flag United States na andice call meeting to order on Monday July 29th um we are being recorded by both Media Center we are also Public Schools we are also on Zoom first things up end of the year fiscal 24 budget update from so um what I was the and we ended this this schol year balance of$ 28195 and that was in our line questions I also questions I five one two four um since the train project obviously so we turn back 281 almost $8,000 back to the we know the savings from train projects I know it's probably a little I know supposed savings what's that um so all their mind they all from from some some just started to see solar incentives um just small am some check that was on the another looking at this Bud for 52,000 and the uh only spent 343,000 so is that kind of safe to say that you're looking at give what you know $180,000 savings yes and so all of the money that you see there that 281,000 almost 282 those all came out of our utility line expenses that we over budgeted for and saw the saving so it definitely um course would vary year toe based on actual feing and ping me with letters Etc um but we were able to just for I think public consumption I think be good we uh budget for 37.7 sorry 34.7 million you spent $ 33.9 million was 281,000 questions okay um so I shared with the committee a few items for tonight um number one was um the stack deduction sheet that was shared pretty publicly uh leading up to the override vote uh few weeks ago in July um these were the 29 positions that were eliminated in order for us to meet the 1% budget allocation uh since that time we have recalled two power professionals based on student need and um programming um so that brings that 29 number down to 27 um for those in the audience um and at home I'll read these again uh the 20 the positions are the production of a guidance counsel High School a a nurse that was um call her the district nurse which really was providing services to all five buildings music teacher at Norton Middle School the elimination of Middle School World Language at two teachers an English teacher at Norton Middle School a math teacher at Norton Middle School a reading interventionist at gil School two elementary math interventionists the art teacher at Norton Middle School two instructional technology Specialists the elementary math coach the elementary literacy coach preschool teacher a science teacher at Norton High School social studies teacher at Norton High School music teacher at one of one of two music teachers at Norton High School a wellness teacher at Norton High School a speech and language pathology assistant that was a point4 position two custodians the middle school dean and JCS additionally uh for elementary specialist we reduced Elementary Arts by .12 Elementary steam by 32 Elementary library by4 and Elementary Music 52 so those are all of the cuts that had been made um they were made previous to the override vote um because of our contractual obligations um but we will not be recalling those STS the next um piece of information that I shared with all of you are the Staffing changes that we've had since our mtown meeting um and I think it's important for you to all know that since I shared this with you about 24 you know 48 hours ago we've had two other Chang um so we are at a total of four retirements since our town meeting a total of eight resignations um three staff members that have decided to um do a um full-time equivalent change so for example um we have a fifth grade teacher that is going to be jop sharing a science teacher at the high school that's going to be jop sharing so those positions are going from a 1 to a point4 and then we will back fill the other side of their position um and then um I apologize this is an error we have two leades of absences since the fall town meeting that art teacher we already knew about had budgeted so I apologize that my error um and then the third thing that we have for you is the savings on all of these position so it's not quite totally up to date at this point um because as I said we just got those you know other two in the last you know two days or so um but at this time taking a look at staff members that have resigned or retired and then back filling those roles um as needed we're looking at a savings of 176,000 862 So based on changes since town meeting basically focusing on retirements and Restin how many of those so we've been kind of back filling them as as they've happened uh so on the third sheet that you have for tonight you can see the first um staff member was the high school guidance counselor the person that left was leaving at 8,9 $28 we hired a new guidance counselor at $564 which is a savings of 24430 um and we have um we've rehired the school psychologist at the middle school um the classroom teacher at JCS the language based classroom at JCS a grade one um position at JCS an English teacher retirement at the middle school an English teacher retirement at the high school um and then those last two are the job sharing so as you can see having somebody um in a job share position we're now only paying them at4 there's still a savings because we're hiring somebody that is less experienced or brand new to the district at that time um so that's how we get up to that 176 we will be posting or actually um in one case recalling a staff member that was laid off um due to a retirement that has just come up over the weekend um so that would be somebody that we able to recall it's important for people to know it is not a new position they are are not bringing them back because we found money we're bringing them back someone else decided to leave so one for one exactly um and then we will be looking at options for the res the resignation that took place at north um and we're actually looking at the way that our staffing is is going to present some options be for potentially f in another school to um make up the difference there questions coms [Music] which um so as of right now we will have a um the amazing Mrs Han Anderson is extremely organized she got this awesome spreadsheet for us for everything color coded we can see exactly who was coming and who was going and who we s to work on here all right um we are still um you're working on a um still looking at A6 L teacher we are still looking at um an inclusion teacher at JCS a long-term sub position at JCS kindergart teacher at JCS and then we will be looking at a social position at that is one of the most recent um changes and this happens every summer this is not strange or unusual people have um Family commitments that change people go on vacation and say this is really awesome I think I'm G to retire and it truly happened and you know what if you have the ability to do it great hope for it um it it truly does happen every single year so this is and this is how we are able to make changes every $176,000 it's not 3.7 million but it will give us a little bit of flexibility if we need to make some changes or if we have a student need that comes in and we're able you know to hire P professional or for something along um so this number will change Christine and I will continue to keep you updated on those savings as they come in I only anticipate that number increasing over the next several weeks um and I really am hopeful that we will be able to say that we have all of our staffing in place for um September 3rd our out of curiosity do is there like an average like retirements and resignations over the summer yeah usually it's like 20 it's really hard to um some years are more than others I think um I fully anticipated seeing a lot of people moving this summer only because um we do have a number of Staff members that are right at that point where they either have another year or another two years and sometimes when you see a financial situation in