space not at a transaction counter in order to do that job um the elevator is the existing uh lift it's not truly an elevator they're going to change that no no they're not they will not be a full elevator they have there hasn't been a decision on it yet I thought he well um Mr Jeff informed us this morning that there will not be a new elevator there they don't want to spend money on it um Liz if you can go to the next screen and then we may come back to this screen um on the second floor you can see that um there's a dedicated space for special services records storage uh a an office that would house the two uh administrative assistants for special ed an office for the director of uh special services um a an office that would be shared by the director of food services and the director of facilities an office for the director of teaching and learning and an office for HR we don't necessarily agree of the placement of all of those things but the space is there I think that was the idea what re is hoping to get that feedback of adjacencies Y yep I mean we we could certainly talk about where we would prefer to locate people sure um okay so we started to discuss some of the challenges um Liz if you go back to the previous all right so if you're familiar with the Ritter um it's an open stairway that you go down to the lower level um currently there's no door so all of that area where the students are is open we we would not be able to secure it it would have to be secured right even if it were secured if they built a door um there's still the lift that can take you right right down there so there was discussion this morning about that could be um sort of keyed so that right you know somebody couldn't just walk in and and uh use that elevator um my team had a discussion and I'd invite um Juliana hansum to come up to the table with uh Dr gillson um based on experience perception is important um it's a concern uh that uh special needs students would be located in the basement I know that the whole Space is going to be fully renovated um and it's not truly a basement it's a split level and it's mostly below ground um but there aren't a lot of windows down in that space um Juliana can speak more to you know past history and concerns about what could happen um if there were a concern raised around the placement of the students in this location Juliana right so while while I appreciate the thought that went into the space um I think Kate already brought up some of the concerns about it being completely open going down the stairways and having that um and not having the dimensions of the other rooms we had talked about like next year we're going to have 10 students in Ace so when we figured out looking at the diagram even those two offices were like 10 ft Maybe by 10 ft and when you when you actually map out 10 ft by it's not that big so when you think about putting desks in there with students and even having the open area so that alone has some potential problems as far as not being big enough really even but from what Kate talked about being in that lower level I can tell you that even when we were building the high school we had to submit was it three times Tim it went back and forth to even have a collocated achieve and TLC room together um desie when they come out and do the the audits of the buildings do not like to see clusters of programs together nor do they like to see them in in like winged areas so to speak so they want um they want to make sure that it is space that is for lack of better word that that's Equitable right for everyone so I think that there could potentially be a problem with it being located in the lowest level of the building um um even though I know in the past it was used as a child's Library even though it will be renovated it's just something from my experience in this field that it could potentially be an issue when they come to um audit it and in that case they don't give you much time to rectify that um and there's really no appeals process in that it's you it needs to be moved um and within a very short time frame frame so it's just things to consider and and I'm not saying that it would definitely happen it's just something that could potent it needs to be thought about is there any precedent is what is there any precedent to that not in Lunenburg no well no but you're talking about a Desi audit has Desi done this have they forced systems to relocate programs such as Ace well I know that they they have they're very clear when they come in to do an audit on what they don't want to see and so it hasn't been in in a district that I've worked in um where where that's been an issue or a concern because it hasn't been the configuration I just know that it is something that they talk about and like I said when we were building the middle high school we even had problems with where we wanted to locate the um the classes and I want to say I Tim I don't know if you but I want to say I think there was even something at the primary school years ago when we had cluster of rooms in one of the sections where they we had to re we had to move um the classes around I believe at the primary school too they and again it all depends on who you get that's going to be coming and doing the audit too right but like I said it was just something that I just wanted to put on everybody's radar when they're when they're doing this and and like I said I I appreciate the fact that it it looks like a significant space right but in reality when we were looking at it I'm thinking ah 10 by 10 and we've got 10 students next year that's one student yeah that's right the dimensions not um being included on on the diagram was a question for us we can't say for sure if we have enough space because we're not exactly sure how big the space is um but it was also a concern that was mentioned by other department heads relative to their spaces at the meeting this morning um so I think that there's an intention that that information would be gathered and provided um so we can certainly take a look at that once that uh information is available um Liz if you go back to the uh second floor so there's a dedicated space for special services storage so all of our uh student record file for special ed which is great uh the problem is there's no place for active employee files which we are in and out of daily um so to have those records located off site uh would significantly hamper um the HR office in doing their work um so I'm not not sure again it may depend on the square footage of the office space we may be able to move files into those office spaces and it may not be an issue um we won't know until we have more information on the size of of the spaces that we're talking about um for the uh space on the lower level for the ace um program um there is going to be a bathroom uh built into the ace kitchen and I need to get more clarification as to whether or not the boxed off area in the other corner of the ace kitchen is where we can locate a washer dryer because we will need to have that in that space as well um there's no space for it that we would have to house it somewhere else in one of the schools and that's fine that that can work um there's if we reassign the title one office and move our dat accounts payable person into that space and if we were to move Liz Peterson into the data space um we we still need space for the two other secretaries and the HR office I mean the uh the teaching and learning office is not going to be big enough to house the two Specialists the coaches that we have now so they would have to be located in in one of the schools um I think I think that that hits the the highlights of of some of the concerns you know it really is going to come down to the details and what we know of the actual square footage of the space and what we can do I I can say that if the spaces are approximately 100 uh square feet 10 x 10 um we as a department will incur some cost for furniture the furniture that we have currently is too big a scale for a space that small um so just to be aware at some point if this move if this is the plan and this move forward and we are moving in um there there will be some additional cost uh for for our department um to find uh furniture that could fit the space um I did mention this morning that that space where they have the transaction counter where they originally thought Liz Peterson would be positioned um whether or not we could actually build out a couple of offices in that space um and meat code I don't I don't know if there's something that would prohibit that it it might be possible and doable um so um we can we can probably make it work one of the things that's important um as well as part of the plan it was intentional that there be no uh conference spaces in this building uh we currently spend a good chunk of our day in our conference space which is our curriculum office right um we have District leadership meetings instruction leadership meetings we have meetings with teachers we have meetings with coaches um we would occupy a lot of time over here in this building because this building will be converted to meeting spaces conference rooms um we would book out an awful lot of time over here um not ideal it's going to cost us a lot of extra money and wasted time coming over here for meetings again not ideal um I I would want to share uh some information that was relayed to the department heads this morning uh Mr Jeff indicated that the Ace Program being located there was temporary because they won't be there permanently oh and that was news to me where will Mr Jeff be reting the Ace Program they will go in a future School again the special ed offices our special services offices have to be collocated with this program because our director of special services is the administrator of record with the Department of Ed for this program and you work closely with the director so you're okay so is the plan for us not if a had to move out because Town Offices needed more space to expand and they could go into another school um the special ed offices would have to go as well um I did talk about the concern for the security because there were students in the building and their intention was no that it was meant for open access in other words we would not have a door that would separate the school department from the from the town offices um again that means public can enter and access from the town office side of the building and then come into um yeah discussion at the at our meeting on Monday about a door on that left side and then I would assume that you have to put a door on the right side as well and a lock on the left the building is going to be conducted such that there's a throughway through the second what is currently the second floor both floors there'll be a throughway on yeah both floors at this point this iteration and again this was uh the idea of the department meeting to get a lot of the feedback because there was even even Laura brought up at the meeting that some rooms don't even have Windows and and there's some storage that have Windows the rooms have Windows but the parks and wrecks department and the conservation commissioner office don't have Windows and those are the two offices you'd think would really want Windows like those are the two people who want to look one of the other U things that other department heads offered relative to their spaces um some of them seem to indicate that it was not going to be adequate space some of them also indicated that there's no receiving waiting area um where where do people go when they're waiting for the person they're coming to meet with to be available um there were some that indicated they needed more space and essentially indicated they needed Ritter building space um was this was this design done did you talk to The Architects before they laid out your offices no so this is the idea of the the process that we're getting getting the feedback we're giving the feedback hopefully we can give the Fe back to the committee and The Architects and they can re re she meet why are we doing this middleman why why are we doing this with a middleman why can we have do Burnham just meet with the architect that's a possibility to lay out the offices for the school department why meet with the middleman who keeps showing designs and saying okay how about now yeah I think the the idea of the feedback is if if the feedback is not accepted then it's it's not going to go well in the community vote so I I have a couple thoughts here first let's put this in the context of what has happened and what is likely to happen or not happen in the future if this doesn't go we had the perfect plan that served everybody's needs and it was unworkable financially and if we pursue the perfect plan again that meets everybody's needs it will be more unworkable than it was for years ago when it wasn't workable because everything is more expensive and our ability to address these things financially has not scaled with inflation or the cost of buildings or anything like that this is not going to be a perfect solution but the alternative is to keep doing it the way we're doing it in a building that is imploding so there is no perfect here mhm right where we are going to land is going