##VIDEO ID:_Rr8mFoEJOM## all right it's six o'clock I'm going to call the meeting to order it is Wednesday September 25th 2024 school committee open meeting uh first up the the flag is kind of us the the United States of America stand One Nation the meeting is being recorded um by nor media and public schools if anyone else is recording please just let us know uh Justine will be here she's running a little late so she had to get a prescription for her daughter so she will be here um first up is vote to approve the minutes of the September 11th open session meeting all members get a chance to review the minutes yes any comments concerns things that we need to add and we have a motion to approve the minutes second uh and all those in favor sorry um next up is the warrants I reviewed and approved the following warrants School expense warrant September 11th 2024 $ 41081 190 and school payroll warrant September 5th 2024 1,1 17,44 $458 I wish to enter these into public record Sher next on the agenda is student rep update everyone um I'm going to be doing all the talking tonight because Benson has another presentation and he doesn't think he want to hear his voice I'm just gonna so we have two tonight we have the high school and we have the uh from the high school one of the best things at the beginning of the year at norn high school is when clubs and activities get geared up they have been there have been a ton of in we for returning and new members nth students have a chance to really find their Niche with the club activities and class elections for nth graders which are ramping up we have had a few new Club start this year including the Bureau of belonging 11th and 12th grade students have been meeting regarding honor societies with those application circulating the traditional Honor Society tapping ceremony where new members are informed of their acceptances coming up at the end of October of course and seniors are looking forward to the senior Cruise tomorrow despite the forecast it is supposed to rain all night tomorrow so that's gonna be fun um the EA has a tremendous start to SCH year as Mr gagan has presented at the last meeting ashk nation is in full swing the fourth grade transition to school has been super smooth and successful especially as we maneuver from relationship building to getting no act relationship building and getting to know activities to more academic learning our fifth graders have been taking the mantle of Role Models seriously as they are showing the way to be the older ones in school last week Dr Dr O'Neal spent the day at the yell for her residency she was in and out of classrooms talking with teachers and students and seeing all the excellent learning going on she was also able to do a few good news calls of the day when an unbelievable honor and treat it was for some of our students to have the superintendent of schools call home and tell families what a great job their kids are doing it was a sensation for everyone involved thank you Dr O'Neal we have started this week collecting candy for a hey Nation PTO charm Retreat event the whole elementary elementary Community loves the night where they can get to walk around fantastically decorated trunks to collect some candy part to Halloween this year's event will be held on Friday October 25th uh so much to look forward to that's all we have for you thank you uh what's the theme hold on what's the theme for the cruise uh black and white oh nice okay yeah any students what was that I said anything else for the students y good to go all right uh next up is opening School remarks for thank you very much um so one of the biggest parts of opening school high school is definitely transitioning to nth grade from middle school so that's actually something that began last year with the various meetings up at the middle school we actually had the incoming nth grades come here in June as well for a step up day where they got a chance to have a panel with some students get a tour meet with the administrators things like that and then we had an open house actually before school began so on Monday the 26th of August we had the school open student council ran s of the presentation kind of got the students uh involved in what the Norms are schedule try to find classes all those things there so that was a really good transition for our nth graders with them too we also uh had class meetings where we got a chance administrators kind of go over some of the expectations um and this year just to kind of update you some of the stuff that we're continuing um Lancer learning block continues to be a huge Focus for us last year we really tried to incorporate a lot of direct curriculum in it we took a little bit of a step back from that in the spring because we wanted to really focus on making sure students get what they need so focusing on some uh skills especially about reflection being in tough with their own academic needs and also through the interventions we can provide there their ints so teacher generated interventions meaning that they're going to pull some kids during that FX time to give extra help make up tests those types of things um but also students to find what they need find extra help so we continued that this year um with our mylex making sure that students are able to really access the support um we're still working with our PBIS and I know there's going to be a presentation later tonight about sort of where we are as a high school we're really focusing on common expectations this year um this is something that we got got the ball rolling last year with incentives and points for students um and we realized we need to sort of take a little bit of a break and and really focus on what those common expectations are make sure we're really living that Matrix making sure everyone is on the same page with what our expectations so um we're kind of taking a pause but we're really focusing on the values what that means in the classroom um in the hallways bathrooms cafeteria Etc just as all the other uh schools have and really looking forward to that paying off in the future with that continuity of students all the way from 3K through through 12 um having the same type of values when they're thinking about their expectations at school so um that's kind of where we are uh this year a couple of adjustments we made to our imss uh plan last year we really focused um on a PLC that was interdisciplinary um this year we're really trying to make sure that we can have some time during our our school week uh for teams of Educators who all have the same students to convene um and talk to each other about sort of student progress and that's something that's happening actually during what had been our faculty and our department meting time um we still the other part about lb is that allows common planning time for our teachers so they get a chance to get together talk about assessments curriculum those suchal things those are another point of emphasis for us this year um the Year's been going off great our teachers began the year um really with a lot of community building things um some sort of identity Hearts we have the W wall in one of our classrooms which is opportunity obstacles and plan so things that all students in there sort of thought about for the year how you schedule your time so different disciplines did different things in order to build community within their classrooms um a lot of time in the classroom I've kind of noticed anecdotally walking around two rooms people are going a little bit analog this year now definitely was a huge technology push through covid people are kind of stepping back doing some hand journaling in English class they actually cut out the prompt and pasted into the composition notebook um something that you might do previously and it's almost like novel to the students because it's all technology wise so it's something it's almost new um even going back instead of looking at sort of a a 3D model of a cell online they're using microscopes getting in there looking at cheek swabs and things like that so a little bit analog this year but it's been a great start to the year students uh really getting used to the routines in classes um we've already gotten some of our career exploration stuff off the ground here as well we've had two field trips just in the first couple weeks one of this was the New England Public Works Expo we had about 12 students go there get a chance to be exposed to all sorts of Trades um things they might be able to do within the public work sector even today um our Innovation pathway in manufacturing so students are involved in that path had a chance to go over to Gillette for the manufacturing mashup um so I get a chance to do a bunch of different activities throughout the course of the day um as far as U sort of making robots that could actually carry out their directions um those types of things um our Innovation pathway teacher car Murphy to this summer did an ex turn ship at acur rounds um which is a manufacturing industry in um Avon um so she was able to do that she bring some of that expertise uh to our classroom this year some of the great events we have the senior sunrise breakfast um 5:45 a.m. pretty early I have to say I wasn't there I didn't take that picture that was uh that was from one of our advisers but a great time really good turnout uh for it there as well um some of the things our sports are often running U we've had lots of success I got I got to make sure I get all the sports in the records here hold on look at my nose so um with it our Varsity golf team has been having its strongest year eight and four uh this year they've been doing really really well um boys varsity soccer and girls varsity soccer um boys is at 230 or 23 and two um girls is at 4 and four our volleyball team right now is at 3 and five we have our unified games they've gotten off the ground as well we've had two unified games so far one home one away they're one in one here we had played Dam um last week and we were at Westwood earlier this week and then different AC cross country both boys and girls although they had a meet today as of for this meet they were one and0 each they had both won their only match or their only race of the year and uh our football team's currently at one and two so um off to a great year looking forward to all good things to come that's right any questions Good Start yeah thanks awesome thank you very much uh next on the agenda is a vote to approve the D trips for 2425 good evening thank you for having us um we are here for our annual visit um for Norton Deca to approve out of state field trips so um I have two of our officers here who are going to talk to you a little bit about our experience last year and kind of the great successes that we had and what they're looking forward to this year I'll turn to V in this yeah um so we we doing very well in DEA we about second largest student Organization for high school um so we have right now we're looking at about so registration and stuff is complete um but Isabelle will share kind of specifically what trips we're going to be going on but I did want to share one thing that should be in your notes on is that this past March I believe um Norton de received um the Platinum award for the chapter of Excellence um which is essentially a very friendly competitive way for Massachusetts de chapters like ourself to kind of measure how Community orientated they are um leadership skills um how they are involved in their school their school culture what they're kind kind of trying to do um to serve their neighbors um but that is something um that we are really proud of the highest award for the highest place that you can get that so out of 10,000 other students in Massachusetts and over 300 other chapters um we had an excellent group of students who worked really hard toward that very proud of that so this year we're seeking approval for five overnight trips we have our power triip in November which is an optional leadership conference for the students it's not one of our competitions but students can attend leadership workship workshops there and then we have our districts in January where this is our main competition where all members um go and compete their role plays and events um and we'll see if they qualify for States this year we're hoping to have a lot of our I think Mr B said 80% of our students qualified for States last year from districts so we're hoping to have even more this year we have a really great training program that we're already working on um our next trip that we want to seek approval for is our sports and entertainment marketing conference in Orlando this is similar to the power trip it's another optional leadership conference for our students then we have our states which is going to be in um Seaport this year in the past years it was in um the credential Center so it's going to be a bit of a change for States and then our ICDC are that International competition is going to be in Orlando this year and I think we had three people qualify last year and I think we're going to have even more people qualified this year hopefully so I trying to take a second to publicly and acknowledge the work of work eers um that award that Benson talked about um we the top chapter in the whole state that received that um and that was greatly due to the work of our student leaders and the things that they do throughout the years so for example there was a group of them that went to Boston a couple Saturdays ago that went to go volunteer at the MDA the musular the distopy association walk um they took their Saturday to go do that um that's a cause that's important to Deca and they went out of their way to go make sure that Norton Deca made a presence there um they do community service in the school they do community service outside of the school um they do a ton of things to really make your organization known and proud and we are so grateful for them they greatly deserve that plaque that we won last year but we are seeking approval for all of our trips just like every year so we're happy to take any questions ores or anything this time I don't have any questions but I just you know being on school committee for so many years and watching how much this um Inda has grown over the last nine years is just amazing and I think it's a testament to all of you guys right all the work you've put in the leadership skills that you've kind of shown and and demonstrated with your peers um the the public speaking that you guys do is just just it's unbelievable I mean for kids your age to get up and and speak in front of a crowd is not easy um but you guys do it very well super proud of you guys thank anyone else I don't have any questions how do we do we vote on these all together get no you can vote in the um anything open Okay um entertain a motion to move all five trips so moved second all those in favor I Good Luck Good Luck Good Luck uh next up is Mr and Mr s for pbsi over PBIS overview and updates Dar acony we all right well thank you very much um I just want to take a second having been at the high school and seeing some of the work I think the the staff do um this isn't a class um I think it's really a distinction from some of the other uh local school systems that de class so they spend time both the teachers and the students they do this extra this is all extra for them so for them to win win that award I think is is really outstanding I just wanted to take a second as one of my many roles to say I see that and it's very different and thank goodness I don't have schedule class so um so we had just here to do a little bit of a quick update on the school on the PBIS and where we're at you spoke to your sir I did we go all right so um as you know we have PBIS across the across the district here um and we're not going to run through all of this but this is kind of the history of of where we where we were and um really where we're at and we're we're approaching 10 years now um which is quite quite amazing um we sawed in 2016 really kind of get getting folks set up for this and I've worked our way through in the elementary schools especially I'm not going the middle school the high school but have really been the leaders in this um and then now moving on uh to to stting their two TI two practices understanding that a process like this is a three to it's a three to five year process and that you know we had a little thing called Co in the middle of it all so that threw us off a little bit um but so we're right now the elementary schools are all in tier one beginning their tier two practices have a solid understanding of where they are and where they're going um the middle school as we talked about uh I think last year started back up they had it going it kind of got dissolved a little bit um during Co and then they really started to ramp it up again the last year or two um and I think especially to the second half of last year you really saw the team come together in the pieces he put in the flag um and as a St high school has really at the very very beginning stages with this um started to move in a direction and got feedback from staff and students and said okay we need to take a little bit of step back which is normally part of this kind of process It's Not Unusual um and kind of reevaluate some of the work we're doing and now we're going to be moving forward again so again really well get these are three big things that you're looking for and what the research shows that by implementing with Fidelity PBIS you're going to you're going to accomplish um you're definitely going have improved student outcomes obviously students come first that's what we're looking for academically socially behaviorally um and you know as you get into the upper upper grades you know reduction and things like suspensions um substance abuse so forth so on um and then a reduction in any kind of Expos office discipline referrals suspensions um restraints all of those kinds of um things that also can happen and then honestly improve teacher outcomes in the terms of you creating a more positive environment we all want to work in this place where things are positive language is positive expectations are understood um and so by implementing these this system these are the outcom that you look to achieve whoops try that again all right so one of things you have to look at because it's scientifically driven is Fidelity are we doing this with Fidelity you're not implementing any kind of Behavioral support plan whether it's an individual plan or whole cross a whole school you have to make sure that you're doing it with Fidelity that you're following the same expectations that you're you're giving the reinforcements in the way that they're supposed to be the consequences in the social lessons all need to occur at the same time um or in the same manner so there's a Fidelity measure um if you're full full implementation you're at 80% or better that that's what you're looking for um and as you can see over the last few years we're in the the 70s which again is is fairly good but we got up to 82% last year um at the elementary schools uh primary schools and then at the secondary schools again because you're starting programming you're not going to be here you're not going to have some of the pieces in play so we're moving up and we're at 78% as of last year um so just looking at the individual schools again not get to too much detail here um even though there's a lot there when I say that um what you're looking at really is the um the Fidelity measure that each individual school and again you're looking for that 80% so they do it um you know in the spring uh here so again over 80% at the solam um and the breakdown is on the teams the structure of the teams and the function of the teams the implementation of the strategies and how they're evaluating themselves um both teachers participate and students so again um good progress again a dip to at different times um sometimes again because the teachers evaluate themselves um you'll actually see sometimes they'll grade themselves harder it's kind of like one of those things you get to know what you're doing you're like oh we're doing a good job and then you get to the point you're like oh I really get this now oh we could do better so you sometimes see that and if you look at the National Data that's very um and then just looking at the actual outcomes so these are office man this one um this is the worst triangle in the world um me it's not uh but you know the old red yellow green you guys have seen it in many different ways um so this is the the uh solom 2021 obviously there's a little bit of a dip there again not blaming it on it's just a reality um and it's come back it's come back up so these this means that but the dip is still the one are still above 80% which is what we're looking for you're looking for 80% of the kids not perfect right zero but have Z to one major office referals it doesn't mean that they're not spoken to right zero corrected but I'm not receiving any kind of major referrals and then the yellow is do five and then six or more so um so it breaks it down on the next slide just to look at the past two years because that rectangle is not a triangle but it was important to give the historical overview and um so now we're just looking at the past two school years and you'll see that the whole thing um for a lot of these interventions is growing green we thrown the green and we're above um where students should be in tier one tier two and tier three and I think jump in real quick just because even on our sheet it's very hard to see yeah that green triangle is give or take at 98% 96% do we know like that's 96% of our JCS kid are getting Z to one refer