##VIDEO ID:4ENMmxhNDtI## is everybody here Julia that is correct very good then I call the meeting to order and I'd like a motion to adopt promote participation as written in the agenda please moved second second very good roll call vote in order starting with pam pam seon yes Sarah montigue Arlington yes Linda herbison boled yes Steve Leo conquered yes n Sharon do yes Charlie cabal Lancaster yes Sharon mustow Lexington yes Jeff Sten yes Alis Lucas Joe yes okay there was uh to my knowledge Julia there was no public comments submitted prior to the meeting that is correct okay the consent agenda I have one uh minor change in the minutes otherwise I think they unless you have other things that can be included in the consent agenda the minor change is on March 12th under the item consent agenda the first paragraph did not make sense so the um addition to the first paragraph under consent agenda is Miss Cabell requested clarification regarding the prior years invoice included under the consent agenda items that's all that is needed to make the paragraph make sense so I would like a motion to accept accept the items all the items including the minutes under the consent agenda with that one addition to the minutes unless people have other comments in the minutes so which case we'll take them separate so moved second well any further discussion about any of the items under the consent agenda and we have Sharon just one tiny little typo it says that um Miss Elie joined them meeting on the March 12th just remove the m and we're all good great we will do that without taking any other votes any other comments very well then bring it to a vote pam pam nurse Acton yes Sarah monteu Arlington yes Lind herbison Bolton yes Steve Leo conquered yes mat Sharon over yes Charlene cabal L Caster yes Sharon must Lexington yes Jeff St yeso yes chair's report for the good of the organization I actually have an item under here and it has to do with pam pam was quoted in the Boston Globe uh I received the online version was today on a a very interesting article that we should all read and what was this article about Pam oh my god um Jeff you're embarrassing me I have not seen the article oh what is but what is it about I did read it it was about um the odd way that choices are made with uh placement of kids in special educ they need a bad article and it's a it's an article that covers many many many many aspects of this uh it's a very very complicated topic and uh I think that the the globe did us a great service by whether you believe everything in it 100% or not they did a great service by bringing the topic forward and laying out some of the issues and Pam was quoted in it and uh my view is that you should all read it and I thank Pam for her service that such that the Boston Globe thought that you were one of the people to call to um comment on it so that's does say something doesn't it thank thank you very much Jeff the globe has been calling about a number of stories that's why I said I did not know that one was which one it was but this one which one it was this was one of the more interesting articles on challenge and educations that I've seen and uh something that we have to deal with as well as you know all other districts and it was a very interesting article um I just got in the online edition I don't know if it's in the newspaper until you know like tomorrow any other items for for the good of the organization very well then the principal leadership report Mr principal do you have some comments for us uh yes I do and I have our student Representatives here too that are going to join me um during this report I was wondering if I could share my screen whoever is in charge certainly Paul thank you sorry just taking a little bit but we got it presentation mod perfect uh yes so again as I stated um we are going to just go over a couple things that have been happening here at minan and there's one item that um Paul do you want to share your other screen this is showing us the preview screen so we see two slides at one y let's try this again apologize oh it keeps doing it I I'll just go through here um and we'll just go down I think that'll work um so I'm gonna let uh Riley start off our senior student representative um she's gonna talk a little bit about senior night in athletics hi everyone um so I'm gonna be talking a little bit about senior night um throughout the month of October we had um several game nights um to honor some of the seniors on their last night um and last season of fall Sports um we did something for the cheer seniors football girls and boys soccer volleyball and golf um especially for the football game um parents and um the senior student students walked out together so we were able to honor them and their parents um and give our parents a flower um it was a really nice um celebration to honor all their hard work and the years that they've spent um on the fall teams throughout their High School career um so it was really nice um the seniors also got posters as well as you might be able to see for the um boys soccer team as well um but it was really Bittersweet night especially as a senior myself um but it was um a very nice night to be able to kind of Honor everyone for our last season thank you Riley and Matilda I'm gonna have you go next with your Student Activities uh report sounds good um so I just wanted to touch on one of the major Student Activities that happened in the month of October which was our homecoming dance um it was a super incredible night um we had kids from all grades show up um it was a lovely way to kind of kick off the year um we since it was a fundraiser as well that goes towards all four grades I wanted to touch on the incredible fundraising we did um so in total we raised $4,400 and that means that each class was able to raise over $1,000 to go towards more Student Activities in the future of this year which I think was really cool we had an incredible DJ from the Curtis night entertainment um program as well as awesome teachers that were able to chaperone and um a lot of great students were able to stay after school to help set everything up to just really make it a magical night for everybody yes and I also want to add that our um paring Association also was helping with concessions that night as well so I I was really appreciative of everything that went into this dance especially as you can see the decorations uh transforming the Student Union into a a great place to actually have a dance and that's my first experience here so uh was very happy to be present and be part of that experience thank you matild then thank you Riley um the final thing is actually from me that's going to require a school committee vote um we received the mcast dates regarding when to do testing um as in high school it's prescribed dates in Middle Schools it's it's a window of time so you can go around it but we don't have that ability and we were looking at the dates of instruction when it came to the dates of administering the mcast and in order to make each work uh work and work smoothly um there's a couple of dates that need to flip regarding students that are in um their shop week containing to their academic week so if you look in the March area from the 24th to the 26th we're going to shift our that week or those days to an academic day and then finish out the rest of the week and then the following week May I interrupt an academic day for sophomores yes for sophomores yep right sorry um yeah I apologize I should have made that clear um so again for sophomores they would be following this academic week and then they would be um finishing out their shop week and then also May 19th and 21st when we're doing mcast math the same thing is going to occur we counted out everything so that it's equal time and no loss of time it just is a shift so that we can administer the test and maintain um instructional time for our shop and our sophomore uh just to know the school committee members we face this every year because when the mass dates come out we can't uh change that Sharon is your hand up your little little teeny bubble there so yes it is up um so Paul I appreciate the presentation um in looking more closely it actually looks like it's not unless I'm looking at an old calendar um it looks like it's not just switching those weeks it looks like as of March the rest of the calendar switches and it's actually um a plus three and a minus three for the two different groupings so I'm not sure if we could maybe just take a closer look yeah so if you look actually in the August September we start off with three um so that's kind of where our numbers counted out by days more than like weeks and things like that so when I go through it I know it's the initial look and I know it's the color change and all of that but when