all right it's uh six o'clock so we're going to get the meeting started firsted Ali I pledge allegiance to the flag United States stand One Nation indivisible and justice for calling meeting to order on Monday July 29th uh we are being recorded by both the media center we are also Public Schools we are also on Zoom so first things up and the a fiscal 24 budget update from Mrs great so um and along with trans did very small gr and the next was we ended this F year with balance of $ 28195 and that was in our ility lines and lasto that um have any questions I also have any questions on fy4 um since the train project obviously so we turn back 281 almost $283,000 um that goes back to the to do we know that savings from train projects I know it's probably a little soon I know like there supposed to be a huge energy C kind of what's that looking like um so all those were the lines they wer all from the project a lot from some some of what we just started to see solar incentives um those we were just receiving small amounts um some came to check that turned got turned back down and the other was on the bill and add other sols that we getting for another so we were sub nothing yet but yeah I'm looking at Thea have this we were budgeted for 521 th000 and the uh only spent 343,000 so is that kind of safe to say that you're looking at give or take quick math what you know $180,000 wor savings yeah Al yes and so all of the money that you see there that 281,000 almost 282 those all came out of our utility line expenses that we over budgeted for and saw the saing so it's definitely um of course we vary year to year based on actual Heating and Cooling means what the weather is ETC um but we wer able to that just for I think public will be good we uh we budged for 37.7 sorry $ 34.7 million we spent 33.9 million left aage 28195 17 back to to for FY questionss 25 okay um so I shared with the committee a few items for tonight um number one one was um the staff reduction sheet that was shared pretty publicly uh leading up to the override vote uh few weeks ago in July um these were the 29 positions that were eliminated in order for us to meet the 1% budget allocation uh since that time we have recalled to power professionals based on student need and um programming needs um so that brings that 29 number down to to 27 um for those in the audience um and at home I'll read these again uh the 20 the positions are the production of a guidance counselor at noron high school a a nurse that was um call her the district nurse which really was providing services to all five buildings music teacher at nor Middle School the elimination of Middle School World Language at two teachers an English teacher at Norton Middle School a math teacher at Norton Middle School a reading intervention at the gel School two elementary math interventionists the art teacher at Norton Middle School two instructional technology Specialists the elementary math coach the elementary literacy coach preschool teacher a science teacher at Norton High School social studies teacher at Norton High School music teacher at one of one of two music teachers at Norton High School a wellness teacher at noron high school a speech and language pathology assistant that was a point4 position two custodians the middle school dean and JCS assistant additionally uh for elementary Specialists we reduced Elementary art by 0.12 Elementary steam by 32 Elementary library by4 and Elementary music by2 so those are all the cuts that have been made um they were made previous to the override vote um because of our contractual obligations um but we will not Rec calling those staffs the next um piece of information that I shared with all of you are the Staffing changes that we've had since our Maytown meeting um and I think it's important for you to all know that since I shared this with you about 24 you know 48 hours ago we've had two other changes um so we are at a total of four retirements since our town meeting a total of eight resignations um three staff members that have decided to um do a um full-time equivalent change so for example um we have a fifth grade teacher that is going to be job sharing a science teacher at the high school that's going to be job sharing so those positions are going from a a 1 to a04 and then we will backfill the other side of their position um and then um I apologize this is an error we have two leades of absences since the fall town meeting that art teacher we already knew about it had budgeted for so I apologize that was my error um and then the third thing that we have for you is the savings on all of these positions so it's not quite totally up to date at this point um because as I said we just got those you know other two in the last you know two days or so um but at this time taking a look at staff members that have resigned or retired and then backfilling those roles um as needed we're looking at a savings of $176,800 happened uh so on the third sheet that you have for tonight you can see the first um staff member was the high school guidance counselor the person that left was leaving at 8,928 we hired a new guidance counselor at $564 198 which is a savings of 24430 um and we have um we've rehired the school psychologist at the middle school um the great classroom teacher at JCS the language based classroom at JCS a grade one um position at JCS an English teacher retirement at the middle school an English teacher retirement at the high school um and then those last two are the job sharing so as you can see having somebody um in a job chair position we're now only paying them at4 there's still a savings because we're hiring somebody that is less experience or brand new to the district at that time um so that's how we get up to that 176 we will be posting or actually um in one case recalling a staff member that was laid off um due to a retirement that has just come up over the weekend um so that would be somebody that we able to recall it's important for people to know it is not a new position they are we are not bringing them back because we found money we're bringing them back because someone else decided to leave so one for one exactly um and then we will be looking at options for the res the resignation that took place at North School um and we're actually looking at the way that our staffing is is going to S some options toit for potentially filling a hole in another in another school to um make up the difference there questions comments what what are our current question um give me one quick second so as of right now we will have a um the amazing Mrs ham Anderson is extremely organized she got this awesome spreadsheet for us where everything is color coded we can see exactly who was coming in was going and who we s to work on here right all right um we are still looking um we're working on a um still looking at A6 L teacher we are still looking at um an inclusion teacher at JCS a long-term sub position at JCS a kindergarten teacher at JCS and then we will be looking at a social position P that is one of the most recent um changes and this happens every summer this is not strange or unusual people have um Family commitments that change people go on vacation and say this is really awesome I think I'm going to retire and it it truly happens and you know what if you have the ability to do it great go for it um it it truly does happen every single year so this is and this is how we are able to make changes every $176,000 it's not 3.7 million but it will give us a little bit of flexibility if we need to make some changes or if we have a student Le that comes in and we're able you know need to hire P professional or or something along um so this number will change Christine and I will continue to keep you updated on those savings as they come in I only anticipate that number increasing over the next several weeks um and I really am hopeful that we will be able to say that we have all of our staffing in place for um September 3rd in our students out of curiosity J is there like an average of like retirement and reservations over the summer yeah usually it's 20 it's really hard to um some years are more than others I I think um I fully anticipated seeing a lot of people moving this summer only because um we do have a number of Staff members that are right at that point where they either have another year or another two years and sometimes when you see a financial situation in the writings on the wall it's you say you know what now's