yes so you can't see the yellow and the red what is that percentage breakdown do we know that I don't have it off the top of my head is that something you can just kind of provide because like yeah I think it's kind of important to know that like obviously hopefully we want to keep the red down but if red was 1% one year and 2% next year on this chart you're not going to be a to see it anyway right right but those are the decisions that the teams are making in like their live meetings and we're looking at is it an outlier is it a student that's struggling is it cafeteria and we have to look at cafeteria practices um and how we're flowing with a new group or the kindergarteners need to learn how to sit at a table that their feet don't touch and their bellies don't touch um so it's kind of looking at it holistically because it's not meant to look at student individual data but really our tier one practices in reaching the students across settings but we can give you that as well right so it looks like it looks like like from last year to this year the red is a little bit bigger in last year's versus the year before but you're saying it could be because of any one of those reasons yeah and it could be you know maybe just one kid strugg we just don't know that okay so when the teams meet we take that data out we don't look at changing interventions for the whole school because some students need a different level of learning right okay and I think the other thing is what the teams do too is they'll look at that and yes we've grown the green but now how can we raise the expectations so sometimes in my experience what I've seen um in the schools that I've done this as an adjustment counselor for example we say well here's our expectation right we need to grow it here we're here now so do we add on another component do we raise that expectation in some way do we look more at the classroom so that's what the teams are doing they're using the data make decisions about where when and how they're addressing not just negative behaviors but positive behaviors as well that make sense yeah I think like when we say grow the green yeah it looks the same to me you know so like like again I'm I'm not doubting that it did grow but like it would be nice to just be like hey We Grew From 96% of 97.8 that's grow you know um so I think if that could somehow be and remember this is different groups as well correct correct so you know I hate to say it that way but especially like we'll get to you heard Mr gag and do his thing at that the hey but they're rotating that group um a lot of times we're looking at growing the green kind of in the middle of the school year too right so based on this like if we look at like year over year if it if it's like an outlier like a couple of students couple whatever it is in their third grade would that essentially affect the Y's numbers the following year in depending on how our intervention the level go yes I'm some schools sorry I say some schools would take those students completely out they they wouldn't they don't even do their office referrals essentially our numbers are at a place where we can include them because then we really want to say okay where is that data coming from and where maybe are some of those kids that are in the red or the yellow where are they struggling and if we can identify you know what for that small group the cafeteria is the problem we can either put different kinds of tier one interventions there or put inventions for tier two and tier three into that that location so it's not just about you know doing kind of an individualized plan which could be the case but we have to look at our our systems that's part of what this is about it's not just looking at the individuals people get wrapped up in the reinforcements which are lovely I like love the positive but the bigger piece of this is when we look at this data at the school level with the teams we're looking at the when where is in house and then sometimes that's about the adults in our systems more it is about the kids that's what you want to start to look at so I'm glad to hear that you don't pull anything out because I think it's important to keep it all in right so that you we have like a true picture holistically I feel like that's manipulating data yeah I mean stuff you don't my prior District my prior District we had we had quite a number of program programs and what we would do is we would run program data same thing same for process but it we would take those those students and I had a school basically was all the programs across the district and then we would look at our data across the district we're not one we're not big enough for that um we don't have enough of those so it but that's how some schools do it it doesn't impact the bigger school system but you're still tracking those programs and we do a version of that even within our programs if you looked at our program data that our individual teachers do um at dlg you want to see data go see some of the people over there they'll blow your minds away like how much data they have and they do it based very much on the same principle it's just for their individual classrooms now we obvious we broke down by school is this possible to do by grade level because then we would be able to see like could you take a 2020 well let's get throw Co out here 22 23 second graders and then 23 24 now they're in third grade and then would we be able to see that this is actually going and working as this group of kids slides through our system in our in our grade level uh you can you just have to remember that interventions are changing and improving each year so it's not a total controlled setting year one year two it's a different teacher it could be a new teacher could be a teacher on maternity leave I think there's too many factors that you could compare like strongly Apples to Apples plus your expectations right so when they're in second or third grade I I mean I think we do kind of look at that because we know like sometimes you're like okay be prepared this group's coming up right like there's a reality to that right and here's the things that we found at the hay that work that maybe the Middle School wants to adop but moving from the hay to the middle school right you're there's a lot of things that they're going to be challenged with a lot of personal and system things that are different so like you said it you can do it I don't know if it's as comparable as we would we would like to think it is because think about I always look at the eighth grade is coming up to nine you go from pods you move in not much bigger area than this so now you get to high school right so just learning how to to maneuver around by Nature you're going to see some different kinds of behaviors that probably wouldn't never manifested themselves at the middle school because you didn't have the opportunity if that makes sense but do we have to review this program overall like like if the state comes down with new disciplinary measures do we have to then say we have to look at our PBIS plan as kind ofest like the things we can't do anym or these are the recommended like do we have to constantly do that with so under the RS and the law around the new disciplinary you have to have something like this and this is one of the things that they they recommend um we were ahead of that curve so we didn't have to do something new up new so just I'm not we decided no we're not doing this anymore we'd have to do something like um restorative justice for um resp responsive classroom um the costs prohibited for those kinds of things and this is the kind of the gold standard even a number of our grants that we've received over the years having a well established PBIS system is is something that is is a is a very big plus for us um to be perfectly honest if you didn't use the data like we're able to have that conversation because we have the data or and we use the data um other places have PBIS they have it but they don't usize it well um and I've had I've been in discussions um at Desi or at conferences where they're asking those tough questions I have all the conferences in the world that we can answer those other districts maybe not so much um so this is the uh LG's Fidelity data again you can say well over 80% um in in almost all areas there I think there can be tough graders themselves um personally um because they they're looking to improve their systems a lot um again the weird triangle that's not a triangle um because we have so much green uh so like you're asking like whiz this group right where was this group as follow along clearly yeah we we can kind of tell where that group is um uh but there's still even then like that's a that's a really tough group we're still in a really good place um I would love to have shown you some of the data from Michael point a little bit and you mentioned this as well when we look at the schools where there's that transition year Works going to the yell going to the middle school going to the high school do we see this report reflect some of those challenges you mentioned sometimes but I think what you actually hear is the kids worid here is the kids saying oh I get it a hashtag like a Purple Heart oh I get it respect this way is you know yes it's different but no it's not like and that's really important as Dr Doan said this idea of carrying it through not exactly right but the general idea we want we want you to persevere we want you to show some grip we want you to be respectful here's what it looks like when you're in the LG here's what it looks like you know as you move up right and that's where the following the data but also the realiz teaching the Arc of this com into play so and then the yell I know last time you were here Mr G went into a lot about his PBIS and his hashtag um their Fidel VOR is excellent and they've um they've come a long way to be honest they've worked really really hard um so here you go right there was the LG yeah is that group yeah they're still there right um they're coming by the way for the midd still um you know but again I think there it's okay and again you're talking about two to five office referrals we're not talking about 20 office referrals here right we're talking I mean if every one of those kids had five office referrals you know it's it's not over the top but that then helped Drive decisions to build tier two practices at the Y and that's where they're ahead in building those practices Kim fton is doing an amazing job she's great job the teachers have really taken it on so um and again and if you think about it you're as your kids get a little older you're going to naturally see this and that's what you would see across the state across the country actually he has across the world right um so you're going to expect to see some of this as they as they travel the other thing unique to the yell is you're bringing two groups of kids together so um I don't have that data in front of me but some of this is is definitely peer conflict right having lived at the El but I would highlight that the three elementaries when they first started thought it was important to have the same um expectations and when it first started there was the comment of the three silos and this is somewhere that they really came together that was one of my first ever meetings here they did a nice job um so one of the other things we thought was really important to highlight especially for the um the uh hey is that they they were um part of a study uh that was conducted and it was really about kind of disportionate um discipline and how that connects to um PBIS and utilizing these strategies the group of teachers um along with the administration worked with one of our um PHP fellows and they did some work around this both in terms of data but also in terms of um what coaching and discussions about what it looks like um expectations um cultural factors and all of that um and one of the things you look at is what kind of what the risk factors are for those kids in terms of um being over referred um for discipline and how can we address that um and how can we teach the skills that we're looking for and so based on that um as you can see here we had a um their risk ratios were improve greatly which means our academic scores go up behavioral incidences go down um and so we had some incredible growth and that's a real credit to the work that the the staff did um did over there um and obviously we have a change in demographic and we have to be aware of that so uh again Clos to them for taking that on they did that you know completely voluntarily and they wanted to learn how to improve prce um the middle school again their Fidelity data even during the time where they kind of had their dip still stayed pretty pretty high I would have again my little just killed with some of this data um really worked hard even during the times that they they paused um and then they really ramped it up last year um they really worked hard to get whooped to get back to where they were um and so here's a question why why did that go down because there were more they were more focused on being consistent with their office referrals it's something they looked at they were real they weren't necessarily during that fuse being as as their Fidelity in practice wasn't as good so they worked really hard to make sure listen if this is an office F this is an office doesn't matter if they're in this class this class or this class or this is what it looks like in the hallway on Tuesday if it's an offic refal on Tuesday it's got to be an officer refal on Wednesday so that was kind of their focus and they recognize that within themselves um so as you can see there was a little actual dips there um but if you break that dat data down a little bit one of these things when they ramped back up to was the end of the winter that mean the end of the Fall early winter um you you saw some of that in Improvement so here's for example talk the red line we red line that there they started to ramp up the gear and they really started moving and then you saw the Improvement um and I'm just gonna say we had a question about data the other day from one of the teachers I'm good question but um one of the things that Mr Haywood said about this was that it's not just just about the data which is really important about the connections that especially in a middle school staff is able to make with kids around positive interactions right it's not that he really wanted to stress that making sure that we're recognizing the 80% of the kids who are doing the right thing and making sure they understand that and they feel welcome they feel connected so I think Vinnie just like to what you just said there and also we've talked about it plent of times here in as well as parenting in general when you right when you set clear expectations and you are consistent and there's consequences for I think this is what you see right then then you can see the growth of our children Y and that's really all we can ask for you know as parents as a school system so it's nice to see that's happening it's really important about recognition as well right again it's not people get caught up on the trinket or the thing it's not about that it's about that human connection of I just saw like I had a young man at the hay the other day I was walking down the hallway he came out of the bathroom he looked at me he said good morning how are you I'm I'm good he's like I'm glad you had a really good you're having a good day and he walked away and I started to walk away and I'm like no I've got to turn around I followed him into the cafeteria I found his teacher I recognized that she gave him a hashtag but I pulled him off you know I'm not saying for me I'm saying that's the kind of interaction and and we had a nice discussion about how polite that was how he exceeded expectations he wasn't just like good morning and walk by he exceeded expectations and I wanted to make sure he recognize that that's what this does for us isn't that what most people want though right just that pat on the back the positive you know and we get we get questions especially here at the high school from staff about well this isn't what the real world is like and then well well so I did an informal survey this weekend I did a little informal survey this weekend of friends and family that work in the quote unquote real world almost every one of them who work in anything other than a mom and pop kind of situation like larger corporations have some staff recognition program yeah right some something along those lines um even they said one guy said listen because they'll say it's just their job they should just do this because it's their job as a student yes they should but one of the guys is a sales guys he's like yep here's where my sales are but if I go here much better for me I get a lot of incentives I get reinforced for doing my job right so in the real world we still have incentive programs and this is just one way but it's that it's all the factors it's the positive it's the consistent consequences it's the consistent expectations in the playar language we're seeing the growth we hope to keep it going it's really nice to see honestly yeah I think it's so easy for us in this same age to focus on negative things right and to focus on those you know three or four students that are that are taking so much of your time and attention but we forget sometimes that all these other kids are doing the right thing and so recognizing them for their work and for their efforts um as you know Mr cersi was just talking about the Y school I did my residency day there La last week like I had the best day the kids were super polite super engaging like there it is running like a fine tune machine over there which was just awesome to see and I think the biggest part is the relationships and recognizing kids for doing good work because if you don't recognize that eventually they're going to stop right so at the same time though I would also encourage us to recognize our staff as well right because they're the ones like you guys have said they're the ones kind of running this machine and without them our kids wouldn't be experiencing the you know level set expectations the the Rewards or just the kindness like something for you to go out of your way to pull that kid aside that's that's huge for that kid right it's just a little bit of kindness a little bit of positive reinforcement it can make a huge difference in somebody's life and obviously the staff member makes you feel good right absolutely it's kind of selfish sometimes you know interactions I mean I know we talked about you know difficult situations and situations we're having with kids and you know sometimes it's when you can't make a connection with a kid that was the most frustrating one right so this this is a is a positive thing for staff and it's run by staff it's not a top down thing that's what I love about you guys it really is a Grassroots effort and you see that the elementaries have and now the middle school and I think the high school will come around just it's a process it's not something you can it's not something it's not intervention you turn on yeah you have to really go through it and work through it and look at the data and make changes it's a living kind of in situation yeah please make sure the staff knows how much they're appreciated for what they're doing okay yeah thank you Capal projects that good evening everybody on that note I'd like to take a few minutes and just kind of discuss about our our summer we had this summer I really want to send a shout out to the custodian crew of know Public Schools uh we started off 22 men in June and we lost to positions so we we were down to 20 positions cleaning five schools taking care of 200 Acres of of property um I I am just so super proud to use sh sher's words of the work that those guys did this guys and girls did this summer um there wasn't a day that went by this summer where we did not have somebody in our buildings these buildings being used 365 now we had um daycare at two of our programs this year Champions really extended their daycare uh and that that was really as soon as school got out to really where you know about a week before we went back to school um that means there's a lot of kids in our buildings All Summer Long uh and and my crew has to work around all that to get these buildings ready and when when my crew gets these buildings ready they go in and they start at the top of a classroom they work their way all the way down they clean furniture they scrub floors they dust everything uh it's a complete clean uh job that they do on these schools and I'm just so proud of the work that 20 of these of my members did this summer a lot of them gave up gave up their summer vacations and and in days that they normally would have taken off just to stay here and get the work done so we were we had shy fla for the first day of school um I was lucky enough to work walk to school with Dr O'Neal uh just before we started and I just I'm just I was blown away and I think um I think anybody if they walk these these halls in our buildings any building even the El School um which is our oldest building I am so proud of how these buildings look they're bright they're clean they're healthy um and I just uh there's 20 guys taking taking care of these buildings and I just I just a huge shout out to them so I'd give a hashtag if I [Laughter] could do not give me credit we have a number of high school students that work this summer yes works and some other programming and they were their supervisor in um on a number of cases I am not over exaggerating when I tell you that these people have changed