##VIDEO ID:BZbELLsL92M## [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for e [Music] [Music] [Music] good evening the school committee business session of October 15 2024 will now come to order uh this meeting is being recorded and will be made available for viewing on the methan public schools website uh secretary I'll ask you to call the role Ryan daglio Mary Beth grai here Lori Keegan present Kristen Maxwell here Daniel shabila here Kenneth wette yeah mayor boride here may I have a motion in a second to accept the agenda for October 15 2024 as presented so moved second the motion is for membership the second is from Vice chair uh Keegan all those in favor say I Mr chairman um I know member desire had a motion refer to him okay so uh before we take that uh vote we've had a motion in a second to accept the agenda do we have any proposed amendments to the agenda yes sorry Mr M I just had to run out to my car real quick um I would like to move um new business for policy BBF school committee training policy operations to be moved above um the superintendent and the assistant superintendent updates just because we have a guess do we have a second on the proposed motion to amend the agenda second so we have a motion from Member daglio and the second from uh the vice chair to amend the agenda and move uh the item uh that you mentioned above uh did you if you could refer to the number on the agenda where you'd like to move to oh to 4 a under staff reports okay so we're going to move that to 4 a under staff reports we have the second all those in favor of the amendment say I I opposed the eyes have it so the amendment has been approved we need a motion now to accept the agenda for October 15 2024 as amended so moved second motion from Member shilia second for member Willette all those in favor say I I opposed the eyes have it in the agenda has been accepted superintendent would you please introduce our student for tonight's flag salute I would love to I believe I saw Miss McKay in the back yes she's right there so I'll call it Miss McKay the associate principal from the timy grammar school and our flag salute tonight Jaylen frederique and you can move that down and up okay all right you stand right next to her good evening I am proud to present Jaylen frederique to lead the Pledge of Allegiance at the school committee meeting Jaylen has attended the timoy grammar school since kindergarten and is currently a fourth grade student in Mr ruia's class her favorite subject is science because she thinks it is fun and she cannot wait to conduct experiments her favorite thing about the timy is all the friends she has made and her teachers when asked about Jaylen as a student Mr estusa had the following to say Jaylen is a hard worker and loves talking with her classmates she consistently follows the classroom rules and enjoys learning she lives with her mom juny and has an older sister named Jada who just moved into a new home that Jaylen is excited to visit in her free time she loves to take swim classes and is also a fantastic dancer she aspires to be an entrepreneur owning her own Dance Studio dance studio in the future among a lot of other things the sky will be the limit for what she wants to accomplish Jaylen also enjoys singing and L's Beyonce it is a pleasure to have Jaylen represent our school in leading the Pledge of Allegiance it I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all well done and please uh if we could remain standing for a moment of silence this is our first school committee meeting since mayor Perry's passing may we please uh pause for a moment of silence for school committee chairperson our mayor Neil Perry thank you and uh please remain standing to now recognize the passing of Richard ra the first supervising principal of the comprehensive grammar school thank you and now superintendent I think at this time we'll pause uh perhaps for a picture with yeah great for e before we proceed with uh the remainder of tonight's meeting I I want to introduce uh as our new uh in essence acting chair uh in light of Mayor Perry's passing uh just a few brief H uh housekeeping items uh I want to State at the outset that uh my plan relative to serving as the chair of this body is to always maintain order and decorum and uh avoid personalities at any time and uh my other goal is to improve the efficiency of the work that we do here and so uh relative to uh opportunities for members to speak uh on each item what we're going to do going forward is adhere to a five minute uh time limit for speaking however we will allow for two five minute rounds per item and the thinking here is that perhaps if a question is asked if that initial 5 minutes is consumed largely by uh the response to a question will have an opportunity if need be for followup uh relative to each item and so uh we'll continue that going forward at this point we're going to continue on uh to uh the introduction of our sore Award winners great if I could invite Christine Dumont our department head for English language arts and I could invite also Kate frell our S award winner for this evening to join us Sloan oh Kate my apologies Sloan phell right here perfect sorry good evening Sloan Ferell is an outstanding student who has excelled academically in her English courses at methan high school she has an impressive 4335 grade point average and is a college board AP scholar having earned passing scores on the AP English language and composition exam the AP government exam and the AP Physics Exam most notably she earned a five on both the AP English language and composition exam and the AP government exam the highest score one can earn this year Sloan is enrolled in AP English Literature and composition her schedule also includes rigorous courses such as AP biology AP environmental science honors pre-calculus photography 2 and an Italian independent study Sloan's English teachers praise her intellectual curiosity motivation and strong writing skills Miss ducet notes that Sloan is a thoughtful Communicator who takes time to listen before contributing her Insight helping to foster a Collaborative Learning environment Miss br books highlights Sloan's rare and beautiful combination of a left and right-sided brain which is especially evident in her interpretations of texts that are not only insightful but original her unique blend of logic and creativity are showcased in Sloan's writings and her teachers note the classroom environment benefits from her passion participation and remarkable mind Sloan's councelor Mr Hamilton says Sloan has always been an eager and active learner she has taken on many resp responsibilities outside of the classroom and her drive to take initiative and both her place and understanding of the world is inspiring a globally conscious student Sloan has developed an Acumen for civic engagement and self-improvement her strengths are not domain contingent but rather a culmination of her curiosity and altruism that has led her towards success in all areas of her life s is president of both the science club and The Italian Club a member of the robotics Club an editor for the yearbook and writer for the school newspaper the blue and white Sloan has Ambitions of becoming an architectural engineer as she aspires for a career where she can combine her passion for art and love of Science and working with her hands to embrace her appreciation for Italian language and culture Sloan plans to attend school abroad at the Polytechnic Institute Torino in Italy but if she stays Stateside Sloan hopes to attend Wester poly Technic Institute congratulations Sloan [Applause] um I would definitely like to thank my mother for her constant support um and just really fostering a healthy environment with reading and writing she loves to read she loves to edit books um she's really in contact with a lot of authors and I'm she's my biggest supporter um with uh sorry I didn't rehearse this um yeah thank you [Applause] Mom why you guys call this is from the e and I believe we have two we do uh I would like to call up I'm going to do this correct this time so Milo Milo ISAC and Joe harb our science department chairperson for our second SAR award tonight there we go good evening congrat congratulations to Sloan as well tonight the science department proudly announces Milo ISAC as this year's science sore Award winner the recipient of the JS limb award in science as a junior Milo is currently ranked third in the senior class and has excelled in honors and advanced placement science courses for four years at methan high school Milo has been recognized nationally by the College Board as an advanced placement scholar with distinction this prestigious honor is awarded to students who receive an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken and scores of three or higher on five or more of these exams Milo easily gains this criteria he has received the highest possible score of five on AP biology chemistry English language pre-calculus US history and also received a four on European history he is currently enrolled in five additional AP classes this year including physics environmental science Calculus BC English literature and psychology a top Placer at the methan high school science fair for the past two years Milo and his partner Elias Castillo won the outstanding chemistry project award at the Region 4 science fair last year at tus University they then went on to proudly represent methan high school at the Massachusetts state science fair at Gillette Stadium a very well-rounded student Milo is an active member of the band The Jazz Band adopted grandparent club and he also works as a cashier at the weights Market in methun with a strong interest in studying chemical engineering his top college choices include MIT Columbia toughs University WPI and UMass Amherst wherever he chooses we know Milo is going to be very successful congratulations [Applause] Milo thank you very much to everyone who's here in audience um I'd like to say first and foremost a great big thank you to all of my science teachers throughout do in high school all of my teachers have been very supportive and have invigorated my passion for science in the stem field um I'd also like to thank my loving parents for always supporting me in everything I do and pushing me to do my best and I'd also like to thank my grandfather for always inspiring me to be an engineer [Applause] awes e congratulations again uh superintendent would you please introduce our school committee student representative for the 2024 2025 school year yes I would love to so uh with us tonight we have uh tayab uh he is a junior at methan High School uh incredibly involved young man uh who I have gotten to know a little bit through the um mental health advisory Council um so we're excited to have him with us uh I will give him an opportunity just to introduce yourself and your interest of being here and uh we are welcoming you to the committee and are looking forward to your Insight sure thank you so much yeah I'm super excited to um as Miss as Dr Brandy coing said um try to be involved in the school Community I try to lead student council and I lead a couple other clubs including the Muslim Student Association so I just Advocate as much as I can for the student body's needs and I'm really glad to have a bigger platform to voice my concerns thank you welcome yeah on that note while we're there actually uh do you have any updates for us uh your first night first night not to put you on the spot I believe we have some representatives for today great do we have yes they are here if you have something to add after you may do so okay hello hello really yeah yeah little a little taller than the rest of us okay yeah hello everyone my name is onir MDU and I'm a member of student council and I'm here today to voice um our progress in in MHS so the first thing that we accomplished as a student council last year um very proud to present the installation of the 40 International Flags in the main hallway of the high school methan is a place of incredible diversity and these flags represent the various Nations that make up our Multicultural town we would like to give special thanks to the administrators who helped us make this idea become a reality um on September 28th MHS hosted the annual homecoming dance in which the theme was star night we had a DJ a foam Booth decorations and snacks all provided by student council while attendance was a little lower than last year students and attendance were provided an enjoyable and safe evening with friends in supervising faculty on October 8th the methan TU swim and dive team was at home for a senior night and NVC meet with nd/ drit the red rangers came away with a 93 to 82 win the big news of the day was that senior Captain Sophia Ferrera not only won the diving but also set a new methan school record with a score of 20 242.4 took first place in both the 50 F style and the 100 backstroke the win brings meth's record to 5-2 on the season this fall Stage Door 22 proudly presents Our Town join them to learn about the amazing cycle of life as well as the responsibilities that come with it we hope to see you there hello my name is Devon Rosario I am also a member of the student council however I am a senior I am here to present starting off with uh on October 11th jrtc and mthu and high proceeded to perform a blood drive with the American Red Cross Association on October 25th Key Club plans on uh performing a trunk or treat with methu middle schools in which they plan on uh handing out candy as well as books to Children mainly from MTH middle schools however from all backgrounds to be able to sparkk uh more interest in Reading along uh on October 5th the marching band had their first competition at West for scoring 7899 and placing fourth the marching band has three more competitions at reading October 19th and Wakefield uh Wakefield October 26th and the finals uh November uh November 3rd the football team at athuan high had a tri triumphant home game on October 12th over North Andover with a score of 53 to 22 this victory has marked the fourth win out of five game out of the five games from a MHS vars City football and signals a promising promising season for them thank you excellent thank you that was wonderful thank you have any updates you have anything to add oh they did great I'll just say I have fond memories from my time on the methan High student council back in the day so I appreciate uh the updates and uh I thank you for your involvement and student government it's great so at this point we'll move on to public participation uh we have a few folks signed up we'll begin with Lyn razza and if all public participants could just state your name and address for the record thank you sure um my name is len razza I am living at 14 Campbell Street um I am here today first of all to thank you all for everything that you do for our schools and our um system I would like to um also thank you Dr Quan for getting back to me um I know you kind of addressed it in the last meeting I'm going to bring it back with the two bomb threats that were made on the schools um I have three children that attend one of the schools that was um named in that so I am just asking if there's any possibility that we could possibly get a public meeting for the parents hopefully the um Police Department just to kind of come together talk about what we can do um I know that the threat was not um was said to not be carried out or didn't have the means to so I just would like to know um what we're doing if there was somebody who was able to carry that threat out um I just want to feel safe that my kids when I drop them off that I'm going to be able to pick them up every day um I know that this is unprecedented times I understand that there's not a ton that we can do I know that you have um restraints as far as laws as far as um the money everything like that but um if there's anything that we can do I just would really really um like if we could all get together and try to figure this out so that's what I'm here for um I am going to go home because I got to get my three kids to bed but um I am going to listen to the rest of this and I hope that um by me being here here hopefully we can set something up so that um we're all able to kind of have a say in what happens to thank you thank you thank you thank you next we have two names listed Nicole Costa and I believe it says Susan Pierce hi uh my name is Nicole Costa I'm the vice president of the mea and my address is 1975 middle sex Street in L um I'm the vice president of the mea and standing with me is Susan Pierce she's the co-president of the mea we're here to express our support on behalf of the mea for a yes vote on question two first we'd like to say that removing the M mcast graduation requirement will improve the community in Methuen as the mcast is a high stakes test and it has become a source of significant Stress and Anxiety for students across the board it does not accurately assess students knowledge but instead highlights which students are better at taking standardized tests this is especially unfair to our neurode Divergent Learners and our multilingual Learners who are disproportionately impacted by the current graduation requirement tied to mcast scores by eliminating the mcast as a graduation requirement we can shift its use to identify students who may need additional support this will enable teachers to focus on educating the whole child preparing them for success uccess in both school and life as our students successfully complete their coursework they deserve to graduate and pursue their dreams their future should not be determined by one test this is a chance for you the school committee to stand with our students and our parents and our teachers and advocate for for high standards in Methuen without the pressure of high stakes testing to system the mass Association of school committees has endorsed yes onto so please join us in support reporting the elimination of the mcast graduation requirement as so many other communities across the Commonwealth have done thank you thank you thank you we do have a few items that have been submitted in writing for public participation but before we read that into the record is there anybody else in the room who wishes to speak if not I will hand it off to member shilia for the reading of the written comments all right uh Caitlyn Duffy 3 for marjerie street we may not have the means of changing the past but today I ask you to consider a change moving forward support the request for the floating nurse position and when the School District budget is proposed for the 25 26 school year please advocate for a financial package from the city that continues the full-time position of a floating nurse as well as a full-time nurse leader we are a community of exceptional students these students deserve the exceptional care of a familiar school nurse by reinstating the position of a floating nurse in nurse Le leader I foresee a school Community where rather than a temporary floating nurse and a nurse assistant on a daily basis to other buildings our building based nurse floating nurse and nurse leader will have the opportunity to develop trusting relationships with our students and their home school the stability of a nurse's office ensures that the exceptional students May many that present with various needs only truly known by nurses at each School building such as language differences lack of language social emotional needs to name a few receive the care that a familiar and trusted adult can provide a fully staffed nursing department also ensures that our students that require daily Medical Care receive it in a timely manner that limits the disruption to of their school day it ensures that they don't have to wait around for medication because our school nurse is treating another time sensitive issue or perhaps it is a nurse that is unfamiliar with the daily organization of a particular office a fully staffed familiar nursing department ensures that when a diabetic student experiences a low blood sugar the nurse is available to treat a potentially life-threatening situation the same is true of other students that suffer from epilepsy allergies or those that suffer from unpredictable injuries or a medical crisis by reinstating a full-time nurse leader position you are providing the district with the best medical care for our students you are creating a working environment for our nurses where they have a nurse administrator they can turn to when challenges arise you ensure that we we have someone that can maintain our district medication delegations endorsements from the Department of Health and can attend learn and maintain other school related Health policies and changes for those that may be hearing my statement and thinking that this does not apply to your child it most certainly does your child at any moment in time can experience a medical emergency and for those that still think it doesn't apply to you without a fully staff nursing department which I believe includes a full-time floating nurse and a nurse leader children across the district will be Los the opportunity for field trips no more trips to the farm aquarium or Zoo making memories with teachers and Friends perhaps a halt to many of the special eighth grade activities your child has been waiting years to experience field trips at the high school level which may include members of the band jroc and other various clubs as I stated in the beginning we can always we can't always change the past but we can ensure the future decisions are made to reflect the needs of our students in the district I encourage members of the community and the