you count it out uh it does equal out on both sides all right yeah I just went from January till June and and as of that March switch every week is now opposite of what it was before so I just was counting out those and that's where it's a plus minus three but I I will admit I did not count August September October November and December I just went from January like moving forward looking at the second semester so if it's all equal that's that's so we need a uh a motion oh actually I have a a question first Paul can you clarify we are only switching three dates not the remainder of the calendar correct yes yep okay I just want to triple check because that would impact Co-op and all sorts of stuff but it does I mean and again I'm not trying to argue like I looked at the schedule because I was thinking about the same thing Co-op and stuff and it looks like the calendar that I have saved has April being yellow blue yellow green blue but this one looks like it's blue yellow blue green blue so I just want to maybe I'm looking at an old calendar but I thought the one that I have that looks like it's a PDF of 2425 looks opposite so Sharon this is you know what this is a wonderful thing that you're bringing up um we when we send this out we are not going to send another PDF we're going to send a link to the website so that we can remind people to stick to that website link because um when there's different PDFs out there especially with all of us we get drafts and things like that um we want to make sure we're using the most up to date but even with however the vote is uh we're looking for just those few dates that he has listed and we will triple check to clean that up that nothing else is is changed yeah because that was my concern for kids who were in Co-op so the motion will only be to change those three days regardless of what is in front of us now is that correct so why doesn't somebody make that motion so he can put on the table and then we can continue our discussion so moved second okay further discussion Alice was your hand up yeah I think it should be clear which three days so it says to adopt an academic format on March 24 to 26 and May 19th to 20 one um which is is that what you wanted to say yeah yes so if you look down here in March where these would all be blue we're making them yellow yep for the academic um we so that where it would have been blue blue blue right now we're making it yellow yellow yellow so it follows an academic schedule for us to um administer for seniors and sophomores yep yep and then same thing here in May 1920 and 21 okay so that motion really should say that you're adopting an academic format for seniors and sophomores on March 24 to 26 and May 19th 21 yep and that's the only and that is the only change yeah Heidi I did just check the link from the website and it is completely opposite the whole remainder so I think what we're looking for is a vote for just those dates period um it's really we need to make sure that our calendar that's on the website is the one that is 5,000% correct um if the vote passes we will update the dates that you voted on and send the calendar to the whole school committee for review before we put it on the website thank you and we'll double check uh Co-op and I'll make sure there's no conflict on that end either not easy to change a date on the calendar is it in the middle of the year no it's not thanks mcass thank you very much people for bringing up your comments on this to help clarify it especially you know uh um you have kids at the school and impact you it's a great thing to have as a resource any for the discussion of the motion of the table and you have to really like wave because you're in little little teeny boxes okay looks like we're okay uh roll call votes starting with pam pam nurse acting yes Sarah montigue Arlington yes Linda herbison Bolton yes Steve Leo conquered yes Maggie sh over yes Charlie and cabal Lancaster yes Sharon mustow yes as amended Jeff Stan yes and Alice Toca yes you know Sharon's right it was an amendment I think our discussion clarifies the meaning of the motion that was made so I'll that without going through the process all right um let's see what was I about to say I was about to say so thank you uh thank you principal thank you students we always like to see what the uh students are actually doing so we can get a little glimpse into their day at the school and um we move move on to the superintendent's leadership report Heidi Driscoll thank you um so I have several guests with me here tonight um but before I get before I share my screen to get to my first item um earlier today um I did attend a Commissioners meeting for superintendents like I do pretty regularly and there was an interesting um point that was brought up some new information that on this Friday at 1 pm the board of Elementary and secondary education will be having a meeting that was previously not scheduled with the topic of vocational admissions so that is this Friday at 1M I don't know if it's in person or online or hybrid or what that looks like um but I will um however it is happening I'll be attending with many other uh maava members and I just wanted to make you aware of that um short notice um in case that impacts some of my meetings with some of you um so that's just a point of information um so now I would like to um I will be sharing my screen and I'd like to invite Diane Dempsey to share some information with all of you um she here do I see her little yes Bo here oh hi hi there so many boxes today um so I if you don't know Diane Dempsey organizes graduation for us each year um and when I did my beginning survey and did all my meetings this summer um graduation was something that people loved and raved about and um so of course Diane and I talked about um graduation and why people love it and would like to share a proposal with all of you um so let's see all right all right and this is what we're asking you I'll hand it over to Diane uh thanks Heidi hi everybody um so yes we as I think all of you know um we've had our graduations at the Lowel Memorial Auditorium for at least I was looking at some old paperwork at least since the class of 2015 um and we've had really a really nice success there they've been really helpful um they're super easy to work with um in this year when I met with Heidi about the next contract um because we are finishing our one-year contract with this class of 25 um Heidi and I thought about um doing a a longer contract with the LMA so we're proposing a five-year contract this year um and we decided to do a cost analysis on having our graduation at Minuteman because that question has come up a few times um now with the new Fields um so we did a cost analysis on site we got proposals from a number of different companies and we thought we would present it to you all again for your vote to see which proposal you would prefer um my opinion is I think we're in the early stages of looking at something here on Campus based on our facilities currently um but we wanted to give an actual cost analysis so if we were to consider hosting it here on campus for fiscal year 25 the cost would be um approximately $27,000 and we broke it down as you can see by the restroom facilities we would need to rent um a stage rental with tent uh to clarify that tent is only covering the stage because that's required by the rental company for an outdoor stage is to have a tent over it that wouldn't be a tent for the graduates say um the chairs the Minuteman um cost for the facilities Main staff for setup is listed we would need a security detail and then the AV Equipment we would need is beyond what we have the capacity currently on site um additionally obviously weather plays a big factor in hosting it on site um we talked about a rain date and then what would happen if there was a potential rain out weekend would we have to go indoors and space availability would be an issue so at that point we would have to limit the number of guests that each graduate could invite which is not something we do currently at the LMA um and of course first Friday in June you never know what the the weather and the heat would be so um we've all appreciated I think the air conditioning at the LMA on certain dates um and then we also had an issue with parking on campus so we would need a satellite parking we thought about up at CR Berry Hill but then we would also need someone um or multiple people to you know transport our guests from that parking lot to the fields so we looked at all of that obviously that's time Logistics money um so again for fiscal year 25 is about $27,000 then obviously we now have um a proposal from the LMA for a five-year deal so hi you and I were able to actually give um real costs so it's 7800 for fiscal year 25 um there's a question on the