##VIDEO ID:KatA-kH1Wa4## um first up is the Pledge of allegion my flag is right behind me I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all the meeting is being recorded by Norton media uh if anyone else is recording please just let us know it is our first time in the new uh Town Hall so kind of bear with us a little bit with technology and whatnot uh but we will kind of get started um first up is our new public comment period uh so a few weeks back uh the school committee voted to do a new public comment to start off in the beginning of the meetings um is there anyone here who is going to talk during public comment seeing none we will move on oh oh um oh just talk is it still one um the next up is the warrant Miss SC um meeting minutes whoops sorry uh vote to approve the meeting minutes from November 20th open session meeting did everyone get a chance to review yes yeah do I have a motion to approve so moved second all those in favor I [Applause] so next one will be the warrants Mrs C I've reviewed and approved the following warrants School expense warrants November 20th 2024 $646,000 125 and school payroll warrants November 14th 2024 1,1 182223 180 I wish to enter them into public record all right um next up is our student updates they're actually both tied up with stuff for tonight so we're going to skip over that uh onto number five is the student Spotlight uh with Mrs thank you I'm actually G to move over to the podium so I can actually see people this is on too all right so tonight I am very honored to recognize one of our Norton High School students Madison defrain uh Maddie was actually selected did by the National Council for the social for social studies um to present at their annual conference uh this year at the hind Convention Center in Boston this is the largest national conference for social studies education and includes teachers administrators and School District leaders researchers as well as those who work for educations uh sorry work for organizations focused on social studies education each spring desie celebrates the work of of 8th through 12th graders in Civics across the states through their science fair style Civics showcase last year students from 70 schools participated in three regional Civics project showcases held a Bridgewater State University the Worcester DCU Center in um Amherst these showcases provided students with the opportunity to share their Civics projects with the local community advisers and peers received feedback on their work and be recognized for their civic engagement of the hundreds of presenters only 30 were selected by the department of Elementary and secondary education to present at the National Conference in Boston notably Maddie was one of these students and we also had another student from Norton High School who was not able to join us tonight for Carly tonight I am thrilled to recognize Madison JRA whose project was selected for her exemplary nature and how highly rated and commended it was during the Spring conferences this Commendation was based on feedback from local community advisers who attended each Regional Conference including local legislators Educators Community leaders and others I'd like to welcome Maddie up to receive her certificate of recognition this congratulations and I'm going to have you come up and your Civics project S I want to let Madison explain her Civics project to you so you guys know what she worked on so for my Civics project I wanted to focus on children who have had a parent incarcerated or is a part of the justice system so my whole idea was kind of creating like a safe space and environment that they felt like they belonged in some of the scary scarier places they might have to um endure while their parent is going through the incarceration process so what I did is I created book nooks and I put them in pration offices and um police stations and things like that um it had a like a variety of books for all ages chapter books picture books everything like that and then I also added some like resources like a Sesame Street episode that talks about that and things like that so they can create positive memories with their parents other family members um and kind of have a more positive outlook on the whole system questions comments that's incredible excellent job that's wonderful certificate then we'll that up as well come on dad up all right come on up Dad Uncle Tim in too I was say you want Uncle Timmy up there oh Uncle Timmy not even Tim come on up Uncle Timmy [Laughter] than you conratulations [Applause] and next up on the agenda is the need Grant announcement hi hi I'm sander I'm um the BP of need and um thank you very much for having us tonight here we have J parley Emily um we are not embracing educational development or need we are a volunteer nonprofit organization who fundraises throughout the year to enhance curriculum and support teachers in the Norton in Norton by providing um a teacher uh Grant prog R since it began need has had the honor of giving out over $200,000 to teachers and staff in the Norton Public Schools tonight we would like to thank the teachers and staff who have submitted Grant requests and acknowledge all of the this year's recipients um some teachers are able to attend tonight and speak about their grants so when we get to your school please feel free to come and join um at the JC salmones we funded a grant in the amount of $1,592 1 to replace the white boards in um two of the third grade classrooms for um Sarah elves and Carrie goodr it's up to you you don't have to thank you uh thank you so much so Sarah Alice couldn't come tonight so we kind of drafted up a little um thank you just to let everyone know what we received um so first off Sarah and I are so excited to be able to get new whiteboards for our students um it goes without saying that this is such an invaluable tool to our students um who use it daily and they benefit TR tremendously um from new and clean whiteboards to ride on and to see um as elementary teachers we often move classrooms so sometimes It's Tricky if you inherit you know damaged materials or damaged boards um especially with the boards that have been there for 20 years um recording in progress to have these brand new boards um and we really really thank you need um because we realize this is not you know a traditional need grant that you would normally fund um but we're just so grateful that you decided um to support this tool for us so thank you so much uh so at the Yale we funded a grant in the amount of $4,140 189 to start um to the before the start of sensory room with Michelle lagard and Susan Bergstrom these this project aims to create a sensory space within the school that provides a calming and stimulating environment enabling students to regulate their emotions reduce stress and improve their focus and attention in enhancing their ability to access and engage in learning um at the district level I don't think we have anyone from you right no okay so at the district level we funded a grant for the amount of 5,2 $38 for professional development in the speech and language pathologist Department do you guys want to come up or okay sure thank you everyone um we just want to start by saying thank you so much for supporting um our department in the students of nort public schools with this with this grant um without this we wouldn't be able to accomplish the vision that we have in mind we believe that communication is a fundamental human right and it's very crucial to how we connect form relationships learn and navigate our world with this Grant we seek to close the gaps of access and inclusion for our students with communication disabilities our vision is to create an inclusive Learning Community where every student has the tools that they need to thrive the grant will support us to take meaningful steps toward that Vision by increasing awareness and education for our staff our students and our families it will also help us to build capacity with the use of AA consistently and effectively within all our classrooms from prek to 12 and Beyond this will ensure that every single student who would benefit will have access to the tools they need the impact of this grant will be seen not only academically but also through the lens of the whole child's social emotional Wellness it will bring to them a sense of dignity empowerment and belonging these will all be embedded in their day-to-day learning experiences by creating this sustainable districtwide AAC program our work will set up students for lifelong success at school and in their relationships their communities as well as their future life and career path the grant is about hope it's about giving all of our students the opportunity to share their voices and be heard and with your support we can break down the barriers that get in the way of that currently we can create a learning environment where everybody is heard valued and included so thank you for believing in us as a staff and as a student body We Believe with your support on the district level and through the New Foundation that The Best Is Yet To [Applause] Come um so there's also more so we facilitate more funds for the staff of the nor public schools by coordinating um mini grants that are amounts of $500 or less in several months throughout the year and just in the months of October and November the minig grants have helped to raise an additional 3,100 8221 for n Public Schools so at the LG we did we were able to help facilitate um popping keyboards at the yell a class set of chapter books and ST Math reward water bottle set the middle school was a science project um for protest earthworms and cells and some UK tree stands and at the high school the National Honor Society CFT donations electronic balance scales and and acapella training Workshop um so again that total we were able to give out was just over $10,000 in need grants and just over 3,000 in community funded mini grants which is absolutely amazing um so we couldn't do that with the support of the town and everyone that involved and helps us so every time you get an end in your driveway or you buy which we tend to really do great with um you buy an art to remember project or donate to a mini Grant drop off a bag of clothing for the Savers Drive which will be in April or for participate in our big auction in Spring you're fun of these Grints and we rely largely on our fundraisers and not corporate sponsors so it's really the community participating with us that makes it possible so thank you so much so much to everyone we really appreciate it thank you any comments I have one um I just wanted to thank you thank me for all of their um generosity and work with us um for the you know many many years we have had such incredible partnership between our school staff and need and we are so so grateful for all of the support that the organization um provides to us as a school Community um I think the mini brands have been a huge game changer um because those come out every single month and in every single month or most months we see something from all five schools and it's it's so wonderful because they can be small little things that just make a big difference in our classrooms um so thank you to need for facilitating that for always advocating for our staff and for our students in our community um and for just being a wonderful partner thank you next up on the agenda is the YMCA Community Partnership with Mrs Kate Messier oh perfect thank you so much uh good evening everybody I'm Kate I'm the chief operations officer for the Attleboro Morton y I have been in town