school committee to Advocate that the floating Nur and full-time nurse leader positions be reinstated uh Christina mcginness 8 denelli and way I'm writing to express my concern in regards to our innocent children in light of a recent tragedy occurring in Georg Georgia and also after being informed via my child superintendent that a bomb threat was made in two schools in our community this past weekend I strongly believe more action needs to be taken in order to ensure safety of our children children whether it be metal detectors at the entrances and only clear backpacks to be allowed and searched upon entry of a building searching of bags personal belongings occurs at places such as Disney World and I believe this should be the standard procedure I'm sick to death about hearing the aftermath of situations instead of what we can do to present them individuals making such threats should be expelled from school and the surrounding Community Schools jail time should be served these threats should not be Tak taken lightly the individual in Georgia was looked at before and no charges were made had that been different the latest tragedy probably would not have happened why are these offenders being protected more than the innocent sending my child to school unsure of they will return home is gut-wrenching we need to do better for these children hoping you understand my frustration provide some feedback in ways that we can eradicate such situations uh Mar anarie kho 565 Forest Street I'm writing to address concerns I have regarding the district's choice of social emotional curriculum I am hopeful the committee will establish a social emotional learning policy similar to their sexed policy I understand Desi set the framework for the district to build from I did reach out to desie with a few questions I was informed that the district has significant flexibility in choosing their curricula and policies with that being said I am hopeful an seel policy can be written to include the following parents have the right to review seal curriculum the subject matter must be backed by age appropriate research the current suicide prevention program given to fifth graders was developed for older children outside presenters must be qualified to give mental health advice to Children parents should be given talking points that will be addressed parents should be given the option to opt out of exit tickets they should be treated similar to mental health surveys currently being offered to students the mthu methu and school committee selection policy for media resources and materials must be followed the National Alliance of mental health is visiting our schools in January content on their website does not align with this policy more specifically it does not offer opposing viewpoints on controversial topics or Foster critical thinking there is a stark contrast to the Red Cross encouraging everyone to donate blood or the American Heart Association raising awareness for heart disease by encouraging people to wear red nami's policy positions on their website Advocate against state and federal law and methan school policy this organization is advocating against restraints in schools use of police force the death penalty limits on gender affirming care and critical just Criminal Justice Reform although proper gun storage is important for children to know gun control topics such as extreme protection orders expanding background checks and gun purchase waiting periods are more complicated these topics should be left for civics classes not Health classes children may have life experiences that make seal lessons difficult to sit through or may not align with their beliefs perhaps a child can skip a lesson and attend a different special for the day if needed no child should be forced to sit and read a book due to circumstances out of their control I am hopeful a subcommittee can be formed to establish policy review this fairly new topic for social of social emotional learning thank you for your consideration thank you member shabil at this time we we'll close the public participation portion of our meeting and I want to point out for the future that if you cannot make the meeting in person for public participation you can send an email to Martha seroy M ois at meu. k12.us before 3 p.m. on the day of the school committee meeting uh so now we're going to move on to the approval of meeting minutes uh I need a motion in a second to remove move from the table the minutes of June 24th 2024 so moved second motion is from Member shilia the second is from uh member uh the vice chair uh all those in favor say I I opposed the eyes have it the uh minutes have been removed from the table we now need a motion and a second to approve the minutes of June 24 2024 so moved second motion from Member shilia second from Member daglio uh any discussion I want to point out that I confirmed with the city's legal council relative to the approval of minutes any members who are not present at a meeting in the future for the approval of minutes from that meeting it's permissible for members to take a vote on uh the approval of minutes so I will be voting uh in favor of approving the minutes just for the sake of the record and clarification uh so at this point uh we will vote all those in favor of approval of the minute say I I oppose say nay the eyes have it the minutes have been approved we now need a motion and a second to remove from the table the minutes of July 16 2024 soov moved motion from Member shabila second from Member daglio all those in favor say I I any opposed the eyes have it the minutes have been removed from the table we now need a motion and a second to approve the minutes of July 16 2024 so moved second motion from Member shabus second from member daglio to approve the minutes any discussion if there is no discussion we will vote all those in favor say I I opposed the eyes have it the minutes have been approved we now need a motion in a second to approve the minutes of August 12 2024 so moved second motion from Member shilia second from Member daglio uh any discussion there's no discussion all those in favor say I I opposed the eyes have it the minutes have been approved we now need a motion in a second to approve the minutes of August 26th 20 2024 so move second motion from Member shabus second from Member daglio any discussion all those in favor say I I opposed the eyes have it the minutes have been approved uh lastly we need a motion in a second to approve the minutes of September 9th 2024 so moved second motion to approve is from Member shabila second is from Member daglio any discussion there's no discussion we'll vote all those in favor say I I opposed the eyes have it the minutes for September 9th have been approved in accordance with the amendment to our agenda I believe here before staff reports we have under new business number four uh relative to uh the school committee training policy operations this is a first read submitted by member daglio we need a motion in a second so move second a motion is from Member shilia second is from Member daglio we'll enter discussion I'll pass it off to the sponsor member Zago thank you so much Mr Mayor just give me one second um just give me a sec I want to read it off um the policy and then I will pass it on to our representative Alicia from masc so under current Master General Law chapter 71 section 36a school committee members within one year after their initial election or appointment shall complete at least 8 hours of orientation concerning the responsibilities of their office at no cost to individual School committee members known as Charter of the Course once completed school committee members are not required to attend any more training Charter the course does not provide all what the school committee members need to fulfill their obligations and responsibilities as public official in their communities massachus Association of school committees also known as masc provides free workshops to train school committee members School committees on specific topics this policy will require methu and school committee members starting January of 201 25 to host one Workshop provided by the masc a year members will decide on the first meeting of January on what Workshop to host by vote if members cannot decide after two voting Cycles the vice chair will have power to make the final decision a survey can also be used to decide new members will be required to attend the chosen Workshop by the school committee along with their obligation to attend Char of the Course once the school committee selects the workshop it is the responsibility of the vice chief and the superintendent of schools to coordinate with our representative from masc for availability for the workshop to be helped the workshop date will be determined when all members can attend so as I did this for almost a year of deciding of doing this I I believe as an educator I am always told once a week I got to do PD um professional development and we do that to our own teachers and staff and I think if we're going to hold other people accountable of continued training school committee members should also be trained not over and over again to ensure that we are efficient at our jobs and we are changing with the times that are occurring especially laws and other things um that's why I have I coordinated with Mike mararo he looked at this and I also have sent this to masc rep Alicia that I will announce in a second to come up um and she'll give you I'm going to pass out as she's coming up to explain our workshops um that we could be trained on I will pass out the workshops list to all of us members Alicia you mind coming up oh sorry Mr chair again I recognize Alicia from masc yes point of clarification it's charting the course CH not Charter the course oh charting I'm sorry I will make that I got it yeah thank you so um hello all my name is Alicia Malin and I am a field director for masc I'm the field director for the Northeast so I am your field director um I have been talking um with member daglio about the policy that he is proposing tonight there are many school committees that do require multiple trainings for their members some of them do it through operating protocols which are voted on much like policies are voted on um we at masc if there's a workshop that you want us to to come out and do that's related to governance pretty much anything about the functioning of the committee um roles and responsibilities goal setting operating protocols all of those things we can tailor a workshop to whatever you need and it's at no cost to you it's part of your membership with us so though you're actually getting a list of potential workshops now we can tailor that there are workshops that I have done that have been um dual goal setting superintendent goals and school committee goals so that they made sure that they were in concert with each other there are times where where I will go out and review survey results and then we'll work on operating protocols so we at Mas are available to help you with whatever workshops you would like to um have we can also we can come out week nights we can come out weekends you can have a short Workshop you can have a long Workshop if you want to do it remote we can do that too at least until March 31st of 2025 date pending so I can answer any questions if you have them so we'll do at this point is uh I will entertain an opportunity for uh questions from the committee I want to point out that we are going to adhere to our time limits uh relative to uh each turn so perhaps if you have multiple questions it would be good to just list them out and give the uh representative from the masc the opportunity to answer and then we'll go from there uh so at this point do we have any questions uh for uh this individual or perhaps any discussion we can enter discussion at this point M Shia so uh I full support I think member daglio spot on we are requiring everyone else to do PD we should probably know things too um but I do want to make a few notes in the policy as it's proposed um in section six it says that this has to be done in the first meeting of January I would recommend that we put some flexibility in there that first meeting of January is already pretty chaotic I mean maybe it's the second meeting or before the end of the first month of service or however we Define it but throwing it into the first month of January could be the first meeting of January could be a bit of a mess um I would n the survey I I think that if we as a body can't come to terms with one two or three of these we want to do in a day then the vice chair decides and off we go um and then under Section seven I would replace the word new members with all members it shouldn't be just the new folks the folks that are here are not exempt from learning oh so so what I meant by oh sorry sure me yeah so the reason why I put new members there um because they have to get Charing the course there you go um so that's why maybe some new members would say well I already did training this month why do I have to do another one so that's why I put new members too as well it wasn't so it excluded no I'm saying all members have to do it but even if you did training already you're doing this other training as well so you're going to do two training instead you get what I'm saying so that's why I was trying to think what people would say um and also I only put survey in there just in case if people wanted because everybody likes surveys these days so I put the survey in there um just just in case if someone wanted to do that um Mr Mayor if I may so when I mentioned survey I was not referring to survey in your policy we do have an online survey we do it through Survey Monkey where it is um it's a survey we send to members and it asks about governance and things like do you feel like you get your materials with enough time do you feel like communication is appropriate so that's also a workshop that we can offer where not that kind of survey but we're going to say the word survey like six times um that's a survey we give out to our members that talks about the functionality of the committee that we can then do a workshop on as well yeah I love the idea of coming to you folks in January and saying hey what are the Hot Topics what should we be learning about what are you seeing and maybe getting a recommendation you know maybe we pick one or two from the list and you you throw a curveball at us shabil would you like to propose any amendments to the legislation well this is a first read so it's got to go back so unless you suggest proposing an amendment formally will we take it back for a first read and have it come back with changes and I can discuss with mugue yeah I think the cleanest way is if the committee does wish to follow through with the Amendments I would recommend making them here on the first read and then when it comes back for a second read we would see the legislation as amended yeah okay so first I just took notes on what you said memb Shia in case yeah and this can be achieved through one motion um so first the scriptor error Charter to charting the course to correct the course name uh along with the first month of service not month of the first meeting of January and to say in chapter in section seven all members instead of new members sorry Crossing out the survey yes and striking striking the survey in section six so that is a motion from member shabila to amend the legislation does do the proposed amendments have a second second second from Member dolio will take a vote on the proposed amendments all those in favor say I discussion oh yeah of the amendment we you know I I'll entertain discussion it's a good point thank you yeah so uh what I'll do is we have a motion in a second on the floor to amend and yes thank you we will entertain discussion uh member Keegan so I feel like numbers one through five shouldn't be part of the actual policy like that's just the description of why we're doing this and so I feel like the policy really starts at number six and we should write a policy that looks like a policy not just numbers so I would say to amend it to get rid of one through five altogether ump currently we're talking about the amendment correct so you would have to vote on the amendment first then you could come back to to amend it to strike down 1 through five that's what we would do so in essence we would uh we're discussing the proposed amendments now we'll take a vote on it and then if there are other proposed amendments we can then entertain another motion to do that okay but they kind of clobber each other so it doesn't really make any sense because he's making changes to three and I'm saying we should get rid of three all together so we could at least take a vote on the proposed amendments and then we'll we'll revisit that if you'd like member wette um thank you Mr chairman in in theory I support the concept um I think it's counterintuitive that we are sworn in in January and then we set up a workshop that potentially could be at the end of the year where we're dealing with with school finance and budgeting Collective Bing agreements ethics open meeting laws so that second meeting in January I think should be the Bread Basket of we have and we already had uh through member dunan her recommendation of having a school attorney have a legal training um I definitely want to work in conjunction with the Massachusetts Association of school committees but I think when you sworn in uh because this this is my uh seventh year of serving on the school committee I don't think we've ever had it I would have to uh defer to the superintendent I think in theory it's something that we should be collectively supporting the law itself really doesn't have teeth because you know you're not going to lose your seat you're not going to lose finances as a school district but if there's an opportunity to educate ourselves we should be taking full advantage of it but I always thought that you have an entire year to do the workshop but then you're thrusted upon the governor has to submit the budget in in February um you're dealing potentially collective bargaining agreements we should be well versed in open meeting laws and ethics um decorum uh Robert's Rules of Order so um however it's structured um and I don't have a problem doing a peac meal like if we do because of the necessity of the budget and certain items having that January meeting and then when we talk about the evaluation of the superintendent when we're talking about other things that could occur during the lot of part of the year um I don't have a prompt participating in any workshops and I think it's great if we incorporate as part of our regular meeting so that the people at home can get a little tutorial as as well and I think what member dunavan I think was a great suggestion working with that school attorney working working with your Association and the superintendent so I don't want this to be like adversarial I think the language has to be shed up I'd like to have it refer to the subcommittee on policy to to work on the language but that's my mindset is that it doesn't make any sense um if we're doing at the tail endend of the year you already dealt with the budget you might been resol in some of the contracts you already did an evaluation of the superintendent then you're going to LEAP into things that you already discussed and debated upon and voted upon um so that's my mindset on that um in terms of like penalties for school committee members there's really no penalties right now in state law what I would say is if um what member had indicated if you're a teacher there's some type of advertising that you completed the credits so maybe on the school committee site if we did workshops we get a credit for doing the workshops we attended the meeting we participated because I know with the ethics you have to review it pass the test have a certificate that's submitted to uh I think the city clerk's office by law um so something similar to that but it's not really binding but it just shows to the population as a whole that we did the workshops so if you have a person who's in absentee at meetings absentee at workshops not working with your Association not working with the superintendent then it's going to show on the school committee website and that's something that the voters will decide later on so I had a concern about that um the chair can work with the superintendent and the superintendent can work with your Association and the school attorney and then we had this this the template so I appreciate member denovan on that front um so that would be my first round on that thank you Mr chairman thank you member Willet any other discussion regarding the proposed amendment if there's no discussion regarding the proposed amendment otherwise we will take a vote all those in favor of the amendment say I I opposed so do we have two no votes we'll take a roll Callo yes member Donovan yes member Keegan no member Maxwell no member shilia yes member wette yes mayor Bard yes the amendments are approved we now need a motion to approve the legislation as amended so moved second motion from Member daglio second from member shabila I'm further discussion yes I'm going to offer further Amendment okay in terms of uh for now because I would defin make a motion that this policy is referred to the subcommittee for review the policy subcommittee uh because I want to have it short up with in terms of the language um right now I would remove if there's any penalties on this or any requirements because right now with the state law you don't have any penalties and you don't have any requirements so I think we should