##VIDEO ID:8l82UG_gd3E## can't believe things just flying off the market I'm starting to see [Music] and Danielle Walmart the other day were you prob sorry that's the other side of me is it still just the an Marie is it still just the symbol up there okay 15 [Music] Che just it's okay just know ahead of time [Music] because it's very you know I know from experience e e e e [Music] I would like to call this meeting of the nans Regional School District school committee to order everyone would please rise for the pledge I the of the United States of America and which nation God indivisible the rep for as a reminder this meeting is being live streamed and recorded and is available to watch on both our YouTube and um Facebook pages all right so moving into our regular business we will start with the approval of the meeting minutes for August 15th 2024 so oh I didn't amend the motion on the page apologies for that but I would entertain a motion to approve the meeting minutes of August 15 2024 as written motion by Danielle second second by Heather all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes so that is unanimous and next we move on to bills and payroll and I would entertain a motion to accept the bills and payrolls as presented so moved motion by Heather second by Danielle any questions or comments on those seeing none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes so that is also unanimous well this evening we have some guests and our new student representative um so I will hand this over to Dr caban for a quick introduction of our new stream rep um were you not you know how were ending that so uh thank you m chair um it is my to introduce you to this icon who is uh a senior class of 2025 what office do you hold president president I want to make sure I had the on President because I know that it was a very close um vote it was a very close vote it was a great I've heard her speech it was wonderful so we're very fortunate um to have her uh represent basically the 1470 some odd students uh here uh will be the voice of of those students and we really couldn't have asked for a better Representatives she's quite wonderful um and very articulate so I will certainly yield for any comments that she might need well we look forward to your report do you have anything to share with us this evening um I had a list I don't I'm sorry yes do you remember just Amanda do you know um I wrote down about um all the fall Sports have started um they've all started really well too um we have our first or our second football game today and soccers today too so good luck to them I don't know how they're doing right now um also a lot of clubs have started so I'm hoping those will go really well too and um we have all the honor societies getting together now too so like I hope they go too that's was Warrior fist show oh it was really fun I had so much fun of warrior fist I worked at some of the booths and it seemed like other kids were enjoying it too um also homecoming went really well I think it was like a lot of commotion or anything it would smooth and then we have your reminder coming for you no don't be sorry I also wrote some stuff down about the middle school because I talk to about what's going on school and student council for them had their first meeting today um also a lot of their clubs have um started and inters are now going and they have dodgeball and they had so many kids sign up for that they had to split into three groups which I thought was good that we're getting more student participation like clubs and stuff also a lot of the first GES for Middle School sports were today and feel like you've had two and three names I've been so far but it's like the first two weeks of school so we'll see how that goes absolutely well fantastic thank you so much for talking with our Middle School folks as well because it's great to hear from the whole school um and find out what's going on so lots of exciting things to that's great M be sorry we all trust me I got have walk me through the first time I was Cherry so than he gets called off a lot so in in other news right other changes as We Know salic moved on to another position as the TVs principal luckily and thankfully Miss Mar muslin she stepped up into the creef she is uh is our principal inter for this year and we're very happy after spending a year last year as the assistant principal so the minute she was hired she the our PK in the middle of summer to uh find um well her replacement and of course you can possibly replace um it's nothing but close but so I introduce you to this case this caseing P who who will go through I'm sure they'll both kind of give you the trajectory of their um their very long esteemed careers but we're very lucky to have them both I don't know if we're going to go into it um later today about our opening dat PD I've never seen nor have I read more uh effusive praise uh about two folks and uh two-day professional development we all know how much teachers love to be in professional development um during during August so with that I would um like to introduce well M Russ you obviously know but um just case hi everyone um thrilled to be in the position I think every day I just realize more and more that I found my home um this is my 19th year in education I think um i' done a whole variety of things from being a one-on-one to building sub to classroom teacher to special ed teacher to assistant principal and that so um I'm just really excited I think the Year is off to a great start um our staff is Happy our kids are happy um I'm just we're looking forward to you know continuing with our P goals for this year and getting really into uh udl and continuing to to build upon um you know our our hmh PD that we've been working on really getting back into um you know tier one instruction um consistently so um we're excited and I'm happy to be here so thank you and for our non acronym friends UD yes so udl is Universal Design for Learning um which is one of our PD goals um as a district for the this year and hmh is our um our reading program a literacy program into reading great thank you so much you're welcome we're so excited to have you in this position in the district thank you hi everybody um so like Dr kin said my name is Casey putam I am so thrilled to be here and hired and part of this community again I grew up just in Winchendon so it's so nice to kind of come back home I felt extremely welcomed by everybody and so lot of familiar faces which is always really nice um and just like you know Marcy said it it just really does feel like a home and a community so thank you for all of the warm welcome and I'm just really excited to continue our mission and work together and build H you know great year ahead of us thank you so much we're so excited that you could come and join us and take a minute to introduce yourselves it's um fabulous to have you part of the destruction I've only heard good reports from my second gr so you already just great start but what's we waining for so excellent well welcome um any questions for no all right well thank you so much for coming H you're more than welcome to stay but if you have other obligations this evening we also understand if you time to stay they told me they wanted to stay um they almost demand was so I I fully expect them to stay Tire Dr C is GNA go do all of the drop offs for us you stay for three minutes thank you all for having thank thank you so much okay I don't see anyone present for public input tonight and so we will move on to Parker and n upates so um ND dist sounds like um all have been on to a really good start um many new teachers I at the elementary school I'm sure they can n hit that they want well they we um I wonderful reports about your new hirers yes yeah everybody's been fantastic so far so we're thrilled to have everybody on board yeah so sounds good no no complaints on my hands on anyone either so that's a good sign thank you um and I'm part of the mentoring program so I get to be in the monthly meetings with