##VIDEO ID:lCMEARgUE9Y## call the September 11th just going to call the September 11th uh school committee meeting to order uh first up theedge of United States and theic for which it stands one nation I'm going to get to the agenda I want to just say a really uh quick condolences to Norton High School um head baseball coach Chris O'Brien uh so if we can just take a quick moment of silence to remember Chris thank you uh for the agenda uh vote to approve minutes from the August 28th Open session meeting school committee have we all got a chance to review do I have a motion to approve second all those in favor I I just oh sorry than you I'm sorry if anybody else is we are recording the meeting uh if anyone else is recording please just let us know so that one was 4 correct thank you um usually Cherry but I think it's Justine tonight so C warrants um I have reviewed and approved the following warrants School expense warrant August 20th 2024 42,3 285 and school payroll warrant August 22nd 2024 21,980 um I thank thank you and uh at this time we'll it's our first meeting with uh with Benson so we will turn the floor to you thank you guys for having me really excited to be here um quick update Norton Middle School welcomed our new sixth grade class on August 28th we had robust attendance for both students and families alike the event was its usual success with various staff participating alongside members of our student council who were present answer questions and offer assistance nms trials and sports are underway with both the boys and girls soccer teams having won their first matches of the Season yesterday the volleyball team had over 40 students come out for tri outs and announcements about the roster should be coming soon nms clubs have also begun holding informational meetings and signups our clubs have historically had great participation from our students and this year appears to be no different lastly nms also welcome several new staff members this year in various roles and we wish other staff members the best of luck the new positions within the bu building due to several retirements and budget CS the JCS Mr Barrett right Mr Barrett's her Year's principal and is getting to know the school's culture and routine all teachers have been working with students to model and practice the pvis expectations for different parts of the school day to help students get back into the rhythm of school morning meeting how to order launch the expectations during recess the process for arrival and dismissal students in grade 1 two and three are our guest announcers each morning leading the morning announcements over the PA including the Pledge of Allegiance because Mr Barrett is a former music teacher he has slowly been visiting classrooms to introduce students to silly songs that he used to sing with the students at all school meetings at his prior school and lastly the new year at Norton High School is off to a great start teachers have been busy building routines and Community within their classrooms guidance counselors have been very busy making sure that all students schedules meet their needs seniors have a lot to look forward to at the beginning of the year with the sunrise at 5:45 a.m. on Friday and a Senior Crew seeing black and white from Friday thank you Benson number four principal G thank you good evening everyone there you go on yeah awesome thank you well good evening everyone uh thank you for having me thank thank you for being here at the L uh we had an excellent opening of school yet again and uh so I tried to put together some slides that just kind of highlight it and because I believe that pictures are a lot better than words um to kind of show but uh we have our amazing uh P PTO uh parents and some of the children come the night before school and kind of chalk the walk for the kids to kind of see that uh we're trying to welcome them and try to tell them like how much we care about them and how much we want them to be in school as Dr Ean has definitely said that we're big on attendance and want them to be there um so new year new beginnings and uh new ways to communicate uh I definitely have been a humongous Pro proponent of uh Twitter and then the nasty X and uh I always kind of believed that maybe people always said like social media is a terrible place all it is is just disdain and and just hatred back and forth and I thought maybe we could be a bright spot and just kind of be like a spot that people can kind of see some nice things going on smiling kids faces and just kind of like happiness and uh so I've done that for many many years but in the last few years uh definitely with Elon taking over uh Twitter you kind of saw that the people on Twitter hasn't had like the the poll it used to have like I would I would sometimes tweet between six to 12 uh different like tweets a day from being in classrooms and just kind of breaking down that third wall and so people can kind of see what what fourth and fifth grade look like in the years of 2022 2023 now 2024 and um and it we might end up getting like two or three likes from those six or seven tweets or maybe one response or one and it's like if I'm just tweeting it to the Wilderness and no one's seeing it uh does anyone hear it or know it so uh so we've switched ourselves to Instagram and uh so far we've gotten a lot more uh kind of reaction from it which has been good uh because that's what we want we don't want to just do it just to do it we want it to be something that uh that people see uh every week I put out a newsletter and I'll touch on in a minute and I always do this one big picture that kind of summarizes kind of our week and highlights are week and so we had the chalk walk to chalk chalk to walk we in our first couple days of school we kind of call the first three days really put the academics aside as as most schools are doing most teachers are doing we're building a relationship the foundation of relationships is so important uh with kids and we want to get to know our kids and have them get to know us as the adults in the building so that's part of our kind of big picture and then a bunch of these other little ones I'll kind of highlight as we go through fing so the first few days are kind of Cooperative learning uh collaboration uh kids working together kids getting to know each other two truths and a lie uh teachers kind of throwing it out there uh kids having to line up according to their birthday without talking and how they can kind of communicate with one another building a paper chain all the things that you would see these first few days of school uh last week go uh they bring in like a a bag all about who am I WR about who am I bring in a bag that has three items that they have to take out and Mr bow was involved in that one there uh but just just seeing the kids smile seeing the kids get back into it seeing edging them back into the learning before we get back into it um so that uh yes they're running into school the first day of school can they run in those other days is really the thing we the challenge that we have that we want to do um so um but but uh but just little things here and there that we are working on so that the goods kind of get together uh we have this thing that we've done called good news call the day uh it probably got uh Bob bolawa the assistant principal of the year for Massachusetts because uh he gets to do it and he gets to write about it um but uh but we we last year did 425 uh good news calls of the day we had a school building of about 350 kids so that kind of tells you the numbers that we were able to do we shot for two per day uh which would have made 360 we did 425 uh so far this year we are on Pace to do again 360 or above um but it's just one of those amazing things where any adult in the building can can kind of notice students doing something good something nice something for a friend and maybe maybe they're having a great morning maybe they're having a great day maybe they just had a great 25 minutes get him a good news call and see what happens but uh it makes everyone happy it makes uh the student smile it makes the parent usually cry uh that we're talking to and saying like what an awesome thing your child has done um it makes us happy in the office and it definitely makes that teacher and that adult whoever nominated that student happy and uh they get to go to the book vending machine and pick out whatever they like that's been uh kind of supported by our PTO can't thank them enough for all the the money that we've been able to raise and been able to put into that and we already had these two young students right here first week of school have already collected 50 hashtags which we give them out we hand them out uh all adults just seeing kids do good things we hand out these PBIS uh hashtags and when they collect 50 they can hand them in these guys handed it in by Friday how they got 50 I don't know where they're printing them at home I don't know but they're it's amazing um see too many pages um come on uh we continued positive sign Thursday is something I've done now for I think this is my 11th year of doing positive design Thursday uh I put a little like uh Happy saying on it to kind of highlight usually the week what's been going on and uh walk around with my phone and the sign and kids get in and some of the fourth grade kids that know of it are into it some of the fifth grade kids that have done it now that they say that they've did it every week last year maybe uh they uh so I try to like snap a picture put it together but uh we're just so happy that they're here and that's always so nice to see smiling kids um we like uh Benson said like we have a morning announcement crew that goes for a week fifth grade already got the calendar booked through November with a different group of kids uh to do the announcements it's always just so fun to hear them because they're so nervous that first day and it's like you talk you know how to talk you guys could do it no one sees you and we have this old system with the phone and they don't even know what that is with the with a able to it when what is that going on but uh but by the end of the week they're just so proud of themsel and they feel like they've accomplished something and uh it's always so much fun um and uh from there see this week has be started to be pictures of learning uh so we have a brand new reading program uh called into reading we have our math program into year 2 stepping stones and the kids are B basically starting to get into it and again leaning them into it but they're they're getting into it already teachers have been great of the lessons and activities that they're doing with their literacy centers and math centers so a lot of the things