lives 100% like I can think of two individuals that literally have changed their outlook on themselves in their Futures and that's a credit to Wade and his leadership but to the the men and women support these kids when they're in these buildings it's so that's more work on top of the work yeah right so like do they know that the custodians that well the ones that that I yes they do they recognize we try to thank them as much as they can uh having a student come into our buildings and watch and work side by side with us um it's it's the growth as as Mr Cersei said is incredible to watch and as a mentor as somebody who's who's with them all summer long to watch their growth from day one to day you know to to to when they leave us in the sum it's pretty cool I mean I got some really really cool stories uh about about the summertime H they are they're amazing kids and and it goes back to just everybody wants to be included everybody just give them Direction give them clar Direction and they'll step up to the table and I think um it was just uh it could have been a really I guess Downer summer when you lose two positions in such a small crew um but it but it wasn't and I just I again I can't publicly thank my guys my team enough um they they just they really every single one of them Rose to the occasion and I'm super super proud of of where we are right now um and uh and uh so that's that but I'm here for a capital B we go yeah I I was going to say we J J about the yell school right because it's the off building I have never ever seen the yell school look so good so early like usually I feel like they're you're like racing to the finish line but it was and I you know both Wade and I took the time to tell the custodial crew at the yell like that building looks incredible they did an amazing job they were done early like I've I've never ever ever seen it look so good they they have a lot to be proud of this summer so it was a great te super grateful it was a great team eff and I'm super proud also on how they they're buying into team noron and I think that's something that I that that I've started is really them having accountability for their buildings and when you see my guys my guys are making a difference they're good morning to these students they're opening doors for students they're a big part of their life um and and I just again I just publicly I just want to say um thank you to each and every one of them because they they were outstanding this year so uh as far as a capital update um I'll be quick on these here um I promise um we are working on the Middle School um vestial over there uh that is the only school that does not have um a second lock in vesal so you can walk into that building after you get clicked in the first door and pretty much take off um so we've hired a locksmith um our locksmith which is clock locksmith out of Providence uh they own our keys um so we've hired them to put um locks on the second set of doors we also going to go with key access there as well so teachers can key follow themselves into that building um and that's uh that's all in the process of being done right now uh the middle school high school gym if any of you have seen that already uh the refinish has been completed it's it came out really really good that's a 1998 building that floor had a lot of coats on it we took it right down to the be wood uh we re uh repainted the lines and finished it off and uh it just brings a certain brightness to that building um it's it's clear it's white it's it's just it's uh it's it's really been quite a transformation we're not quite done there uh we were we as part of the refinish we were supposed to put some Center Court anybody who goes there for volleyball we were supposed to go with some Center Court um volleyball post unfortunately looking into well fortunately we looked into the plans before we actually started drilling uh and the conduit and the water pipes that were under the gym floor there um stopped us from being able to put the inserts in so at this point we had to reorder um inserts that'll just go into the top of the floors which will hold the post but uh it's a different system um but they don't go they don't go deep into the floor they just go into the to the hotwood themselves but once that's done we'll be able to hold Middle School volleyball over there C CL which if you've been over there for one of the volleyball matches it's kind of off to the side it's a little right now uh but we're we're getting there on that there which by the way Middle School volleyball I believe is three and0 um I think they're 40 40 Kids come out amazing program Amazing program kids yep uh the JCS elevator uh uh that's been completed and that's been passed by the state um wait should I just go back to the Middle School for one sec sure what about that fire panel what whatever oh you get uh the JCS elevator has been completed and it has passed state inspection as we know there was no issues with the state with that elevator uh the state just passed new laws uh which required us to catch any hydraulic fluids we had to put a pan on the bottom of that so we had to remove the Piston um put the pan in Sol the pan and then have that there so that's all been done and inspected and that's been uh that's been a huge project and that again was done all while we had esy in the school this summer so we had to work around that as well um which um you know um thank you to my vendors who were willing to work around us on the days that esy was not there um door locks and handles that's another Capital item that we're working on right now so that's going to be uh JCS and lgn key access for their back doors uh right now we give keys to teachers so if they're out for recess they have to give the key to the student if the student has to run in room we're going to have key access back there so we can if they get lost we can just delete them we don't have to worry about Keys going out anymore so um that's something that we're working on there we're Gathering quotes for that right now uh the Middle School cafeteria roof this was a capital that was granted to us a few years back um and really what we're doing with that money right now is just making repairs as needed um that roof um we we met with msba a couple weeks ago uh we'll know by the end of October um if we get accepted into that program uh that's a nice 1998 roof over there but unfortunately the metal part of that roof was manipulated at one point in its life um and it has just really rotted out to the point where uh you can't do anything with it anymore it's it's really it's unsafe and it's not healthy for the building at this point in time so we've been putting if you go by lately it's not I'm not very proud of it but there's some bubble gum up there right now that kind of tar that we just kind of sosed up there to stop the the rain that was coming in uh just to prevent it we'll find out with msda where we're at with that if that doesn't go through then going to be a bigger conversation I think down the road so uh the athletic campus uh we are uh holding back um 30 no 32 $32,000 um for the tennis courts uh the tennis quots were engineered and designed a certain way the contractor did not follow the plans we were lucky enough to catch it um lucky enough to catch it I guess after the pack but before we signed off on the project um so we we've asked uh that they come back and they redo those again and it all has to do with with the postar which was our issue at the middle school if any of you remember um because our heaves are are so heavy here um the area that where the post go into um they they didn't set correctly so they're coming back here and they're gonna we're going to make them re redo that there and then once that's done um the complex will be done we'll sign off on it and we'll be done with the with the project itself um that's been a tremendous project uh we've had people on it um every single day um and I'm so proud of of of of where we are with that we're making money we're putting money aside for the turf um that that we someday when we need to replace it um and uh I think Tim and Aaron we they've done an incredible job scheduling making sure that everybody that is rench in the field um has it I think priorities have been set um I so I'm it's been about a year and a half almost two years that we've been working on that there and um I think we're finally getting the hang of it um but the fields themselves from everybody that we talk to they're amazing Fields there's something that Norton should really be proud of um our youth groups are on there there no charge as you saw pop one on there tonight they're out there they're doing their things uh we see grandparents come with their grandkids just go out there start throwing the ball around and using it hit Nets um it's really such an asset for this town and it's something that I'm really proud of for years we heard that we didn't have places like that for these kids to go to and now we have places and they're taking advantage of it every day after school you see people out there working out on the store Fields so I'm I'm really proud of of those fields um so hopefully we can close that project down as well soon uh the hot water tank here at the high school um we had a failure in March uh so this build in 200 probably that tank was proba being install around 2012 uh the the tag not was 2011 um it finally went in March um we had I had conversations with Christine um about putting it on um Capital unfortunately it was too late for spring so we were shooting for fall knowing that we had the one tank that was still providing hot water to the to the school here um of course four days before school starts um that hot tank that hot water tank gave up um so we're we've already submitted our paperwork for Capital I think Christine has had um conversations with Town um to where we're going to go with that there one tank has been installed uh we put an exact replica back in there so the one that came out we put one right back into it um so we didn't change any plans the gallons and all that were exactly the same um and then we'll wait for fall Capital hopefully we get approved for that second one um I asking one hot water tank to provide hot water for this entire school is a lot so we really need that second one um wait just a quick question yes in your expert opinion do you think the nor water situation hurts those water test you can leave it at that I have no problem do I think the water here I mean we've had contractors out here and and the history in town as you know the water is hard on our equipment um all our equipment our boilers our hot water tanks our steam is in the kitchen flers it's hard it's hard um I know the town's working hard to to clean that up but yes it makes it makes our equipment life probably a little bit shorter than than it should be thank you um okay the Middle School fire panel update I'm kind of excited about this one but then I'm kind of not excited about this one um the Middle School fire panel finally is read normal so it's not beeping any longer uh we had to jump through hoops we had to do a ton of work um thank you to seens who who searched and found a new old product that we could put in there um so we could finally get that panel cleared and up and running the problem with that school um was the the entire building was up and armed except for there's there's eight actually um be detectors in the gym two of them failed from 1998 they failed so seamons as we all know aren't they're not making devices for that for the old panel anymore so we can't just grab an old one and stick it in there um we had to upgrade the panel so we upgraded the panel a few years back we have the brand new panel in there it doesn't talk nicely to the old equant so I couldn't just put a new we couldn't just put a new steam detector in there we had to wait them to find New Old Stock which is what they ended up doing we ended up putting new beam detectors in there and then we had to find an old module um that would that would talk to that panel once they found that equipment we got it installed the panel's back to normal it leads us to the bigger question of what we want to do um we're sitting on capital capital was approved um we didn't we haven't moved on it because I I I to be quite honest with you I it's it's a very complicated process which we'll share with you yes so seens is a great product we have them here they're a wonderful product they're they're good quality um we have them here in the high school but they own their system and we we have this conversation I think last year when I met with you guys um so we it took some time but we went out Christine and I um we we talked to a couple Engineers we brought them in we we discussed the idea of maybe going to some Universal deves uh Universal panels um and we got some quotes back that were just uh I mean to be honest with you they were just arous it it would be foolish to to spend that kind of money the help um quote that I got as we as we as we were waiting for the engineers to get back to do that properly we we lost that because that that product went up and we lost our timeline there so now their books were full and they couldn't get to us till next somewh so that that jacked that price up so long story short we don't have the money to do a universal project right now unless we went back to Capital and asked for a lot more it would be quite a project I reached out to Seamans and after they helped us finally get this panel planned out I asked them if they could break it break the the device migration down to three different years for me so we could buy some time so there's nine Loops in that building um so they do three Loops a a year if that's what our finances um could afford and and that would be for $49,000 a year for three years and that would bring in all new devices eventually we do three at a time so with doing three at a time how does that affect the other two Loops the other run into the same situation you just describe so as soon as we did one loot I would actually saved those devices now they're they're outdated so legally we can't put them back in but if we had a failure in one of our other Loops of the old devices that's when we'd go back to the be panel again because we wouldn't be able to unless we could find some New Old Stock somewhere which this took almost a year to find a New Old Stock for the beam detector um if we do the whole project at once uh that came back is one I think at 149 and that's not that's not counting the electricians uh fee at all so um either way um I think I think you know it either way it's going to cost us more money than what the original capital was so um I think that's the bad news there the good news is that we finally have that panel up and running again we're we're waiting for something to go wrong because once something goes wrong that whole Loop's going to be be gone again so I I hope that all makes sense I did have a great conversation with Captain wood the other other day who you know he he he has his opinions on on where we should go what direction we could go at to but and I think we all after we met last time I think I I felt very confident where I wanted to go um but then once we we brought engineers and and we started really looking at what it would what it would take um it's quite a project I U I actually was with help earlier this week um they were they're doing the exact work over at the Adar Housing Authority um and and I I just you know I went over just to kind of see how the project was going and it's it's a it's a project it's a really big project and I you know I don't know if we're willing or able to take on that kind of project right now so if I could just give some context to Wade's conversation about the engineers and all of that so once you reach a certain monetary level um you have to go out not just for bid but kind of through the RFP process and for Christine to write up a bid we would need to go out and hire an architect or an engineer to write up that bid for us because of all of the details that go into a fire system for an entire building like as I joke all the time I went to school to teach second graders how to read I did not go into it to negotiate with cyber terrorists or all the other things that they do all day long so there are people out there that know how to do these things so we reached out to a couple different engers that could write up the RFP for us it's going to cost us 30 to $40,000 to have someone come out and do that and then they also gave us estimates on based wage shared the plans for the building so they have all the information based on their expertise and what they think this is could possibly run we're looking at a 300 to $400,000 range for this project in order for us to go out and do redo the entire building we would have to replace the fire panel um so the you know knowing how our budget is knowing the conversations that we're having about every little bit matters do we spend the 30 to $40,000 to have someone put this proposal together for us in order for us to get back actual legitimate quotes when we know we can't afford them and so that's kind of why we've been spinning our wheels on this situation we were super fortunate that we were able to find as says the new old equipment or the old new or whatever it was um because as we know it's just been beeping inly and so thankfully it's clear it's working but I think it's it's a bigger conversation about what can we do and what can we afford what and I apologize because I interrupted you what does thought we got Capital last year us yes 100 and is it 20 yeah 72 yeah so we got $127,000 project last year what that money just still sitting in capital for us we can kind of use it whenever yes we for for for that project yes so we got 127k right now do we have do we have to give that back at some point if we do not use it it sits for quite a while it sits for a while here okay any else no I mean it doesn't seem like it's worth it to pay somebody to to you know do the work and then if we can't afford to to do that's kind of our too yeah it sounds like what said it works right now and then if things break you know maybe doing the three you know the N you know the three stages might be a better option for us through Capital to do that in the future I I can't imagine spending 30 or $40,000 that somebody write something up when you know that could be the position with where we're at right now you know what I mean and I think that's I think that's the hard part right because we had this conversation as a committee last year um Audrey I apologize you weren't here for it so we'll build you a little background um in the there are positives and negatives with any situation right we've talked about proprietary um systems and how they kind of have you for for for now and with talked about the importance of making sure we do things right um I just I couldn't in good faith the three of us in good faith couldn't really say okay let's SP the $40,000 to have someone write up this plan when we're not going to fall right exactly money it sounds like they they were willing to work with you looking for the new old or whatever however you put it but at least at least they didn't say you know no we can't do that like at least so it sounds like they're at least willing to work with us and know where we're at I think the calculated risk is how long it'll it's 1998 Builder right so you know we're looking at for age you're supposed to change your smokes every 20 years I'm commercial building 15 like like so we're we're to a point where like these devices should be migrating soon um I I think the other interesting conversation that Christine and I had when we talking to the engineers is even the universal systems um they're all going um they're they're they're more highly um I guess proprietary thank you um yeah sorry sorry spoke to said um so why do you want it get rid of it and we were like of course we want something more Universal so that we can just call and pick whatever we want out of any manufacturing facility and he's said that's the funny thing those particular ones like the Notifier they're starting to say now you can only use the Notifier so he's like I'm just let you know that's not right now it is like down the road that's where they're headed so we were very caught with that too yeah I mean these devices are so smart now that they all need to be programed and somebody owns that program to program them so um again I think SS is a good product they've done right by us finally like by fixing this panel we've had no issues here um they've been a very good system this is how they operate they come into new construction they low bid they get in um and then they they they own you um but it's no different than any other company I mean I think that's that's that's what that's what I'm hearing and that's that's what we're running into right now so I guess when it comes to this project the other risk is if we go outside of you know cement then you're kind of starting over with could be a whole new set of RS would have to be engineered yep Y and that's why the cost is so high because you're you're taking everything out um and clearly as I said we don't have the $300,000 to to do this at this time um but if we have the 120 or whatever still in capital to use towards this project why couldn't we just go your original route of fixing the the N we could do two right but still two is right I'm just confused though someone highlight again so we we have this project we have $127,000 why didn't you do it because the committee had asked us to go and get quotes regarding switching out of semens and going to see how much it would cost us to