the writings on the wall it's you say you know what now's now's a good time for me um we do have some younger staff that have found positions in other communities um and I also think for them going somewhere where you feel you're going to be a little bit more secure versus having layoffs kind of hanging over your head it's it's a job security thing for people and if you're just about a new home or you're you know just starting a family that job security is extremely important so it's not surprising I don't think it's totally off the charts out of the ordinary at this point um I just I feel like we had a list from last like this doesn't seem I this would be a typical number yeah say it's pretty typical at this point um this is if I were to show you all of all of the sh like this person moved to this role and this person moved to this role I mean that's that I mean that's Pam's got like 18 different cols going over here and drop downs and spreadsheets and it's I Tred to make it as simple as I could for you guys you can really see what those changes are and what the changes are that impact C that we did not anticipate because they have all theid B so out of curiosity when we look at a staff member e what's the time where like a resignation vers time you have to qualify so many years from yes what's that it depends it depends on whether or not you were hired before or after I think it's 2012 um in order to be appropriately invested into the retirement system um the maximum retirement available to Educators in Massachusetts is 80% in order to reach 80% your years of service and your age have to add up to 90 so someone that starts like later in life second career yeah they would need to do at least 20 years in order to be considered vested into the re the ma you can obviously retire you can but um in order to get retirement plus you have to 20 years of service and in terms of resignation most often those people are leaving us to go somewhere else or leaving the career comment concerns I have a few um right so so we went from 29 positions what positions even with half come back it was the guidance councel at Norton High School the preschool teacher yeah and I believe the speech and language assistant at the point War those were those three positions that regardless of what happened we would not be and that's and that's simply due to um changing in programs enrollment um we didn't have enough students that were required that best program preschool so therefore we didn't necessarily need that person in that go um or we didn't have you know the speech and language theology assistant we have a certified SLP that's able to pick out that um I mean obviously if you had the money and you could switch out that role for something else that's always a great opportunity to be able to um to change some of our programming but those three positions would not have been recall um and then just trying like think but on 328 I kind of had that 1% budget 2% budget over we kind of went basically from my understanding that we kind of work the bottom to the top if we to 1% going to bring back 2% back so we're going to be what's looking like probably getting $104 per person sorry per people uh from the state I know it's sitting on the government's death right now we don't have that number exactly you know done that's going to give us an extra $74 per student 2400 looking at 165 168 that's the total so we've already budgeted the $30 for student that's already in the budget so we would take this we would take the 74 instead of the one so I think it's 160 160 16082 yes so um so just to kind of explain that to Folks at home um currently minimum a is set additional $30 per student for the town of um they are looking to increase that to $104 per student which would be amazing it would give us an extra as Mr Scher said an extra $74 per student for us um one of the things that we need to all be aware of is that that money is not guaranteed to the schools we will need to go back at town meeting um and ask the town to vote to approve that $160,000 coming to us as a department it goes to the general fund um and so that would be a big benefit for us to do that but we would not have access to those funds until after so hypothetically quick math if this list stays the same at 176,000 plus we get the additional per people we have $337,000 potential is that number 337,000 something that we can look at shipping off some of these Productions what's I guess what's the plan for 300 what are we doing $337,000 we leave it our budget that's I mean $337 to ur if that shows up in our bank account that's that's a lot of money right like we would be I would be psyched if that kind of money show up in my account one day $337,000 to a district with $34 million budget is not that much it really truly isn't um my number one priority is the school nurse that six nurse um one of the things that we've had conversations about over and over and over again is the number of medically fragile students that we have in our schools um across the district we have students that have feeding tubes that a nurse is required to help them with their feeding three to four times a day that is an extremely complicated process the nurse needs to be able to divide devote all of their attention to that child at that time um and it's really difficult when you've had kids coming in and out so that six nurse is someone who's able to really help with that we also have a number of students in District that are diabetic um each of the school nurses that has a child diabetes in the building has um an app that they are constantly monitoring the sugar levels of every single child if the alarm goes off they need to go and make sure that they're working with their child to help get their sugar levels back under control again very serious especially if it's your child that has this you know medical condition and we're we're asking our nurses to um keep them safe while they're here um in our care when you take a look at what the recommendations are for School nurses um across the common any any school that has um more than 500 students is recommended to have one to have a second um so we would automatically high school and middle school we should have a second um obviously that's not in the cars for us at this time um but that those are some of the reasons why that nurse is is my first priority um additionally and Mr cersi isn't here tonight but um that nurse person um is sub coverage when um one of our nurses falls out sick they unfortunately do get sick as well um if they have a personal day um they are definitely working in a Petri dish um in elementary school and as much as we think our immune system improves over time it always um they Comm there that first line of defense when we need a sub coverage for that nurse um it's very difficult as a top cheer get substitute nurses regardless of what we're paying them um and then we could also consult with um or contract with an with an outside provider a private provider it's extremely expensive um so and then the nurse also wres grants for us grants that would be my first priority and I believe that's about an $80,000 cost so we said what 337 minus 80 money goes St um I'll be really honest at this time we only looking at $337,000 of potential savings I would be extremely hesitant to bring back anyone um for a few different reasons number one um I believe that we're going to have this exact same budget situation next year and so we're bringing somebody back to to play them bringing back the staff member at town meeting time in late October it's a difficult time to change school schedules to change class sizes to do any of those things um so you'd be really looking at what are the positions that wouldn't necessarily impact the schedule or sizes but would provide support to the