to be imperfect hopefully it will be better on the whole than it is today but it won't be perfect and I you know we have to be thinking of it that way um I am far more concerned about honestly the public roaming through our office space and with close proximity to students then I am our staff having to come here for a meeting um I see my boss once a week and we talk three times a day we have the technology um but I but I'm I'm very concerned about the workability of the space the security of the space um I I think we had this conversation four years ago about the Ace Program and the economics of the Ace Program I I think that we need to be level set there as well again right like there's a carrying cost associated with Ace that we might not be able to afford and maybe we need to look at Alternatives there if the proposed solution is not workable um but not finding a way to make this work in in my view is not an option we you know what our primary goal has got to be to find a way to make this work um and and to do it within a financial envelope not necessarily a physical op envelope that meets the outline here within a reasonable Financial envelope um so I I think we continue to work with them to figure out these issues um but in my mind we're a long way from we don't want to play right like we we want to play we want to figure out how to make this thing work correct yeah so I think it's really important to to send the committee and uh feedback on what's not working but also recommendations like okay can we move it here can we have this office here can we have this person in front can we reorient uh this person next to this person give as much feedback as we can to see if they can improve the design because again this is the second design and the the second design is much better than the first but it's still a work in progress the first was scary it got better we keep getting better is it possible for the architect to talk directly with our staff instead of I'm not sure if that's possible we could talk to Michael Ray Jeff just see see if that's it just seems really ridiculous to have Michael Ray Jeff just keep presenting plans for what he thinks the schools Department should run like well I think if if he if we're not being heard he thinks it's okay to put special kids in the basement and we keep explaining to him that it is not okay to put special Leed kids in the basement that is not my position it is not okay this board has not had that discussion formally or formulated an opinion on it okay my position is right now it is okay it is not so I think you know if if that is a it is fundamentally that is a serious problem then we need to have that out sooner rather than later with the entire board and a full hearing of the issues because as far as I'm concerned that is the path that we are on and and that is the most reasonable path there is a long history in this country of shoving specialed kids in basements in undesirable locations and that's what we're doing here I understand I sat in that children's library for hundreds of hours you're not a special ed kid and you had the choice to leave the library you that was not your school I think I think we should have this specific discussion as an agenda topic that has the right information laid out in front of us and I'm not saying I won't change my mind but the path that we're on that we have spent tens of thousands of dollars on has been the the premise of that has been that that is the the the plan for the Ace Program and nobody on this committee to my knowledge has formally or publicly objected to that I have and we can we can provide feedback that that is the feedback from our special ed director as well we'll provide that feedback to the committee of our concerns any other discussion on the lenberg municipal building design committee plans all right seeing none next discussion we have is the 2025 2026 school calendar so you have a draft of um a calendar for next school year no action needs to be taken on that uh this evening um we just wanted to provide it to the committee and uh share it publicly so that there's another opportunity for folks to review ask questions or catch mistakes or um make recommendations any questions or comments on the calendar how many PD days are on this it feels like less I didn't there there are one three full days that staff are in the buildings without students one is the day before school opens and then there are two full professional development days one we for many years at this point have had on the November election day because many districts do and we can share resources and provide better opportunities and options um for staff uh for professional development and and then there are two early release professional development days did we historically used to have more not during my time here but we don't have an election this year though right in November is that we I wouldn't think we yeah it's an off year I think it's an off Year my only thought is maybe we connect that PD day to Veterans Day and do a five-day week then a three-day week or something along those lines and give our families the opportunity for an actual long weekend can we talk to North Middle sex too because I know that we usually share with North Middle sex and save a lot of cost on PD training I don't know if they've set their calendar yet and if we could maybe also talk them into doing the 10th then we can get a long weekend and save cost I don't know what it saves but I it just to me four days of a Monday Wednesday Thursday FR four weeks of two weeks of a Monday Wednesday Thursday Friday just seems a little and then Thanksgiving it's not un November no November is like that but yeah I see your point or find another place to stick that PD there I just I think we have flexibility because it's not an election year but where we team with another yeah yeah I get it you we got to do what they we don't have have the discussion but it does does it save us I mean it saved do yeah we had a keynote speaker that we paid half price for yep I it was great is the November 4th planned with North Middle sex uh we've been working with them uh on November day for several years there was I think last year we did not but prior years even in the covid year we collaborated with them for a full online uh do they have this state set November I can double check with them and find out and then teachers can have their my my opinion is if they have it set on November 4th I would want to i' stay with it but maybe we can see if they also want to do a long weekend and I think it's worth a discussion yeah I think you can have that discussion and it is a discussion on our end that the school committee was inquiring about possible different dates if uh if that's is a possibility any other discussion on the calendar all right seeing none uh next item is a item is a discussion on revolving accounts school choice and Facilities revolving accounts so um you know in recent meetings we've been giving you updates um on the status of of different revolving accounts um and this would close out an update on revolving accounts uh as we head into uh budget presentation at the next meeting um so I'll I'll turn it over to uh Dr Gilson okay one of the points we've been trying to make through the budget task force presentations and as we're getting closer to budget is that our Rev account um they do not have all of them do not have as much incoming Revenue um so the money in is not equaling the expenses that need to go out and so this is an illustration on the funding status of the the choice um which school uh committee takes a vote on right now at for this year we have uh five seats open that the school committee approved for school choice um for this coming year at the high school and we receive um tuition monies from other districts to support the students that are coming from surrounding students this graph was kind of riveting to me um and it what it did is um it was on the Desi website um in the fiscal area I pulled it off if you look at the um the blue graph bars that go across the blue graph bars basically explain students that are that lunenberg is receiving and um if you like in fy15 uh we were receiving 38.9 uh well I don't know how you receive 0. n of a student but that's what it worked out to be um and so um going up through the different fiscal years um you see the blue graph bar shrinking with the student numbers okay and so um you know in in fy4 um the tuition that we were receiving um is 94,000 for each student that we have it's about $5,700 that we receive in incoming funds throughout the year and so um basically our um if you look at the blue um blue graph lines you see that um the status since it's directly impacting our choice revolving accounts that's not as much revenue going in because we have not opened up as many seats for school choice and school choice is um basically it's you don't have to participate in school choice there were some districts that choose not to I came from a district that did not make the choice to participate in school choice um but it is a way of generating additional revenues so with that uh I would um I uh am showing you right now where the status is uh in the um Choice revolving account Choice has been used to pay for bills that come up that aren't necessarily budgeted for uh in the in the local fund um if you look at the cash description at the top which is I'm uh trying to Circle um that um we started with a beginning balance of 167,000 due to unpaid or basically bills that have come in after the fact um to be paid in the last fiscal year if they come in mid July or August we don't you can't pay those out of your local budget uh so we look to choice to pay them out and um at this time um our uh ending balance in choice is 150,000 that's not a very big buffer and I in talking with um the interim Town manager he had you know in other districts that he's been in he's advised to not just depend on these revolving accounts because people don't know what they can't see and so um as we budget we're you know moving a lot of expenses that we had to pay out of school trp and we're making them visible in the local budget so that's where we're going with that can I ask a quick question yeah sorry I didn't um so the the graph the red and blue graph does is that that school choice does that for our sending does that include Charter Schools um or is that just school choice to other um I'd have to check on that I'll ask because yeah Mrs Peterson if she's still on and does that mean monitech no that's not monitech that I know mon Tech's a separate budget yeah right yeah but I'd have to check on that so and I can get back to you um so but it's a great question so all the students that are electing to do Choice um and we're sending and we're receiving so the red is we're sending um and the blue is our receiving districts as a receiving the students we're receiving um I want to say um publicly a thank you to Deb Arrow she has been on on top of this revolving account she's been assigned to be meticulous with it this year she's never had that responsibility before and so um our she's she's basically using um a program called ml schedules and so she's making sure that everyone that uses our facility gets an invoice and she's been really good about communicating um and I will say this one of the uh one of the major Revenue uh piece or groups was the um the bang the Bengals and um I remember being in conversation today and I pronounced it as bangal but anyway um so they um have they're with a or Shirley um and they're using their turf field so we've lost substantial amount for their practices and games and things like that um Lysa is Con continuing um to be a main um uh renter of our facilities and um this slide actually reflects a lot of the Lys of purchases and if you look at the bottom number which right now I can see is very small but she's Deb Arrow has literally sent out um almost $233,000 in invoices and um this was updated just yesterday and she's received 21,000 of that 23,000 $21.5 th000 back which um which is really it's good but we lost the football the youth football um so somewhat because of their new configuration so um I also want to show you this munus de Arrow has not necessarily moved those funds over um part yet because she just got them in yesterday and there's a process for um basically you have the revenue deposited into the accounts and then it appears in munus um right now the munus balance um we you know we started with a beginning balance of like 4600 we've used some of that funding to pay for painting the athletic fields uh we use it to pay for custodians for events we use it to pay for all sorts of people we need to hire to work to support the facilities even the land we have land some landscapers that um get the fields ready and so uh right now without Deo D arrows um uh going after those re uh receipts or invoices um right now um before she makes a deposit we have an ending balance um which is low it's $1,359 so there's not a lot that you can pay with um for ,000 $359 and so we're continuing to really focus on things that are bringing us revenue and trying to get the revenue to come in and it's a lot of work and it does require um several hours of Deb