##VIDEO ID:GgWmcD1cH6A## e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] e e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] business Workshop session of September 9th 2024 will come now come to order this meeting is being recorded and will be made available for viewing on the methan public schools website secretary will you please call the role member daglio member Donovan here member Keegan present member Maxwell here member shabila here member wette here mayor Perry do we not have may I have a motion in a second to accept the agenda for September 9th 20124 as presented do we have to make a motion to uh accept the amended agenda okay okay so moved second moved by member shilia second by member wette um may I have all in favor say I I all unanimous I yep all right um superintendent will you please introduce our flag salute student for this evening yes I would love to introduce If Logan could come on up to the podium and with Logan tonight let me turn around see who's with him I think we have Mrs Goyette back there somewhere do we have Mrs Goyette what's up she's not here yet I can read it for him do you is that okay if I read it I'm just so we can this is a good A New Perspective for me this is great so Logan scary is a fourth grade student in Mrs Salman's class at the Tenny grammar school Logan lives with his mother Bridget his father Sebastian his younger brother Leland and his dog Coco I love that Logan's favorite part of the day is PE Logan reports that he loves PE because of the activities the teacher's plan he also enjoys running because it helps your muscles to be strong and healthy he loves stem o i just a guy from my own heart he really loves stem Logan told me that his favorite lesson in his stem class was building a catapult this year that's a lot Mrs bimman our lower School St stem teacher stated since the first grade Logan has exemplified what it means to be an engineer in the stem classroom at the Tenny he always comes to each class excited to try something new Logan is a true team player inviting his peers to work with him whether we are building a model to solve a real problem like popsicles melting at a soccer game or designing our own choose your own adventure stories with code via scratch Logan is kind puts forth his best effort and brings his own special take to each of our projects I would not be surprised if we all use one of his inventions someday Logan revealed that he is working on an invention right now it is still in the works he is just waiting to get that 3D printer and he will be able to finish his project are Mom and Dad behind me laughing at that one all right it's on order it's coming when Logan is not at school he plays ice hockey he is on the squirts one team he states he likes to be on the ice and perverts to play middle Center and he would like to try goalie in a spare time he says he likes to go metal detecting and spending time with his family that's so cool this summer he had Many Adventures from camping in Maine to visiting Cap Cod to attending a big family party at his aunt's house Logan's mother States as a family we enjoy going on vacation watching movies playing outside with the neighbors going to the trampoline park swimming going to the beach metal detecting going to the parks and going to breakfast and dinner Logan thought deeply about what makes the Tenny a special place to learn and grow his response kindly recognized everyone in our school Community he stated all of the teachers work really work together the custodians keep it clean for us and safe and everyone tries their best to get along and cooperate his current teacher Mrs salsman stated I have only known him for a short time but in that time I am learning that he is kind and he wants to do well at school and is a model for his peers in the classroom his third grade teacher Miss Miss barard reported Logan is one of the kindest and most hardworking students I have worked with he sets an amazing example for everyone around him and my favorite aspect of Logan is his compassion and open-mindedness he is always willing to give a helping hand to anyone who needs it his mom shared what makes Logan special is his need to make sure everyone is happy and feeling loved he genuinely genuinely cares about everyone's feelings he is also a great big brother which was evident in his response to what makes the Tenny so special Logan we know you will do great things we can't wait to see what you do in the future Logan along with everyone I spoke to spoke with thinks wait Logan along with everyone I spoke with thinks Logan will be an adventure someday Miss barard is confident that someday in the future you will see him on TV with one of your ventions in running or or for an elected position in helping your community we might have a politician on our hands your family envisions you bring an inventor and someone who's on the west coast mostly just enjoying the most life has to offer I always say this world is too small for Logan he's such an old soul and you know that when you talk to him but he's going to accomplish great things in life we just know it congratulations Logan for being our flag salute tonight you ready okay this for you I'll hold it okay hold it right up to you you're ready we're ready I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Applause] Excell yeah whole family come on come on up ah up don't be shy right up in as up here say cheese nice job make sure he doesn't poke pin back in that envelope has anyone signed up for public participation oh I think you got another one okay great thank you okay oh Ellison DWI and please when you come up um state your name and address for the record please thank you title okay can you hear me okay okay my name is Allison DWI and I'm a school nurse at the Tenny school um so I'm here as the union rep for the methan School nurses speaking here on the group's behalf about concerns about unsafe nurse staffing um to summarize we've seen a significant decline in nurse staffing since about the middle of last year when our former nursing director resigned and um at the time she was subbing about 50% of the time which would say we would need more nurses not less however after that um the float nurse position was eliminated um this was also done it's a union position it was done without discussion um there were other nurses who resigned whose positions weren't posted that float nurse was put into a building role um while was open with the fact that she was due to have her baby at the beginning of September um we did have a long-term sub last year who was willing to commit to another year but was not signed on she now works for another District another nurse left because she had been put on the incorrect salary scale she had been willing to wave back pay um but the district was not willing to do that so she left to get appropriately paid at another District others have also resigned there are a few others on leave um the long-term sub positions weren't posted until August unfortunately by that time um people who are searching for a school nurse job have probably taken jobs in other District so now we're really in a a little bit of a crunch so where that's leaving us right now is for the most part every building is running on a single nurse the standard in the state the minimum standard is one nurse for every 500 children um where obviously out of compliance with that um every grammar school has over a th000 students the high school has over 2,000 um and every nurse that is still working with us has daily concerns about their nursing license um we're we're very grateful for the health assistance that we have very grateful the one I work with is invaluable um these Health assistants do help with our workload because the Acuity of our building so again the minimum standard is 1 to 500 but that could be a building with students with very little or minor medical needs our buildings I can say for myself mine has five students with diabetes the high school I believe has over 12 or 13 we have students with seizure disorders we're doing tube feedings um there are other challenges um we also support a lot of mental health issues in the school it is not uncommon that the first time a student reveals suicidal ideation or cutting it's to the school nurse none of us are doing care plans I'm not approving new registrations and neither is anyone else we just do not have the time so those students are just sitting there in limbo um running the building with one nurse it's not just out of compliance it's not safe um in addition to that this all leads into significant concerns about Recruitment and retainment um um new hires looked for look for a dedicated nurse leader a nursing director without that I think a lot of them are just not even going to apply um the nurses that we do are are able to recruit if they don't have a very solid and comfortable orientation they probably will not stay um I'm also worried about the team that we do have left um I'm concerned that they may start looking um we appreciate the Communications from the superintendent's office on this um however given all the challenges we just don't see that this is a problem that's going to be solved anytime soon so we were looking to have the school committee provide additional support on this issue thank you for your time thank you Jade jelbert good evening uh my name is j jelbert six lady slipper Lan so before this weekend there were a lot of things that uh I wanted to talk about but obviously this weekend happened um over the weekend I've sent many many emails some to the school committee but the most to Dr Quang specifically um so Dr kuang first and foremost thank you for your time and your prompt response to every one of my emails um it was a lot of time on your a part and patience and thank you didn't go un unnoticed the only piece of the overall issue that I would like to discuss the fact that I the issue that I still have a problem with um is the fact that the child that threaten the timy is or will have a meeting at the school um I mentioned this in the emails but to me it's akin to me threatening any one of you and then being invited to dinner with your family it's pretty ridiculous a meeting at the police department would be more fitting to demonstrate the gravity of the situation a meeting at the central Administration office would show the community that the threat is being taken seriously and that the student will be banned from the campus at least temporarily that's really my biggest issue with the whole thing still I don't understand why a meeting with a child that threatened to bomb in a a school is going to be held at the school that he threatened that is not okay to anybody doesn't matter that it's after school there are still students and teachers and staff in the building so that is the one thing that I would like to have you guys all talk about thank you thank you cara blat hi Cara blat to Lane Westford I am a co-president of the mea teachers union we are here tonight to support the nurses in their critical shortage that we are seeing and we support them 110% the amount of care and compassion they do for all of our population is immense and we really are supporting them to get the pay and what they need to really do their job just they want unfortunately due to the shortage it's really hard for some of our critically need need and medically Fragile Kids to get what they need in a timely manner as well as any other student in the building so please support the nurses thank you all right we re there's nobody else on the list and we received um a few emails I want to remind the public that when you send an email your name and address must be on the email in order for it to be read um for those who were unable to get their name and address to Martha before the meeting um we ask you to send it to her and we will read it next time thank you this is from Jillian Kelly 14 Meeting House Road hello I am unable to attend tonight due to sports and because it's being held in the same location as one of the threats that I don't feel enough has been given to the public to make us feel comfortable I am hoping to see this weekend's event SP spoken about specifically where are we in the punishments I believe that first offenses for something so drastic and emotionally mentally distressing qualifies for an immediate expulsion credible or not my child's mental health emotional health physical health are all important I hope these two kids know how much they have messed with our community and take full accountability these children need to look at the school City individuals involved and in the face and apologize for wasting Community Resources and in stilling fear in our community to me this should be considered a form of domestic terrorism I strongly recommend an adoption of a zero tolerance policy for this type of behavior to stress the seriousness of the matter and deter any additional threats apologies if you are reading this and these events were caused by your child I do not think your child should have the privilege of State education because that's what it is it it's a privilege Cynthia frzy 135 Harris Street dear superintendent Quang and school committee members I am a lifelong resident of methu and my son has attended the marsh and is now a senior at methan high school can Methuen get metal detectors in the high school as we have in all our cour houses and airports to have the bag scanned every day would help keep all our children safe and stop weapons at the door thank you Cynthia frzy Jade unit 69 golf AV hello my name is Jade unit and my son was one of the pathway students that was moved halfway through the previous school year as each school has their own Pathways program now I would like to know what is being done to help provide training and resources to the staff in order to help the children with ASD that are in the pathways program thank you Jade unit Shannon Quinn 83 Pleasant Street good evening School committee I am writing to you today in regards to the shortage of nursing staff at the Tenny and districtwide as a mother of a type 1 diabetic third grader and on behalf of the medically complex students that would not be getting adequate care if our amazing nurse Allison is not able to come in for the day this is very unsettling thought from what I understand the legal ratio for nurses to students in Massachusetts is 1 to 500 this is not safe even when our staff is here and the amount of students they see is astronomical the amount of students they see is astronomical that they see how are you going to remedy this I know we can't pull these angels from the sky but