now is a good time for me um we do have some younger staff that have found positions in other communities um and I also think for them going somewhere where you feel you're going to be a little bit more secure versus having layoffs kind of hanging over your head it's it's a job security thing for people and if you're just bought a new home or you're you know just starting a family that job security is extremely important so it's not surprising I don't think it's totally off the charts out of the ordinary at this point um I just I feel like we had a list from last year like this doesn't see I don't know I feel like this would be a typical number yeah I would say right now it's I'd say it's pretty typical at this point um this is if I were to show you all of all of the shame like this person moved to this role and this person moved to this role and I mean that's that I mean that's Pam's got like 18 different colors going on over here and you got drop downs and spreadsheets and it's I tried to make it as simple as I could yeah for you guys so you can really see what those changes are and what the changes are that impact SE that we did not anticipate because they have all happened since the middle of so out of curiosity when we look at a staff member D what's the time where it's like a resignation versus re you have't qualify with so many years for what's that um it depends it depends on whether or not you were hired before or after I think it's 2012 um in order to be appropriately invested into the retirement system um the maximum retirement available to Educators in Mass 80% in order to reach 80% your years of service and your age have to add up to 9 so so someone that starts like later at like second career yeah they would need to do at least 20 years in order to be considered vested into the retirement system get the ma I me you can obviously retire you can but um in order to get retirement plus you have to give 20 years of services and in terms of resignation most often those people are leaving us to go somewhere else or leaving the career as comments concerns I have a few um um all right so so we went from 29 positions on7 correct what positions even with full6 and half million wer come back in three it was the guidance counselor at Norton High School the preschool teacher the test yeah and I believe the speech and language assistant at the point War those were those three positions that regardless of what happened we would not be those and that's and that's simply due to um changing in programs enrollment um we didn't have enough students that were required that best program preschool so therefore we didn't necessarily need that person in that role um or we didn't have you know the speech and language pathology assistant we have a certified SLP that's able to pick up that um I mean obviously if you had the money and you could switch out that role for something else that's always a great opportunity to be able to um to change some of our programming but those three positions have not have been recall um and then just trying to like think prior to town back but on 328 we got I kind of had that 1% budget 2% budget override through million we kind of went basically from my understanding that we were kind of going to work the bottom to the top if we were to reate so the 1% we were going to bring back 2% we going to bring back whatever since we're going to be what's looking like probably getting $14 per person sorry per P um from the state I know sitting on the government's desk right now we don't have that number exactly you know done that's going to give us an extra $74 per student time out by 2400 looking at 165 168 is that's the total so we've already budgeted the $30 per student that's already in the budget so we would take this we would take the 74 instead of the one so I think it's 160 160 16,826 so just to kind of explain that to Folks at home um currently minimum Aid is set an additional $30 per student for the town of um they are looking to increase that to $104 per student which it would be amazing it would give us an extra as Mr Scher said an extra $74 per student for us um one of the things that we need to all be aware of is that that money is not guaranteed to the school we will need to go back at town meeting um and ask the town to vote to approve that $160,000 coming to us as an Department it goes to the general fund um and so that would be a big benefit for us to do that but we would not have access to those funds until after fall so hypothetically quick math if we this list stays the same at 176,000 plus we get the the per people we have $337,000 potential something right now thinking potentially have but is that number 337,000 something that we can look at shipping off some of these reductions what's I guess what's the plan for 300 what are we doing $337,000 we're not going to just leave it in our budget that's not going corre I mean $337 to U if that shows up in our bank account that's that's a lot of money right like we would be I would be psyched if that kind of money showed up in my account one day $337,000 to a district with $34 million budget is not that much it it really truly isn't um my number one priority is the school nurse that six nurse um one of the things that we've had conversations about over and over and over again is the number of medically fragile students that we have in our schools um across the district we have students that have feeding tubes that a nurse is required to help them with their feeding three to four times a day that is an extremely complicated process the nurse needs to be able to Dev devote all of their attention to that child at that time um and it's really difficult when you've got kids coming in and out so that six nurse is someone who's able to really help with that we also have a number of students in District that are diabetic um each of the school nurses that has a child diabetes in the building has um an app that they are con L monitoring the sugar levels of every single child if the alarm goes off they need to go and make sure that they're working with their child to help get their sugar levels back under control again very serious especially if it's your child that has this you know medical condition and we we asking our School nurses to um keep them safe while they're here um in our care when you take a look at what the recommendations are for School nurses um across the Commonwealth any any school that has um more than 500 students is recommended to have one to have a second house um so we would automatically high school and middle school we should have a second nurse um obviously that's not in the cards for us at this time um but that those are some of the reasons why that nurse is is my first priority um additionally and Mr Cersei isn't here tonight but um that nurse person um is sub coverage when um one of our nurses falls out sick they unfortunately do get sick as well um if they have a personal day um they are definitely working in a pet tree dish um in an elementary school and as much as we think our immune system improves over time it doesn't always um they come there that first line of defense when we need a sub coverage for for that nurse um it's very difficult as a toic she get substitute nurses regardless of what we're paying them um and then we could also consult with um or contract with an with an outside provider a private provider it's extremely expensive um so and then the nurse also writes grants for us they need team grants so it's that would be my first priority and I believe that's about an $80,000 cost so we said what 337 minus 80 money goes fast um I'll be really honest at this time with only looking at $337,000 of potential savings I would be extremely hesit to bring back any um for a few different reasons number one um I believe that we're going to have this exact same budget situation next year and so we're bringing somebody back just to lay them on bringing back a staff member at town meeting time in late October it's a difficult time to change school schedules to change class sizes to do any of those things um so you'd be really looking at what are the positions that wouldn't necessarily impact the schedule or sizes but would provide support to the building as um the middle school dean is a great example of that I Know M Mr Haywood would probably you know fire his own mother to get booy back there um and that would have a big impact I'm very hesitant to do any of those things because we don't