um parking because we have been paying for validation um and it's approximately $15 per car um again that would be something we would look to you all to see if we continue to still pay that fee um so we've gone and looked at the fiveyear estimate and even in our fifth year it's a little bit under $1,000 um that doesn't include the parking we're not sure exactly how much the parking might increase that's the city of Lowel versus LMA is where we get that parking from um obviously having it indoors is no impact with the weather there's facilities on site plenty of restrooms um handicap accessible air condition uh and you know for those reasons we just wanted to present this to you all and just look at what your input might be um again with this company we really just walk in with our graduates we're responsible to bring the kids the diplomas and we put the show on there and they're really easy to work with so um none of the facilities our maintenance guys would be responsible for anything if we were to continue at the LMA so I think that wraps that up I um if we're g to ask you all for your feedback on that in a vote um and again I think we don't Heidi and I talked about the parking not necessarily needing a vote but just getting your input on continuing to to fund that for these years um or if you would prefer that we have self-pay and not Val the cars that's certainly up for for you all to to think about but we would ask that you vote um for a five-year contract with the LMA Alice thank you Diane i' like to make a motion so we can put it on the table to approve the contract of the low Memorial Auditorium for graduation for the period 2026 to 2030 second a discussion I think it's a great facility I've been there as a a parent and then last year as a member of school committee up on the stage and I feel like the team has the whole agenda running like clockwork I like the fact that it could accommodate different sizes of families and friends um it's easy to get to I I think it's a great place so Alice's hand up uh been to a lot of graduations both on the fields with tents without tents in the rain and also at the little Auditorium and this the case has been made by Diane for me um air conditioning and global warming it's all over other comments um from Maggie yeah I um I really appre appreciate the thoughtfulness with which um Diane you and the team went through this analysis um as one of the people that was curious about an outdoor graduation with this campus I think that your analysis makes it very clear that this is a better idea and I'm very much in the if it's not broken don't fix it um category and I just want to say thank you I got a I haven't been to one in in person but I've had a chance to watch a couple of them on the YouTube and you you guys just do a wonderful job of graduation I just want to say thank you other comments Charlene no her hand is not up uh my comment is that the few times I've been there at this Auditorium I don't like driving there but the event is terrific and the facility is uh matches our needs extremely extremely well so I'm pretty happy with this no further discussion bring it to a vote pam pam nurse Acton yes Sarah monu Arlington yes Linda herbison Bolton yes Steve Leo conquered yes Magie Sharon do yes Charlene Cabra Lancaster yes San must Lexington yes Jeff stol and nean yes Al Jo yes okay very good so thank you for bringing it up and thank you Diane for your for your work on this and uh for some very excellent graduations and which I I think the kids appreciate them too thank you apprciate thank you Diane all right uh we gonna talk about the parking or not you want some uh overall feedback i' say depending on how much it costs we should validate for the parents yeah I I would agree I think that there's so much going on and the parking attendants that are there really need to keep people moving in uh and I think just would tie up traffic even more with with with parking passes or whatever so I think it's a nice touch for the for the families I don't think we have to vote or make that decision today but I my my view is that we should continue to pay for it and I guess that's kind of feedback you were looking for I don't see anybody disagreeing with that hey Jeff we don't actually need a vote for it but we were just looking for your feedback totally support it I like the idea that we host people for graduation and don't make them pay for the car load yep totally agree I think parents who had a PR sorry parents who had a previous child graduate and know that we used to do it would feel cheated if we didn't so I definitely support paying for it all right so there we go thank you uh for for reminding us of that heid Driscoll you we're not done with you tonight so I oh I know all right let me put my slide deck back up okay um I am still in the information and data Gathering um phase of my entry plan um starting um actually my plans will be changed this Friday but um starting as soon as this Friday possibly uh I will will be visiting each um separate area or Department uh with the lead for a tour and uh almost like a day in the life uh so I can visit every classroom I can see what works I can see what doesn't work and get a personal um face-to-face tour instead of just reading um information from all of our um sources so um some something that uh has already come up uh is that people really want um the public to know about what we do in our vocational programs and in our academic classrooms so under the area of enhancing communication which is one of my goals I have two wonderful teachers and leads who are with us here tonight or additional um leads who are here with us tonight who are going to share with you what we um think our catchy title will be a college and career highlight um so today um Sarah art and um Greg Donovan will be sharing um everything that they would like to highlight when it comes to College and Career um giving information about our different Pathways and about our uh academic areas is kind of like having someone sip water through a fire hose so what um what Sarah and Greg did was a really nice job I feel like as um hopefully models for other departments as they come through and um they want to give you a picture even though we can't walk through all of them of some of the highlights that we as a school district um are very proud of when it comes to Preparing our students not only for college but for their future careers um so I I have everybody in tiny little small boxes so Sarah hello all right I'm going to hand it over to Sarah so welcome and I will um scroll through when whenever you're ready I'm ready hello everyone hi Sarah so um my name is Sarah Ard I'm the lead for the life sciences pathway and I'm going to take you through what that looks like so we're made up of four departments biotechnology environmental science and technology horiculture and plant science and our newest program veterinary science um this right here this is just a a small representation of how diverse life science is as a pathway so stem within Life Sciences is vast and spans various disciplines as you can see um the interdisciplinary nature of our programs allows us to study um everything from looking at development of vaccines and biotech to advancing sustainable agriculture and studying ecosystems next so shown here this is a picture of Oliver Loren from Arlington he's a biotechn ology student he's dissolving a solution um as part of a workshop with the advanced uh regenerative manufacturing Institute or Army it's a workshop that comes in and they do a lot of work with stem cells so our students are getting Hands-On training from them in our shop this is another picture of what the um army group brings in so it's um pre-prepared for industry they have hearts and kidneys of different animals so that the students can look at stem cell development um a little bit about Army is um they're a nonprofit organization and they're focused on advancing the field of biofabrication and regenerative medicine so our students in biotech are working with them to learn how to develop and scale Technologies for manufacturing replacement tissues and organs which as an 11th you know 10th 11th 12th grader this is groundbreaking for stem um this particular group is funded by the Department of Defense so they actually are looking at um part of their mission is actually working with um Academia and students and getting them into furthering their stem interest and showing them the different areas that they can go into using our Labs so this is um this is a picture of our environmental science students believe it or not um a lot of people don't know this but we actually have two plots on the minute man campus that um our Minute Man environmental students maintain and um what those those are in the Harvard forestry