it is a very serious issue that needs prompt attention what is the plan when there is no nurse on site to treat my child am I expected to leave work to Bolis my child for snack or lunch or treat his Lowe's myself thank you Shannon Quinn at this time we will close public participation portion of the meeting if you cannot make the meeting in person for public participation you can send an email to Martha sroy maaso meu. k12.us before 3 p.m. on the day of the school committee meeting the email must include your name and address thank you may I have a motion and a second to approve the minutes of June 2 4 2024 so moved second second moved by member dolio second by member wette um roll call please discussion or no oh discussion I'm sorry yes discussion member Maxwell so I had a few um concerns with the minutes during June 24th I felt like they um kind of um I don't want to say inaccurate but a lot of information was left out um and which is funny because it's kind of wordy um but a lot of important information was left out of these minutes that happened during the meeting and I know it was like a 5H hour meeting two days I know it was a lot to take in but um that's why I will be V voting no against the minutes I did try and reach out to Martha but unfortunately I haven't been able to fix it thank you Mia so when member Maxwell contacted me earlier in the week uh I I went was able to go through and look at the the minutes more closely than I probably normally would um I think that our minutes go well above and beyond the requirement for recording for minutes set forth by the inspector what is it Secretary of State's office whatever it is um so my opinion is I would like to motion to table both of these minutes have the conversation about reducing the unnecessary recordings that are going into these because it's it's just going to lead to this point was left out this point wasn't and I think it also makes Martha's life a whole lot easier which I'm big fan of yeah I think we talked about that earlier it's a transcript versus minutes right we're we're kind of stuck in the middle of this and we really all of our videos are recorded right our meetings are recorded So if people wanted the details they could watch they don't have to read everything word for word um so I I don't disagree I think we've always been CED sort of stuck in this middle of not a transcript of you know said word for word but trying to capture everybody's point is challenging uh especially when this meeting right was long I had a conversation with the open meeting department at the Secretary of State's office and their direction to me was you really just need to record votes it doesn't need to capture all the discussion the discussion our discussion is captured in a meeting that would clear up all kinds of time for so I mean we can we can validate that I can get it in writing from them and I think we should be meeting I'm not a big fan of meeting the minimum but in this case I think it's worth having the discussion okay remember wette thank you madam chair and I agree with u member shabila and I understand where member Maxwell is coming from there was a TG of War at times at the city council where we had verbatim minutes and uh versus just brevity of minutes and I would lean towards the brevity of minutes because there were minutes from the prior year that we had to approve when we came in as school committee members and if anybody looks at the open meeting laws um that should not be done so I think we improved the system dramatically and I think personally serving on the city council and also on the school committee I think just having the roll call votes on on a Mattis and lean towards brevity but also shorten the timeline of the turnaround of the minutes I think I would rather focus on that and I understand the logic it was from somebody that's not on the school committee anymore and I'm not going to invoke the person's name but I would rather have again um just directness brevity short turnaround honoring open meaning law so I think we can accomplish that and honor what me shabil is saying and what member Maxwell is saying so I if we go in that direction I think we can address the situation and I think Martha has done an incredible job but she has got mixed Messengers from a prior school committee um so we need to nip that in the bud right away thank you can I ask a clarifying question when you when you say table it do you want to table these because to choose potentially to read do them to fit what the committee decides so I'm curious about the table and discuss or just do we move forward tonight and move forward with a new plan like tonight's meeting so my thought was to table them because there are I guess legitimate discrepancies that member Maxwell raised in the June 24th meeting minutes okay so my thought was if we can remove the narrative portion or greatly reduce the narrative portion that it may make things a little neater okay but I I mean so I guess the question for me is are we are we are you asking us as your secretary to the committee and Martha as the secretary who drafts all the minutes um are you asking us to redo these for next meeting and I don't know what that looks like is there a vote or not you know table but you want me to reproduce a different looking draft of them with what I just had a quick question through the chair to member shilia and I'm not disputing your conversation with the Secretary of State's office 100% feel free that's why 24 years at the state house and 13 years of Public Service I've always had things in writing so could we get that advisory because if we can streamline the minutes and honor the recorded votes um and just and that's basically it because if someone watches the meeting uh let's we have a technical issue then we really have to document everything so we might want to just set up some quick rules at the next meeting but I think like I said if we have that legal advisory from the Secretary of State's office of you have roll call votes and that's it and then public participation participants the soup and nuts quick thing and then I I'm all set with that because I could easily go into the MS myself and say well I know I said something during a meeting and it wasn't in included but then it's like we're putting all of our focus on a person that's doing the minutes for us and again I think it was the prior school committee that was kind of messing with the process and I want to just streamline it I think the school committee so far what we've done is streamlined a lot of things so I I want to move that in that direction so I appreciate that thank you Dr Quang to your original question correct me if I'm wrong but the next vote to approve minutes would come at our next regular business session correct not at the next meeting correct so I think that gives us time if we can put on the next agenda this discussion and I will get something in writing from the Secretary of State's office okay that would give us plenty of time to make the appropriate decision so just a an agenda item to discuss the format of the minutes yes okay and and also just emphasize that I and again based on the packet I received was that there has to be a 30-day uh turnaround period on on the minutes and that that wasn't done by a prior committee when I get the official statement from the open meeting team I will share it with Dr Quang and uh attorney Mao's office that way if there's any input we have it before we come back to the table I definitely I read that language and that's why I had concerns about the minutes when I came in January thank you okay memb Z Leo um I'm just listening to everybody and this was this way has been here since I joined like four years ago um I'm all F because I know Matha does so much and for her to write all these minutes is just absolutely insane but however the reason why we did that from my knowledge of coming in was because we we have technical difficulties all the time for our and if we miss anything we're also violating open laws because we're not streamlining having it on on camera and we're violating that as well that's why we always had this transcript from my knowledge of joining because we couldn't rely on this technology so I'm fine for streamlining it but we also need to make sure our our technology is also working before we do that because we don't want to be caught saying oh we missed the meeting and that we can't see what happened and then you have a violation just just saying that's why they did it because they couldn't rely on the technology so that's from my knowledge of going into it so I'm just saying if we do do that we need to also make sure we're covering both ends of that rette I think I did emphasize that is that as a backup if we know we're not online and we're not covered we have technical difficulties we automatically should do verbatim um whatever that entails but definitely I I agree with that but I don't think we do that I think the reason why we're in a media center is because the Cs building is notorious for technical difficulties and we have a pretty good team here and I think so far we've had no technical difficulties this year right okay all right but I I I know you might have just changed you know you're gonna go you'll see the would be today all right then do I have a motion to table so moved move by member dolio second by member member Donovan um roll call please question oh yes so are we tbling them to be edited or are we tbling them to just do the record we are tabling them from voting on them okay and the next meeting we're going to decide what they're supposed to look like and the following meeting we'll vote on them again okay thank you no problem um roll call member daglio uh yes member Donovan yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member shilia yes member Willette yes mayor Perry yes unanimous all right um superintendent staff reports superintendent and assistant superintendent updates think we have to vot on there's one more set of minutes I think is that right oh I thought we tabled them allot we only tabled on one you you vote you Ted June 24th you just need to do June um sorry can I have a motion to table the approval of minutes of ju I think we have to take a motion to approve and then someone has to make a motion to table got it okay so may have a motion and a second to approve the minutes of July 16th 2024 so moved moveed by member Zago second by member Donovan uh discussion it's a privilege motion I'm going to make the motion to table and just bypass the discussion the same principle applies we're just going to the next meeting anyways all right um a motion to table by member wette seconded by member Maxwell um discussion I don't think so roll call member Doo yes member Donovan member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member shilia yes member wette yes mayor Perry yes unanimous all right staff reports superintendent and assistant superintendent updates it says there are none but then any updates to this weekend's events yes that was the adjusted amended note um I think after uh the chief of police and the mayor and I debriefed today that the mayor and I thought that having this opportunity here as an update obviously there's no memo or anything formal um I sent out five previous uh notifications and two press releases to the entire Community um at this point that is from from the school point of view that is likely going to be all of the information I can send out regarding the students and further actions against the students and I know that there's a lot of opinions about that but that is something that uh will likely happen there might be further information from the police Department uh but as far as our uh you know School uh actions and consequences uh I'm certainly moving forward with everything I need to do in following the law and the process uh I will I will say um that uh the mayor and I did make a decision today so hopefully some folks would appreciate the decision uh that the meeting with the family uh will be in my office and not at the timony school tomorrow so um we did make that decision cuz that came that was something that we can do um and I can't see behind me so hopefully cuz I think some of the folks behind me I want who emailed me that the information um so uh I think you know for for me uh there was a lot to debrief today but a lot of positivity came out of today I was able to uh and I I almost made it to all six buildings uh I didn't quite get to the CGS today but I made it to all of the other buildings I spent the most of my time at the high school in the timy this morning um I can't thank the uh Chief enough for the uh con conversations and Communications over the weekend but the support today I think was very helpful um the spirits were incredibly high as we were greeting staff and students at the high school um so that was really important for me to see and be a part of and and make sure that staff and parents and students saw me as well so um I I all reports in the buildings I were at uh today that I was at today were positive so I'm happy to hear that as well um I did I did run and I knew this would would happen as well you know I ran uh some comparative attendance uh data from today versus last year this same day um um and attendance was lower um but but remarkably not in the buildings that you probably would have expected to be as lower as much lower so that was interesting to us um but it was lower across the whole District today and that is not you know something that I I mean I I did expect that today um so hopefully uh folks will feel uh a little more secure tomorrow to start sending their students back uh we had a lot of uh you know building checks just everybody reminding not getting comfortable in our safety procedures of which we do have so uh I think that was a positive thing that came out of this today um so mayor I don't know if you have something you want to add or no sorry I keep getting muted okay yeah apologies so the only thing I'd want to add super is I want the community to understand uh how much effort you and the chief put into this over the weekend and um I want to reassure our parents that nothing absolutely nothing is more important to all of us and I know that's for you in the safety of our students and Community uh working together you know um lots of actions were undertaken and I don't want to go through them all including sweeping every building overnight but I I I again I wanted to take a minute and since you and I and the chief were talking well into the overnight hours I want to commend you and the chief for how quickly