and they just have so much energy and so much to add and so much to offer so it's off to a great start in that way um just very busy all we've done all of our beginning of the year start testing I think everyone's in the middle school anyway know we're done um had a few stries when you know students who had been out that we had to make up so that's done so really just moving back into it's like back to the Grind everyone seems to be back to the Grind um and actually talking with Amanda um today because she's also my intern she's been my intern for two years so we're going to kind of try to put the middle school and high school together a little better on spirit days because we do our spirit weeks dat from theirs we won't do it all the time but maybe jump in on some of them just to make our kids feel inclusive with the high school and feel connected to those because a lot of those kids are their Ro models that especially those the student athletes um so it's actually great that she's with me and she's in this position so we'll to get a lot accomplished that's fabulous how great well welcome back to everyone we're so excited to be back it's been already a really busy start of the year um and yeah just really excited to see all the energy um out there so definitely seeing that awesome great okay moving right along um we have our fy2 budget update anything to discuss nothing new we waiting the ball we should be giving out a little late over but seems to be getting later and later so we see what that brings when it arrives um things yeah I'm just gonna jump right into the reports um there's not a lot of on the we're just getting started um we did apply for all of our entitlement grants so those are have been applied for those are starting to become up and running and stuff and um big thing I need to report on is our boss contract expires on June 30th this year so I need to put it out to bid as well so we can get a number for the budget um part of the bid process the procurement laws is anything beyond like a three-year contract that you want to do we have to have approval from our governing body which is Hugh um to put out for 5year bid which is typically what we do I have not remembered us doing anything less but it's kind of just like houskeeping but I would appreciate it if you could allow that and that way I could get this out this fall can get the numbers back in time a budget okay it's a little bit later on in our agenda but um no we could move it up and get it done since we're talking about it right now any anyone opposed to moving that agenda item up to this moment all right um so understanding that um I would entertain a motion to allow our business manager to begin the process of putting out a bit for a five-year contract for school bus transportation motion by Hank second second by Heather um any questions or comments for anarie about the the process for the five years itself seeing none all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes so that it's unanimous and we have one future piece of business done all right anything else you wanted to share um no there's not very much activity on the normal monthly reports so I think okay great um so moving on on to our next agenda item um I did want to um share publicly that we did have a letter of interest for the philipson position um from Miss Chrissy Haslett um the letter is attached um that said um she does hold several different positions within the town of philipon and so um basically I'm not an expert on conflict of interest law but to to try to explain it there are limits on the number of positions that any one person can hold within the town and then and then within adding in a district school district it adds additional complications so what we've advised her to do is to have a call with the ethics commission they have a free hotline um so anyone can call and get professional legal advice as an individual she has to do that herself we cannot do that on her behalf um so she's doing that um and following up on that so that we can figure out whether or not um is an application that we can entertain um but you know I absolutely want to extend my thanks to her for putting her interest out there um this is this position has been open for a while so truly thankful for her her interest in her letter um and we hope to be able to come back to that next month um or to report back on what the ethics commission reported any questions from anybody down all right moving on to curriculum and an instruction update um what do you have for us this evening sure so I have an update on our opening day professional development and then our general goals for PD um for the school year so I'm going to unpack some of the acronyms you heard ear too so to start off we had a fabulous opening with staff you know I don't know if the 10- week summer vacation leading up to the start of school year helped I would anticipate it did um but I will say folks just came back so refreshed so happy so eager to well with kids um and our opening PD PD feedback um was really positive as Dr cast mentioned earlier um so one of the things we did this year every three years there's a state requirement for public schools to hold in-person training for all staff um on suicide awareness and prevention and so as part of our opening day day PD with all staff we had a guest speaker from um from Haywood come in and he did a fabulous ous job talking about a very sensitive and difficult topic sometimes to talk about we got a lot of positive feedback from staff about um about that particular training as well um as our additional trainings that our building principles and administrative team put on um so we had opportunities during opening faculty meetings all of our staff had a chance with their billing principles to unpack some the new handook language um specifically around discipline and dress code and what the practices would be to look like to adjust um in their particular buildings and grade levels um of our teachers have a chance to engage in professional development around Universal Design for Learning which you heard a udl is the acronym because we love acronyms we'll probably add that to our AC it's not it's but Universal Design for Learning learning is a framework for thinking about curriculum design and instruction um to really me the needs of all Learners so it takes into account U potential barriers to learning learning for students and variability of students in front of you um so it's a way of thinking about how you present firm goals and flexible means for what you're teaching why you're teaching it and how you're teaching it um that's a very much a summary of what that is um but we had a chance to to introduce or review that with staff because some staff are not new to the to this brainwork um at the beginning of the year our special education teachers all engaged in a training with our new people service director Corey who you met last week last week feels like last week at our last meeting um to really unpack the new I so while we provided training at the end of last year it's going to be a theme throughout this year for that uh population of folks because it is it's a change in their practice it's a change in the format in our systems um and we really want to make sure that they're supported through that process um and then lastly for our opening day our professional development our um excuse me par professionals all engag engaged in behavioral V escalation training um so we we did a nice job I think really meeting some very needs in our in our system so as we go through this year our big buckets from professional development um will include Universal Design for Learning um which connects to some of the data points you may may recall from oura plan our student Opportunity Act plan um we also will be continuing a thread for our special education staff and service provider on the new IEP as we go through the year to make sure that any any uh needs that come up as we go through the process of actually utilizing that that