build in um the Middle School Gene is a great example of that I Know M Mr Haywood would probably you know fire his own mother to get anoint that there um and that would have a big impact I'm very hesitant to do any of those things because we don't know what the year is going toing we don't know if we'll have students that have um special education needs that will move into town or will be identified um and it's we we joke about it because we can literally save $20,000 in the morning and and spend 15 now it's it's extremely uh fluid the way a lot of our costs happen um so I would be very hesitant to say we're going to bring back all of these things if we get one of the things we are looking at as we see these retirements of designations reti resignation at the high school this week um that person's role is not a classroom teacher um but more of a specialized role and we're looking at okay how can the administration that we have currently perhaps back fill some of that work and therefore free up that savings for us to say you know what we have a brand new principal at JCS it would really be great if we could find somebody who would just be an early childhood coordinator there and just support school and could we do that by saving that Ro not so you're meaning that admin to take on additional responsibility cor just and I think um we're all very well aware of the additional responsibility that be taking on this year um today was the first day of our administrative Retreat um when I sa Retreat I think it's really important for everyone know we were in the library high school we were not on a tropical island or anywhere really fun and exciting um but all of our conversations today centered around student learning and how are we providing support and intervention access when we don't have interventionists we don't have our coaches to help us with the do there will be things that the administrative team is taking on this year in order to make things good things happen for kids but there are also things that are just not one and I think that it'll be my responsibility to communicate that to all of you and say we just can't use um course we want I hope think important for you guys to do that because like anything else it just gets absorbed and then it's expected yeah to because we had a lot of um a lot of stuff that we have so many we're so toped right with admins so I think it's important to point out you guys are T in additional roles to try to keep our schools at a certain level that we've all come to expect and like everything else there there comes burnout that and you take on more than really what you should be handing um and so Nick I don't want you to think I'm not answering your question by spending the whole 337 right here I I'm very hesitant do that um just because we don't we don't know what the is going to and In fairness the governor could approve the budget and it could come to Tommy Flor and may still not might may not get that $160,000 so um until it's sitting in our account you know I really or want to so again from the March 28th one that we went through the welled not high that was on got 1% that be reinstated see as a cut again not teacher Middle School that was never on our list and JCS assisting principal a childhood know she Sign May assuming JCS principal was replaced High School Avenue just FL easy but I guess why those two three different so it really came down to trying to be as creative as we can about what our options are so when you have an administrator resign it's very easy to say okay other people have contracts and potentially you be paying out someone over the rest of their contract for dismissing you don't want to necessarily do that you don't want to pay someone and not get so when an administrator resigns it's easy to say okay we're not going back that we're going to hang on to whatever that salary was and hang on to that um we were fortunate to have a very small cport of fifth graders moving up to the middle school and therefore we looked at the model of instruction for nor middle school and said okay how can we get creative here what is the certification of our teachers how can we get creative here and so now we're doing some cost tuning on grade six because the cboard is small so therefore we have a special education teacher who is also certified to teach math has been co- teaching math for many years she made she will be teaching a section of math to sixth grade students so we're trying to be really really creative in terms of what could we allow the wellness course at the high school has gone from a full year course down to a half year course so instead of every freshman taking a full year Wellness c f they're only taking a half and we are going to need to back fill some of those essential skills that they learned throughout the other half of that year throughout our curriculum at MD school I just why I just don't understand how on late March well this teach was part of and then cut we replace that stock we're still at we still we're still at 29 right 29 positions granted but we had 29 positions but the well teacher was never on out that's why I just I don't understand how the list that I have from 422 she they were very much on that um I had 328 a part of one that we got 1% that to that wasn't going to be yeah and so I mean there are other things we swapped too um so I'm looking back at the 328 next we have I have a 328 a 44 a 411 a 422 and they're all different iterations of the same thing um we were going to be cutting a business teach for work inside of a wellness and so we looked at our programming the process that we offer the number of students that are involved in our Deca program which is you know over students are involved in that program and we said we really don't have business teacher but if we move well of this health pass for a half year section instead of a full year section we can make this up um and that's why I think and I um I know that for those people who have been paying attention they heard me say I don't want to name positions I don't want to tell you know that these are going to be the people that get laid off number one a it's not here to my staff to find out that early and that publicly um but also things can change and playing off 29 people it's very difficult to none of these positions feel good like I don't really feel good about any of this even those 2.4 positions that we wouldn't necessarily follow finding not many people and stay oflo and the other part of that it's not just 29 because you have job bumping and things like that there was almost 50 people when all done in terms of positions being eliminated then bumping other people moving to new roles moving buildings so I do have one question the early childh that will take out take out the title of assistant and just Early Child that's not necessarily an administrator that just be direct which could open up a different pool potentially yeah so having the role of JCS assistant principal Early Child to coordinator you were looking for someone who had an administrative license and administrative background that was able to not only um run the program but also support discipline evaluation a lot of different things and it's um a role that was extremely multifaceted and really need the right person to be able to to do that role because it was it was so much um if we were to take the high school position and that was recently um a resignation and say okay we want to use that money instead with that an admin that's going to help us back here we would rather hire an early childhood coordinator that would be more of a program director that person would work probably we're here for 182 they would probably work 192 or 202 they would not be a year round position be more of month position um and someone who has experience