be in inherence with the state law on this but I just toss that out as an idea what I would recommend member Willette is is uh perhaps if there is a desire to table this and refer to a committee what we could do is entertain a motion to table with the request to refer to the committee and then if we have a second we'll take a vote uh if we vote yes that would satisfy the first read however the item would be tabled and under review by that committee rather than making additional amendments along those lines so I'll do Mr chairman is I don't want because once you do a motion to T it's a privileged motion I'm going to allow for the discussion of the committee but that's my intention is motion to table refer it to the policy subcommittee sure uh so further discussion member daglio I was oh wait so I was going to file another amendment because uh uh lee Sher just referred to me today because I was asking about penalties um and Alicia got back to me and the the penalty that you can have right now um is members who do not attend these trainings the school committee can restrict um them from serving on subcommittees is that correct Alicia yes I actually I if I may I can answer a couple of things that came up in a couple different places um May I yeah absolutely so you're correct that there is the only requirement from the state is that you complete it within a year charting the course and you have to complete your ethics um training before that but charting the courses within one year that gets submitted to your town clerk as well but there really isn't any recourse after the fact like we report out to your chair whether or not you've taken charting the course you would have to go to your town clerk I spoke to my executive director Glenn coocher this morning um just to confirm this and what he told me was the there are recourses for districts for sorry excuse me school committees who do want to place penalties they would be censure or yes you can either not seat someone on a not assign someone to a subcommittee or you can remove their subcommittee assignment and That would be by a vote of the committee I do also want to say that this is not an masc model policy um this policy was brought to us for review we work all the time with districts at their at timing that works for them we are frequently doing workshops with um your District Council I have one in Watertown in two weeks where their District Council is going to start the meeting and I'm going to finish it um so we are very aware of your needs and tailoring what we present to you to those needs so if the timing needs to be different if the subject matter needs to be different if you want to Stack it differently we can work with all of that you still have the floor yeah um so also one of the the policies that I wanted to bring to penalize was that we would dock pay um from a school Committee Member however masc has let me know that if I was to ever do that I would have to go to City Council for approval because they budget they approve our salaries so I would have to get permission from the city council to a and then bring it to us to vote on that to Doc pay I don't that that policy I was like let's start with subcommittees um but if we were to ever entertain that idea we I would have to draw up a policy um asking at least you correct me if uh if I'm don't do the The Proposal right I would have to bring it to school uh city council to say basically you guys are giving us that money for our salaries you have to give us permission to dock our own members pay it would actually have to be an action of the city council itself because they are the body that Awards the stipend to the school committee the school committee has no authority over that part of the budget so it would have to be a policy or an action of them remember shilia what are we doing no I that was I didn't want to no but people ask remember Doo take a breath for a second we are complicating this far more than it needs to be I I just the the premise behind this this agenda topic is fantastic I think everyone around the table and if anyone disagrees when they throw a shoe at me but everyone here is in support of further educating ourselves so we can be better at what we do to serve the community I understand member Keegan's perspective that this is not a policy this is a shopping list and that's cool Alicia you had mentioned a template this is not one of your policies do you folks have a canned policy that we could use we do not we do not have a policy that dictates training of school committee members what we very often recommend is that there are operating protocols and meeting Norms that school committees agree upon which is in and of itself a workshop um and in those operating Norms usually there's things about training and workshops and communication and things like that so with with all that said this is a first read we've made some friendly amendments I think that this before we go around the table and beat the Dead Horse let's let's let this let's let this lie when it comes back back up on our next agenda item it'll be it'll be more appropriate format more appropriate function and then it'll be a more meaningful conversation and I don't see a need to table we're just prolonging the inevitable we don't have to refer to a subcommittee that subcommittee is already drowning in policy it's this one shouldn't be hard let's not make it hard member Willette I'm gonna I'm gonna make a mo motion to remove any reference to penalties at this stage I think the we have the second meeting in January where we can focus on the bulk of what we need to accomplish we're going to work in cooperation with the Massachusetts Association of school committees a superintendent a school attorney but I'm going to make a motion that penalizing someone for not attending a workshop or a meeting that's a Pandora's Box because I know the city council is that have not attended meetings at times or even school committee members in the past so I would just do is you complete the certificate and it's presented to the city uh clerk's office but I'm going to make a motion to eliminate any reference to penalties in this Mr Mayor point of clarification there is no mention of penalties in this excuse me Mr Maya yes um I believe that member will let motion to table and there was no second and then there's an amendment so so I just want to point out so we had discussed the prospect of tabling my understanding is that the member didn't actually make that motion he indicated a willingness to entertain additional discussion thank you yeah member Donovan thank you Mr Mayor I I would like to commend um member daglio for bringing this forward we can never learn enough and these workshops I think I'd sign up for all of them myself um and I think by Del paying our vote we're we're already in mid October I think it's important if the sooner we start this I understand what everyone's saying and I understand your concern um member Keegan we need to fix the wording so it's clear and I'm glad to hear I've been looking at this looking for the penalties and I'm glad to hear that I haven't lost my mind because it's not here and let's not get into the weeds um so I I think we owe it to our our our constituents and to the school Community to make sure we are doing everything the way we should be doing and we're learning from people who know the rules who know the laws and we're not kind of doing it all on our own so can we move this baby forward thank you thank you member Donovan is there any other discussion member Maxwell I would like to say that I like I'm in support of learning more obviously these classes are great I the only reason I voted no on the first read was just because there are certain portions of it that just don't make sense to me that's the only reason so I just wanted point of a CL clarification there like you know rule rule whatever policy number two is once completed school committee members are not required to attend more training so in this policy that we are required to complete more training number two says that once that's completed we're not so kind of contradicts itself point of clarification so what those from me learning from my days in College of policym we explain what Le leads up to that policy being made so when I said once you do chartering the course you are not required by law to do any more training all right you're done so that's why I put once complet school committee members are not required to attend any more training that's a statement of fact relative yeah a uh a proposal yes so that thank you Mr Mayor so that's all it is it's basically and then when it goes into this policy required that's why it goes then goes into the policy so but again I I love that everybody supporting it that's all that matters to me if we want to clean it up we'll clean it up so perfect as the secretary to the school committee I'd be happy to after the approval of the first read take this make sure the Amendments and present it for a second read at the November business meeting I think some of it just needs to be put in more of a narrative form uh and so I'm I've already retyped everything and can can do that for the committee to make sure that every everything is captured any other discussion Vice chair then can I make an amendment to remove 1 through five 1 through four in the policy because it's doesn't doesn't belong in a policy so we have a motion to amend and remove strike sections 1 through four of the legislation does the motion have a second we have a motion from the vice chair the second from member dunan to strike one4 from the legislation in essence these are the statements of fact yeah uh so uh we'll entertain discussion relative to the proposed amendment am shilia if this is going back to the superintendent to work work on now we're just doing motions to feel important it's unnecessary so I'll be a no vote any other discussion regarding the proposed amendment if there's no discussion we take Mr chairman M will again because like I'm looking at this repeatedly and I'm getting more and more confused by this that's why I wanted to make a motion to table because then it's a separate action on it but you know whatever the I'll defer to the uh the committee won I can't support I want to support the motion of the vice chair but like I'm thoroughly confused by this right now so we just go from there thank you member Willet what I'll do is I'm going to pass the imaginary gavel and the timer to the vice chair and I'll just state that my opinion as it relates to one through four a respect is that you know these are simply statements of fact so personally I I understand uh the logic behind having it in there I remember from my time on the city council Whenever there was the proposal of a resolution or an ordinance there was typically some background information included as preambles in the legislation so for that reason I would support keeping it in there uh simply because I understand why it's there and I just want to speak relative to this amendment but also in general uh again during my time on the city council uh I made efforts with my colleagues to try to introduce this concept of continued professional development for elected officials in the city I think that's healthy for our community and so in a general sense I support the legislation overall but I'll keep it there and that was only one minute so uh at this point we will vote on the proposed amendment to strike numbers 1 through four from the legislation all those in favor of the amendment say I uh opposed n so we'll record member Donovan and the vice chair as the yes votes uh but the motion uh fails so we're back to the main motion which is to Simply approve uh the legislation as amended do we have any other discussion just a one final comment this is a first read this is going to go back this is not voting anything into existence right now this is going to go back to the superintendent she's going to do her magic on the keyboard and make this what the intent is and it'll come back to us in two weeks and and then we'll be able to have a meaningful conversation instead of chasing our Tales around a piece of paper that is not going to change anything tonight thank you member shilia so at this point we'll proceed to the vote if there's no other discussion all those in favor say I I opposed the measure passes first read so we will have an amended version coming to us for the second read at the next meeting at this point we are moving back to the regular order of the agenda to staff reports uh superintendent and assistant superintendent are there any updates I'm sorry we have the uh updates from the superintendent and assistant super I do not have any Dr glovsky has an update about the libraries excuse me Mr Mayor I just also want to thank Alicia for coming tonight um and giving us um insight about the policy so um Alicia thank you again for coming great so we'll move on to report thank you so I'll proceed with the update on the libraries um so as we've advertised and shared we're working to renew or refresh all the grammar school libraries um and that day is upon us so on Thursday and Friday we'll be having new shelving installed at all the grammar schools um each school is getting a different amount of shelving depending on the need and then next Monday we're having the fallet library team um fly in with their troop of librarians um and also staffers who will help shelf uh the catalog of new books that's been delivered to each grammar school help us weed through the existing collection reorganize all the books and resources um and update our cataloging system so that it'll be ready for use so that team will be in the district for eight days um they'll likely be at each School two or three days um and with the support of Esser funds we're able to purchase appr approximately $35,000 in new tax for each school um and so there's an array of titles um they're all relatively new and um we think they'll be of high interest to students um in books and other languages and various reading levels as well so prior to that the age of our existing collection um was a approximately um 20 years old so we didn't have any new texts so this will be much needed and I think welcome by students and faculty thank you for the update are there any questions for the assistant superintendent of student services member Donovan to follow up Dr golovsky um so once everything's in place what's the plan for students accessing the books so um for now because we don't have a full-time librarian in those grammar schools we purchased scanning devices for automatic book checkout um we intend to have stations throughout the library for students to scan their book uh enter their ID number and that'll be logged that way um that's something we do here at the high school so we're familiar with that um and then we'll work with building principles to form a schedule of how teachers will be able to access the space in each of the libraries we've preserved a substantial amount of space uh for working areas so if a teacher feels feels like they'd like to bring a class or two to collaborate um while in the company of the text that that's available for them as well so that's awesome um are the libraries now free of traditional classrooms yeah um yes the the two of them are and then in two of them we have um a one of the K through 4 um stem teachers in each um but there's ample room for workspace early literacy space Reading Center and texts um so the others are completely free um and that was done purposely because those are really nice spaces for professional development for teachers and meeting spaces as well okay thank you any other questions member shilia uh going back to the mental health for uh spos Act reading this it looks like we're presenting care Solace as a new tool is something changing with care Solace not a new tool just uh just a revisit highlight so that people are aware that we have it okay um do we have data to show what their their volumes and turnaround times and all that stuff are we can access that yes all right uh I know that in our last meeting that was cancelled we were we're planning to uh have a presentation from the Ley cbhc are are we gonna be able to have them next go around or what is two weeks three weeks I rescheduled uh her and also attorney mararo for the 28th awesome Yep um I if if John wants to attend I know this is near and D his heart not that he has to be here but he will be there as well he confirmed um yeah because I'd be curious to know what care Solace has for Urgent therapy and psycho Farm because that was two issues that were raised to me for it and then my second question looking at this nurse stien amount am I reading this right and that we've expended an extra $31,000 in the course of two months to cover Staffing shortfall you are reading that correctly that's unfortunate which is why we have the other item on the agenda tonight and that float nurse will alleviate a good amount majority of this a good amount not all of it obviously because if there's more than one nurse out we can't always stick somewhere but what we've had to complicate this which I think we started to explain last time but more concretely tonight is that not only are we uh short when when we need additional nurses in buildings uh but we've also had to move nurses to other buildings and that is where the costs are happening at a higher rate than what we would would have expected is that when I have to move a nurse from the marsh to the CGS to cover the building uh there's a a cost uh per their contract that goes with that that moving from building my signed building to another building so the float nurse position uh when we created it several years ago was to alleviate that and so we had we always had somebody who could go into any building knew how the system worked and was familiar with all the buildings uh and and again we can discuss that at greater length during that portion of the meeting tonight but yes you are correct which is why it is not sustainable School sorry School Committee Member shilia just on the bottom of page one gives those examples that the superintendent was just referencing in terms of the different situations that we've had to encounter over the past few weeks um and costs associated to that to those examples um I don't know if now is the appropriate place ask it or when we get to the float nurse but do we have a candidate in the wings or is this going to be a post and prey kind of situation no I think I think we are uh in a a very different place than we were a few weeks ago uh I I am so grateful that uh I sent out that email to the community about needing nurses that actually generated uh quite a a handful I'd say Miss bozac Right a good handful of of Staff in the community so whether it was somebody's neighbor or an actual parent who could give us some days so our pum nurses have increased so that's really good for us so that I don't have to move people around the district I can have a perdm nurse fill again not entirely but we're getting closer uh and I also think there has been some generated interest in some of those potential candidates for some long-term employment so I think we're feeling more hopeful than we were a few weeks ago uh and is starting to stabilize a little bit more so that people can uh go back to their assigned buildings uh soon uh we have a full-time nurse starting at the Tim next week uh we've had one since September being trained uh at the CGS so we expect that building to be in a pretty decent shape in the next couple of weeks so we're feeling more hopeful about it uh and again hope that the school committee entertains the conversation about that float nurse position later in the agenda fat email worked you should try doing it again for teachers in Paris I I might I might cuz it did uh it was it generated some really nice conversations and again just sharing a couple of the people that applied were just neighbors of people and people were passing it to each other so that was really helpful some football conversation by the HR Director and myself at a football game also helped recruiting anywhere we can maybe thank you member shilia any other questions am wette thank you Mr chairman in terms of The Residency enforcement we still have about 71 students in process um we are still removing students from the district because of residency policy which I want to thank the administration on that for its uh vigilance um whittling down that list uh do we foree that within a month or so um do you need additional personnel um what exactly would that entail like if it's in process and some of them is since July 1st what would that entail through the chair excuse me so um we are working diligently to whittle down that list as new ones come in that will be updated every month um our focus at the beginning of the school year so end of summer and September is to complete all registrations and get new students enrolled so now we are targeting um addressing the residency investigations so those are moving fast and furious right now okay so through the chair um we're going to whittle down that list we forceed for the next uh report yes okay yep all right and I appreciate all the again all the diligence on this thank you Mr chairman thank you member will let any other questions if not we'll move on to the report from the director of HR do we have any questions for the director or relative to that that report if not we'll move on uh to the facilities report do we have any uh questions relative to the facilities report M Willet uh Mr chairman and this might be directed uh towards your domain um when we have the inspectors come in from the health