that we did before we even got the curriculum we're continuing to do just with the new curriculum so um more pictures of learning more kids smiling got outside on the turf uh it's just been so amazing great great weather Mr Hayward and I were just talking about it's always nice to have nice weather during those first couple weeks of school uh that helps out greatly in having them get here and be here and be happy so there they are in some of their centers and circles and working together and um and like I said we're now on Instagram got all the pictures on there lots of uh likes lots of uh comments from people um it's been excellent to kind of see and like I said it's not just me tweeting it out it's for people to kind of see and see what learning looks like in 2024 2025 because yes we've all gone to school but uh it it's different now than it definitely has been in the past not need to rest your finger after this and then like I said my new Weekly Newsletter something to yell about I think one of the greatest names of a newsletter ever with um we kind of use that picture I again take a lot of the pictures that we put in we put it all on there for the parents to kind of see and the families to kind of uh relish and uh and that's kind of our first what do we name on day s day seven day seven so we're doing pretty well I think the kids were coming back so we're all good um but thank you it's awesome have you shattered any more students on their bus R I have not uh that's something I I I took a break from but uh that was the funniest day except you didn't bring me coffee but uh no still talk I I think I'm going to get that back rolling I just haven't I'm like thank you so much thank you thank you any other things for y um number five Dr O'Neal for personal update all right thank you um so one of our favorite things to do each year is to um on our welcome back day recognize um years of service uh for our staff uh and this year we recognized uh many many people and I'm going to kind of just go through them very quickly uh recognizing 10 years service to Norton Public Schools Kelly Allen Tracy Blanchett Lor CAD Jen Farley Steve go Vinnie Hayward Rachel Kierney C laberte Carol mcana jeno giba Kate rioo Christina shingo Julie Smith chrisly Nick teresy Melissa Thompson Jen tenelli Karen winsper Kim zjack that's 19 staff members with um 10 years of service 15 years of service Bob Barbosa Aaron SAR and Joe roesy 20 years of service Paula Bine Christina bushard Lauren bosski Ronnie Goldstein Suzanne Hamlin Hara imen Lori rundi Allison tsus 25 years of service Deborah Hearn Mary Bennett jerusa York Jen Branco Martha Clark Denise George Julie gini Lisa Barney Jen young two staff members that have 30 years of service to Norton Public Schools Susie casan and Sarah Porton and one staff member that has 40 years of service to Norton public schools which is just amazing and mind-blowing um it's D Diane Lemo so um I think it's really important that these people are recognized for their years of service um we always do this on our first day I think it's important to all you to hear this as well um as well as our you know friends at home and to go into part of our public record um the dedication to Norton schools uh through the good times and the bad is just something to really really be proud of and I'm also sharing with you our retirements from this past year Karen G excuse me Karen gellis Bill kmit Mary Le Cheryl Mulligan Barbara NATO Su seof de Ward and Maran Walch and thank you to all of those people for their dedication to nor as well the other um item I have for you tonight is our staffing recap um and you'll notice that it's four pages long and this kind of is a um good Peak behind the curtain of what actually happens every year and you can see that there are just so many Staffing changes from one year to the next as um I just shared with you we had eight retirements um we had resignations we had 26 staff members that were part of that layoff non-renewal reduction and force category and then you'll also see all of those reassignments people that are taking on new roles within our school Community this year because of those reductions or because they're looking for a change themselves um and then at the end you'll see our appointments and what you'll see next to them are the reason that these staff members these new staff members have been appointed and I felt like that was really really important for me to include with you especially as this becomes part of um our documents from tonight it's really important for people to see that as I mentioned um to you at our last meeting as I mentioned to the finance committee earlier this week um our 29 layoffs went down to 26 um two were par professional positions that were recalled due to student need new students that moved into Norton um that were in need of additional assistance and then the other uh recall was the sixth school nurse um which I'm very happy that we were able to do um simply because the medical needs of our students are are so important and we have to make sure that we have that coverage as needed um so I felt this is important for you all to be able to see those retirements the resignations and everything else that kind of was a catalyst um for these hires so uh making sure that we're ahead of the narrative in terms of the community because we all know that new hires come through my office they go to town hall um they sign up for benefits or whatever may happen um but it is really important for everyone to see that um we can account for each of those positions and ultimately if was not any new positions or added to the bottom line so I'm happy to answer any questions for you regarding um either of those documents um one thing I I I just would like to see future state is when we look at the retirements I would just be curious to see like their years of service to just see like the wealth of knowledge that walked out the door yeah exactly absolutely there's a lot of wealth of knowledge that walked out this St and it's um you're so happy for these people that are able to take this next step in this new chapter and it's something I think we all dream about someday that retirement um but it's it's it's really difficult to lose such wonderful Educators yeah that's it just when I was looking at the list I'm just always just kind of you know I know two of my children went back to see one teacher that was retired her um which is good to hear anyway but just it's more of a curiosity it's nothing um and then um I know we talked about this at one point probably two years ago maybe a year ago now when we when someone resigns leaves a district we do some type of exit survey or no we do okay but obviously they don't they're not required to take it byre but if they do do we any of my arm we got 15 give take whatever um do we have anybody who did that do we know why we don't have any solid data for this year I'll be honest um I've had I had a conversation with several of these people that decided to leave and um they're all different things just like they are any year um some people found um roles closer to home um that was a better opportunity for their family um some people you know saw the writing on the wall a little bit and said I want to go somewhere where I feel like my position is a little bit more secure um some people were um you'll see we have a few um leaves of absences that did not return so those were people that um you know took a year off whether it to stay home with families or to try something new and decided that um they were not planning on coming back um so it's a little bit of everything um but we don't have any good data this past year anything else from the committee thank you um number six discussion on teacher leadership roles at M Public Schools thank you I know we have a number of teachers here tonight um Mr Liberator from Norton High School um has been a great spilt person I don't know if that's the plan for tonight or if you had somebody else have us yeah I mean we we wanted to provide you with impact documents which I think we did at each level for the high school level the Middle School level and obviously the elementary CC this as well and so we we just wanted to make ourselves available for any questions on if your constituents had any questions regarding what is the impact of not having an academic coordinator at the high school for Department what is the impact for not having a team leader with Middle School setting and the same thing for the fre leaders as well so we have representatives from all three levels here if you have any questions regarding any just didn't want to email them to you and then if you had follow-up questions um we certainly could do that I think Mrs Weber also wants to make a statement from the NTA as well okay um well I'm a former Amy Weber I'm president of the NTA and I am a former curriculum leader um so I can speak to the value of this position from personal knowledge at the elementary school but I worked this summer very closely with um representatives from The Middle middle school and high school and we wor we met with Jen and we tried to come up with Creative Solutions but really what we found was that um the amount of work that is done in these positions needs Fair compensation and unfortunately Jen as much as I know she wanted to was unable to provide that so unfortunately a lot of this work is going to go undone um which is going to hurt which is going to make life hard for the teachers and the students so it's just I just want to make it known that we don't want the kids to suffer but we also want to make sure we're not working for free say thank you Amy thank you Marcus thank you to all of our teachers that are here tonight um as um Amy mentioned I did a lot of work this summer with the um Teachers Association and with teacher Representatives um taking a look at these teacher leadership roles um for those people who are not well aware um for as long as I've been in Norton and Mark will tell you even further back um we have had some sort of teacher leadership role at all of these levels um at the elementary level they were originally called Unit leaders we changed that job description a number of years ago to make it more focused around teaching and learning um at they have Team Le team leaders at the middle school and then at the high school those are academic coordinators who um serve as the leaders of their Department these positions are extremely important um we had a lot of conversations I think for those people in the audience who know my background I like LED teaching and learning efforts here in war for 12 years um and was a classroom teacher prior to that I wrote my entire doctoral dissertation on the importance of teacher