know what the year is going to bring we don't know if we'll have students that have um special education needs that will move into town or will be identified um and it's we we joke about it because we can literally save $20,000 in the morning and and spend 50 it's it's extremely uh fluid the way a lot of our costs happen um so I would be very hesitant to say we're going to bring back all of these things if we get the14 student one of the things we are looking at as we see these retirements and resignations we just had a resignation at the high school this week um that person's role is not a classroom teacher um but more of a specialized SCH and we're looking at okay how can the administration that we have currently perhaps backfill some of that work and therefore free up that savings for us to say you know what we have a brand new principal at JCS it would really be great if we could find somebody who just be an early childhood coordinator there and just support preschool and could we do that by saving that role and not so you're meaning that admins will take on additional responsibility correct just yeah and I think um we're all very well aware of the additional responsibilities will be taken on this year um today was the first day of our administrative Retreat um when I say Retreat I think it's really important for everyone to know we were in the library at high school we were not on a tropical island or anywhere really fun and exciting um but all of our conversations today centered around student learning and how are we providing support and intervention access when we don't have interventionists we don't have our coaches to help us look at there will be things that the administrative team is taking on this year in order to make the good things happen for kids but there are also things that are just not going to happen and I think that it'll be my responsibility to communicate that to all of you and say we just can't um of course it's not what we want I hope I think it's important for you guys to do that because like anything else it just gets absorbed and then it's expected because we heard a lot of um a lot of stuff that we have so many we're so TP every right with admin so I think it's important to point out that you guys are taking on additional roles to try to keep our schools at a certain level that we've all come to expect and like everything else there there comes burnout that and you take on more than really what you should be handing um and so Nick I don't want you to think that I'm not answering your question by spending the whole 337 right here I I'm very hesitant to do that um just because we don't we don't know what the year is going to bring and In fairness the governor could approve the budget and if it come to town meting floor and may still not might may not get that1 $60,000 so um until it's sitting on our account you know I really so again from the March 28th one that we went through the wellness teacher at Norton High that was on that if you got 1% that was going to be reinstated see it as a cut again mat teacher at middle school that was never on our list and the JCS assistant principal the child that know she resigned May assuming JCS principal was replaced with the non High School admin just kind of did a flop since it was easy um but I guess why those two3 different so it really came down to trying to be as creative as we can about what our options are so when you have an administrator resign it's very easy to say okay other people have contracts and potentially you be paying out someone over the rest of their contract for dismissing you don't want to necessarily do that you don't want to pay someone and not get for so when an administrator resigns it's easy to say okay we're not going to back the L we're GNA hang on to whatever that salary was and hang on to that um we were fortunate to have a very small c-port of fifth graders moving up to the middle school and therefore we looked at the model of instruction for Norton Middle School and said okay how can we get creative here what is the certification of our teachers how can we get creative here and so now we're doing some cross teaming on grade six because the cboard is small enough so therefore we have a special education teacher who is also certified to teach math has been co- teaching math for many years she may she will be teaching a section of math to sixth grade students so we're trying to be really really creative in terms of what could we allow the wellness course at the high school has has gone from a full year course down to a half year course so instead of every freshman taking a full year Wellness Health Cass they're only taking a half and we are going to need to backfill some of those essential skills that they learned throughout the other half of that year throughout our curriculum at SCH I guess then why what I just don't understand how on late March well teach was part of% budget process and then we went cut the wellness teacher what did we replace that spot rest that we still we're still at 29 right still at 29 positions granted now we've not but we had 29 positions but the wellness teacher was never on our list that's what I just I don't understand of how the list that I have from 422 she they were very much on that um okay I had 328 was a part of the one that we got 1% town that was going to be that wasn't going to beu yeah and so I mean there were other things we swapped too um so I'm looking back at the 328 Nick we have I have a 328 a 44 a 411 a 422 and they're all different iterations of the same thing um we were going to be cutting a business correct instead of a wellness and so we looked at our programming the classes that we offer the number of students are involved in our Deca program which is you know over 150 students are involved in that program and we said we really don't have theity cut of teacher but if we move well of this health class to a half year section instead of a full year section we can make this up um and I that's why I think and I um I know that for those people who have been paying attention they heard me say I don't want to name positions I don't want to tell you know that these are going to be the people that get laid off number one a it's not fair to my staff to find out that early and that publicly um but also things can change and laying off 29 people it's very difficult to none of these positions feel good like I don't really feel good about any of this even those 2.4 positions that we wouldn't necessarily fall any finding that many people to cut and stay afloat and the other part of that is it's not just 29 people that are affected because you have job bumping and things like that there was almost 50 people when all was said done in terms of positions being eliminated then bumping other people moving to new roles moving buildings so I do have one question the Early Childhood Comm that take out take out the title of assistant princi and just Early Child coordin that's not necessarily an administrator in that that just be ping program director which could open up a different pool of ADV potentially yeah so having the role of JCS assistant principal early childood coordinator you were looking for someone who had an administrative license and administrative background that was able to not only um run the program but also support discipline evaluation a lot of different things and it's um a role that was extremely multifaceted and really needed the right person to be able to to do that role because it was it was so much um if we were to take the high school position and that was recently um a resignation and say okay we wanted to use that money instead we've got an admin that's going to help us backfill here we would rather hire an early childhood coordinator that would be more a program director that person would work probably we're here for 182 they would probably work 192 or 202 they would not be a year round position it would be more of a 10-month position um and someone who has experience with young children who has experience with a preschool program and the Runnings event we might have a preschool teacher that says you know I want this and throw their hat into the right for that um but that we need to sit down and look at what the potential savings could be for that so we so that being said that person's obiously charge mon what do we um currently um Mrs Russo is um handling all the little Lancers with help from the's Office dealing with all the finance