for a little over a year now um and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to come here and say hello and tell you a little bit about what we're currently doing in Norton and I will share some of the stuff that I've had the opportunity to do um with other communities in the past I have been in the business for about 25 years uh Youth Development has always been my passion I'm a certified Elementary School teacher in fact I ran into one of your teachers who I grew up with working in out of school time at the Y here tonight that I haven't seen in Forever um I fell in love with Norton this summer at Camp finberg if you don't know Camp finberg is our large outdoor camp at The Outdoor Center that's just up the road we served about a thousand different kids about 50% of them came from norin we're on to celebrate our 100 years at Camp finberg next year as well um one of the only things that has bummed me out since I got here is that we do not have a Greer engagement with the school community and the family community in Norton and that is my fashion and one of my true goals and frankly one of the reasons um why I chose ad BR nor and why to continue my career So currently we're offering our amazing camp finberg for about 13 weeks in the summer we try to follow your calendar so that the moment your kiddos get out of kindergarten till the moment they go back um we can take care of them up the street so that families can work and you all can get ready we offer summer family memberships and I think this is sort of the best kept secret we have a beautiful outdoor pool complex a gorgeous playground hiking trails that but Edith Reed and for about $200 for your entire family for the whole summer you can come and enjoy our pool Club after camp in the evenings during the week and in the summertime I'm super excited to hopefully work with folks on some townwide discounts for programs like that in particularly with our school department and if you all don't know you currently do have a corporate membership agreement with our YMCA and you are all entitled to discounted memberships and services at r y as well um we also are hosting an outdoor fully licensed preschool all school year long out at camp finberg we have 15 kiddos who work with our Educators and spend about 80% of their time they were very muddy today uh it's a really unique program really powerful stuff um and then the other thing that we've really been working on is community special events and I have to say I'm a huge fan of need and we had need out um to Camp fin ber and unfortunately sprinkled on you our sprinkler system went on the fritz and in their family movie the sprinklers went off and that's just yeah that's that's that's par for the course but what a wonderful partnership I have the ability to host really great community events out at camp finberg we had about 400 families come out to our trunk Retreat that was free of charge this year Santa Claus is coming to camp finberg for the first time on Saturday morning our wonderful fire department here is going to assist us with safely lighting s'mores and our fire pit so that families can enjoy s'mores with Santa we've got an Easter egg roll coming up in the 100th anniversary of camp finberg Camp Carnival so those are some of the things that we've got going on right now and if we could please go to the next slide I'd like to talk to you about some of the things that I'd love to be doing so currently at our YMCA we offer second graders every single second grader in the Attleboro Community comes as part of their school day to our pool to work with our aquatic staff largely free of charge to Pro to take place take part in an 8we safety around water true swim lessons CU that's the age when kids need to learn how to swim water safety is critical this is New England we are rif with oceans sponds lakes rivers that is a program that I would love to extend to Norton um we do not hi it's a little cold for the pool at finberg but right over the line at our Pleasant Street branch which is now our our Child Development Center I do host an indoor pool it is large underutilize and would love to offer programs like that to this community as well I believe it's a critical service and a huge part of the mission of the YMCA to keep Kids Safe um I'm desperate to serve your school age kids um in a way that's not just at summer camp I believe strongly in the YMCA's out of school time model we are expert in providing before and after school care school vacation care care before and after preschool when you have limited hours or if you ever enter into half dayk that is our business we serve the whole family and I would love the opportunity down in the in the future to think about what that could look like in the future whether it is licensed child care or enrichment programs that are a compliment to what's already going on in the schools I have a wonderful why on the Move model where folks like Andrea from our camping Services Department come out to you to the schools to provide programs and services in Health and Wellness educ ation nutrition sports and recreation and most of all leadership character and citizenship which I think um is really never been more important for our young people really learning how to be good citizens how to be respectful responsible citizens and that's the mission of the YMCA um I have gotten the privilege of seeing hundreds of young people learn and grow at the middle school and high school level through leadership development programs Workforce Readiness programs we have lots of your high schoolers working at our summer camp doing an amazing job probably some future teachers here in the district hopefully too because we've got some talented young kiddos and I'd like to be able to expand that again Beyond summer into a more holistic robust whole family whole child experience I'm sure that there are ample opportunities for us to collaborate I know that you have a parks and wck department but I know that it's hard to Resource that full-time uh no one knows better than me the competition for fields in gym space and you all invested that incredible in your incredible Fields but now it's a little bit hard to do certain things on them but I've got a field at camp finberg and I've got that space and I would be proud to host any community events town events partnership events most of the time I just want people to come out to the camp and see it because even though it's been there for a hundred years I still think there's a lot of mystery about who the why is in the Norton community and hopefully this will debunk a little bit of that and as we move forward um share a little bit about what the vision looks like down the down the uh Road and so when it comes time to think about things like founders day and everything like that I do hope that you will think of us um because again we have a great capacity and I have a deep desire to continue to get people out to finberg and experience everything that we have here um a couple of other things things that I can share with you next slide please some of um what the Y brings to the table as I mentioned I have a great ability to work together with School departments Community businesses towns to provide work site Wellness programs discounted membership opportunities Universal Universal membership opportunities we have some schools who have our yoga staff come in to provide yoga for the teachers after school um so the opportunities are are really endless there and um I don't think there's ever been more of a time to get creative about Wellness benefits uh as stress and sort of that kind of stuff has never been hired I mean the other thing that we we are a 501c3 we are eligible for lots of different grant funding because of that and as we've grown as the why has grown the concept of YMCA and town and Public Partnerships has Contin to expand across the country shared space shared services those types of things and we're eligible for different types of financial support than towns are that we can bring to the table as leverage funding in some cases as well I have great access to scholarship funds for Norton residents we camp is expensive Child Care is wildly expensive people are having to make a choice well do I go to work or and earn even maybe less than I'm going to pay for child care so we have programs and services that I think are underutilized and not talked about to ensure that there's access for all we have the ability to give the school department weeks of summer camp to give to families in need short-term memberships to give to families in need um and just in general sort of whatever else you all are looking for the why can't be everything to everybody there was a time when I would stand before you and say I'm going to help you increase your literacy scores by 25% but I'm not going to say that because that's your job that's the faculty's job the job of the wi is to build strong communities support families rip down access barriers to kids getting to school every day or parents getting to work and also just making sure that communities are a great place to live and work in because there's awesome stuff like s'mores with Santa and great Parks and Rec Partnerships and everything like that so I'm happy to answer any questions um I know that this is a lot I don't know if you can tell but I'm very passionate about my work the why I Chang my life when I was a very young person um so I truly do believe in it uh and I think Norton is a community tailor made for a really strong partnership with the why you guys love it here you stay here multi-generational families live here and that's that's the identity that the Y is um so again thank you for your time um my contact information is in the slides Miss Anderson knows how to get in touch with me I'm all over the website so please don't hesitate um to reach out if anything here peaked your interest and you'd like to sort of talk further about opportunities thank you I just I just wanted to say um I had my son go to camp finberg and it was the best experience he was very upset that I had only signed him up for the two weeks and um I had already promised him for next summer we will be signing up for at least a month um so I just want to compliment the the program that you guys have set up out there it is absolutely wonderful and from a another side um I'm a pediatric occupational therapist I work with a lot of kids um with varying disabilities and abilities um and Camp finberg is one that we always recommend for summer because um you guys do such a wonderful job including everybody no matter what their skill set is and really take the time to look at their IEPs if they are on one and be able to accommodate so I just want to um commend you for the program that you have going it is it is fantastic so that's my favorite thing to hear honestly Andrea and the team at Camp a thousand kids is a lot of kids um and it's a lot of days it's a lot you guys had a long summer this year so I thank you for that compliment and Echo the sentiments that there is a really wonderful and strong program out there yeah so stay dry tonight everyone thank you thank you thank you very much uh next up on the agenda review and vote on the capital Improvement plan for Springtown meeting Mrs [Applause] Hatfield okay so um what I have is our um Spring Town meeting for fy6 um we went over um these items and um the priorities with um Jus and Audrey and Jen B and myself um so I'm just going to go over the top four that we um have presented for you the first one is the second phase of our um fire device sorry fire device