leadership roles specifically at the elementary level um and we had a lot of really great conversations about the importance of these roles and what they mean and I think I was very honest with the Union when I said I wish I could but ultimately at the end of the day I just simply don't have funding for these things to happen and I also o said I'm not going to ask people to do things that used to be AED position without being fairly compensated for that I will I will not ask people to do that and we are you know we're understanding that there are going to be things this year that get picked up and done because it's good for kids but we're also understanding that there are certain things that we're not going to be able to do as a school and I think that's just the reality of of what we're working with um right now um as I said to the entire staff on our welcome back day as part of my speech hi like we're still going to provide high quality teaching and learning experiences to all of our students that's what we do that's what we do fast um some of those other things are are going to be the challenge so um I know you have the impact statements um I I'm sure that if you had questions or if you wanted a brief description from each of um the levels on what that looks like I'm sure they'd be willing to do that um but I also so I think I was very honest with you guys about just how I wish there are certain things I wish I could do and it's just not well I'll that if I can from the building level Amy misspoke it's going to make it terribly difficult on administrators too um when I know that I know that okay so um you know when you think about a car how many wheel does it have and immediately you think four but it has five it has a steering wheel on that's the one that I I would want the most in any type of challenging time of situation it's very important the stuff that they do to help us move and push initiatives I know people are concerned about student facing positions these are student facing position they're key to communication with parents and families when you transition from the elementary model and you have that Home Room teacher they serve as that nice transition into Middle School helping parents and families navigate the four or five different teachers that they have now our imss the whole entire structure was built around this teacher Leadership Model uh PBIS how we've been able to take what mty did here and roll it up he the team leaders are Central for that even as far as this week we have fos who's responsible to have the walkie-talkie as we check in and make sure everyone's account account for that's always felt felt the team leader so even things like that our field trip seventh grade plays a big field trip to Six Flags brings 200 kids I get nervous how I would bring one kid mine and it be a production of packing things and everything else they bring 200 kids to six PL that takes a lot of um you know effort energy you know knowledge that they have and it takes it off my plate so I can continue to do the role of a that the principal has so the impact is huge and I think as soon as possible hopefully as we start to rebuild the district that these positions are prioritized they have been when I first came to Norton um like over 10 years ago and I had team leaders I I was like I felt like I had everything I felt like we could do anything and we could achieve anything because I had a structure around me uh so very important position might not be obvious to people outside of the school but inside it's a it's a glaring hole in our school right now super grateful that that you guys took the time to put this together because I have to say and I'm I'm a little embarrassed to say I mean I've I put both of my kids through Norton Public Schools I've been on school committee this is my ninth year and I truly didn't know all of this until you see it in black and right white and you read it and you're like I had I I mean I knew how much work that you guys did but I didn't understand until it was right here in front of me so I'm grateful that you guys um put this together because I think it's important for Town's people to understand what was happening and what is is now not going to be happening and you know like Jen said I mean you don't want kids to suffer but we also don't want you guys to to volunteer for more than you already do because you do enough of that so what's the like what what's the balance here like what's the plan how do we what do we do right and I don't know that there's an answer for that tonight but I think that the the questions need to be asked and the dialogue needs to be started because is this is this the feel the pain that that that people would like to see is this it I don't know I think it just it quite frankly comes down to you know what the old saying robbing Peter to pay Paul they're both broke so and so if we had funds to Institute this that means funds don't go somewhere else that's the reality of our budget right now we haven't even started talking about the budget for next year and and I can I shudder to think what that looks like um because I I can't imagine it's going to be a heck of a lot better than it has been in the past few years um and again and I to you know piggy mat I mean I thank you guys for coming I remember having this discussion from few years back that I was on negotiations because these positions came up um and again it's just it's one of those things where you know until principal H just mentioned it you know simple as a walkie-talkie on a fire those are just small little things that you that you don't think about as an outside or looking in so um I do want to say thank you to everybody for the statements I did you know read through them all um and it is it's just another challenge we're going to have to try and overcome at some point um as we start to hopefully bring things back that aren't here now um and we'll have to just take a look at everything top to bottom like we've done in the past and try and prioritize what we can and um that's all I can assure you that we can do you know as we start looking what next year and the year after and things like that and we will keep everything in mind and keep everything on the table as we've done in the past I'm just wondering I know that this is now because you guys gave this to us now it's part a public record is there a way to like share this with the public you know is there a way to kind of put some of these but I mean I know that VI pages and pages long of how much work that you guys do um but is there a way to kind of share this with families so that they can understand what they may not see this year this school year like we need to get more people involved in understanding the consequences of AC I've said that term the entire time raising my children I've said it a number of times here at school committee like there are consequences for actions we can discuss how you guys want to do that absolutely we figure out a way to share that information one of the things I was going to say is that you know for people that are familiar with our contract um in the back there are stien depositions and um it's public record anyone can go in and see what these stiens are um in the grand scheme of the amount of work that goes along as you've seen here tonight and you've obviously reviewed prior to our meeting it's not a lot for the amount of work that is done by these individual ual when you add it up and we're we're looking at we were looking at a $3.4 million deficit it saved the position in a half and and that's and that's the the challenge right and it's as as Dan said tonight it's it's robbing Peter to playb none of the decisions were great decisions when you have to cut that deep um and it's and it's really challenging so I I think it's important for people to understand that even what they were being compensated was probably not necessarily a fair amount um these are the challenges that we're facing if if if I could for just a minute just to try and provide a little bit of you know additional connective tissue because really teaching and learning is organizational and the work is optimized when you have people at all levels really synergistically involved and because we have great people people because we're going to continue to move forward we will but the real way to have that systemic lasting longterm impact is to have that teacher leadership working in conjunction with principles and and district office um you know last year for for us and for the work that we did particularly around the elementary curriculum and and the field testing and the work that people did like there is a direct positive impact there and I know that finances have very difficult making choices is supremely hard but we really are become an enhanced turbocharge teaching and learning organization when we have all of those facets together it becomes much more difficult when there's not that layer of infrastructure that's why I think it's important to to keep having these conversations and that's why I I mentioned sharing this with parents because I can tell you as a parent I I would want to know I I would want to know this stuff and I just you know I'm a little bit fearful that you know everything that happened happened last year we've all had great Summers we're back and you know Norton's a great District however we still have this Doom of the budget hanging over our heads right and so how do we navigate through that as a school system as a community so I just I I don't like I so appreciate all the work that you guys do in the schools day in and day out but as a community we we need to figure this out together because I I just you know you look at the list of of people leaving and you know we we don't want to keep that H we don't we don't want people to keep thinking that it's not a secure place to be that's that's sad to me this is a special district and our teachers do go above and beyond so I just I don't want to lose sight of the difficulties that we do have even though we are a great district and we do a lot with very little I just want to make sure we are constantly all is talking about the budget and how to move this forward because these are some scary things that are happening they really are so I don't know can I tie into three comments I'll be quick um Mr hayward's comments uh we're now entering Open House season believe it or not for our eighth graders down there and they're going to be going to open house and we know they have choices and their families have choices we think our choic is obviously the best because we know what goes on here this will be the first time at our h house in early November that there won't be any content specialists at so they'll