and the tuition payments with help from Alex sorn regarding Transportation um and then like that's really it Mr Barrett is a brand principal he he's not a brand new principal he's brand new to us um and you know started July one and is really coming in and getting settled getting to know his staff um he has you know an opportunity for staff to come in and meet with him which has been really great um that position if if if we sit down and because this is is still it just happened so we would post for it we would go out and hopefully that person would start maybe a week school start um but that would be something that we really have to look for financial aspect because the list that I gave you of savings does not include that any other questions I think I just want to thank you for your optimism and your continued work all of you um to keep our school district at a certain level because I can tell you for me it's top sitting the Seaton it is top my ninth year and this is where we're at this is top sure I just want to thank you for all your work I think um my perspective and I don't want to speak for my team is that we do everything we can every day to make sure our kids are safe and they have a great learning experience and it's it's going to be um a challenging year but we have um we have really great staff we have really great teachers we've got great families who are super supportive um my job is to run schools regardless of what the outcome is and we're going to do the best of show thank you to skip we go back we have to on transfers the for update the school great thank you um so last fall we talked a lot about a district alignment commit what we're going to look at the school start and end times we were going to look at um the drawing of lines between JCS and lgn we're going to look at the configuration of our school um number one to see if we can make things a little bit more um strategically aligned especially for JCS and lgn who have total opposite schedules um and as much as it doesn't seem like that would be a big deal it really truly is a big deal um for a number of different reasons um number one is that we have specific programs for students at JCS and other specific programs for students at lgn and if a family has one child that needs to be at JCS and one child that needs to be at lgm because of their program needs those are are very different schedules for families um and also families don't want to necessarily make those changes because they're established they have the same time they're you know their kids are on a a routine um so that's something that we need to look at the other thing is really around professional development and looking at student Le um one of the most powerful tools that we have as Educators is the ability to work and collaborate with our peers um and share best practices um I was a teach teacher at JCS for a number of years I taught second grade we were never able to get together with second grade teachers at lgm because they got out of two we got it out at 3:30 and very occasionally on a half day we would get like an hour together um just because of contractual time and so um we don't have the budget for expensive professional development and the Federal grant allocations are just going to you know get more and more tricky as the years go on so use being able to use that collaboration time is really powerful we were also looking at the um districting and the alignment of schools in terms of grade levels my recommendation um for this group is to focus solely on the school start time issue at this time and the reason for that is um Believe It or Not Norton actually has a ton of building happening um I knew it was happening and then I put this little lurb together for you guys the other night and I thought oh my gosh this is even more than I I thought um all of which these building projects have the potential to impact our schools um 195 Manel AB this is the new apartment complex called Norton links it's 100 units um scheduled to open the summer and fall um of those 100 units there are 10 three bedrooms 31 two bedrooms those are families that are going to be moving in there um and that has the potential to impact enrollment at jcx we have the Wheelock farm development which is um um right off of Pine Street that is 44 single family homes with a minimum of four bedrooms per home um again that would impact enrollment at lgn um we have 108 South Worster Street which is will be 34 apartment units which is a very very beginning of approval but that um would impact JCS we have the potential Redevelopment of the freeden Barton site which is looking to be 140 units that's on the JCS side of town um and then this fall will um have information about the MBTA zoning project as a community that um is really near two major mpta stations out of our own Mansfield we are obligated to create a specific zoning area in our community that would have a minimum of 750 multi family units um on a minimum of 50 acres so I'm very fortunate to have great relationships at the town at Nick AFR who is our building um inspector um and then our our Paul um jeppy who just came back as our town planner he was here previously and and just came back they've been really great about getting us information about the building that is happening around town with all of this happening I'm really hesitant to look at where those lines fall and where um potentially we could re allocate grade levels within our schools because I think we're just a little bit too early and I think with all of this building that's going to be happening we're going to have to be really careful and having a lot of conversations about what our enrollment looks like with that said I still think it's really important for us to do the school start times um so our committee is going to focus on that these next few months it'll be Christine and I doing a lot of that work because all of it revolved around transportation and so our hope is that we come to you by the beginning of October with a recommendation for school start times for September of 2020 so and our goal is to move JCS and champ I have a small concern with not looking at District realignment and I guess my my concern is if the committee's meeting it should be at least on the radar because because I mean I get it like if these 100 Apartments come in and it's all middle school students doesn't doesn't but if it these 100 un come in and all of a sudden you have 70 whatever 60 you know doesn't mean have TW boys or Twi girls they can share a room better so I mean I I think I don't want to just dismiss the rist because I mean the committee's going to be there be like a subset on the meeting but I think it just needs to be on the radar it needs to be a contingency claim because we can't be reactive all of this happens in the next couple years we can't wait for it to happen oh you could have looked at two years ago and the hard part is there's really no predicting so um using East East Main Street as an example so um I don't know the number I apologize you're driving you go over the bridge past the Duncan um thank you it's on the left before you get to um Redmill there are we currently have 68 students districtwide enrolled from 274 I believe there's almost 200 there so 68 I'm like okay that's what they B right but there's really no predicting how it's going to work so I um I don't I'm concerned about redrawing the line and kind of causing a little bit of turmoil and then needing to do it another year or two if you know we're happy to do like obviously you know the the big development on Pine Street all those kids are going to do LG but and I don't know the districts I'm gon to throw Route 140 as just for my example so the contingency is all the all the 140 is in that first redistricting thought that those are going JCS because you're going to have multiple age groups in on that development primarily my guess is children J right so I mean it's just it's just I just want it to be in the thought process not we don't necessarily have to write down our our redistricting proposal but we need to understand that all this Builder is really good and really fast and we be looking at potentially these kids are next school year then we have to know what that District looks like and we absolutely cannot put this off like it needs to be right there in the corner of our mind as as we're working through all of us um my proposal to say okay we're only going to do school start times