go in the other direction yes we wanted to see if we could get three quots to figure out if there's a cheaper op so we couldn't write up the RFP because we don't have the technical knowledge to write up the RFP so we've talked to multiple different Engineers over time they've all quoted us on different what it's going to cost them they've given us estimates and then they call us incessantly because we said hey can you give us a price and give us an idea we're not ready Tove forward with it but finding three Engineers to be able to go through the process for us to give us some sort of an idea it's taken us months to get through to people but what you also learned is that a lot of these companies it will be limited to to one and they might not say that now right but for people inside the industry they're saying that while they might say it's a universal thing now right doesn't mean it always will right so you spend the money it's it's not that we don't want to do the project because we have to do this project Sher you're you were on Capital last year you know how much we bought for it right um but going out to find other quot to see if we can replace the whole thing it it's been just one said today it grows legs every single time you get to a different place like feeling back stinky it but I think that's what we asked of you guys last year when we around the time we had this meeting we asked you to do that research and get back to us so I think yeah it it sounds to me that it's not worth the money and effort to go that way with how see when we when we had that conversation I think it was a little bit later it might have been for December when we conversation we'll have to look at it um what was what we were at the lgn yeah it had to have been earlier on because had have been earlier yeah so I don't know unless I'm missing something it just doesn't seem like it's worth going down that road of of doing this I think I would rather see using that money and changing out at least two of the loops now then we just have one more to do that seems like a more cost effective I I don't like doing any project in stages if we can avoid it I think that is a recipe for disaster be honest you're going to get a thing now it's going to be this Loop was in 2024 the next Loop wasn't done until 2027 to me that's a nightmare when we're talking about $49,000 is it a nightmare though or is it easier like and I'm just thinking when you separate things out and and do like one project like one one part of it a year because then you have you don't have to come up with so much money at all at once like every so so many years right so is it I don't know enough about this field to know like I know like like a simple example like painting your house like the outside of the house like my father would always do one side one year one side the next year it was always like the rot maybe that was an 80y old thing I don't know that's just a simple example that I'm you're always painting the house right but it's not always you know it's not always the whole house at one time so I'm just wondering is I don't know the technology of this so I don't know if it matters so ideally I think um next if you're going to do a project like this you generally don't want two years AP pot three years AP pot four years AP pot you want to be somewhat close in time and I think a project like this if we were to approve I I think if you were asking me for and again I think if it was me what I I I would do at this point is probably do the two loops and i' probably schedule them for Christmas break uh December break and February break go to the spring Capital ask for the remaining money for the last Loop and try to get that down in April but if that's too soon then the sumtime vacation so within a year we would have that whole building brand new and I'll run it um we do have the 127,000 and we're sitting on it right now um it does make sense to me it's already improved for this work it does make sense to kind of move forward with this project uh and again I mean we're I don't want that pan off even again like I mean there been a joke in this for a very long time because what's the balance we we had so far like have a full quote on the entire project uh 149 149 14 149 20 grand I guess this is my next thing I'm sorry 135 13 elri and the is 49 plus years gu correct and why why did this take a year why wouldn't this spend on Fall Capital so we could have requested this for our next capital and then we could have done this entire project again yeah um it's it's one of those situations where it just got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger I guess the question that I have is do we have the flexibility within our facilities budget to perhaps pay the other percentage of it we saying no um that budget is being two and a half custodians are coming out of that budget right now that's that's a heavy budget I don't I don't think it's unreasonable to to ask to ask that for that small amount can we still put in for Capital does anyone know I don't not for fall not for fall we meet next Wednesday yeah we're way too close yeah but you could for spring and like wait said it could still all be done in this can we put a war no no I think I think you go for spring I think you go for spring yeah and then everything will be done because he has to spread it out anyway like because of the amount of work that's involved yeah and not having kids in the school I think Nick if it makes your feeling better that the amount of work that needed to get done to get these quotes it's not like you just can't call somebody and be like hey I'm I'm doing nine loops and we're doingand 65 devices like they got to come out they gotta walk the building like this there's a lot of work involved we're coming off one of them I mean I don't think our business office has ever been as busy with the budget situation that we're in I mean we're not sleeping we're not I have a list of work that we did this summer I mean if you if you want to take a look at this the work that we completed this summer like we've been busting our hump this was this this isn't our only project that we've been working on of course um my goal was to get it to back to normal to where we were running 100% in that building safe but I mean we're working sleep we're burning the cam on both ends on this and I apologize you know if you think a year is too long to get three different quotes for such a massive project that's on me I'll take I'll take the blame on that well I think it was information seeking too like we asked you yeah we asked you to get information and I think like Christine said it just kept opening up more and more as you kind of went into it but I I would actually ask you Wade to share that what you have what you did in the summer it's just like with what the um leadership that the teacher leaders did about what they actually do because we can sit here and we can say you know we're so appreciative and the schools look so great but we don't necessarily know what it every single day looks like I would love to see what our employees Dr oal myself and Christine have a meeting I think October 2nd facilities update this was slated to go on there I did bring it tonight because I I I was going to Avy you for an hour but my my mar ERS were to keep it quick a lot I figure it's best to sit down with my superintendent go through these summer projects with her first and then if she wants to share that I Happ yeah I think it's important for us to see and for for people to know what you guys I don't think people understand what we do build on a daily basis they I mean picture your house and the amount of work that you put in your house we have how many students come in every day in and out cars pop pulling in the parking lot I mean the wear and tear on these doors alone like it's it's amazing what we accomplished with such a small budget in the facilities Department in 20 guys again like 20 a 20 position crew um it's just um yeah we do a lot and we also do the snow removal and we also do all the sidewalks which most people in town don't think that we do we handle that that's our work we make sure that these buildings and sidewalks are safe for school that's that's two guys in each building trying to handle all that work there so it's a lot of work that we ask these people to do and and and I think you know with with very little you know thank you and I I just I know I don't have much to my guys right now except for a huge thank you and that's that's why I felt it was important to to thank them today wait I want to address the comment you made about being able to call and get quotes Christine is very much a stickler when it comes to procurement law as she should be she should be as she should be because it's her that's going to jail if we do it and she would not do well in prison um so I think it's really important to know that like she is so methodical and like sometimes way and I would be like well just can't we just and she's like no we can't we have to go through this process and then this process and this process so it and and doing things right takes time as well so I want to think both Wade and Christine because um there were definitely times where I'm like I don't understand what the hold up is like I I don't get it like and it was a lot of work them to let just and quite honestly it was a lot of work for nothing because ultimately at the end of the day it's not so um but I think if you know Wade's timeline is accurate and we can do the winter break and then February break and then go back to capital for the spring um I think we can do it all within the year and I think quite honestly as somebody just said we would probably have to spread that out regardless because of the amount of work um and we can't we cannot have the buildings Without fire protection when students and staff are on the building are in the buildings Sean won't allow it Jason wouldn't allow it like we right so we have to have that we have to have you know appropriate fire protection when our students are in the building and so it would be done during breaks yep anyway so I just had a quick question though about this so when you do it in stages and you upgrade the three loops and then you still have six Loops that are in the old and I don't this is well above my understanding of anything so forgive me if I'm not making much sense but you have three new loops and six old Loops they can all still talk to each other or like into the panel no yeah so the panel has like nine there's like nine different computer chips the site they'll replace three at a time so those three will be talking to the new devices this the other six will still be talking to the old devices until we can replace them and what they're what they've told us is and and it's true I mean if you do some research there's there's no more old boards there's no more old devices that's why but it won't like create issue I'm thinking as you nope they're separate Loops so as long as that whole Loop is all brand new devices and they come back and they talk to their computer then that's fine and I'm not an expert either by the way I do want to publicly thank Captain wood because he's been awesome he's like he's been my savior who's Captain wood Bob Wood he's uh he's Communications and the Department our whole fight depart me John and I go back a long way our whole fight department is very helpful but that's his business is is Communications and he is just a lifesaver for me so because I'm not an expert on this stuff I'm like I wasn't putting fire with Captain wood I was I don't you know Bob youy I is I the only one that that that thought I guess like like the outstanding question I would have is how do we know what's gonna be done a week like is that is that something it's my job make sure that I schedule it and make sure that we can get it in and schedule it and get it done we're gonna we're going to start it we're gonna we got we got to finish it let's if if I the sooner we can sign the contracts the sooner they can they can make sure that the stock is in and it's ready to go um and then we we'll go ahead and schedule those those events and to be honest with you it's it's working right so if we don't get into December break and we do February April and then right into summer like as long as we can go to Capital in the spring and get the remaining money we're still within a year's time of that's a very big difference of doing it three Loops every year yeah yeah yeah I think this sounds like a good plan yeah thank you thank you appreciate W thank you so much not that was that be quicker than Mr Cersei because I gave um number eight discussion vote on back capital for capital suppl okay so um one of the conversations that Christine and W and I have had and then I had with Dan and Nick as um part of our you know catch out meeting is that it really might be beneficial for the school committee to kind of put together a subcommittee on Capital um as you know that we have a million projects constantly happening um it's the three of us I mean really it's Wade and Christine you know going through getting all the bids working with all of our vendors to make sure things are up and running um but and I also know that the committee doesn't love the way the process or Capital goes it's it's unfortunately it's reactive because at the end of the day we don't have the money to do all the fun stuff that we wish we could do right and we're always talking about how things sit there for a while so my suggestion to the committee would be for us to um select two people to be um part of that Capital planning committee that would meet with Christine and Wade and I um a couple of times a year honestly it would not be a big lift it would be you know leading up to um the capital meetings um in the fall and spring and potentially like an update meeting kind of keep you all um you know in tune to what's going on so um that is my proposal to you I mean just my quick thoughts on it I think it's a good step in the right direction I feel like you know from sitting on this for only two years but like Audrey is now our Capital person she's walking in and having no idea what's going on I feel as no but yeah and like even as chair like I feel like we get told what capital is we have noide idea what's actually happening that maybe with at least two people on my biggest thing is is educating whoever our rep is to be able to go to Capital committee with the town and be able to say this is what we need and actually be able to have an education behind themselves this is what we're fighting for and this is why so I can tell you from from me do sitting on that committee for so long that's exactly what I used to do like I used to sit down with Wade and Joe when he was superintendent and just say okay like what are our priorities give me give me top three to really go in and ask for right and and we can touch face offline too I and talk it over more but I would I definitely would take some time and and sit down with them and you know then you know like we do do it in the meetings but just kind of having that sit down and going through things is definitely helpful before going into the meetings I like the idea of the subcommittee but like we talked about at the last meeting though it's almost like a bigger a a bigger thing right because I think as a um as a capital committee there's so many times where people come and go right because they're on a board for you know so you just finally get started start to understand and then that person doesn't run or isn't there anymore somebody else switches so it's it's hard to really get some traction really the only one consistent there was the town manager because he's on that committee he us I mean Dan he was there when you were there right so it's it's it's been that long he's really the only consistent piece of that committee so I mean could I don't know if we need a committee or if it's just really odd sitting down with you know what what I do like to vote the committee is if you got obviously I'm think Audrey's gon be yeah but like if like I'm just throwing this out there Dan's also on it now it's Dan and Audrey if Audrey goes and loses an election we got Dan who can step in and fill that role so you mean more like like just kind of educating and I think I think to our point to to what I like I hate hearing I've been on the school committee for nine years and that project been on our Capital was for nine years why is it on there either take it off or get it done you know so like well because it's not that easy I well it is it is that easy because we still need it to be done but other things have come up that were more of a priority there's only so much money but that's where that's where we need to the five of us need to do a better job of highlighting that hey there's no there's no longer this is going to get pushed down this is going up and if it needs to be that where the schools are going to get $400,000 instead of 250 we're putting our our rep to go out and fight for maybe not three things this year we're going to fight for four because we got to get we got to get a need we're going to have the water heaters come up does anyone want to replace water heaters God no yeah you know but those things are going to come up however if we can also get the athletic bus cuz that's been sitting on there or we can get the Middle School floor cuz that's been on there for 9 years right that's what we I think we need to do a little bit better of a job at you know and I think it and I I that's not I'm talking to you buy I think it's we from a subcommittee standpoint working with Jen making it a little bit more formal those two people now can come back and update the three of us then we have everybody has a little bit more of an education on hey this is why we're going to Capital you know and then we can look this thing's been sitting on here for 5 years what do we want to do with it I think after five years it's either we really start pushing for it or you know we're like hey this has got to get done next year you know we're gonna let this one go next next year but the next one you know do it that way so and again I I think I agree with Jen and I don't think it's going to be a heavy lift I'm picturing this like orderly like there's there's six months out of the Year exactly you know so I but I I just hate coming in going to yell and being like here's capital and we're like oh cool we really have noice it's great just check off on you know because we know nothing about anything that's on that list I think my thought was sometimes we have no choice either of course hot water goes elevator fails I mean we've changed what was number one to number three and put something else in one because we had to only you know when you sit in on the meetings and you see what the pocket of money is you know you got to make decisions and you know well I think the capital the capital committee to me was tougher than the budget process because you have so many oneoff things but you have so much money tied off right off the top with these multiple year payment leases and we've done it too for for our but it's it can't be the Habit it has to be change that we need like that's the thing that needs to be looked at and maybe with you know something with and like Sher said the problem is you know every every meeting it's like to go through the history of the capital committee because get a new member or something like that so I mean I think there should be further discussion and maybe if we have a joint meeting that's up because unfortunately you know the way I always thought it is you can't say we have $400,000 when $200,000 is already tied up in year two three or five because then you have you know you have to kind of say well you know police needs two new cruises and fire needs this or and then the schools need a full but then the schools are also going to be like oh we also need you know if you're you're a home you're going to replace your rug or you have a lot here it's the same thing with capital sometimes there only so much money so I think the larger discussion you know not to go off is having some discussions about how capital is is run um but I agree I I think a lot of what capital is you know just needs to be it sounds like we're all somewhat in agreement that just the communication aspect with either the rep or the five of us or there two of us reporting back whatever that looks like um would probably be in our best interest to just kind of get a better idea of you know historically you know if we're going to get x amount like every year we're gonna get 100,000 then we need to be creative and you know figure that out prior toe I think it's just you know it's almost like it needs to be revamped just like we're using you know free cash operational but right so it's one of those things that we're kind of in this cycle of doing that we can't seem to break the cycle because we don't have all this excess money to break that cycle right so it's it's kind of like those two things the free cash thing and the and the capital really kind of needs to be looked at how it's how it's running and how maybe possibly it could be changed it just seems like we're in a vicious cycle with how we run and I think well not even that I think we're kind of in a Cycle World to school committee too yeah doing the same thing for however long you know around capital and it's like wait a second here we're not getting we all we're all we're getting is our complete needes and that's really not what capital is designed for I mean yes water he are going to come we got it fixed yeah but like Capital should be some of your wants you know I mean we' we've done pretty well yeah for a number