you move to address this um and to reinforce for parents that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated we will do the maximum in our power um to make sure that people understand this is not funny this is not a joke um and this is no way to conduct yourself so again my my compliments as I said earlier today to you and the chief I really do appreciate the professional approach that you guys have brought forward um and it made my job far easier so I thank you thank you for that I I and I know I said it today and I'm trying to it's hard to interpret everything in emails uh that I want to say and I'm being very careful about word choice when I send those emails out but um I think for me the one of the most important aspects of last night's uh occurrences was that the first uh the first person to send me uh the information was a student and I think just getting the information as much and as quickly as I did from people who were texting me the image people were emailing me students multiple groups of students parents um I just the the quickness of that making sure somebody had the information to react is why we were able to respond uh we weren't sure how far into the evening it was going to go and that made it a little more challenging but um for me I think that was I I asked some of the principles to just talk about that that the students responding and saying this just popped up and I don't like it right and I somebody needs to know about it uh I think that was really commendable and important for all parties and so I must have gotten probably between 30 and 35 emails texts within a 20 minute period and again that was that was for me pretty outstanding that people were just informing me making sure I was fully aware uh of what was going on so very helpful in that situation so I do want to say that safety is something that we are and always have been focused on and we will continue to focus on it so that's really the only update I have that you don't already have the information of from today remember allo yep thank you um so just being uh giving my sense of it um I also want to commend the offices that were doing the sweep I came by here uh last night cuz once I got the image from someone that I knew um and then got the email all at once um I came down here I just wanted commend the officers that were very good at communicating with me when I came down here they they talked to me they they told me exactly what they were going to do um so I want to commend all the officers doing that especially when they did not know if there was danger in here and they were willing well they had to do their job so I want to commend those officers as well um but also um I'm not going to put too much into it but I saw members shilly put the legisl um legislation up and that's that's the thing we can only do so much policies but our state holds us to these certain laws um and again I totally agree with you and we are going to we we we do not allow a zero tolerance policy for this but the state is also holding us to certain standards as well um so I I would commend you um trust me I've I've already made a phone call to our legislators saying enough is enough with the discipline and all that those things need to change in our schools um because only a few and this is just my opinion um a few bad apples are spoiling a bunch um and that's throughout the Commonwealth and throughout the country I think this this mentality needs to change not just in these type of events but in the classroom as well well so uh that's just responding back to the parents that I got saying Ryan you need to do something you need to do something I can only do so much as a school committee member um I would recommend you to call your representatives and senators and say enough is enough so thank you member wette um thank you madam chair and I think the way the kids approached it the that you see something you say something worked perfectly I also want to commend the parents for also reaching out to the authorities in an expeditious fashion I want to commend uh the Perry Administration and the chief we really can't go into detail but we've invested millions of dollars into security upgrades across the community and we will need to continue to upgrade security across the community um we've had the happen stance of copycats um and to me when you invoke a bomb threat um you sacrifice your participation of going to a public school um you as a May indicated we will invoke the maximum penalty allowed under state law and we've had prior conversations as a SCH schol committee that back in 2012 and the superintendent is well aware of this the session Law chapter 222 that made major changes and put the impetus on the school system to accommodate these severe criminals problematic students serious bullies so to speak uh egregious Behavior avior that we would have to financially uh pay for their education elsewhere um I believe that's an unfunded mandate from the state that needs to be corrected and when you make a a bomb threat you should not be returning back to that school now I want to emphasize that these are allegations and we have a system of Juris Prudence in it's in it's to proven guilty they'll go through Court proceedings um but when you emphasize services for criminals over over victims um there's a a balance that needs to be realigned in our society um we need to be Zero Tolerance tough on these matters when you scream fire in a theater and there's no fire um that goes back to decades if not centuries of jurist prudence you will be held accountable and you don't need to have matches in your pocket you scream fire and there's no fire and there's a a stampede of people that run out and we don't know what could have been the repercussions let's say it was done during the school and people run out to their cars and it's mass panic children are entitled to education in our society we need to provide the maximum protection under state and federal law and I don't have any tolerance for that type of behavior I don't care if you come from a broken home I don't care if you have personal issues um and I value what the parents it comes down to the parents telling their kids and I've had conversations with my kids online do not do certain things and it has to come from the parents telling them their kids this is not a joking matter this is very serious this is Criminal if anybody read the press release from the police chief those are serious charges on no students and the other person will face uh repercussions as well and so like member shilia indicated with corrective legislation you have 200 representatives and Senators at the state state house there was an imbalance with the Juvenile Justice laws back in 2012 that have to be realigned we know it the legislative delegation it predates them they've been very responsive to our calls on the budget and I know they're going to be very responsive to our inquiries about making corrections to this law and if we need to have our attorney in a separate meeting and have formulation a letter to the the state house we need to make some serious changes back to having a balance of you cause a situation you really forfeit a return back to that school end the story and that's it but again these are allegations and we will uh undertake the process thank you thank you m shilia i so I'm not going to monologue and I'm not going to rethink everybody I just I can't even imagine how many messages you got because I've got more in the last 24 hours than I have collectively over the last eight months so I can only imagine however I think that given the anxiety surrounding the situation it may be helpful for some education for the community to understand kind of what the process is what discipline would look like um how would be investigated deliberated and dealt with in not in specific terms but in just contextually under the law because I think that was where a lot of the frustration came from is people don't understand School law it's just not something everyone goes out and learns so I think that it may be helpful for us at some point in the very near future because unfortunately I don't think Society is going to change overnight and this is never going to happen again but it may be helpful for us to provide some education some background and just some something for people to say to just feel some comfort that no there is a process I know that there's a like Playbook is a bad word But A playbook for how these things are handled so I think it would go a long way and kind of cooling some emotions that's it m Donovan okay um I I I sort of agree with you Mr shabila and if people want to get started on that education our student handbook page 27 for prek to grade 8 there's 10 pages of Mass General La um regarding student discipline from suspensions long-term short-term exclusions what you have to do to be expelled emergency removals there's a lot of legal ease but it's in there and um it's something I went to over the weekend too just to see I I just want to um I don't think we can thank our staff members enough as well for wel welcoming the kids in today and and making them feel safe and focusing on what they're there for uh to learn and I'm sure it was there was a lot of motion for them as well um and I appreciate the patience everyone has shown I know it was extremely emotional weekend but just to allow the process to work through and for people to be very purposeful of what has to be done not only to protect all those kids who were in a way victims and the staff but also we have to consider the rights of those who are being in who were in the middle of it and um hopefully we're done for a while if if you've been around mthu you know we have kind of a rich his history with these kind of um actions but hope hopefully the kids have gotten the message today with the help of the staff so um here we go and we move on I hope and thank you Dr Quang and mayor Perry and everybody even the committee I know everyone worked overtime dealing with concerns um I just want to add I want to thank the mental health staff in the schools um for supporting the students who are coming in who are traumatized um and just remind parents that if their students need more support we do have guidance staff that is fantastic and they they're there to help um you know I'm not going to reiterate everything everyone said but I too want to thank Dr Quang and the um Police Department for everything they've done this weekend um and I'm going to leave it there because I'm just going to repeat everything everyone else has said um I feel like all of everybody here has kind of hit every point that we want to make I I know that you worked hard I know that you did a lot um that you went above and beyond and I as a parent and a school Committee Member appreciate that I know there's a lot of work that needs to be done surrounding this area um and and I I appreciate your time in all of that um and for parents like we hear you we see you you know it's it's speaking up is great and and showing up is great um but there are right places and right times to do it and you know after reading a lot on Facebook it's hard to not engage um but I just want to just want to say if you're interested in something if you have a concern obviously go to your school principal go to you know your teachers or whatever but if you need to take the next step we're here and we we are happy to listen um you just have to show up so thank you thank you all right does does the committee have any questions about the assistant superintendent of Student Services report members shilia uh going through the focused monitoring review update I went to that link and as of 4:30 this afternoon it was still the 2021 report so couldn't I and I know you have no control of that I'm just letting you know that I wanted to take a look at it but it wasn't there yet um I can share the report out through the superintendent to you all just so that you can review it yeah I just want to take a look I mean if if it's worthy of you noting for us I feel like it's worthy of me ask actually reading the thing sure so um to the mental health student advisory parent student advisory Council uh this is something that gets discussed a lot in my house because as you know my wife was one of the only adults on this committee um I guess I want to know how it's being advertised because like I you don't see it on Facebook there's not really a central way to advertise it I don't see it in granted I'm just getting the the email blast from the marsh but like I don't see it there so how how are we recruiting people which I know before you answer that is the hardest thing to do in any area ever all the time so I want to put that out front I will follow up with Mr Crocker to see the best way to do that any other questions mam Mr uh member what um I know we're going to be starting with the The Residency enforcement and I know I spoke to the superintendent about making sure that the the hotline information is is online um so that was something that still needs to be done uh to my knowledge so it was posted today okay excellent um so it's online um and the message is out there so yep it's all set and then um since we just started back it's not going to be anything on it reflected anyways but correct yeah I appreciate the reports as always y thank you you're welcome anyone else all right seeing none we'll move on um does the committee have any questions about the Director of Human Resources report it's a good oneilia um I guess first and foremost if we could is it possible to break down the professional staff by like lure so for example I assume in professional staff looking at the marsh saying three is one of those three teachers is it two teachers and a nurse is it two nurses and a teacher like I I just I don't know what that represents because professional staff is such a big piece yeah you know what I'll do because we um we added the column for unit and I think we live by this and the public doesn't live by that so we automatically know what unit a b and c means so we can actually add the units underneath that do you know professional staff is Unit A and B profession and PAs is Unit C so anything you see that's a and b is falling under professional staff so this doesn't include nurses it doesn't include open janitorial spots uh any food service positions um this did not this was just focused on student facing initially okay yeah I mean there are some no I should take that back cuz we had some lunch monitors in here that were being there was a nursing position in here the nursing is professional staff I'm sorry nurses