Arrow's time each week because she has to you know work with the schedule work with the organization get the invoices out and um and then transfer the the collect all the monies so and this was all work that was previously done by the director of facilities which is why Deb is now handling it because we don't currently we don't have have thank you Deb yeah so and and just again in FYI even though we've collected the monies and they may be deposited in the bank um it's going to take some time before it shows up in munus um there seems to be a lag there of like a little bit seven we seven weeks maybe longer so which is a challenge when munice is the central hub for every single Town Department to be working with right and so you're not the information in munus is only as good as the people processing the funds in munus so it's a lot of work and um you know kudos to the town's people kudos to the school people but you know the the amount of work and not enough people impacts both sides and so um that was one of the things that came up at the budget task force and um you know for example I was looking for um funding that had been paid from the state in the amount of 31,500 in a grant and I was trying to find it in a line I didn't see it until 7 weeks later and Ezekiel and I went through trying to find it um and um because I could see it was paid from the state but and it It ultimately it had arrived but it hadn't gone through to be processed yet so and correct me if there's a more recent update but even the monies that were voted at special town meeting the additional Chapter 70 monies we have not seen that show up in that salary Reserve like so part of me is understanding the lag okay but the other piece is we're hesitant to spend money when we don't see the money in the system and so um so that's been a unique um you know Ezekiel and I meet every week to talk about what's going on um and I think that that's um very very important because we don't want to miss a dollar does this phenomenon get worse as we make the transition to a cloud version of munus no it's really much more a function of the actual Personnel the Personnel being able to process not enough so switching platforms is not is it it's Personnel at town hall or is it personal well I will tell you um you know everybody's working at capacity oh I it's not a it's not a people I'm not it's not anyone's it's a it's it's it's a number of there only so many hours in the now to be able to manage the capacity to be more efficient um you know in like some some districts have like if there's a centralized Hub they process so efficiently you can see immediately but there's a lag and we are aware of that and you know and and so we're trying to work together um you know if we don't see it we're saying okay we the communication is good and and things have improved with Ezekiel and you know there caught up but there was a time where there was a lag of at least three months so and I think I advised the committee during the year last year it it's difficult because we we don't know what the actual number is because it's not reflecting the true status because the revenues haven't been deposited in the account my understanding when we had this discussion mid to late year last year and I think we even had an executive session around this or something because of some of the sensitivities the there were there were two issues that I understood were contributing to the the processing delays and inefficiencies one was we didn't have enough people we had vacancies we weren't staffed right and the second was that munice was falling apart for lack of a better description fast forward to now nine or 10 months later my understanding is is that the Staffing situation is a little bit better than it was maybe that's inaccurate but I'd like to know but we've and and munus is more stable than it was nine or 10 months ago but we've made a decision to make a a migration to a hosted version of munice which I think is the right decision my my question is do we think this is going to get better as a result of Cl fewer vacancies a stable platform that isn't eating time like th those kinds of issues so since February um I think they have filled all of their uh Finance positions at town so it's been almost a year that they have been at all their positions filled it really is a function and I think the town manager will be able to speak to this you know as he's talking through budget season um there aren't enough staff right there was an improvement with the stability of munus uh once suar it started to address some server issues um it's still going to be uh an even better Improvement once we go cloud-based for munice um so there have been some um improvements you know from a year ago this fall when there was nobody up there and munice was crashing daily and down for hours uh at a time daily um so there has been Improvement but this kind of lag unless there are more hands processing uh to enter this information into munice um there there's going to be there's going to be a lag um and it just makes it a challenge um I mean if it's going into budget lines um the the new process is they do not want the budget lines to be in deficit right and you remedy with the line item transfer later they want you to move the line item transfer and then go ahead the challenge there is getting all of those transfers registered imun also is not happening quickly so there's a lag in our ability to pay invoices but but this goes back to an issue that we touched upon a few meetings ago when this came up and and I don't know that and I understand that we're potentially treading on something that is very controversial and but we control our budget by Statute we are in partnership with the town when it comes to the operational end of this but to my knowledge there isn't a policy or an agreement or anything that has been co-endorsed by the select board or the school committee that says that we you know like in my mind we could pull the plug and run our own instance of of munice and do it by ourselves if we so CH chose and so when somebody makes a decision that is not us that says you're not going to run an account in deficit and as a result of that that's going to cause an inefficiency and we're not the ones making that decision then in my or or even being consulted then that's problematic to me and and I that's one example but you're touching upon a number of different examples that I feel like our Authority is is is being encumbered a little bit here and I I you know I don't mean like we get enough to deal with without picking a fight when it comes but but at the same time why why can't Susan run an account in deficit knowing that we're going to deal with it in a week and a half I mean to me and it and if it costs us five more minutes on the part of Susan then then that is we don't have that kind of Time Susan doesn't want to run any accounts in deficit perod no ideally we don't but when we can't process payment on invoice because we go into deficit and we can't and we know that we've put the money there but it's not showing up yet that's the challenge and there's been a lot of talk through the work of the budget committee and the community around sharing resources this is a shared resource but it's not working out perfectly for us but but Dr Burnham you just touched on it right which is when you make a decision to partner with somebody and share resources there needs to be equal skin on the game in the game on both sides in terms of how decisions are made and what is the path that we're going to go on to go forward and what the costs are associated with those decisions because we are encumbering costs a as well as Maybe not making the best decisions because we don't have the visibility that we think we are owed when it comes to our financial accounts and I you know we're we're we're in the process of of going through some leadership changes in in in town like the these are the topics where you know we should be having discussions with potential Town managers about how do you resolve these issues how do you how do you define how what are the rules that we're going to play by right because right now I feel like okay we keep getting these issues and yes we need to make some decisions on the revenue side because the trends are what they are right like you can look at the long-term trends and say all right well we're going to run out of money but in the short term we're spending a lot of time figuring out how to how to manage cash that we shouldn't be spending right and I I just and I'll let Dr gillson uh share her thoughts on it um Mr aala has been really good to work with he's trying to be cautious I and do things the way they should be done he recognizes the challenges and if we were in a real crisis situation got to got to pay this bill I have no doubt that he would work with us and we would remedy the situation um I think both Dr gillson myself and Mr Aela are trying to get things operationally the way they should be it's just there's not enough people people yeah to and that's really process really right I think everybody is doing the very best they can and they're pushing through as much as they can on a on a daily basis there are just so many hours in the day and and again this is a situation and I again it was something that was talked about through the budget task force this community um functions as well as it does given all of the challenges uh with Revenue the school department I think especially so because the people are so committed that they're going to do whatever it takes and if that means that they're sitting in their office until 9900 p.m. that's what's happening they're not getting paid until 9900 p.m. yeah but it's it's the dedication and the commitment to not let the balls drop on the parts of so many employees and I know that the school department is not the only Department right um there's a lot of burden on our firefighters in town because of the Staffing short shortage um if they weren't if they weren't so committed to lunenberg and they walked out the door we would not be functioning at the level that we are it is truly largely due to the commitment and dedication of the staff in some particular key roles especially I I don't want to belabor this and I I know we want to get to the revenue side of this MH are are you Dr Burnham and you Dr Gilson sufficiently convinced that these are not issues that we can point automation to right like you're talking about a lot of manual work that in in like it never ceases to amaze me in my professional world how the things that you thought would never be automated all of a sudden are um and I you know I know that there's a lot of a lot of development in the way of Municipal Management systems and those kinds of things like is there any hope that some of these things become better automated as a result of a transition to munis cloud or something like that yeah and I think you know I I think on the town side they're talking about payroll being sort of outsourced um uh again it's the investment to get to that and when we're resource challenged the way we are it takes longer to get to something that can actually free people up to do other things because it's automated there's a new program um that's used to pay officials and it's called Arbiter pay right and so basically um we recommend like a large payment um and we wirelessly transfer it to account um with the Arbiter pay company um whereas we used to have to process like individual um time sheets for every single coach that worked at every single game that is crazy and inefficient right and we had a discussion about moving to Arbiter pay more than a year ago we had the discussion once Mr Ayala came on board and he was open to it and this is how it happened M right so it's partly you know people being willing to look at things being done a different way and prioritizing the efficiency and freeing up employees to do other things to move in that direction but you've got to make some investment and you've got to have you know e either superintendant or or town managers that are receptive willing to make commitment of funds because we're going to put ourselves in a better position right and but along with those changes right we are going to have like we're meeting as a team shortly on the 23rd to talk about the process for Arbiter pay um together in terms of How It's Working on the school side and how we're not duplicating efforts in our process so we're going back to say okay we have this amount of time and how can we look at making things more efficient right because the officials um are actually getting paid in a much more timely way previously it might have been more than three months before they saw payment from a game that they officiated and there were some that were telling our athletic director that they were going to leave that they were not going to officiate here anymore if if they couldn't get paid so and we appreciate to Hall working with us we do and and allowing us to and facilitating this move to be able to to work in this way um so that's better yes yeah yeah but we're going to have a good example what's turn around now for it is it reasonable and we're good I'm well we're a whole lot better than we were we better