of years with capital we really have so I don't want to be totally negative on it right because we did get um some of the things that we needed but we did get a lot of the things that we wanted so just want to make sure I put that out there and I think I think also it's a key time right now that you have Town Hall in a brand new community center yeah that should take hopefully should not be a whole lot of capital going into those two new brand new bills you know you know now obviously you got a fire sa in that side and get out obviously shly whatever police station fairly new you know I mean you know but I feel like right now is a good time in a good time in town that's like hey let's look at this holistically we can't necessarily change what town committe going to look like what we can do is revamp our process a little bit and make sure that our rep feels comfortable walking in and saying hey for sure you know yep so I think that's kind of working agree hey Sher what what what's the makeup of capital is it planning board SEL Bo uscom and Mike Town manager yeah but maybe that's something Nick and we do the joint meeting that we just bring up to them like how do get out of this cycle of you know how we're running Capital like is there a different way right just might be worth looking at so in um the creation of a subcommittee you guys have have to vote to create the subcommittee and then um the chair is able to appoint oh god um any volunteers and then himself I'm just what we would do um so the the subcommittee would be able to give feedback and recommendations to the whole committee but they can't vote on behalf of the committee um so just a couple pieces there and of course the sub subject more on everything else um so you just have to fote vote first to create it and then Nick can appoint and then we have to do the appointments tonight you guys no you don't have to you could totally is that just have a conversation and we could do in the next meeting that we vote to point yeah I think I I think the first thing is if we're going to do it and then I would I would hold off on any appointments because I think it's a let everyone kind of digest what's going on here Jen can have a little bit further conversation in terms of like how many meetings when are they going to be I think we have to set the expectations of we're looking correctly that will change it wouldn't change the all right so I guess the thing would be to entertain a motion to create a capital subcommittee so moved second all those in favor I we will hold off on appointments and get some more information as far as what exactly going Place s good good uh sorry next up is review and vote on superintendent okay um so I am sharing my goals for the upcoming um school year with all of you um for your review and um hopefully approval um so the first one is around District Improvement um it is uh in partnership with the school Community develop a comprehensive strategic plan that establishes a blueprint for success for all of students um we are currently operating under Vision 2026 um and with um some of the information from my entry plan last year and some of the priorities that we're moving forward um as a leadership team um I think it's a good opportunity in time for us to update strategic plan um so the goal is by no uh by October to establish a working group of community members um and really look at the Mission Vision and core values of Mor public schools that is something that we really honestly have not looked at in a in a number of years it's been pretty consistent for quite a while um I don't know that anyone could tell you what the mission and vision or cor values of Norther Public Schools is or are um to me that's something that's important if you're creating these it's it's important for them to be authentic um by November 24 to survey staff families and students on the priorities for helping us move forward um and then my goal is to have um a full plan to you by January of 2025 that would look at our systems and structures resources and Creative Solutions um that would really give us some concrete gools um and tasks for our leadership to take on um as we move forward um as you've seen from previous years we have benchmarks so the first Benchmark would be the completed survey data shared with staff families and with you as the school committee um a develop mission and vision um to be shared with the community for feedback before we finalize that so that would be some of the work of this committee to create a draft share with the community say did we get it right um are we missing something um and then also a draft strategic plan for you as the school committee um by the end of January of 25 and again that would be in a draft form for you to provide feedback um and for you know anyone in our community to provide feedback um before we kind of you know put it into into play for um the years ahead uh the second one is our student learning goal and this is something that is kind of in process in a couple different ways um across the district but what we really need to do is take it to the next level so utilizing a comprehensive district-wide data review process that will include local curriculum based measures observations of teaching and learning Norm data and state assessments develop individualized student action plans um and that really ties with our imss efforts we're doing so much work right now um across all five of our buildings around our multi-tiered systems of supports and making sure that students have access to interventions as they need them what we really need to work on a little bit more is number one using all the data that we have in a really effective way but also using data to help us stay accountable um so you know uh Dr arriman and I met with the leadersh team earlier today we talked about our mcast data that was just released that we'll be sharing with you guys at a um a meeting right down the road and talking about okay it says this but what does that actually mean when you're looking at Scales spores and how much of a difference is it um and The Importance of Being in classrooms and doing learning walks and say okay we're seeing this in our data what is the actual practice in our classrooms showing us and how can we utilize the resources that we have like we're you know not no one person has all of the answers we're so much better collectively when we share ideas um how can we do that how can we develop consistent review process with timelines for our grade levels to say okay in October we always do this in November we do this um and so I'm talking around all of my key actions here but really the benchmarks will be a data protocol publication and distribution with timeline for meeting and collection um of data at each grade level data collection forms from learning walks with principles and other instructional team members so not only are we going to be doing learning walks but we're also going to be collecting data and sharing that with staff and with others like we're seeing a lot of um downtime for um you know the breaks are too long just we need to kind of keep that momentum up um and then also the calendar of that learning walk schedule which we actually um just developed earlier today so that is the student learning goal too um and then finally um I am still in the new superintendent induction program um I believe uh Dr Wong will be coming to our next meeting to see you guys and check in and watch me in action it's always fun when she um you know joins our leadership meetings or our Retreats and you know gives me feedback on on my performance it's not awkward at all um do give you A++ after last year then I don't know what to tell you well seriously what a so much knocking on W um so again it's very the setup is very similar in year two to it was in year one in terms of in-person um sessions and then remote sessions um one of the big things last year with my entry plan this year is my strategy and then which will be developed into the full full-blown strategic plan um and then uh Dr Wong and I actually meet every other week for virtually which is great because I was like oh my gosh I forgot to tell like can you believe this story and it's it's a great sounding board and she's given me a lot of really great advice over the years so um that is goal three with with your learning walks are those announced like to the staff or is it like sometimes yes and sometimes no right um I think it's really important for us to share with the staff um what we're looking for right because if you're saying hey these are the things that we're focusing on this month we we're going to be in and out of buildings um it's important for them to know what you're looking for and and for them to be able to show you know their best self and if they can't do that when they know you're coming then that answers other questions right um I try to be in buildings a lot each week and like visiting classrooms and a lot of times those informal visits are really great too because you see things that it's not the horse en Point show and so it's a lot more it's a lot more authentic often um so it's it's typically a combination um sometimes when I go and visit schools and the principles available we'll walk together um but often I'm like no I'm good like you guys do your thing you've got plenty of work to do yeah but um sometimes we will if we have the opportunity so a little bit of goal good um I had a good question so um I think it was like at the end of last school year you gave us a um few pages on like everything you saw areas of growth yes right okay so one of the areas of growth um I think you had mentioned like looking into Screen Time for Kids yeah like that kind of is that part of this in like things that you're still looking into so those will be part of the whole process for our learning walks and um strategic plan um Karen and I worked super closely together for so many years and we always feel that it's so that the tool is not important it's what you do with the tool that matters the most and so there are times where we're doing things that don't need to be done for the sake of whether it's using technology we don't use technology technology right students still need to hear an adult read a book to them like that is so important for a developing reader like I like it when people read to me right um those those things are really important and that's going to be part of the Strategic plan process and how do we we take more into the next level like how how do we get better and you know we're going to have some super exciting things to share with you guys from our mcast and then we're also going to have some things that we're like yeah this isn't good we need to work on X Y and Z and those conversations are already happening and um at the district level at the building level um we're good I I want people to have that sense of urgency to Fe better we're all growing as Learners that's really important um any other questions sorry I think the only thing I had which I know Shar you got you were chair last year um I know we have to fill out a review for the state yeah this is much easier now yes huh this is going to be easier now why because you can see the the the three goals now no I thought that was really difficult to figure out what goals were oh because I labeled them differently I labeled them District Improvement student learning professional prti like oh no this is so much easier it's right here well and and again I'll do this um last year I think I gave you guys an update roughly in like January and then I gave you an update again like right before you were going to do the evaluation um and last year the way we did it was so that PE we did it before the election so that people could provide that feedback so that's really up to you and to the committee on how you want to do that again but I'll provide updates as well um but it's funny because I didn't really think about that last year when I was doing it because again like did it differently for Joe um but yeah that's I'm glad that makes it easier for it's all the line even if we wanted to change that's I was gonna kind of bring I feel like I one I think we should definitely do it you know middle of April because I feel like you know having a new member on you automatically lose someone you know so 20% of the committee or possibly 40% of the committee might not be able to review the superintendent if if the you know either don't run her or you lose their election that's why we backed it up to be that first member yeah I'm going to obstain I get you know um and then I think to the review the state review that they give us I think we should fill it out by law do what we need to do but I also think as a school committee we should maybe look at revamping so we can give actually Jen some actual feedback I like I I sent my own last year because I was like this is what I think por har but like yeah but I'm like I'm filling out a state form and I'm like this is have this whatever I'm going to fill out on this form you want the state to change a form don't I that's what I'm saying we'll do it between the five of us I think but like the state form yep here you go this is not helping gender in any way shape or form because I can't there's nothing to write it's just here's this oh yeah that that went well you know so I kind of did my own little thing or whatever um but I do think if we look into something along those lines because I I feel like the best thing for you is to kind of hear us and kind of it's more of a real life conversation if you will you know like hey here's your review this is what we kind of think you know this is going well we'd like to see you know because everyone's going to have their own opinion on screen time or a recess or whatever it may be that like hey we would like to maybe see this and highlight it and then I think you could take those reviews and then put it into what goals we're looking for next year as well so well I will let you guys do that um we do have to submit specific yes data correct to the they don't get the form but they get all your scores so so we will probably do both and take a little bit of extra time doing that because I think it's you can set up a quick Google form gender that's I'm exactly yeah that's yeah exactly based off this great cool anything else on that all right um number 11 revisit and vote on sorry I just check yeah you have to my goals otherwise I'm just doing whatever I want skip that skip the next one all right so I will entertain a motion to um approved Dr ril superintendent so all those in favor zero now we'll go to 10 acknowledge and vote to accept a cash donation um so we had a very generous family um recently make a donation to our little Lancers preschool program um the donation is $1,011 um and at first we double checked to make sure it that was my first question wasn't like a no was it like a tuition payment and no it was very much donation and they would like it to go to our preschool program so um we are super thankful uh extremely generous and is there significance to that I don't know as soon as I get the packet I'm like I don't know I I I have no understanding of why it would be that amount but we're super grateful and I know that our preschool program can um use these funds and it will um be used very very well so thank you to the P family is it a former teacher you know I'm looking at the penship and it looks like a teacher beautiful I know I love it awesome thank you so like when someone this is more for my stand point I guess because when someone donates something and you just say you can put it anywhere we can decide where that money go obviously he said little an has to go little but I mean we could use this as supplies we could use it as we have a um unrestricted gift account and typically what we'll do is we'll let it sit there until we really need it and so sometimes you know we've had people donate in the past um when we had a lot of school lunches that were not being paid um we've had people donate in the past you um assist students with um fees for AP testing so we're we're awesome super grateful to the community so thank you to the Patel family but I do oh it is a parent it is a parent good parent speak uh and obviously we do have to vote uh I'll entertain a motion to accept $1,000 $1 to our little moved by Dan and second by Audrey uh all those in favor thank you now we'll get to number 11 uh revisit and vote on town meeting article um so we are just looking to revisit the article of the supplemental funding for um this fall town meeting um we previously had $ 6,82 that we would going to request um and based on new conversations um and information provided um we were going to revisit seeking addition where do we start um all right so the I think just for clity purposes 16802 is from our Chapter 70 funding which increased $74 per pupil in our schools right that money from our admin recommendation was for um 68,500 for a new special ed out of district and then the other one was anticipated Homeland a homeless transportation of 92,3 correct correct and I think you know even in the last few weeks since we've talked about this I think the majority of it at this time will likely go toward special education cost um and if we needed to go back in the spring for homeless Transportation we're kind of in a place where we we would do that um but as as for those of you who were here last year when I was showing you on a week to week basis how much these placements can change and how much student need can change um it's it's just a revolving door so we think the large majority of that will go um towards special education C time I guess my my question before we get wead on this a little bit with the homeless Transportation cost that billing is that something that like like I know like in the past we've done like a transportation request at PA Telly bill for the homeless sh like when is that paid is it monthly quarterly or is it end of the year close the books here's your bill um it's unpredictable it's based on the vendor so we go out and get what for the cheapest ride essentially and it could go anywhere from a month to the whole year and way we can use our internal buses it depends on where the students are going so ultimately our internal buses are providing transportation to um our special education students who are going to specialize programs in the district and require that mode of transportation or to out of District placements in some rare occurrences we need all those placement we need all the buses here we might be transporting a student from Norton to Cambridge and so therefore and we also cost the district that they are going to from all right so I think the first key fece of this is that is money that is not involved in the town's free cash this is money that is given to us by the state I do not quote me on this number but I believe that number was $282,000 that Norton got $1 16,826 would basically come in that was basically o to us if you will correct yeah once the state budget closed that was the correct where does our all right so I think that is one so that's we're already asking for the 16082 so anything that we're discussing tonight would be over and above okay so I think before we get started do we need with whatever we go into with this do we need a separate article for what we're going to re quest in the next 10 minutes or is it just listing out on this like if it's uh $100,000 for the water heater we would just say at town meeting extra $100,000 waterer just as an example like we would just we're looking to list yeah we would just change the amount just okay let's just not confuse people because water heater is on cattle bad example but yes I is so the I guess so all right so that's that's that money the next one would be the Norton Middle School roof schematic design which we have discussed a little bit uh and then obviously Dr brought up at fincom to get a roof design company basically to look at this and figure out what are we looking and how much it's going to cost and the it's if you will the initial stage of what we need to do yeah we needed to do that for msba and in order correct in order to get hopefully some type of money from msba this is kind of the first step that we need to do so I think we an additional you said $50,000 for the design 30 30 so the way the um financeit voted on it the other night it's it's up to $50,000 for the schematic design so we are you know the time as I mentioned at uh finance committee the other night we're kind of in a difficult position in terms of timeline because we won't know if we've been accepted into the msba program until October 31st 30th 30th so any event we're not accepted what would happen they would it would just go back to okay we're good there any questions on that all right so I think our next big piece here is if anyone hasn't been paying attention I the put this in the nicest way possible the town is sitting on 6.2 million in free cash that is a significant amount of money that hasn't been there in the past they gave us a whole I I this is where I want to get a little bit corrective when we talk about the free cash number this year they anticipated $3 million so I think collectively Our Town leaders are saying the Six Million is the number it's really only three million above what they were asking for so it's 6 million as a total but they expected 3 million to be there so I just want to I want to clarify that publicly the recash anticipation is one member that I believe was up to three million they thought they were going to get once the state budget closed the over and above that three million was interest and property tax on payments or whatever it was or sales so