replacement and this is the completion of loop 7 through 9 and if this gets approved you do this in the summer the quote is attached for that se um the second is the second entrance um and exit Access Road um at the Norton Middle School and the Norton High School the Norton Middle School one has been on this for a couple years now and we have recently decided to add the exit Access Road in the back of the high school um we don't have have uh that's a preliminary number that 125,000 we don't have a quote yet we're working with uh Jared DPW and um um he's working hard to get us to as well we just didn't have him in time the uh third is indoor carpet at the lgm library in their main office um this is another estimate for 75,000 we also are waiting on that quote uh we went down with a vendor recently um to look at those two areas and we should be getting that that soon we'll obviously adjust these numbers before we submit it because we're going to get them before the 20th um and that carpet is from I believe the 1980s good year for carpet and it's not as shab as you think it would be for that dat and the last one is technology display so much what we did in the high school we would do a phased approach and do a lease either 3 to five and we just use those numbers based off of what we did for the middle school as well and it would be at least so yeah question I just want to um say so um after having several conversations with the committee about the capital process and how it seems like we're keeping the same things on for a considerable amount of time we instituted a capital subcommittee and we met with Audrey and Justine and I think it was I felt that it was really beneficial for our team to walk through the process with people and kind of be able to dig into the weeds and the rationale for a lot of these items um as we explained um this submission is due to town hall by December 20th but it will not be voted on at town meeting until the middle of May so it's a very very long lead time and things come up you know when you have five or so months between when you submit something and that actually is gets voted on things come on up over time um and so we had a lot of conversations about what our goals are for this moving forward um but I I think it was it was definitely worthwhile so I will also refer to Audrey and to Justine if they have anything they want to add or um things that they learn from the process that is they feel as important for the rest of the group I just I just think um just related to number two um I had brought up and I think Audrey echoed that as well and I think Jen and Christine and Wade have also mentioned this so I'm just going to mention it again that the redoing that access road um I feel like is a benefit for not just the schools but also for the town and to maybe look at that project as more of a joint effort versus just coming from the schools um so I just again wanted to publicly put that out there that I think it's a overall benefit for it absolutely is and when we think specifically about the Middle School how we have students and families kind of exiting the middle school property through that second access point um but it's also really important for our Public Safety and accessing the building if there was an emergency the same thing with the high school right now that back um entrance or exit is right between um the dentist office and some homes it's a it's a it's typically used to get buses out of the parking lot in the morning but it is a second entrance and exit for emergency vehicles um we live in New England right now both of those um access points are kind of like a gravel um a daylight today with this kind of rain tons of poth holes it makes it challenging for things to you know be accessed um so I appreciate that that point Justine it definitely is a mutual project for the community I think too with with that high SCH school back entrance and even the middle school it's becoming pickup and drop off too because it's oh there's the school I can tell my child to meet me here um you know especially at the high school as much as we ask people not to yeah I mean you can kind of see like there's different cars cuz I mean I dropped my daughter off every day so it's like oh that kid must have class on that side of the school and they're running a tad bit Lan so they go rushing to one side but um it's it's challenging at the high school and and you know some people's trying sneak in that way and make it a little easier but ultimately it's not so but in the middle school they definitely stack up in that parking lot the other thing we looked at on this list was um the generators yes so that's why we have um priority for JCS but we're hoping we can address that for fall yes so um generators you guys will notice it is a brand new item um on our Capital requests building um for those of us who either live on the west side of town or work on the west side of town there is something about that area near JCS where we just lose power way more often than anywhere else in town um JCS the building was was built in 1978 we have a number of classrooms that are in what's called our Central core that have very limited access to um outside light and so you know when you lose power on a day like today which thankfully we made it through um no guarantees on tomorrow um no no guarantees on tomorrow um but it it really we need to have something as a backup again it's a large building it can be used for Community purposes if we were to have a generator um in that building and also there is so much now that runs on power all day long like our our cameras our phone systems we want to make sure our students are safe in school um and so we're starting the process um we spoke to someone earlier today um the first step for generator would be to have someone to come out and engineer the project which is about A5 to $110,000 cost um to you know engineer and put the bid together right was that Christine 5 to 10 yes yes thank you I'm like I feel like that number doesn't sound like a lot um and so I mean ultimately a generator is a a very big expense hundreds of thousands of dollars um but we do believe that um putting this onto the capital request shows a little bit of Forward Thinking and and it also shows shows that you know um we want to invest in our buildings for our students but also for the community as a whole just a quick question the fire device did we get the whatever Loops we voted on back and that supposed to go over went to break one through six are being done um between Christmas and New Year's perfect so that will and that will complete the entire Middle School Loops 1739 173 yes so with so that is our first priority on this list it's about $48,000 that would complete the Middle School fire panel project which has been on this for a number of years so we would love to get that crossed off and then that 48 doesn't include Electric electrical work for removing so how are we planning to pay for that aspect of the project um we should be able to that cost through the facility revolving and then and then um the second entrance that we're not making a new entrance we're just repaving the entrances we have yeah agents right yeah there's there's no paved area it's on a day like today it would be it's like driving through soup yeah I I mean I think to add to Justine's comments if you will would be the one that goes to the park is also a safety concern being a dirt road I think or gravel whatever you want to com call it so I definitely agree you know with that statement of there's mutual benefits to you know just other than just the schools and you know this time of year it makes it really difficult to plow if you know if if we get snow because you you don't have a hard surface underneath there it's just the gravel it makes it very challenging whether for if it's a town DPW truck coming through and clearing that entrance or one of our own trucks for the schools um it's it's something that definitely just needs to be addressed and so the cost keeps going up it's not coming down at any time so our group said you know we really just need to push this forward did we previously vote to have that on and we pulled it back for something it's been there for quite a while it just hasn't was this pushed because of the GCS elevator yes I feel like it was yeah I think you're right last fall I believe right okay great any other questions moving on sorry sorry do I have a motion to approve the capital plan for Springtime meeting so move second all those in favor thank you um number nine recommendation from the district alignment committee all right I'm going to go back up to the thing thank you Podium it's been a long day yes please all righty so um as most of you are aware and some of our um Watchers at home uh we have been taking a look at um just the state of our district in terms of uh student enrollment school start times the way that we um have our students like we have 2 K to three schools our four five our 6 to 8 and our 7 I'm sorry our 9 to 12 um high school and we spent a lot of time really looking at this work and I think ultimately it took us a little bit longer than we had initially hoped just because there are so many moving factors and you know wanting to make sure that we're providing the committee with as much information as possible for you to make an educated decision but also um looking at the future of Norton and our schools and and thinking about what makes the most sense for us today and and you know 10 years down the road so this committee was developed uh last spring early spring with the task of researching best practices around school start times for students in prek 12 um we were asked to look at grade level configuration Transportation um and then also districting the way that we line up our schools the way JCS and lgn are split into two um smaller Community Schools um we were asked to look at current and projected enrollment Trends look at our special education services and then also make suring that we're engaging our students and our families in this work because they have a huge huge impact based on the decisions that we make here um so I wanted to share I could literally present to you guys for hours tonight about all the work that we've done over these last many months um but I want I tried to take some of the data that I thought was really important to the work that we're going to do in the decisions that we're going to make one of the things that we asked both our parents and our teachers was what is the most important factor for you when we're making this decision and so as you can see you can see that school extra extra and outside extra were two of our biggest categories that it all centers around providing students with access to extracurricular activities outside of the school day so whether those are School sponsored activities like our Athletics clubs bands or things that students are doing on their own free time dance gymnastics um other fun events for themselves both our our families and our teachers know that is one of the most important aspects for our children and for their childhood um making them well-rounded and giving them lots of opportunities so that was something that when we finally are presenting our recommendation to you tonight that was something that we really weighed heavily um additionally instructional time was really important um as well as giving our teachers the opportunity for collaboration we did not want to compromise any of our academic expectations or opportunities that our teachers have now in order to work together and