department is it possible to have uh the Ada coordinator join those visits uh because we still are getting punchless items that we follow up with the Ada um and again um not to criticize anybody again it was 1990 the law was passed and we do upgrades we do corrective items but if we have the inspectors from the health department could I we have the Ada coordinator join those visits uh working with yourself and the superintendent if it's possible um just something to just toss it out there sure if that's something that uh you'd like me to follow up on I'll certainly do that yeah I just again that would be your jurisdiction on that working with the superintendent thank you great any other questions if not we will move on to uh the report uh regarding out of school suspensions and other disciplinary actions any questions if not we'll move on oh excuse me uh member shilia this also covers the the violations for the cell phone policy and I was hoping the superintendent could give us a update on that yes I would love to thank you um so uh the good news uh is that in the first six eight weeks of school here uh as you all know we had Pockets uh those pocket uh my gosh those pocket hangers uh for all of our Upper School and High School classrooms and um Dr golovsky and I have been traveling uh to all the schools and I've been keeping a key eye on those uh those hanging uh Pockets to see how it's how it's being used um I will say uh two things not many kids are using the pockets however uh we have yet to see a classroom where cell phones are out in view or a teacher has had to say put away your phone um and actually in in my travels uh and Dr glovsky um probably would be similar uh I've had some folks stop me to say that it is a a remarkable change in atmosphere um that just having this sort of this rule in place on what's going to happen and that we mean business when we're in the classrooms has changed the atmosphere in the classrooms in the in the middle schools and the high school um so I think uh you know that was our goal is to prevent the disruption in the classrooms uh and it it has I I spoke at Great length with one of the principles last week and although we were very focused on the classroom uh part of this uh she uh clearly indicated to me that it also has impacted the the use of cell phones at lunchtime and recess inappropriately so um you know without uh staff chasing kids so it's I think um it's been healthy uh I think we're enough weeks in to figure out uh if this was going to work or not um so I think everybody is is very um pleased and appreciative that this is in place and we made it very clear in the beginning with staff about rolling it out using the same language across the board um so that everybody knew right that this was the the rule uh and I sent out you know numerous Communications to families as well prior to the opening of school so uh I I'm hoping that we just see zeros uh in this report that we did add to Infinite Campus uh very specifically vaping incidents which was discussed at this committee uh that is not a field but now it is so our APS can just keep track of that uh and add it to our um report I will say there's a little bit of a nuance and Dr LA are working through that Nuance uh but there is a Nuance with vaping of uh simply uh doing it and being in possession of it those are two different infractions interestingly enough um so we're just we're we're trying to figure out the Nuance of that right because possession may not may be a second hand um Discovery uh versus actually being caught doing it in the school building if that makes sense so there are some nuances we're working through with the principls and vice principles about reporting those two nuances so we'll we'll add those we'll explain those if anything changes in the report for next month it's nice to have a good story it thank you remember daglio yes um thank you Mr chair um I'm just curious um because when I saw these the incident reports I just see 44% at fighting leads to out of school suspensions and I I said to myself how many incidents is occurring and I'm thinking maybe three maybe four so is there any way we can put like a column of incidents that are occurring I oh well see see that me be me um yeah I see it now thank never mind any other discussion or question if not we'll move on to Old business and other Penning matters I need a motion in a second to approve the resending policy this is the second and final read second second we have the motion from Member shabil and the second is from the vice chair discussion member shabil so there was something in here that I I expected to see that I thought we discussed that I don't uh the language similar to what we've added to other policies talking about um mandated disclosure to parents so if someone reports harassment that they know that there's a investigation process that they'll be pointed to whomever it is in Miss bozak's Department that is responsible in that way that we're not relying on folks to go out and figure it out on our own their own very similar to the conversation we had during the subcommittee yeah so this is a full recent so we're not we're not editing or changing this this and I apologize this was from August just I did not put it on the September for the second read for the resin so we added new language in August for the handbooks around harassment and that was voted on as a first and final read this was a policy that duplicated or replicated some of that and was outdated so we just need to fully resend it because language has already replaced it that is legally required and that's why I couldn't find the language I thought we added which I I don't know why I didn't tell you that we were in the subcommittee meeting but um so so there's nothing revised here it's just the policy as it is that we need to remove from the books because we've replaced it with new language and again I apologize I just I did not put it on the September business meeting member Willet thank you Mr chair through the chair to the superintendent just as a point of clarification so this again reverts to the Title Nine changes correct from the federal mandate un enacted Congress but from an Administration in terms of regulatory changes so I will be voting against it for that reason I'll be on record thank you thank you member Willette uh any other discussion member daglio I was actually going to bring that up um and I could be wrong but for the latest I thought the Supreme Court struck down this no it hasn't struck down that no M because we did not enjoin in the action so we're not part of that action the 26 States and the hundreds of school districts that enjoined in the action we not part of that so we're still an effect on that from the administration at the federal level again not an act of Congress thank you Mr chairman you still have the floor member doag no I'm I'm good on that okay any other discussion if not uh we'll take take a vote I'll ask for a roll call mlio no member Donovan yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member shabila yes member wette no mayor boride yes five yes two now it passes the measure passes we are now on to new business uh next on the agenda is uh the superintendent's goals uh we need a motion to approve so moved second motion from the vice chair second from Member shabila discussion any discussion seeing no disc oh so I will start by deferring my time to the superintendent who I'm sure wants to say something about her goals right or no are you good I'm I'm going out on a limb here assuming you have some color commentary for this I I don't I don't really have a ton of color commentary this is very similar to the previous goals and strategy plan so um you know you'll notice the goals here are aligned to the strategy plan that we presented in August um I think the most important part here is that um they are the parts that I can be and should be responsible for and be uh held accountable for um to make sure that these um the strategy plan is account you know is enforced right um I would also say I did put a memo in front of this so I hope that you were able to review that um there is a piece of this that became complim complicated during a previous year's um evaluation cycle and maybe that is one of the things that masc can come in during that time of year to come and share but um the highlighted yellow if you if you sort of keep flipping so the highlighted yellow are the focus indicators which uh approval of these goals uh would indicate and basically I highlighted the focus indicators that are attainable you'll see those noticed in that the um second left column in uh it'll say Focus indicators addressed from the superintendent rubric and it lists like a 2A 3A 3C next to the goal uh those are all highlighted here with a level of I did those strategically um and tried to select desie recommends highly selecting six to eight of those indicators and spreading them out over the four um four standards uh so the those are the ones I selected so you all would evaluate me on those indicators and not the ones that are not highlighted and this is the process that desie and even masc does encourage um and so we've we've tried to fine-tune this process a little bit over the years because it has become overwhelming uh to you know what is attainable uh and what you all uh see from me on a day-to-day basis that you all have perview over right and so it does get complicated because there are things that I do every day that you don't know what I do every day uh but there are things here that I would present to you and make sure that I am the person who has to execute the policy and the budget and the procedures in this District um so that is potentially a little bit of a change from last year for uh especially some of the newer members um but that is again something that desie and masc recommends that this process be uh this way this number of goals the number of focus indicators to make it more focused conversation um you know more of a a strategic uh discussion around uh that ACC those accomplishments do I still have you still have the floor so I just want to ask a few questions under the student learning goal the first uh bullet it increase the reading scores by two points I know that last year we were shooting for the moon and then we adjusted now two points which seems a lot smaller is that is that what we're seeing in other districts where the goal because I assume this goal is not unique to you right is that what we're seeing is that that increment of a trend of that that growth or is are we is that small is that large so two things so if you Rec if you recall the conversation about the strategy plan the the benchmarks we're really trying to use some of the benchmarks that have been assigned to us by desie and you know some of those other um those the other uh data that we're using so once we are at a certain point that growth is you know a 20 point growth is not attainable right so when we're at a point where more of our kids are reading at grade level are making progress uh that that uh attainability is is harder to to I can't say 100% uh that's not attainable as much as I want it to be um so it is more uh common to have growth uh increments that look closer to what we do with like mcast and we did put that in our strategy plan what we'll do is we'll go around and see who else wants to speak for first round then we'll return for a second round would would anybody else like to have a first round opportunity Vice chair um on the um goal number two um it says at least 50% of all ninth grade students will be engaged in at least two school-based extracurricular activities um I would like to see a percentage of students with disabilities and L's in there um to really try to make sure that those extracurricular activities are being inclusive to those students because that is a focus that we have in our three-year plan 100% that's all thanks other questions discussion member  um thank you Mr chair and um I was just curious about um because I was talking um to members uh outside the community and I I brought it up to member Donan and and member Donovan just opened up the discussion the other day to me about how marac is teaching Administration a minute uh principles as well program and how maybe we should be opening up opportunities to our teachers to go into those type of programs so we can move them forward and keep them in the pipeline um as well um I don't know if that's could be a goal but I feel like if we made it easier for teachers to have that opportunity to become an administr administrator we can retain them down the road to move up as well and those teachers that our kids love don't leave but they can become administrators with in the methu public schools I don't know if that could be your Go one of the goals but I was just curious if you have anything so I I don't think that's part of like my my goal here but that is work that we already do so so Dr gsky and I have um some great so does uh Colleen McCarthy uh have some great contacts at Rivier at marac at UMass L uh who are constantly telling us what the programs are that they have that we share out my my challenge with that is we don't have funding for that so I I can provide the opportunity but we don't have the budget to have to tuition reimbursement uh currently in in for for staff and then uh the second part is I can't really control that like who goes and who does it right so that can be really hard when an outside body you guys are holding me accountable for something I can't control who who goes through those programs once they're communicated with so that I would struggle with that as part of like an actual key action plan that I can't really the outcome I can't control the outcome I guess you know understandable thank you but we do we do share all of those programs with there's there's several for program assistant as well to get them into the teacher pipeline any other first round questions discussion member dunov oh sure um excuse me um member Maxwell um I just want to say um I have a question and I want to comment I think I think that these goals are great I think um last year sh schoals maybe were harder to understand cuz maybe they weren't necessarily all of you maybe um but these ones are specific to you so I like that um I specifically like the focus on belonging and engagement I think that's um great I think we need that here um you and I have talked about that a lot y um the only question I have is what is it says MPS will have a student culture climate survey return rate of 30% what is that mean so um one of the things that we we added to the strategy plan is part of what we want to know is the culture and climate and have that come back to us right of for our students which is a different survey than teachers which is a different survey than for parents okay so we are working right now to figure out what the um the um not venue like the software to actually do that the measureing the software to do that so we can do it as efficiently as we can for all three of those groups to survey each of those groups you expect it's going to look different right we're going to ask students different questions about their climate and feeling of belonging we're going to ask teachers different questions about climate and belonging and we're going to ask parents it's just going to be different questions our hope uh and although it seems low statistically in research a 30% return is actually really good right so it's hard to justify that a little bit when we're look you know we have 7,000 families and we want 30% of that to be returned doesn't seem really high but again statistically 30% is a good return rate so you know we we think uh typically when we do these and we've done them I've done them in the past in my various roles um if we do them during the school day we get a high return rate from the students if we allow teachers to do them during the school day we get a high return rate from the teachers parents is a little more challenging but if we you know again ease of use less questions get to the point um in languages that they can they can um access that's going to be our goal so we're looking at different um means to do that right now like which system is going to be the best to actually help us send out those surveys and get get the results back in a way that we can use them thank you I think I think your goals are great I'm excited to see this year thank you member Donovan um I very much appreciate the focus on student engagement because that's the key to everything maso's theory if you don't feel safe and you don't belong you will never be able to learn and engage with others and um the getting students in grade nine to be engaged in at least two school-based extracurricular activities I think is remarkable as um and I'm sure that will be with the lens of equity I think of like band and where there may be money involved I'm not quite sure how it all works with the district but you know can everyone afford to participate um so I I'm really looking forward to seeing how that that plays out um I don't think we think enough about after school events the extracurricular to see how important they are to the life of a a student connection thank you for that yep um and the other thing my question is I think it's on page four is it page four h where is it no page five the profession under the pr professional practice goal I'm really intrigued how you're going to be working with the leadership team to review and revise some really important things the multi-tiered system of support intervention referral and maybe the win in Reading success just briefly especially because literacy is such a big deal in Reading success drove everything for the last is it three years now wow are you thinking about anything crazy and B old for reading success in a good way you would like me to report that out here publicly tonight well I'm just intrigued because I mean what is the next step I know it is what is the next step I mean this is the conversation and I'm you know all seriousness the idea of reading success when we presented it three years ago was just a a absolute need right for this uh remediation from from covid uh you know additional supports for our students that you know that was the impetus for reading success and sort of changing everything we were doing I think what we're recognizing now is that uh and our hope right when when uh Mr Noble and I wrote that originally it was at some point we need to get to a place where we're not going to need that right because we're going to we're going to have kids be at grade level reading with their literacy instruction now we're not quite there but we're actually getting uh closer to that so the conversations that Dr golovsky has been having with the humanity supervisors and us with the principles is we need we need to do something more purposeful With the Wind Block which is what we use in upper school for that support time and what does that look like because it's one block of time and everybody's competing for that time um and so we've started some of those conversations uh which is a challenge probably more challenging than reading reading success and then reading success what we're finding is that uh in different PL it might look start to look different in different places and different schools and different grade levels within one school and four different grades it's going to look different and so that is really the heart of this conversation of H how do we best utilize that time how do we best support our kids we have experts in the class from doing that um but it might not be everybody has to move maybe home rooms do stay some of them with groups of their home room teachers and why right why why are we identifying that as as the next step so there's open conversation right now but it's starting to look different the data is starting to look different to us when they when it's coming back with the benchmark assessments um you know Dr lpsy will talk about that at the October November October okay um sort of our our first quarterly report out just how we are doing here and how we measured at the beginning of school um so so I think that's the openness that we're looking for and that are we seeing that start to turn a little bit and what do we call it what does it look like um you know how do we Define that but the wind block for sure more purposeful and the mtss process has always been um a tough one to implement with Fidelity in the schools because of time um just the teachers even having the time to have those meetings and talk about students and their profiles and then then Implement something different um so those are some conversations that have come up already and it's October so yeah I look forward to seeing what data you'll be presenting to us around the literacy piece great thank you we'll Circle back for second round member shilia thank you um District goal number one the focus and belonging I Echo member Maxwell and member Donovan for me that's kind of the Cornerstone for the culture study climate surveys you had talked about the tool that's going to do them my two cents there are tools out there that provide a Anonymous response which I think will provide greater transparency and 100% of this would be anonymous we wouldn't I wouldn't collect a single email or notification from any of these student staff or parents I just think that's what we need to drive home because people aren't going to respond if they know that oh they can see that we should be able to see that people responded and they shouldn't be able to respond twice but yeah you correct I mean they're definitely those are some of the