##VIDEO ID:X5lHGrUQVA0## this government meeting is brought to you by eastworks and our local cable subscribers all right call it to order the uh December meeting of the Southampton local school committee 6 p.m. all five members present in account for include our superintendent and building principal first time the agenda is approval of the minutes of November 13 2024 is any everybody had a chance to review them yes I move that we approve the meeting the minutes of November 13 2024 second there's a motion made by Dylan seconded by Kim any discussion hearing none all in favor I opposed so moved public comment no members of the public are present circulation of warrants announcements corresponds moving directly to principal's report okay you have the principal report of December 11th 2024 our enrollment is at 481 students I believe that's one more than last month um we also had four students move from school of choice to in our regular enrollment because they moved to town they were School of Choice students and they are now it was a family of three plus another one um I I I broke this up into three different categories Student Life uh faculty staff and Community for Student Life the Hampshire Regional High School life skills program visited noris neurodiversity program um last month and the students engaged in social activities and Hampshire Regional students LED our noris students in a craft activity which was really nice to see all the kiddos working together um and some of our students who may be in the older grades that will transition to Hampshire and next year or the year after got to meet some of the staff that they'd be working with so it was a really nice um transition for them our kindergarten classes held family literacy activities in the month of November many parents and invited guests came in to read to um the classrooms I was one of them I was very nice to miss oh very good um kindergarten students completed fast Bridge testing for the first time this year we waited about a couple months before we did the testing and the scores were excellent with only a few students being recommended for tier 2 interventions in ela and math and on Friday December 6th grade students visited uh the Springfield Science Museum and grade four students visited Connecticut Science Center I should have put that somewhere else but anyway faculty and staff um Kathy Sullivan longtime perah at Norris is going to be retiring in February she also heads our after school program so I thought it was important to let you know that because we are looking uh through the collaborative for educational services for a new person to run that after school program um and that's through CES the collaborative as I said our third session of professional development with two teach Global was held on November 19th the presenter that we've had over the last couple of sessions Jackie Rodriguez checked in with teachers on the goals that they set for the year we also brainstormed ideas on how to add more time for special Educators to work with General Ed teachers in order to support all students and under Community the PTO holiday bizaar was held on Saturday November 23rd it was another very successful event with lots of families and the hackworth School of Dance was there and they did a phenomenal job it was just very nice and preschool Pi Day was held on Wednesday November 27th many families were able to attend um along with Dr Peron who was a volunteer piie server and there's a nice picture of him there I killed it how was how was your first P day it was wonderful this is where your height goes against you uh that's all I have any questions on the principles report uh superintendent report uh so I I put two um two main things to talk about the grants uh I hope you all had an opportunity to read it I can answer any questions uh that you might have about them but the bottom line is uh with respect to Grants the uh challenges that we faced just straightening things out are really starting to come together we're able we have been able to um roll over some grants uh apply for and receive waivers re-register some of the federal grants that we had issue with the reap grants specifically and uh I have to say that the the work that the uh the business office the assistant superintendent and the the people Services director the work that they're doing is along with the work that our our forensic team is doing has been amazing and it's allowed us to uh to really uh identify areas that we can recoup money that we thought was lost uh that we can um ensure that we're drawing those grants down and using it uh appropriately uh based on the the grants themselves uh the the challenge has been amending those grants going back to 24 and 23 and then closing them out cuz many of them are 27-month grants so uh we are coming up in some timelines and feeling a little pressure but we we've really gained some traction with the forensic work especially around the grants uh so uh I'm I'm really happy to report that we've uh as I said recouped some money identified places where the the state has been gracious enough to uh Grant waivers and um really uh make some progress with identifying how we can use resources that uh we thought initially that were lost but um uh we not and we're able to uh move forward in a positive way to the benefit of the schools the students and the teachers um the first point that I was talking about was the uh academic Society induction and uh you know as a brand new superintendent 5 months in the job for the students at the high school to invite me uh to be to speak at that event really uh it touched me and it was a humbling uh experience but also it was an opportunity for me to speak as a first time as the superintendent and to really talk about some of those things those challenges