process you know we have opportunities and space to work through those um in addition to that there's going to be some additional work at the elementary school um around their reading curriculum so hmh stands for um hon mland hardcore and that's the publishing company that produces inter reading which is our in program and so the teachers have been asking for quite a while to really get some support from the writing side of that um and so we're bringing in some trainers from that company to help them unpack uh their curriculum and really think about how they use the tools that they have access to to meet the needs of the students in front of them for writing um and then additionally at the high school level we'll be doing some preliminary work to really unpack and look more specifically at their written curriculums as we're preparing for um our next round meas accreditation which is our high school's accreditation process um so those are our big buckets as we go through the year and they opening to PD feedback as Dr casm mentioned um we had more written comments in our PD feedback forms this year than we've had looking back as long as I can see in our system um and very very positive particularly about um our principles and sister principles that deliver the PD any questions from Mr supery is inter reading new for the district or that would you've been using for it's not new um it was put in place um I wanted I believe it was put in place during the 1920 school year so it was put in place in then Co hit is that correct yeah 1920 school year so when teachers had the initial training then they were sent into this virtual learning platform everything sort of changed so it was challenging for them to implement um and then when they came back the learning needs of students were were different and um a little bit more intense and so we've been working last year to redesign sort of what is the structure of reading lessons and how do we use those resources um and now we're moving from that to the writing component there there's a digital and a paper component right there's like the workbooks and the correct there's a lot of components in the program um and so we have teachers have access to all of those we have online components we do have um we purchase hard copies of the leveled libraries the teachers manuals um the student workbooks as well so there's there's one more question are they map test or are they gonna STAR test no we use star star yeah they should have that data for you for the next Lisa mentioned that earlier MTH testing talks to HH correct but what we do have is our analytic view platform pulls our star data and our our um agent I say h ofh because it pulls from the platform that's associated with publishing company but that data gets pulled in from that so we do have a system to look at that data um I knew you would uh but as Lisa mentioned we are just wrapping up our Benchmark assessment Windows um most of our schools have finished up our window ends tomorrow so there's a few l ing makeup tests um and our kindergarten will be testing through next week because for their first um first Benchmark assessment window we gave them a little grace that some of them coming in are brand new to school and so you know pushing that back a little bit lets them acclimate um to school asking them you know to identify letter sounds and names great moving into business we do have some Surplus items this evening um Susan anything specific to share about those Surplus items um yeah just a quick note uh I spoke with our nurse leader and she I was curious what brought about these Surplus items and they've combined some of the nurs offices and that's where these are from most of them are in fair to good condition just for example like the crutches it says five those aren't like five sets those are just different crutches and of course we'll offer them to the towns but she did say if there's no tapers then there's a list serve that nurses are on that she's happy to put them on that okay um any uh any questions about those surus items seeing N I would entertain a motion to accept the following Surplus items submitted by the health office to two bell tone audiometers one help a meter scale five assorted crutches one stadio meter one magnifying light and one lamp light motion by head second by cat since I already asked for questions and there are none we'll move to vote um all in favor stain and I say yes so that is also okay so we're moving into we have some first reading and second reading of policies and so I am going to hand this over to you are yes I am to our operations a District Operations subcommittee for just a quick overview of what we have in front of us and then I will take it for fors so for first reading we have um three um policies relating to Title 9 the first one is AC non-discrimination including harassment retaliation um this one was the big one it's the update the update that the policy includes the title change the district um did have an option to see the masc version um but they um felt better not going version that's gone through zbo was more robust um than the Mas presented one and that was the feeling of the subcommittee as well um ACA non-discrimination on the basis of sex the um District recommendation was to adopt the masc version then subcommittee agreed um acab sexual and sex based harassment and retaliation this is another policy with entitle change and again the recommendation um from both district and the subcommittee was to adopt the masc version and we're also looking back at the athletic concussion policies jji f-r um this one was some unfinished business from back in of February of 2024 and the this policy was the one that we had to look at some a title change and also just some content change there was some unintentional repetition in the document so that had to go back to the subcommittee for revision and review again so those are for first readings right thank you um so we'll put the motion on the table and then we'll go to question or comments about those so I would entertain a motion to accept the following for first reading as presented AC proposed update non-discrimination including harassment and retaliation ACA proposed update non-discrimination on the basis of sex acab proposed update sexual and sex based harassment and retaliation and jji f-r proposed update athletic concussion policy motion by Danielle second second by cat and now open the floor for any questions or comments about those updates or changes I'll give it a minute they're long C is there anything you wanted to add I know the isue also S subit no I guess my biggest question in the sub commmittee was based around um the privac of um students that get to talk with the counselor and that they can um I said Molly can talk about this a little bit better than me but my question was basically like are they um I I was happy that they have someone confidential to talk to within the school district because sometimes I feel like Al youting however those counselors are still required to report to legal authorities when it's appropriate and so um that was basically my concerns were around that and that will be that will be included in the process be put in place um which we can't do until the policy reserves voted yeah yeah any other questions or com and I just want to clarify it may not be counselors but it's any person the district identifies it's likely that would be the case but just it's not all counselors It's an identified person perf so it's an identified person ability m i me of I wonder if it's appropriate just given that we're the throws of the new school year that is possible to we second reading so that way we can you know put these in play sooner rather than later so I would want the subcommittee to weigh into that since they're the ones who have done the work like based on the degree of changes um are you comfortable with Wai second reading and then Hank see I'm GNA ask for help how would I R how would we move this to Second reading as opposed to First