to plan together if anything those are things that need to be increased and enhanced in whatever iteration we move forward with um so that was something that was important specifically to our our teaching staff um one of the things things that was not as important as what we thought was more sleep it was definitely not as high on the ratings as we thought it would be for our families um also sibling care we thought oh there must be people out there that relying on their older students to watch younger students it was actually a very small population of those people that participated so having this information and being able to come back to us really helped to kind of guide our conversations and to guide our recommendations to you tonight so I thought that was important to share with you this is also um how people are satisfied with the current start times so unfortunately JCS and lgn are not broken down in this iteration which we know are two very very different things but overall in grades 4 to 8 people are fairly happy with their child start and end times and this was another one that I think is really interesting for you all to take a look at this information comes directly from our teachers um and you can see JCS is the huge outlier here um when you ask our JCS teachers are your students ready to learn when they come in to start their day yes they are absolutely ready to learn I mean 9:00 those kids have been up for a couple hours at that point and they are ready to go Audrey's giving me the look yes my kids been up for hours at that time of the day um and then but you take a look and look how much it drops off in the afternoon dismissal for JC the school technically ends at 3:35 and by the end of that school day our students in kindergarten through grade 2 are exhausted and done um what's not really surprising is when you look at the high school data whether they're getting there in the morning or leaving in the afternoon high school students are high school students and it's really a mixed bag depending on you know what teachers are reporting the other thing that I thought was really interesting too was taking a look at the um the lgn um almost 80% of the lgn teachers said that their students come in in the morning and they are ready to learn um with their start time of 7:45 in comparison to 905 it's nice to know that they still feel that that early in the morning their students are available for Learning and you can also see that their ENT of their day is significantly higher than the other elementary schools we also asked our students we asked a lot of students and believe me high schoolers have have very strong opinions on this topic um whether it was through the survey data that they shared with us or through my superintendent advisory committee um none of our students had any problem telling me exactly how they felt about this topic so a lot of our students do work very few students work in the morning before high school um we have a lot of students that work in the after school or in the evening a lot of students actually go from school to sports to work and I can't even into imine cuz I think I give them a lot of credit as our young people they're doing a great job um and then we also asked them a little bit about their tardiness in their school work habits which is really interesting as well so you know almost 60% of our students said no I am never tardy and we you know go 36 or so said yeah you know sometimes very small reportings of yes sometimes or you know oh sorry yes always or yes often and the other thing that I thought was interesting as well was that when students reported on their tardiness they're saying that they're typically only 5 to 10 minutes late for school it's we're not the majority of students are not showing up an hour or an hour and a half late which is which is encouraging and actually when you take a look at our attendance Trends and our data it it does coordinate correlate with that so it's you know the students were actually very good self-re reporters um and then we asked him a few other questions I struggled to stay awake while doing homework um you know it's about strongly agree 11% 41% struggle to stay awake while doing homework my question as a High School parent is what time are you starting your homework because I know that often times between getting out of school and then doing Athletics and dinner and socialization and all these other things sometimes my own teenager isn't starting her homework until 9:30 or 10 so um and then we also asked do you struggle to stay awake in class um and again this was kind of a 50/50 split but I think a lot of these things what time are students going to bed what time are they waking up what are their other activities um and then this one is probably my favorite I think that the high school should start later than it does now strongly disagree about 35% of our students and it was very very interesting to see some of their comments um some of them said no I have to work in the afternoon or um I have swim practice at 6:00 a.m. I don't want to go back home and go back to bed or um I'll just stay up later they were so honest with their feedback it was it was really really interesting um so that is asking them if they think they should start the so this is our current status um we currently have two three tiers of Transportation um in the morning we have the high school and lgn buses that go out and they do a um they do a split route so one group of buses goes around town and picks up the high school students the other group of buses goes around town and picks up the students for lgn from there we go down to tier two where our currently our students in grades four through eight ride on the same ride on the same bus together so um our young students and and middle school students are currently picked up simultaneously at their bus stops they are dropped first at the yell school and then at the middle school this is actually our most crowded bus run um of course because you're grouping two sets of students together but we have the highest ridership when it comes to students in grades 4 through eight because often times parents are working or students who are involved in after school activities or whatever it may be these buses in most cases are very very full and then finally our last TI we have 10 buses that go around town and pick up our JCS students and I think it's important for us to include that Financial impact for you all as well our current bus contract is $1.2 million Jen can I just ask question because I think I was obviously s in this committee but someone brought up a great Point can we go back to the yeah just this current our times sure why are they the way they are money um so these start times have existed high school lgn and JCS have had these same start times I'm going to age myself for roughly 21 years yeah the very first year I taught at JCS we had a different start set of start times lgm had the late start they started around 9:05 um and JCS started around 8:30 and we were looking for cost-saving measures um back in 2003 and we a decision was made and and I'll I'll be really honest I was a lowly second grade teacher at the time I wasn't super involved in the process um first year was just trying to make it through the day um and so these changes were moved I believe we actually moved from a four tier busing system to a three tier busing system and it was a huge savings at that time um when this change was made we were told it was a one-year trial and so 21 years later we are still living the one-year trial for those three start times thank you um a few years ago we adjusted times at the middle school and the yell in order to combine those roots um that was um Sher I believe you were here Dan I believe you were also here when we made that made that last chance that last change a couple minutes either it wasn't drastic they weren't huge but we were transporting them separately and it was I think we ended up saving I'm going to go out of say3 or $400,000 I think it was 300,000 if I remember correct and it wasn't as much as maybe we had hoped when we initially looked um and there was a lot of concerns for families about having fourth graders right the BS of eighth graders and I think you know overall we've done a good job of of kind of separating those students out over the years and working on that process are there things that come up from time to time of course like any other bus situation um but yes so hopefully that answers the why around why we currently do what we do that's perfect thank you I think the other thing with the the savings was this the the regulations around busing and who's provided it so we we're we're combining the two schools are most logical but only K the six is required by state law and and so and that was our biggest thing is so we have two grades that aren't to be required but they're going to the same school and Lely at the same bus upop so that was one of the big lack of savings I think in the long run is because we we said no let's keep those two grades on the bus as well at the space so the masse regulations require school districts to transport any student in kindergarten through grade six who live 2 miles or more more from their school and so anyone above grade six grade 7 through 12 are not required Transportation regardless of the distance from their home to the school um currently we offer busing for um St all students in K to 12 anyone that lives um outside that 2 mile radius in K to 6 um is transported for free anyone anyone within that 2 m radius in k to6 or any student in grade 7 to 12 are charged our bus fee um so after you know looking at a lot of different options um playing around with times playing around with buses we came up with three different options so option one um aligns the high school and middle school times so instead of transporting students together um in grades 4 to8 we would now be transporting students together in grades 6 through 12 um they would drop off at the high school and then they would turn back around and drop students off at the middle school very similar to our combined hay Middle School run now what would happen from there the um buses would leave and the JCS bosses would go and pick up the JCS students lgn bses would go pick up the lgn students and they would have the same start time at 8:35 and then finally the yell school would be the goat would move down to that last bus or the last tier time um so ultimately this solves some of your problems but it doesn't solve all of them it it takes the problem of having a late start and pushes it off to the yell school which is not something we really want to do because we're pretty clear on the fact that a 9:15 start is really not great um however it would bring JCS and lgn to an align start time which is one of our primary goals we have a lot of um concerns about JCS and lgn being so far apart so that was option one option two aligns the middle school and high school start times with the same type of combined 6 to 12 route and that what we would do this time is we would combine all of our students in K to 5 so if the you know next year the the bus stops at the cyer house they would be picking up Colton who would be a fourth grader at the time as well as the girls who would still be at JCS it would not be two separate bus runs we would have students kindergarten through grade 5 picking up um at that same time and what they would do is they would come and they would drop off all the yell students first they would they would come to the center of town and they would go