the tools we're looking at to make sure that it can be anonymous that they can't go on and do it 17 times for you know a false sense of of data collection um but you know we have some options it might end up being a Google form but we're looking at some other options as well my only other one is that third bullet underneath the surveys for the opportunities for families to attend participate in school events I just want to call to your attention uh a close eye to how those events are structured M like for example and not saying that you are or did but we have Trunk or Treat in three weeks or two weeks that every school is going to do we do we are is that a PTO event or is that a school event that's going to count into this 8 to 10 nope that's a I just I just want to make sure that we have some clear delineation between school and PTO but also acknowledge it sometimes they will collide 100% but yes I don't I this is about uh what we talked at Great length about in the spring of what opportunities like the science walk the museum walk I mean I I was in a great uh common planning meeting at the Tenny actually and the grade level was like oh we could bring back the museum walk and it was something we used to do years ago where parents were invited in and could see the different things kids were doing in all the subjects and and showcase that and not just like a science project or something like that so there's already been some really nice conversations I think at the different grade levels about what we could do um like that to bring parents in which I think is our goal is to bring more parents in uh you know not just like for for like come in and hang out but you know here's the purpose it's going to be about the kids build building those relationships with the teachers too I think is really what the focus of those conversations have been perfect thank you you're welcome do we have any other second round questions discussion member Willette chairman uh through the chair there a superintendent I had asked at a prior meeting we did an outstanding analysis of the various special education programs under that umbrella can we try to summarize some of the acronyms some of the programs like blue engine is that Poss I decide it doesn't have to be like War and Peace it just like a summary the origin of funding um a mission statement just something that I can as a fact finding Mission just to be able to educate myself on because you say blue engine you know I'm thinking like you know Thomas the Train you know so like it's it it just something too like you got blue engine I decide all these different acronyms and programs for someone who's not in the education field yes I think it would be helpful for myself and maybe other members of the school committee similar to what we did for the special education programs what under that umbrella we summarize the different things the Serv I believe Dr gapski has that list yes I started with Mr Crocker we've made it now it's turned into a glossery I think there's over over a hundred entries but I think it'll be useful so I'll have that for you at the next meeting and you did an job about the libr answer my questions so that's in the works I appreciate that it's just that and again I have reservations about the process I don't have reservations about the superintendent because she's always answered my my questions so at the end of the day last time it was a present I'm going to vote for this but again I still have the reservations about how they formatted it at desie um but we still have to all move the train forward and I appreciate that information CU like I again blue I would have to do all this research myself and I think that was a good synopsis of the different programs so better educate ourselves as individual members of the committee thank you Mr chairman any other discussion questions if not we'll move to a vote all those in favor say I I I opposed the eyes have it uh the measure is approved we're now on to uh the uh leadership and literacy Foundation lease for 10 dits in place we need a motion in a second in order to approve so Mo they they couldn't be here second that's fine we have the motion from Member wette the second is from Member shabila discussion anybody else before member shilia trying to give somebody else the chance to go first um so I just I I I am still 100% in favor of the youth center but I need folks to understand this is what I do all day so it it hits real close to home for me so I do have some concerns and I did mention them to the superintendent earlier today when we spoke so under Section rent section a uh the the nonprofits coming in and they're vouching to put up half a million dollars we don't know what they're going to find when they start going around inside walls of this old building my conc concern is and this this may be something for the mayor and I don't expect you have an answer today because I know you've you've been in the chair for all of like two weeks now but if this exceeds $500,000 and we have to get on the capital Improvement plan we're now delaying their launch of this program because the capital Improvement plan is not a do quit kind of thing this that could put us out a year or two yeah is that I know I didn't I don't want to interrupt if you have more so I so I think um yes and we had some conversation today about it but I would also say that um this is the the really important part of this is that they're not just going to come in and start doing stuff right so so if this gets approved if city council approves it and then we have a green light now myself Bruce Stella the facilities director Ian we sit down with their people right their contract ctors there and we do a walk through and and for us it's going to be what is their priority what are the priority things that have to get done to have students safely in that building right and so we've already started that process we did this I about a year ago um so so we've already put our eyes on some of this that uh the work that needs to get done to open uh versus we're going to have to do it anyway that is that is a school department building so if the roof needs to be replaced it's going to have to be replaced right the the building is occupied it's not caving in on itself um you know so we we know we have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done first to safely get the kids in the building there are some things that are going to be uh more challenging I think around that uh with the building being occupied by multiple groups and that's you know also going to be priority y a priority for us so I think it's a matter of uh this happening our team with a very clear project planning which is what our that's going to be my job and and Mr golin and Mr cella's job is to make sure we have project planning they can't just go in and start doing stuff to the building that's not how this is going to work so I do see there there might be some things that are going to cost more than what was anticipated for them to open but I think the other conversation that and I'm not going to speak for them and unfortunately they could not be here tonight um but the it's a minimum of 500,000 right was the minimum we didn't say anything about a maximum um but it also doesn't say how we Bridge any gaps and my concern is they do something as innocuous as add a sink in an area where they're going to be doing I don't know washing paint brushes and you go to open a wall because you need to fix a pipe and you find out that that wall is filled with mold and now you're adding $30,000 of mold remediation to your budget like there's just there's so many issues in especially in a building that age right that could I also think our conversations have never been about them doing any kind of Renovations like that it is open as the building is set the footprint of the building we're not talking about building walls and adding that kind of stuff that is not that's actually something that was in the RFP that they can't do so so rebuilding the space is not in their purview right renovating as a leis no liser le uh is you know the painting and making sure any abatement that happens has to happen right th those are things that have to happen in order to have kids in the building right so we know those things already those are already some things we're looking at there are definitely parts of the roof that need to be fixed they've already seen those parts um you know so so for the biggest one I see is going to be the security I I think that's going to be a bigger cost than the abatement and the painting and and and and those items um so we're not looking at like a complete renovation they're not going to be tearing down walls they're not going to be adding you know sinks we may have to uh I think there was a a smaller conversation about adding uh bath like where the existing bathrooms are and adding there was some note about ADA accessible bathrooms so so that right so we already know what those sort of what those bigger projects I think are going to be um so I I didn't really answer your question but but uh what I'd say is that I don't know if this actually and this is where I don't know right does that level of detail belong in the lease or does that come next and maybe it's a matter of putting here in the language here this will happen right with a project planning team with the school like maybe that's what belongs here is some kind of notation you know Amendment however you look at it tonight but like an addition in that section that says you know all of the project will happen through a planning process with the superintendent uh the school department team and their team we keep referencing a document to come but this is a Four Corners kind of document so if we're going to reference an third document or second document we need to incorporate it by reference in here otherwise that document means nothing and I know that I blew my time so I will I'll wait my my turn cirle back other questions discussion what is that will and then I'll go Mr chair through the chair to the superintendent do we have a sense of when the administration went back to the central school right for its operations how much money we incorporated into upgrades in that building do we have any fig off hand cuz the Ada was passed in 1990 and I know going back to the central school we did must have done upgrad yeah I I would probably I mean I don't know I don't even know CU we weren't in those our rules so the nth grade went back probably when the nth the renovations for the ninth grade to actually enter was really the last time that building was touched because which was before my time and before uh Ian's time but it's not something we couldn't try to figure out how much R I know the renovations in that building where like the elevators the stairwells were protected um there was some abatement I don't think there were bathrooms added because there's two bathroom big large bathrooms downstairs have is that at that time kitchen was upgraded CU I served in the school committee at that time when they went back to the central school in terms of an administrative capacity and they made upgrades and I thought at that time they did ADA Compliant upgrades and now we're saying we didn't do ADA Compliant upgrades at that moment in time we did that we would have had to do the upgrades when the nth grade kids were in the building is what I'm saying but not as a Administrative Building where you have employees it would have already been updated while the kids were in the building I'm not sure how much more would have had to been upgraded as adults moved in the elevators I know that was a big deal we had elevators and ramps when the ninth grade kids moved in all of that was done we we didn't have to redo any of that that's I remember moving into the building from the qu building like the meth uh commission disabilities like I'm concerned about stuff that like ADA Compliant bathrooms or certain things like we we'll still have to do maybe a ramp into that building for people there is a ramp into the building it's compl okay all right there's elevators there's a ramp on the dson side there's not a ramp on the laurren side because that's not the main entrance so we don't Envision any further besides the bathrooms any further ADA Compliant issues I mean we could reach out to Jean Walsh we can reach out to the Ada coordinate because that's the things I'm concerned about is that we're doing investments in buildings and we did prior Investments and we weren't abiding by the the federal law that was the concern I yeah this is why we would have to meet right because we know what we have to do so this is why somebody from this from another group they can't just walk in with a contractor and start doing things right there's a I've already had this conversation with Mr Stella there has to be a conversation about they need an engineer to come in who knows that to say if we're going to do anything with the roof if we're going to do anything with the bathrooms we can't just design that ourselves an engineer has to come in and actually say what the space you have make it compliant that's that's what we pay the engineers to do and have for all of our projects thus far they would have to do the same process that process isn't going to go away because it's another entity doing it but it's still a public building but when we had the the grade n over there like you're talking about lead abatement someone must have signed off on that we had do we have like a do we do we have presence of lead paint in that building do we know we believe so okay all right ceiling paint ceiling paint okay so paint Falls and kids eat chips and that's you know things I have concerns about I have that's on the that was on the RFP like those are the things we know we're going to have to do on the second floor for sure yeah I I personally I would not want to delay this further and I think we can work on it and I think if we approve it tonight that will start the process it's not a guarantee with the the bond issue and the release of funds from the the governor and that's like the political advocacy the legislative delegation and and the audit of working with the governor because I know there was a bond issue and it was a certain amount of money dedicated to the youth center right so if we delay it further that might delay that pool of money right um so I understand member shilia and I'm hoping we can work through I think this I think there's a provision too like if we do an ordinance in the city of methan could that maybe correct some of the details of this lease because like they have to abide by the ordinances and regulations of the city of methon as well so if we ever do corrective stuff that would be applied to that situation uh that's some that's something that we probably would need to review further as it relates to process yeah I don't know the answer to that question no um but but I would agree with you 100% we just we were trying to move this forward to start this process cuz not going to happen overnight um you know and this the the use of that this is going to have to go to City Council I did request for it to be on the agenda for Monday night mhm anticipating hopefully what's happening tonight um you know they they don't have the purview of the school committee in in changing this document or adding usage or anything like that their their purpose for it to be on their city council is because they have to approve the fact that we are leasing this municipal building for less than fair market value that is that is why we need that on that agenda so this can't happen unless they actually approve that the fact that we're going to do this with this with this organization for Youth Center so that's that language that that you'll see on the city council agenda is very different than the language in front of you tonight about what you're app approving and what your Authority is okay thank you thank you Mr chairman just a housekeeping item I don't have that uh on the agenda at this point for the next meeting as far as I'm aware so that's something that we'll need to Circle back on tomorrow pending approval of this so okay I'll follow up with you okay um any other uh questions discussion for the first round then we'll return I Meo thank you Mr um mayor um so I'm going to approve this um no matter what I do believe that because we we me and DJ grew up together and we've been waiting for a youth even when we were younger um also the fact is that I have talked to auditor uh dlio um they are having that money and it is being held up for us and if we delay this longer um it will be taken away from us uh because then it's just showing that we're not capable of just we're we're asking for this money and then we're not using it so that to me we're delaying the process let's pass this we could continue working on it we're not saying that we just hand it off and then we don't Circle back to it we should be in the process of this the entire time but by keep on talking and all these concerns you know I get it I get it you want to all do it right but if we're just going to delay it you know things that are out of our control well I didn't say that yeah what we're depending on to get this off the ground is going to be taken away from us then we're going to be back here asking for more money so to get this done so let's just move this forward let's give what mean's been waiting for for 25 years all right and I'm not saying let's do it recklessly but at the same time we keep circling back to this and it's let's just move it forward that's all any other first round questions or discussion second so I'm not going to be bullied into passing something because we're being held hostage but that aside um in the top of Page Three there's a section on repair and maintenance of the internal elements HVAC included it's a this whole paragraph is a bit ambiguous um I know it was flagged in one of the earlier drafts but if we have HVAC issues downstairs where the fire department is are we expecting the tenant to pay for it because that's what this says so I just I I want to call attention to that and make sure that we are able to get some clarification um the on page four there's a site for a page a call out for insurance they should be some language in there about how the insurance is rated it's standard contractual language to like uh am best of a or better or something along those lines I don't see them having any issue with that but it is something that should be in there where are you looking that part uh Insurance where is Page four or no yeah um yeah lessie's liability in fire insurance and it says such liability insurance shall be shall name the lessor as an additional insured and obtained from any responsible company companies qualified to do business in Massachusetts and a good standing there in that's not typical contract language typical contract language would say something along the lines of am best a or better rating and it would make sure that there's going to be a reputable company which I'm sure they're already doing but it's just a housekeeping matter um indemnification is in here twice and they're not written the same way so we should pick one and scratch the other uh and then as you and I discussed earlier the termination language these folks have the right to terminate this at year four there's nothing in here to say how that termination is going to be done with regards to the improvements that were made and it's not something we've discussed I assume it's something that the attorneys have discussed but there should be some kind of dissolution language in here outside of the default bankruptcy and 5013 dissolution how do we how do we cease this relationship hoping we never have to but the reality is a contract should cover for that um and the other one being some right to audit we talk about their insurance we talk about their 5013 certification and there's nothing in here that gives us the right to request those on an annual basis I mean it's I don't think there's anything in here that can't be summed up in a quick phone call tomorrow and they make the appropriate changes and this still goes on Monday I don't think anything that I've raised should be a hindrance to this going on Monday don't disagree okay so we'll have second round here member um just based off of memb sh ba is saying say this is where I look at these things um and he's again I'm not a lawyer so the points that he just made up thank God we have a lawyer on school committee um the question I have is these concerns that M member shell keeps bringing up the question I have who made this that was from the the the foundation correct that that made the changes no so so we we all did so Dan was involved as well oh and attorney Rosetti city solicitor and attorney mcel from our legal so if that's the case and again I wasn't in this meeting so I don't know me and I'm not trying to point you out so I don't want you to remember shilia when you were in this meeting was these questions raised to them so point of clarification there there was no meeting no meeting it was done via there was approximately I don't know three dozen or more emails and this started off as a barebones draft that solicitor Rosetti sent over I marked it up sent it back with my comments again I may be an attorney out there but I'm not in here so I added my my comments my two cents I redlined a document made suggestions attorney Rosetti reviewed it made some changes uh that was when we identified that we can't do a 99e lease and other things it then went over to uh turny maro's firm Peter mcel mcel reviewed it we made more changes him and I had a couple