I think the false narrative is it's 3 million of unanticipated one-time funds yes not six million as a whole so I just I want to just kind of put that out there we're not saying we expected to get 3 million Lo we hold we have six corre corre we never expected correct and the town has always get gotten free cash I think since 2002 was the last year we didn't get free cash in order to operate from town expense side of it without going into anything crazy they're always going to have free cash State re you know State reimbursements you know turn backs whatever it may be you know there's always going to be free cash the 6 point 2 that's almost 6.3 in is significantly higher than we've seen historically um so with that being said and that was new information from our last school committee meeting two weeks ago so I think what you know after everyone's seeing that and seeing kind of obviously the chatter on social media and what's going on it's looking like to me and I will use this as my opinion only that the schools took the hit of of these position of our positions because of where we have to get our budget squ away we can't wait until fall to meeting to get any money because we have September 1st give or take to start you know getting into our schools and educating our children police fire Highway we do get the benefit of being able to say hey you know what we can get by until October to ftown meeting to request additional funding for you know certain type of areas wherever they may go with that being said the town also in turn backs which is turn backs are money that has been allocated the year before and has been turned back to the town that number is sitting at 1.3 million I think everybody regardless of what side of the override you were on and whatever we don't want to be using too much of um free cash to fund reoccurring positions simply because that free cash might not be there next year so that money goes down to 3 million and we spent 4 million or or three million on on reoccurring positions you lose it and now we're back in the same situation you know we we have been what I personally however 6.2 is a big number I think the schools can do something a little unprecedented here that we've never been able to do with a little out of the boox thinking and I think we should be looking at putting some of these positions back in and by saying that I think there's a whole lot of operational stuff that we're looking at possibly doing um how sustainable is it I think is the million dooll question um however you know kind of kind of what you know individually the school committee members have reached out to me about you know some of the positions that people would you know look at how can we you know look at these positions you know talk to Dr O'Neal building principles uh you know our senior leadership team what does this mean and kind of how we should do it what does it look like for the NTA contracts um and so on and so forth so I don't know how we want to handle this do you want me to run through the positions first and kind of then go what's the easiest andest life so why don't I start with what our thoughts were what our recommendations were and then I'll go through the information that you guys requested in terms of additional positions so um the first thing that um we talked about as a leadership team was um our teacher leadership positions um we had some Representatives here from um the Norton teachers Association at our last meeting we talked about the importance of these roles um so this would require some sort of a negotiation um but I was looking at potentially bringing back maybe half of those teacher leadership roles um from now that you know we are anticipating that would be on October I believe 20th is the is the date of the time of me please excuse me if I'm wrong but we can potentially thank you s first we could potentially put those goes back into place by November 1st um and that would be a huge lift um off of the principal shoulders it would allow us to bring teachers back into the conversation about teaching and learning that's going on on a day-to-day basis and give them back some ownership in the work that we're doing um you all heard from them what a huge um you know responsibility they have um I am we're proposing half because I'm trying to be fiscally responsible and thinking about okay we have that in the budget this year could we potentially you know keep that for the following year the other item that um we discussed as a leadership team is permanent building substitutes so the last several years we've had individuals where their entire job is to go to a particular school every single day and they are literally the first line of defense for whatever happens that you know last minute call out you know someone has a child and sick needs to go home those people work every single day in a teaching role because we always have um you know a need for Subs I equate the sub line to kind of like over time for police and fire you just can't predict what's going to happen um and that line can get really out of uh these positions we would again start them around November 1st through the end of June they do not receive benefits um as part of their role it is a always a one-year position we hire them year to year as able as we're able to um and over time these people have rolled into Power professional roles and other roles within our school Community which is great oftentimes a good opportunity for someone to get their foot in the door um so that was another proposal for us and we weren't really sure where the committee was going to kind of stand on these so that was our first initial pth at opportunities for um increasing you know looking at this free cash in a different way um one of the areas that Nick asked me to look into on behalf of the school committee is uh reinstating the elementary Specialists um to what their FTE was prior to sorry let me go back for just one second before I move on the curriculum leaders and the permanent building Subs that that is a total of 136,000 $71 no yes goodby um so the sheet that we shared with you it's 1400 for elementary it is 12,000 for middle school high school is 28 no and then that's $54,000 but the 81,000 for the per sorry you missed that part sorry y I thought you were just doing aconic so economic coordinators is 541 7199 yes permanent building Subs is 16380 per building total of 819 yes so that those was our those are our initial recommendations for the total of 13671 um next I'm going to go over to the elementary Specialists um this would inv involve bringing um like our steam teacher at the the lgn currently at a 0.9 bringing her back to a 1 the art teacher currently at a 0.9 bringing her back to a 1 um Library currently at6 bringing Out personent full one um and that is um ultimately it provides a lot of flexibility for the schools um one of the biggest challenges right now is that um it's really difficult to run our schoolwide intervention blocks and I know that sounds crazy but it's there's no flexibility in moving the schedule around when people are only there for a certain amount of day so you don't like you're not going to say okay um I need the art teacher to work from 8 to noon and then I need her to leave for two hours and I needed her to come back at 2 and finish the day like we're not that at all so and and so in order to be able to you know have a librarian at a point 6 and have the steam teacher at a point6 um it requires a lot of creative thinking on the part of building principles so this would provide them the flexibility to be able to um move the schedule around get those intervention blocks in and in a lot of cases these Specialists were also teaching an intervention block and being an extra set of hands during that time like for Lancer learning time like our PE teacher Mrs MacAllister was taking a block of students and working with them on ER or math um those would be very easy to um reinstate um the large majority of those positions it's just simply saying hey next week come to work full-time instead of you know the point whatever um the only position that we would need to backfill in some way she perform is our librarian she's currently um serving as a reading specialist is a point cor at lgn one of our reading Specialists over there um it was time for her to move to a part-time role and we were able to make it work so every time we can keep a valued staff member and give them that part-time opportunity um so that would be a little bit of fin angling um but the total for those positions is $715 okay and now this is where we're going to get a little bit more complicated um Nick had asked me for all of you to look into our world language program in grade8 to look into the art teacher at the middle school and then to look into the music teacher at um the middle school and I want to be really honest with all of you just my thoughts and my concerns with some of these positions um to bring back the two World language teachers I think the best we could even try to do would be January in order to Vinnie's looking at me like he's going to die um it would require a total overhaul of the middle school schedule the way that the middle school schedule is currently set up um sixth grade seventh grade and eighth grade for the first time in several years are actually all able to be on the same schedule because they have four core classes math English science and social studies they have the ice block and then they have specials previously it was a seven class rotation for grade eight in order to add that world language in Prior year it was a seven class rotation for grade seven with having everyone on the same schedule and also losing an Ela teacher in grade six a math teacher in grade six we had a special educ leader move from the Middle School to the high school all of those changes in those positions create a really um delicate I guess for lack of better words structure which would need to be totally blown up in order to bring back Bo language this would one of the biggest concerns that I have is currently right now in sixth grade we have um one math teacher that's teaching four sections and and then another math teacher that is also a certified special education teacher and they're doing both they might be teaching one or two sections of math but also teaching their special education students changing the schedule for grade eight because it would only be grade eight that would get form language back changing the schedule for grade eight is going to change the availability of staff for grade six in grade seven Tim's nodding his head because he knows right um an example I used earlier today Mr Lan's classroom is a multi-age specialized program which means he has students in grade six grade seven and grade eight so as of right now Mr lonti and his staff are able to kind of divide and conquer across classrooms across teams blowing up the whole schedule would need those specialized programs to relook at their schedules and to make sure that they can still cover the minutes that are required by students in the general education classroom um based on their IEP additionally we're Ser we're servicing other students or sharing other Stu staff excuse me across grade levels and teams we would need to go back and look at all of those other components finally um our two World language teachers still work work here they are U Mrs triani is serving as a um Spanish teacher at the high school and Mr Carr is currently teaching eth grade social studies so they would if we bring it back if we reinstate their position they would have first dibs at that role so could we talk to the union and say like Hey we're going to try to try this sure but ultimately for trani to say okay I'm going to go back I'd like to go back and teach 8th grade Spanish again we now have an opening and we need to find a new hire for here at the high school which would disrupt the high school and then we would need to find a new hire for social studies in grade8 which would disrupt that structure never in a million years that I think I would be saying I don't know if it's worth it but I'll be really honest that this position here I'm not sure if the juice is worth the squeeze so to speak if we're just going to have to lay these people off again in June so that's my biggest concern and I want to be really honest with the committee and ultimately at the end of the day like this is my recommendation to you um that one makes me a little bit nervous music we could absolutely do it's very easy it goes right into the ice block so abandoned course go right back into the ice block um it would basically be an Notch um currently when it comes to Art um the way we just divided the the specials is just by one less so um we could take a look at bringing the art teacher back it would it would change the schedule a little bit in terms of dividing students but it wouldn't be a complete over call that the World Language would um considering those so that would really be four staff members from January through June we're anticipating that art and the music teacher would be a long-term sub new hire um and then the world language teachers would either be brand new hires um which can be challenging to find a French teacher um or it would be backfilling where people currently are I'm even thinking like Mr pway was here tonight he's currently the business teacher he used to be the Spanish teacher that little domino effect and happened it's a lot more movement so um I think that's really important for you to know all of those factors as we're sitting here talking about it uh those four positions from January through June be a total of $113,000 so if we think about you know adding all of these these positions together the recommendations on the on the uh teacher leadership positions the permanent building Subs all of the elementary Specialists back to you know where they were and then those four positions at the middle school it is a total of 32,2 over and above the 16802 that we had previously what was the number again 321 321 29 91 886 so I guess my thoughts are a little shared to run hill and I think personally I no one ever wants to see 26 the net 26 people not here with us anymore I would be hesitant in my position now to add any new positions short of the long-term Subs you know at the school building because if the next budget which is also likely to be challenging those four people are the first ones gone because we didn't have them we only have them for half a year so that 100,000 or don't whatever that 100,000 is is right off the bat in the next season and if we're starting to talk about the budget a little earlier internally say we start talking about it in November and we have an idea of what the year-over-year to keep the lights on and keep everything operational whatever that number is short of what we don't know what the teacher contract is if we know kind of that idea in December I'd still be hesitant to add people in January if we know the budget's going to be that bad six months later in June and I hate to say that because I know we lost some good staff um it just it doesn't sound like if we're adding back these programs short of the ones that don't disrupt the schedule that that's going to be a short-term benefit for a long-term problem and and that long-term problem is the budget shortterm I think adding these is is a disruptor um I I don't know what a half year of language is going to get for these kids versus something else or I mean I just I'm like I said I'm hesitant to add any what we consider permanent positions in the teaching world to a budget that we don't know what that's going to look like or we don't know the full picture what that one going to look like but I would be instructing Dr O'Neal and Christine those positions we added in January than the first ones out the bill and I hate I I don't want to have to do that so Dan can I just ask you a question yeah like based on what you're saying are you more just worried about the the language component of it because the other on seem to be an easier fix for the schedule I mean that that was my but let me just finish my other question because is I think this one is kind of an important one are we sure that next budget season is going to be difficult because we were pretty sure this one was going to be difficult and within the last week we just found out about this increase after we made some significant serious Cuts so how do we I mean let's let's just talk about the elephant in the rum right and and I I've asked Nick to you know get a joint meeting sooner rather than later because I think it's warranted so we can figure out what happened here um because I I I think we're trying to make decisions for this year based on what next year is going to be and thinks that it was going to be just as devastating as it was this year but lo and behold here we are well I guess I would answer that with just as my observation is this we we've started school and we're on Dat by now I don't know our budget starts on July the one we're the only department so we can say we can come back here next October and say hey we have the three million we anticipated and maybe there's another three million next year we can't think like that because our budget closes and then it reopens in the next fiscal year we can't push stuff off like you know we can't live in the realm of oh well we'll pay for it at fall time meeting we can't pay pay for staff at fall time meeting just like we can't pay for staff in January yeah because the budget that we will set at April or whatever time or fall at Springtown meeting is going to be different it's going to be more than what we set for this year but it's not going to be a significant increase because the finances haven't changed like we can keep talking about free cash but if the if the town leadership had a better plan to move forward we wouldn't be having a discussion about talking about this fre cash right there because they should be putting some of that away for the budget season next year it's like a little savings account but everyone wants to just spend spend spend put it out the door faster than we can get it and we have stressed in our budget season we have to be forward thinking we have a fiveyear plan we know what our needs look like we're the only Department that's kind of taken that action and done that but I just can't and and I hate to say this but I don't want to add a position that's going to be the first one on The Chopping Block because our budget season we have to get our budget done in the spring we have to we can't wait to see if we're going to have more money in the fall and think we can't anticipate another year of good free cash so I think what I was getting at more is communication because I feel like just based on meetings that I watched that um there may have been some who knew knew what the free cash was going to come back at um sooner certainly much sooner than we learned about it so I think that's that's kind of where I'm going with this question is if there's you know and I I thought all those years ago kind of starting the joint meetings I thought that would would be kind of the purpose of it so that everyone was on the same page and and moving forward and you know oversight or whatever it is I I don't really know because I haven't we haven't been in the room with people to kind of get that information but my thought process is is there a different timeline that we may know more I think it's a separate issue you know when we're talking about our budget we have to close our budget and then reopen it a day later the problem is when we rely on free cash and our per pup number that's when the State closes their budget we can't wait for the state to close their budget to close it open our budget so we anticipate like you know we oversee the school department budget we are given a number we stay within that number we live within that number our number this year was four we got 1% we have 26 less staff now we can't say next year oh if our keep the lights on numbers 3% increase in our budget or what was it last year almost 11% yeah we know we're not going to get 10% if that's to keep the L so if I mean I see both both sides of this I mean I think we all do I mean I didn't realize the the language component of it and how that really changes the schedule but you know for me I think the middle school was hit so hard this year that would I like to see these things back as as well as the elementary Specialists and the you know leaders and the you know all of that stuff you know yes I you know part of me is I don't know maybe I'm just more willing to take that gamble because I feel like it's the right thing to do by our students um and just have way more dialogue and I think that maybe you know between the finance committee the select board and and the school committee have way more conversations about what it what actually next year is going to look like because at the end of the day what we just went through we divided a town you know we are all neighbors and at the end of the day what got hurt the most are our students and that's a really crappy thing you know and never mind the staff that that you know was laid off I I certainly feel for them as well but as an adult you know we do have other options that we can go and and look for other jobs our students don't have options unless they choose to go to another the school which we do not want so to me I I you know I don't know I sit in the seat and I don't want to hurt our our students I don't want to hurt our kids I don't want to hurt your kids my kids are gone and I think you know I mean I think too with these positions that we are I just those four if you will but the