for September 25 25 doesn't mean will ignore all of this but I just my thought is I don't know that we would be ready because of the building to give you a recommendation by this October where that L you um and it's it's it's really interesting when you think about it because when you drive up 123 you've got Elm Street on the left and you've got Pine Street on the right most people don't know that lgn is that Elm Street is JCS and pine Street's lgm the same thing when you drive up North Washington Street you have Johnson Street on the left and Arrowhead on the right Johnson's JCS and Arrowhead is lgm the way the line lines go it's very interesting and I would also imagine it's a very hot button issue within our young families if you're a JCS family you are a JCS family you're LG family or an LG family um and so it could be that we make certain determinations and say okay if you're a current family will allow this to continue and and phase out over those few years if you're enrolling a new kindergartener then these parameters are in place that might make the most sense that's also logistically I think as I just said that CU he probably was just black um that would be you know a challenge for transportation and everything too yeah I kind of agree with since because we've had this committee have large Comm if you will we've already we've already kind of broken down into subsections you know of the committee but I don't know if just stopping the district makes a t of sense I agree with you that like 100 units and we have 40 kids in there you know that all of a sudden now might flip that street now becomes LG what you know um but I do I kind of like dance is thanks buddy like like if we go with like options of like hey this has 30 kids in it we know we're gonna have 30 families that are going to lgn okay these this road these two three roads now we're going to go to JCS we don't got necessarily make that public it doesn't doesn't mean that comme stop their work committee the committee can still look at these numbers and now having this information may be helpful and it may it may allow us to say okay we know this planning board committee is meeting is coming up we know they're going to talk about you know the reading barment site and maybe one of us from the admin team should be there to just hear what they're saying um I have asked both Nick and Paul um to it make sure that they're continuing to involve Us in these conversations um because these big projects have huge impact on schools and I think that um as a builder for as someone on the town planning Comm you might not necessarily realize um the impact that it has on the schools it's it's it's like way down here it's like in the weeds but for us it's right on top so um I don't think we need to stop the work I just know I I don't think we should have a recommendation for 25 yet yeah I think of it's a good one of kind of looking at it in terms of like what can we also do that when I think to dance point I mean the 100 the 195 man lap be kind of heads that's if we kind of take West M Street or sorry Street you know if you're looking at it from you get 68 families from there how you know you're looking at 34 is you know school age kids coming in now again dance point if it's 21 elementary school kids and you know and I'm not super concerned about 195 because it's JCS and we have a little bit more space So in theory they move in after would numers if they move in after October 1 it does so if they if they signed up for school now potentially yeah and I think I mean all yes I would say that you know once they have in they have their residency confirmation that's easy and I mean we also we have very low kindergarten moment numers year compared to years past I don't know if um we just have little birth rates this year or people were you know looking at other options if you override in it pass I also know I also know that the last two weeks of August we have a huge influx of kindergarten registrations you know people come home from vacation think oh no oh wait I get it like listen I have my own and it's I know how crazy the summer can be um but I know that's not very like that really sometimes is because I mean this could be you know 100 units you know yeah and I mean the studio units the one bedrooms even two those might be young professionals they want to be in the other train but they don't want they can't afford to live in the city until they rent them out it's just do we have any way to like make friends with hey buddy um GNA need to talk to so my thought is if we can connect with the agent say here's your direct contact from anybody that's coming in with kids I think we don't want to give law translation this committee also at school start times yes you know kind of trying to on at the elementary levels back on professional devide get school you know so I think there's more a lot of reason there's a lot of work going on in the committee I think that redistrict was a any other comments questions concerns good all right back to this Hatfield for um so we want to give you a very preliminary um plan for Capital um this is started talked about early um so that's why there's no quotes or anything attached it's not our um so the very first thing that we sorry back about that but um is the second year of our Tech dis slaves that we got last fall um so that Capital they should be expecting it because they know it's a multi-year payment right um and then the um next one we were looking at was um water heaters at the high school this is new this year um this past year we probably speak better on it but we have two tanks at the high school one of them start to so we actually and we've been off of one this year they're at the same age so we feel that it's goes so we got for that for um3 and then the next um that we were thinking about was a new it says athletic another multi-purpose vehicle it's very similar to The Used rad bus that you see that we got two years ago um so the 75,000 that's from the state contract that's a little higher that would be a brand new um we're not necessarily that that was kind of an older quote but we could get another used one again for much less um the idea behind this talking Aon and seeing how much middle school high school and even actually Elementary us the breed bus it is significant savings we use it not just for athletics we for clubs activities Special Olympics steel trips we used it for the on Norton we used I think at one point it was back in May um Aon and I were talking and we used to 20 trips in May long um like softball baseball F Tri DEA I mean it was all over so um we just think it would be savings for us longterm transation slow increasing especially some of the Athletics little unknown and you know going to play that so longterm actually really help us and cut down on our transp how many kids been on that bus 20 is there anything sizewise that's like between so it's just a regular person with a license can drive this bus yep long it's not a like 100 okay Mrs Murphy I could be science teacher she drives it all time [Laughter] kids so those are the items for Capital um I know there are times when we have to present the capital um committee with items in August just because of their timeline um so we felt it was really important for you guys to see our initial thoughts here um on these items before we are kind of up against um a time table from that Bo so essentially the tech tech display should should already be there correct and then so we have one two yeah I think my concern you know wait do you know the life when when's the last time you were that was done during the project the renovation project so they were installed June 2012 that's what I thought I think I mean is what it is our parents could buy a fridge in last 25 years I don't think they make things quite the way they used again I will say what I said last year during Capital obiously we didn't really move on it but I would love to kind of see us get a little bit more involved in terms of like color coding these things like again we have water compers on our Capal things next year it's naturally going to come up as things need to be place I would like to kind of get some those wants starting you know based on fiscal year just know true C's kind of involved a little bit more so I don't know I think at some point we'll probably bring it up on item but the sad reality of that some of these have been here in my 10 years based on money being a smaller