is their own unit I I apologize going say is they're Unit D they're not a so unitd secretaries we wouldn't add that to this for I mean we can we don't have any openings the end of timony has nurses under nurses yeah sorry I guess just if we could add that it would just make it easier to understand and I guess I just want to call out that the way these definitions are written these are posted positions so if we don't have a I'm going to use the nurses because they were here tonight if we don't have a nurse position posted it's not being counted as a vacant professional staff position correct so if it's a if it's a not necessarily but yes so if it's in here it's a budgeted one it's a budgeted position in fy2 that is not filled or filled or contracted am I at some point was vacant at some point they were vacant right we we filled the at some point these were vacant somehow whether it was unfilled from last year uh whatever the situation it was vacant so we've added that each time so the good news is we're cutting it down we're not we're not at zero I don't know any District that is right now at at zero um meaning zero vacancies or all filled right we just nobody has that um so so the indication here is what do we have left really to fill what kind of positions are they and these are the ones you should see posted anything that's vacant should be what you see posted did which that they are okay am I missing I I am sorry I totally apologize if I'm not understanding no that that answers the question thank youo thank you um not to I don't want to go but into too much about details about that but when um regarding the nurses these uh the the the uh nurse that came up I'm just cluding when she was saying all these positions that were cut not po can you go over and explain that real quick sure the so the only the only positions that are open right now or were open that we actually never close the posting is the timony nurse and I can miss boac can help me here but to make sure and that actually that posting is still open uh I sent a notice to the families uh we did receive some uh resumés which was F fabulous so we're interviewing folks this week actually so there's some progress being made there so the only positions open there are there are currently two full-time RN at the marsh and a CNA there until today there were two full-time RNs at the Tenny and a CNA still not a vacancy though right not a vacancy she's on leave MH um CGS we have two full-time RNs one is in training so just hired and being trained the high school we don't have two full FTE right now so we're looking for some additional coverage at the high school and the branch Street has one fulltime RN which is what they are expected to have and the and the high school also has a assistant medical assistant all all of the schools have a medical assistant except the Cs except the CGS and so we've actually provided the medical assistant from the marsh to be at the CGS right now while the nurse there trains the new RN school on the school stuff so it's it's challenging undoubtedly and I appreciate uh Mr dwire saying that we're communicating because we are we're trying to uh we pulled all the nurses in uh I'd say a week before school started um when we realized we're just we're not getting it's it's the same repeat right rewind repeat we're not getting applicants um and then we we also had a resignation that we were not expecting so um that posed some different challenges for us to open school and not just hope and wait somebody would apply we had to have a plan and so uh we we with the nurse's help um and everybody's getting compensated accordingly uh to do this it doesn't help the stress of the day so don't misunderstand me right but there's contract language that compensates folks to do this but um the two nurses uh at the CGS have been the most veteran and one volunteered to go to the timy uh to get the school open uh which we are deeply appreciated appreciative of her service um and we're expecting a second nurse to be on boarded to then work with her to train to be the school nurse and then they'll all go back to their right schools so we're trying to do some on the job training on the job training um so one timy hired nurse is currently at the CGS currently in that office being trained by one of the CGS nurses um the the most challenging office right now undoubtedly is the timony so I I we just it's the most challenging because we don't we're we're down a full nurse right now um and so until we get that full nurse on boarded uh it's it's going to be a little bit of a challenge and so we actually met with them today uh we promised we'd meet with them in a couple weeks after school started just to see they gave us some you know helpful things that we can do just to help you know remind folks of not sending people to the nurses if it's really not uh something that the nurse has to evaluate just because they are really uh stressed right now and so um we're working through all of that with them I nobody here is saying that are in a a super awesome position right now with nurses um but you know what I just read is what we have currently for the ftes um miss bozac and miss McCarthy have been uh feverishly trying to get substitutes in as well that's also a challenge and there's some memos here at the end that will help us uh we think um for some perdm staff so I think this week we have one new substitute being trained so she's going from each building to the building so she is you know understands the office and the space so she's um going to the buildings as well as a substitute and we have another substitute that has been able to give us a few more days so it's it's challenging because we don't have Subs that can just come in for 12 weeks or half a year um but but we're working to fill as many of those opportunities as we can and be creative right LPN is another we posted for LPN just to see what we could get as well um not a ton of applicants and unfortunately the amount of money we can provide for them is not uh enough so that has been put upon us as well what what we're paying them for like for the perum right you understand that's coming later in the packet member Maxwell um just a quick question I know you said each school for the most part has two and one ma um the the woman that spoke earlier she she mentioned something about being out of compliance because it's one nurse to every 500 students is that accurate and if so does that does that Ma count as the third no okay no so um I believe what she's in I'm going to look to miss boac potentially for this um but but what she's referring to is the Massachusetts Nurses Association recommendations and guidelines so um there are forms that they're filling out every day when if if and when they're by themselves so the the nurse at the timy is is the only RN right so there's a form that she's filling out every day uh we're giving her support staff to help her with the tasks of the forms and filing and things like that that are not uh student facing and but she is the only one who can administer meds um right and see students who are um on timed visits to the to the nurse and such so we're okay with like State um not recommendations but State um standards like we have the nurses that we need I mean once we're all hired we will okay you know and I I think that after covid adding the medical assistance was critical because of the size of the buildings um you know ideally we might look at additional models LPNs can actually service more students than a a medical assistant uh that's something that we actually had a long talk conversation about with the nurses when we met with them you know what is that they understand it much better than we do about the licensure right what can the RN have to supervise all of all of those staff but um what an LPN can do they have their own license that they're working under a CNA doesn't have a license right they're really they can't be administering and kind of servicing students so it's just it's different challenges that I think we're being met with um I I think I have colleagues in other districts who have different models that we're reaching out to and saying you know how many of you guys you how many nurses how many LPNs how do you divvy it up you know things like that I think that conversation is pretty open right now because we're all a lot in similar conversations and it's hard because we can't uh we can't compete with some of the pay in surrounding towns and that has been probably our biggest challenge yeah to date I'm not saying challenge in general but just right now I we can't compete with some of the the pay scale is there any other discussion um member Donovan so I just have a question looking at the vacancies especially in the PA column um are the BBE all all those positions of the schools filled and because I'm assuming they're running every day MH um that's a good question I will ask I think we're we're we're doing okay with BBE um we actually had a lot that came back from last year which was good really helpful yeah that was really nice to see um but I'll I can check and get back to you on the bbes they certainly play a big role I know we have a couple in classrooms already yeah you know serving and there days people are out sick that just adds to it right um how about at the high school with the math teacher um how how is that is there class the classes being covered or so the math teacher position in Dr golovsky if I missp speak please help me um I believe that uh it was dissolved meaning that the courses that's that teacher's to be to be determined schedule was actually put into so the math classes are just got a little larger into WEA okay mhm thank you that happened in time right like we that's what August was right making sure like we made those decisions in time to to make some of those changes so that we weren't having a whole schedule of students with no teacher uh trying to fill that so that decision I know Dr gsky was involved in that with the high school working with them okay yes so that was a situation where um a particular course had some sections that happened to be smaller in number so we could collapse the sections and condense them um so as not to overfill other courses um so that's what happened there okay thank you there was a question if I could ask the committee I I think that this format is likable yes um the question that Miss McCarthy had is does it make sense to start removing the filled lines as it's taken up a lot of space in they're filled so we don't Mis necessarily worry as much about those and only keep the vacant contracted service filled posting positions totally up to you but she asked if that is that will make it easier to read or review yeah I promised I would ask I would just ask that if it's filled between meetings that we leave it as filled yeah as opposed like if it's if it's here then sure get rid of it but if it's vacant on this one I want to see that it got filled I don't just want to see it disappear understand so take away the filled that are filled concrete concretely filled anything that changes we we would show a transition month of change totally get we've come so far from that chart with the tiny little we have come so far the color coding I think it's and I think we made the font actually on this probably 14 so I don't even need to squint to read this this is so it's F there's a lot here but we're we're working through that remember Willet thank you um just a quick question with the school psychologist a couple positions that have not been filled and that's been for months ongoing now that's predominantly involved in testing of students cor are we Outsourcing that correct okay and what's the differential in that is that astronomical the because that must be a costly thing to test the the students as opposed to hiring all of the contracted service are uh you know significantly higher than what a actual budgeted position would be this is this is what we are working through right now the cost of the right all of these come with a cost what did we budget for what's the actual cost um what did we collapse what do we not need there are positions I mean we're probably meeting every week at this point there are one to ones that are no longer needed we are adding one to ones on IEPs right it's it's a real it talk about a fluid situation special education is incredibly fluid um and so we're really there's four of us myself miss boes miss boac and miss McCarthy that are meeting to really get a handle on the people positions contracted service which some point here right we're going to bring Mr Goslin in on that conversation to now say all right what do we have budgeted in the operating budget what do we have in circuit breaker right what did we budget for in contracted Services already right so there's going to be a balancing that we're going to already be doing which we should be so we don't have like a discernable backlog of of cases to do testing of students no I hate to toss that out there we we within the confines of Outsourcing and your staff working cont Services yeah okay I just wanted to make sure on that and it's we have no prospects right cuz that was a thing there was it was a districtwide psychologist and another psychologist so there two that's significant so that was a thing that was I know the nurses was something that collectively were concerned full time we filled the full time and yeah two full-time no prospects okay like no applicants and we have we do have uh Mr Crackers reaching out to every single University that has a school psychologist program he's phenomenal so yeah you know it's it's it's hard when there's not every college has that program and license and some of the colleges in Boston already have like strong relationships with Boston Public Schools Cambridge like they already that's where their graduates go uh in Partnership so uh it's that one's a significant Challenge and it's a challenge across communities at this point like we're seeing other districts reaching out saying what's everybody's status because they're down multiple more than two School psychologists all right thank you I appreciate it Mia on that note what I'd really like to see on our next agenda is a presentation from the Ley community behavioral health center as to what they how they can help I mean it's no secret that we are in the same boat as everyone else hurting for mental health staff it's no secret that the mental health heal needs are going to be more than we can ever meet if we could get the the team from the cbhd to come in and kind of hit a couple of main topics and I wrote myself