go to some of our competitors private schools vocational technical schools and those schools will have the department heads there and they'll explain the pathways and the scope and sequence and all the different types of courses that are offered at those high schools and we'll just have our administrator and and we want those eth graders to be at our and as Mrs Cohen said in terms of things and getting this out to the community um she attended our Memorial Day assembly that and how our whole school Community is Galvanized around our local veterans that type of function may not happen sh and that that's just a tough thing to say to our veterans obviously because we support them so much and then thirdly as Mr arkman said when we think about preparation for teacher and learning the high school is 18 months away from an accreditation visit and an neas visiting committee is going to come in to hopefully re accredit nor nor hot there's so much prep work and self-study that goes into that where you have to do a deep dive into your curriculum instruction and the department has been responsible for that 10 years ago when we had a visit and we did receive our accredit is one so last meeting it was about the music department those are stff in position if those for some reason don't actually get built can that money be allotted here but can it be it would be a very small percentage of what would be to happen so theoretically um that's probably all in like 15,000 that's 100 Grand but but yes right and that's what and that's Audrey that's exactly what we've tried to do this summer um you know a key example of that was um the team chair at Norton High School resigning and taking Mrs Benner who has a background in special education and giving her the responsibilities of the team share so that we could free up that funding to support little ancers um so we are looking at all of those we're trying to be super super creative Christina and I sat down today and looked at the dollar amount and we're always trying to be as creative as as we Poss be on that note I know and I Jen knows this the NTA is still we're still open to talking and being creative and thinking of you know ways to make these positions happen but right now we haven't been able to find a way but perhaps more money is coming things like that um but Jen knows we're willing to talk about you know we're still at the table that was my two questions one chapter 7 refunding yes getting say significant because it's not significant at the end of the day you know 104 around 30 um but with that additional money have we earmarked that for anything yet that's actually our next topic um that next question as a part of the contract I'm not gonna read this out loud but like Mr lib you're teaching you have four classes right now still or you no because there are no academic coordinat everybody is back down full full and that was certainly something we talked about over the summer in terms of impact bar that was going to be my next like is there a way to take well U for an example sure take Mr lib remove one of his classes spread those kids out I know this is gonna be very difficult obviously to do this in the fall but looking forward the compensation would be you have one less class however you're not getting the stien which is going to cost us $16,000 is dollar so the other challenge with this is that in the last two years we've lost an English teacher a math teacher a science teacher a social studies teacher a music teacher that's 25 sections of classes that people were teaching and those roles no longer exist totally understand that so that I I get that and I understand we don't want to increase class sizes I understand that but we have to do something if we want to bring these positions back we don't have the Magic Bullet to say hey we have $116,000 coming bring those positions on back so if that I would like to see from admin what are some options you know from the teachers union what can we do what are some you know stipulations that they're looking at and and if we can help with the negotiations we would totally help weed from from our standpoint it's just very difficult because back to your point we know the needs you know we see them obviously this was very I me I won't lie I'm Sherry on that that like you know we all went through the schools we're like oh yeah that's unit leader that's the teacher yeah okay cool you know then when you actually see it on the paper it's kind of like oh crap there's way more paperwork I guess if you will you know behind the scenes the problem is is if we just sit here and keep looking at it and you guys say this and we oh we have no money great and we all put our hands up and we have no bu I know we know what happened in town there is no override coming there is no money coming it we are we are what we are at this point you know so we can keep talking about positions being cut and less fun and that the the town's voted he voted he voted very very to the point you know I think it was very very clear this wasn't you know a swing of five votes 50 votes this money is not coming we have to start finding a plan between the school committee teachers union and building administrators and Central admin to start really figuring out how we're going to fix some of these problems by just sitting here and going back and forth and listening to the stories I think right to dance point I would love to give you $116,000 where's it coming from do you want do should we should we be cutting another administrator to say hey wouldn't cut that administrator to fund these administr to help with the with the building stuff it's you know all we're doing we're getting recommendations from the superintendent we looked at it you try to move things around saying wait a second that maybe this would make more sense here this would make more sense here that's where we're at you know so I get it I understand the frustration I I totally understand that you know if if you want to say it we're going in the wrong way Fair we have a lot of smart people in these schools we have a lot of smart people in our Central Administration we have to start finding Solutions as hard as those Solutions may be to if we have to increase a class size from 19 20 22 at the high school level to 24 25 26 guess what in a year two three years they're going to go off the higher red and those classes are going to be 40 50 60 80 199 in the big lecture Halls we have to start finding ways that we can think outside the box and start getting to Solutions if we don't we're just going to sit here every single week and keep doing the same thing open there's going to be no day it's just going to be Doom and Gloom and we're going to go into the next p season and we're going to be sitting at looking at the same thing going well I guess move this to there move that to there the money's not coming we' got to find other Solutions that's it so I would say this summer we looked at a lot of Creative Solutions um and so when you think about um 25 sections that used to exist that don't our class sizes are nowhere close to 19220 they are much much higher we've got many sections that are close to 30 at the high school um we are definitely working on Solutions we we had a lot of conversations about different ways that we can make this work and at that time time where we just couldn't come to a final agreement I think as Amy said they're willing to continue talking I'm willing to continue talking um ultimately at the end of the day our goal is the same we want what's best for students and we'll figure it out and so I think the fact that you have um your union here willing to have a conversation your teachers here willing to have a conversation during a negotiation year it it shows the number one the relationships that we have as a as a school community and it shows um the partnership that we want to share with our community and we're all we're all on the same page here and so um you know we'll continue to look and we'll continue to be creative um as we have moving forward so I'll one question if whatever Creative Solutions we come up with we can maybe slowly add these in at different levels or whatever that might look like we wouldn't be in a position where like I know Mr lib has you um so it wouldn't be like all of a sudden say Friday we can Institute it Monday you know all a sudden Mr Li has one less class and we have to find something else so it's gonna have to be like growing pains this year like we can't just Institute this and then because then we'd be scrambling to essentially find a section the best we could hope for is to make adjustments for the spring semester okay in in certain places I I think that at the high school anyway right the high school is the only place where that um horse load is different like we have a of relief from fall and spring because it's usually half year it depends so it depends on what people are teaching electives and all of those um that that would be the resolution it would be really difficult to do that okay so I know that I kind of talked a lot about this tonight and I just want to because I kind of consider this like my goodbye tour like I want to make sure that like farewell right this age you never know what happen um I just want to make sure that I take the opportunity every meeting to kind of say what I really need to say especially when there's people sitting here there's people watching whatever and so to the staff that's here tonight are that are watching like I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry that we're here it's it is not comfortable to to sit here and have to go through this um it's not how you think you're going to leave something when you've really worked your tail off to to make it something so I just want to make sure that I I say that out loud and so that you guys can hear me and and hopefully believe me when I when I say that um but I also want you guys to still come to us and and kind of hold us accountable and like Jen said let's let's work together to see you know I don't want there to be you know issues between you know us and and staff like let's try to keep the dialogue open and work together to see what we can maybe accomplish together I've said it for years doing stuff in town the more people working towards something the more solutions you can find and and good things can happen that way so I just wanted to make sure I said that and I think it's also important too from from our standpoint I wish this conversation happened back in February March and April when we were starting to get that list of like hey this is what's on the chopping block this is what we're looking for and I know obviously there's a piece of this too that we're gents trying to protect