two foreign languages the hard and music we get a lot of bang for our buck we're not bringing back you know some positions that hey they're not student facing like those positions you're talking about affecting the entire School obviously foreign language is eth grade you know but your art and your music coming back you know what is it 522 kids are over at the middle school whatever it is you know every single one of those kids is going to benefit you know so and quite frankly I feel like I'm not even so much looking at the free cash and taking from there yes we're going to have to take from free free cash at the end of the day I'm looking at that turn back number we had $1.3 million in turn backs we as a school system gave back basically $300,000 however $282,000 that was from the train project rebates that we made the agreement with the town so even if you cut that number cut that out because we ow it if you will we we had to pay our our debt back if you will there's a million dollars that this town didn't spend buyers going to get their stuff back police is going to get their stuff back I'm assuming here I'm guessing I don't know for sure certain because nothing been approved yet obviously I'm assuming something from the senior center I'm assuming Highway might put in for their person back because at the end of the day we're not looking at I'm I'm not running back here and saying we need all 26 positions back right I feel like it bang for our buck we know we just saw the PBIS stuff around our Middle School we know we've been having issues in our Middle School in terms of behavior and and just just a the natural Society way of middle schools in general you know is always a struggle to put some of those creative things back to give our eighth graders something to look forward to to give our teachers back some leadership stiens and roles to get our elementary schools to get their positions that they could that they had last year this is taking the Doom and Gloom of what we have seen for the last seven months getting us to a spot where we're looking at $321,000 on $73 million budget we're not putting all of our academic coordinators back because we understand that there is money and it can only go so far I mean just to highlight academic coordinators we're talking you know four at the high school out of nine we're talking three out of seven at the middle school we're talking six out of 11 at the elementary schools bringing back obviously the the um Elementary specialist if you will the building sub obviously is a great idea because it's Al also might save us a little bit of money from actual substitutes so to me we're getting a bank for our bu and I agree with D no one wants to do reoccurring positions if we were sitting and we had $3 million in free cash right now we wouldn't even be having this conversation quite frankly I feel like our kids got the  end of the stick and in a nice way to put it that is me being very Frank they're the ones who got hurt you know yes we lost our teachers you know hopefully you know they can go somewhere hopefully they can find another job I'm not saying it's a great thing by any means but the ones who got it the worst was our kids and then at the end of the day the rest of town is going to go on you know without these positions we're still going to educate however to me this gives a glimmer of hope that us five are sitting up here saying we heard from new academic coordinators we heard from band in in uh parents and and students you know we understand you know the elementary specialist and and what that does to a day even if it's an extra 20 minutes in the PE class you know bringing back some of these positions gives our schools a little bit of extra help so yes could we be in a situation like this in April I can't I said this to Jen earlier if I was a betting man I don't think I would take a bet that yes we're going to be here or no we're not no one knows we're staring at an negotiations that depending on how those go is really going to affect what we're doing with our teachers we don't know we don't have a contract with them like any business you're you're your biggest money is going to be in your staff you know it's it's the same way we're looking at it here so the sustainability factor to me is can we do it right now yes is six months going to change uh the Outlook of a of a you know eth grade student for foreign language I don't know but I can tell you sure it's better than nothing well I think that for music and arts though like we just took stuff away from kids who maybe are not sports kids so what do they have so that could be honestly a life or death situation for some of these kids right where that's where they feel connected that's so to me that's that's more of a serious issue you know language you know would I like to have it absolutely but maybe there other options that you know so I guess Jen my question for you is I just jump back and and then like here's my thing with the middle school and the World Language I don't do school scheduling I can see it being a nightmare and I said this to Jen earlier as well we were told last year of how these cuts are going to drastically affect our students if we can't figure out in the Middle School of how to flip the schedule by January 2nd we're going to have a new term we're looking at term three three and four if we can't figure out between administrators and again I'm saying it's going to be a big big big undertaking to figure out this schedule we have got to be you can either have one or the other you're either in this and you're saying hey this is drastically affecting and the juice words of squeeze or is the effort to change that schedule going to be worth it to me if I'm sitting in in Vinnie hayward's role I'm looking at this saying wait a second the school committee has finally said let's help this out how can we help what can we do I'm looking at this is I'm going to put in every effort for the next it's not like we're dropping this position on for November 1st they've got three months to say Hey how do we do the schedule how can we make this work I know there's a ton of moving Parts between IEPs and special ed and and that stuff but think about the general run-of-the-mill student who has lost what could have been you know music or art as a lively or the Spanish or the French class we can give them that hope back for $321,000 ah to me it's just I I I don't think this is a crazy ask I think on on the level of you know support that we will probably see at town meeting I honestly think the Devil's Advocate is going to say why didn't you ask for more that's my like why are we not asking more so when we were going all into for the six and a half as old refresh my memory what was we fiveyear plan so we knew at six and a half million that we were going to be okay for five years yes roughly between two and a half to three and a half% increases moderate increases over the next five years but I think I just want to come back Audrey you finish and then I'll remember what I was going to say so my thought is I feel like we should be asking for more so we make sure we are okay for next year like if we if we can't we can at least project a little bit if we are going to bring back these positions can we look and see to make sure we're cover just I know it's going to be hard with ch negotiation stuff but that's the big wild card factor is the teacher negotiations we can we can have an idea what that number of increas is going to be how however this money is not automatically going to be in next year's increased budget so like for example we got a 1% budget if we ask for everything under the sun and it equals out to another percentage in a half we're not going to start next year's budget process with a two and a half percent increase year-over-year it's every budget season is a clean slate so what we have now and and we were accused of this in the past because you know we have Town leaders that didn't believe what the school department was doing when we went for money in the fall what we got at budget season was well that's not your total increase you got because you got money in Fall which was always agreed upon on that free cash number so it's just that shortterm memory that people like to point out that oh well we could the only things you know we've been selected with what we could push off in the fall time meeting M A lot of it was Transportation some technology things like that we've never I don't think my knowledge but in a position or than anything this drastic as a result of fall on budget so when we think you know our budget's right around they're going to have their initial conversations about the budget next month so I mean I'm not going to put chy on a spot and say what does what does a 1% budget look like for next year how many positions last is that going to Bay it's just it's it's I'm just hesitant to upheave uh you know a schedule for six months if they're easy positions that like the the you know band and and whatever the other one so you're saying no to I'm saying because that's going to be an upheaval not necessarily just for E gr but as we saw it's going to dinkle down into the other that that I can understand I and I get Nick's Point too um but if it is such a drastic change and and we're not able to sustain it that is a concern of mine so I think that was what I was going to ask you Jen is and and Christine you know and I know it's so hard to predict but like if we brought everything back that we're talking about right now minus the the world the the language for eth grade what does that look like for for come April I mean is it can we even predict that at this point no I mean ultimately we have some guesstimates right based on like if we did and we also have to be really careful because we're going into a negotiation and we can't make assumptions because then we're not bargaining in good be right yeah and so we have some assumptions so like ultimately and we also have to remember all these things are prated whether they're prated to November 1st so something that's costing you sorry I'm gonna look at my no I'm good um something that's costing us you know $28,000 now is going to cost us $68,000 next year because it's a full year right so um the initial list that we talked about like those Elementary the curriculum leaders the teacher leaders in the permanent building Subs that's roughly between you know 160,000 if we are moving that over into our budget for the following year the um Elementary specialist the art music the world language that is this additional you know 385 to 395 so it's a little bit different than saying our whole ass this year is 321 versus adding it to the FY 26 budget would be closer to 500 a little bit over and that's with trying to keep everything we have now that is just for those positions that is just for what we're talking about adding F that is just that the concern that I have about World Language and and I have to I said this to Nick earlier today the cuts that we did last year those 29 which turned into 26 those cuts were devast but they were devastating to me personally for a lot of different reasons I led teaching and learning for Norton public schools for 12 years the coaches the interventionist the expansion of the World Language I had my hands in all of that as the Director of curriculum as the assistant superintendent so it's not just losing people in positions it's losing what we built so for me to s sit here and to say I don't know that we can do the World Language and these are the reasons why it goes against everything I but you didn't hire me to be your teaching and learning H finding really hard look at it from that Global Perspective and so I think adding back the World Language at the middle school yes the schedule is going to be a nightmare we're not afraid of that work I don't know that we can add back the World Language change the schedule without needing to hire other additional staff so looking at the math teacher we lost the English teacher we lost can we still do this without those people can we still do this without that special educator that their position moved from the Middle School to the high school plus you that's why you know you look at it and you look at the number and you're like oh 56 Grand that's not a lot of money it's not but I don't know that we could actually make it happen or that amount I think there would be as Christine said it it just kept you know getting bigger and bigger I think that might be the case here too and until we really roll up our sleeves and get into it we don't know is it going to be going to add World Language and we have to add this position we have to like just to make it work so if World Language is off the table just push that aside for a little bit if we add back band and our minimal yeah Art's a little bit more complicated but band is super easy we could do that you know band is super easy um Art's a little bit more complicated but again it's not but they fall within the same plugin ice period or whatever art would be part of the specials rotation um so that would be just realigning that piece it would not be the World Language situation can I just jump in here yes pleas we are using them interchangeably we're talking about a music teacher so music would be for all the students we have a music teacher so we currently have a music so middle school already had we used to have two music teachers okay so the way that that worked is that there were times where one teacher would teach music as a special and the other music teacher would be teaching either band or chorus during the ice block because of the way the schedule rotates So currently right now at the middle school all students are getting General music or will get General music at some point during the specials rotation adding days us to be um I think it's 30 Tim I think it's like 30 35 yeah so we went we went toow lesser rotations for longer periods of time um so adding that user teacher back give us two music teachers again and it would give us the flexibility to offer band and chorus during the school day in addition to them already getting the general music as part of their rotation that Mak sense I think we had a question she answered it we're we're good oh we're good they I didn't even know question um I don't know I I think you know what i' like to see it all come back absolutely but it's almost like the academic coordinators right like we're we can't do all of it so we're doing some of it so I think for me to have the the subs the academic leaders the elementary Specialists music midd SCH art the middle school I I feel comfortable with that but I also need to just say that I think that we need to have way more meetings and way more touches with the other boards that we are like because now I can almost guarantee you that question is going to be asked of of like our to manager and and you know like what are we looking at like I think that we all just assumed if there was more money that if there was a inkling of more money coming in that somebody would have said something right right yeah transparency communication I think that you know now that this is kind of happened and everyone's kind of shocked by it it's we we also need to do a better job of asking the question right no question is is silly I guess because who knew we needed to ask that well yeah and I mean I think in a general grand scheme of things just like us or fincom or the select board we only know what we're told yeah we don't so like I mean I'm not accusing Jen of this but if Jen said to us hey this is what we have this is what we're going on we're trusting our superintendent of schools to be giving us the correct information you know and then that's what we're making decisions of so I think it's a lack of transparency but I think a lot of people across town for sure but I think some people on these boards have kind of been like wait a second here we just lost a whole lot of trust which is never a good thing you know because now like you said you're opening up that now we got to question everything you know um and and I I mean I totally that that thing I mean that's exactly what it is yeah well and I think the other disparaging thing is it's just another example of schools have felt tremendous pain because of the way the budget has has worked out you know I mean you said it a lot of the other departments that had stuff you know possibly losing they're whole we're still not whole it would take us years to become and unfortunately even with you know this is this isn't even starting this is just to me this is a Band-Aid you know to try and to try and make it work I mean short short of the World Language I would I would agree with the other things that we wanted to add um I think World Language would just it would be too chaotic to try and redo those schedules because I mean it's just you're I don't I just don't see a huge benefit for a half a year to language you know I mean but we also don't know that these people are going to just jump back into the position we could just hire it would still require so the the numbers that we shared with you assumed that we'd be back filling with a new hire right so because regardless whether they go into a world language classroom or they go into a business classroom at the high school it's still going to be need to be a new hire we don't have extra compl any around um the thing that just makes me a little nervous is what else would we need to backfill texted me we would have to add some Paris over at the middle school if we were to change the schedule so it wouldn't just be the World Language hir it would be up we would have to factor in the cost of doing business in order to make that work for students it could be it's an assume right like you're can we get that done before we can put it as I don't know that you could get a schedule on the next well because I think the other I I just because I know that the Middle School worked on this they they were they you know they saw the writing on the wall they were like we we need to be prepared if people aren't coming back and that this is what is going to be going to be looking at they started redoing the schedule in March last year and it's as much as we say it can't be that difficult it's it is um let me jump it on one can I just jump on that I think the issue here is like they make a change to the specialist schedule or the the rotations right then we have to know what that is in order to then go to each one of our specialized programs and say where is that it going to be in compar how do we staff that right so right now the luxury I guess of the way we have to schedule is that Tim like the the kids are all on the same time frame time frame what was awful just going to be straight up awful was that you know Tim would have a par in in in any other school that par could do a b and c but because there's a 10 or 15 minute difference you can't then say okay take Tim Go cover you know go wait go cover this person and then at this time you're going to switch to this person because somewhere in there somebody's not getting their hours that's the complexity of it we're going to have to know all of what's happening with the General Ed schedule and then we got to break each one of our individual program schedules down by each individual power and staff the other person that I think is the other thing that could impact sopas codas those folks because right now we have their schedules we have that all covered because the kids and it split between two buildings right but we have it so the kids are covered again we know that they're going to be free this block at this time from this time to this time if you start saying a half an hour or half an hour there now I can't cover we can't cover those right you know you know what I'm talking about right you can't you can't and then that impacts your ability to go to the other building especially if it's a ro it ends up being a rotating one that makes it even worse so that's all so that's why I'm saying like it goes beyond those people especially when you start talking about covering IEPs in specialized programs yeah yeah and I don't that would take that it took it took months to figure that out you know because each piece then impacts the next piece it's it's a domino effect so you can do it but it it's a longterm process so you good yeah I guess just one other thing that's way more important than what I was going to say but um I didn't realize that um but if you technically like hypothetically since we're talking hypothetical situations if the two World languages came back in middle school and the two teachers took their positions back yeah that would leave an opening at the high school that would potentially the high school schedule that is then affected not so now you're now talking all of what Mr Cersei just said and everything you all have said you're adding in the high school too which is let me and that was my actually my next question yeah we can not wait sorry you could negotiate anou or an MOA whatever probably anou to say sure could you say we are using these two positions have the Union sign off on it saying we are hiring new people come July 1 we would open these positions back up for the union for then if let's just use Bobby portway Mr portway says hey you know what I actually do want to go teach eighth grade again now we know we're filling the high school business job July 1 rather than January potentially yes that doesn't solve any of them yeah this is much more important teaching Spanish here has back school theoretically Mr Poway could go back to teaching Spanish we have to hire well that's why just to cover class but then you could get into does that person can they teach