back out to drop off a JCS lgm so this brings all of the elementary students to a time that's a little bit more aligned um it brings us from three tiers of buses down to two tiers and it also brings the high school and the middle school to an align time and then finally option three is where we would reverse the start times for elementary and secondary bringing the yell school to our very early 7:45 start with JCS and lgn following very closely behind and the high school and middle school taking those later starts 8:40 and 850 um this actually addresses some of the thoughts around um sleep sleep study research for adolescents and it also takes advantage of the um you know the fact that our youngest Learners are up early and kind of right to go um however the challenges of this option are honestly getting our high school and middle school students out so late um when you take a look at um all of our surrounding districts um a great place to look is the tri valley League because that's who we compete against in all of our Athletics um this would push us to the latest start and end time within the tbll um and one of the concerns that we have um is about students missing instructional time for athletics it's great to be a student athlete but you should not be missing core instructional time in order to be a student athlete um so that's option three ultimately um in an ideal situation we believe from this working group would be option two um it takes the start and end times for the middle school and high school it aligns the elementary schools and it also eliminates that third tier of busing with any decision there is no easy decision and there are benefits to this recommendation and there are also challenges to this recommendation so I'm going to walk you through um those now so benefits of option two consistent start and end time for our students in 6 through 12 um we have a serious need for collaboration between Norton Middle School and Norton High School when it comes to academics um in years past we used to have academic coordinators who oversaw curriculum at a middle school and over time those jobs have changed so much there really is a lack of vertical alignment between our students in our curriculum in 6 through 8 and then that of 9 through 12 um currently we have middle school students that um are great athletes and they play up on some of our high school teams and they are missing core instruction on a regular basis in order to get to games on time um as someone who has been in charge of teaching and learning for 12 years I don't think that's okay um and then additionally within the m flower League which is what our Middle School participates in there are days where our students need to travel to a middle school aw game and are also missing core instruction during that time um I think regardless of what our outcomes are um of this work that is something that we have to take a look at um but moving them earlier would eliminate eliminate that concern there would be no more missing instructional time for our student athletes um this is also giving us the opportunity to take a look at is there a way for us to share staff across the middle school and high school and is there also a way for some of our um middle schoolers that are really you know looking for enrichment opportunities to potentially take a class at the high school if you're able to get them onto a more of a consistent schedule it gives us a lot of time and a lot of opportunity to look at different opportunities for students when it comes to academics um we also really talked about the idea of student to student mentoring how how wonderful would it be to be able to have high school students come down and work with some of our sixth seventh and eighth graders um and and some of those clubs that we have whether it's um you know V's not here tonight but he does a lot of work with project 351 in the Playbook initiative our GSA our student councils there are so many great opportunities for us to see some collaboration and some really awesome um benefits for our students but the way that our times work right now it's just not beneficial um for our elementaries consistent start and end time for the first time in over 25 years um I can't go back much further than that but I'm going to tell you it's been at least 25 years since we've had some consistency in our elementary structure teacher collaboration and planning across grade levels we do so much work on a daily basis talking about student data and intervention planning and you know having conversations about teaching and learning and how students are are are doing with a particular content or subject area and we don't have the opportunity for our third grade teachers at JCS to really ever talk to our third grade teachers at lgm and if we could do this we could look to me having a grade level data meeting looking at all third graders and looking at what the needs are of the grade level as a whole instead of having these Pockets that would be absolutely huge when it comes to sending these students off to the Yale School where they're going to combine as one fourth grade team um right now when we have our early release days lgn gets out at 11:00 JCS students don't leave until 12:30 sometimes later than that um so we really only have about an hour to an hour and a half of time where we can actually bring people together for shared professional development um and then also this is something that needs to be looked at but we also could have the potential to consolidate some of our special education programs based on student need as of right now we have best classrooms at both JCS and lgn we only have the language based classroom at JCS we have grit classrooms at both JCS and lgn so right now if a student is in need of a particular program that is not hosted at their Elementary School families need to decide are they going to take their child and move them to the school across town which is a totally different time and day and all of that and potentially could be one child at GCS and one child at lgn depending on your family Dynamics if we were able to bring those start times to a more consistent place we could really look at our numbers and potentially consolidate some of those programs it would definitely take time I think it makes Casey a little bit nervous but I also think like there is a huge opportunity here if we had that flexibility and then while we know it's not a big thing for a lot of our families it does give the older students they're going to be home earlier I know like right now lgn and the high school I mean they're basically home at the same time so it does support families um if they need um care for their younger students in the afternoon but of course nothing's perfect right um this CH this change does make the LG animal almost a whole hour later than they're currently going and ultimately our goal was to bring JCS earlier not lgm later um so it doesn't it doesn't you know alleviate any of our concerns about how students will be prepared for learning later in the afternoon um and they won't have that benefit of that early morning you know rare andgo experience um I do see some concern from families uh when we are taking a look at combining these bus routs um having sixth graders ride with high schoolers um and then kindergarteners and I apologize that she say grade five um you know there will be concerns from families about that um I think when it comes to grades 6 through 12 a large majority of the communities around us all do 6 through 12 bsing their middle schools and their high schools are much more closely aligned than ours are um and I think we've learned a lot of lessons over the years of managing fourth graders and eighth graders and how we've taken steps where the younger students ride at the front of the bus and the older students ride at the back of the bus and I would also note that there once you get to 11th and 12th grade we have far fewer students riding bus um at that age level because number one they have their license or their friends do and they're also involved in so many extracurricular activities after school that many students are riding the late bus or they're getting rides home after practice so um that is something that I think could be fairly easily addressed um there's also the financial implications of busting which is what I'm going to talk to you about now does anyone have any questions about this before I move on to the financial financial piece I had a question so did we look at the flip side of like what if high school and middle school went earlier like is there is there a cut off time to when they can start so I think there's definitely some wiggle room um I don't know that I would go much earlier than 7:30 um my own children and I live in Mansfield my own children start at 7:20 um it's extremely early I I think um there's definitely opportunities and possibilities for us to look at that and squeak it up a little bit more um I think that would we would need to work with the high school and middle school staff we would need to kind of look at some of the um possibilities around what we could do to make it all work but there's definitely I remember going in 705 school so that was a little bit on the norm but I didn't know if that was looked at if that was earlier and we can move our elementary kids earlier too and I think there's definitely some some possibility within there to do that I think it would definitely be um and I don't want to speak for anyone on the team because there's no high school people here tonight um but we could definitely yeah and I think the committee when we were looking at that one of the big things that we looked at was what is the what whatever Department of Pediatrics saying about children and sleep and Adolescence starting school early like the recommendation is starting after 8:30 for for nationalwide you know so when we look at it being like 7:40 they already 50 minutes ahead like you know I think that was the push of why not to go even over there I think that's the big challenge of the high school too I mean these this kid's out at the bus at you know 6:45 on in some parts of town so I mean they're already up drastically early they may not be starting for another hour but on the flip side you know all three of my kids were JCS kids you know this time of year they're getting home and it's dark you know and and that's that's always been a challenge and and you and I think back many years ago you know when we talk about after school activities not even at school but you know kids playing winter winter soccer there's a facility nearby that every session gives you a game at 4:00 so when you kids are in JCS it's like you see the line of parents that are soccer parents having to go pick up their kids because there's no way to get them off the bus and get there so you know it's just it's just the little things when I I was shocked when I moved to town 20 somewhat years ago that um that to me that was a very late start for that GCS school it is it absolutely is and for those who have either had children go through it or live through it as as a teacher it's an extremely long day for the students it really truly is um so let me kind of walk you through the financial components of this um so one of the biggest challenges of option two is kind of figuring out the busing component because if you combine grades 6 through 12 right now if nothing were to change we can make it work but if ridership changes at any way with more students we are right on the cffp of needing that additional bus um so if we were