that I want to set for our students around leading in a positive way around serving in the community uh growing school spirit and really taking ownership of their own learning and those are four things that I've uh kind of challenged the uh the academic Society to do and I really want to push that message of empowerment to the students and taking responsibility off the shoulders of of adults and putting it on the shoulders of the students and really giving them opportunities for voice and empowerment to move themselves and the school their peers forward and that opportunity that I had to speak at the uh academic Society uh was was awesome and it really felt good um it it kind of uh solidified for me the the piece of this job that makes the job worth doing being present being uh a part of the life of the schools you know going and serving pies to The Littles at at at Norris and going to the holiday and the the um the uh the fall festivals going to games and it's just that's what makes this job uh fun and so I I I wanted to include that because a it was really a humbling moment for me and B it was an opportunity for me to speak for the first time uh with that superintendent's hat on to the student body at the high school and that really uh it meant a lot to me okay questions no um within your report the well page four that we have talks about a meeting that's happening on uh December 17th did you just expand a little bit about what that means about the uh yeah so the schedule here was actually um uh it was part of the the the budget um update that Dawn was going to give unfortunately she's not feeling well and I have to say she's been uh she's been running herself ragging and really um Burning It Down um with respect to the hours and what needs to be done to get the job done and so that was a schedule that she had put together there there are some changes that need to be made just for example um I don't on the annual town meeting schedule it says uh that the the West Hampton Second Sunday in May it's actually the second Saturday in May so there's a couple typos this was a draft that we are working on so on on the 17th there is an ADC meeting at that meeting we are going to present the central office budget uh I sent an Kimberly Kim sent an invitation for me to the share people to the towns to um the the the sub the the the finance subcommittees select boards Etc because we really want to be transparent in this first uh presentation around the the central office budget and that drives everything that happens after that right because historically there's been 10 meetings right you have the informational meeting only for every town and then you have the individual meetings for the town so thought he was here take the individual or the informational meeting for all the towns and consolidate into one meeting so instead of 10 meetings there's six meetings so that's why it's important if you're available to attend on the 17th I've already encouraged select board Andi Finance to attend for southampton's part but kind of streamline this a little bit yeah and that's exactly correct and and the other piece to this uh that is the first thing on the agenda for that night is going to be a presentation from the assistant superintendent Michael fet and the uh director of pupil Services Amy Drake uh they really haven't been out in front uh uh of an audience yet and they're doing amazing work and so they have a presentation won't be a real long presentation but it'll really Encompass the um the the the work that they've been doing in their various roles and it'll uh segue into uh the budget uh presentation afterwards okay I have one question go ahead did Williamsburg change so this meet this calendar shows Williamsburg as the first Monday in may they have in the historically they've been like the in June they've typically been the last one so I don't know if that's a typo or if that's something that they've changed to my knowledge it's not a typo or a change I will have to double check yeah it's just they are like they are historically last and so that just kind of caught my eye just for something to double check it's possible that they changed it but just in case they didn't absolutely I will look into that because we usually have to change the Hampshire regional meeting in June to be a week later because that's when their town meeting is so and we and sometimes with Hampshire Regional like the budget passing is hinging on Bergie and they're the last ones so no I will certainly check in with uh with Dawn tomorrow and make sure that we're uh we identified the appropriate date there thank you y anything else no all right chairs report uh the um the five chairs did meet last last week with the superintendent uh we are going to meet uh qu at a minimum quarterly um and it's kind of set up as the beginning of the year the mid year and end of year as a checkin balance just and it's more to I think just kind of align all the Committees on the same centralized priorities that we have not to dive into individual things that you know Southampton may be dealing with but West Hampton Isn't So policy procedures you know where we can standardize things across the board um we also discussed um about using that committee or that group it's not a committee that group as a um a visioning for the threeyear 5-year plan looking out because most committees are focused on the one-year plan and the budget here you know maybe here are the next top 10 priorities we should have and the how the chairs think they should be listed and then circulate that and work on that because it's not necessarily um time sensitive within 30 or 90 days you know this is kind of like long range planning the initial Think Tank um so we're going to run with that for a little bit and see how that goes um sounds