staff and not you know I want to say you know scare people off in February that this position might be coming but you know where it's a a little bit more of a group position that we're looking at like this would have been great conversation to have we would have had a little bit more like okay hold on what if we reduce instead of cut the entire thing you know it might have been able to give us a little bit more of a you know I don't know a different perspective maybe on it I feel like unfortunately now just like last well two weeks ago it's like we hear from people but it's at the very end of the at the at the end with the the decision's been made you know um so again that I think as we kind of go through this Amy I'm looking kind of at you like we we want to make this work you know we are on the same page right we we've covered this stuff like we we are trying to do what's best for our students just like you you know and I know between us with with Central Administration like we need to kind of figure out ways to kind of make this all work um so again I mean I guess that's kind of what I'm looking at and then my next piece of this this staff survey that was a part of this you know as far as academic coordinators um and whatnot can we I'm assuming maybe I'm wrong but is there more to the survey than just the it was as simple as that it was done by the NTA building reps so every building the five buildings have building reps from the association so and it's actually from June of 2023 when there was the potential of cutting academic coordinators that and what Mrs Cohen is saying you know she just wanted to say she supports us well I think the NTA building reps wanted to do that because they felt the fear of the staff not having that support of their Department leader their curriculum leader and so they wanted to sort of Garner the staff's feelings about what is what do this cut potentially mean for you if you're in whatever department and there's a question there about the accreditation because we're all sort of nervous about that we want to be prepared and ready for that and I mean they do a very deep dive into all your Curriculum maps they aligned with the state framework are you meeting state law your unit plans per course so that's an incredible amount of work that's heading our way in 18 months and when this almost hit last spring in 2023 I mean we can see some of the staff sentiment and fear with this potential cut because they're used to being supported almost immediately by their department and as Mr Haywood said it's kind of hard to run downstairs or if you're on third floor at middle school and ask the question him or Mr Goldstein if they're tied up in you know with some situation and same thing with our administrators they're not supposed to be experts on eight curriculum department and that you know my analogy to the eighth grade parents going to these open houses they're G to have questions about science questions that maybe some of our administrators won't be able to answer you know so just to add to that one of the uh key roles principles have is shapping a building high quality shaff and team leaders through my uh decade here have been key to when we get good young talent in making them feel supported helping them grow and that's how we hold on to a fantastic teacher who's step two and they don't just go ah I don't know this is because they they're in a position in their life where they can take chances and Lead so how do you retain people who have everything going for them they got a boatload of good recommendations they got good experience and they they look great on the pay scale to every other District around you make them feel support and connected I'm one guy he's one guy you know that really happens through the team leaders and that close model shoulder to shoulder right in there and so like Mark said like our teachers being able to go to that I've seen it so much that they've really build know Christine's team went out for dinner in the summer I got a great new science teacher on there you know those type of things that just take place uh a huge part of recruiting and retaining talented people that's student facing right that now just I mean obviously I think with any job that some of that happens holistically a little bit as well like do we have like a mentorship program yes we do you do okay so like so like if a new person comes on I'm sure even with a team leader or without there's some type of support for that person actually Mr lib is one of the co coordinators of program along with um Miss Al that's all well and good but it's it's not it's not what I'm talking about shoulder to shoulder close thing the this person is dealing with the same kids the same parents that type of teaming model which is what nor middle school has always been known for we've been a model to schools throughout the state I'm on the board of the New England League of middle schools where a spotlight school we had schools come out to us frequently come out and visit to you are teaming model so that you know that's good it's key it's part of the law what we have is um what we've had here is really special on that um it it's more than that it's more than just having a mentoring program and checking a box what you do there is some support and kind of on boarding into our system but it's that day-to-day thing um which is irreplaceable and you know we'll have to find a way like I said it's obviously a bigger thing I probably say some things that make the union mad about of the stuff and some here whatever I have my own thoughts but I'm just here to highlight how important these positions are uh to our kids and what makes our schools place is there a way to my might be off but I believe it was like 27 s positions between the district is that correct right okay i' say that's probably really close Okay um is there a way to think about and I again I don't I'm not there so I don't know but like okay at the high school if we could have four or if we just to start like as we rebuild or as we um think about how this can eventually get back to the 27 like for each school to kind of think about you know what if we could at least have two for whatever or you know is there any possibility of like staging us a bit we can that I did have one one question little bit we think about it like like using the middle school as an example because I know they have is there one for white and one for purple in each yes there's one per team so in there six teams and then we had one The Specialist too so like in the event to Justine's point if we can start bringing him back like is something better than nothing like if we have funding from one for sixth grade one for seventh and one for eight is that better than the alternative which is nothing something's always better than nothing slowly craw back we can absolutely look at it and have those conversations like I think it would be we would have to sit down and really look at okay what would this entail right so if we're gonna have just one person for sixth grade what would responsibili because because because if you're one only one person you can't do everything right um and I was even thinking like if you did a K1 in the two3 like yeah again you couldn't do everything so we we could absolutely look at that and have some conversations and see if that's way we can I think the high school would be I don't know that there a quicker solution like like if you're if you're for history you can't be that for World Language I'm not gonna help the world languages could the high school correct the high school has nine it has nine one one is including guidance so there's eight curriculum departments and guidance okay we have a wa we have a team leader for guidance so there was a academic coordinator for guidance and that was before the move that happened over the summer yeah so maybe we could look at high school just throwing it up we'll continue to have conversations but we I appreci and I I don't want to speak for the teachers but I appreciate you guys kind of hearing this out um and it's was we spent a lot of time this summer having different conversations they spent a um the teachers and the representatives spent a lot of time putting their ideas and thoughts together we tried to think really creatively um so I I appreciate why it's important right for us to do this and have the face because like you just coming up with that example that's what I mean when we're all sitting in a room talking like and you start to figure out ways that this might happen so and this is incredibly helpful like to have all of this information and I think if there's other aspects that I don't know word of mouth and people are like fearful of something you know I think the more information we're not there every day and again we get recommendations from admin so we kind of are stuck in a rock in a hard place too so the more we have the more the more information we have the better it was enlightening to us too to actually work together at all three levels because specifically I didn't know a day-to-day routine of a team leader or an elementary leader and to find out you know how it might affect students like a third grade field trip which is sort of the almost the highlight of their third grade that may not happen because there's not a like at the high school level you make well it's just a field trip but it's so important to them and it was great for us to hear that yeah so is it is it realistic Jen to to maybe kind of set an expectation of do we revisit this in a month two months like how do we because what I don't want to happen is we sit here and talk tonight and then we all kind of move on with our our days and so like how do we Circle back to my recommendation is that we can continue to have conversations but then we Circle back after fall town meeting would be my recommendation okay because I think that way we'll know we're going to go into um the fall town meeting warrants next um we'll know if we're getting any additional funds and what that amount is y um at that point and that will also give us a good perspective on are there changes that could be made for second term or second semester at high school so that that would be my recommendation okay perfect anything else thank you thank you very much you guys want to stay more than welcome but if you want to go thank you more it bye yes I see you you all good all right continuing um review and vote on tell me articles this um these are the the memo that um attached is one that we sent to town hall for the supplement um Tomy article for for October this is the amount that we've spoken about um several times we EXT Chapter 70 money that we got for pupil um so we're asking the town to um incorporate