with young children who has experience with a preschool program and the Runnings event we might have a preschool teacher that says you know I and throw their hands into their R for that um but that we need to sit down and look at what the potential savings could be for that so we so that being said that person um currently um Mrs Russo is um handling all of the little aners with help from the sc's office dealing with all the finance and the tuition payments with help from Alex sorn regarding Transportation um and then like that's really it Mr Barett is a brand new principal he he's not a brand new principal he's brand new to us um and you know started July 1 and is really coming in getting settled getting to know his staff um he has you know an opportunity for staff to come in and meet which has been great um that position if if we sit down and and this is is still it just happened so we would post for it we would go out and hopefully that person would start maybe a week before the SCH start um but that would be something that we really have to Financial access because the list that I gave you of savings does not include that question I think I just want to thank you for your optimism and your continu work all of you um to keep our school district at a certain level because I can tell you for me it's top sitting in the seat today is top my nth year this is where at this is sure I just want to thank you for all I think um my perspective and I don't want to speak for my team is that we do everything we can every day to make sure our kids are safe and they have a great learning experience and it's it's going to be um a challenging year but we have um we have really great staff we have really great teachers we've got great families who are super supportive um my job is to run the schools regardless of of what the outcome is and we're [Music] going great thank you um so last fall we talked a lot about a district alignment committee what we were going to look at the school start at end times we were going to look at um the drawing of lines between JCS and lgn we're going to look at the configuration of our school um number one to see if we can make things a little bit more um strategically aligned especially for JCS and lgn who have total opposite schedules um and as much doesn't seem like that would be a big deal it really truly is a big deal um for a number of different reasons um number one is that we have specific programs for students at JCS and other specific programs for students at lgn and if a family has one child that needs to be at JCS and one child that needs to be at lgm because of their program needs those are very different schedules forams um and also families don't want to necessarily make those changes because they're established they have the same time they're you know their kids are on a a routine um so that's something that we need to look at the other thing is really around professional development and looking at student work um one of the most powerful tools that we have as Educators is the ability to work and collaborate with our peers um and share best practices um I was a teach teacher at JCS for a number of years I taught second grade we were never able to get together with second grade teachers at lgm because they got out at 2 we got out at 3:30 and very occasionally on half day we would get like an hour together um just because of contractual sign and so um we don't have the budget more expensive professional development and the Federal grant allocations are just going to you know get more and more tricky as the years go on so use being able to use that collaboration time is really power we're also looking at the um districting and the alignment of schools in terms of grade levels my recommendation um for this group is to focus solely on the school start time issue at this time and the reason for that is um Believe It or Not Norton actually has a ton of building happen um I knew it was happening and then I put this little lur together for you guys the other night and I thought oh my gosh this is even more than I thought um all of which these building projects have the potential to impact our schools um 195 Manel AB this is the new apartment comp Lex called Norton links it's 100 units um scheduled to open the summer and fall um of those 100 units there are 10 three bedrooms 31 two bedrooms those are families that are going to be moving in there um and that has the potential to impact enrollment at jcx we have the Wheelock farm development which is um right off of Pine Street that is 44 single family homes with a minimum of four bedrooms per home um again that would impact enrollment at lgm um we have 108 South Worcester Street which is will be 34 apartment units which is a very very beginning of approval but that um would impact JCS we have the potential Redevelopment of the feed and Martin site which is looking to be 140 units that's on the JCS side of town um and then this fall Lorton will um have information about the MBTA zoning project as a community that um is is really near two major mpta stations out of our own Mansfield we are obligated to create a specific zoning area in our community that would have a minimum of 750 multif family units um on a minimum of 50 acres so I'm very fortunate to have great relationships at the town at nickr who is our building um inspector um and then our our Paul um who just just came back as our town planner he was here previously and just came back they've been really great about getting us information about the building that is happening around town with all of this happening I'm really hesitant to look at where those lines fall and where um potentially we could re allocate grade levels within our schools because I think we're just a little bit too early and I think with all of this building that's going to be happen we're going to have to be really careful and having a lot of conversations about what Our Moment looks like with that said I still think it's really important for us to do the school start times um so our committee is going to focus on that these next few months that'll be Christine and I doing a lot of that work because all of it revolved around transportation and so our hope is that we come to you by the beginning of October with a recommendation for school start times for September of 2020 so and our goal is to move JCS I have a small concern not looking at District realignment and I guess my my concern is if the committee is meeting it should be at least on the radar because because I mean I get it like if these hund apartments come in and it's all middle school students doesn't that doesn't but if these 100 units come in and all of a sudden we have 70 whatever 60 you know doesn't mean boys or 20 girls share room so I mean I I think I don't want to just dismiss the redistricting because I mean the committe is GNA be there a subset on meeting but I think it just needs to be on the radar it needs to be a contingency plan because we can't be reacting all this happens inle years you can't wait for iten could looked at two years AG and the hard part is there's really no predicting so um using East East Main Street as an example so um I don't know the number I apologize you're driving you go over the bridge pass the dunin um thank you it's on the left before you get to um R know there are we currently have 68 students districtwide enrolled from 274 I believe there's almost 200 so 68 I'm like okay that's what they B right there's really no predicting how it's going to work so I um I don't I'm concerned about redrawing the line and kind of causing a little bit of turmoil and then needing to do it another year or two you know like obviously you know the the bank development on P all those kids are goingg but and I don't know the districts are GNA throw