Museum database so the students are using GIS um and some other different um statistics that they upload regularly to keep this database up to date on our property students are also learning about GIS which is huge right now in the field of environmental science um as a means to combat uh climate change and the students are also working on drinking water and wastewater operating um certification training which would get them uh step two in going into the wastewater treatment plants as a as a job here's more training in the field so we have students in environmental science at the Salem Beach um going out examining Coastal and saltwater ecosystems they learn how to measure the uh erosion on the beach as well as look at um invasive species of crabs and fish which are in our waterways here's um Angie lazarova from Arlington she's one of our vet science students this is her working at a clinic in Dam the dam Veterinary Clinic getting um Hands-On clinical experience so here she's checking for an ear infection the students go out every other week to get hours towards their certified um veterinary technician license so this is a picture from our Horticulture and plant Science Program um some of the things that they're working on is currently G in ground Farm in conquered which is a nonprofit Farm 100% of the produce that they um grow they actually give away to nonprofits um sorry to food pantries in our area they produce over 20,000 pounds of produce every year they recently took on a new property which is owned by the National Park Service um it's a 6 acre property um I forget the road that it's on but U what they're doing is they're using regenera of Agriculture and they're rehabbing the land they're going to be using it on a 5-year lease hoping to go longer than that um and that will be part of the 250th um battle Road anniversary coming up in April so they're going to be having a past president actually come to that property to look and see um what regenerative agriculture is doing in the Parks and they will be having a past president come as part of that um one of the really exciting things about that is the Secretary of the Interior is actually um looking at this site as a model going further in National Parks across the country there's also um on top of the building there's a rooftop garden area that is we're just starting it now but um we're going to be growing More Produce up there for the Student Union and uh there is right now in the greenhouse we're growing quite a bit of produce but we're going to be adding to that so that our food service can use more local hyperlocal actually um produce in our salad bar and like all the other shops um in our department um horiculture also attends a lot of Industry conferences to meet with um industry professionals as well as University researchers to learn you know the newest trends and what's happening in the stem field of Agriculture and our new program veterinary science um we're coming up in our fourth year so students are right now they're preparing to take the veterinary science Career Development event which is part of FFA so they're going to be competing against other veterinary science programs in the state they're also gearing up to be the first class to take the certified veterinary assistant exam which is what they've been getting their clinical hours towards and we're also um hopefully in the final stages of solidifying the pet daycare business that will be happening so that will be mostly dogs um the students will get clinical Hands-On time on campus um you know uh doing different techniques on the animals that they would normally have to do at clinical and let's see oh and our sorry and our first graduating class is coming through which is really exciting this is a lot on this slide but um as far as Cooperative education it's really vast our students are all over the place doing a lot of really cool things um I think this list is really impressive this is just the tip of the iceberg so this is just some of the places that they're at currently and that they were at last year and we have a lot of our juniors are gearing up to go out on co-op in early February as soon as they're eligible and I think the important thing to note about Co-op is a lot of all of the jobs that you see here the students have had to actively go out and get themselves so um the teachers help them um Christina J and our Co-op director also assist them but for the most part it's the students sometimes cold calling sometimes you know asking a teacher if they know someone asking a friend of the family if they know someone and then they have to do a formal interview and believe it or not we have students at UMass Medical MIT um the town dpws we have them different tree companies all different animal clinics so everyone across the board is hiring our students and then they're actually asking for them back and the best part is um our seniors that are out now the co-op employers are asking for a junior to come on the alternating weeks so in within life science um we have an FFA chapter so as most of you know um all of the students in the building are skills USA members but if you're in life sciences you're also enrolled as an FFA member which is formerly Future Farmers of America but as you've seen agriculture is much more than farming now so FFA is the the oldest student organization in the country as well as the largest we have a very active chapter um it's similar to skills and that it hosts events and competitions that highlight life science skills um throughout the school year and at State Convention students can compete in numerous events this is a picture of our officer team meeting with the Secretary of Education oh that's that's actually the commissioner commissioner thank you we've had a lot of uh a lot of visitors over the past few weeks yeah um as you can see our our at officer team is pretty diverse it's made up of students from all of our programs and a lot of our different towns um this is a picture to give you an idea this is from the 2021 f National Convention which was held in Indianapolis um since it's the largest student organization in the country they usually host over 70,000 students for the National Convention um our Minuteman students from our chapter went and we actually represented the state of Massachusetts in What's called the Hall of States so every state has um basically a table set up a display of their Agriculture and U minute man was one for Massachusetts so we got to go and represent ourselves among all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico Guam and the Virgin Islands all right so that was a lot of information but hopefully it gave you a good Spotlight on our Academy and a little into what we do and if you guys have any questions feel free to reach out any questions or comments school committee members other than no but thank you thank you Sarah yourself you're welcome Charlene I just wanted to say that I really appreciated that presentation um I'm a new parent at Minuteman and it's always very interesting to find out what everybody's doing um so I appreciate that thank you very much Alice ala um I appreciate this too I talked to a lot of people and past couple of months somebody asked me if we had FFA now I can talk more uh clearly about what FFA is AD minute man and I'm very happy to hear about it thank you yeah I just I loved that presentation and I wish that we could get more of that information out to the public because you know you have all these parents on Facebook and different things eth graders being like oh we're debating between minute man and public school who's got ideas and I just I just think that they still don't know all the amazing things that happen at Minute Man and I would love to find a way to get that out there more because it's incredible so thank you I think that that presentation would blow the minds of a lot of people in our communities that especially when they say well we think they want to go to college I'm like they can go to college from minut man do do um do we eventually put these uh out on YouTube or anything is there a way to make the portions of this meeting that are um like those presentations like available as like a clip that we could share with interested families I think that would be an excellent idea to take the clip of that presentation and to put it in our website to use it in our um Communications and marketing to our towns so they could do that or she could do a special one just just for that purpose but the clip from the the meeting is probably good enough uh so Maggie I I appreciate that point very much um currently um when it comes to photographs and videos I think we haven't updated since pandemic um times essentially um so we do need some fresh professional videos photographs and so Point duy