right it's just and and the problem the problem I've always had and I'll say this public when I was on the capital committee I don't believe that things on a lease should be paid through Capital Fe it's been there every year whether it's a piece of equipment whatever it is that is not what capital should be used for that should be a budgetary item but the problem is you have these departments with their big equipment fiveyear lease and it's $45,000 a that makes that pie that much less for everything else and you know I think too um to your point some of these things like the things we want to do like clom Furniture the auditorium at the middle school those have been there for a long time um replacing the indor carpet even the um Paving the second entrance at the middle school we we had other things that were slated to go into this fall 25 but you know we can read the room A and B all of a sudden when the water tank goes and you know that we're going to need it simply for the cafeteria at the high school like and the exactly the elevator last year was the thing that had to be fixed so those those unfortunately push the things that would be nice to replace and and that's I guess my like we're always just trying to replace meat rather than trying to get some something checked off at once and again I get it we in a little bit of a fiscal time that's a little different years we had the needs become the necess exactly eventually is basic M any other thing on to so just a quick question with the water heaters can that not be part of um like the whole train project there's no back I know I just wasn't sure the other thing that we thought of too is because it's in the cafeteria and it's primarily utilized by the cafeteria we're like oh could we use our cafeteria revolving it and and we the three of us talked about and it's not all out so it's like course right so it's well we're shaking out those cup uh five this isfield um so we have collected um about 90 Bones from all five schools when we got the new inflence last year um all different kinds as you saw the picture I like the picture so because there's so many and um we have obviously Surplus we want auction so we just need a motion to approve all those in favor of these are all right um next is update on Vision 2026 all right so um this is um a fairly comprehensive overview for all of you regarding um our vision 2026 which was our strategic plan that was put into place fall 2023 um and Dr B's last year so um what I did tonight was I I shared with you our progress updates as of Summer 2020 um and these updates come not just from me but from Dr Aran and scotfield buer and our whole team in terms of you know what we're each responsible for um so as you can see we've actually it's actually really nice to sit down and do this work like you felt like all you did all year along was budget and then you saw it and like oh actually we did a lot of great stuff this year um so we we've made a lot of progress in terms of uh gow developing the whole child um we have you know active PBIS acation language in all of our schools we are part of the Leslie trauma Institute since the Ring of 2019 had over 160 staff members state in at least one force um during that time uh we also were awarded a twoyear um mental health Grant from the Department of Education which is about $250,000 over that time um which allowed us to um research pilot and select our prum for students in gr 12 as well as our our mental health screener for students at RIS um um and then oh there we go um we also are implementing the Jed high school at nor high school which takes a look at um social and mental health support for students who families um and then also our students at the high school implemented the myap which is the career in academic planning this year during LLB it helped them to really identify what some of their goals are for Life After in high school um as well as um career options um additionally um we have t so one of the things that we've always done in the past is we've partnered with Panorama to give students anal survey and as part of um my plan this year I met with a lot of kids and one of the things they said to me was like I don't I just press buttons and and click on things because I would want to be done and I'm like all right well so one of the things I'm like thank you for being honest with me I appreciate that yeah that we have to fill in the B um so we I changed that approach this year and I gave students a precussion survey basically like and I shared with all of you as part of my plan um do you feel accepted or welcome for who you are do you feel safe in school do you have an Adel that you can go to and that was actually um really nice to see some of those surveys and sharing those with staff um additionally in the we have always done um a similar survey for staff and I changed that this year to more closely align with my own country plan and um we have in terms of prep preparing students in terms of academics we have offered summer achievement camps for a number of years this year Dr acman Ran um two math achievement camps during February and April um we had a large number of students participate which was really great it was 4 day imagine spending February vacation or April vacation four days in school learning math the kids were here the teachers here um really overall great opportunity and experience for our kids and um um great example of how when you're able to work with students in a small group on oneon-one they can really make some incredible gains in a short period of time um so that that was really wonderful um we have spent a good amount of time over these last few years um I know probably all of my staff thinks about it in their sleep we talk about it so much um is imss and really looking at a multi-tier system of support for student when it comes to both academics and social emotional behavioral Wellness um as I mentioned earlier we had our first day of our Evan Richie today where we are looking at what we're doing well the processes and the structures that are in place and what is our next step as a team for this upcoming school year in order to help with capacity for staff and all of that is going to be structured around database decision making we ensure that teachers have access to student data that is relevant that will give them a good idea of um where students are thriving and where they need support and how we can plan interventions to really Target those particular needs um I don't want to read all this to you you guys are all able to read um a few other highlights that I want to share with you is that um Norton High School just finished year two of our partnership with pbl Works where we had about 35 Staff members participate in a year long training on Project based learning and we have about 75% of our norn high school students made at least one unit last year that was all project um and that's something that we really feel um strongly about because it helps students engage in real world problem solving that really connects closely to the content that they're learning in the Contra that makes it relevant and practical and um you know giving them a little bit of a taste of what the real world is like outside of our C and our hallways and away fromet so we're really happy about about that work there um as I ition St um one of the other things that um we received a grant for this year was around chronic absenteeism um you may have heard that postco um the absence rates in schools has just absolutely skyrocketed um we had about close to 20% of our students that were considered this past year not um so Dr Adan and we have a really great committee that's working together um to help us put structures into place to support students and families in getting their children to school and also really reaching out to community so you'll start to see things around the community about why attendance matters like I plenty you little sign attendance matters please bring your child to school um so tomorrow during day two of our admin Retreat uh Dr Aran and um and have some of our teachers are coming in to present to the team on work so um part of our work for this fall is going to be taking a look at my entry plan from last year the work that we've done around imss um and factors that really um research based factors for school Improvement and we're going to be starting that work as an admin team during the summer and then putting a group together to