great much needed yes um Hampshire Regional school committee yeah so we we've been doing a lot of the same stuff we're doing here working a policy Etc we did um talk in detail about the proposed expansion of the pyer valley Chinese immersion school and uh we voted as a committee of was not unanimous but we did vote as a committee to send a letter opposing that expansion and I think we're going to take that up under new business later tonight yes yep and we talked some more about of course the cell phone pilot because everybody wants to talk about that and uh we are going to have uh another meet at our next meeting in January we'll be looking at the principal's proposed you know program for what we're going to do in the spring that she works on with with a group of teachers and students Etc and then it's possible some students might actually develop a a proposal as well and so we'll we'll look at that and and engage with new ideas or stick with the program we already have which um as we've talked about is is working pretty well and we talked about budget and the need to make sure that we are including all the fincom and select boards and doing that earlier than later okay questions PTO update yep they PTO met last night they had a really good turnout which was really nice to see um the major topic was the holiday bazaar and they I mean they knocked it out of the park after their expenses they netted about $166,000 which is a Hu yeah right yeah it's a huge fundraiser for the PTO job um and so a lot of the work they were doing was like talking about you know what went well what what could we tweak that kind of stuff and they're really working hard to like get all of that into writing so that for next year when they're doing this again um it's they're not trying to remember because they have it written down but they also seem to have some really like a really good group of volunteers too and a lot of them because it takes a ton of people ton of people to put that event on and actually they might they had said that they might even want more next year but overall I mean the big news was 16,000 in profit that was like phenomenal so good on them mm questions no um School counsel I'm going to let Elisa take this because I had an appointment yesterday yeah that's okay so we met yesterday um we have new members Roshana kotari who's a new um parent at Norris with two young children who moved into Southampton this summer uh Kim Scaro is a parent who's on school council last year as well um Kelsey R second grade teacher Margaret and myself and Margaret wasn't able to make it which is okay I'm just saying who's on the committee um we went over what is the role of the school council what we're tasked to do introduced ourselves um got to know each other a little bit and our next meeting is on January 14th where we we will begin looking over the uh School Improvement plan and what we need to update change revise or tweak what time on the 14th 3:30 on the 14th I want to just jump in for a second next PTO meeting is also on the 14th at 6:30 in the Norris Library TV Land both before our next meeting yes yes yes yes any questions great uh collaborative for educational services update they're actually meeting tonight so obviously I'm not attending that meeting um I'm here instead I'll provide an update based on the meeting from that note from that meeting at the next meeting uh and then uh as far as select board update goes I think the uh most important thing is we're working on the budget as a town um everything seems to be on track um I'm uh pleased to U update or share from a selectboard point of view that uh we've seen a significant increase in two-way Communications between the town officials and the central office um uh for example we Reed the select board received a very detailed email from the business administrator about um uh charge payroll charges that were charged off to the general fund that really belong to Grants um and uh while there were for six of them which is fine we we you know collectively I think we know there were some accounting issues uh the fact that they've been identified and every single one of those issues had a comma in them so when you add them up there's two commas so that means from the town's point of view that if they all get uh corrected that's going to be a multi comma addition to free cash for the town of the next budget which from the school committee side will go a long way and me and all of us advocating to make sure that uh we don't um get hampered with just the traditional 2 and half% increase so um but things are going well um and again I I think communication is key to everything in um I I I can't have more positive things to say about the the new open communication lines between central office and the town officials here and I and I think that goes both ways so any questions from for me the select board do do we have a calendar for Capital requests so we make sure that all of the Norris requests calendar out go ahead I have a department head meeting tomorrow with Scott and on the agenda is capital planning so I'm assuming we we get our Capital committee hasn't met because I don't believe there's enough members oh really I'm not 100% positive okay um but yes we I'm sure Kim's available Kim who it's an easy gig it's a fun get me into things the next item on our agenda is budget and finance team update uh unless there's anything take a pass on that and excuse Don yeah I don't know if anybody has any specific questions um any immediate red herrings that have come up in the last 30 days that we need to know about that are Urgent on fire are we being sued or about to lose a bunch of money no what I would say is the other way I I I I truly am seeing progress It's incremental but again we're gaining traction of the problems