reading get the yeah I think these are personally from my point of view as the sub one of the subcommittee people I think they're important I think these are really um Hefty laws that we should abide by um some serious things that we canting kids from and so I would agree that yeah I'm comfortable with that the especially with the policy that um like I said legal's gone through it um they looked at the first version and so feel like we should add a few more things so it's much more rust version we're in good hands all right to later set okay um but do I need to do anything with motion that's on the floor right now because we already have a motion on the floor for the first reading well pass that okay away second so we're gonna take the initial motion off the floor and instead replace it you can do the first can so complete the first motion and then add a motion to accept the second thank you h see we all learn as we go all right so questions have been asked additional information has been given we're going to vote on the the motion to accept the first reading first and then we will move on so um I had a first Susan help me I had a first by Danielle and a second by cat um so all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes and I would enter a further motion to accept um the same for second reading as presented be those being AC proposed update non-discrimination including harassment retaliation ACA proposed update non-discrimination on the basis of sex acab proposed update sexual and sex-based harassment and retaliation and JJ IFR proposed update a flood and concussion policy so motion by Heather second by cat any further questions or comments related to Second reading so but we did talk about how our the lawyer went over all of this and like gave us language and so it has been reread and reread beautiful okay all in favor opposed abstained and I say yes um so those have passed first reading as well as second reading and thank you for bringing that to our attention s all right so We additionally do have a second reading um of the jjif not to be confused with the JJ IFR policy um this is a proposed update to the main concussion policy and Heather is there anything you wanted to about this this one is um our second reading so we did a first reading don't P me on a I think it did we decide it was we looked back at um school committee meetings this somehow just busyness of ending last year um just kind of table Yeah okay all right so I would entertain a motion to approve the second reading and adopt the policy as presented again that's jjif proposed update concuss policy second motion by H second second by cat any any questions or comments about up say seeing none all in favor I opposed abstained and I say yes so that was unanimous um so thank you that was a lot of work for first meeting first policy meeting so really appreciate um all the time and attention that went into that um thanks so much for also filling Us in on your off to and make sure that we got through not just for second reading really appreciate it okay so we already did our bus contract bid so we are moving on um to item number five which is training from masc um so I actually put this on here um so I have been in touch with Alicia M um at masc and um despite Han's 51 years the rest of us are r a junior 52 this is true 52 the rest of us um you know we're still getting up to speed and um as Hank can attest to there is a lot to learn um coming onto school committee there's open meeting laws there's this very large book of Massachusetts uh general laws um there's State ethics commissions details etc etc um and so what I I reached out to Alicia and asked about what is her process for arranging trainings for specific School committees um and what she told me is that the very first step that she likes to do is to send out individual surveys so each of you will receive the survey in a one-on-one basis she will then take everybody's input and calibrate it and come back to me with some suggestions and prioritize suggestions as to what she feels um we could collectively spend time on as a school committee um she was lovely to talk to like really excited to start working with us um so following this meeting I'm going to come back to her and let her know to go ahead and send out that survey so we can get everybody's input um and then we will work together to find Deeds that work for everybody so that we can all come in and it's rather nice because not only is it a training but it's also a great space for us to spend time together and work on you know get some important business done while also um business being like committee like goal setting for example as is one possible um training um so great opportunity really looking forward to that um it's a great way to build our learning specific build our learning needs specific to this District we also have the masc conference coming up in November so lots of opportunities for learning coming up and you know I'm three years into this and I'm still learning things so um as she miss today um so really excited for that so be on the lookout for that email and I really appreciate your participation because the more people we get to fill out that survey the more the better input we get and we make sure that that training is really what we needed to be and so it's a good use of everybody's time because I know that this is a big time commitment already so any questions all right Dr SE it's officially your turn thank you very much M sh so um I I'll start off with you know the beginning of school year it was it really was um very smooth very well organized um and that's a shout out to all the building principles man graders um of course Ming really heads up all of what we do for those two days and and there is quite a bit um that we didn't a lot of it is mandatory but um the state you know mandates but you know a good portion of it is the things that we need to either improve on or we've identified as an area that to strengthen so it was it was wonderful fantastic with a great lunch um our our wonderful cafeteria folks put on yet another great meal it was just it was good it was just really really uh relaxed and Well Done by all um so you know when when we Staffing updates right now you Staffing so we are we are we do have two open positions technically we we filled one uh sixth grade position with thankfully a u a an educator who just retired and she's come back to help us out um at the Middle School sixth grade um we we've applied for a critical shortage waiver um and what that allows is that it waves the uh the rules around how much money people can make when they're in retirement especially that they just retire and a lot of things have to happen before you even enter into that um and they've all happened we've we've posted this job since early May is everyone or if we haven't discussed it it's been since only May um folks have either just declined or or just pulled their application so um so we're we're we're moving on that uh the other is is a fairly new um opening we have a new de of students well he's not he's not new um Mr Murph will fill the the Dena student's position but he can't do that until the fourth grade position is open until we can fill the fourth grade pardon is role so it becomes it becomes problematic especially around this time of year but all in all unless I missing something we do have some par of positions who have come and gone but um in terms of teaching staff those are the two currently that we that we haveing forward one of the things that we on quite a bit um and focus a lot of attention on his student enrollment um so we it is still inlux I'm going tell you that things will I guarantee you change by the time we report out on October one number we we had I think two families coming today to enroll you know so it's it's it's it's always it's going to be the E and flow until probably early November it's just how but one of the things I find interesting is that our total district is is 1,465 kids right September well on