as just for my example so the contingency is all the all the 140 is in that first redistricting thought that does have JCS because you're going to have multiple AG groups in on that developed primarily my guest children so I mean it's just it's just I just wanted to be in the thought process not we don't necessarily have to write down our our regist and proposal but we need to understand that well this Builder is really good and really fast be looking at potentially these KS in the next school year then we have to know what that distri like and we absolutely cannot put this off like it needs to be right there in the corner of our mind as as working through all of us um my proposal to say okay we're only going to do school start times for September 25 25 doesn't mean we'll ignore all of this but I just my thought is I don't know that we would be ready because of the building to give you a recommendation by this where that um and it's it's really interesting when you think about it because when you drive up 123 you've got El Street on the left and you've got Pine Street on the right most people don't know that lgn is that Elm Street is JCS and pine Street's lgm the same thing when you drive up North Washington Street you have Johnson Street on the left and Arrowhead on the right Johnson's JCS and Arrowhead is LG the way the line lines go it's very interesting and I would also imagine it's a very hot button issue within our young families if you're a JCS family you are a JCS family if you're an lgn family you're an lgn family um and so it could be that we make certain determinations and say okay if you're a current family will allow this to continue and and phase out over those few years if you're enrolling a new kindergartener then these parameters are in place that might make the most sense that's also logistically I think as I just said that Christine po um that would be you know a challenge for transportation and everything too yeah I kind of AG with because we have this committee if you we've already we've already kind of broken down into subsections you know of the committee but I don't know if just stopping the district makes kind of sense I agree with you that like 100 units and you have 40 kids in there you know that all of a sudden now like flip that johs street now becomes LG you know uh but I do I kind of like dance think this thanks buddy like like if we go with like options of like hey this has 30 kids in it we know we're have 30 families that are going to LG okay these this road these two three roads now we going to go to JCS we're don't got to necessarily make that public and it doesn't mean also doesn't mean that committee has to stop their work committee the committee can still look at these numbers and now having this information may be helpful and it may it may allow us to say okay we know this playing board committee is meeting is coming up we know they're going to talk about you know the read and Barton site and maybe one of us from the admin team should be there to just hear what they're saying um I have asked both Nick and Paul um to make sure that they're continuing to involve Us in these conversations um because these big projects have a huge impact on schools and I think that um as a builder or as someone on the town playing me you might not NE realize um the impact that it has on those school it's it's it's like way down here it's like in the weeds but for us it's right on top so um I don't think we need to stop the work I just know I I don't think we should have a recommendation 25 yes yeah I think of kind of looking at it in terms of like what can we also do that one I think to dance point mean the 100 the 195 minut that [Music] if we kind of take West Main Street sorry Street you know looking at from to get 68 families from there you know you're looking at 34 is you know School AG kids coming in now again Dan point if it's 21 elementary school kids and you know and I'm not about 195 because as JC asking we have a little bit more space So in theory if they move in [Music] after oober so if they if they signed up for now I think I mean yes I would say that you know once they have in they have their residency information and I mean we also we have very low kindergarten inment inform to your I don't know if um we just have little work rates this year or people were you know looking at other options if you I didn't pass I also know I also know that the last two weeks of August we have a huge influx ofing registration you know people come home from vacation and think I get it like I have my own and I know how crazy the summer can be um but I that's not very sometimes is because I mean this could be you know 100 units you know yeah and I mean the studio units the one bedrooms even two bedroom those might be young professional they want to be in train but they don't want they can't afford to live in city until they them out just do we have any [Music] minut budy need to talk is if we connect with the leasing agent say here's your direct contact anybody that's coming in I think we don't want to get translation this committee also start times yes you know kind of trying to Elementary levels professional develop you know so I think there's more a lot of re there's a lot of work going on I think that redistricting comments questions concerns all right back to thisi for so very preliminary um early um so that's why there's no um so the very first thing that we sorry about that but um is the second year our that got last fall this so that is they should be expecting it because they know it's a multi famous um and then the next one we were looking at was um waterers atool this is this year um past year wait probably speak on but we have two at the high school one of them start to so we year same AG so so we got and then the next um that we were thinking about was a new it says mle that you see that we got two years ago um so the 75,000 that's State cont a little higher thatand new um we're not kind of but we get another again much less um idea behind this how much the middle school high Elementary the bread bus in significant savings notties olypics trips we used it I think at one point back in May um er and I were talking and may um like softball baseball I mean it was all of so we just think be savings for us longterm transation increasing especially some of the Athletics little unknown and you know going so longterm actually really help us how many kids on that 20 is there anything sizewise that's like between that so it's just a regular person with a license can drive this y not okay this is mar computer [Applause] science so those are the items for Capital um I know there are times when we have to present the capital um committee with items in Fus just because of their timeline um so we felt it was really important for you guys to see our initial thoughts here um on these items before we are kind of up against so essentially the tech tech display should should already be there so we have one you know the last time that was done during the project ration project so they were installed June 2012 that's what I thought I think one this our parents could buy last 25 years I don't think they make things okay again I will say what I said last I love to kind see things again we have waterers on our things next year naturally come things I like to kind of get Bas just true s kind of involved a little bit more so I think at some point we probably bring it up on anend item but the sad reality some of these have been here in my 10 years Bas money a smaller P it's just and and the problem problem I've always had and I'll say this when I was on the capital committee I don't believe that things on a lease should be through Capital it's been there every year whether it's a piece of equipment whatever it is that is not what