conversations there were notes that and then that was kind of where I stepped back they had my redlines they had my comments not all of them were incorporated into this final document I got this final document the same time you did okay so I never saw this prior and I emailed Dr Quang I don't know what Thursday Friday and said hey can I have the redline versions between the two attorneys because I want to see what happened to the notes the comments any discussions because there are points I want to raise but if they've already you know fought it out I don't want to refight it out but it doesn't look like that really happened not to say they didn't do anything because I know they did but some of these issues just weren't addressed and now 10 attorneys 10 opinions and that's always the way it's going to be but this these would be my concerns and I'm not a real estate attorney out there either but I've I've I've read enough contracts to to flag the things that can go wrong that give me the AA that this is what we could get Suited over someday mean's got enough lawsuits we don't need the potential of more on the back burner yeah so to raise that point this is what I get frustrated about because school committee members we kind of get this like 3 four days prior where people are talking in the what what whatever amount of days like Thursday we we get THS so yeah okay but the point of the matter is and I've been saying this for years now school we need to to have meetings on these big issues and someone from school committee should be in these meetings so they can hear it they could voice their concerns and then when we get back we have someone to say like see that what you just pointed out M shilia I said wow that's you were in but if we were all in a like one if membership Viller was actually in a meeting face to face where they could have these me uh talks we wouldn't be delaying this any further and I say moving forward with especially in these big projects there shouldn't just be like emails and then two people meeting and making a contract or whatever in this case I would have membership Billy in that meeting because he understands this better than me so if I may that's that's the way it works it's that's not specific to how this process went oh we don't have meetings on contracts in out in at least my world okay 99% of the time it's emails are sometimes it's teams call and we have a quick thing we talk about an issue and everyone goes on their way but I I think that this this was done the right way but at the end of the day it's not our contract it's the city's contract we're it's our building but attorney Rosetti is the one who had to sign off on it so he took it and finished his job he had no obligation to loot me back in I mean it would have been nice and we could have had that discussion but he had no obligation and I I don't fault him for not doing it so I yeah I just feel like the reason why this has moved forward is because so many people have concerns and questions and I feel like these things could be dealt with but what do I know I just feel like something so great is taking so L much time to move forward because of all these concerns thank you m second thank you Mr chairman I I had a quick uh point of clarification I don't know who can answer this the original lease was on the agenda for September 23rd it's the same I so there's no changes no red lines identical language so that's my concern I have is that this was from September 23rd yes that was it's identical because if we're duplicating things in a document and it's that's the one that we are in possession tonight then I'm concerned about someone reviewing it because if they duplicated sections did they do a second review because this was from September 23rd and now we have it again supposedly to do a final approval tonight so that's the concern I have because we I I looked at it September 23d and now we're going into this meeting um where there Chang from the prior document and if so why weren't we made aware of the red lines and changes and if there's duplications and again I'm not an attorney why wasn't there another review I if if you have duplicate you know duplication of language that is not exactly a a sound document to vote on so I I'll through the chair to member shabila that's the concerns I have and I don't know the answers uh on that but I'm you know oh I have to answer that yeah you so I mean it's you had a lot of cooks in the kitchen and not to make that as an excuse but there were a lot of folks that were working on this there there are sub scribers errors do I think that any of them materially change the outcome indemnification being in there twice is not a damning factor either way they're not written the same but they're accomplishing the same goals um do I think it could be cleaner you without a doubt do I think the presentation is a little wonky without a doubt does that materially impact us no the issues I raised I think are more materially meaningful than some of the other things just my again that's through the chair um that's my spider senses going up because I served in the city council and contract language being changed you would never entertain that you we had promps we would we' have to table it to get make sure we were all on the same page even if it's duplication of language you said the duplication of language was even identical on the indemnification duplication of the the title section not the language there's two indemnifications paragraph the only thing I can suggest is I don't mind going to a special meeting and voting on this I think the the mayor indicated that it might not even be on the agenda for Monday is I might know if that the case the deadline to submit uh items for the upcoming agenda is tomorrow at noon okay so this is something that let's say this were to go through tonight you need to have a discussion tomorrow before that deadline as to whether it goes on the meeting agenda um but I want to point out uh also that before this gets to the city council uh the CFO will engage in a financial impact review and that will be provided to the council as well and uh there's going to be additional opportunity for for a discussion and review at the council level but I can't speak uh to that here you know that's something that the council would engage in in terms of their process it would be uh from what I understand a multiple read item at the council level but if there are concerns here then you know discussion see again I'm not an attorney but like again what memb shilia indicated is that if we don't have those side letters those side agreements those references to insurance and having the highest quality insurance right are we open ourselves up to liability and again I reviewed this about two or three times uh I I think a lot of effort went into this and I really don't want to stall it but I also don't want it to come back and haunt us so I'll defer it to you Mr chairman membership if it's if it's minor things except for the insurance issue um I I'll want to vote on it tonight but if you know it's a rock in a high place if it's going to come back and haunt us I I'm concerned about that but I'll defer it to the group so at this point we are able to continue to engage in a discussion um Vice chair can I just ask a point of clarification um are we able to vote on this and approve it pending the changes that member shilia brought up why not yes s can I add to that point of clarification we're going to vote to approve use of the building with this tenant that is what's going to city council so we can still work on this and the city council can vote to approve our use of the building at a less than market rate right this is not contingent upon that or that is not contingent upon this uh that is a question for the solicitor who I did speak to this afternoon who reiterated what um the mayor just noted that if if there were amendments made tonight the documents need to be on the for the agenda would have to be submitted by noon tomorrow so there is an opportunity for us to make amendments and change it which I didn't specifically ask do they need the lease I made an assumption I guess that they would need the lease as part of the resolution to see that this would be a supporting document as it relates to or actually this might be perhaps part of what the council has to take a vote on that's a question for the solicitor right I at this time I'm not aware of in terms of process cuz you're yeah you're you're and we can have a convers the mayor and I can have a conversation with him tomorrow as to move forward uh but again the the resolution isn't for them to dissect the lease right it's it's for them to understand that we are they actually have to prove that the building is being leased to this group for less than market value so we can submit this tomorrow work on this and then we have until Thursday if I'm not wrong to amend it with the updated document so that way we're on the agenda and we can move it forward am I correct in that assertion so the issue is that we're running into uh the issue of dealing with city council rules as it relates to the provision of supporting documents so uh agenda titles are due tomorrow at noon uh it's a holiday week so I would need to take a look at in terms of the council rules what would need to be provided in time uh for the meeting um and actually I think at this point uh if it's okay Vice chair the floor is yours if I may ask a a question relative to the timing of this so as relates to the deadline to get this approved is there something that would prevent us from uh from a timing standpoint here from perhaps tabling the lease pending the edits that need to be made and then we could come back for a special meeting uh it's just an idea just so that we are getting our our our ducks in a row and Crossing all of our tees and dotting the eyes I'm just curious as to what we're looking at in terms of a deadline to get this done we definitely need it done by the first week of December is my understanding not for ours but for the financial part for this group because what I understand to release funds if we don't get this moving and it's fully approved they're not we're we're potentially that group is going to lose those funds for the Youth Center right and that's something that we want to certainly avoid I think that uh relative to process you know if it pleases the committee that is something to potentially consider if we do have the the the time bandwidth so to speak um and to also just allow us to present to the city council a truly finished fully cooked product versus something that we're taking a vote on to approve it tonight but there's still questions um and edits that perhaps may need to be made uh so I'll leave that to the will of the body uh but um it is something that I thought I would mention Mr chairman Vice chair I still as the floor if you'd like to recognize yeah so once we've exhausted all discussion that was originally what I wanted to do was I think there's still concerns and I defer to member shilia on that because of his his background um we still have the time to do it and like I said I'm flexible even have a special meeting um but I think because of the past actions of prior administ ations I'm not talking about the the per Administration where U language was at the last second put into like a me grinder so to speak um we still have the time frame as a superintendent indicated we can do an official uh follow-up review and if we need to have a special meeting so once the conversation's exhausted I'm going to make a motion to table but that's a privileged motion so I'll do that that afterwards we have any other questions or discussion remember I want to mention we have to have two rounds I just want to be sensitive to that you have a quick Point yeah just a quick point I'm all for for U tabling it and putting a special meaning but I do not want this to keep dragging out for like three weeks I want because it's going to get to the holidays and Thanksgiving and then next thing you know we have we're going to be sitting here and have to vote overnight and if anybody has any other concerns it's going to go right up against that December 1st deadline so I am all for it tabling it but I want this I would like a special meeting to have this vote done before the October October because once you go past October 31st I I know for a fact that with PE things happening and if anybody else has concerns then we could get it done within the October prview and then have a anothera meeting in November and get it done then I just feel like we need to be quick on this something else to keep in mind this would I believe require two reads at the council level correct me if I'm wrong uh so in that case if the deadline is say first part of December consider also that the council is going to have their own two read process over the course of two meetings so uh in essence uh just a point of caution we don't want to set the council up to have in essence no margin for error let's say they have things that they want to address as well over the course of that period but nevertheless we do have the option of the special meetings and the council does as well if we do need to expedite things uh so again I leave it to the body and uh we'll go from there member Maxwell you haven't spoken yet would you like to speak I just have a quick question and it may have already been answered in all of this conversation but um is there a way that we can make the friendly Amendment like can we approve this pending the Amendments or I just hate to not approve this because we're going to lose it I mean December 1st yes that's three months away but not really when the council needs two weeks we don't meet all the time so I'm just afraid that we're going to lose the funding for this and this is a great opportunity for us so can we make the friendly amendments I don't know tonight or can we uh propose that we approve this pending those amendments I don't know the process so I'm just so I one thought here so um this is a legal document I I don't believe that it's in the purview of the school committee to edit a legal document uh so what we could perhaps also do just another potential solution we could uh approve this tonight send it to the council however we could accompany that with perhaps uh list of some of the things that we're talking about tonight for the city council to then consider at that level as well so I think this is the benefit that we have of having multiple uh fences if you will before the proverbial Cliff uh if there is anything that needs to be addressed here uh so that's another thought as well not to bring so many ideas into the mix for us to consider as a body but I'm just thinking out loud here Mr Mayor you mentioned the titles are due tomorrow correct documents are due when it's a holiday week uh typically that is uh in Rapid succession behind the due time for the titles uh so I would need to clarify that with the council but it won't be tomorrow titles are due tomorrow at noon supportting documentation uh relative to the holiday week I need to clarify that but I I don't believe it is tomorrow at I would suggest we submit the title and then we we fix this tomorrow that way come what day is today Tuesday come Thursday when we have to submit documents this goes over and I agree it's all done so if it pleases the body we I agree I wrote I I believe I wrote down what you said I hope I did uh so I I understand the the you we made four notes I can make myself available tomorrow to have that conversation if you and I can just do that and the school committee can agree to that um i' recommend looping in the solicitor yeah yeah y so we do have the main motion on the floor this is discussion regarding that so at this point if it pleases the body we can proceed to a vote uh or if there are any other motions we can entertain those so I I think we need to do a a not a friendly mend but a motion to approve contingent upon final review and approval by attorney Rosetti and attorney MCN I'll entertain that we have a second second member Donovin wav our pan I just have a question do we need to see that con to see the lease again if you are all voting on The the specific uh notes that member shabila said the indemnification the two notes uh that I wrote down under how do we how do we cease the relationship the right to audit insurance and then um the reduction of the indemnification twice redundancy those are the four things I had so we we agree on that we don't have to review everything again I don't I would say no because we're all substantively agreeing upon the document okay these are housekeeping cleanups i' hate to trip over that no I and I with you yeah I'm sorry mayor that's fine I'm sorry to ch I'm I'm looking at the dates for the um City Council meetings and we're really up against the wall because there's one left for this month and then two in November and that's it right and well yeah and if there's an issue on their side eates so I think whatever we can do tonight to push this through is the best way to do it and so should we make a motion so we we have that motions on the floor y okay and we had a second yeah and we can have a discussion yeah very quickly uh I and I think this is healthy um so we're talking about doing boilerplate common language for the insurance in terms of the grade of the insurance that's boilerplate and we're removing typographical error of indemnification what was the other uh provision that we were talking about just to make sure I'm on the same page my recommendation was uh removing the ambiguity from the repair section and adding termination language and right to audit language so in terms of legal precedence that wouldn't alter the nature of the document itself I would argue that it's not going to be a m i don't want to say it's not a material change because it is by definition a material change but I don't think it changed the essence of the agreement okay so boil a plate for insurance to make sure that the the grade based on past practice removing typographical error which doesn't change the substance of the lease and the other thing that needs to be corrected what you said okay okay I'm fine with that so this hasn't been the cleanest uh discussion from a parliamentary standpoint my apologies but I think it's important for us to get it right so at this point we will proceed to a vote on members Shia's uh revised motion relative to this item and I'll ask for a roll member daglio yes member Donovan yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member shabila yes member wette yes mayor borgard yes unanimous we're now moving on to uh the next item which is in essence kicking off a discussion uh regarding uh the uh school committee minutes format um gu we'll uh invite opportunity for discussion questions we have anything member Willet thank you Mr chairman and um this was given to us um when we came in uh in January and I knew that we were having problems with the minutes being approved in a timely fashion and again it was not an indication of the administration it was just something in terms of open mean law that we needed to to correct and also there was an opp opportunity to streamline the process for future minutes um so I know member shilia had done some review of the documents and I reviewed the same documents and we have a template to use to simplify the process to streamline it and also establish a timeline for um the approval of the minutes which again if you go outside that potentially could be a violation of the open meaning laws I'm not going to dwell on the past um I think we've done a great job of correcting the situation I want to make it as easy and uh discernable as possible and streamline it because we take multiple votes um I like the format that we we have um that's been offered I Believe by the Attorney General's office um and that's something that's part of our agenda I don't know if we have to officially read it um but something that I would be in favor of that the only caveat I would do is add that in the documents that we had in the past that there was a time frame for turnaround of minutes unless there was some emergency um compelling reason for it so that was something I appreciate member Maxwell brought it up memb Shia brought it up is something I was concerned about um and again when you have talk um things don't get accomplished but I'm hoping something can get accomplished T tonight thank you any other discussion memb shilia so this was brought up because at a previous meeting member Maxwell had raised concern over some of the meeting minutes we voted on tonight so that being said my suggestion to the body would be let's limit the detail of discussion that poor Matha has to scribe out in our minutes there's no reason for there to be direct quotes there's no reason for there to be narratives and monologues it it can be it's just a summary of the discussion of each subject and that can be in as little as two or three lines it doesn't need to be expansive our our meeting minutes should not be seven pages there should not be three pages about us going back and forth on the least for the Youth Center like it it can it can be summarized and I think we should be as succinct as possible you're you're you're not a uh uh you're not a a I forget what the word is because I haven't done it in a long time the person who transcribes all the the the minutes in court a stenographer you you're not paid by the hour to to dictate notes we should shorten it up make it simple keep it clean and move on Meet the requirement no no need to be over achiever in this particular area thank you any other discussion member Maxwell