September 4th when we we pullus that dat last last year last September it was 1,479 so one can say well you Donathan you Donathan kids and that's true the numbers don't lie but what I what I want to make sure that I point out a lot um is the heaven these two towns Philips and Thon folks are moving in we have seen a cooling in the market we have seen not as many houses being built as we did say maybe two summers ago um but as we as we really limit the number of school choice students that we take in um just for the record there are only nine school choice students out of 594 kids um at tees there n they all they're all in the fourth grade so the rest of that building is all is all Resident okay but you know we also had graduating seniors we have kids who go my tech you know we have all of this and then when it all boils down we're we're down 22 uh pardon we're down 36 school choice students right we had a bunch of who graduated and whatever happens maybe they go back and forth and but we're plus 23 residents so we need when we just throw that into the bowl of things you go oh you're minus 8 from last year over year yep but the numbers that we don't control which our residents are coming in still at a clip that is that is impressive so we're down to 131 School CH students back in 2000 we were at 250 okay so we made a conscious effort to go away from that you know to to start leading there because our class sizes were were large it's now going to start and we'll talk about school choice I think later on is that we're going to have to start doing a we're going have to looking at places to actually accept the balance because we we can't drop much lower than where we're at we still have expenses that come out of school choice um will'll never be able to balance the budget with school choice I've never never claimed that uh but we do need to keep a certain number in there to make sure that we balance in and out um I don't know what our school choice out is all we that report I think is done sometime in DEC in December we we but we'll know because we'll we eventually we'll see the uh the course will again in December is the real tell so I say this just to say that we are it just we are growing um residentially how about if I put it that way in terms of residence a pretty good clip and I it's just really is it's an interesting thing to watch because we you know we were we were actually shrinking as a district but um but in terms of residence we are we are growing I think I don't want to overstate but my leavs some bounds for sure um so more to come on that October one is our big number that's the number that we you know Let Die by because that's um that's the number that is um how our funding is you know when we count 70 Etc so little um more on that as we go um the oh God was it August 20 well everybody was off on the Friday before Labor J some of us were here and we were lucky enough to give the msba a tour of H roof um by we I mean our facilities because and Mar and I weren't going on no roof okay so that was just how that worked out but as you know we we've been invited into the into the into the program program I sent an email out I believe it was late last week to kind of explain will'll know in October if we're invited in there's a feasibility uh study that needs to be funded they gave us some parameters in which how much much that would cost it it's not big dollars but my recommendation is that we that we go forward with that so we could learn exactly what is wrong with the roof um we've already been invited to the program once I think it was back in 2014 or 15 um there's we see no reason why we will not be invited back in this time but there's there's more to come on that so we'll I'll just you know if there's an update I'll give it but but they've been very clear that we probably won't hear anything till the end of October um so let's see we've got uh after school programming so we you know often times I will receive emails um from concerned parents you know Guardians about what what can we do for fifth grade it's generally surrounded around fifth grade it's kind of that tweener year in which you know a lot of folks don't feel comfortable leaving their fifth grader at home sale alone but but there's really nothing to do and so we've we've we've really we've gone back and forth on this over the last eight nine years since I've been here and and and the simple fact is that there's just um we just don't have the capacity to do an extended day in fifth grade um for example right or the middle school we just don't have the people we don't and we're barely covering the folks that we have brated for um we tried this in the past um it it it worked a little and then people started to go do other things and you have a bunch of kids who you're responsible for um I'm I'm very aware of the lake bus and how fill full they are because the after school activities are huge just as a reminder our largest class probably in the last 10 or 15 years anyway 130 some our kids uh there the sixth grade um make up a good portion of probably what was in Dodge mall that we Amanda soly spoke about in terms of having to split up that many days of um of uh entrepreneurs um you know we're again we're getting large we're getting bigger right but I I do want to just say that for the record it's just we have tried it it just hasn't we haven't been able to really staff it um and it's very it's difficult at that age um you know what would you do if we were they were still at tees well I suppose that they would be part of the tees um you know extended day program but given the number of kids I don't know if we would ever find enough staff if the staff the same so we are we are cognizant of it you know we we we are we tried last year to a gr or we we were just too late in getting at a grant opport took a lot of information um to they would have provided some some relief for those middle schoolers um those TW TW ages s the grant was the was the was the Century Century Grant the competitive Grant we didn't quite need all the qualifications in some areas um and the timeline for us to be able to because we would have to connect with all of our private schools and sending private schools where we have residents to um and we we did a big shock work on the Grant and we're quite able to pull that off by the deadline and so kind of in a in a weird uh these are cor you know when we start talking about well we have all these kids we can't find enough adults to for that one day right um you know a couple of things have happened where so if you read the paper today we we made the paper if you knows um they talked about their the lack of a soccer program um and you know Mr Bond or athletic director myself um I know that U you know we've been dealing with this since called middle of August and you know there just was not a lot of students who signed up to play whether it' be seven or it be nine you know those numers kind of flux I think that you know speaking with Mr Cerone who was the coach I think certainly he thought he had a lot more participation that he ended up having um and it just it just it just couldn't happen um and it was really honestly almost too late to do anything else we we did reach out to win for a co-op they only had three kids sign up but by that time it was really just too late so you know we we need to have you know a better plan I think uh because we've we have H fought this fight for for a little bit in terms of whether we're competitive you know or if we even have enough students I think last year and I I'm going to say I think because I I can't recall I believe we only had 11 uh when they takes 11 of play I don't know that we had you know I don't think I don't think we had a bench if we did we had one or two that's just not you know a safe way to play to be very candid um and so we're we're thinking about some options about where can we go to help build this program and I I think one of the uh one of the areas we're going to explore quite frankly is to uh in essence not have