borrow transfer from theable funds 16,8 $2 to add to the um f125 school department budget um at this time we are anticipating using these funds um of the 16802 68500 to a new special education added District collaborative dep um over the summer and then up until Monday we've had um three movements we had one out of District that moved out a district if we have three that have moved in we do have those placeholders that we always aark for the budget out a district um so this would just be the one that we have just sent out the next um would be our anticipated homeless Transportation budget we did increase our budget this year for that line but it we still were a bit conservative due to our um budget issues and so um we're still running around 200,000 Plus past several years and so this is will most likely be used for that as well and just other special loation costs um that might come up and also to help Reserve our circuit breaker fund that we um have drastically drained test yeah um so as Christine just shared with you you know we have some ideas about this $160,000 as um Mr Scher in referred earlier it's it's not life-changing money when we think about you know the bottom number of our you know $34 million budget um we always have these un unanticipated costs every single year when we take a look at um special education cost students that are coming in other communities that were now responsible um for um funding and then students that potentially need to be um in in a you know a different placement that's more appropriate for their learning needs so those are the things that we always um you know get a little nervous about um I think if anywhere we have flexibility within this it would be in that line for the homeless Transportation um this is something that is very challenging to predict as um Christine mentioned we've spent over $200,000 these last few years on homeless Transportation itself um but we don't have a ton of wiggle room is what my point is um we've met with Mr units Our Town manager um and James our accountant and they've been very you know forthcoming with us in terms of um availability we've talked about this Chapter 70 money we're all on the same page about it um so it's just really more of formality at this point to go with that process um but it is important that we receive those funds so that we have um the ability and uh a little bit of flexibility to take care of these costs so um very grateful to our lawmakers that approved $104 per student versus 30 I'll take the $74 wherever I can get it um you but no it's this it's better 160 Grand versus nothing as Mr Hayward said earlier I I'll take some versus none so I'll have your yes so you know what we'll take it we will take it and then I'm sorry I interruped mfield about our second um article here okay um the second article is um ask town to um the same appropriate borro and transfer any available funds for our schematic design for the msba project for the roof um it's just part of the process that we have to go through um we have to go town meeting see there's any available funds um to provide this design which leads into theability space we just don't know that total right now we not but we'll have that yes um so ultimately um as all of you know we have put forward a um application for the msba um acceler accelerated repair program for the Middle School roof they came out the week before school started um Wade and I walked the roof with them it's you know I feel pretty good about it because I kept saying oh wow oh wow um so there was definitely a lot of um issues to show them we will not know if we've been accepted into the program until the end of October right around Halloween um so this will be a number um we're actually fairly confident that we can potentially use our facility's revolving account um to pay for the majority of the schematic design phase um however we have to have it on the warrant it's going to have to go through in worst case or or best case scenario we can pull it at that last minute and say we're all so just um need a vote from you on please anyone have any questions comments are we anticipating I mean this is just formality but are we anticipating this being issue as an article like people I would say that perhaps you might know better than I um after meeting with Mr units we're on the same page about it so historically when it comes to a project like this it just there's a little bit of yapping la usually still just like every other warrant it seems like there's a lot of discussion but then it ultimately goes through I mean if it's a huge number there could definitely be much and and it shouldn't be it should be roughly study 30,000 is is what we're we're projecting at this point it's just it's one of those things where it we wish we had a little more time because if it was 30 and we can cover 20 yeah they you only have yeah so it's like but it's just it's always with these timelines it seems like one is too early other ones too late so so and if we are approved into the Accel accelerator repair program that I have difficulty with um we would go back at the spring and ask for the full amount for borrowing so that there might be something that is a little bit more challenging but it definitely needs to happen the middle school is in some shape yeah I was going to say I think I've been hearing about the roof in my whole 10 years here the building is only 25 years old 26 years old it's open in 98 since I was since I was in seventh grade we heard about this yeah so and as I explained to you the finance committee the other night um it has always had issues since the day it was built um there were holes strolled into it to some of the metal aspects to um help with ice melting yeah and as soon as you drill into it the warranty is voided so um that was who drilled into it who made that um it was probably 04056 roughly in that time frame um Cur administ so all all of us now living with that decision that was made and it was probably made in good faith at that time and here we are so we are now eligible it has to be at least 25 years old trust to be eligible to be considered so we just we're just there as what's what's sad is is your working at a 25y old woman it's not bad that's the sad part like the day right and the problem is like when you're parents bought a refrigerator 25 years ago it would last 20 years ago and now you buy one2 years so it's you know unfortunately and I think it's I think we heard this one of the meetings last year maybe that it's the inevitability of a flat roof that's one of the big problems when it comes to construction of schools and things like that that's why I see the Town Hall the senior center with slopes because do sit on it Architects um separate topic do we or somewhat related we have problems with the LG roof as well because of a tree do we get looking into that because fixed um teing last year okay um and we've been very fortunate that it's been holding up we're actually going to do a thing I not um we're actually um scheduled the 25th um to have Mr lot join us and we're going to do um an update on the capital work that we did last year for you so um that will be actually we didn't even use capital for that where we would use facilities roling which was really great and that was a problem that had been happening for a long time um and it's um in good shape at the moment good so the uh 104 per student 160 in change y we we have had three move special ed moving into the district who was going out District correct yes we have three in one out so we've netted plus two heard that right is there no relief from the district they came from because was early in the year no because they go to collaborative schools so we incur that cost as soon as they will the district if it was a private special education placement um up until a certain point that District would be responsible for work for the Year this and education but because they attend collaborative schools we take it on me thanks Casey um okay and then for the 92,000 and change for anticipating homeless obviously we're anticipating we don't know anything right off the top of our heads here if you will what's in that line now and what's the history how much we've budgeted for and how much we spent out of that line um we it looks like over the past five years maybe it was around 50, that was budged yeah um and then we always asked for a supplemental to help help with that it got increasingly High I'd say since Co from what I could see um we do get it reimbursed um from the state the past couple one year was 100% reimbursement goes directly to the town another year was SE last year 75% um so we do get it back eventually the following year well the town gets back um and right now we bumped up I believe it was 132 for this year so we're budgeted right now for 132 okay what did we do we know what we spent last year uh I'm doing it right now for the NV report and it's 23 so it's already in that loss all right and here's my last point because I think this is very important to pight we have $160,000 additional to Norton schools in in some way shape or form my biggest concern is when we heard from ke Clark that if we went and their overtime obviously has been cut if it doesn't get reinstated there's a potential chance of them P sro's out of the schools to go onto the details the the work RADS obviously my concern is that happens and we have no SRO in the school we have failed as a committee in my regard to properly staff our schools for our school sake so I just very concerned here that I would rather not anticipate and if we at the end of the year have to find money and beg to beg borro and steal from the town to for anticipated cost I would rather do that than to lose our Sr SRO in our SKS this money as $160,000 comes to the town first the town then has to obviously Town's people have to allocate it back to the schools is there some something we can do in that regard to make sure we're not losing SRO out of our schools I would say that there is other preach that's available for other departments I I think the way CH and I could be wrong the way Chapter 70 is worded it is direct payments to student enrollment so while the sro's are 100% part of our schools they're not directly paid as School Employees they're paid as police offic officers so you cannot use Chapter 70 a we can use correct we could use this aid for something just from something different pick a line out of and give I be 25,000 back to the town and we do something like that I would say that we should not need to give the town any of that $160,000 because my understanding is that we have more free cash than was anticipated and therefore I don't want to speak to the town manager but basically I was