we've identified those are starting to get checked off the list um we met with Jay Sullivan again from the state updated him on the number of challenges issues problems that we have identified uh ident we've told him the resources we're applying to it and um dawn has attached or excuse me has um uh really put a timeline to those fixes and so her next step is to update that document that's been shared with you previously and you'll be able to you're you're going to see some change in a positive way so uh that that's a good thing right now the focus is on the central office budget and then the Hampshire budget but those other things aren't stopping and that's that's kind of how I'm trying to communicate this is you know we're running the school district right now we're supporting principles students teachers Etc but we're also looking at the 26 budget and we have a huge anchor that's dragging us but you know we're putting we're putting force on it and we're moving forward okay is Kyle working on something in particular the new assistant business administrator the budgets the budgets okay yes yes he is and everybody has started we had some new hires in the pipeline but everyone's now work everybody everybody's on he was the latest or the last to start and he is you know he's jumped right in and he's on it and Don doesn't cut anybody say he slacks getting them going so sometimes it's good to take a former Town Administrator and stick him in that role um anything else under budgets or Finance no all right next we have new business so the only thing under new business is other business that cannot wait until the next regularly scheduled meeting does anybody have anything is that something yes I did want to know if we wanted to also send a letter um regarding pcis and is the full name is is that the Chinese Valley Chinese Chinese imers okay so on this note um I'm going to recuse myself from this discussion they're a client of mine I have financial interest and whatever happens there so for the discussion uh the vice chair will take over if you if you happen to choose to write a letter please doign make the vice chair to sign it y okay so can somebody I think since you've already been through this discussion up at Hampshire is this okay I just I want Margaret to explain why would we why would we be talking have no idea what you're talking about so I would love you explain what it is yeah okay so um the Pioneer Valley Chinese immersion school is a school in cadley oh I know the school school yes and so over the past decade or so they have made intermittent efforts to um get permission to increase the size of their population okay they just bought a brand new building and they now have more room for students and they are um looking to add 100 new spots in the school and it is K through 12 at this point so the concern um is I mean on the pro side that means that more students can go you know get access to learning um a language um and a at a chart School the the con of it is that that means that there's more spots for us to be sending potentially sending students to the the concern with current parents is that they are already struggling to meet needs of special ed students which is not unusual in a charter school situation current parents that already have kids in the school correct okay yes so they they don't have broad support amongst their own parents parents for this they have broad support within their board and you know people that are affiliated with the school the teachers Etc they they do not at this point have a waiting list for all grades they might maybe some of the younger grades not positive about that but um I had heard they didn't have any I they must have so is it Jesse that has to give them this approval is that who they get approval from the board yes Board of Education the Board of Education okay and so what why does our opinion matter that's my question yes so we were approached by Lindsay sabadosa um who is the the rep the State Rep and she has a lot of constituents in the area schools that are concerned about what this means for the finances of each school so PBC can charge higher than the 5,000 that we would usually spend to send someone for Choice it's closer to 20,000 how because they're a charter school so there different rules apply for Charter Schools but that means that they get to dictate what we have to pay them correct same smithb does the same thing because they you know they they they fall into a special category okay so Hilltown any of the charter schools can can do that um we still get charter school reimbursement we do get some Don went through the numbers and I can't remember exactly what the numbers were but the way they do it is the first year you get like 75% reimbursement then the next year 50 and then 25 and then you know and then it's just like oh yeah 5,000 you're you know you're kind of on your own I mean that seems ridiculous that that's allowed but that point aside and I don't know how many students we have I was going to say do we have a large population of kids from our district that go there that's that's to us we have eight eight students so for the entire Hampshire Regional Five Towns from Southampton Southampton we have eight Southampton children that attend the immersion school so I have I have the numbers from um from the region uh and in our five districts Southampton sends the most students eight of course we do and you know when you look yeah when you look at the numbers uh there are wait so hold on sorry but so the parents don't have to pay anything for their kid to go there no no it's the town that pays okay so you do pay as a tax faay absolutely but you're not but tuition you know like if you decide to go to a private school like willon you pay if you go to a Char but at Charter School the