noted no I mean honestly like I think the thing is like I I don't want to like as much as it would be awesome if that was like such a like wo graphics and everything great I loved the detail in there I loved the specifics the like this is is actually what people do so if we do go down the more professional route for those kind of videos like just don't let's not like let's keep them kind of detailed because that's where it really makes an impact and I love what you just said this is what people do so that's why we have our leads here because that that's what we want to show and Greg has been patiently waiting um and Greg is going to show you what people do um in English and um I hope I share his presentation appropriately let me see here hello everybody Welcome Greg want I congratulate Sarah she had to do four times the work that I had to do because I only have one major and that's English so congrat he thought he was going first he thought he was gonna get it easy yeah I kind of wish that I was going first after that all right let me see here oh look at that Greg I've been waiting with baited breath to make this work does it look okay yeah I'm gonna request control if you don't mind approved so hopefully this works now okay everybody oh you would need share yourself then you want me to share myself yep I apologize for my dog can you see my screen no not yet okay SEC there it goes okay you can see my screen now presentation there it is perfect okay we're off and running everybody so again I only have one quarter of the information that SAR does okay so hope hope I won't suffer by comparison so what I decided to focus on is how the English Department is supporting College and Career Readiness um and we're not GNA give you everything we give you one sampling of that and the main sampling is what's going on in the Juniors class right now and that's with the resume and what we're doing junior year we've set a goal for the Department of having 100% of our Juniors to have resumés by the December break and that's the really key and the target of December is for a reason that she'll see momentarily and the team of teachers that we're going to be doing that with are M Anderson and here she is working with some of her students Mr Gerard is also part of this team working on the resumés and there he is with his students Mr Sharon and can actually see the picture on the left he's actually working on the summary section of his resume with his students and myself but I'm not putting my picture up there yet so it's coming the um Department what we do is a lot of the writing we're working on is coming from this John Collins writing system which was brought in years ago by Bill Blake some of you probably remember Bill Blake's name and last year that there's the picture of me last year we were actually able to bring John Collins back to the school for a bit of a reboot because we've had a lot of teachers um come into the building over the last couple years both academically and the vocational area and the reason we wanted to do a bit of a reboot is because the skills that go on in this writing the language that we use Us in this writing they're are they're all transferable and it's really important that the vocational areas and the academic areas kind of have a common language when we start to go through writing within the building and obviously with with resumés we're dealing with is lots and lots of drafts um those are my actual corrected papers they with lots of red in too much red ink and part of the John Collins writing system um I won't go into all the different levels of it but the type five is the final one the one that we in many cases don't get to as often because it's referred to as what's called publishable this is something a document that the students produced that we would be proud of and they would be proud of to hand out to a professional and in this case um this is a a student who produced a resume here from stow and you can see you know it showcases I'll give you a closeup of a different one in a second but it's a very professional looking document it's a very publishable document and here's one kind Dove tales with what Sarah did this is um a highlight of one section of the resume for our newest major the veterinary science and you can just see all the various areas that this resume is showcasing that these students have learned by the time they're in their junior year the the various headings that you can see animal restraint animal anatomy and physiology surgical nursing Hospital management procedures animal examination husbandry Dean Bond medical terminology the various tools and vast list of certifications so it's a vocational M major that is really U very technical in the way it presents things and just to continue you know because we always have to be Forward Thinking what are we looking forward to here as a department one of the things we're looking forward to and the reason we we set that Target date of December is because we have our College Fair coming up probably late January they're finalizing the dates right now and at that college fair the students especially our Juniors will have the opportunity to potentially hand out some of these resumés um to get this jump start on College which is just a a great way to Showcase what they're learning already because in many cases what they're learning is equally as valuable as what's going on in a college career as well the other thing we have um an eye towards the future on is Co-op placement a lot of our Juniors will be heading towards co-op in the second half of the Year and that gets going in February so having these resumes in place again to give out to perspective employers really sets them up to future success and um there's I don't know why I have the double college fair my apologies there the exploring the CTE uh 360 this is a job Readiness website that we use here at school that helps them with Co-op placement so they' be able to look and compare the skills that the employer is looking for with the skills they're showcasing on their resumés themselves at the end of this year because we want them to understand that resume building is a an organic thing we want them to understand that at the end of the day we're going to revisit these um resumés to revamp them to add more certifications if they've earned them to add in add in some cases drop jobs that they might have had in the course of the school year and maybe they're out on Co-op and we can add that as a placement piece but it's important that they start to understand that the resumes cells very organic and they have to keep updating them and eventually the beginning of next year they'll start to think about putting these into their senior portfolios again hopefully at the beginning of next year based on what they did in the summer they'll revamp them again and just keep embracing this idea um I need to keep continually updating Things based on my knowledge base and that's a real quick look at everything um that's some information to reach out to me and very pieces that I have here at school see if I can figure out how to unshare or you can maybe unshare me yeah can you unshare me I will I can try or Julia can oh okay I won't take it personally oh wait let me see there we now I can stop it great thank you great job Greg thank you comments or questions school committee members Alice uh once again great presentation and um one a great reminder of why minute man is best and that's it I would like oh go ahead I'd like to make a comment for Greg if you don't mind um Greg was under tremendous pressure um because I was an English teacher um and this was the first time we're working together um closely so I I felt tremendous sympathy for Greg because um it was I I just couldn't be more impressed with the work that he and his Department are doing um and I don't know if you commented or or could hear excuse me him make the comment about transferable skills that is something that I feel like we at Minuteman do very well help students understand those transferable skills and why they're so urgent that's not the case everywhere um so thank you for pointing it out Greg and I'm sorry Jeff I got so excited I that that is exactly the comment I was going to make because when teaching computer science in Newton South High School for many years uh a lot of those kids are in computer science to escape the dreaded writing or presentations or whatnot and when they when they get me they get the discussion in order to be successful in any career path you have to be able to communicate you have to give presentations you just can't be a nerd a techno nerd so we have that very long discussion and it's the first time they've heard it some of those kids the first time they've ever heard it because it is not part of uh the general