to needed to add one bus it would be a cost of $63,000 thinking about combining JCS lgn and Neel you absolutely need to add one bus and so therefore if you have to add one at the high school level and you have to add one at the um Elementary level you're looking at a net cost of $144,000 over and above our carent busing contract which I shared with you earlier was 1.2 million now we were all here last year when we had to make some pretty devastating cuts to our system and our staffing because of our um our budgeting issues um so we have a couple different options for you guys on how this could actually roll out in a more fiscally responsible way um and I'm going to share those with you as well so um this goes to show the um you know different impacts of um changing the number of buses currently we have the Norton High School and LG lgn run and then we have the um I'm sorry that should be nor high school and middle school I apologize I was trying to get this together guys super quick um so ultimately if we could combine the high school and middle school and we combine the three elementary schools and we did not have to add a bus in any way shape or form it would be a savings of $5,400 which is not a lot of money but we'll take it if we had to add one bus it would be the $63,000 increase and then if we had to add another bus for um high school middle school and another bus for um the elementary schools that would be $144,000 so a couple different options here so quick quick question yes please just kind of popped into I know with our bus contract with our after school activities regarding Sports come to mind I know one of the big things is none of our drivers in town can take those what essentially is an overtime run because we have that tiered system I don't think the the savings will be great but with this new system could we potentially would that save us any money in that respect or is that a completely different Avenue because it's just a contract with Bloom for this like on Monday we know we need to send a bus to hopkington right so the athletic buses themselves um are are different aspect of the contract versus the tiered busing system so while our drivers who are doing the JCS run are not able to you know take on that overtime there is somebody through Bloom that is able to take on that work so it really does not impact um the actual contract of our amm PM School runs um those numbers that we shared with you actually take into account any savings in terms of dropping from three tiers down to two so if I remember and Sher and danan you guys might remember this as well when we changed our busing model several years ago to combine the middle school and the yell school I think we had originally anticipated a larger savings than what we ended up with and ultimately it was because we learned at that time that cutting a tiar is not what costs or what saves it's the actual BS itself so moving from three tiers down to two tiers isn't going to be a big cost savings it's if you were to say okay we don't need 16 buses now we only need 14 buses that's where you are actually are able to save more money um so I want to walk you through a couple different options and and I think it's important before we move on that my recommendation to you is that we sit on this for a little bit I think it's this is a lot I think we need to come back and talk about it so I don't want you to feel like you need to make a decision tonight or any of those things so um one of the implementation one of the options um regardless of what route we decide to go the committee strongly believes that the best timeline for implementation is actually the fall of 2026 because a lot of these times are going to be huge shifts for some of our families specifically our lgn families and it's really important that we give them a lot of lead time if they need to make adjustments to before or after school care for their families if they wanted to make work adjustments um and so today being December 11th we feel like an implementation of September of 25 is is Rush for number one doing the work that well number one giving you guys the opportunity to make a decision that you feel good about number two for our my team to be able to do all of that work in the background in terms of restructuring bus rots and you know all of these other things that we need to think about working with our staff and then also working with our families so the first option for us is full implementation in the fall of 26 with what I'm calling bus limiting it's not a technical term it's just kind of something we made up um so what we would do is we would not increase the number of buses that we are currently contracted at we would keep the same number of buses um we would only change from three tiers down to two tiers and what we would ask families to do is we would ask families if they are going to be participating in transportation through a paid service they are not entitled we would ask that they register for busing by July 1st of 2026 and what we would do is we would Place those students that met the deadline on buses as available all those students would get a bus anyone that is obviously students that are guaranteed Transportation because of their distance in K to 6 all those kids would get placed first in routs and then we would place all of the students that registered by the deadline anyone that registered after July 1 is not guaranteed busing so if you are not able to if you decide not if you miss the deadline then you are only given a space if one exists for your child so therefore obviously if a space is not available you would not pay the fee and you would be responsible for transporting your child to and from school um I don't know how popular that would be but I do think it's important for us to have the conversation about it um as I mentioned earlier we are only required by law to transport students in kindergarten through grade six that live more than 2 miles from their school yes please that already in place no because ultimately we take every registration all right so they said the email that says that but it's techically not Chris um if a particular bus is a our capacity then they can't write it but that's it and there's only I think two right now that are at the limit so any registrations on those two buses we would say no I'm sorry we can't copy but this would be I mean because ultimately you'll have students in K to 5 riding on routes where you just had K to three previously so we're looking at two other grade levels of students they would be pretty tight um so but I appreciate that so thank you and I and I'll be honest I didn't really we say that I I could have misread I thought that that that was how it says I believe it has said in the past you're not guaranteed um this I think would be a little more strict like because we give um Roots already kind of set up with people that have previously ridden um before and the bus already kind of knows and then we kind of tweak but considering we would be starting from scratch it would be a hard no they'd set the root and then if we had room in certain spaces we would let on after that so it it could be hypothetically if you and Jen were both to register after the date and you registered on I'm just going to pick some dates July 15th and Jen register on July 30th but there's spot on Jen's child there's a spot for Jen's child people may be it wouldn't be a first come first serve it would be strategic based on what's available is our highest ridership in that K to 5 like what does our ridership look like in in these tiers or whatever like cuz I I mean personally I see some of the high school buses are a little light at the end of the day um but then I see obviously the the yell and the Middle School combin are packed you know in the morning so do we have an idea like how this is going to look you know cuz I would think if if we're going to have to add a bus my assumption it's going to be that kada 5 area um so in currently or in this scenario I'm just saying currently cuz that's where we can project the numbers because someone in first grade they're going to be theoretically riding for four more years in this model so you're right in the right now the hey middle has obviously the most packed buses those are the ones that have the weight list on two of them um it would be at least two a seat or more for k for five and then the projections were two to a SE um for the larger kids in middle school to high school um so really I know this is the best answer but it really just depends on who rides and where they live um right now we have two high school buses that are very much full um it's just where they live town and then there's a couple that are very very Spar so um I think it really just depends on who registers and that's pretty common regardless of the route like the middle school and yellow buses are are are full but we have a few JCS buses that are packed and some that look very light when they pull in in the morning and lgn is the exact same way um it it really is about the route itself um the next option would be full impation in the fall of 2026 but only limiting students in grade 7 through 12 so this would actually um almost divide the cost in half because we are projecting that we would need that one bus for the elementary students to be able to provide transportation for all of our K 5 Riders however we would use the exact same an exact same process for students in grades 7 through 12 and the reason we would Target these students is that they are not guaranteed transportation in any way sheap or form so parents in grade 7 through 12 would need to sign their child up by July 1st for the bus and then anything after that be placed uh students be placed based on availability so this this might be a silly question but I'm going to ask it anyway when we look at these two tiers and maybe this was previous and I missed it if we have a contract for 16 buses and we look at the the ridership numbers for middle and high school and we only need 13 can we use those buses then in that Middle School like how does that work like like you said earlier when we save a bus it's whatever amount but if we're contracted for 16 we need 17 but if we only need say 14 for that run how would that would that be any savings not as not as much as you would think right because ultimately you need to take the bus out of the equation totally so if we only needed 14 buses I I feel like I'm doing really complicated like Common Core math right now and it's um I'm just thinking like you mentioned earlier kids you know my youngest included they get to be junior seniors and they're not on the buses or they're an athlete and they're picked up after school or whatever it is so I think there's going to be less of a need in this 6 to 12 Riders sh than we think so ultimately if you didn't need 16 buses for that route and you only needed 14 what would change is the number of tiers that bus is going to ride to run so they would so those two buses would only be needed for the elementary ride so they would be considered a tier one bus because it only does one route if you went from 16 buses needed overall to 14 buses needed overall for those routs that's where you would see the larger savings but yes Dan it would it would be a savings but probably not as much as we would hope yeah I mean because you got to also think with the company that bus that you're going to need at give or to 7:45 to start picking up the elementary school kids they ain't doing anything with that bus in the morning because they need it so it's they're not going