than better than three months I I don't know if it's a two three week turnaround time okay um we can get some information yeah is there something that we want to put on the agenda for a future meeting to get another update just general uh Finance partnership or specifically ARB Arbiter pay I'm not overly concerned about Arbiter pay I am concerned about a general move toward Automation and efficiency right I'm concerned about people not getting paid anyone young it's about not only people but it's about adding the training into their schedule so that they can learn how to do the autom absolutely an investment yeah it is absolutely so it's investment in people and training right but the in my experience professionally when it comes to doing things like booking travel or getting expenses paid or whatever the more you automate the more the quicker I get paid right in in in that circumstance right like that is generally the results and you know it's some poor administrator who is having to audit receipts and those kinds of things oh as it turns out AI will do that for you right like those kinds of things like and and Meanwhile we're arguing about office space for people that theoretically we don't want to have to hire more people to do this work when we can we can automate some of it yep is there any other discussion on this all right we'll keep moving along uh next item of the agenda is old business action item facilities and grounds report okay I have had a lot of fun with this um that is maybe we should be concerned all right so I will say this um you know two really critical projects for Turkey Hill um we bid out in December uh we talked last December um at the I think it was the December 4th meeting um on how the fire alarm upgrade came in at a much higher price because of the fact that um if we're going to have to redo we were expecting to redo components but because there was a we were on with a horn strobe system and the new code requirement for any new work requires a voice um a voice evacuation uh sound to go in the fire alarm up upgrade so we also talked about um you know like the American Service Company came in with the lowest bid and that was at $354,990 and we asked for a deduct and um I talked to um Chief Sullivan about whether or not he would anticipate that we needed the emergency responder radio amplification system um he did not think we would so basically one of the things that I did was I expedited the timeline I worked with the people at the company um the um the the um Chief person from the American Service Company actually drove to my house and hand delivered the signed contract before I didn't tell you about that yet but they did um and because I wanted it to have in hand Kate and I had talked to Carter um tanini about the possibility we talked about arpa funds and whether or not there would be any more arpa funds that we could apply to this project because we had reserved Capital funding for both the design and the construction but we were like I don't know $60,000 short without um also um you know Monies to have the onsite um engineer work with us from and nv5 um so um Carter did the emergency or at the select board meeting he requested for dispensation for them to um let him make a discretionary um basic basally use of th of that funding so he did um go through the the select board voted um and um car Carter and I continued to talk and in with Dr Burnham and so um that went in and it was approved Carter signed the contract we did receive about $75,000 in arpa funding um Chief Sullivan also acknowledged the importance of the fire alarm upgrade because it has failed before and you don't want it to fail again when the safety of kids is a priority um so um so we're moving along and that is sign contract is done the bid award will be posted in the central register and um the project is expected to be completed by August 15th so that's um that's a good thing now now the other bid that is become critical is um securing doors at Turkey Hill along with security uh because you know as much as a fire alarm system um gets people out of the building you don't want an unexpected thing to happen to enter the building so that bid was um received on December 20th and opened um with the exterior door replacement total the total toal bid was um without the security systems for doors like 14 of them came in at 4 $477,000 so um I've been working with the and that didn't even include a base price for the vestibule okay um so and and I learned that our doors there is no other school system except for MIT that has those doors still um so so um anyway um I've been working with both there are two contractors involved one for security and one for doors and um we think we're going to be able they I had them price point what we could afford and that's $300,000 um that we have remaining in the capital so but that will do security system and only three doors for the $300,000 so um you know so we are most likely going to award the bid to the group of them because they've been highly responsive um and they're working with us to get us you know a little bit more like accustomed to what we need but we are recognizing that we don't have enough funds we will you know if we proceed with the bid we will structure it so that phase one will do the doors that are uh in most danger of failing and so we'll get that done and we are going to go to the msba um the we yeah the webinar in January to see if we can put in for a um the renovation alternate what is it the advanced rep accelerated repair yeah so we um can write um and we can um you know hopefully get on the list for The Accelerated repair for the rest of the amount um and so we can keep you posted on that um so that's been a part of what I've been working on um we also are planning to uh meet with a team on Friday this week with the Architects um for right now they've prepared drawings in AutoCAD um based on their December site visit they've distributed um information uh to our people our Engineers that are going to look at mechanical electrical and plumbing systems um and they're preparing to schedule an ADA consultant uh I have a file that I'm building with all of the information and everybody will be able to draw from that file and like I've had to get an assessed value of Turkey Hill for them um and um we there are many other things that I've that I'm learning about that we're putting in the file folder for them to you know talk with us about on Friday even um you know the aara report and what our latest aara report is and that's for the asbest um so they're aware of everything related to asbestos um going along um the other funding projects that we received money for uh we received money to fund the safety film at um the middle high school they were actively and they'll probably finish tonight um with the project we got it under contract um and um I worked with the president of the company and everybody like through 10:00 I they think they're going to be working tonight and it'll be all done okay um and the other thing that we were able to secure with arpa funding was a utility pickup with a plow um and so that went into McGovern we should have the pickup truck um with the plow here sometime in mid to late spring so they're actually building the truck putting it together um to meet the um specifications so I feel like we actively have been supporting the capital planning projects and accomplishing things to get them done with the right people that can help us and I'll also Circle back um do Dr Burnham mentioned the house doctor approach and the Architecture Firm that um that Laura um helped to um select um we they also are very familiar with the house doctor approach so if we do any kind of fac facili revision um I will be asking her Friday um on what their services might be um and and how to provide a little bit more information so I don't know we we have fun this is why this is so much fun there's never like a same day it I'm glad you're enjoying it can I ask a a question um first of all before I ask a question just comments yeah thank you I'm having a a great time thank you the the work that you have done and the progress that you have made in your short time here Dr Gilson is nothing short of extraordinary and I I could not be more appreciative um I I can't say enough about this because these are these are projects that are super important to me particularly the security at Turkey Hill yeah and we were stuck for a very long time there and it feels like we still got some challenges here but we are less stuck than we've been and and I I sincerely appreciate that um the other comment I want to make is um and I thanked him today I spoke with him briefly on the phone this afternoon but Mr tanzini has been just an extraordinary Ally of the school department um yes and what a breath of fresh air he has brought A New Perspective uh on things a willingness the bad ideas around and come up with different solutions and um a willingness to work with everybody including the select board and um to maximize the benefits and fully expend the available funds for for arpa uh in ways that are better than I think I certainly anticipated um uh right up until the month of December so um just you know you you have formed an extraordinary team with your with your uh with your with your folks at at Town Hall and I just I really appreciate in particular both yours and and Mr Teran zini's work on this okay my question yep um the doors you just described a uh accepting a bid that would bring us to phase one with the money that we have yes correct does that then mean that we would need to rebid phase two with some sort of future plan to go and associated with these msba funds or or some other funding source I think we have to listen at the MB you know on the at the webinar in January to figure out what that would entail and we're also looking at you know with all the projects that are running right now um what you know we going to we're going to run the Ada study um and I think what we're trying to anticipate is what are the next steps and I mean you can't have doors that are not consistent um you know it's it's a it's a problem it's you know so like the fire alarm was a problem um you know so the the the problem is the commitment to the building right it's not so much it's not so much the availability of the funds and the timeline to go get those funds and matching and like we can we can do that work the problem here is is that we make a commitment that's a I don't know what the how they would look at the lifespan of a door but let's assume for a moment that that's 10 years well we've just committed our future School committees to 10 years in that building which may be okay yeah but then a year from now you say okay well add another year and do the heating system and then a year after that you say add another year and do the roof and the panels and like all of a sudden now we're in that building for not 10 years but 20 years and I I just I worry about about that too and that's one of the things that we can try to press them on to give us some insight as to what level of commitment that is with the lifespan so on and so forth but being a little bit realistic everything's going to take time do we really foresee any scenario that we're opening the doors to a brand new Turkey Hill school in less than 10 years the doors are critical you listen to yeah critical you know I not I could manage leaks from the roof no I I hear you but the doors are critical I not with kids in the building it's not worth but but you know when you're looking at at a decision that is not half the cost of let's say $500,000 and that's a high end right but you're looking at a a $250,000 um contribution from the state that commits us and puts us basically makes a decision on our behalf right that is multiple millions of dollars in Downstream effects right um good bad or indifferent right um and I I it's it's very discomforting to to Shackle our successors on this committee yep you know to you know we've heard for years that lunenberg has been Penny wise and pound foolish right well is this a pound foolish yeah and I think that that's we we need more information at the webinar um that may not be the way we want to go and it may be that we're coming back in the fall with a capital plan includes the remainder of the door replacement and the vestibule in the fall we'll have the report from CSS and we'll know more we'll know the we'll do our research with msba and see yeah we'll see we'll see what that looks like so I think we're kind of like Midstream like we're not quite there to make a decision yet on which way we just need more information and and that's coming like there's a plan for that mski um does this mean we'll have two concurrent security door systems at Turkey Hill running at the same time one on one set of doors and one on the other set of doors I'm not g to like I I I'm not sure yet I think so not they're going to have to it if we uh awarded a bid just for the project on the security access and we weren't replacing the doors they would have to work with whatever doors were were in place so yeah um I I don't I don't foresee us having to run concurrently to separate systems okay but we can get more information on that yeah and