a note here uh their mobile crisis intervention um their urgent Behavior Health Care walk-in care and their core Services being therapy medication management Community Support Specialties and therapeutic group offerings I think that would if nothing else be education for us as well as the community and hopefully to miss boac the team and everybody else because if we can get something that's already paid for Ian smiled so it's I I I I see it as a win-win sure we'll talk to John cracker yeah thank you yeah you're welcome um I have a question about the um especially the special ed vacancies um I'm a little bit concerned that we have one-on ones that have are vacant um that's very Troublesome to me um but my other concern is I don't know how to quantify this but how many compensatory services are we racking up by not having these Services filled and are we making the notifications to the parents um effectively that their children are not were not in compliance with their IEPs at this point so in those to answer the latter question in those scenarios where there is a disruption in Services the letters have gone out to those families MH thank you you're welcome M Leo um I I'm just curious especially with the psychology U positions opening is it because we're not filling them because of the salaries as well are we no we want them if you know anybody send them our way oh no no no I'm just saying like is it no applicants coming because no there just aren't zero applicants there's there's no supply for the demand I mean all of again this is the same nursing is the tough one school psychologist special education our our uh threads of list serves are somewhat we're all in good company of the I need this sub separate teacher what you guys have and I'm like don't come here like we're good right so um those three categories I would say all of us are seeing on our list serves Human Resources superintendent director of special education list serves those are the ones that are um everybody is just trying to figure out what to do now so it's just not enough people doing there's not enough supply for the demand 100% they're not I mean I can't tell you how many times I keep telling folks in um teacher education prep programs like kid students kids need to come out of those programs with like dual licenses right you get them the elementary plus special education plus ESL right we this is probably one of the first years we have all of our ESL positions filled but not that's typically a hard one as well um what you knocking on wood oh God I know I need it today I'm like what are you doing um but yes I'm sorry trainer thought but those those three categories are definitely the hardest not enough supply for the demand sorry yes just to say it lightly all right and gner the I'm sorry one last statement but G are the days of when you would post an elementary position and you'd get like 50 applicants gone you get maybe two maybe one you know a handful is like joyous for the principles to see um so it's just it's a completely different environment of supply versus the demand that that all school districts are asking for so any thank you um next up facilities report says None resume in October thank you okay um members shilia has a question on the none nope just a a thank you um last week in the line at the marsh that was asked for me to uh reach out to you on the sign that says do not enter in the back part um apparently some folks have taken it upon themselves to mold the rules to fit them better uh because it says it used to say 8 to nine so the we changed it the first drop off was a mess and the crossing guard had mentioned it to me as I talked to him on my way out of the parking lot every morning um was there this morning the SRO and the crossing guard bull stopped me to say thank you they fixed the sign everyone is extremely happy and it made me really think about the small victories in life I'll take it because they were thrilled and I just thank you it was something it was one text message and the thing was fixed I wish everything could be that easy me too but you're welcome um speaking of other thank you for facilities I want to thank you for the new flag at the CGS I have gotten more compliments on that new flag so thank you for replacing it I'll take that too that's great flags and signs I love it the simple things I think you're right if it makes it if it make things work better right then that's what we have to aim for all right out of school suspensions and other disciplinary actions report there is none are there any questions on that no all right old business and other pending matters um superintendent will you please start the discussion on the transportation start of school sure so I'll call up uh rich is with us tonight we'll bring him on Up Wait waiting patiently supposed to be first on the agenda but I should have told him first on the agenda typically means around an hour in yeah okay he knew he knew he knew he's yeah he knew what we were doing it was all good so I think uh what we want to do tonight is give you a little bit of an update that we said we would give you and uh potentially take some action here tonight uh and what that looks like and what we need to to do what that how to execute um I don't know who wants to go first a microphone oh he needs a microphone oh I'd love to give him mine thank you Mr thank you I'd like to say it's a pleasure to be here tonight uh I'm not sure yet but uh as the superintendent mentioned uh we have an update um since the uh start of school uh the transportation has gotten progressively better each day uh we don't I I don't have the report for today yet but as of Friday the uh the major issues were confined just to the afternoon uh which meant that the the morning routs are are running pretty well um but you had uh essentially uh six buses in the afternoon that were still running uh very late uh and uh over the weekend uh Dr kuang and I both received an invitation uh to meet with uh Beacon uh and the uh and trumbly your transportation contractor uh that meeting is set for Thursday afternoon uh and uh I'm hopeful that we may be able to resolve some of these issues uh over the weekend again uh I spoke with one of my Transportation routers uh and uh sent her some information that I had and she and I discussed how to fix the roots uh we're of the opinion that we can fix them relatively quickly uh it will require some additional Resources by tromble to fix them uh we're hoping to be able to do this cost neutral but uh that would be open to question at this point um in the meantime uh I had uh drafted for uh Dr Quang and for the committee's consideration uh a notice uh to uh Beacon or to tromble uh that they are actually in default uh of the contract uh that starts the process of fixing it uh once the letter is issued uh they have 5 days to respond they have 10 days to fix it uh and I would suggest and recommend to the committee that Dr Quang be authorized to issue such a letter uh p uh pursuant to your attorney reviewing it obviously uh if we are not satisfied with what results from the Thursday meeting uh furthermore uh if the committee is so inclined I would offer to go into Trombly uh to their uh uh routing person sit with your transportation manager and actually fix the roots uh now that we have an idea of how to do that um but I would need access to their system uh to be able to do that so I would have to do that in their office uh I would offer it they may decline they may not want me playing on their system um but uh I at least uh feel that it would be prudent to at least make the offer uh fix the roots determine what it's going to cost what additional resources would be necessary to do it we can fight over the money later on uh but the fact of the matter is uh they cannot perform this contract the way uh it is written and the way they have agreed uh and they have a performance bond posted to be able to pay for the requirements to to fix it and I would suggest and recommend to the committee that we start to pursue that any can I add something just so that you are aware so um after Rich sent me uh the documents and we had our conversation late last week I did have a a conversation with attorney mcel about this that his he's the one that has done our contracts with trbl before and is the contract attorney from um Mike macaro's office so uh everything that rich just said uh is on the up and up and uh he reviewed the letter that uh he sent me on Thursday or Friday of last week uh it is something that he uses with other districts as well well um so that has been reviewed doing this uh he said he's working with another District who's in the same position right now not here but on the Southshore so uh this does seem to be uh the the action that should be taken at this point so we can begin that negotiation and conversation with trbl and nrt go beacon on Thursday I think we need to do it member doag I've been saying this for like five years now so I've been say your yes vote so yeah that's fantastic that's a no-brainer but um quick question though once we issue the letter um can we also like like you said you want to go in and you would have to go into trably and look at their Roots When We issue that default can we use that leverage in the sense of saying listen one of the things that we want to do is come in and work your system like you said they could Cline it but if we give them the default letter and we say listen this is one of the terms that we want to meet with you about is fix the roots can will you is that one of the ideas that you guys are going to come up with well my recommendation would be to wait till Thursday's meeting and see what they say yeah uh I would offer tomorrow to go in uh and fix the roots before the meeting uh if they want to do that then they uh I have the time and I have the ability I think to be able to go in and do that uh and then Thursday meeting would be basically would be to discuss what the resources are and how are how are we going to pay for it if we're going to pay for it you know my goal would be whatever we negotiate with them to be cost neutral to the district so the thing I want to say to the committee is do I'm of course I'm doing a yes vote on the default letter but the question I want to know is with the committee do we want to go in with that 30 Thursday meeting with that also applying as well yeah okay so we we're having like that two two-part agreement okay we want that you to go in and fix it they decline then we do the default letter as well I would I would ask you to authorize me to go in and negotiate a solution on your behalf okay I can't make any decisions yeah u u no that's what I'm saying they I just want to talk with the committee on on what they want to do as well membership Ilia so likewise I I think it's an easy s on the on the letter I would have liked to have seen the letter I assume it's relatively boiler plate we just authorizing it is okay would you like me to read it would that help I I have it electronically and I'm sorry I don't have but I could read it just so you have it I mean if well look at that would you like me to read it if you want to I mean you don't have to so pursuant to the contract for school transportation services between Trembley Motor Coach Services in the MTH public schools pursuant to section K breach of contract termination procedure paragraph B and C of the bid specifications made part of the contract you hereby notified that the continued failure of trle motor coach services to provide the required transportation services for the start of the school year constitutes an issue of a serious nature therefore if not rectified in accordance with the cont cont trct within the next onee period dates um dates are in there okay uh we will consider trle Motor Coach Services to be in default of the contract it is our sincere hope that you will be able to provide the necessary drivers to fulfill your contractual obligations and that all Roots will operate on schedule respectively Randy cor and that was the letter that that attorney mcel saw right okay um iy I support the letter 100% I would in anticipate push back on you being in their system just like any other company they're not going to want an outsider playing with their toys it's just I mean I'm assuming you're going into that conversation with that expectation however if they can't fix the routes and meet and we pull their bond they're dead in the water for five years right they can't bid on additional work if they're if they're in default in Massachusetts typically they cannot bid under new contract in in the next five years so it's in their best interest one way or another to sit at the table with you and do yes the route reconfiguration yes and my concern is I I would like to think it comes back as cost neutral and I mean 100% go you but if it doesn't is it do we have a ballpark of what it's going to cost and can we swing it we don't know no not at this point not even yeah I don't I don't think there's a an understanding of what it would cost can we swing it I think I would the answer is no I mean we have we have a a fixed vote on non-et spending right from the city at this point uh we would 100% push for the cost neutral this is the contract this is what we're going to pay you figure out how to make this work if that's going to help us go forward I mean this is very much a un we can't guarantee that but that's what we're hoping for right so being a their it's their breach I would hope that we can hold that that cost hard of really screwing up the next five years for them and hopefully they come to the table and play nice but if not I I I would not hesitate to vote to act on it you're all at member Maxville yeah I just wanted to know about the cost neutral um and what it was going to cost us if okay perfect and obviously we can't do any I mean that would come back to you I mean that we can't do anything until you know we tell you what what the outcome has been remember wette thank you madam chair I'm not as well vered as the mayor and um members Shia and Bing contracts but it was always uh conveyed to me as the lowest qualified bidder so at this stage they're not qualified to provide the service and that's what is necessitating the default letter not only the I so you're talking about the lowest qualified bidder that would have been during the RFP process we're well past that right now there's a contract there in default has nothing to do with biders but I'm just saying that the concept of because people will say I will bid but then you have this also it's still your lowest but you also have to be qualified to