a VAR program but have a JD program and so what you do is you kind of enter into kind of an agreement with the MIAA I guess and say look we're not going to have the varson program for two years but we are going to have a JV program and that way you can build from you know from the bottom you know you know competing at a level in which you can become better you I know that people often say you don't get better unless you compete against those who who were better than you um if if that was true you know then the Boston sub that you know that you know my fifth grade travel team should play against the Boston Celtics do they become better no I know that's a bit of a reach but when you have kids who just Al learning the sport playing against kids who have played their entire lives you know it becomes it doesn't become a learning um experience so what what one of the thing we're going to look into decided anything of course but we are we do have the numbers are are pretty healthy at the in the eighth grade at the middle at the middle school level so we're going to look at that possibility and we've reached out to some other athletic directors and they who have had to do this type of thing and they highly recommend it because it does build from a botom and so that's what you're trying to build up um so that way when you do enter into Varsity play you are prepared to play Varsity level in this case socer our nearest example some ask me what you give me an example Gardner baseball Gardner had one of the best baseball teams around for those of us who've been old enough to remember and they literally had no one um and then they so they had to cut the program so they just came out of their two-year uh JD program and I want to tell you by the end of the season last last year they were formidable and so it but it took two years to really build that up um another issue that certainly H C I don't know if it paper depends on if it's a slow news day or not but certainly has made Facebook is that we have not uh we did not have a ban um we did not have it marching B not that um the reason is that no one applied to be the band I'm going to call them the band director but to run the band this will be year two it's the second year in the room you need to look at that and you know it's not it's not good enough at least from my perspective to Simply say well that's on them if they can't get you know no one do the big we need to look at what the stiens are across the board we need to look at some other things but um you know I know that that was met with you know and I don't blame folks they're not very happy about it it I it's not it is what it is we're trying to figure out the reason um and we might need to look at you know what what are we doing in terms of music instruction across the district Etc and we now do have two music teachers at the middle school level which we had for quite some time so we are we are very cousant of it the it was posted but no one appli um because it does it's a lot of hours it's a tremendous amount of hours to do Bay instruction [Music] um well we'll just keep moving on to football so um I think it was back in June I wrote a letter to the community and said I don't think we're going to be playing MOG Thanksgiving um we they were not by they we I say they they are verock and they were not confident they were going to have enough um players to s and they really couldn't commit to it either way which made me nervous because then I'm we're trying to find Thanksgiving Day G and there's no one everyone has a thanksgiv day game except for nor midlex who would desperately love to play us because we are fairly close and so as the letter SED although I was sad to do so but this is what my intent was um the MIAA had a completely different view on what I thought should happen um so during the uh I think it was in July or July date of J June or July they met and voted something like 100 to four I don't know it was it was it was not close that they that we we needed to keep Murdoch on our schedule why because they're a lead game if we were just simply this this you know throw away a lead game soly one it would not make us eligible for playoffs but two they give us one less lead game It screw it would just really mess things up so um I learned that late June it didn't say anything about it not because I was you know worried or anything or embarrassed I wanted to see if in fact they were going to have a football team um quite frankly because we still did not get a commitment um they they do so they have the necessary plays theyve played two games already this season everything looks to be a go um I will message that out the fo folks who follow football know that because clearly that was the buzz um and so so we will be playing Murdock home on Thanksgiving um and I you know we communicate that out but I want to just session and make sure that folks knew that that that was um that was the case uh last but certainly not least last thing I have is that we did receive a letter it's called demand to bargain it really is not a demand I don't want to make it sound like someone was pounding anything ndea it's that it's time to you know uh uh to negotiate the contract so they did send us a letter I think okay I just couldn't remember CC and so they have already met in their little you know their in their board and they have their team and so we need to get together to at least initially to figure out what dates would be and rules of the road and Etc so um that that seems to be it on chair is I look I don't think I've missed anything do I have to okay so we have an m video I'm Only messing with so I forgot that we have an MVP video um it was done by Miss An Li who's not here tonight usually she is um that's the program that we're with Monch as you know and um and who is just fantastic at this stuff um did a little promo so I would like to share that with everyone do you have sound though okay because it's important with the sound man I yeah if it was plane You' hear before yeah I'll starting please that little still muted to the right is it on y start anticipation yeah so it's been it's gone great um I believe our second cohort of the Juniors right the juniors are now there at Monch this week so so and we have officially filled all of our so we we're fully filled um and students have reported both incredible engagement and excitement with the shop classes but equally when they're here um with their MVP teacher Mr Supple who's new this year um they're reporting just really enjoying the model here for academics as well that's great any questions for Dr C on his updates okay moving on to school committee comments any comments to kick off the here want to introduce them Dr C or okay F sorry oh okay okay so I need to be on sorry the the a State field trips yep most of them I believe are Mr darrio if I'm correct one of them is tomorrow and there a there's a very good reason because our last school committee meeting happened prior to school start point and we've had almost three weeks of school so there was no way to have you know and we we have been very clear that they better not just throw these things in too late so um so I know that that's the one that we're going to be discussing first so the first one is um surfing surfing in Newport because that sounds like fun um the second is that's Surf and Boogie Board trip that's the second one no the first one no that's the second one that is the second one sorry 927 two weeks in a row two weeks in a row then on 11222 24 we're going they're going to mount manad do to hike then on uh 12324 that date was changed after to the 19th to the 19th yep I see it 121 1924 sorry it's in yellow now Mount manad Hike Snow apparently uh then another if that wasn't enough um 12 2024 Mr D is bling up two days in a row good for him uh let's see and that is it Madam chair pardon me Madam chair in the committee in terms of out State field trips they have been signed they have been vetted they have all the thank December up I like it any questions