there's I mean there's something that will also be a part of the um the security systems they require like a high voltage something or other I don't know exactly what it is to be frank um so there's an electrical contractor that um I'm going to walk through the building with to learn about what high voltage needs we have for that I am going to get the the quote and I'm going to see whether it's realistic to either include it in next year's budget or um to see if we need to make some before we award the bid to see if we need to make some adjustments in um what we're going to get for the phase one um $300,000 not to exceed okay have questions or comments on the fac grounds report my only comment is thank you so much for doing all of this I was going to bring up the commitment to the building but that's been brought up so I will skip right over it okay all right yeah I would agree with all the other committee members and I also uh appreciate the collaboration with the fire chief and the interim town man yeah thank you all right I'll look for an action to accept the facilities and grounds report motion to accept the facilities and ground report second any discussion all in favor say I I I thank you motion passes uh next item in the agenda is action item class accounts class of 2005 yes this evening uh Christa dimopoulos is here to make the request uh for those funds so I'll turn it over to her now hi everyone uh thank you for having me my name is CHR diamondis I um am a member of the class of 2005 and I am formally requesting the transfer of funds from the lunenberg account into a joint personal account um that myself and another class officer would open up any questions or comments no I I just um thank you for stepping up to do that and I assume you have talked to Mrs Peterson to get the um directions on how to do this because I guess it is quite complicated yep I have been in contact with Liz and um she has informed me of kind of the process as to what we need to do in order to get those funds transferred thank you thank you for coming too coming forward I'll look Fork you I will move to um allow the transfer of funds from the class of 2005 to the class officers um as presented by U Miss diamantopoulos second any discussion all in favor say I I thank you the motion passes thank you sticking with us for two hours yeah jez all right next item in the agenda is committee appointments I'd like to start with the sick Bank appointment first so um we we have received request uh for access to the sick Bank uh and in our conversations um past practice has been and it's a perfectly fine past practice um that one school Committee Member is appointed to the sick Bank committee when we do our reorg every year and um at that time the HR Director uh previously it was Mr Cassidy is appointed as the second we have to have two um but in convers ations more recently with Dr Gilson she feels it would be better if the HR position could be neutral and not a voting member as to whether or not the employee is allowed to access uh the sick bank so we wanted to bring that forward for your consideration uh you may want to um appoint another school Committee Member as the second um I would say that we could make maybe designate another uh central office administrator as the second so as not to have it be the HR person um or you could choose to just stay with the course that we've always taken and make no changes um I'll let Dr gillson uh make any comment that she'd like to on this on this one I think I just prefer to remain neutral because I do hear a lot and see a lot and there things that um you know I um I shouldn't be a voting member um with that um we have central office people that might be more impartial because they don't have all of the information um right at their disposal so I I would Advocate either another representative from the school committee or a representative from central office is there any contract language that states it has to be a certain person no they have we have two Representatives um and it doesn't stipulate that it has to be the HR person um or that it must be two school committee members but there have to be two members from the management side um as part of the voting sibank committee thank you any discussion comments questions um I can understand why that would feel like funny ground to walk on um I have no problem I would suggest perhaps another member of the um central office where it has been a central office member but I would have no problem problem if apparently I am the person that's on the it hasn't met all year I didn't even remember that we haven't had any need to meet we haven't had any requests right when there's no request you wouldn't meet so I I I think we could go either way so my my thinking is I'm open to any and all suggestions on this I just I'm concerned about it being a school Committee Member and scheduling and this is a committee that needs to be able to be on fairly short notice and and adjudicate requests um and I personally could not uh commit to that right now I mean it's hard enough to commit to negotiating committees and those kinds of things so um that you know in that we have full-time staff who are there every day it gives us the ability to have meetings on fairly short notice right um Laura central office representative I think would be the way to go if if an employee would be okay doing that take on that so my opinion I I actually I I've served on the SI Bank committee as a school Committee Member and I've also served it as a union member as a teacher inter and uh at my school it's two and two and it is two school committee members two teacher union members um and I think I I almost like that idea because then it puts HR and any other admin off of that decision and it kind of breaks apart that relationship so that there's no battle there and the school committee can be the bad guy if they decide to be and vote something down so I lean towards having two school committee members and I think if someone can't make it you could do a three-person vote or you could even have somebody maybe call in or zoom in too so I'm not I'm not too worried about having two school committee members that's a fair point I I had even considered that we could do this remotely and it's probably not that big a deal in the circumstance it's not probably easier and they usually are pretty quick I've I've done the lunberg ones and they are they are quick if it's a refusal I mean it stinks to say no but it's probably easier if it would be a school committee member than someone you have to then work with yeah I've never experienced one that it was a vote no but I I I've heard of them where it's just it's just a it's just a poor request like it was not a detailed evidence-based request I could go either way well the question is do you want to do it I do not want to do it do I want to do it I I will volunteer you all right you're okay doing it all right all right then I okay I nominate Brian to serve on the Sick Bay is the sick B Comm the sick Bank sick Bank on the sick Bank committee second any discussion all those in favor say I I motion passes thank you thank you for doing that Brian thank you for volunteering all right uh uh the next committee appointment uh we are going to look for appointees for a superintendent search committee subcommittee uh today we were the school committee members were notified that the superintendent will be retiring at the end of the school year so I'll open it up to discussion uh so this was obviously the topic of uh discussion earlier today in our executive session and the the superintendent informed us of her intent to retire which uh I think we're all going to have a lot to discuss in terms of her contribution uh to uh to our schools and our kids and our staff and ourselves uh over the course of the last nearly six years seven years years um and um but I don't I don't want to get into the business of this without at least acknowledging the extraordinary gravity of this event and the contribution that you have made and the the gratitude that I think I personally have and I know that the other members of this committee have and um I think there's a lot more to say uh in the in the the coming weeks and months as we go through this and conclude this process but a wholehearted thank you uh Dr Burnham um I almost feel bad because I know you don't like compliments and um the next few months I don't think you're gonna have a fun time uh so there there we did have some discussion some preliminary discussion in terms of how do we how do we uh come about this and I I'll just kind of share uh my opinion to get the conversation going um which is we um we are extraordinarily rich in Lunenburg right now um with the qualifications of some of the members of our senior staff that include members of the central office staff administrators in our schools um we have uh certified licensed qualified um we we have a potential candidate pool within our ranks uh and the the benefits of that candidate pool and a potential selection from that pool um are that we could that that leader would have the opportunity to hit the ground running in a way that a candidate from the outside just wouldn't because they just don't have the the context and knowledge U that that they would otherwise have if they were an internal candidate um all of that being said I'm very uncomfortable narrowing the search um and so my my thinking here is that we should Avail ourselves first to inquiring amongst our internal staff if there is interest in the position and give our our staff the opportunity to uh to be heard uh and to have a conversation um if they are interested um about uh succeeding Dr Burnham in in her capacity um that being said that is not to say that that is the path that we should end on I think that that's the path that we should be begin with uh and and have that conversation see what what the sense is of the potential candidates see what our sense is as a committee and then determine if we should open this up to a a larger search and a and and having to follow you know the the path that the that the state would put us on in terms of how you go go about doing a a super superintendent search um so so that that's Point number one point number two is I think that we want to move swiftly um because we want to make a good decision but also a decision that affords Dr Burnham the exit that she deserves and a transition that we deserve uh and so we we want to be able to move swiftly so maybe appointing a subcomittee of a couple of members of this committee to kind of work through the details of getting a post Ing and um you know uh receiving uh notifications of interest and perhaps setting up some initial interviews I would agree with Peter I think that we are I'm not I'm not even going to go there with you tonight um um but I I I think we are very fortunate to be at a circumstance where we can talk to our staff that may or may not be interested in um this particular position which is so huge and has so very much to do um I think that it's a good start and we may hit gold there and if not then we continue I agree we need to do this quickly and and I will say that seven years ago when I started in this committee we were searching for a new superintendent and what I had envisioned and the actually the reason for me coming on the committee what I had envisioned we found and I am so pleased about that and it is very important to me that this work continue so I would like to volunteer to be on a screening committee I la well I definitely have no problem with Carol being on the committee I think she's done this before she found Dr Burnham so I definitely I think that's a great idea um I don't yeah I would agree I I will also save my words uh for for Dr Brenham for a later later meeting uh but I uh I think Carol would be a great uh uh great person to serve on a search committee um and I agree with Peter and Carol's um way to proceed I think we we start with the internal candidates and and go from there yeah I I will make a motion to uh appoint Carol arshambo as the superintendent subcommittee search subcommittee second should we point we need somebody else yeah I think one I would just say one at a time one at all right all right I'm not doing the whole thing it's just Carol we can have Carol somebody and get back to us let us know was there a second second any discussion all those in favor say I I motion passes thank you let we need one more Committee Member would you accept a nomination Mr chair yes yeah I do think as the chair that's important I nominate Brian Leon to be the second member of our superintendent search subcommittee second any discussion all those in favor say I I I the motion pass class thank you okay and thank you Dr Burnham communication is uh set up to go out to families and staff bright and early tomorrow morning thank you for not asking me to speak publicly tonight about this decision it's been very difficult to come to terms with it's time it's time um but it has been a very emotional um decision to make because I've been 100% invested in lunenberg so um not just 100 but 110% committed I was going to say sooner or later you'll have to say something more expensive well I I've written it it's going out tomorrow