do the job at this moment we're saying they're not qualified to do the job they're in default we're saying they're in breach of their contract of their contract qualified I think layman's terms right now they're not meeting the standards is that enough okay they're not meeting the standards right now if if we were if we were to bid today for this contract uh given their past performance uh they probably would not pass my due diligence to be a responsible bidder so having a negative reference even from methan going into the next bid process that in itself uh would preclude them from being a responsible bidder for any of the contracts certainly in the marac valley where all the superintendents know each other uh so and then another aspect of is because not only the late buses in the afternoon right um they still don't have a workable app for tracking the buses is that in place yet or is that my understanding is the app went into into uh service on uh September one is that is I mean is that accurate because I thought we were told in September 16th we were told it's which app are we referring to I guess is the question Beacon connect Beacon connect um is not up and running fully I did sit through a training today and we were we were promised that right that that would be operational so that would be part of the that that is an item on the agenda for Thursday's meeting by the way and and again I I appreciate everything you're doing I appreciate the superintendent I appreciate Ian and I also understand terms of the confines of the initial RFP and and the contract and we're dealing with a culture that has to open up um and reform itself and we're going to do some reforms ourselves um and it's going to be ramifications with the default letter alone it's going to be publicized um they're a well-known company I see them all over the place I see them going into Boston when I went to Beth Israel in a visit um so it's going to be a major uh factor and I have confidence I don't know if we have to do a motion to do the letter as well as approving I'll make a motion that we issue a default letter and the motion will also include your presence at that meeting so I'll make that as a formal motion could I suggest uh uh an alternate that uh you authorize the superintendent to issue the letter subsequent to Thursday's meeting yeah so I'll make the motion that the superintendent will uh issue the default letter and that we want to have you present at that meeting on Thursday okay so that'll be in a form of a motion m z thank you so when you were talking just to a second ago M shilia when we issue the defa default letter in the bond in the bidding and we pull that they're not allowed to bid for 5 years we're not there yet no I'm just I'm just curious just being an outsider just curious question what what does that mean in 30b when you bid a transportation contract you ask certain questions uh one of which is uh your your current past contracts you have to provide letters of of of recommendation from at least usually three or five uh school districts that you're currently uh work work for uh and uh the other is a question have you default Ed on any contract in Massachusetts within the last 10 years those are the typical questions that are in a uh in a transportation bid to make it 30b compliant oh and if we initiate the default they can't be in that bidding process for not just our district well they could they can't answer the question that they haven't defaulted and typically I mean any superintendent or any business manager who sees that they've defaulted certainly will follow up uh with with that Community before they consider who is the lowest responsive and responsible bidder thank you I was just curious about that thank you so do we need a motion to um declare an emergency first before we do or do we just need the motion to this I I chose this one first okay so we need to so we have a motion to um to separate or I'd like to separate them okay so I'm going to do I'm going to retract my motion I'm going to do a motion that the superintendent be authorized to issue the default letter that'll be the first motion so the way I have it written motion to authorize the superintendent to issue the approved letter of default to Transportation vendors trumbl and nrt yeah yes so so moved second mve by member wette second by member dolio roll call please or just discussion first are we good all right roll call yeah m ollio yes member Donovan member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes shilia yes member Willette yes mayor Perry yes unanimous and then my second motion would be to authorize Your Presence at Thursday's meeting if you would authorize me to negotiate on your behalf at Thursday's meeting prior to or subsequent to uh then that would give me the legs I need to stand on to go in uh and and meet with them so I would make a motion to uh authorize your presence to negotiate on behalf of the school district yes in conjunction with the superintendent correct good sounds great okay by sorry that's okay second by member Maxwell and Folks at home I'm not an attorney so I'm doing it so it was moved by member wette second in by member Maxwell all right member daglio yes member Donovan member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member shilia yes member Willette yes mayor Perry yes unanimous that's it thirdly oh thirdly thirdly I'd like to recommend to the school committee that you declare the transportation issue uh to be an emergency situation the reason being that uh if we are subsequently issue the letter of default uh if the committee has declared this to be an emergency it allows us under chapter 30b to procure uh services from another contractor on relative short notice without having to go through the formal uh bid process that is correct confirmed with attorney mnel that as well okay so so I would like to motion that the transportation for methan public schools is an emergency that needs to be resolved immediately so to clarify the motion motion is to declare a transportation as an emergency under 30b correct and I'll second that motion by member dolio second by member wette member dolio yes member Donovan yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member shabila yes member Willette yes mayor Perry yes sorry unanimous excellent thank you and hopefully we won't need that but is the open thank you um one question before we cut you loose uh in our last meeting we talked about starting the RFP process yes uh is that is that a draft in process is there something that you need from us or are we waiting on I was waiting to resolve this year's issues because this year's issues will lead into uh the the bid requirements going forward but I anticipate to have a draft to the Transportation subcommittee uh sometime around the middle of October perfect thank you thank you very much thank you'll be in touch tomorrow thank you all right may I have a motion in a second to approve the three-year strategy plan for improvement 2024 to 2027 so mov second move by member dolio seconded by member wette discussion so if if I could just let Dr golovsky speak for a few minutes on some of the somewhat minor but uh some changes that were made from our previous discussion so that we can point those specific things out to you we took all of those recommendations into account when we discussed any changes to this to present to you tonight the hope is that we get this approved and at the September 23rd meeting I would present to you my 24 25 goals that would incorporate this strategy plan that's that's the Hope Dr kopsky thank you um so as Dr Kang mentioned uh we incorporated the feedback that you shared with us last time we met um one of those notes being that there were quite a few key actions and it appeared a little overwhelming so we tried to streamline some of those um noting that many were in the same vein um and so we simplified some language there without necessarily eliminating where we planed to head um the data is still not available for those 24 numbers so hopefully when um Dr Quang presents her goals I'll be able to provide you an updated plan with those Baseline um statistics and then also um one piece that we changed or amended in objective two in terms of the measure me of progress um we had looked at the proportion of students utilizing the tiered Mental Health Services um which was consistent with what we had done before and member Keegan had brought up uh the question about um how do we know the effectiveness of those services or what the outcomes are for students that are engaging in those services so we moved that um to the measures of progress under objective three whereas before it was just a population general population statistic uh the number of students with moderate to severe anxiety depression um and post-traumatic stress under that is the percentage of students um enrolled in our schools receiving tiered two or three services whose mental health has stabilized or improved um and so Mr Crocker has uh built a pretty extensive spreadsheet to progress monitor so every counselor will add in um the students who are receiving tier two or three services um note which type of service the duration of service how they came to be in that service which is interesting um whether it was a screener or it was written into an IEP um how they arrived in that treatment and then um we'll be able to track Improvement um so having that population um percentage along with that um drilled down information we think will be helpful um and then I believe member Maxwell had pointed out a discrepancy between a slide um and what was presented in the the PDF document in terms of priority language um we had meant for it to be it was in in the the document so That Remains the Same and that's would be what we'd be going for um other than that it's largely uh the same and I tried to make it a little bit more aesthetically pleasing um and simpler for posting are there any questions M wette thank you I am in support of The Proposal um I think it was a lot of detail a lot of uh internal discussions analysis I think we're constantly um doing data collection and establishing bench boox and revisiting the benchmarks and we've had this give and take on uh test and services and goals and I think it's very healthy when we do it at certain points during the school year um what I'm concerned about again um there was an article in the paper um and this is going to probably impact our our testing in the future is that um the question too if they repeal the the mcast test and I just want to say for the folks at home is that um we have our district standards for graduation and people also have to abide by the mcast standards and do that in tandem they the district standards and the mcast standards and 96% of students pass the mcast eventually even if it includes a portfolio the 4% um it's extenda circumstances beyond the control normally of the school system so it's a very much of a Chicken Little the sky is falling and and people are being tossed to the Wayside in terms of the mcast testing and I think it's the standard for the planet and it's going to impact if question two passes I think it's going to impact test scores across the Commonwealth and you're going to have 300 school districts that will have their own empowerment of determining graduation standards um and again if you look at the universe of if someone does the standards for graduation as established by district and they also passed the mcast that involves normally 99% of the student population tus University I would encourage everyone to read the report that they did the analysis on question two it's the center of State policy analysis what is being done by the MTA is unfair to the students the parents the school districts the legacy of billions and billions of dollars because of Ed reform of 1993 and that's going to be tossed out the window you can have 300 separate systems of determining graduation requirements and it it's not impacting the special education population because they have portfolios it's not impacting the vast majority of the students Almost 100% so I wanted to just make that disclaimer is that we analyze the test scores we have benchmarks we have strong graduation standards in methan but this question two will throw a lot of things in flux across the Commonwealth and I just don't think it's fair to all of our efforts as Educators as elected officials as parents as students to dilute the system um with question two so I just wanted to make that statement thank you m Leo um I'm just going to just be brief from both an educator and and elected official standpoint uh based off of memorable L um from my I get that we need a standardized testing and to determine what kids know um I don't think mcast provides that I think it's it has a certain amount of Standards um I think it needs a more we need as a state needs a better standards because I could tell you that do I know uh I know students that passed the mcast that still don't know how to read and they passed and I think we need a standardized test that meets benchmarks where we know exactly where kids are struggling um where Educators then can work with those kids but we're so focused on mcast as Educators we kind of miss the in between sometimes that's just my opinion I I believe in a standardized test that we could see where kids are I just think mcast isn't the solution that's just my opinion do you have any comments on the actual um just I'm fine with it thank you okay thank you are there any comments about the um yes yes to vote you do need to vote so I need a motion in a second to approve the three-year strategy plan for improvement 2024 2027 second move by member wette second by member dolio we've had the discussion I think we might have already even had the motion I think had already moved member do already moved member already seconded so we're to a roll call so roll call please member daglio yes Donovan yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member shilia yes member wette yes mayor Perry yes unanimous all right may I have a motion in a second to approve policy gbb staff conduct first read so moved moved by member daglio second second by member Donovan discussion um I'll share where this is coming from we don't have one number one so we need one uh and this just is coming directly from masc so I don't see a need to alter it uh and it also is an outcome of a recommended sorry a suggested outcome from a personal matter that we have recently had that we vote this into place and have a staff code of conduct I just have a question about sure what the actual