about those field trips seeing none I will I would I'm gonna combine these I would entertain a motion to approve the out of state field trips for the outdoor adventure class to sett beach in Newport Rhode Island on September 20th 2024 and again on September 27th 202 for and to approve the out of state field trip for the outdoor adventure class to mount madn in Jaffrey New Hampshire on November 22nd 2024 December 19th 2024 and December 20th 2024 second motion by Danielle I'll give the second to cat um I already asked for questions and as there were none we will move to vote so all in favor I oppose abstained and I say yes so excellent news they are all set for tomorrow okay so moving on in order of the agenda um there were no items that were unan not anticipated um that came up within the last 48 hours so now we can move on to school committee comments any comments um from the committee they outside of the sub any reports any news or updates I uh noticed I thought I think a new establishment in the mornings and um afternoons over at the high school middle school the crossing guard that is fantastic I heard from a few parents and said wait did we always have a crossing guard um having tried to cross before um yeah that that person is a hero and thank you very much for that well this and I will pass on there appreciate to your appreciation this is not the first time we've tried to hire a crossing guard as folks this is the first time actually someone has accepted the position so um with all the parking that we've got going on here right now it's good that we have that yeah absolutely I will pass it along yeah thanks for we need to get her a chair and stuff though I have to say I feel bad when I pass by and then she's standing there in between students waiting she's at alert she's she's standing there at the readying I think we need to get her a tent and uh you know she need own station get she she could do I just want to keep her I um and I just wanted to add I know we talked a little bit about oror Fest at the beginning but um the last couple years that we've had Boyer Fest have always fallen on a day when I was completely unable to 10 because of some family commitment so this is actually my first Boyer Fest um and I had an absolutely fantastic time the games were great the food was great um everybody really enjoyed the fireworks um even Delta okay was sitting a couple benches up from Dr C he behaved himself so but it was a it was a fantastic game a really exciting game actually so we were all kind of on the edges of our seat to the end so many thanks to everybody who put in all the work to make that happen it it is such a special event um and to those of you who like me have had to miss it in the past highly recommend uh making sure that you make space for it on your calendars for next year um you really feel the spirit of our district at that event um so it was pretty fabulous we don't know that we've had that many people there before I the first per was really really packed but this year there was just there were just people bar where it was really it was great to see and and kudos to the staff who were helping to like direct people and you know make sure people B tickets and all of that so it was quite the execution so thanks to those who ran booths it was it just so much fun so thanks for that it was really nice to see the stud support too there's a students there in a certain section like it's not usual that we like obviously for football games we get a lot of supporters and stuff but not normally as many students to show up and there was a lot of even even like elementary school kids coming up to watch the games which is amazing to see I'm excited to see more kids show yeah it was pretty fabulous I saw there's a cheer camp coming up this week there is Cheer Camp I believe is Saturday 20th 21st yes 20th and 21st first um that's one of their annual fundraises it's usually a great event very well attended I will tell you um so it'll be it'll be great to go down and see our you know the CH is of the future so that's right that's right the El T yes the TS any other comments all right move right into subcommittee with worlds okay um so finance and Facilities um so we actually reached out to the towns this year and invited um them to each send someone who would be a non- voting member so they're that means they attend and they participate in conversations but the Voting is restricted only to the Nance of Regional School District school committee um and so we're very excited to welcome uh Melanie Jackson from philipon and jacine momer um from Templeton um to those to those meetings were unable to attend this first meeting but have said that they will certainly be at Future meetings um so just to go over um some of what we spoke about we got um some pretty extensive um reviews of all of the work that's been going on in facilities um from airflow and duct work in a kitchen cafeteria um to the library getting finished up and for those of you if you get a chance to see the library upate it is so nice um it's just a really nice space right now um and very exciting um lots of discussion around um the te buildings and some needs for some software upgrades some more to come on that we're just trying to do some additional um research on those things um there was a the generator was fixed with fluctuating voltage and there's further discussion happening with the town um for emergency services and I think we need to pause pause because we don't have Forum so we'll pause we can we can put call sorry recess right recess yes so we'll pause for a recess um since we only have we'll have five of us start I remind me to ask Mike how to do say even gets cold I mean c he's got got to move sity or something uncomfortable 6 actually you don't e e okay um thanks for that um we back from Recess um and L time is 6:40 PM um so just coming back um we were we were talking about generator work um and so we're in discussions with the emergency preparedness group um in Templeton um because that that is a discussion to have with them since this is um an emergency building or a building used for emergency purposes um and then one of the things that I thought was especially fantastic is that um a small deck was built in the courtyard in middle school with access directly from the special needs classroom where they installed a swing um which everyone is enjoying immensely um and that has really been a wonderful addition to that space um so um I I list these and I'm not even sure I got them all though they're all in in the meeting minutes um from that meeting when there approved after our next meeting um but I I say them just to say this has been a really busy season for our facilities group there's been a lot of different projects going on all to the benefit of of our building and of course uh Dr C talked about the roof as well so lots happening um Kudos um to uh Keith Parker and and his entire staff um what they're doing to improve this building and to get things it's you know to get an old building um and you know control things like heat loss or I forget what he called them but like zones where there's too much heat or too little um is just fabulous so really appreciate that um and then um the rest of the items that we talked about in finance and Facilities was very much um covered um in our in Dr castan updates um so I will skip the rest of of um those BS um so and now we will pass this off to our District Operations subcommittee that we did already go over policy so I'd say if there's anything else um besides policy that you wanted to share um we're forward hear um I think that was the majority of the business we're we're gonna be meeting with Jared the head of technology to like review some new policies that are going yeah was a slate of Technology policies that um there was too much mismatch between the new recreation policies um Jar's recommendations and the even the titles and names of our policies so if we went back to toand those for used that and then additionally I know