parents don't pay correct okay they are publicly funded a lot of times you'll see they they even put in their names now they put Public Charter Public School or something like that public Charter School interesting and and some of the push back against Charters generally is that um because it's a charter school the transportation isn't provided so the um people who have means have more of an opportunity to send their students there um they can control the um population yeah population more than a public school can um they aren't as obligated to provide the services that the public schools are um at least that's the argument but bottom line is the bottom line and it's really about money and reimbursements Etc do we overall have a lot of kids out of our Southampton School District specifically that attend other charer schools other than this one I I don't have the numbers in front of me I could certainly find out what Charter out is right I'm just curious in general like are there other charter schools around that we s yeah I would say that there are I idea mhm but I I don't have the numbers I can certainly find those numbers for you uh the performing arts school I was going to say I know I know that one cuz I've known a couple kids that have gone there um but I you was still one to allow choice I mean one of the the concerns that came up at the the Hampshire meeting was well are we restricting people's ability to send their kids there um because there's no waiting list it doesn't appear at this point as if that's the case right and so the letter we're writing is going to desie goes to or the board of UC and the board it goes to both yeah the ask from from rep sabadosa was to um have each of the districts write a letter in opposition to the expansion of enrollment at BBC I so Williamsburg has done it and Hampshire's done it I don't know about the other West Hampton has done it but that doesn't mean that we have to do it it's just you know I'm bringing it up because it was an ask from our R is there a some kind of a like standard letter that we just have to have somebody sign like is there is some somebody written a letter already that we have like the format for it yes I would be curious to know more about the other charer schools that people are going to like are they trying to like do they expand do we worry about people going there like do you know what I mean like I feel like are we targeting this communities this school or is it just literally we don't think that they need the I can only talk about my tenure in school committee it has never come up with any other school when Hilltown first started of course there were people concerned about it but no one stood in the way of Hilltown starting um pcis did make this same ask I think it was six years ago or so and that was denied and they wanted to put 60 new seats and now they want 100 so they're they're reaching far now the the Board of Ed could say well we'll allow you to have 25 new seats or 50 you know so they could still this is I don't know that it's is it still staying in Hadley yes the new's in Hadley yeah do we know when the board's going to make their decision I think the deadline is the 15th or something of December oh for us to communicate oh okay yes Sunday I I'm probably wrong it probably it's probably Friday or I don't know veto might know I know there was a deadline back is there a motion regarding this well I would move that we write a letter in opposition to the 100 seat expansion was also oh I'll wait for we second it is there a second I'll second it uh discussion so the only thing I would add is that we are partially doing this in solidarity with other Public Schools they primarily take from the ammer Regional School y um Bel toown Hadley that's where most of their students come and those same schools are also in opposition to this uh I'll say generally speaking I am I I am broadly opposed to Charter Schools especially expansions on those they have little accountability to the state they don't have to follow the same requirements their uh enrollment can be selected um and they are not again required to necessarily follow the same special education needs of the students that they're there um the funny part to follow up on this if we are going to authorize this letter be I would ask that the motion be to authorize the vice chair or another member to sign cuz I need to call the ethics commission to find out if I can sign a letter to the state correct um I can vote on it I know that I do not believe that I can be the signatory okay on on an effort to push for legislation I can vote on the position but I I don't think I can be the point person to speak for the committee so I would amend my motion to say a letter to be signed by the Vice chair or another member or designate or designate yeah and I will I'm good with your motion being amended all right are we voting uh all those in favor I I opposed none abstentions the chair he's just not in it at all right he's just he's right but the minutes should reflect minute should reflect that that the chair was not an active participant in the discussion or the vote right is there any other business that cannot wait until our next available meeting there is none the chair has one everyone's good so I would like to just get some clarification around um recent uh notifications that came out of uh nor central office regarding um what appears to be reoccurring um inability for Durham to supply busing services and the only reason I'm aware of this is because I am a parent of an impacted student so other committee members if they're not on bus 11 they may not be aware of this but on September 24th uh September 27th October 21st November 14th December 9th and December 10th uh Durham was unable to fulfill its Port what I believe its portion of the