code of conduct is because this sounds like a bunch of nothing to me I'm glad you said I I would like a a staff code of conduct that actually has a code of conduct involved um this this feels like a bunch of nothing to me really I think the the basis for this is the fact that staff need to familiarize themselves with the policies at hand that they need to adhere to and follow them and also their behavior needs to emulate what we want students to I feel like that's very nebulous and not specific enough like open to edits I sorry just putting it out there I'm gonna go with my will head so I'm I'm going to I always try to say I'm going to try to be as diplomatic as possible I do the best I can 13 years I'm not really happy with the language at all to me it makes an assumption that you have to be um Rainman and this absorb everything under the sun for all knowledge all laws all regulations and I think it's way too much of a net uh to have uh information uh I just thought it was like nebulous would say I would describe it um I just think that if we have other school districts that maybe we can uh examine their policies I would encourage that I I just don't like how this language was devised Happ we can we can also bring it to the policy subcommittee if you'd like for revision yeahia so that was going to be my exact suggestion um happy to do that I already made note that I would like to discuss the masc policy review process which I hope is making its way through the process um if the check wasn't mailed out last week it will be probably Wednesday killing me an yeah um so I I have to agree with all of the commotion I mean this this this is this is the this came from masc it did I mean directly it was handed to me by our attorneys during this this is the saddest little staff conduct policy I've seen in 20 some odd years of being in a professional organization um however I think I think can't wait to see their revision this is GNA be great I I think that it is probably in our best interest to approve this and get something in place and then come back in three weeks when we have something more substantial because if this is coming out of a litigious Avenue we probably need something so if if we can keep this process moving simultaneously working on what this probably should be um I I don't think that we kind of cut off our nose despite our face in this process my two cents yeah I'm not sure what that would look like if we do a first and final tonight on this to have it in place and then work on a revision of this dated tonight in the future right if we're if we're if we're voting a first read then it's not really in place yet or do we revise it before the second read do you need it done tonight I mean what we don't I don't need it done tonight I mean this was just this was something I needed to execute at the beginning of the school year which we're doing and so uh it would be helpful to have it in place you know in the next probably the next meeting to have something with a revised tone that makes the school committee feel we vote Yes on the first read yeah we can come back with revisions for the second revisions for the second it won't slow down the clock it'll get you what you need correct so that's going to be my vote okay would it slow down if we didn't do the first read tonight and then we did okay right because we need two reads for the policy remember Willette the the only questions I have is don't we have existing case law if there's like misconduct that's present and then don't we have an employee handbook that we this is I mean I know the uh Massachusetts Association of school committees they just went into uh a case uh decision about uh online conduct I mean there's there's individual pieces but not a general staff of cold conduct how people are supposed to relate and and react and work together collaboratively is it this looks like I would I if I was a chief of staff at the state house I would think this was like an intern work this was not welld designed I I hate to say it I want to be diplomatic but I'm I'm trying the state is is capitalized I mean this is not like 1984 I think we've is we're not in a commulist I think we're going to revise it yeah I mean I'm just trying to I got to stop I'm sorry I completely understand how the school committee feels about this I'm so happy I didn't write it and I just pulled it from the masc website to present this evening M Leo yeah just just from when I read it it's like a open ending and I feel like it's up for the interpretation of the superintendent to decide what code of conduct is and I just don't feel like it needs to be like U my policy professor said you want every detail possible so nobody can Define the interpretation of a policy he you have to be very specific and how it's supposed to be done and what defines whatever you're trying to do so I feel like we can do revisions without voting on it because we could just do a first and second read in one night we can do that um but I don't I guess yeah I just don't like how it's shaped remember what I don't want to attack the messenger and I think the Massachusetts Association School committees does do outstanding work is just that this work product needs to be revised totally from like first sentence to last sentence so um I don't want to have anything like that I'm trying to insult somebody or I just think that to protect this school department the school committee and the individuals like uh member indicated protect them as well it's like you said it's too nebulous it's too generalized it just needs to be so I just want to say that you know for the record all right we need a roll call can can I weigh in please yes sorry mayor no that's okay I got my hand up I'm using all the tools I can um so uh the only thing I'd suggest is you know when I read the policy first I agree with all the comments that are being made um but I would caution us it's a slippery slope when you start defining um you know attributes of of a code of conduct uh to the point where you know you got to list almost everything so I fully support the the move to table or and or approve or table a table would count as is the first read anyway so it's the same thing and then um my question is would we have the policy subcommittee convene and kind to help put together draft on that or would that fall in the administration I would feel like the administration and the subcommittee would be working together hand inand to to fix it I don't know if it's necessarily h specific subcommittee meeting though I feel like this is an email yeah we could work on a shared draft right get it done efficiently and I agree with the mayor that you you don't want to get too into the weeds here but the 14 yearold at McDonald is getting more than this yeah what I think okay yeah so do we want I thought this was going to be the least controversial item on that this committee feels very strongly about this presented policy so do we want to motion to approve or motion to table given that they have the same exact net effect I'm going to do is because it's a privileged motion I'm going to after all discussion has evaporated I'm going to make a motion to to table because I don't want to endorse a first read but the only thing I want to emphasize is that I would like our a school attorney involved in the process with the subcommittee sure of course y so all right and that's I'm going make everybody's all set yeah motion to table second motion to table by member wette seconded by member dolio roll call please member dolio yes member Donovan member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes member shilia yes member Willette yes mayor Perry yes well that was a fun one does the committee have any questions on the end of year FY 24 expenditure report remember wette I just had a quick question I think we did uh an incredible job with the the parking enhancements um to the entrance to the high school um I think we we have the account um do we envision now the kids are in school can we do some lines in the parking lot do we are we going to do some upgrades to the parking lot itself um yeah we we definitely need some lines as well as we're going to have somebody come in and trim back a lot of the trees that are starting to hang over okay and we'll use those funds for that okay all right and I appreciate that thank you and then there was that's got to be an executive session on the other thing okay thank you C curiosity um in that account how much do we have to do the lines because I know we did the reduction last year on the parking fee so I was just curious how how much do we have that in that account right now at the end of fiscal year 24 I believe it was 68,000 I'm looking because it's on this report yeah right I I know I read it somewhere and I just there you go yeah 571 correct perfect are we still on the expenditures because I have a question on some of yes we're on the expenditures okay sorry I'll wait oh you're you're up well you know uh so they were on the other line so um I want to make sure I what is ify 25 not brought forward at the city and set up in mun we we have revolving accounts and grants and Food Services have not been set up in fy2 yet the um funds have not been closed in FY 24 and carried forward so when we log into munus it shows as if there's Z do in there I can go back to fy4 and see what is in the accounts they just haven't been carried forward yet I believe they're working on closing out all the accounts I will take care of that I'll take that action thank you all right does the committee have any questions on the um end of year FY 24 revolving funds report all right does the committee have any questions on the end of year FY 24 grants report I do does retired um amounts mean that we have given back that money so in most cases 80% of it has already been taken automatic ially um from whichever Grant system that Grant was living in and then we need to cut a check uh for the remaining 20% that's how the systems work but I didn't I I put that note in so that um it wouldn't be deceiving as if it appeared that we had more money than we had because that's already been spoken for um by mtrs which is 9% of the professional salaries in that Grant well there's a lot of line that has stuff in the retirement allocation so is that all that money we're giving back no none of it's going back it's going to retirement so we we're required when we have our grants we are required to have a certain percentage of that go to the mtrs so we have to account for that when we're actually creating so least is just trying to account for the fact that it doesn't although it looks like we might have 371,000 126 of that is not ours to spend 126 is actually going straight to mtrs so it's an accounting peace Mak sense thank you I just wanted to make sure we weren't returning all that money a l we're trying to find a way to show like there's there's money for balance remaining balance but there is money that is owed directly to mtrs from these grants that we have salaries that a certain percentage does pay for that got it I understand now thank you for explaining okay I hope I did that correctly remember shilia wow I'm getting tired on that why not just mark it as an encumbrance thises because I mean retirement we haven't marked as an encumbrance but this form for you we we don't I don't know actually I'm just going to stop talking I'm probably just says um year-to dat expense this is great that this is recorded I just wanted to make sure that you're aware does right there [Laughter] am I looking at a different report yes I mean I'm sorry I'm looking at the revolving account I'm sorry I'm looking at the wrong report I I get what the money is for but we're essentially saying here are your expenditures and incumbrances your remaining balance and oh by the way here's another expend uh an encumbrance because it's it's it's money that's spent anyways it's just for ease of conversation going forward that's a good suggestion thank you member Donovan what I don't recognize you need your um microphone I'm sorry what's the Tenny memorial fund those are the that's the um the scholarship the scholarships okay yeah okay for the high school seniors okay a good giggle all right are we good um does does the committee have any questions on Student Activities accounts there's an awful lot of money left in the class of 2024 and all four grammar schools is that all going to be transferred money to the high school correct okay thanks I usually make them do that at the beginning of the beginning of the year so all right does the committee have any questions on the end of year FY 24 Food Services report oh I have one other question I'm sorry I want to go back to the um to the activities reports can you explain to me why none of them are signed yes because we made copies before they were sent out through um docu sign so the copies I believe the copies online are actually signed okay okay thank you member Maxwell um I know I know you just asked about the um class of 2024 having um you said that goes to that grade level at the high school correct okay it stay it stays with the kids okay yeah memb bilia so going back to where we started the conversation for the Food Service um I just want to call out as a one of our small victories that we talked about earlier these share tables and small victories right and the the fact that these non-p perishables that are sitting on the Shelf at the end of the week are being put back into the backpack program which I think is absolutely worth noting um and if we can kind of push that concept where these kids instead of throwing away their completely sealed bag of whatever goes on the table I think it just it's paid for why throw it into the dump um but on this note I did have a conversation with the director of uh School nutrition services this morning um I am going to meet with him briefly on Wednesday and I think and I'd be looking for the the consensus of the committee is this something subcommittee worthy when we're going to talk to Mr Fredy about School La lunches and the process and the presentation and all these things that have to happen or is this I just I don't want it to be a one-off and I don't want him to be bombarded and like I said to him in my email this morning he's caught a lot of grief over the last three years and I think that we can be more strategic and diplomatic in how we handle this so that's kind of why I want to figure out how that approach is going to go I I would say are you asking a question yeah okay I just want to make sure because I have a I have a thought about it I I don't think I think when we tried to set