like I want my 160 Grand and he said okay and you know and there there is going to be other free cash available for other Town departments so I guess okay so reading between the lines that are should be I think they should be safe and ultimately right now we have two we have two full-time SRO uh sergeant dennet and officer robishaw they are amazing they are great partners for us um I know officer um Mayu was pulled back a little bit um in order to be able to um support the um Police Department more fully um would you still see her from time to time um but I I and again I'm only in charge of the schools I don't want to speak out of turn for anyone else but my understanding is that that there is going to be other free cash available um any other questions concerns suggestion um we got vote right we have to vote separately you have okay Dan saying you have to vote separately um all right so the first vote then would be to just read the arle just read the article all right $ 16,826 minimum Aid received per pupil is $30 a student each year but after final allocation of the Cherry Street minimum per P pupil cost is increased to $104 per student uh that $160,000 yeah just the top part is fine yeah okay sorry sorry all those in favor and then the next one um uh to see if the town will vote to appropriate borrow or trans transfer from EV available funds of the amount that we do not know just yet needed for the schematic design of the Norton Middle School roof project that is necessary for the mba's accelerated repair program second all those in favor yeah all right last item for the night and vote on Capital Improvement plans back to you um so this is the same plan that we showed you in July um um not too much CH this is the same one that we sent to the manager as well the only difference was the priority not that it um that we gave as a suggestion is that now the hot water at high school that we spoke about that were on their last legs have failed failed so um so um they said we jinxed it but um the town we spoke with him um when it occurred he said it was on a capital plan um so we had to go ahead and purchase the water heater the one and um that is up and running if we do get money from the capital we back f with the money that we spent how many do we have to purchase um we're asking for two um we you can but it's not recommended so we have one going now one the other one we disconnected but um it's not the greatest um one thing I want to mention with this bus um I think we need to also discuss in capital what this can save us with our busing contract because if we own this bus right so I can get I have that for you because we definitely I just happened to see it the other day Bellingham girl soccer two mini buses in District and it's there's no specialty licenses that the need so anything under you know we use it for softball individual teams I saw golf using it the other day right so I think that's going to be the key for this it's going to show savings because we don't need to order that sorry um also we can get as I said before a lower price if we get used um which is what we did with the red us um and then Aon and I spoke about how much usage that it got last year and it had 85 trips and it saved us almost $30,000 so yeah so you could essentially I mean years pretty much besides track and football yeah every other sport can do two bses I would think soccer would be close their own yeah no I mean I think it's you're absolutely right like that it's it's it's actually a cost savings for us and if we're able to you know have those too many buses I mean Mr Hayward uses the red bus all the time for Middle School sports UniFi all of our other things too so it's um we've definitely gotten our our money out of they're also used during the day for field trips and first to go to do vocational settings for of our special education students as well yeah I mean it's it's Special Olympics case yeah but I think that's going to be one of the keys is showing some savings somewhere absolutely and I think it would you know because like I was saying with Bellingham they only have one feam the two buses and transportation is so outrageously expensive right now unbelievable I remember when I used to when I introduced Middle School sports like this is how much my goes crazy yeah that was 10 years ago yeah unbelievable I'm going to do my Spiel that I do every year with capital I think we do is completely backwards to be completely honest I think we need to try to adjust of what we do we want to go over that again we can look up a meeting that we did last year at this time uh second thing the water heaters why do we only have one again why don't only have three um that was from August and I can get the other okay we make sure we get three folks I know we've gone through that a bunch of times as well um and then the technology G to own yeah for $40,000 over the next five years what is I'm assuming at some type of touchcreen board stuff okay um and they so they already approved it last year this year that it's just the second it's the second payment so the capital committee um should be aware that it's coming perfect um are you Capital sh no no yeah so to your point that's one of those fixed C C the other other departments do this for like I think that should be a topic for a joint meeting we need to take a look that because that I mean you're already spending your money before you yeah I mean if it's and you know I don't even remember if Finance commun was part of cap um it's it's got to be a better way to do it because when you know it's like when you run your monthly budget at home it's like I know my mortgage is X if I want to go out to dinner you know it's can't go out to dinner if I only have X amount that's the problem with that was my problems Capital 10 years ago when I did it and it fell on De here Zen because it was a different group I can't imagine someone needs to taken look at it it's money coming off the top before you even know what you have is ridiculous so we used to talk about that though like we knew how many payments we had left or things that were approved so we always knew like what the balance was what was coming off of that and then yeah so we we all we did keep track of that and yeah yeah that's what I'm saying is is I know we know the amounts but to me that should be in that Department's budget yeah that should come out of the top of their budget correct um but if that happens to us we're we're in trouble so you have to well that's I think it needs to be a different yeah I maybe that's possible but I think coming out of our budget we'll have we have one school left in town I mean we can't do that has Capital met have you met with not yet usually before the meeting yeah only one or two meetings when I say I think we do this all backwards I think as a committee we really should revisit how we do it is one obviously we got to be a part of the Town side of it as well but I think also well ADV dance point I think we just need to kind of look at it from account standpoint and then the trickle down effect of looking at it from our standpoint as well making sure that we have you know what we're kind of seeing what's our progression what's our you know Green Light we have to do this now what's our yellow what's our red you know so on and so forth and kind of get a little bit better of an ideas a plan two three four five years down the road with these still the same effect that you're going to have emergency situations that pop up and you have to do you know but I just feel like we need to start getting a little bit better at this I think the hard part with the capital committee is it it's it can change right when there every somebody else like I stayed on it for I think I joined pretty soon after I got on so it's been like after my first year okay so eight years I sat on that committee because I'm like I wanted some um yeah continuity with so but I think it's hard when you start to kind of truck in a certain direction because you know obviously Mike the town manager is always there but selectboard member thcom like they changed so you kind of start to get somewhere and then you have a whole new group and and they have all new ideas and so it's it's hard having a committee like that yeah and I think the the difficult part about looking at it from our perspective is like um the JCS elevators a perfect example of this the building was built in 1978 the the elevator gets inspected every single year it's never been an issue until last year when all of a sudden we had to install that basically drip pan in the bottom because it was going to be um an issue with in terms of the land and the soil and everything else like so all of a sudden that's $8,000 that you could never have seen that it's it's super frustrating because it does then it kicks the can down the road for the things that we know we know we want to do you know this has happened every year ex we had a plan as to what we wanted to fund in capital and then something happens and then we can't we have to kind of put that down yeah this year's the hot water right yeah well and I think the way we've done it is historically it's as it should be a one- time this is probably the first time I can remember where we've had a multiple year payment plan because we usually try to not do that like some of the other department we've done the past for um minivans and like the our our small buses um and the technology boes those are those are the two examples that I can think of since I've been around um where we've done both multi is there a way I'm just thinking for like future I mean for myself but also like future members that come on to the school committee can we put like the year that these things are added sure like you know what I mean so then that way everybody can see like oh wow been sitting there that's been sitting there for 10 years like you know I I don't know good idea feel like that might opening to like that and I think that was kind of like I was going off with color code and stuff like hey you know we've had athletic you know replacing the JCS and LG fors since I've been on you know and we that's I'm saying been three years with that yeah it keep but it keeps going from fiscal year to oh we're gonna do it in 25 26 to 27 Dan said it was on when he got in here 10 years ago you know so it just goes get get because I know the high school one was on there at the very beginning and the only reason we got that replac is because it was damaged during construction right so that was well the Middle School floor just got to absolutely beautiful they did an incredible job it actually makes the room so much ler oh it's incredible job so and then yeah so you're gonna get a quote please with the sorry