the business classes can they teach it's it's just really it's to me that it's the longterm V or I shouldn't say the long-term smth Vision don't think the World Language the two World Language positions are easy to solve with this request where the other ones like the academic coordinators they're currently they're current employees pist you're talking just flipping sometimes you know those if they're already here I think we can easily work within our our confines of you know our scheduling is it but just to add the two new positions it's just trickle down so so two different pieces for all of you for contest last year we got a 1% rise that was $347,000 $347,400 again next year I hope to God we don't only get 1% next year but again we just don't know there's no way to predict um the other thing is that if we want to go and ask for more because we feel like we lost so much there are other things that we could talk about and we could consider um yeah so I mean Nick just spoke about like middle school and how we watched the whole PBIS thing like one of the most front forward- facing positions in that middle school is the of students tomyo ran all of the PBIS stuff she handled all of that support with students she did all of the um recognition programs she brought kids that were struggling over to the high school to get it you know an idea like some of our high students come over meet teachers meet par professionals that you're working with like see the wood shop see the art room like that was a super forward facing position there are other positions that we could talk about that may not a have a huge job domino effect and upend everything but also still be forward facing with students and and kind of keeping on the track if we bring Miss Benoy back I assume she went back to the classroom yep so you would still be you would be hiring a longterm I'm hesitant on using this to bring back in admin position and again totally understand technically it's like a just a unit a right so but I think there are other conversations that we can have I'm wondering if the teachers have brought up anything about like I think the long-term sub or the building Subs I think it's fantastic idea but have any of the programs talked about you know last year we had a floating par in wherever or we had this available to us like are they feeling it has that have those discussions been brought up are they deing in are the reading or math interventionists that they had and they don't have this year like I know maybe those don't impact as many teachers or as many students because they're seeing a smaller number I assume but I don't know like my son was brought up the other day and um Mrs Sunderland was he was like oh yeah I read with her all the time and I was like you did you know so like I think there's those pieces too where they were going into classroom and they were helping in the centers even though maybe the students didn't have that particular iup service or you know what I mean like and that was always the first line right that that's that was the the first thing that we would do to work with students because oftentimes students can be overidentified because you do not have those interventions in place and when there's no interventions in place special ed is the only game in town and and that's the biggest challenge and that's why you know I said earlier we fought for these positions for so many years like even when you think about you know Nick did a great speech on the first day of school who were the two people he mentioned forr and G like our coaches were so integral and supportive of the office of teaching and learning um it it's there's definitely you know other ideas and options and what I would say is you know perhaps it's a bigger conversation for us I think so too but I think we don't have time we need to let them know by the end of the week so want our number to be I think we need to take it this way to be completely honest I think we need to do one position at a time because I feel like we're getting a little bit split here regardless I think if we let's go one position at a time yes or no vote on it and then get back to the conversation of for not if we're not going to do a foreign language do we want to look somewhere else yeah does that make sense yeah that way I think that way we can kind of Move Along here because I feel like yeah I'm getting a read I feel like we we're all on the same page with some of these and maybe a few other were a little split on yeah make sense yeah all right so I think then to just be transparent we're going to read these as easy as possible let's start with the academic coordinators the total cost is $ 54,1 71.99 that would bring back four at the high school level of the nine so we likely will need to negotiate this okay so what I would recommend is like let's have the conversation that we're going to keep it within that price point so whether that is bringing them all back and it's a reduce stien and people are willing to do that I have we haven't passed it's all about an MOA so but I need to go into it with good faith bargaining so we can't bring back the entire so don't put a number on I would say you know numeric yes yes and then that way like we're saying it's a little bit less than 50% of what the S are parly um because I'll need to go through that okay so academic coordinators would put a maximum of $ 54,1 71.99 recommendation from the school committee would be to make sure we spread those out as best as possible across elementary middle and scho I that's does anyone have a motion for that can't vote on it we can't vote no and I would just say are we all in agreement check sorry Donna this is all new for all of us think I need to watch again all right exactly all right next one up is the elementary specialist this would be you well I do have it on my sorry but just my all right so let's go to per building I like to see cost per Pro anyway next one would be the permanent building Subs our recommendation would be to bring one back at each School the total cost of one of those subs is 16380 we would put a Max of that of five buildings $81,900 all those in agreement yes age they don't have to do this they want oh no no I just the ma oh yeah you don't have we can like we can we just need the whole number yeah and you but you guys want to say like these this is what we want the money to go to yes got it do the whole number like you need 8,900 all yes which is completely fine I want to do it for our standpoint so we're all on the same page and everybody who's at home watching can understand we're not just throwing in $321,000 and we just come back to the PO you'll get your final correct yes okay got to tally sorry next one is Elementary specialist uh hopefully bringing those back to the 23 24 level would be our recommendation the total on that is $71,500 111 say all those in agreement yes yes yes all right and then the next one let's go Norton Middle School music teacher uh we' be pro rated from January 2nd to June 30th for $284.9 all those in agreement yes five middle school art uh same same cost $28,495 cents all those in agreement yes I think we have to Loop these two together because we're not going to give eight purple foreign language teacher in the eight white not uh so I will say both foreign language teachers which is a total of$ 56,800 188 all those in favor no I will also be a no all agree and again I hope you guys know how much it kills me to for me to give you the recommendation I think just knowing all that especially when it evolves the powers of the IP and all that's a whole this is why we did it this and I will say to my language teachers like I value this I value these roles I value this experience for our students it's just not not something that we can do in the middle of the year and so I I think that you know as we know more about what our budget is going to look like next year perhaps that's something that we say this is really important for us to try to bring back and make that a priority now when anyone since of that number you've now removed $56,000 if there anything else because of the complexity of the foreign languages it's not that we do not want to bring them back the complexity for the six months that's think we all on the same page does anyone want to add something else or talk about another position since that obviously wasn't in our original Talk go back and look at intervention is the element Special Elementary we also cut art so in in our part of our staff reductions we removed a reading and a math interventionist y so the reading interv iist was at the yell school um in grades four five um if I was going to give you a recommendation I think perhaps math at the primary level would be where I would go first um just because we have a reading interventionist at the yell school um who does a great job sorry can you just can you start over so the reading I don't would if if we were going to bring back a math and a reading where would do you think you would put them math and reading and you know T results yes one of each and we do not have that information yet so I also would yeah well I mean we don't we don't have to put dr' on spot wish no I'm not I what I what I would say is if we thought that reading back of reading interventionist and a math interventionist is really important I think what I would perhaps suggest is make that an elementary Reading interventionist and elementary math interventionist and let's not specify where they belong because a we could put somebody in one place or we could share a staff member along the way as well and bringing Library back to fulltime we would also need to back that point for reading interventionist reading specialist position at lgn so perhaps I think let's not back ourselves into a corner and instead be a little bit more General um currently we we had three math interventionists and we got rid of two we have Mrs Deets who has moved out of her coaching role into the math interventions role and she splits her time between JCS and lgm and so she's pretty awesome but that's a lot um so we would probably look at good our data and all of that just to really determine where um that would go and I think from our standpoint we would trust you to make that decision that's your job to do that's not us so I think as far as where you guys think you're to put your math and reading specialist if you will but you're going to know based on the results the star reports the mcast you can take all that data say this person is most needed here that's not our perie that's all yes and is that a position that you would have full time or is that like a point we got full I mean ultimately like if we're gonna say we want it to be a full-time person um you I'm just think she's shaking like this all right can we go back now because Christine what do that pro rated cost yeah and we're probably looking at January 1 then we probably do long back correct that would be the the same that's 28 it would be the same cost that's your Longs or actually with the intervention is could we put those in November 1 to to get them in there quicker if we can find someone should do the job again it all has it all has impact right so ultimately our staff has first dibs on anything that we open up like that's part of our contract that's the way things go so we would need to kind of work through that um and see if there is a way that we could make that all happen we could bump it up slightly not knowing when it would come like I said 28 32 you know yeah I mean I feel like we're waiting on MAR this is again my personal opinion we're going to have to wait on music and art the academic coordinators are kind of already in place if you will because they're already he that's easy specialist giving their thing back permanent building sub I feel that we should just make this push for January because us one it gives us a little beats of mind that like okay we know what's happening and then it gives our admin team a little bit of a fair chance here to actually be able to post these positions see what they did see where they're going to go see if there is a trickle down and and how that is all going to work yeah it's in the same yeah I would recommend is that you think he'll yeah I think it's probably going to give us a little bit more time I think if if for some reason we could do it earlier great like that's great but I don't I don't know that be so if we save January 1 though but you can get it done earlier because I mean to me like I hate to have kids miss out on two months it's you know because I don't know like I just Shar I think here's to I think this's a great point to make you can get them sooner we can use $150,000 over the the summer that we saved from some of these positions and in the moving and retirements and whatever else you're looking at minimum I mean like you're looking at $4,000 a position we can easily backfill that kind of money I think for the most part and then you if you're like hey I got something for November first and ready to make this thing getting really small NE I'm like fumbling around all I can feel is like L my pocket um I I think I think the goal will be when we come back from the winter break in January um it's a we're going to have to wait for town meeting for everything to Beed right and then from there we're going to have to kind of work with the Union figure out how this to work um and then find people right because I can't pull a science teacher out of a classroom without having somebody to teach those kids I think January probably more realistic but again we'll and I also don't know if my staff is like well if these are the first things that are going to get cut I don't want to leave so don't and I yeah yeah all we can do is try that's all we can do and that's that's what I well like I started this thing off this is an unconventional approach yeah we cannot be in this situation every single year doing this this is a this is as this is a nightmare however we are in a spot here that things didn't get handled correctly and I think some of these positions wouldn't have been cut had we known there was more money in this budget than that we were led to believe or we were told but that's the thing though is we can speculate that but it still comes back to the bottom line is the number we were given is what we had to but the thing is when they're drafting the budget they can't hope that they're going to get like if they knew they were getting this extra three million I'm going to say with the 3 million shame on them if they but I was going to say did you watch fome no okay okay soing like they were people were point blank asked when they knew yeah before we finalize the number tonight Jen could I just have you remind the committee of all the other cuts that we are still cutting just so they can hear it and maybe something will trigger maybe yes wait more than happy to read about that we're here for the night [Laughter] so so let's go let's go back let's start with reading at the elementary level so we'll say 3 k35 28469 all in agreement yes yes five math 28406 94 at the hit pre 35 yes okay good so things that are still um cut we have the high school guidance counselor j i yeah I know at some point we talk about this this is also important to to note with the 6.5 million override there was four positions that were never coming back agreed guidance counselor at the high school preschool teacher science teacher at Norton High and a uh speech language pathologist assistant which is a point4 those four positions even with 6.5 we never coming back so the 29 positions is really 25 plus we've also brought back three so we're down to the to uh 22 to replace yes yeah all right so um two day custodians special education teacher from the high school special education teacher from the Middle School elimination of Middle School World Language two instructional technology Specialists two curriculum coaches One MA interventionist um this is really two Middle School teachers um The Well Early Childhood coordinator which we swapped out for the team chair so technically the high school team chair is the position um middle school art the middle school dean High School social studies and music High School Wellness I think that's it you say High School you just on feels like we just did nothing after you just read that list well unfortunately you can't come back from those types of cuts and yeah it's after that whole list it's like you're excited that we're bringing this stuff back which is great but you read that whole list it's like good well you know and I think it's really important for us all to know that a lot of these positions it it took us 10 years to build and so you can't rebuild it overnight it's it's going to take us time to whittle away at the positions that are important to us that we want to bring back and it's going to take advocacy and a lot of creative thinking and if we're saying that world language is a priority for us for the upcoming school year we will be sure to include that you know as as our top priority um but we're at the little bit of the Town yeah and I think people have to realize sitting in these seats doing the best we can with what we think is the best for our students right because we're still going to be we're still going to be hated for not bringing back something that somebody else thinks is more important we do we're just in an absolutely no win situation and I just you know I hope people can understand we are doing the best that we can for our students that's that's what we're sitting here trying to do so I just want to remind people and we'll have two camps that tell me we'll have the people who are saying we're not asking for enough and we'll also have the people who are saying these are not recurring funds yeah I would just like to make sure we're not in this position again I agree I'm not going to be here to but I it's just incredible to me that we have to ask these questions I don't know and I just echoing Char's comments 100% like we're in a no wi situation I think though and I me and Dan and Jen mentioned this on Friday and our get together thing meeting um and I think it's important for everyone to hear from our administrators our school committee our teachers our students our community members the Doom and Gloom has got to stop we've got to start moving in a positive direction we've got to start looking at our schools that we do some really damn good things in these schools we just heard from decco we haven't highlighted that it's it's here we get it do we put that out we need to start doing that type of stuff it's a community effort I get it you know for against you know indifferent to the override at this point now it doesn't matter it's been decided the town has voted we there's no over and I've said this multiple times there's no override coming next year so we we need to we need to or maybe forever after I mean but we need to look at this from a standpoint of life we get it it's tough I think I think you saw it tonight the school committee is making a full-fledged move in the right direction knowing we know we need to do this we know we have to try to get some of these positions back we know the importance of what these people do and we need to really start looking forward and start stop looking behind us what's happened has happened let's move these schools forward how can we work as a community between the NTA between the administrators and what us five can do for the town of Norton to try to move this this District forward you know keep looking back keep doing the Doom and Gloom keep you know doing all that stuff isn't it's not going to help us you know we're just going to sit here keep spinning our circles and saying oh blame this person blame that person that's all over and done you know so I Sherry always says it I think it's like you know be kind be nice and like yeah if you have some ideas we want to hear them you know that's how we get things done um you know we we've kind of opened up these meetings to let the public and administrators and teachers and people jump in you know because again I I think it's important that we've kind of in a way hit a reset button to a certain degree and now now it's like all right is this rock bottom we will never really know I guess until we go into next year you know but we're here to help and that's that's ultimately what we're trying to do so I would I really want to kind of start stressing a little bit of what's done is done let's get the positivity moving back we have very smart people I have full trust in our administrative team starting with Dr O'Neal to get this what's the final number Christine what's the final number we ask for yeah yeah 4822 and does that include the 160 the 160 oh yes okay so 482 it's we have a lot of tabs so I have the final number for positions at the exact same we came in we just switched out foreign language math math and reading specialist so I have it at 321 29 oh I did it with with yes so that's that's our total sorry all right so you guys need to votee on the new new number okay okay can you um Christine what was that final number you have I just want to make sure we're on the same page here you have 53209 386 check double check different sell just exactly that's what I just did do um $482 9386 why are we so what do you have 532 you're off by 50 Grand oh because I added I added the schematic design oh don't add that that's why like it's exactly 50 Grand there it is all right so the final vote then will be for the town meting article of 4,082 sorry sorry good it's 12 482,000 186 second all those in favor um all right next agenda topic uh other business business please have nothing I have nothing good good thank you meing all right nice B friends