capital should be used for actually budgetary but the problem is you have these departments with their equipment five year lease it's $45,000 a year that makes that five that much less for everything else and you know I think too um to your point some of these things like things want do like CL Furniture the auditorium at the middle school those have been there for a long time um for placing the in carpet even the um Paving the second entrance of the middle school we we had other things that were slated to go into this fall 25 but you know we can read the room A and B all of a sudden when the water tank goes and you know that we're going to need it simply for the cafeteria at the high school like and exactly an elevator last year was the thing that had to be fixed so those those unfortunately push the things that would be nice to replace and and that's I guess my always just trying to me rather than trying to get some something checked off and again I it burn a little bit of time that's a little different years basic so just a quick question with the water heaters can that not be part of um like the whole train project there's no I just wasn't sure the other thing that we thought of too is because it's in the cafeteria and it's primarily utilized by the cafeteria oh we got cafeteria revolving and and the three of us talked about not so it's like right so it's we're shaking those um so so we have collected um about 90 phones from all high school all different as you saw pict I like picture so because there's so many and um we have op so we just yes approve all in favor all right um next is update on vision6 all right so um this is um a fairly comprehensive overview for all of you regarding um our vision 2026 which was our strategic plan that was put into place 2023 um in Dr by at's last year so um what I did tonight was I shared with you our progress updates as of Summer 202 um and these updates come not just from me but from Dr aan and C and our whole team in terms of you know what we're each responsible for um so as you can see we've actually it's actually really nice to sit down and do this work like you felt like all you did all year long was budget and then you saw it and like oh actually we did a lot of great stuff this year um so we we've made a lot of progress in terms of um go on developing the whole child um we have you know active PBIS atation language in all of our schools we are a part of Lesley trauma Institute since spr of 2019 had over 160 sta staff members in at least one course um during that time uh we also were awarded a twoyear mental health Grant from the Department of Education which is about $250,000 over that time um which allowed us to um research pilot and select oural Cal for students at gr St 12 as well as our our mental health screener for students at risk um um and then oh there we go um we also are implementing the Jen high school at school which takes a look at um social and mental health support for students and families um and then also our students at the high school implemented the myap which is the career and academic planning this year during LLB it helped them to really identify what some of their goals are for bik act in high school um as well as um career options um additionally um we have so one of the things that we've always done in the past is we've partnered with Panorama to give students an SEO survey and as part of my entry plan this year I met with a lot of KS and one of the things they said to me was like I I just press buttons and on things I want to be done well so one of thank you for being honest with me I appreciate that um so we I changed that approach this year and I gave students a service basically like as I shared with all of you asan plan um do you feel accepted or welcome for who you are do you feel safe in school do you have an ad that you can go to and that was actually really nice to see some of those surveys and sharing those of Staff um additionally in the we have always done um a similar survey for staff and I changed that this year to more closely align with my own country plan um we have in terms of prep preparing students in terms of academics we have offered Sumer achievement camps for a number of years this year Dr aaman Ran um two math achievement camps during in April um we had a large number of students participate which is really great it was four day imagine spending febrary vacation or inil vacation four days in school learning math the kids were here their teachers here um really overall great opportunity and experience for our kids and um great example of how when you're able to work with students in a small group on oneon-one it can really make some incredible short period of time um so that that was really wonderful um we have spent a good amount of time over these last few years um I know probably all of my staff thinks about it in their sleep we talk about it so much um is imss and really looking at a multi-tier system of supports for student when it comes to both academics and social emotional B Wellness um as I mentioned earlier we had our first day of our Avenue Retreat today where we are looking at what we'll do well the processes and the structures that are in place and what is our next step as a team for this upcoming SCH year in order to help theity their staff and all of that is going to be structured around database decision making we ensure that teachers have access to student data that it's relevant that will give them a good idea of um where students are thriving and where they need support and how we can plan interventions to really Target those um I don't want to read all the St you guys are all able to read um a few other highlights that I want to share with you is that um Norton High School just finished year two of our partnership with C Works where we've had about 35 Staff members participate in a yearlong training on Project based learning and we have 75% of our new high school students toate at least one unit last year that was all project um that's something that we really feel um strongly about because it helps students engage in real world problem solving that really connects closely to content that they're learning in the project that makes it relevant and practical and um you know giving them a little bit of a taste of what the real world is like outside of our C hallways and so we're really happy about about that work there um as I mentioned um one of the other things that um we received a grant for this year was around chronic cism um you may have heard that postco um the absence rates in schools has just absolutely skyrocketed um we had about close to 20% of our students that consider year and we have a really great Community that's working together um to help us put structures into place to support students and families in getting their children school and also really reaching out to community so you'll start to see things around the community why attendance matter like have do sign matters BR your child to school um so tomorrow during day two of our ad Retreat Dr Aran and um and some of our teachers are coming in to present to the team on work so um part of our work this fall is going to be taking a look at my inry plan from last year the work that we've done around imss um and factors that really um research based factors of school Improvement and we're going to be starting that work as an admin team during the summer and then putting a group together to start working on our new District strategic plan um we will likely not ride all this one out all the way to 2026 I think a lot of it um it's time for us to put it UNC things a lot of this work here um came back in version two postco we had our vision so many Visions I'm so tired um so many Visions so we really feel like we've done a lot of really great work