to give you a huge savings on that because it makes no Financial business sense whatsoever and so in that case the bus is still ours we still have the bus we use it for at least one tier um so they so the the first tier is the most expensive so if we needed 15 buses you're paying for those 15 buses that now belong to Norton and are going to do that first year we pay less for every tier after than we do for adding 16 bus I mean ultimately if money was not an issue the best way to do this would be to add a couple extra buses and then you don't have as much of an issue with the actual times themselves because you have the number of buses needed to transport students where they need to go but ultimately that's not the reality here um and then I also am giving you kind of like a 2-year roll out so this would again stretch the cost over two fiscal years in order to kind of make it more bearable on our budget but it would not we would know we would not need to limit any ridership so this one would start we would move the high school and the middle school in year one we would get lgn and JCS on that um shared schedule in year one and we would have to have the Y school do one year of that late start that no one want and then in year two we would move the element so we would potentially need a boss for the high school and middle school run that first year which would be the 63,000 the following year we would go all in and it would be about um another 880,000 to add that second bus when you're when you're taking a look at it [Music] um my fear honestly in this one is that we do to the yell what happened to JCS 20 years ago and say it's going to be a one-year thing and then you know 21 years later there's somebody else standing at this Podium talking about how we were told it was only going to be for year um I also want to remind the committee of this because I think this is really really important for context and um for all of us to consider we have a huge amount of building that is taking place right now Community um we have 195 Mansfield Avenue which is the um complex that is next to the roach Brothers Plaza over um towards the Manfield line there are 101 units that are opening on December 15th as of today we have one student that is enrolled at JCS um that Mom was totally on her game and got out early I'm sure we will see more students enroll as the this complex opens and more families moving in um I would not be surprised if right after the holiday break um we get several students um from this address um Lloyd Street and Germain Street which is um also known as the Pine Street cluster those are the um 44 large homes that are going in off of Pine Street um to my knowledge they are all still being built and we don't have any families in there yet but that is coming um Elm Street for you know there has been a lot of conversations about the current readen Barton site um that would potentially be mixed use um and you know potentially up to 200 units there we have the potential MBTA site which was tabled at our um fall town meeting which but does have the potential of 750 units there is no time line on that at all um also um Nick I Fredy shared this information with me he as our um building inspector townwide we have um four common driveway Lots so it would be a shared driveway with three or four homes um attached to that chair driveway we actually have four of those that are approved around town and then we have 50 single family home lots all of those have been approved but they are not yet actually permanent for building so um I think it's really important for us to consider that um we're making a recommendation to you tonight for a start time but we have all of these other things that are kind of going on in the background as well and it's going to be really important for us to be cognizant of all of these projects as they come up um because 195 me SP out that is JCS Lloyd Street Germaine street that is lgm um Elm Street JCS um the MBTA site we have no idea where that's going to end up but that any one of these projects specifically I want to say Alm Street and the MBTA site have a huge potential to make an impact on one of our elementary schools and there's no way really for us to kind of predict what that would look like and when it and when it would look that way um you know i' I've asked our Our Town planner um Mr D ji thank you very much Peter um is there a formula that is used when communities are considering projects um like you know we think about the impacts on our our police and our fire and our water and all of those other things but there's really no way for us to estimate or or to project how many students and families are going to move into these into these new residences and if a family does move in there's no way for us to predict if they're going to have you know five children under the age of eight or if they're going to be moving in with middle schoolers or high schoolers so ultimately the best week can do as a system is to respond when students come and register which is honestly not a great long-term plan but it's really all we have so that was actually one of the questions I had kind of noted is did we look at specifically the elementary districting when we looked at this plan because you know to me you know I just whispered to Sherry you look at those projects that's 2 three years of and I think a lot of those will be done in three years not not all of them but potentially four of them could be two-year projects and they're they're done I mean you know so and I I don't know what the districts are and what they look like but I know from the minute we heard about that Pine Street project we were worried about LG because it is our smaller school and then obviously you know the apartments on Mansfield I I don't think we were as worried at JCS cuz I know historically there many many years ago there were higher numbers in at GCS but we don't have space for no and and you know ultimately no matter which way you shake it we don't have space um lgn is is extremely full in terms of classroom spaces and um I know some of you we did building Works last year and I really enjoyed that and I think it was eye opening for a lot of you to kind of see the way our schools are used um and the space restrictions that we're under at this point um I think that with the number of projects that we have going on and really no way to project it makes it really difficult for us to say well what if we move the line This Way how would that work because it's it's really a moving Target to really look at um because ultimately what we would need to do is we would need to make the lgn district smaller and we would need to make the JCS District larger um which in a place like GCS which really doesn't have a water firm right now it it it makes it it makes it difficult um we would also be looking at just increasing class sizes as one comes in and one comes up you know to do it that way well I guess is it possible not necessarily look at but if we align the elementary school times can that make it a little easier like I don't want to say like you know one side of the street is JCS one is LG but we could get to that Point depending on how these you know projects well if you drive up North Washington Street yeah towards Manfield the neighborhoods on the right are lgm the neighborhoods and all after GCS and and those things are already happening in town you think about it I you know one of the things I always think about is Elm Street and Pine Street Elm Street is JCS Pine Street is lgm so we we do have a lot of that happening I think some of the other things that we might want to consider and and I think this again this is a big huge thing for us to consider um if we align those times yes I think we will have some flexibility in terms of like hey we have no space here let's let's move these two streets over or whatever that may be but the other thing that we might want to think about considering is looking at the way we structure our schools in general like is there a way for us to have all of our third fourth and fifth graders at the El school like would we have space for that or and then maybe you do kat2 somewhere else or perhaps and again this is all conjecture I am not saying this is what we're going to do please don't anyone take this as definite maybe we turn lgn to An Early Childhood Center and that's where your preschool and kindergarteners go there are so many different bless you things for us to consider I would probably be more likely to recommend something like that second option because versus redrawing our lines because I think when we redraw the lines in a place where we have this much building and nor is a community that still has a good amount of open space I think you're going to get into a situation where we're looking at that almost every year for a few years whereas if you said okay let's lgn becomes the lgor Early Childhood Center you have preschool and kindergarten there regardless of where you live in town JCS becomes our one two and three school or something along those lines but it also gives and I'm going to use our third grade team again because there you know Carrie was sitting here earlier now you have all of your third grade teachers in the same building under the same roof at the same time of day and the impact that that could have educationally for students I think is huge and I also think that if you're putting all of your students and again this is again just a conversation not going to happen you can look really carefully at your class size because right now we do have inconsist scies and class size between JCS and lgn and it's it's based on address um so that is something that I think that um we might want to consider as we move forward and we have a little bit of a better handle on what these projects look like was any of that discussed during these alignment meetings or was it more strictly about timing it was all discussed I think to add to that point as well again obviously we're not go down that rabbit hole right now but just conjecture yes but if you did combine some type of you know whatever prek K and you know whatever at lgn and then you moved everyone else to JCS I think that's an area where the town could look at possibly adding an extension onto JCS to make sure we can fit everyone you know and now you're looking at instead of building a Hill Elementary School you know you could go obviously through msba and so on and so forth to try to get a little bit more you know with what we're doing which in the long run obviously we need some studies and whatnot of exactly what that looks like but is there a cost savings being everyone Under One Roof you know call it first to a third and you know I think there's a lot of things that would have to be looked at for us to do that I mean Christine and I have had this conversation like when we're just throwing ideas at the wall like Transportation would change because you're going to have a lot of students that are now more than 2 miles from their school so we would have to consider consider those things so it's um that would be a really big project for us and and something that I think my team is very happy to undertake you know a few years down the road um but I do think looking at some of the building I I think those are things that we really as a school committee and as an Administration we need to make sure that we have our pulse on some of these things that are happening in town and I've been very fortunate everyone at the Town Hall has been wonderful answer of all my questions Nick has been great Paul has been