contract and Supply a bus so children on bus 11 were re-rooted to two other buses um you know short impact instead of getting home at 3:30 they're getting home at least my child's getting home at 4:00 I guess my initial question is I only know that about this because my child's impacted by it is this happening on other buses within North or is it strictly related to bus 11 as of right now the only thing that has been a pattern is that bus 11 and do we know is it is it a um a mechanical issue or a staffing issue I believe it's a staffing issue I believe the driver of bus 11 is being called to float to other when when a staff member from another district is absent or another school or whatever that bus driver is being asked to go and and drive for them so I think bus 11 does not have a permanent driver the float driver has been driving bus 11 so when another person is absent they take the float and put them somewhere else and then they take the kids from bus 11 and put them on bus two except two students where it makes more sense for them to be on bus 10 one of them happens to be yours and again I don't want to make this about me but if I put on my finance hat yeah I see where do we need this extra bus do we need bus 11 at all someone who picks their kids up every single day there's I would say at least bus 11 and bus 12 are usually the buses that are late or their kids are asked to wait in the cafet uh in the lobby yes or whatever raining or too cold yeah yeah so I would note that I agree with you that has I'm just you know again I think we spend $325 or $352,000 on busing and if we can repeatedly show sometimes two to three times a month that we can right make good without that extra bus I think that um when we take those kids from bus 11 and put them on bus two bus two is packed okay so it's it seems like it would be a good idea but I think we need to do some more work around it and and then so then my flip side is are we being charged on those days when the bus only runs in the morning and that may not and find that out too yeah that's like a question for central office right I mean I have no problem paying for the services that we actually get but and you know I appreciate you bringing it up because I'm on bus Duty and I get sometimes it's not even until I'm already out there to I find out this has happened so in my mind I'm not seeing the pattern I'm not it's it's just I'm just doing what I need to do so until someone brings it up and we start looking at it that that is a lot of days where in my mind it wasn't even that many days but if if it's affecting you right and again the first couple times it's okay but you can only take so much of my 10-year-old complaining that he's missed 30 minutes of his iPad you know because I get home at 3:30 and now I'm the last one instead of the first I'm the last one on the bus at 4:00 just ask Jacob he'll tell you but going would there be a way if this does seem to be a recurring problem to reorder the bus routs to make bus two not be packed right but still cut down a bus I mean and not necessarily this year because it's but like for next year or something like that you know that comes up a lot and it comes up like comes up it's been coming up for 20 years about how many buses we need M but I think one of the issues does become the length some kids would be on the bus the length of time some kids would be on the bus if we had fewer buses it actually shocks me how long some kids are on the bus and they live less than a mile away from school yeah yeah and I guess ultimately I mean down when I get down to the core of the issue I just want to make sure that if it was a mechanical issue then I think we probably have rights under our contract to require them to purchase a a proper bus but if it's a staffing issue stff I can probably be a little more lenient on it but at the same point your failure to staff should not be our financial responsibility right right so therefore we should be receiving some credits on this but I think they're going to the argument the other argument though is yes but we still transported the kits they do but only with how many buses all together you have a full day nine n with eight buses inste nine so why are we paying for nine when they're only using eight got it okay yep that's all all right is that how we pay per bus [Music] yes um so so that's it on that issue uh ongoing business um do we have an update on security upgrades security upgrades update we had a very brief meeting a couple of weeks ago um and we're having another meeting this Friday so we're hoping to have all the knowledge that we need to have and all the people in the system that need to have access with the codes um in order to set the alarm or deactivate the alarm by Friday and by meetings some of this some of this meeting is Hands-On training yes yep okay and just out of curiosity are any members of the MTA involved with this yet or no no okay okay yeah the decision we we had discussed was once the training's done afterwards that would be the next phase that would be the next step is to again collaborate around how um the new system will can be seamlessly implemented okay any other business under ongoing or old business no if not the chair will entertain a motion under mgl chapter 38 21A subsection 3 to discuss strategy to enter into executive session to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigation position of the public body and the chair so declares as I do and that the superintendent building principal be invited in and that there is no intention to return to public session this evening so moved second motion made by Kim seconded by Dylan discussion hearing none roll call Larson I shot I Lumber i l i Johnson I and it is 6:40 we are in executive session so the public the public meeting is over e