can't read it all right moving on next item in the agenda is a discussion on restructured fee proposal so um a couple meetings ago um we talked about the challenges with the athletic revolving account and um the combination of budgeted funds along with revolving account funds is no longer sufficient um to sustain the programs that we're offering currently um and uh part of the discussion at that time was let's take a look at a proposal for how we might restructure uh athletic fees um so um Dr gillson um ad Bigalow and myself um we we worked on this and um we have to have a place to start so um we're going to put this proposal up and we can have discussion around um the pluses and minuses of all of this and uh and and see if we need to go back to the drawing board there's no need to take any action on any of this right now right this you you could wait until February March even April um we just need to have a sense of how much uh we need to carry in the budget right uh because we have to unless unless the committee wants to re-evaluate whether we continue to offer as many options as we currently offer that's something else that we could have discussion around but there was a request at that meeting for us to take a look and bring a proposal back and this is the proposal and I'll turn it over to Dr gillson to speak to so our themes have been um the revolving accounts are dwindling we know this year all of the coaching salaries went up 2% for the stiens bus transportation we know from the bid received is going up we know next year coaches salaries will be up by 4% so the athletic budget is not um it's basically increasing their continued Rising costs associated so um we have two accounts that fund Athletics one our is our local budget and the other is our athletic revolving account um the reason why we have an a athletic revolving account um is to receive revenues and use to pay for expenses so these costs can include expenses such as the coaching stipend equipment and uniforms facility maintenance transportation and we also uh know that from previous discussion our our uh teams are going elsewhere um sometimes at far distances so that's requiring also increased expenses and we talked about Arbiter pay tonight so Arbiter pay um is one of the the um tools that we're using to pair officials um so um if you remember this is a slide I'm not going to dwell on it but um I appreciated um that Kevin bagelo was able to provide us with um all of the information across for user fee comparisons what are other towns spending um one of the things that we decided to focus on in our conversation we looked at fees in the closest neighboring towns such as a Shirley um and I've got them focused up here a Shirley um offered a little bit of variability in different fees for different sports but if you average the different seasons together individually um they were arriving at an average about $325 per season um bramfield doesn't have many sports you can see they have a different like single sport offerings um for each season and um their fees are averaging about $300 we one of the things also Gren um Dunstable uh we looked at because they are spending $600 per Sport and one of the things that um has been mentioned in conversation with different coaches is that the $600 is a little bit too much and is kind of discouraging uh athletic H students to seek out participation in the Athletics that um that they do now um the TR the um challenge of this presentation is really how to show you in a in a simple as simple as possible how the local budget is working we reserve an amount of money and that's then spent every single amount that was reserved in the local budget was spent um and that uh came out to an amount of $258,600 at what Revenue we're bringing in and the revenue that we're bringing in is the user fees um and the gate receipts and so looking at the user fees for Middle High School like for the fall the winter and spring Sports Seasons and looking at uh what our costs are and the increases in lowincome students that require either a reduced fee or a waiver we are recognizing that the user fees are totaling about 133,000 um the gate receipts are coming in at 8500 and so the total revenue that is going into um the revolving budget is about $142,000 if you look at money going out um from the athletic revolving we're spending we're spent 76,000 $551,000 for officials and we funded Athletics secretary and we fund um the coach all of the coaching stipend and so you know money in not equaling money going out um how do we Rectify that when we try to balance the budget um that's a continued uh project with um working with the town accountant um to reclassify expenses last year we did that by focusing on um unfilled positions and trans fering funds and working with that to arrive at a better balance uh but ultimately we can't go on this way um and so we took a look at our current fee schedules and with the $133,000 that's coming in we looked at what we're spending for the a total athletic budget which is about $512,000 so our user fees um for all the different Sports Seasons account for 26% of the total budget okay for the Athletics with the local and revolving factored in Al together so um taking into account what other surrounding towns are doing we looked at generating a proposal and projected the number of students we used FY 24 total participation um at the high school and the middle school and then we kind of ran a projection if we had received and we didn't if we had received every student entering at full pay um full pay would have been $250 so every student coming in would have given us a maximum total of $193,000 um which considering your different ranges not I I would I don't know exactly the percentage of kids that were on the the full pay but she also had the sibling discount um for first sibling second sibling you know um and you also had dis uh the discount for if if you qualify for the the um reduced lunch um through our revive our lunch program um and if you also um there's some kids that are have free lunch offer not everybody has free lunch now but but um there's certain forms that are designated that um qualify students participating in athletic for those fee supports so um looking at as I said the the the the way of in an interesting way of looking at this was okay um how are our collector group of parents funding the program with a program total of 512 the user fee is coming in at 133 it's ends up being the collective group of parents that are paying user fees turns out to be about 26% of the total athletic budget okay so then um we um on the basis of a Shirley gr and dunable in bramfield we decided we we needed to come up with something very what we thought might be reasonable um and not necessarily the 600 that they're asking people to pay for sport season um you know there because we thought that that would discourage participation we like the comprehensive um part um of our Athletics and um Kevin Bigalow does a great job in terms of you know getting kids out there to play it's it's um competitive um and um we took a look and we started with um pricing fees at um $325 per season for the First Student in the family um we offered we priced started there middle school fees 275 then we um we offered what we call a sibling reduction so not any more you know the second child and the family or third child and you know and uh we offered a 25% discount for any sibling that's participated um then we looked at reduced um fees and that would be at a 50% discount and of course the waiver is free we also put a family cap in there of $1,500 and that would look at um students who were in middle school and students who were in high school and um as I said the user fees were based were I arrived at based on neighboring towns and then we kind of I did some impact projection and as I said right now with the user fees coming in they're supporting 26% of the amount total that we pay for athletics considering this year Athletics is going to increase just by the pure nature of Sal coaching salaries officials and transportation the Baseline increase is at least 2.5% Transportation will be more um so if we are going to and I don't know where we'll end up at the end of this year but to continue to support the athletic budget at 26% we would need to bring in revenue from the user fees at 130 almost 137,000 last past year with the people participating we just barely made you know the um 134,000 so I we're going to have to continue to go through and look at next year we're looking at a 4% increase so um you know ultimately the nature of Athletics that we're finding is that it continues to contribute to um increases in the budget and we're looking to have a local school budget that is balanced um in providing for not only the sports needs but the music needs and the educational needs of every single child in town and so um so we're proposing the change in fees and we are continuing to look at um what our neighbors are doing but I would propose these fees um you know bring you know and and ask that we discuss them but I also would look at this to re-evaluate annually we do not know where the user fees are going to come in because we haven't gone through through all three seasons yet we're evaluating based on um past user participation and and and past fee structure and then I think that the this is one account that um you know in an effort to be transparent we want to make sure that we are not operating with a u a robust revolving account for athletics it's to be it's important to be taking in fees um but I think you have to be responsive and responsible to your parents that um are helping and supporting their students to play and um so I would propose that not only I'm doing this presentation now I'd ask you to consider um a discussion about the fee structure um you know there variables in that and um and then I'd ask to continue to come back um where we continue to re evaluate the proposed uh fees that um that we put in place for families to can really look at how we're continuing to fund um the the combination of the loc basically using the revolving account to use the revenue to offset the total cost of Athletics so what questions or comments and I'd also offer uh for anybody who's not on the zoom um ad Bigalow is on yes on the zoom so if you had questions uh that you wanted information from him he is here to answer those questions thank you what questions do the committee members have my uh thank you this is great work this is the most comprehensive view that we've had in my tenure on this Committee in terms of understanding how this kind of shakes out from a budget perspective and I appreciate the work of uh EAD and yourself uh to to to present this and put it together I'm sure this represents many hours of work to to figure this out um that 26% that you cited that you know seems to be a kind of a where we're at in terms of the contribution from from fees do you have a sense of or were you able to get a sense when you were doing the comps like is that 26% Al you know like it $300 in lunenberg might not be $300 in in in Harvard or $300 in Aros Shirley so you know like is the fee contribution comparable in those States as a percentage of the states and those towns as a as a percentage of the total budget did you were you able to ascertain that to be honest with you I have not um and um you know I just got I've needed to make sure that you could understand this presentation related to Lunenburg um you know but I one of the things that um we did um I recognize that the dollar here may not be the same dollar somewhere else um but I did look at per pupil expenditure across every single town and um you know we um per pupil expenditure is what is spent across you know and and that's the best unit measure I don't know if 26% is the same it was um surprising to me like that it actually turned out to be 26% um which was like the amount of user fees we're going to take in it's almost impossible um until you have years of Trends focused on that to make strong predictions that are accurate but I also think that when you consider that the percentage of lowincome students across the past 10 years at the high school has ramped up from being a very small amount but it's increased by 10% and so you know I think that within the fee structure it it's incumbent um on us to make sure that we're proposing a realistic um measure um that doesn't strap anyone in the district so rather than doing very variability between um the uh different sports as a surely has done we went with an equity based approach which we also felt um the equity based approach said no one sport is better than another Sport and um you know so we we kind of felt that that was important um so we we had to start somewhere because what was um $13 $33,000 is now going to be it's continuing to rise and it will rise for each year based on Transportation based on um coaching based on officials it it is rising and so we can't um you know as we look to provide a comprehensive program and as we're seeing the themes across our revolving accounts we need to make sure that our budget is as responsible comprehensive and realistic as we can make it and I think you know as we see the trend in the revolving accounts um