when we initially get a quote for Capital because we have to provide it so early we don't always we don't I think we talked about this last time get the multiple because we know we don't even know if we're gonna put that on as a yet we want feedback from you guys right and so that's why we just get the generic one then once we're going to do we go and get the real thing and then we get the real Three quotes hence like we did that with tech displays and elevator but with um this particular situation it literally just went overnight so it's almost like a placeholder for right so I think we called someone else but I'm not sure if we we might have it but it we just didn't even have it time that's another piece of cap can we and I think you've kind of touched on this that we're going to do this um just like what we have done what's going on absolutely what we did last year where are we at with projects you because I feel like thing that kind of gets lost by the ways side didn't I actually talk about that today he had an update for me and I'm like so we're excited and share with you guys on the to vote on that ready oh sorry um what do I have to say uh vote to um approve the capital um okay good let me just say it officially um vote to approve the capital impr Improvement plan as presented so second follow um I don't know does is there any public participation anyone have anything to say before the end the meeting I have before I have to step out um when going through the school calendar just to sync with my calendar and sound a little crazy but in March the um Elementary early b day for the conferences it's listed as the 21st but in the calendar it's highlighted as the 20th so whatever Thursday is so the 20th you should change that date thank you that's good planning down it's St seven for good I got a lot going on I got get it all uh other business from the committee I just have a question do we have has anyone talked joint meeting yet so yes we um not officially but offline uh a fin I was at the fincom meeting on Monday was online but um the have come there reor finally yeah um so Sandy allad is the new fincom chair okay um Paul Scher senior is the new Vice chair uh obviously select board's all squared away so now that fin com in I think the chairs will kind of start making those pushes there was some talk about from okay on fincom about doing some okay yeah I know we talked about like every so often correct yeah yeah I think right after I mean just to get ready meeting it's short and I think kind sounds like kind of the plan is gonna be kind of the chairs and vice chairs kind of get on the same page lay out a calendar for everybody you know kind of what we're looking to do yeah um I also talked to fincom I kind of jumped into the D about getting what they want to see from our budget and not telling us in April and May like hey we need this you know so I kind of asked them that you know whatever they're laying out for all departments you know in terms of what they want to see how the budgets presented or whatever give us the most information so we're prepared we generally feel like we start our budget a little earlier than you know or at least it's it gets a little bit I maybe it's more public because we're in a committee um but you know we're starting a budget January February that I was like we need to know what we're looking to do a little sooner because if not we're going to be in the same situation as our last year and trying to chase out this yeah I think the other part to that is we have to make sure we can get the information they request easily because that was the biggest issue last year is it's a lot of man hours to get what they're asking so I have no problem getting the information if it's going to be used efficiently not just you know used to blast the schools in the school committee as it's been used in the past fast um but you know I don't want to say no but it's has to be realistic to what the needs are yeah and I think that's where the piece so I also think um It's So Christine and I start the budget November right we we start we we literally talked about it yesterday um okay what what do we want to do for our timeline this year what do we what worked last year what didn't work what do we want to change so we at least the two of us start very early from their principles and our Central administrative team they start very soon thereafter um I think the one thing that it's important for all of us to remember is that the role of finance committee is a little bit different when it comes to the school department the school committee is responsible for the budget we discuss line items we discuss options you approve the budget it's the role of the finance committee to approve the bottom line so I think it's um I think just important for us all to I think you did a very good job of doing that in a nice way to them because like I I think with the fincom sometimes it does they have oversight of all the other budgets they sometimes are looking at us being like where's all this money going because we kind of just give them a number to say hey this is what we're looking to do we try to break it down you know so exactly so I think ultimately like we want to extend that Olive Branch we want to you know have we want their support their recommendation does go a long way you know at Town Hall area sorry town meeting um you know so again I just want to reiterate the fact of we control our own budget we are willing to work with the fincom and we just need to know ahead of time what exactly they're looking for we can provideed we certainly so just two more questions for for that so in relation to that was the request granted that somebody was asking for we shared um the salary information um that was requested um during the summer yeah um and I my understanding wasn't exactly what they were looking for um but certainly took Mrs Hadfield in her office huge amount of time to kind of put it together so um I think one of the other things that's really unique about us is I shared that four page document of all of our staffing changes so in a smaller Department like Town Hall you might have two or three people move or leave or something like that's a huge amount of changes it's very difficult to kind of TR for me year to year um so it makes it a little bit more challenging for us as well so um I I think as you know Mr sler said we're a community we want to be collaborative we want to make sure that we are providing everyone with as much information as as we can to make number one informed decisions um but also to better understand how the Dynamics of a school budget works it's it's very important for people to understand um but it's also Al ultimately the five of you that over that is that is our governing board that I report to and that we work through this process like I just wasn't sure if there was feedback I just don't want to be under like a disproportion in microscope than the other departments like we know we're the biggest budget in town we have the most employees we have four pages but that's my that's my always been my concern is we're under this microscope and we're not treated like every other department just because we're the biggest but there's you know there should be salary should be looking at the salary of every department they should be looking at the changes in Personnel in every department but it seems like year over year it's always just yeah and I think that I think that kind of talked about that and I think the one of the problems is town halls and when they can pull that information very quickly off whatever system HR System they're using for lack of a better term ours is a little different in regards of it's not one button one report you know and I think their feedback Char to your point was you asked for salary then we heard the other night that we were like well we got salaries we could look at that in the town report we were looking at like the whole package you know what's the salary what benefits of people getting blah blah blah so they want to say Jen O'Neal makes x amount of money she gets this for longevity she gets this for stiens just just from my standpoint that's over in done with we we did what we thought they wanted from the from spring and summer that's why I asked them lay it out for us give us a want a cheat sheet what do you want from us and then we the four of us get to decide if hey yes this makes sense we will provide that information with you or hey you know what it's going to take way too much of our administrator's time we're already short-handed as is we're not doing you know but we need to know what you want in order to say we can or can't do it you know so I think an email should be and so um Nick and Justine you guys are on our negotiations this year you will negotiate with myself and with our our lawyer we will negotiate a contract which will include salaries um salary sces it will include longevity it will include statens all of those things are under the purview of so we will do all of those things um and ultimately by being part of that negotiations committee and coming back and working with your colleagues on the committee and recommending that we approve whatever we end up with that's governance of the of the school committee as well so I think um so all that work that you did wasn't what they wanted am I understanding what leave sorry please you no I I don't think what I don't think it did not include didn't say Justine salary oh we as like a yes so you gave them the totality of the number but they want break but again my issue with that is is again the best if you want it that way you got to tell us that is my biggest thing and again I will say it again on public record the school committee is in charge of the of the school's bud not finon I know that might hurt feelings but that is the true honest statement of what we're doing so at the end of the day the five of us with our Administration we will decide what we're putting forward in what we're doing I just had one other question do we have any any traction with the independent audit that was that was talked about I think that is going to be a topic for a joint me okay they're not gonna put it on the warrant doesn't sound I don't know we haven't done this joint meeting because we're waiting for V okay now but think on square away I think hopefully we can move on this very very quickly yeah because I think that's an important thing to to keep track of EX right because that was an Ask of the community that yeah so I just wanted I just I would it wasn't at the last meeting so I just wanted yeah window any other questions concerns suggestions no I motion to adjourn so Mo second all those in favor 41 yeah yeah 41 thank you everyone