and the member doag um I I would like to mention that um I mean I just agree with member shila's points I did bring up at our last meeting that I didn't agree with some of the meeting minutes that were approved um tonight unfortunately I wasn't here for those um but there was just a lot of inconsistencies and I don't think it needs to be laid out like you know like you said like a transcript I think it just needs to be a summary of the discussion um so if we can kind of clean that up that would be my um just quick question to you Mr Mayor on the council is that similar to what you guys do on the council when it comes to minutes so in essence uh from what I recall council meeting minutes are U more of like a brief synopsis of each topic you know maybe U mentions of what uh specific counselors may have said or asked in the discussion and then there's a notation regarding the vote but certainly not a Verbatim uh overview of the uh proceedings uh so it is more along the lines of what members Shia has said a synopsis of the major points that were made in order to capture the flow of the meeting thank you Mr Mayor any other discussion member Dunham I'm just really curious U member Maxwell I just I'm kind of stuck I'm not quite sure how I feel about this at all I'm wondering if there's any value to having more detail is there any time in our communication here in the meeting where there is value to have some more detail than just a summary I don't know and I'm curious I I we haven't had a conversation what exactly I'd like to know what your concerns were that will help me understand I just had some concerns with just things that were quoted you know um you know there was a lot of there was a lot of um um there were there were a lot of things left out so in the meeting minutes you would take something out of context but if you watch the actual meeting it I I'll give you a a perfect example and this is why I didn't approve the minutes from June 24th it's because I was on I was on remote I was on zoom and at one point the literacy rate came up and we were talking about it and in these me minutes it says that member Maxwell said literacy rates are great I never said that I never once said I agreed with that I did say in that meeting because I went back and watched that meeting that if these numbers are in fact accurate then that is great for the district so what I had said was shortened in or misinterpreted so it's being you know and and it's little things like that and that's it's fine I don't care if you really care you can go back and watch the meeting but I don't I just don't want to be misquoted um so that someone can go back and say member Maxwell you said this I I actually didn't go watch the meeting I can provide some additional insights relative to how the council uh typically handles this so in approving the minutes there is an opportunity for discussion after the motion in the second in oh right well if let's say you know in the future excuse me um you know there were inaccuracies that you wanted to correct you know during discussion any member is you know completely within their uh right to say you know I'd like to propose an amendment it indicates that I said this I actually said this and the minutes can be amended I did plan on that tonight it just didn't work out I had to go the restroom so right right I just note regarding how the council typically deals with it y any other discussion uh we can have a second round membership Alia I just want to clarify that just because the council does things one way doesn't mean that it is the way we need to do it the the the rules for the minutes that were provided by the superintendent our packet are clear it's a summary of discussion it doesn't say that there needs to be detail we also need to remember that as long as we're satisfy satisfying this our meetings are recorded so it doesn't there is a transcript out there people can refer to that we just need to meet the requirements of the open meeting law and have minut available we don't need to do I I would view the council's meeting minutes as excessive and there have been numerous occasions where I remember uh Council ficaro spending quite a bit of time correcting what she viewed as inaccuracies and more power to her but it it it didn't need to be that way if they weren't there so I I think that we can satisfy the letter of the law and accomplish our goals without getting over overzealous I guess is a good way to put it thank you uh member will will have a second round yeah thank you Mr chairman as an alumni member of the methan city council uh there was a political Nuance to the the minutes uh it was a discussion between verbatim minutes and just straight line minutes and I would defer to the straight line succinct minutes because it will take the political Nuance out of the situation uh the ambiguity so to speak and if we have minor Corrections on roll call votes it makes it much better for us to riew that so I think honoring the letter of the state law that was furnished To Us by the Attorney General's office I think would be in coner uh with the state law and that's why I I supported a review of it and then also we're going to condense the timeline uh because that is also state laws so that we're not 6 Months 8 months uh waiting for for minutes and again it was not an indication of the administration um and I'm not even going to go back to a prior school committee I'm not going to get into that Pandora's box but when something popped up and I mentioned it back in January um we have to shore up things and this is just a straightforward way of doing it um so that's what I'm going to put for my two cents thank you thank you member we let any other discussion if not we don't have an actionable item I know there was a reference on the agenda to approval of an item but we don't have anything as it relates to that or any motions so we'll move on uh at this time we're going to uh proceed to the custodians mou for 2024 2025 uh this would require a motion and a second for approval so moved second we have the motion from Member shabila and the second from the vice chair discussion member daglio no no I was just I was just okay discussion questions do we want a brief update from Dr Quang like we usually get before we final vote on a contract absolutely Miss McCarthy is monopolizing her time drwan we just moved on to the custodians mou so uh we'll invite you to share an update so I shared the document with everybody several weeks ago nothing has changed it's not something that we would put in the public packet until it is ratified so nothing has changed so that's any other questions or discussion it just took a long time for both attorneys to actually yeah get back and have the document great and I do have it here as well so that uh tonight we can actually have that you signed and send it to the uh custodian Union if approved ratified discussion questions if not we'll proceed to a vote we'll take a roll call member daglio yes member Donovan yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member shilia yes member wette yes may of oron yes unanimous we're on to finance and operations the expenditure report do we have any questions relative to the EXP expenditure report from the committee M Willette thank you Mr chairman uh through the chair to to Mr Goslin the the $72,000 that's in the parking account for the high school do we have anything uh in the pipeline to whittle that down yeah I am going to have a tree service come in and cut back all the trees before winter so that we don't have branches falling um and I also want to touch up any line painting that needs to get done okay so I'm not sure if that's going to be done right before winter or right after okay and then also I don't want to um Telegraph anything but maybe through the chair to the superintendent if we can get clarification um in terms of security enhancements without going into detail if that's acceptable under that account that's the question I've had in the past and um and I know we have to go into to Executive session at some point in the future regard uh Public Safety but was something that um we have $72,000 in the account we're going to do some tree removal service and some lime painting I would imagine we're going to still have a good sizable account um so that would be something just to get that clarification on that I think we can but we just need that feedback um and then also is it possible to get just a breakdown of the expenditures in the food department uh in terms of what they spent uh because it was a a depletion of that um account just I don't know what that would entail um I know some of the warrants would but just a greater detail for me yeah I I'll give you a call and see what you want yeah yeah you just whatever the um the amount was it was a sizable amount that was spent down recently um I mean if you want to itemize it uh breaking down to categories that's fine I'm just curious on that thank you Mr chairman any other questions discussion if not we'll move on to the revolving funds report are there any questions regarding the revolving funds report I will let you know we did get out for a circuit breaker payment in uh beginning of October $2.25 million so that did come in and we'll get one quarterly for the next three quarters thank you questions discussion if not we'll move on to the grants report any questions regarding the grants report if there are none we'll move on to Student Activity accounts do we have any uh questions from the committee relative to Student Activity reports I will let you know this is the time of year that I remind the uh Grammar School principles or the Middle School principles that anybody left out in 8th grade needs to be sent up to the freshman class so that money does move with the children children so this is the time of year I usually do it I wait for any bills from June July August to be paid prior to uh having them send that money up we're on to the Food Services report any questions regarding the Food Services report we'll move on uh contract approval we have none uh notifications of appointments and other Personnel matters uh we need a motion in a second to approve the appointment of a float nurse for 2025 so moved motion from the vice chair second from Member Donovan discussion if we have no discussion uh we'll take a roll call vote m daglio m Donovan yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member shilia yes member wette yes mayor Bor yes that's approved we uh are on to uh the item regarding uh let's see PK partial inclusion classroom staff we need a motion to approve so second we have the motion from Member shilia the second from the vice chair discussion member shilia so can you Dr Quang explain just kind of what this is and where it's coming from because we're going into mid October at this point and all of a sudden we have incoming kids yes yeah thank you so um what we are looking at here is um many of you may be aware may may not be aware but uh we are obligated to uh evaluate and uh provide services for any student at 3 years old uh as soon as they hit the age of three uh if they qualify for their services so one of the things that is is constantly changing for us is as students are coming in and I'm going to defer a little bit to miss boac is it two and six months or two and N months they start referrals can come in as early as 2.6 okay so 2.6 years old uh families can uh bring their students here to meth public schools and begin the evaluation process so we don't have any way of projecting in this community how many uh two and a half to three year olds there are and then among that how many are actually going to uh you know request evaluations and then among those who are going to be picked up for services so um right now we have uh a lot uh I say a lot we have um I think Miss Bak has that number too Mr shilia has it too I was gonna say 56 56 initial evaluations happening right now that's that is what our uh preschool staff uh is working on in addition to servicing the kids they already have so they have a rotating schedule of evaluating uh the two 2.6 you know year olds uh to determine whether or not they need services so at this time we have filled all of our spot in the current preschool classrooms they are full and by full I mean uh by compliance and regulations we cannot add more students to that those rooms uh unless we start adding more staff and even then that will be out of compliance with just the sheer number of students in the room in one room so where this is coming from is that all of the students uh at this point that can have filled spots in the appropriate spaces and now we are left with uh we have a group of students starting to build uh who need those services so as soon as they turn three uh we are obligated to provide them those services so right now uh we have to pay for those Services whether they come in and receive them you know on a uh interim basis uh in our building or they have to seek it elsewhere we are providing those services for them and funding them so what we're looking for here tonight uh is uh approval of a new classroom and that new classroom setup is one teacher and two program assistants uh knowing that uh this would likely happen in succession so you know right now we have three students uh we would be posting for the educator the teacher of the classroom uh as those numbers start to increase and that classroom starts to fill we will then uh add the two program assistants so and I I would I guess prep you for this it also appears that we would likely be needing another classroom by the time this year even closes so this is the hardest part of our projections is preschool um and uh the next question might be space because I see it all in your faces um yes we have space uh adding a a preschool classroom or two classrooms every year uh we will be back to uh not having enough preschool classroom spaces in one location uh so there's there's a lot to think about there not right now and not likely next year e even but um and if this keeps growing the way it is growing uh it is doubled in five years our preschool numbers have doubled so this is part of what I have been saying uh in my time certainly postco to the community to the school committees to City councils uh to anybody that will listen it's not necessarily about the enrollment in meth public schools that has gone down since covid but the students that we are are enrolling uh the the services and the needs uh have increased so our our English Learners have have doubled uh also uh in five years our preschool classrooms have doubled it's it's it's happening quickly those supports so I just I want to confirm in simple language we could have kids that we don't know about today showing up in October end of October December January February May 31st correct that we haven't planned for but we don't have a choice and we have to provide services to those kids that is 100% accurate so I want to be clear that there is a lot of noise coming out of the city council right now that enrollment is down but expenses are up MH my ask to you and to sorry Ian but to you is at our next meeting if you could bring down bring back a breakdown I I want to be able to see our enrollment and kind of the cost per pupil I know our cost per pupil by dese's website is somewhere around what like 14 17 something like that 14 14 not 17 well someday um I I I want to be able to show that while yes our our enrollment may be declining but the cost per these students is skyrocketing and we have zero control over those costs because I think there's a lot of misinformation and and lack of Education around that topic and that may be able to quiet some of the noise so that would be my ask for the next go around but I do I do support this because I don't want to be in violation of State qu quotas and quantities and all that stuff so thank you yep member Maxwell um I just have a quick question and I don't want it to be taken differently than it than I mean it I I'm just asking as a parent because I don't know the answer I was under the assumption that preschool is not required by law and even kindergarten isn't required by law so if every child yes has access to a free appropriate public education is that why is that required for preschool and kindergarten if they're not mandated by the state great question um so preschool for typical uh peers students is not required so we're only talking about students who qualify for services that is required so we are required so any special education students that have been found eligible for for an IEP those are the students that we're required to educate and that is what is filling our preschool classrooms right now so we don't have our typical our number of typical peers at Branch Street they pay so the typical peers at bran street is on a a scale a pay scale to to come preschool in some of our integrated classrooms uh unfortunately what we have seen over the course of I don't know five or six I don't five or six years is the integrated preschools that's not what is expanding it's our partial and our intensive classrooms that we're seeing more students so we have more intensive special education preschool classrooms that have eight students who have uh pretty significant and challenging needs would it be medical need or no we're talking about you know uh students who uh are uh on the autism spectrum uh you know all kinds of different diagnosis at that point I can look to Junia but yep no you're you're covering cognitive cognitive delays communication yep communication um we have students all the way all spec all across the spectrum of just needing some speech services right and they might be in an integrated classroom um and to all the way to non-verbal students with pretty significant disabilities that we are challenged with thank you but great question and and kindergarten also isn't required they're pushing for it though Massachusetts um what the state is pushing for is universal preschool which which would be the typical peer uh we somehow pay for you know 29 classrooms and have preschool like we have kindergarten uh that's what the state is really pushing for when they're talking about Universal preschool it's preschool for all students not just special education students okay at the state level any other questions or discussion Vice chair um I have a question and a kind of an observation so if we do not approve this then the students that are that we have we're going to have to pay for them somewhere else correct so it is the most cost effective way to manage this is by adding a teacher teacher adding Paras and adding the classroom correct okay um I also can I can I just add to that member Keegan I also want to caution because there's uh also some thought uh out there amongst non-education folks right um who who might understand you know out of District placements there's collaboratives there's other schools why can't we just send them to another school uh two things some of our kids don't qualify for an added District placement that's number one uh and number two is there aren't spots in the outer district schools right now so so that is uh glaring at us right now as well you know while we're struggling uh there's just a greater population of need all around us that our collaboratives can't keep up with our private day schools can't keep up with of just where those spots are and how they they are limited and where those schools can actually grow as well and they have to recruit staff so we have kids on waiting lists because those schools don't have staff so there's just challenges all the way around but you're correct I just wanted to add that piece okay I just wanted to make it clear that this is the most cost-effective way of managing the situation yes um and my second question is given it's the middle of the year at this point how do you get peer models who are paying for preschool to come into these classrooms if they're already in other preschools Etc like where do you get the peer models from sorry excuse me mayor we have to go past nine o'clock we have to do a motion in a second she I'm looking at Sor I didn't need to do yeah we're we're at 859 okay so we have the motion from member shilia thei from Member Donovan sorry that we're going past nine folks but uh here we go all those in favor say hi hi opposed all right we're going a little long Vice Cherry still the floor I tried so to answer your question member Keegan um we continue to in um allow applications to come in even though that process typically happens in the winter and spring we are just not seeing the amount of families accessing our programs because they are looking for a longer day um and we don't have that option right now what happens if we can't fill the peer models positions in how do we service children who need peer models and we don't have the peer models to provide Yep this is an ongoing issue that we've had um and we try to bring it in as much as possible um and we also try to cross over to other classrooms that may have more peer models um accessible to give them those opportunities okay thank you you're welcome any other questions or member Donovan um so I have two quick questions and I'm curious if we have a student out on a weight L on a weight list going into a different um placement who do we have to provide services during that wait time yes we do and we have to pay for that um obviously we would be yeah I take yeah I get it I just wanted to clarify that too because we typically keep them in the building that they're currently in try our best with programming while we're waiting for that to open yeah okay thank you I just wanted to make sure I had that right