we're recognizing that we um though we aspire to do it all we can't do it all um and I think it's um you know there's there is you know a means to kind of evaluating where you need your parents to support and um so I thought looking at what the funding level is now that we're taking in from the parent group is a ctive um you know it's recognizing that and how to maintain I think that's the right way to look at it I think you know back to the conversation we had a month or two ago I my my feeling is in an Ideal World these fees wouldn't exist at all and there are some there are some communities out there that they don't have fees and they're God bless them um we're not living in an Ideal World just like the conversation we just had around space and planning for space y we're not living in an ideal world and where we have to land is what's practical and if we want to run these programs with the degree of quality that we have been running them and and with the variety of programs that we've offered uh in in recent history and we have got to uh adjust for Rising costs um I think that you know my personal take and I am a guy that writes a lot of these checks uh is this is reasonable and responsible however um I do think that this needs to go through some kind of process that we can agree to in a timeline um I'd like to be able to land on this so that you have a more predictability when we get to a final budget but I feel as if this is something that we need to afford parents the opportunity to learn about this comment maybe we have an you know a athletic Advisory board meeting um and and welcome some public comment and questions around it um but I I think that we do need to shake this out a little bit and and come back with a you know perhaps it's even a recommendation from booster leaders or something along those lines y um because the ultimately you know those are the folks that are going to be footing the bill for this yes and the other thing too I think we we did have conversation about this is not an insignificant oneyear increase um um and that's where we were having the conversation about the need to reeval build in maybe small increases and map that out so that parents can see here's the next three years the fee is going to go up one and a half% a $10 so that parents can plan for and you know predict and budget for their for their households as well if if they know in advance what next year is is going to cost it's not unlike the prek tuition we we tell yep in the next however many years it's a 4% increase it's a 4% increase um I think that that helps parents we actually debated about not going to this level but that keeps us in deficit uh operation longer so it's it's not going to help one other comment that that I I do want to make on this because of the significant amount of participation that we have in uh students that are operating uh or or families that are paying a A reduced rate um I had made the comment a few weeks ago you know like I think we do need to accommodate for for families that can't afford this um but on the other hand and this was in the context of like Middle School activity fees and those kinds of things I'm not sure that as the parent of a participating child I should be offsetting that cost right the cost is and the local budget in my opinion should be should be offsetting that that cost in this case where it's not a fully funded by participant fees kind of situation it it doesn't it's not really applicable in this case because the fees are only funding 26% the the town and the the public is funding the other 74% or whatever that number is so so I just want to stipulate that like you know this is we're we're I'm not sure what the fair share is but but it isn't an unfair share right and that's why I would keep emphasizing what's reasonable to families and what's responsible relative to the total school budget local budget budget revolving accounts and this is not one where we want to you know um save money or um build create a revenue building mechanism it's not I want to be completely transparent so that user fees are user fees and they're Equitable for all families and you may have stepped away from the table but at the outset you know I let the committee know no no action needs to be taken on this tonight no action needs to be taken on this next meeting we are going to have to come to some decision before we finalize the budget because we would have to build more into the budget y if if we're not going in this direction right but there's plenty of time and and that was intentional so that word can get out for families they can ponder it they can let us know and feedback can come directly to my office um and will'll report back if we if we have any feedback um but if you wanted us to consider a different thing and go back to the drawing board we could do that too or or we could just sit with this thought for a little bit of time I think this is a good start like I I don't want to let perfect be the enemy of good enough year right like we had a lot to do and and I I think this is something that needs to get floated we need to get feedback this isn't the final final thing we can adjust it we can maybe look at a long-term plan we can take advice in terms of what level of transparency this thing needs in the future um because it's great to have transparency but the reality is is that we haven't had transparency really on this on this on this and as a result of that I think that there's some distrust and we have an obligation to rebuild some of that and you know so these are conversations that we should having over the course of the next several weeks or a couple of months that we can we can land on this thank you I would agree I I think this is a good place to to start and and admin has a good uh direction to go from here uh Mr Bigalow did you have anything else that you wanted to add I do not unless anyone has any questions for me no thank you no thank you for your appr thank you thank you thank you all right next item in the agenda is recommendations on cell phone use can we table this Anthony's not here this is kind of one of his passions and it's late can we just wait until another meeting can we table we could I know the principal is here so I don't know if we want to at least hear oh my gosh you wait this whole time never mind mind we don't need to hear be good at information two and 1 half hours oh my gosh I'm the coolest person in the world thank you good evening thank you for having me tonight um Dr Burnham asked me to gather some information um from some specific groups in the middle and the high school around cell phone policy specifically whether it would be beneficial for school committee to develop uh policy that would help enforce uh the use of cell phones in school so I was able ble to have some really good conversations with my middle school advisory counsel my high school advisory council with my department head leadership team at the high school and then actually some informal conversations um with some other faculty and teachers within the building so going to talk to you about some highlights of things that I pulled out um the first thing that we had talked about we all agree that cell phones are distracting to the classroom environment we we aren't saying that that's not that that is a fact we understand that and that I think whether it comes from policy from the school committee or policy in our handbooks that we need to remain classrooms need to remain to be sacred so I think some of the discussions were around apprehension around a zero tolerance policy around cell phones because of the amount of um Workforce it would take to enforce that I mean I think about having 820 kids walk through my building am I collecting those am I storing them if I lose them are we replacing them am I passing them back like a zero tolerance policy I think is untenable unless especially if it's an unfunded mandate if it's something that I don't have resources in order to provide that what we did agree is that we have procedures developed within our school advisory councils that allow us um the best way to address the cell phone use so it allows us to parents teachers and administrators that are in the building to kind of develop yearly in our year in our handbooks um what our cell phone procedures are so all of us agreed um that those procedures are pretty good um one of the benefits of that and not a full policy from the school committee is we're able to review those yearly um and we can make quick changes to those as we see quick changes in technology um maybe we needed to make a quick change around what our cell phone policy is um like I said those Zero Tolerance policies those would affect kids that need their cell phones for you a diabetic check or kids that need their cell phones that we've now we've now provided a safer app to every student in 6 through 12 in order to have something on their phone and God forbid that there was an emergency or they're reporting bullying now they're not going to have access to that application um many athletic teams use their Sports app to contact students around a schedule change or a practice change um students wouldn't have the availability to have that so I think the feedback was um my recommendation would be if that we want cell phone policy that we keep it in individual schools handbooks so it's developmentally appropriate for each building as we have with different things but if school committee was to develop a policy um please uh just keep that classroom instruction sacred and maybe not a zero tolerance policy which would require additional funds so those that's the feedback that I got from the groups that I I spoke to and I'm willing to answer any questions I'll just offer some additional uh information relative to the cell phone issue um when we had our meeting with the delegation a little bit ago um Senator Cronin talked about uh concern around you know students and cell phone use and schools um and uh seemed like he was interested in conversation around legislation um so they're talking about this at a state level so what I had offered to him at that time was it might be beneficial for him to hear directly from administrators who deal with this day in and day out with different age groups of kids so on and so forth um so I did reach out to his office right after the new year and um offered to facilitate polling a meeting together and um we pushed that invitation out it will happen by Zoom it will happen next week uh we pushed that invitation out to all of the principles of the midwatch league and I pushed it out to um all of the superintendents um in our snow Zone um and ask them to extend that invitation to their principles and we have had some uh respon on that they will be attending that meeting so it'll be interesting to get some perspective from people outside of lunenberg are are they seeing the same sorts of things do they feel the same sorts of things you know like I explained to the superintendant and you know uh to our own administrators legislation's great if it's not another unfunded mandate that makes things very difficult for us so it's really important for the prin principles to be heard um so that whatever comes from it would be something that would be a benefit and not something that makes for additional hardship and challenge um so we can knowing that Mr schol brini wants to be involved with this conversation we can bring this back um at the next meeting or the first meeting in February with more feedback from from that um that meeting with Senator Cronin um and continue to have conversation around it um but I just wanted to provide that information that this is not where this conversation is ending we we are participating in a regional conversation about what the state may or may not want to pursue relative to cell phone use thank you Mr beardmore uh because of the late hour I don't want to prolong this discussion given that I don't think this discussion is going to end tonight tonight um but I I have a lot of questions on this as I I've already shared with you via email um I think that cell phones and social media are contributing to are the biggest contributor to the Mental Health crisis that our students are facing today and I think that it is incumbent upon us to create some space for our kids when when they are learning to not have that thing vibrating in their pocket I just think that um and I'm mindful of your opening statement which is cell phones are a distraction and I have a really hard time rationalizing that against this classrooms are sacred I honestly don't know what that means and i' be love for you to comment on what you actually mean by that M um and that our current policies are effective I'd like to understand what do you mean by that and how is it effective because I'm not I'm not sure that I'm buying that either sure um so and I do think that this needs a look and I honestly think that policy could put us in a position where we are empowering teachers to create that space um I I suspect that we have awesome teachers out there or you know some teachers that are just absolute experts in their field enthusiastic awesome awesome teachers they're not the hard asses that are going to tell the kid to take the