start working on our new District strategic plan um we will likely not ride all of this one out all the way to 2026 I think a lot of it um it's time for us to Pivot un certain things a lot of this work here um came back in version two postco we had our vision V had so many Visions I'm so tired um so many Vision so we we really feel like we've done a lot of really great work here but it's really important for us to figure out what are the next steps we've had a lot of conversations this year about um High expect academic expectations for all students making sure that we're providing students with appropriate interventions and looking working closely with families um so we will likely retire this Vision 2026 this fall and present to you our new strategic plan um question concerns comments there go thank you uh seven other business not 48 hours just yeah uh I got two quick things um obviously with everything going on with know over right or whatever I did see a few things popping up uh with the uh the need program and just start you know what they do and all the great work that they do um supporting our schools and then also I saw today or yesterday on neighbors is a new thing going out um about a teacher wish list kind of adding on to Amazon kind of go you can actually go and help you know as far as donations uh to help the teachers in their classroom two kind of great pieces that uh should be highlighted what we do community so those up anything else I will open this up to I was gonna say I will open this up to the public um obviously this is my first time doing public uh public hearing if you will um Len I don't have two minutes and three minute rules I don't you're here to talk to us we're here is your reps um I ask you to try to keep it to three minutes if you're going over you know we'll just kind of give you the 30 second warning or whatnot um you know we're here for you so I don't think we need stipulations on bunch of adults in the room to be quite Frank um we obiously actually respectful and from there go ahead hi there I'm kalista Johnson um I live over keep Drive I know Nick you spoke with a on Chronicle and the article came out last night where you were talking about looking at alternative funding sources to help support the school I know you just mentioned two items are those the alternative fundings or there other things that we should be aware of just really a question yeah I mean I think those two are a good example I think um you know I think one of the things that a lot of uh people don't realize is you can always donate to the schools um I know we had you know quite a few Des photos who are you know looking to you know obviously we're willing to increase their taxes and whatnot that you they're willing and able and can you know do it you know we would love to uh we can prob accept you know donations of any kind so um you can also kind of ear mark it you can kind Mark for whatever you know programming you know area kind of want I I would just say something about me I've been on N for years and do a lot of fundraising we have a movie night coming up but we historically to J's point I mean we give 15 to $20,000 a year in Grants um that's sort of our scope so I would hate for people to think that we can cover $100,000 shortfalls in budget appreciate any and all donations come to our movie night and fall it's looking like it's gonna be Wonka just a spoiler Al um but I I just want to be really clear about that because I think need gets pointed to a lot as like the savior of the school budget we do we can but you know it's not it can't fill budget and we can't fund recurring expenses we that's a part of the charter so just want to make sure that's out there too we appreciate all of need support very very much we've been very fortunate to have you all as a partner for a number of years so thank you hi um I'm Donna Doak I live at 104 nem Street um I just wanted to follow up Dr O'Neal you mentioned um you know that your priority is to hire back the school nurse position if we do um get that money um in the fall is that I just had a question is that something that um everyone on the school committee is would be in agreement with and in support of for that position I think our student safety is of utmost importance so AB being in healthare or I was in healthare absolutely okay I think on that L it's most logical right and I don't say this Trans on minimalistic but we have really good staff in our schools and I I would hope that unfortunately the staff that has them let go for these CS hopefully find another Avenue other next opportunity for them um so they might not be available on November 1 and we might find out we don't have a nurse available based on the needs of our students it's it's easier for us to add like a nursing you know district manager versus a classroom teacher or an interventionist because at that point we're in school two months three months when it it we can't go disrupting the everyday academics right so that would be the challenge to hire any of the classroom facing positions versus as we know you know with diabetics with feeding tubes you have a direct relation to student safety because those students need a lot of one-on-one attention but the other student could be in the office with a concussion they got in gym or something like that so it's yeah it's that's the biggest priority that so defin yeah I mean the reason iing up is that is like that's what my number one priority too I think as far as what needs to be added back um and so I just wanted to yeah and I want to be clear I'm not putting the district Nur on any of the other 27 positions but we have to look at things from a top down review and that is the biggest need of students because it's direct SE of 2400 students not again not trying to minimize it but from hiring back a teacher that's only going to serve seven students and or something like that or a dozen students I really need that that position to go further in the district so not looking at that position next year in this position thank you D Grady 15 Peter Street um I just want to Circle back to some things that Dr O'Neal had brought up earlier so no interventionists and no coaches to deou the student data uh you said that admins are taking on additional roles to help with those um not to mention all the other Cuts so building off of what we said though like um this idea that you can donate our way out of uh this or that we can find you know grants and and things like that um Dr O'Neal said she has a concern that we could be right back here next year so the the kind of the broader question I have is um we're not in a good place financially uh if we do end up back here are like is the committee ready and willing to cut programs further uh next year um if we do in fact end up here uh again since we can't again donate our way out of this uh or just sign grant money that's inconsistent I mean I think this as we've heard tonight everything is very food are we ready and willing I'm never ready or willing to cut stuff it's the nature of how the budget process works like every other department in this town we get a number we have to stick to that that's the bottom line you know we can't go over that M we can get creative we can sh Shuffle staff do some things like that the creativity is running out as well just like the finances are running out as well where I I would say we're going to have another very tough budget year in my personal opinion I don't I'm not reading cards or just it's my opinion based on my 10 years of experience to will it be as bad as last year I hope not but I think it's going to be bad again we've talked about this for a number of years we've talked about this financial cliff we've talked about all of this many times over we're already we're already over the cliff it's just a matter of how far um can I ask to followup is that appropriate or I was just gonna finish my next statement when it comes to Grants we can't predict those either um there's there's an election in November that can change a lot of things when it comes to education as well you can't predict that can't forg what the election looks like everything's going to still be very fluid on our budget season we've been lucky that we have very good people to work with us on our budget as far as internally within the school department um if there's a grant out there they can try and get they will go for as they've done for a number of years um donations are helpful we're