discussion there yes they have writing a lot of writing writing is important getting the idea that the writing presentation communication is as important to their um career path as the skills that they have is an idea that is new to many of them they see for the first time with me and that's not the way it should be so um I'm very happy to see that I know that you talk about that a lot here at minem man and it is a great benefit to these children Sharon yeah and I just think the part where you were showing about how you've really encouraged Ed all the students to put all of their certifications on there I mean that just makes our students shine compared to their peers because what other 16 17 18yearold kid has the certifications that our kids do and even as a parent when I looked at my own son's resumee I'm like you have all those certifications like I didn't even know half that he had I was like wow you learned all that so may you just made him up and put him on there no I saw the certificates that they made them print out but you know like it's just it's incredible and so that the fact that they can Market themselves that way way is great so thank you for doing that skill so important other comments questions School commers very well yes I have Charlene I was just going to say that I appreciate the details um you know sometimes as a parent you kind of struggle to figure out what people are doing and um in the schools and knowing that you know this presentation you explains the exploring the CTE 360 job ready the John Collins writing I mean those kind of details are not always available um at every school and I appreciate that you are all giving us these types of details so thank you um I'd like to point something out about the John Collins writing um that is a very explicit system where very rarely do teachers get to level five publish and to hear that minute man is actually going through the full writing process to teach students the purpose is to have writing that can be used to communicate that is to be shared with others um I couldn't be more impressed um I I again as an English teacher who uh who is very passionate about writing um I was thrilled to to learn that and see that myself and I'm not sure which of you or who who I don't know if I gave it to everyone or to certain groups but if you remember when I went through my very public interview process I had a document called a history of commitment and it went in Chron reverse chronological order and the very last letter of recommendation um in that document because I'm sure you all read all the whole thing um was a letter of recommendation for college from my high school English teacher and I went to a Vocational High School um and my English teacher John Sullivan um who I love um who I had Junior and Senior year did exactly the same thing my resume didn't look as good in high school as the one Greg just shared um but did exactly the same thing that um we do here and that what he talked about revisiting the resume um that is something that um I have done since high school because of my high school English teacher and I hope he knows uh and all the English teachers know that I do believe these are true skills that end up impacting people um for years Beyond um their High School experience so um I'm gonna actually give Greg a copy of that book so he'll be like oh my gosh people will make these 25 years um but thank you so much Greg and um thank you Sarah um I hope that these will be models that we can use so we can have presentations in the future that are super focused on what's actually happening in classrooms and we talk more about what we do instead of just sort of philosophies um so thank you for going first Sarah and Greg and I appreciate all of your wonderful questions um and I also I see Katie and Samantha here um please don't think you're off the hook we'll absolutely have both of you present many times I'm sure just um we're GNA spread the wealth a little bit so thank you for coming um and Jeff are there any other questions I think that's the end of my leadership report I was about to say I think that's the end of the I got one from Pam right there um hi and I just also want to say how much I really enjoyed um all of these uh presentations um Heidi going back to where you started um only because I had something that just came across my desk today about the meeting that you had talked about on Friday with the board of education on Career Technical admissions that is a virtual meeting it's going to be um live streamed and then there's another one on Monday which will be their third session that will also be live streamed at 5 o'clock on Monday Monday night is a study session Friday is an actual board meeting to my understanding but um once I get that information I will make sure that I send it forward to all of you and to like I did last time to anybody else who may be interested in receiving that information thank you Pam I do recommend we all attend in any capacity possible very well moving on we have a very very exciting Finance Report with Steve this evening it won't be exciting as the last won't be as exciting as the last presentation um the finance committee met on October 21st and November 4th uh most of the things we discussed are actually on the agenda to be discussed in a in a in a minute um however uh a couple things uh one uh the committee did approve their goals for this uh this fiscal year which I think will be in front of the school committee at another time and we got our very very preliminary view of uh of the FY I'm gonna get this right 26 budget that number just scares the hell out of me but anyway um so it it it's you know we don't want to really talk about that now because it was just really departmental uh requests and the superintendant will be uh taking her time to uh uh present her recommendations early in December uh just one thing that I I thought was interesting as as we looked at the preliminary numbers and it it's on the revenue side and Nikki correct me if I'm wrong but um we are actually uh going to have a little more in in out of District tuition than we anticipated uh because uh after all the acceptances and uh we're giving out we actually had more out of District kids accept admission than than we thought so kind of that issue in the pr we've been talking about just going to get kicked down the can the cans is going to get kicked down the road a little bit but um any rate we'll be uh getting deep into the budget in in about a couple more weeks so um you know stay tuned and with that I'll uh turn it over to Nikki for U the rest of the the agenda from the finance folks excuse me if you are are not talking then please put yourself on mute there's been some feedback going on for some of us thank and just a followup on Steve's um comment about the tuition and the capital fee um we will see a a slight decrease but what we did see in enrollment this year was that we did graduate 19 out of District seniors and we did accept the exact same number 19 uh freshman so what we will see for um our assessment um our Revenue that's able to offset Our member Town assessments is that that will stay consistent um and it won't drop as much as we have anticipated um but we will turn our Focus um to the agenda items and we will bring to you um further budget discussions um once myself and uh superintendent Driscoll have gone through um the detail in the department request with a little more um fine tooth comb so I will share my screen um and I am I correct in that the first item is a prior your invoices yes that's correct so we um have two prior year invoices to bring to uh minut man school committee for their attention and approval these were presented to the finance committee um anything that um comes to the business office that isn't within this fiscal year does require school committee approval to be paid um so those will come to our school committees so there are two invoices um one was for our uh our school doctor um the secretary unfortunately when she was billing us for this year realized she forgot to bill us for last year so um they had submitted that invoice and um for the amount of $4,700 um and they're asking for approval for us to pay that um second is a a invoice to Codman Community Farms um unfortunately there was a little error when they went on their June um 24 field trip the animal Science Program um they did a guided farm tour but someone wasn't there to take their payment they thought it had um been charged but it ended up not being charged so they're following up now for a $300 bill for um that field trip so I am asking for permission and authorization to pay the two noted prior year invoices okay I have a motion to pay these two invoices I I'll make the motion to approve these uh these prior year invoices and just a