phone you know from under their desk or their sneak at it or whatever is happening in that classroom and I think there's a lot of that happening quite frankly today um and and I I think that there is an opportunity to create some safe space um now it doesn't need to be put the thing in a faraday package at the beginning of the day lock it away and they pick it up at the end of the day I mean there there are there's plenty of space in between right that this doesn't have to be a zero tolerance or a or or anything that even comes close to that description but I think that we have the ability to to to talk this through through really understand if there are tools that we can provide that that are a little bit of a blanket because this is the way we're going to do things in lunenberg and I just right now I don't I don't think that that is clear that we have that clear path right now um and and and and at least one other school Committee Member I know agrees with me on this so you know to that extent I I think that we need to shake this out a little bit Ju Just to answer your question Mr beard around what I meant around keeping classrooms sacred and I think we're still on on the same page with what that is that means that cell phones either get turned in they get hung on a door in a in a shoe thing so that they aren't distracting to the actual classroom environment actual teaching that's going on in those classrooms now in the high school we have a policy where students can have their phones on them they can use them in the hallway or in the cafeteria so um that's what I meant by keeping classrooms sacred because I agree with you um all the mental health issues my push back would be I I like the fact that we're trying to create a safe space for students um when in a student's life are they going to have been taken from their phone for that amount of time during a school day you know what I mean the school would be the only place that that ever happened so the extinction burst from having those phones we we need to be prepared in order when I get non-compliance even if it's 5% that's 40 kids not turning in their phones like these are the things that I worry about it's the imple implementation of a blanket policy I think it comes down to trusting the teachers classroom management and I think we asked for feedback and the feedback here is that they're managing Miss ashino um no I I don't have a great deal to say about this I think I think that when we set policy it is rigid often if we can set a policy that is not rigid I don't how that works then we could do that um but when we see something doesn't work it it's not easy to change policy I think if we have to approve the policies that are in the handbooks so if the policy lives in the handbook I don't have a problem with it I'm not sure what the policy should be but I don't have a problem with that living in the handbook instead of in our policy because I think the same thing can be done and it's more flexible I would agree with Miss aseno um my big thing on cell phones I think is uh our teachers need to be teaching life skills if they once they graduate and they get a job they can't just be on their phone cuz my boss isn't locking up my phone anymore um they have to have those life skills to know when they can take out their phone and when they can't and that's the hope that the the students are learning that in school any discussion on recommendations on cell phone use so we will bring this back up yeah we can bring this back up yeah thank you for your time thank you have a good night for waiting next item in the agenda is uh discussion on school committee resolutions so I did uh upload a draft or an updated draft it definitely is a draft um open the feedback also you can email me feedback also the other aspect I I was having a hard time coming up with specific numbers and data points to aign so if you have recommendations on data points that we could include I would be open to suggestions there and I can work with uh Dr Burnham to get those data points if I am not able to get those but I I threw in a little bit of numbers but I didn't didn't have a ton of numbers to throw in there to make it more lunberg specific how do you know how to write like this he's a good writer this is good he really is yeah even if you are a math teacher I was like you're a math teacher he was really good on policy subcommittee too yeah I um just and and take this for what it's worth which is not a lot but um I I actually don't think that this document should get bogged down in deep numeric justification cuz you were the one who had said like throw some data point I was trying to find now that I see it right now that ique it in I'm like well I'm not sure that it fits and at the end of the day the problem is very self-evident you don't actually need numbers to describe it right the I throw in more bus numbers like sure you can the state has put us on a path where you know 40% of our budget which come from the state is increasing at half a percent and our costs are increasing at more than 5% and it's not sustainable and I think more and more towns are speaking up about it it doesn't but it doesn't it doesn't take it doesn't take you know a degree in statistics or or or a dissertation to to make that case and I I know I gave you different guidance two weeks ago so I I fine but I but as I read the document it was like you know what this could actually be this could actually be a little bit more direct the the other just again take it for what it's worth I I'm not sure that we need to stipulate the solution here right like yeah I agree in in my view we need an indexed solution it needs to be indexed to something CPI or inflation or whatever right well let them figure it out but at the end of the day let them figure they're going to by the way they're going to figure you know like they're not going resolutions you were already created they had a solution and I was like I don't know if I really took away a lot of the solutions but I still we need I don't think we need to really stipulate the solution other than look it the the the state is a partner is an education partner in all schools not just Gateway cities and and high needs districts reg and as a or re or regionals um and and the the fact fact that they are not a partner to us right now is not only affecting our ability to educate our kids but it's also affecting our ability to govern our town as a whole because when the absolutely because when the number one we're spending a whole lot of needless time going out there campaigning for overrides and things like that that we shouldn't really be put on us the burden should not be on us to do that but in addition to that if if all things being equal our depart we get a 5% increase this year police gets a 5% increase Fire gets a 5% increase well it's actually more than a 5% increase on a dollar for dooll basis to the schools because our 40% partner isn't keeping up with their part of the bargain right and so there's a cascading effect on the overall municipal government of the town and and um and I in my mind you got to index it you got to give us you got to give us a way to keep up with our costs any other feedback I liked the solutions did you I did I thought offering solutions they don't have to take the solutions but I thought we're it's not just complaining it's offering Solutions and they're Solutions I mean they're and by the way you you mentioned in your report earlier today and I wasn't aware of the Senate president's acknowledgement yeah I'll send the YouTube the problem like in my mind and the that's a gigantic step you know that is actual progress somebody's been yelling a lot about it lately the past two years have been very frustrating senator cumerford of Western Mass she's the chair what co-chair of the education committee and she's in west mass and it's a big issue out there so she was the one who posted the YouTube video all right I'd love to I'd love to watch yeah I'll send it I could send it out no I liked the solutions and even if they don't take up the solutions I like that we're offering Solutions I think I think that's a good attitude to have car uh Carol anything else yeah no I just my only comment is the longer something is the less people read it yeah is is my comment you know I can work on that as well but however you you are the word Smith in the group so if if you think we need that many words I go with your opinion I'll come up with another draft this is short compared to other he kept this very suin well I understand that but I'm thinking if I was sitting here reading it I'd go resolutions a lot of strikethroughs yeah you know I think it's pretty short especially I think the strike throughs may it longer two of and a lot of strike throughs may maybe that's what it is all right if there's no other discussion we will move on to reports and go down the line all right getting there 950 all right lindenberg pel met on uh September January 2nd um we had Melanie Ray as a speaker she is a special ed Advocate she spoke on how and why to get an advocate there are different types of Advocates there are different organizations and um that was about it we're going through a desie audit and and um there will be parent surveys sent out so if you are a special education parent you should respond because last year we had a lower uh last time we had a lower participation rate and people should respond to the surveys I have no report what oh my goodness nice how'd that happen all right the holidays man I will jump along then um fincom met on December 19th it was the budget task force presentation all the documents ments dealing with the budget task force are on the town website and basically those recommendations go to select board um the munus upgrate will occur between January and March um Chris said he would not Mr manad said he would not chair next year um the fy2 24 year end free cash came in at 2.5 million there will will be firm budget dates that is from Chris um the next meeting is tomorrow evening budget meetings start on um February 13th they need two more members so people like Mr Leighton in and Dr gillson Who like numbers so much you those are the types of people that need to go to fincom because I've a really hard time so there we go and we're going to have a new Town manager next year it's going to be very important and a new leader in our school department and these roles become more and more very important uh the lunenberg municipal building design committee met Monday I had uh stated that as well uh talked about that earlier uh I did want to mention uh Greg Roy uh one of our members he did go to also the select board meeting yesterday along with M Mr Jeff and he did make a comment about how we really want to Revit the inside and revamp all the insides of these buildings so when you walk in you're wowed I thought he said that really well um yesterday um where whether it's this building Ritter and then the new town hall uh and it is a work in progress we are encouraging uh citizens to come Laura brazowski was able to come and give some great feedback at our last meeting too and we're definitely open to feedback we definitely had a lot more people come uh this past meeting and again just looking for more feedback so we can try to build up more um buyin from the community and we're meeting on so we usually meet the first and third Monday but we're meeting on the 22nd which is also the school committee meeting uh as well so I'll be double dying on that one uh next item on the agenda is public comment I'll open up the public comment from the public you just unmute yourself all I seeing none I'll open up to public comment from the committee I encourage people to go to the uh Municipal Building design committee meeting they are fun they are fun the architectural renderings are beautiful and the Architects are very talented um and it is very interesting seeing how the different Architects work together the hand drawings and then they hand it off and suddenly it's CAD renderings that's that's really cool um but I do encourage people to start getting involved thank you uh next item the agenda is topics for future discussion anything else to add I think we're going to be kind of busy yeah yeah a little bit the only thing I had was the the user fees uh for clubs we had talked about the user fees for sports but user fees for clubs we can keep that going we'll also be bringing back a recommendation on facility rental fees being increased so um there's more coming pipeline um are we going to do a check in on goals yes I've been yeah keep putting it off but yeah that's on there too not think we don't have enough to do yeah it'll it'll show up but didn't make this one but definitely in the future yep I agree any other topics feel free to email myself or Kate uh next item on the agenda is executive session to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with non-union Personnel to conduct collective bargaining sessions or contract negotiations with non-union Personnel motion to enter executive session for the above mentioned reasons and then adjourn second any discussion roll call vote Mrs bzowski yes Mr beardmore yes Mrs asembo yes and Mr Lon yes thank you good night everyone good night