the other question also a challenge the other yeah and the other question is the Staffing piece looking at the openings in our early childhood I know we all know it but what if we don't get a teacher are you folks prepared to find the work around so while we wait wait while we wait to identify we put in as many um Services as possible so if they can come in and access their related Services we schedule those pieces until we have the classroom up and running so that we're not we're not um building up compensatory services for everything right okay thank you thank you any other questions just to provide a level set we said earlier that our price per student per year is about 14k um Miss boac can you tell me what the annual rate is for a child that's at Perkins or jri or uh St ANS or anyone your dealer's Choice I'll give you a range from private day so versus a collaborative which is considered public day yep so a student that um we may currently have at Perkins School for the Blind is around 250 ,000 for the year that does not include Transportation right that one kid who would cost us$4,000 is now costing us over 200 that's before transportation and that's before any other ancillary services that may need to be added on or to augment that particular I was going to say a student if in District would still cost more than the 14,000 because of those additional services but I mean a neur neural neuro diverent student um and at a collaborative it's a range of um I'm just going to pull really quick I would say we are at anywhere from 50,000 um upwards to 94,000 it just it it it supports my earlier request and point that our neurotypical students are $14,000 a year but the neurod Divergent population which is growing exponentially I mean that one school is over $200,000 a year and that's it's it's a big swing and that's not even the total cost there there's additional Services could be added on to that and we have no control over those rates because those are set by the state rates set by OSD yes so I just that's something I really want to drive home because I can see this becoming more of an issue especially as you read the articles and you listen to the ongoing conversations I just want people to be aware that that's the cost that's what's happening and it's not the school is mismanaging money it's that the state is setting rates that's what we have to pay because those are the students that are showing up at our door and that's the law and that's I just that's what I wanted to drive home thank you any other questions or discussion member wette thank you Mr chairman and again it's another example of a unfunded mandate uh because um I think we have the circuit breaker I think at 65 or 75% 75% 75% um there's legislation that up it to 90% And I think just recently um speaking to Mr golin that they added some funding at 44% for transportation for special education um but again when you're you're dealing with these extraordinary circumstances and I don't want to penalize these kids they should be given an opportunity but if it's state mandated and you're talking about ratio of classroom State mandated for services uh Outsourcing right um that could easily bust your budget and it's just a hait stance of how many people come into our system so technically it should be 100% because if it's a state mandate it should match the child and if you're talking about Universal uh prek um where is that coming from because the millionair tax they talk about education so except for Food Services it's not that bulk of money is not going into the classroom for us and then there's like $9 billion almost going up to $10 billion of a stabilization fund a rainy day fund at the state we didn't get a piece of that so it's a very difficult situation and again when we get close to um the legislative delegation being sworn in I'm probably going to put on the agenda talking about two components the unfunded mandates um and even Mental Health Services uh it was an article in the paper um about unfunded mandates that we're required to do in terms of Mental Health Services the circuit break is notorious um transportation services for special ed is notorious and also like a financial ask of the legislative delegation but something we sit down as a formulation of a comprehensive letter to the legislative delegation because as member shilia said we're operating under State mandates um and we do not have again emphasize for the 10th time and you'll probably get mad at me we do not have a topheavy Administration in methan I don't how many times I have to emphasize that I'm getting tired of the dialogue going back and forth because it's not healthy you match our administrative cost versus any comparable system in the area you tell me if we are matching them or exceeding them I think we're below them in terms of administrative costs in the central office so unless you want to take away principles I'm not I not sure what the administrative cost these people are talking about but again it's not healthy to be going through the paper and having these conversations where if you just sat down with us we can provide you information it's a state mandate in a lot of these circumstances and we were short chain by the governor's budget that continue through the process and it's not fair to us and it's not fair to these students and we keep on emphasizing that so we get to this point from January to October and we're having the same conversations the same discussions and then we're doing the blame game it does not help anybody to be going through the press and having these conversations thank you thank you member will let any other discussion if not we'll proceed to the vote we'll take a roll call call member daglio yes member denovan yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member shilia yes member will yes mayor borgard yes unanimous we're moving on to other business from the committee uh members shilia do you have an update regarding the policy subcommittee why I've got so many updates uh so the policy subcommittee met uh prior to this meeting at 5:00 here in the media center uh where we discuss the bullying policy the staff code of conduct the wellness policy and the acceptable use policy uh the bullying policy I dare say dare I say is uh almost ready to come back to this body for a vote we made uh one change on the Fly I think we all want to give it one final review and I would hope to see it on our next meeting or the following meeting wherever it is most appropriate uh the staff code of conduct if you guys remember was that little silly thing that came to us a couple of weeks back where we all laughed at it and sent it packing um that is getting a rework uh Dr kuang was kind enough to pull uh comparables from a couple of different districts and we are going to continue to work on that I'm hoping that that will come back with the bullying policy because I don't want to make a mountain out of a mole hill there the wellness policy requires a specific group of folks to be coordinated to manage and draft and update that policy and the folks that were here when we did it last time the mass majority of them are long gone so as was the trend in our last meeting Dr Quang took the takeaway to reestablish The Avengers for that one so we can move that forward uh the acceptable use policy is also going to go back to uh the technology department for them to review first and then it'll come back to the committee for us to update uh there was also a request on there for an update on the masc policy review which I learned today has been paid and I will reach out to them uh this week to kick off that process so they can start going through all of our stuff and we can reap the uh the reward of having them do the work for us and that's it from the policy subcommittee thank you member shilia next we'll have an update from you as well regarding the committee on Food Services so for Food Services I met with Mr fratty oh I don't know two weeks ago at this point um the expectation that we are kicking around is he is going to be approaching Dr Quan to get on our next agenda they've been taking pictures and they want to make a presentation and I I fully support it assertion after sitting with him and seeing the program that runs the food system and all of the requirements from the FDA and all the other acronym soup that he has to deal with there's it's it's a it's a very impressive tool that shows exactly how much protein how much carbs what what kind of fruits legumes versus other thing it's there's so much more that goes into planning a lunch menu and I think that the education around that will be great for people to to to hear I also think that and once we are able to identify that and see how every district is playing the same playing the same game with the same rules um and the pictures will help I know we identified there would a bit of a history of lack of consistency which he's said he know he has worked on it has seen great improvements this year um we are planning to uh have the committee go out and do a visit we can go out and have you know uh baloney sandwiches in honor of Mayor Perry or I mean the the taco boats was my vote but I don't know if that was a Wilmington thing or if you guys did that here in methu and too but you did all right good then my kids can stay um it was there there's a lot of activity and I think that it was a fruitful conversation and I Envision much more to come and then lastly we'll also have an update regarding the committee on the audit um about a week and a half ago uh miss anucci the purchasing agent for the city shared out the questions that were received from those folks who have viewed the culture and uh administrative audit that we have posted out there for the world to see uh I asked her today to provide me a list of those folks who pulled it down uh there was about 30 some OD of them but when you really get down to it there was a couple of people from the same organization but there's a there's about 15 quality folks quality organizations recognizable organizations on that list uh spent a good portion of last week worked with um member Donovan and mayor board to respond to the questions that were asked uh some really good questions on there and I think that those answers went out was it yesterday yesterday and responses are due back on the 22nd which is next Tuesday and then the fun will begin of getting the committee together to review those responses uh My Hope Is that we can do that with some kind of expediency so we can get this going and start to see uh where where we can improve and where we may surprise others where where we're actually succeeding thank you members shabil at this point is there any other business from the committee of course it's me I'm just going to continue to talk me um Dr Quang there's a lot of circulation online about the eighth grade field trip that's being run by parents do we have to be concerned about anything with that liability anything right but it's it's still there is is that not nothing associated with the school nope cool I believe there's some parents trying to Rally to take kids during April vacation it has nothing to do with the school department I mean I totally support their conclusion is that some of the parents eighth grade parents are staff members okay I think that has been some of the confusion they're there are also parents of kids in the district who are eighth graders yeah I mean more power to them as long as it's not something nobody has even brought it to my attention formally okay um and at some point I know that there's a requirement for us to do a joint council meeting I don't think we've had one here in my tenure this supposed to be two per year yeah we did oh we did with the okay so we'll need the second one I mean yes and no but I think we need to get it on the calendar before end of year so I just if I mean the mayor you can work with Council forer and make all that happen and that's it for me anything else member wette and then member daglio yeah Mr chair um we already had uh a meaning on the audit because that was the agenda item I'm not sure what the agenda item would be like we was supposed to be twice a year with the city council yes budget it's supposed to be budget relative budget related so okay the whole premise of that was supposed to be a confirmation and a presentation by us to assure the city council that we are in the block that was the intent of the policy When It Was Written that's how I understand it and I believe we were here for that it was never about next year's budget it was about the current year bu current Year's budget to make sure that we are in the black any changes anything we're seeing allow the city council to ask those questions of us about this year's budget okay and then also I just want to Advocate uh to have an executive session at some point to talk about Public Safety I know we were was scheduled we were scheduled to do it um obviously things happen yep I saw Chief mcnamer today too and we talked about that briefly it's just it's been challenging the last few weeks to get already together and then this would be through the uh the mayor because this is his jurisdiction um and maybe working with the superintendent having like an informational night for for parents and their kids um of things that we can discuss in terms of um if you see something report it um online uh Predators um I mean it could be age appropriate but something for maybe parents and and kids to go to um stranger danger uh interacting um you know it's something that I think it would be informative um for the parents and the kids uh obviously there's things that we will never reveal internally because we will not uh Telegraph uh Public Safety upgrades but for the executive session we need to just have like an overview of what we've done in the past what we I think we've did that to PR but in terms of having a meeting for the parents in this the students just to have maybe informational session maybe a PowerPoint present ation and again that's a deference to the mayor on that because I think this people have concerns um about the process uh where to where to report it uh what to say if they see something and it I think we did it and for public buildings um and I think it's it's healthy to do it so that would be just my two cents on that thank you thank you member will we'll have member doag and the member Donovan yep um I just want to um go over because like I said today for public participation we had someone write in about to go over the overview of the mental health curriculum that we are um in health curriculum that we're teaching in the schools um I would like to go over it um see exactly what's we are learning uh the children are learning um because I feel like there are people getting concerned about it and I would as school committee we should be just get it overview of it um and discuss it member Donovan now you can hear me uh kudos to the building principles I try to look every week at the newsletters they sent out we had talked about that communication and I haven't made it through all the schools but the top three or four I noticed is a new format and it's much it's it's so easy to read and so inviting um and colorful and um I think I would bet most parents get through it now you know because it's not just heavy teex so I'd just like to say thank you and I hope you could pass on my appreciation okay and everyone should look it's really great there's pictures there's Graphics there's links and I think about 100 languages I don't I don't remember how yeah 100 different languages very quickly and easily which is one of the selling points of some sorry that was not first yeah no that was that was one of the points that we we were really pushing with this format and this product is that it's inexpensive and it allows the principles to just write the letter and every parent can pick the language that is their preference yes it's it's really well done yeah thank you that's great any other business I just one more quick thing because I promis I would do it uh on Google if you do find my legislator uh Massachusetts it's a perfect vehicle if you punch in your address and zip code you can get information about contacting your state senator and your individual rep because we have three Representatives that cover methan um so if you have concerns about the budget if you have concerns about legislation um any type of Outreach to the state it's a really good vehicle they're very responsive uh to concerns and calls um so find my legislator Massachusetts just Google it it will pop up for address ZIP code and you'll find your Senator and the representatives from methan thank you yeah I just wanted to interject for a second to discuss some of the first points that were on the agenda in regard to the public in regard to the public participation I believe someone brought up the school safety I just wanted to bring attention to the State student advis committee's work um the State student advisory committee Works under Desi and one of our initiatives currently is to address school safety so um I'm not exactly familiar with how that really affects anything I just wanted to bring that to attention um additionally um I wanted to also show my appreciation to the fact of the one of the goals of Dr Brandy kuang about the student engagement I worked closely with with Mr KET this year and last year and he explained that a huge um issue across the state is The Chronic absenteeism and addressing that engagement is the best way to um help mediate that issue um Additionally the safe and supportive School commission which also works under Desi which I hope to be a part of more this year is also working to address that chronic absenteeism Point um also I saw that mhps goal to create more people I love that Mr Crocker he's great we're doing great stuff this year so hopefully I can uh inform you guys about that work later um and lastly I had actually two questions so the first one being is the solar panels update I worked with um the mayor last year and Mr Cosgrove um who works on like you guys know Mr Cosgrove so on to implement Sol solar panels in MHS and across the methu Public Schools I know from what I understand the schools like the public schools they have implemented the solar panels or they are this year and the MHS is planning to implement it next year is that correct and my second question is I'm looking at the class funds and I'm seeing that there's the green team that's why I've taken leadership of green team is because of their huge balance if I'm going to be Hest um nobody was utilizing it no one was doing anything about it so I'm like like you know I'm going to step up so we have many uh initiatives planned this year one of them is one of Mr Bon's big goals was for a greenhous on the roof so hopefully that's one thing but my question is about um the think fast interactive shows I don't know if you guys remember it but I presented about it last year and it was a huge hit um we did it about mental health there was one on bullying there was one on driving safety and students loved it we learned a lot it was fun um so my question the issue is that it was $3,000 per show and we really had to scrape up money to you know have that happen and then our goals is for sustainability like how do we keep this going because it was such a great success we don't want just normal speakers coming in it's boring students don't want it no one gains anything so are we able to divert funds let's say from Green Team and say okay this is a green team sponsored um uh show and like we just donate it and somehow so those two questions I can answer the first one relative to uh getting together with Mr Cosgrove I think it would be great perhaps if you me and Mr Cosgrove are going have a chat perhaps in the mayor's office regarding uh that topic and kind of pick up the conversation that you had been having with mayor Perry I'd like that very much thank you and as far as the Student Activities funds those funds are raised by the students and can be spent however those students want so if you're raising funds for that purpose by all means you can spend it on that purpose um I'm also not afraid to find money in the budget to help you with that as well just me um so when I was in high school and that was so funny about the greenhouse um they would thought about putting green houses over near the Tenny um a long time ago but then they turned it into Fields but um but I would support that if you want to have chat with um the mayor as well because I would love to get more kids involved in something like that thank you very much any other business for for uh the committee tonight no all right so uh with no further business to discuss at this workshop and business session uh I need a motion in a second to adjourn uh our meeting uh an open session and go into executive session so moved we have the motion from member shabila the second from Member daglio before we take a vote I'll State uh for the record and for the public pursuant to Mass General laws chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares this is relative to units andc I'll make that declaration now and point out that we will not reconvene into Open session at the conclusion of the executive session so at this point uh we will uh take a roll call vote on whether to enter into executive session yes yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member shilia yes member wette yes mayor borad yes unanimous so the vote to enter executive session uh is approved so at this point uh the time is 9:26 p.m. we'll adjourn the Open Session and convene an executive session at this time thank you good night methu [Music]