not going to need $3.4 million in donations um so I mean it always comes down to here's your number get under your number I think to kind of follow up you know you gotta be creative you know that is easy to say you know we actually do is going to require change you know where does that change come from this is our first meeting s you know kind of went through here you know what are we looking to do how are we going to be that if we are in a similar spot 10 months whatever it may be you know what are we leading up to over the next 10 months try to make those impacts if they do have as minimal as possible um I mean I think you know from from my standpoint is I think this whole thing has to start with some type of townwide um I believe in order to get the town and Town's taxpayers on the same page is do a full extensive audit to figure out where is Norton doing really well this is not just a Norton Public School issue this override was for you know multiple departments you know obviously the school had a major you know a major stake in that game if you will uh but I think starting with an audit you can get buying from taxpayers if you say hey this is what we're doing really well here are a lot of our shortfalls here we can make up some ground this way whatever it may be I think that's the starting point because quite frankly at the end of the day you know we're on a committee where five people you know you got the select board and fincom and every everyone's volunteers you know we're going off of what our town manager our superintendent our fire and police Chiefs are kind of count us you know um and then we're trying to you know play all these hands and see all these cards and try to make you know what's best for for our community um so I think at the end of the day is if you can kind of get legit hey this is what's really going on this is what we really need to work on that to me is the first step quite frankly and I you know I'm going to not speak as next school committee chair I think this town does need an override probably at some point in order to offset it problem is in order to do it you need to have the buy it I think what's happened is over the years you haven't had to buy it because people don't quite frankly trust it you know whether that's right wrong or different we can argue about that you know 20 different ways uh but again I do believe at some point you need to get the taxpayers to either trust the schools trust the town manager trust the select board trust the finom that lack of trust over the years not to mention with all the you know Co stuff that went on I think we're in a very awkward place not to mention you know the the economy in general inflation rates and all that the timing works great um you know but I think in in that regard if we start somewh can't see a lot of people not saying no don't do a townwide a that doesn't make any sense I feel like that's the place to start that's where you can get kind of everyone being like all right you know where are we what are we doing and then from there it's going to give us you know as a you know administrative staff and school committee and also the other department a down in BO a starting point of okay where can we improve where can we get um I think it has to be townwide I think it has to come you know in conjunction with the superintendent and obviously the town manager I think it needs to be an independent on it I think we need to start there once we get that done I would love to have that done by like Jan January 1 um you know and then and then kind of get moving we got we got to figure out you know what plan so if I could just add one thing as well I think um number one I appreciate support I I appreciate people being here tonight to support and Advocate the school um two days after the override vote I had our annual mes of superintendent confence and I had a number of colleagues come up to me and say hey really sorry we here here about the override we're going to be going for one next year this is not just a war there's a serious serious disconnect between the way that we fund education in our state and so it's really important as both Dan and Nick have said tonight for us to do the work that we need to do here as a community because the voters spoke we did not have the support it was it was overwhelmingly against over and that's that's the thought of the community so we clearly need work to do here but as your elected board and as superintendent we also need to do work with our Ed officials um with the mass Association of school superintendent and mass Association schooles we need to better Advocate appropriate funding at state level that's a huge huge fact and I think we we've tried that in years past and it just you had people come in and it just kind of it goes in circles and so I I think that in we've talked about this for a long time like how do we make that change um and since you asked the question I just I want to be able to answer for myself like I mentioned earlier I don't sit in the seat feel comfortable at all with where I'm ending my career on the school committee with where we're at right now I don't feel comfortable at all with it I don't ever like to make these decisions it's heartbreaking to me because I've always sat in the seat and tried to put our children first um but with that said and I've Al I've always I've known Nick for a long time and I've always said this and I've said it publicly I can very much agree to disagree with somebody and so respect them and still be friends with them at the end of the day and that's kind of where we're at in this community I mean it got it got bad it got bad and our neighbors forgot how to be newly and it was sad it was sad to watch and we've done this many of times before you know I I will always support this community um I think that just because Dan and I have been here the longest you know work has been done in the past there's a lot of newer people that haven't necessarily seen it or paid attention in years past um I know that there is an audit done on the town side I don't know is it every year or every two years it's every two years I understand it's not independent yeah we we also get audited right right so it is it is done I understand it's not independent but we also need to be able to come up with the money to be able to do that right to to be able to my question is is if we do that and you know we did have elected officials this year who were um not in support of the override like at some point because we have worked together in the past I've had meetings in my own home with a subcommittee where I invited people in that we were supposedly working together for the greater good of the town but in order to do that people have to be honest right and you can't sit in a committee and say that you're working together and everyone's pulling in the same direction and then you're telling your friends and family I don't support that I I do that we can't do that at some point we all have to be grown-ups and be honest with where we're at right and so um and I just speak from experience of doing this myself so it just becomes tiring after a while when you know people come at you and say well you haven't done this this and this and reality we have we have done that but listen there's more people who come on and and think these are options then then we need to find the money to do an audit and and from there and and hopefully that has people trusting the people that they voted for in all of collective these seats the select board the school committee and the world the finance committee is U appointed but you know I I I wish the best for this town honestly as I finish my term I I really do I I really do wish that we can stay off of social media and just be kind for the love of God just be kind it's so infuriating to watch the way that people are talked about people that have sat in these seats for years to do our best and people attack us for it I just hope to God that going forward this community realizes who it wants to be when they grow up and just be kind and and go through the thorough process hopefully get more trust I don't know that that'll ever happen to some people but all we can do is our best so I hope that answers don't you have question no I appreciate it thank anybody else um great motion to adjourn and enter into an executive session for the purpose of discussions on school and Internet safety not turn session so I will start at thank you all