that you're also looking at the so a lot of districts have handbooks for their school committees that are they're not a policy they're not you know in any way part of governing but they're just a list of where should people go when they have a question or to complete a training or to do that sort of thing and that's something that's very much missing here and I know that you know cat you joined last year and just making sure you've had everything you needed there's not a list there's nothing and so right now our new school committee members are getting that information very key meal it's not collected in a single space so um thank you for taking that work on as well um as part of District Operations I think having something for our new school committee members will be fantastic because yeah I mean I've watched a number of new school committee members struggle trying to figure out for do sitting at this meeting and we just we want to make sure that that's not the case anymore um so you know no more rights of pass passage let make it easier for everybody so appreciate that as well um so lab management committee um I'll give just a very high level update that we have not met with either the um Labor Management or the LMC or the UFC or sorry the LMC or the WC I'm getting all my apps confused now um so wec is uh the committee that we have UFCW we do have a meeting with them later this month to kick off conversations um as a reminder what this does do is it allows the space for non-contractual discussion so things that can just that have nothing to do with the actual contract but that can be improved to help to help keep relationships on the up and up um those are executive session meetings that said um for right now um the LMC which is with the ndea um that will actually the same subcommittee members that sit on Labor Management committee Labor Management committee for these um LMC wec meetings they are also um involved in negotiations so it'll be the same group of folks that sit in the NDA negotiations once those start um so we'll be as Dr C mentioned earlier we'll be working on getting those schedules um so Nance at Regional School District CPAC I'm going to come back to that I don't know that there's been a meeting this year um but PTO you just had your meeting didn't you had um Tuesday I couldn't go to that one I had my go open house that night at school so um I do have notes though from what was um happening uh the current balance for our budget is eight or like the budget for the p is $ 8,867 um metal Farms is coming back from October 2nd through October 29th uh the packets are going to be delivered the last week of September so real soon um our goal is to make $10,000 in profit um there have been three requests quab in field trip for fourth grade um oh wait no sorry I read this wrong there's been one of the cost the quav field trip for fourth grade it's been approved $800 to offset the cost of busing to trip to the quop reservoir the busing total is1 1983 and the students will pay $1 per student field trips um we're not going to vote on them until after the meow farms uh the previous year's budget has been, 1500 for all of the grades we revisit when numbers came back in December uh there's going to be a fall event which is the Halloween dance which is new um um it's going to be Friday October 25th from 5:30 to 7 in the Middle School cafeteria uh fire will go home on the 27th of this month and there's going to be an RSVP so you have to you need to know the numbers um the students can wear costumes uh there's going to be games snacks water um what we're looking into is the police officer custodians and a potential um building use fee depending on how many people want to show up um as of right now it's a free event but we might have families donate to offset some costs for us um Jess is going to uh Jess Smith will complete the facility use form and she's looking into the um staff like police because it's would be an incapacity Kristen posos I believe is her last name she's the president or one of the presidents I think there's two um will create the flyer and get the Google form for their RBP put together um other business was basically suggesting to pass out PTO um event like flyers at events to increase parent involvement and pass out flyers for the next event um I think there was like a pretty good turnout from what I heard about this meeting because I did talk to some people about what went on um that at open house there was quite a few people that had interest and um gained at least five members from that so that's like you know a third more last year um and our next meeting is Tuesday on to grade so okay um so I to the newk reg School District student advisory Council so our first stter of business which would be getting our student rep um and has been completed um actually did all of the work zero credit whatsoever um and uh but we're I'm looking forward to touching b with him and and figuring out what that looks like for this year um last year um the attention was to come in twice but couple of presentations and give folks a chance to ask questions so that we could kind of showcase what is the look that we do here and how do we do it um so we just need to regroup on what that would look like for this share um so still working getting that up and running but also not trying to be too disruptive to the beginning of the school year because as you have heard there's more to um any update from a legislative perspective this evening um Al so I missed our last meeting so Governor de signed the budget end of July there's lots of increases especially late but we're still waiting for those numbers said um mcast results the Embargo will be lifted next Tuesday so parents and community members will have that data available um to them as side that nothing is coming to mind thank you very much okay and we did have correspondence um so I am so we did have our correspondence for this evening um was actually resignation from school committee um Shauna white um has uh left this her position as the Templeton one of the templon representatives I'm just to read her letter um dear Dr caban please accept this as my official letter of resignation is a current member of the nansa Regional School District school committee effective today I leaving with a greater respect on what it takes to run a school district we have an amazing we have amazing teachers and staff that are deeply committed to our students I will I was always be proud of the work I did on this committee to move the district in a positive direction in regard sha way um so I just want to extend my thanks to shaa um she absolutely stepped in over the summer during a really critical interview um she was also you know a very strong spokes person for CPAC as well as you know just um students with special needs in um and so she will be missed but wanted to thank her um for her time and um I know that Susan Bernie has already reached out to let the town of Temple to know um that she left her position so we do have a second open position um and we will take this up at our next meeting but we will need to also replace um our NR St representative to CAC so um please think about that between now and our next meeting because I will need someone for that then of course once we have members have folks um but you know until then um we will we will need somebody who's at least um aming with them even if they can't attend meetings so much like cat was able to get sen those um but we do want to make sure that our CPAC is still represented here as so um many thanks for that in the interum I'll try to reach out and find out what the best ways to get some notes from those meetings so that completes all of our business for this evening um unless we so the next meeting is scheduled for Thursday October 17th at 5:30 and I don't believe we need Executive session this evening we do not and as such I would to motion made by Han second second all in favor and I say yes and so we are officially adjourned thank you so much everyone