this up before with member Santos it was really going to be sort of just a regular opportunity for her to see the cafeteria meet with Mr fratty other members may want to join you just can't have more than three kind of come along uh because there's not NE necessarily school committee business happening during those meetings so uh that was how we approached it the first time so I would recommend approaching it that way that if there are opportunities and people want to come along to the visits come to meetings we just can't have more than three people do that at a time to keep that open for members who want to come um and then if it is just you you know reporting back out would be help ful but I don't think I think we asked this question when member Santos wanted to do this and we didn't need it to be a subcommittee per se because we're not looking to revise policy work on contracts things like that that would require a subcommittee um you know post posting agendas and and working through that way all right that was my two sons I will come back next session with an an update in some events and plans and stuff okay let you know remember wette thank you um I I think in terms of like a fact finding Mission I have confidence in member shilia the only thing I would encourage is that we do some type of uh surveying of the the parents and and I love the surveys the parents and the and the kids because um again I want to Beyond just the word on the street I want to have some something that's quantifiable measurable that's given to the parents and and the students I think we did a great job when I I talked about doing the survey on the cell phones and we reached out to the the teachers I think the same thing same thing with Transportation the same thing with the food service is that instead of being online with complaints or individual complaints to members of the committee and it has to be some type of vehicle online for the industry to have some type of uh measurable quantifiable survey that we finally give to send home to the parents and the kids have them fill it out engage how many people are participating in the survey what's that Universe positive feedback negative feedback what needs to be improved um and again it's it's something that uh it's being paid for by the taxpayers because of the the millionaires tax um and it's something we want to encourage um the breakfast the lunch um the backpack program novel ideas about putting Surplus uh for the backpack program um suggestions meal uh selections quality all those factors I want to have that in in some type of survey there has to be some type of survey vehicle with that industry has to be so that would be the only thing I would advise as well thank you I'm Donan just real quick so what are you gonna be doing Dan that's a wonderful question no I'm just curious because I mean so much of I mean Mr fratty took such a hit in the last couple of months that you know and he couldn't respond and so I'm glad we're doing what we can to understand better um but but we also have to keep in mind he lives and dies by some pretty stringent laws and requirements and audits um so I'm just curious what's the purpose so let me give you an example yeah please this morning in the 20 minute conversation we had over the phone I raised a question to him about um allergies which I've gotten quite a few times from different parents and yeah my own son being lactose intolerant you know it's it's an issue that has been questioned when I asked him and he walked me through the process even in just a linear fashion we learn that despite us putting these allergies into Infinite Campus Infinite Campus doesn't flow into his system so unless your doctor is sending in a note and it's getting logged in the system by him it's when that kid punches out at the end of the day with at the end of that line he's telling me it's not there and that was something we discovered this morning in a 20 minute conversation I don't know if that's true I don't I don't I don't know that what he said and we we I've seen the screens and I've seen alerts on that on but those but he's saying there's no there's no talking to each other so Infinite Campus information is not flowing that information is not flowing so it have to be input it in there manually I did see them manually inputting that last week with the papers so labor intensive so my my request to him and he not to speak for him but we had a great conversation and he's on the same page I think right now it's it's really my first meeting with him I want to understand where the rules are what the rules are and where they come from how the districts May differ how we handle things like a request versus an allergy and what what kind of opportunities may be available to us him and I both agreed no matter how good we are there's always opportunity for improvement and I don't want to go into this saying the cafeteria is bad we need to fix it because I don't I don't know if that's it and you know we we discussed the menu that was shared and he said we're all ordering from the same vendor the the maple syrup on the menu is the maple syrup it's the the chat gbt flowery language that makes these some of these menus better and we were're we're going to discuss a lot of this may be resulting education there may be some recommended improvements I'm I'm really following his lead at this point I think he's excited about having the engagement from us I do too which I 100% support I I don't disagree with you I think there was you know there's a lot that goes into his department and uh let none of us can know all the details and I think when initially when we had some conversation about it with me member Santos um I remember being in the room and just in an hour conversation I learned more she learned more just about like we don't get uncooked food it all comes cooked like that's just something super simple people don't realize that right so they're not we're not cooking food we're heating it right and so just education on that level of what is it how it comes how we portion size I think there is an aspect of that and how we can better put that out there he has a wonderful web page that has all of that but people aren't going to that either so I just I think there's and he will welcome the conversation and opportunity and I know that it's tough for him I know that him and the assistant director were here today because they had four staff people missing and I know that they're out most days you know Sur surfing food so kids eat um so I appreciate anything he wants to put on the table and I I did tell him today in the conversation I'm following his lead he's he's excited about this and yeah I if I can get a taco boat out of the deal like I used to when I was eight it's a [Laughter] win we all have our favorite meals we already know what the mayor is the balone and cheese new is a taco bowl everybody will have a favorite meal of the cafeteria before this is over done remember Max um couple things so I don't want to take away from the students and the parents that are concerned with what the kids are actually eating because a lot of it is I don't think that I would eat a lot of it as an adult so I I worry about that and I don't want this to come across to parents as if we really don't care what their kids are actually getting aside from that I have done a lot of digging into other school districts lunch menu and I know you say that it's just like the language and fluffing up the language but it's not it's actually different food and it's better food and it's better quality food so the other the other concern I have is I didn't know we weren't cooking the food I thought we're just reheating like boxed meals that's how all of the food comes to us is already cooked so it's reheated so like we don't cook hamburger patties from raw chicken patties are not raw but we're preparing the food we're preparing the food right I'm sorry yeah we're preparing the food but it's mostly a reheating system that we do to actually those are my only two points I just wanted to yeah anyone else I'm not exactly brst on this do we provide breakfast for the kids in the morning okay now one of the things that I read was if the kids are late on the bus are we still providing them breakfast okay I just wanted to make sure on that because kids get what they need and they typically will either walk to their classroom they might not be able to eat in the cafeteria but they absolutely are getting grab and go breakfast is and I mean I was following a train of kids the other day with their cereal and milk and their fruit uh heading back to their classroom getting off of the bus so there is protocol that teachers allow okay I just wanted to make sure on that okay 100% kids are getting breakfast okay yeah all right and reminded much often about it yes y member Donovan just quickly when will you be um going for lunch I mean nothing is scheduled yet but I'll call you you come with me yeah I think it would be a good experience for all of us although we all can't show up for obvious reasons but um I would venture to Guess that if we wanted to go in small groups he would be delighted we'll let him get through the next week though right yeah I mean a lot going on I mean I'm going to meet with him Wednesday I will figure out a few things and put some stuff on the table for everybody thank you all right may I have a motion and a second to approve the proposal to increase school nurse perdum rate we do approve second move by member was let second by member discussion we need it thank you all right um there's no discussion I think you already know why we're putting this forward today uh it just we we do need to up that we haven't done it in a while and we're just not getting any it's it's too low of a price per DM to even get qualified candidates roll call please yes member Donovan yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes M shabil yes member Willette yes mayor Perry yes unanimous right may I have a motion in a second to approve the proposal to establish LPN pum rate so mov second moveed by member wette second by member dolio discussion member Maxwell this might be a silly question but is this included in our current budget um so I yes uh it is included in our current budget cuz right now we're where we have a substitute line for all of our all of our uh professional staff so this is coming from that professional that line for the nurses I'm paying out right now that through that line for the nurses who are floating and subbing and doing all of that now perfect question roll call please member Doo yes member Donovan member Keegan yes member Maxwell yes shilia yes member wette yes mayor Perry yes maybe no manth member shilia would you please oh question oh yes M Donovan do you think I think I think that's intended for me Isn't it oh no she's asking a question may Perry oh okay sorry given the um presentation tonight from nurse DWI I'm wondering if it's some we would like to [Music] reconsider given the money we are now dealing with reinstating the floating nurse position um think we can for um just it's not on the agenda so I don't believe we can we can maybe we would need to put it on the agenda for next time I believe that was a budgetary decision what how would that all work Mr that would mean we would have to add another position another salary into the budget um at this point I wouldn't recommend it um maybe as we get further into the year and we're collecting those funds from unfilled positions there might be available funds at that point but I wouldn't recommend it right now but that's just fine I mean I'm it's at the will of the committee but on a day that it's on the agenda I I thank I know think about it I'd be happy to put it on request to put it on the agenda at the next meeting and we maybe we could get a breakdown of how much we are now spending given we're down to one nurse or the situation going on I know you're not loving this I can tell I would love to see that because it sounds like we are spending a lot of money is would this be a way around it right member Willette again this goes back to the casualties of being decimated by $ four or5 million by the state and by Governor Healey so that's something we can send her a thank you letter we can do that but I mean I I agree with you it's it's a valid it's a lot of valid positions that I'd love to have uh restored um I mean I would love to have a director of security too it's it's tough It's like we made massive uh cutbacks and it's it's just you know four to5 million would be optimal for class sizes and I agree the presentation from the uh nurse representative tonight is something that definitely I'm in 100% agreement but we we confined by a limited budget that Bare Bones I we reviewed it constantly so I mean if we can Ian can work as magic and we have yeah some you okay but I you know I agree with you thank you we'll put it on the 1015 business agenda and at least have an update and discussion thank you um member shabila will you please give the committee an update on the audit that was actually a request just for a status update from mayor Perry yeah so um and I appreciate that Dan so um the uh we split the audit into two as you know and thank you uh members shabila and MERS none of them for your input so we have an operational and a a financial audit we've held the financial audit back so as not to get them Crossing each other um because if you recall when we initially sent it out feedback from this uh suppliers 16 who pulled it was it's just too big too large so the operational audit is out questions are due in by next Thursday and responses are due in by the Friday after and once that once those come in we will release the financial audit um and go through a similar time frame of about three weeks to a month can we make sure that it's on the agenda for the next meeting so we can get an update sure right thank you um other business from the committee remember wette thank you uh at some some point in the future can we have an executive session on security measures yes that's yes okay the mayor and I are planning for that probably the next the December the September 23rd meeting okay excellent thank you anything else with no further business to discuss may I have a motion in a second to adjourn the business Workshop session of September 9th 2024 so moved second moved by member daglio second by member Donovan roll call member daglio yes member Donovan yes member Keegan yes member Maxwell s member shilia yes member Willette yes mayor Perry yes unanimous good night me good night remember Des [Music] [Music] [Music] than