note that the finance committee did unanimously recommend them second discussion anybody roll call vote Pam Hamner saon yes Sarah montigue Arlington yes Linda herbison Bolton yes Steve wo conquered yes Maggie sh over yes Charlene gabra Lancaster yes Sharon M Lexington yes Jeff Stan yes usto yes question go right ahead um I think the school phys requires eventually the school committee to approve that position and I don't recall really doing it recently and I don't think it's important but it is something I think they left over in the law so we probably should at some point that is also my understanding yep he um next item so you know really in a tough position here because you guys had some great student reports so I'm going to I bet you're all thinking didn't we just do this with our June 30th reports um but we are already through our first quarter um of the school year and I'm here to present our September 30th reports you will have a break um from me um while we work on the budget and then we'll present you know our our second quarter reports around February so uh bear with me while um we go through the numbers again so as far as where we are starting off here this is our general fund report um I've noted to you um in the past that we have our function codes here these are the desie function codes that we have to report out at the end of the year and that's how our chart of accounts is created um what we have here is the sum of our budget that the school committee approves by function code any adjustments and then what it looks like the budget looks like in our um general ledger system any expenses that have been paid to date year to date an encumbrance is a purchase order that was approved but has yet to be paid or expected payments on salary through the year and that brings us to our ending balance so um what I am bringing to you tonight um is showing you what our budget was the 31 a. half million so far we've spent um just shy of six million um and we have 22 million encumbered leaving our balance of about 3 million which is a little over um believe it's the 10% so um we look here to see how our ending balances are most of our function codes are in good standing um and we will be coming to the school committee tonight for a budget transfer for these two lines in particular um are other non-employee Insurance line um we had some insur insurances um that had gone over budget um in this line in particular with our school building and our cyber security Insurance uh what we will be presenting to you is um a transfer from our insurance program so still within the same category um we did antici we are seeing some savings um in what we what was voted for our health insurance vers versus what we had budgeted they actually voted a 0% increase so we will be presenting um and asking for approval to move money from our function code 5200 to our um other non-employee insurance line and our second um deficit that you'll see on this report is in function code 7200 which is um acquisition of building acquisition and Improvement of buildings um we had budgeted some money in our acquisition of improve acquisition of improvement of equipment um we are asking for a transfer um to that line in that line is to help fund our um Capital plan that the capital planning committee um has looked at and assessing the building for long-term planning going forward um so I'm happy to answer any question questions on this report or we can go to our um summary memo and um ask for the approval for the votes Nick G ask the same question I asked you in the fincom meeting sure this first quarter report is pretty much as expected and is typical for the first quarter and there's nothing uncorded in it at all absolutely it is in good standing um you know what I anticipate seeing for the next quarter report um maybe us looking at um some additional um expenses that we have surrounding um homeless and Foster Care um it's and potentially special education Transportation um since September 30th we have seen an increase in those um so that that's one item that I will see in our um I would expect to um bring up in our next um sec quarter December 31st report to the school committee did you have a comment no I was going to make a motion if it's appropriate at this point well the motion would be for the next item I think she's going to show the slide for the transfers oh okay all right so now you can make the motion then we can discuss it thanks I I would move that the school committee approve the uh two budget transfers as presented uh the finance committee did res uh review this last week and unanimously recommended its approval second second very good okay Nikki um so as we had mentioned in the report all the accounts were in good standing um per our policy any transfer over $10,000 between function codes is presented um for approval to the school committee um so as IID summarized before um we will be requesting the um reclassification essentially of insurances from health insurance Insurance to um our other non-employee insurance which covers our building and between um the buildings in equipment to cover our long-term capital plan questions or comments my guess is that the report is well going to be well worth the $26,500 and the insurance we had some damage in the building which is one of the reasons why one of our insurances went up as well as of course the focus this year on cyber security would require some more insurance so those were the major reasons I believe while we have those Insurance increases so very well then uh roll call vote pam pam n act yes Sarah monu Arlington yes Linda Herson Bolton yes Steve willo conquered yes n Sharon do yes Charlene cabal Lancaster yes Sharon must Lexington yes Jeff Sten yes Alis Lucas Joe yes okay two more exciting items our next report is our revolving report um again that as I kind of mentioned before um these are accounts that continue to revolve so the ending balances um from the year prior move forward and they give us a beginning balance which you'll see in this column um we have revenues and projected revenues as well as expenses um and encumbrances similar to our general fund report and then projections for year end um so overall um you'll see everything is in good standing we don't have any deficit Accounts at this point um for function code um 11 for our summer school um we did have some expenses that were paid out um over the summer but we collect majority of our Revenue um in in June um so that's why this beginning balance is a little bit bigger and you you aren't seeing much revenue in that one uh our MTI program we've have some um projected revenue and expenses based on enrollment to show um that they will be ending in good standing and we'll continue to meet on that and track that as the students progress throughout um the year our facility revolving account um we did have projected Revenue through the first quarter only uh Michelle rendez our director of operations um you know did a detailed analysis I would expect that based on this item we're on target um similar to last year um as far as the revenue we'll be expecting in our Athletic Field account to cover um both our Athletic Field reserve and our facility debt Reserve our um trades accounts are all in good standing um our director of CTE Katie bushard has brought up to me um that there will be a request um in the upcoming future to add an additional account for DVC and animal science um they'd like DVC would like to start selling some of the um products that they make with Graphics um in our animal Science Program um will hopefully be starting their Doggy Daycare soon so that may be an item that we um bring up in a in a future school committee for for a vote to approve those um we will be approving all of the other ones on this report today um go ahead yep our uh remaining accounts are our Capital fee items and our out of District tuition these are the items um in the amounts the projected amounts that you'll see that we will offset our FY 26 budget with um so we have our operating budget and then we use this Revenue um to offset what our member Town assessments will be so that our member towns don't have to pay as much money and that is the fees that we collect from our out of District students and last but not least our food service program um we had paid out a bit of expenses however haven't received um much of the federal revenue yet so um once we get that in that um Revenue in our in our system and in our bank account we'll certainly update that so that is a quick summary on our revolving fund report and happy to answer any questions no we we do have a vote to make I want to be clear that the vote is not on the numbers in this report the vote is that we are supposed to vote on approve all the revolving funds themselves as proof that the