great um Mike has been great you know and we're just we're just asking a lot of questions and I think that's the best way for us to kind of figure out what makes the most sense so the the last question I had on this um I know currently LG does not have morning Child Care have we talk to our partners at Champions to see if that's something they can undertake because I know typically you know kids at the hay can go to JCS and get a bus from there in the morning as an option but with and I obviously it would be a contract change but has that discussion so those are all things that we we need to look at so um we put together a timeline when we think these conversations kind of need to be finalized if we are going to make a change for September 26 so um I I think that we should continue to have this conversation as a committee um but I would recommend that if we are going to make a change for September 26 that we make that change and vote on it publicly no later um than April of 2025 um which would allow us over a year for Christine to be working with Bloom to take a look at our new roots and timing and all of that it would also give us the time to explore changes to our um contract with champions for before and after after school there um because just like the comment about mornings we would have changes in what parents need for afternoons as well um so we would definitely need to look at that with them and in partnership with them to ensure like do we have three sites or students all going or is it maybe if the yell starts first there's going to be a site at the yell and a site at one other building and then students can get on the bus from the yell and head to LG something like that so those are all things that would need to really be looked at and structured and um done behind the scenes um and our my feeling is that if we are going to make this change that I would like to communicate that change to families before the end of this current school year I'm saying if we're going to vote in April our communication should go out to families in may we would host Community forums um do you know an FAQ document for our families meet with them because people are going to have concerns regardless of what we decide on on number one it's never going to be something that everyone's going to be happy with and number two it's not going to meet the needs of everyone and so therefore like it that's why it's a it's a really big undertaking um and as I said we would recommend implementation for September of 26 so that's what I have for you guys tonight I know it's a lot um I'm more than happy to answering other questions that you have or take feedback um the other thing that I want to um share is that as you look at things and you you think about them if you need additional information you want me to present on add additional information here in public forum or you want to ask questions offline please do so um I'm more than happy to come out and present more information to you if you want us to look at other things we can do that as well um I just want you all to feel like you have as much information as you need in order to help us move this forward I think the the only comment I have and this I would just defer to you and Christine is part of me is is thinking with the bus sign up being July I'd almost want to push that back to Mid June cuz I think and I'm guilty of this as a parent the kids are out of school you're in summer mode you're in summer brain you're forgetting about it and I just think even though you know we've been lucky the past few years we get out fairly early in June but that that 2 weeks I mean you start you know my kids are Camp con are already working things like that and you're not thinking about the next school year so it's just something to just you know float out there um jul you know absolutely no and I think that's why we have these conversations and um I think Christine that makes her more comfortable too seeing her facial expression when you said that so no I just I mean cuz you I every year you scramble with summer work and and for kids and everything else and like you know I've been that parent that Amazon's the book you know overnights at the the week of yeah like August 28th yeah so I mean I think it's just you get that you know as as Kate mentioned you get that summer break and you're not thinking and even as a parent you're not thinking about it so it's just something to just kind of keep in the back I don't know if you shared this can you definitely share this with us I think it lays it out a little bit better than yeah so I mean the everything that's in the slide show is in the recommendation document except for some of the student data that I shared with you at the beginning um I literally finished putting this together for you guys tonight because I just I needed slides to talk from instead of this so I will absolutely share this with you per thank any other questions comments concerns I just want to say thank you to everybody on that committee cuz I know that this was a long time and a lot of effort and a lot of meetings and discuss and surveys and all the things so just want to stay Thank you this was great great uh on to other business any topics that anyone has the only one I have is I got an email from a Community member um just asking about some changing in fees we almost added it to the agenda but we knew was going to be pretty packed agenda um so Jen I think I sh that email with you basically Community member was asking about changing fees for Honor societies um and something that we could explore and look at um I obviously sent it over the agenda kind of have her team shake it out I don't know if you have any so I just I'm I'm just going to touch upon this very quickly and I think it's warrants a larger conversation um but the way that our um number one we have nine honor Societies in addition to the National Honor Society in norn high school which is almost unheard of it it really is amazing um I want to CL and so the way that they're set up is that they are set up as clubs and so therefore they fall under that same charge that we so it's $50 to belong to a club there is no family cap so the way that the structure of the societies work at Norton High School is that those are also clubs um so I think um and it's also important I think for everyone to know that um students that are members of the National Honor Society do not pay a fee to the National Honor Society so it's the other sociey so um I know that this is I'll age myself a little bit but when I was in high school we had science club or math club or things like that and these societies have taken the place of those clubs that originally existed um so I think there are structures and there are definitely things that we are paying out as a district um we pay stiens to the advisers of all of our societies um so therefore you know the club fees go to subsidize those fees um but then there are also other costs for example to the National chapter or to the state organization those types of things so for example um the national English Honor Society we pay $725 a year for us our chapter to belong to the National chapter um so I think ultimately what we need to really do is a figure out what the actual costs are of each of the honor societies and take a look at the structure um we've actually had budget meetings this whole week um with our um building principls and our department leaders and it's been a really great week of very interesting conversations for some of these things and saying okay like perhaps the way that we're structuring some of these things that we're offering to students needs to be relooked at um personally I don't necessarily believe that there should be a cost for all of these things but I also know the budget that we have as a school community and therefore I I think it just needs to be relooked at and I know Dan youve had I mean a high school parents have had their own experiences as well yeah I mean just just piggy back in and we you know we got this communication shortly after my youngest was inducted into five or six I I lost the number um and it and my response was was simple anybody can join best buddies or Deca or this or that and I'm not putting you know putting down any club that you can join however for Honor societies there are standards students have to make so that was my thing my response was it's a different different standard to get into this club so they shouldn't be considered a club it is selective I have heard there are students that were not recommended to join these clubs um my daughter is is a very good student she's I guess said she's in five and there was a couple she didn't go for that she'll go for next year so um and I don't say that selfishly because I watched the list of names across the stage that were a lot of kids and somewhere in I believe there was one child that had seven and I believe the max you can get into is eight um because you can't I to my knowledge you can't get Spanish and French um because of the academic load so and that was my big thing is it's it's a different kind of Club because it is selective and it's almost invitation only so it can't be treated as one of the clubs where you show up and you're in um so I I I did urge you know Nick and and and Dr O'Neal that we need to have a discussion on this because um it it is a select group of students rightfully so because they are doing well academically um that we need to look at this at this further um so I'm happy to bring some more information to the committee at our next meeting which I believe is January 8th um and we can probably give you a little bit more I think the only thing that we might want to consider is um if you want wanted to make changes um how we do that in terms of our current budget situation and you know really not having um additional wiggle room in many places so we have to decide if this would be a change moving forward yeah I think me and Dan kind of asked some questions in terms of like where does this money go how much are we charging what is you know kind of all that behind the scenes stuff if you will um so I think yeah I think if we can kind of obviously take a look at this a little deeper and then we'll definitely get it on our agenda for January 8th that way we can kind of sit down and go through it a little bit more with more information any other business it's our last meeting 2024 so that's a little wild so hopefully everyone has a happy holiday season and a happy New Year um I don't think I've ever done executive session so I need to close this I was just going to thank the um town hall for allowing us to use this beautiful space tonight um we've made it through with you know lied limited issues so thank you to them for um yep I allowing us this and so what we're going to do is you'll exit General Session or exit the open meeting to enter and not to return got it so I'm going to entertain a motion to close the December 11th meeting second thank you all those in favor I and then I'm going to ask for a motion to open the executive session meeting and not return to open meeting open meeting is that how I do it do technically do one so to adjourn to go into executive session you have to say with why just read the motion okay so the motion then would be to adjourn and enter into an executive session for the purpose of contract negotiations with non-union personnel and not to return to open session second and this is got to be a roll call vote so miss Ken in yes M K yes Mr Shi yes Miss michella yes and I'm yes thank you all very much have nice name you