here but it's really important for us to figure out what are the next steps we've had a lot of conversations this year about um High expect academic expectations for all students making sure that we're providing students with appropriate interventions and looking working closely with families um so we will likely retire this vision 26 with fall and present to you our new strategic plan um thank you uh seven other business yeah uh I got two quick things um obviously there everything going on or whatever I can see a few things popping up the uh the me program just as far as you know what we do all the great work that we do um supporting our schools and also I saw today or yesterday on neighbors is a new thing I know um about a teacher wish list kind of add on Amazon kind of go you can actually go help you know as far as donations to help the teachers in the classroom two kind of pieces that should be we do any else I will open this up to I'm gonna say I will open this up to the public um obviously this is my first time doing public uh public hearing if you will um justen I don't have two minutes and three minute rules I don't you're here to talk to us we're here show reps um I ask you to try to keep it to three minutes if going over you know we'll just kind of give you the 30 second warning or whatnot uh you know we're here for you so I don't think we need stipulations on a bunch of adults in the room to be quite Frank um we obiously should expect for goad hi there I'm kalista THS I live over keth I know Nick you spoke with us onicle and AR came out last night where you were talking about looking at alternative funding sources to help support the school I know you just mentioned two items that those the alternative fundings or there other things that you should be aware of just really a question yeah I mean I think those two are a good example I think you know I think one of the things that a lot of uh people don't realize is you can always donate to the schools I know we have you know quite a few best voters who were you know looking to you know obviously were're willing to increase their taxes and whatnot that aable and can you know do it you know we' love to uh accept you know donations of any time so um you can also kind of ear Market you got market for whatever you know programming I would just say something about me I've been on me for years and do a lot of fundraising we have the movie night coming up but we historically to J's point I mean we give 15 to $20,000 a year in Grants um that's sort of our scope so I would hate for people to think that we can cover $100,000 shortfalls in budget appreciate any and all donations come to our movie night and fall it's going to be W just but I I just want to be really clear about that because I think we gets pointed to a lot as like the savior of the school budget we do what we can but you know it's not it can't fill budget and we can't fund recurring expenses that's a part of a charter so just want to make sure that that's out there too we appreciate all of support very very much we've been very fortunate to have you all as a partner for a number of years thank you hi um I'm Dak Street um I just want to call Dr O'Neal you mentioned um you know that your priority is to hire back the school nurse position if we do um get that money um in the fall is that I just had a question is that something that um everyone on the school committee is would be in agreement with and in support of for that position think student safety is most importance so being a healthare or was in healthare I think on that most logical right and I don't say this on [Music] minimalistic we have really good staff in our schools and I I would hope that unfortunately the STA that has been go for these STS hopefully find another Avenue another next opportunity for them so they might not be available from November 1st and find out we don't have a Nur based on the needs of our students it's it's easier for us to add like nursing you district manager versus a classroom teacher or interventionist because at that point we in school two months three months me we can't go disrupting the everyday academics right so that would be the challenge to hire any of the classroom facing positions versus as we know you know with diabetics with feeding tubes you have a direct correlation with student safety because those students need a lot of one-onone attention but the other student could be in the office with a concussion they got a gy or something like so it's it's that's the biggest priority yeah is that is like that's what my number one priority too I think as far as what needs to be added back um and so I just wanted to yeah and I want to be clear I'm not putting the district nurse on any of the other 27 positions but we have to look at things from a top down 2400 students not again not trying to minimize it but from hiring back a teacher that's only going to serve seven students and or something like that or a dozen students I really need that that position to go further in the district so not looking at that position next year before this position thank you D Grady 15 Peter Street um I just want to Circle back to some things that Dr O'Neal had brought up earlier so no interventionists and no coaches to De grroup the student data uh you said that admins are taking on additional roles to help with those um not to mention all the other Cuts so just building off of what we said though like um this idea that you can donate our way out of uh this or that we can find you know grants and and things like that um Dr O'Neal said she has a concern that we could be right back here next year so the the kind of the broader question I have is um we're not in a good place financially uh if we do end up back here are like is the committee ready and willing to cut programs further uh next year um if we do in fact end up here uh again since we can't again donate our way out of this uh or just sign grant money that's in consistent I mean I think this as we've heard tonight everything is very are we ready and willing I'm never ready will to C it's the nature of budget process works like every other department in this town we get a number we have to stick to that that's the bottom L you know we can't go over that number we can get creative we can shf shule staff do some things like that the creativity is running out as well just like the finances are we I I would say we're going to have another very tough budget in my personal opinion I don't I'm not reading cards or just my opinion based on my 10 years of experience do will it be as bad as last year I hope but I think it's going to be bad again we've talked about this for number of years we've talked about this financial CLI we've talked about all this many times over we're already we're already over the C it's just a matter of um can I ask you follow up I was just gonna finish my next St when it comes to Grants we can't predict those either um there's there's an election in November that can change a lot of things when it comes to education as well you can't predict that can't predict the election like everything's going to still be very flued on our budget season we've been lucky that we have very good people to work with us on our budget as far as internally within the school department um if there's a grand out there they can try and get they will go for as they've for number of years um donations are helpful we're not going to 3.4 million inations so I mean it always comes down to here's your number get under your number and I think to kind of follow up you know you know that is easy to say you know to actually do is going to require change you know where does that change come from we start first mebe you know kind went you know what are we looking to do how are we going to be that we are in a