school committee understands what revolving funds that they they have so the motion that we're going to ask for is to approve all the revolving funds as presented so why don't we put that on the table and then we can ask all of our questions about the report and about these I will move that to m Mr chair and also know what the finance committee recommends okay so any questions about the report itself or about any of the the the revolving funds that we are voting to approve and as was mentioned we may have a couple to add in the near future but not tonight I see no hands so move to the roll call vote p Hamner saon yes Sarah montue Arlington yes Linda herbison Bolton yes Steve du conquered yes Magie Sharon do yes Charlene Cabra Lan cter yes Aaron must Lexington yes Jeff St need yes Alice TOA still yes and always happy to vote for World b day next item all right last but not least our Student Activity report um so as I've noted before the Student Activity funds are funds that the students fund raise um you'll see here the account number the fund name and the advisor um we will be emailing this out for transparency to all the advisers so they're aware of their balances um so it's recommended by the auditor to present this to the school committee every quarter we have our beginning fund balances any um Revenue that they've um earned through um September 30th and projected Revenue um and from the Student Activity um presentation from the students I hear quite a bit more money is going to be coming through it looks like so um expenditures through 9:30 and um incumbrances so all remain in good standing um you will again and vote um for you know we're asking for your vote and it it's an audit recommendation to vote on all of the Student Activity accounts um special note that uh we do have one new account the class of 2028 so we do anticipate every year you voting for that one new account in your vote of all votes so I have a motion to approve all the Student Activity funds as presented so moved and once again recommended by the finance committee second yeah again we're voting the accounts we're not voting the report we're voting that we know that these are the Student Activity accounts and that we we're just lucky to have a a very simple clear report that shows everything on one page which is very exciting any questions on this report on the categories that we have that we were about to vote for very well then bring to a vote pam pam nura yes Sarah montigue Earlington yes Linda herbison Bolton yes Steve Leo conquered yes Maggie Sharon Dober yes Charlene cabraal Lancaster yes Sharon M Lexington yes Jeff schen yes Aliso very good and and uh Steve is that the end of our of this evening's Finance report yes it is Mr chair okay very exciting for me like the finance stuff okay subcommittee reports we have the legislative subcommittee Charlene what do you have hello um not too much to report today we did uh send out those two letters one was for the extension of the uh remote participation to the governor and several local politicians uh elected officials from our towns uh didn't any response from that wasn't really expecting to uh the letter regarding the mcast vote of the um Mass Association of school committees um did get us a response and um they well I I believe everyone's had an opportunity to take a look at that um I believe Also I spoke with um the new division 8 division 8 is the mass Association of school committees uh division for revoke Tech education and there was a um election last week at the masc umm joint conference for the new leadership this year and to report back um the new leadership would be the um president will be Charlie Ellis the vice will be Lynn Ryan and the secretary Tracy Stewart um so Charlie Ellis also um discussed our letter uh with me personally and he said he was um appreciative of our letter uh that a lot of people want to make things more clear more transparent and um that they appreciated that we were keeping our eyes and ears open um with what masc is doing as well as um you know just general things in the vetech world um I will write a report report for the future about the conference that I attended last week but um for now I'll just say that it was a very interesting conference and there was a lot about the upcoming um discussion of the lottery and other admissions procedures for voke Tech schools so um that's something that I anticipate that we're going to be working on in the future um and we will be setting up a meeting soon I will speak to Linda um hopefully after this meeting to schedule a time for a legislative subcommittee meeting in the very near future any questions or comments on the report by Charlene and yes we have a Heidi comment how is on mute still on mute thank you had to double click there um I wanted to give a little bit of information that just came to me um with Pam's comment it is actually an additional study session which is odd um that's not what they said out loud at the meeting but you are right so there will be a study session Friday at 1 and another study session Monday in the evening and the the actual board meeting will still be at Holy o um on Tuesday Morning um so it is remote remote and then live um we will definitely share out information so everyone can hear that um it is to summarize it's too much right now but I appreciate everyone attending and being aware and being a part of that conversation and I also want to recognize Charlene for going to that joint conference it was very long um it is it is full days of work um and it is uh not only about uh upcoming legislation that impacts vocational schools and all schools um but there there are countless issues that affect schools um that Charlene did attend training on trainings on um with me and separately and um I hope next year um more people will join us I would love to see a group of us there together um but I want to just thank Charlene for taking that time out of her personal schedule um to go so thank you welcome it was a great experience any other questions or comments I will reiterate the thanks for your efforts here very important I was not uh very happy with the response from um masc I'm not sure we want to take that any further but I think we should think about a little bit um yeah any right any other comments or questions any other thing you have to say for us Charlene on this item tonight not yet I am looking forward to meeting with uh Linda and with the superintendent and moving forward with our uh new um new letters new agenda items for the sub commmittee on legislative affairs it's going to be a very interesting year for your subcommittee this year that is for sure I think it will be okay uh oh uh this that's the end of our regular agenda but we have a extra jam-packed executive session coming up I'm sure you're excited about but before we do that not all subcommittees have met and voted on their goals for the year so let's get those out so we can present them to the school committee as a whole that's what I'm holding out on so we're gonna I'm gonna have Julie s friendly reminders to the chair people of the subcommittees to try to get those as soon as we legitimately can I know meetings are hard let's get them all together so we can send them out and show the we goals for the year even though we already know what our really what our goals for the year are uh if there oh just another reminder that uh we have a separate link for the executive session so when we close this session you go to that other link they'll come back to this link and then we will have our um executive session at that link and who do we need to join us um for that we need the Julia the superintendent anybody else Heidi do we need anybody else other than um you and Julia and that is it okay very good and we are not to return to open session therefore um I'm going to move that we enter executive session it says return to open session but we don't want to return to open session of the agenda so move to Executive session not to return to open session to include the school committee Julia and uh superintendent Driscoll for the following reason number one does discuss strategy with respect to the litigation of George Clement versus minman Regional Vocational Technical High School Kathleen a Dawson as an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the public body and the chair so declares I've made that motion do I have a second second any discuss the motion Noe bring it to a roll call vote pam pam nurse Acton yes Sarah M Arlington yes Lind Heron Bolton yes people do conquered yes Maggie Sharon Dober yes Charlene Cabra Lancaster yes Daren M Lexington yes Jeff St n yes El Lu yes very good thank you all thank you all the other people who joined us school committee members I'll see you in a couple minutes on the other link