similar spot 10 months whatever it may be you know what are we leading up to over the next 10 months try to make those impacts if they do have as minimal as possible um I mean I think you know from from my standpoint is I think this whole thing has to start with some type of town um I believe in order to get the town and Town's taxpayers on the same page is do a full extensive follow to figure out where is Norton doing really well this is not just a n Public School issue this override was for you know multiple departments you know obviously the school had a major a major state in that game if go uh but I think starting with an audit you can get buying from taxpayers if you say hey this is what we're doing really well here are a lot of our shortfalls here we can make up some ground this way whatever it may be I think that's the starting point because quite frankly at the end of the day you know we're on a committee for five people you know you got the so board and fincom and everyone volunteers you know we're going off of what our town manager our superintendent our fire and police Chiefs are kind of telling us you know um and then we're trying to you know play all these hands and see all these cards and try to make you know what's best for for our community um so I think at the end of the day is you can kind of get legit hey this is what's really going on this is what we really need to work on that to me is the first step quite frankly and I you know I'm gonna not speak that as ex like a school committee chair I think this town does need an override probably at some point in order to offset it problem is in order to do it you need to have the B I think what's happened is over the years you haven't had to buy it because people don't quite frankly trust it you know whether that's right wrong or different we can argue about that you know 20 different ways uh but again I do believe at some point you need to get the taxpayers to either trust the schools trust the town manager trust the select Bo trust income that lack of trust over the years not to mention with all the you know Co stuff that went on I think we're in a very awkward place not to mention you know the economy in general the inflation rates and all that the timing great um you know but I think in that regard if we start somewhere can't see a lot of people not saying not want to a town that doesn't make any sense I feel like that's the place to start that's where you can get kind of everyone being like all right you know where are we what are we doing and then from there it's going to give us you know as a you know administrative staff and school committee and also the other Departments of town ands a starting point of okay where can we where can we get uh I think it has to be townwide I think it has to come you know in conjunction with the superintendent and obviously town man need to be about it I think we need to start there once we get that done I would love to have that done by like J January 1 um you know and then and then kind of get moving gotta figure out you know so if I just add one thing as well I think um number one I appreciate support I appreciate people being here tonight to support and Advocate scho um two days after the override vote I had our annual mess my friends and I had a number of colleagues come up to me and say hey really sorry here about your bread we're going to be going for one next this is not just a war there's a serious serious disconnect between the way that we fund education in our state so it's really important as both Dan and Nick have said tonight for us to do the work that we need to do here as a community because the voters spoke we did not have the support it was it was overwhelmingly against and that's that's the thought of the community so we clearly need work to do here but as your elected board and as a superintendent we also need to do work with our elected officials um with the mass Association school superintendent and mass associ School PS we need to better advocate for appropriate funding at state that's a huge h and I think we we've tried that in years past and it just had come in and it just kind of it goes in circles and so I I think that in we've talked with this for a long time like how do we make that change um and since you ask the question I just I want to be able to answer for myself like I mentioned earlier I don't sit in the seat feel comfortable at all with where I'm ending my career on the school committee with where we're at right now I don't feel comfortable at all with it I don't know never like to make these decisions it's heartbreaking to me because I've always sat in the seat and tried to put our children first um but with that said and I've I've always I've known Nick for a long time and I've always said this and I've said it publicly I can very much agree to disagree with somebody and still respect them and still be friends with them at the end of the day and that's kind of where we're at in this community I mean it got it got bad it got bad and our neighbors forgot how to be new and it was sad it was sad to watch we've done this many a times before you know I I will always support this community um I think that just because Dan and I have been here the longest you know work has been done in the past there's a lot of newer people that haven't necessarily seen it or paid attention in years past um I know that there is an audit done on the town side I don't know if is it every year every two years it's every two years I understand it's not independent we also get audited right so it is it is done I understand it's not independent but we also need to be able to come up with the money to be able to do that right to to be able to my question is is if we do that and you know we did have elected officials this year who were um not in support of the override like at some point because we have worked together in the past I've had meetings in my own home with a subcommittee where I invited people in that we were supposedly working together for the greater good of the town but in order to do that people have to be honest right and you can't sit in a committee and say that you're working together and everyone's pulling in the same direction and then you're telling your friends and family I don't support that I we can't do that at some point we all have to be grown-ups and be honest with where we're at right and so um and I just speak from experience of doing this myself so it just becomes tiring after a while when you know people come at you and say we haven't done this this and this in reality we have we have done that but listen if there's more people who come on and and think these are options then then we need to find the money to do an audit and and go from there and and hopefully that has people trusting the people that they voted for in all of collective the seats the select board the school committee and the the finance committee is uh appointed but you know I I I wish the best for this town honestly as I finish my turn I I really do I I really do wish that we can stay off of social media and just be kind for the love of God just be kind it's so infuriating to watch the way that people are talked about people that have sat in these seats for years to do our best and people attack us for it I just hope to God that going forward this community realizes who it wants to be when they grow up and just be kind and and go through the thorough process hopefully get more trust I don't know if that'll ever happen to some people but all we can do is our best so I hope that answers some a good question you no I appreciate it thank anybody else um great motion to adjourn and enter into an executive session for the purpose of discussions on school Internet safety not turn session yes so I will start at the thank you all