##VIDEO ID:rkDjn_tB_6E## this government meeting is brought to you by eastw works and our local cable subscribers call to order the uh local school committee for Southampton the time is 60 8 on Wednesday October 9th three out of five members present creating a quorum also joined by the superintendent of schools and our building principal approval of the minutes of September 11th 2024 a motion that we accept the minutes motion to uh accept second seconded any discussion hearing none all in favor I I opposed so move public comment any member of the public wishing to speak on any issue that is not on the agenda tonight seeing none uh we have no circulation of warrants and I'm not aware of any announcements or correspondence so move into the principal's report okay we had a couple new students enroll our enrollment is now at 482 um our fall fastb testing shows that students in grades 2 through six are on track um students in these grades levels scored between 60 and 80% on the reading test so what we would like to see is students at 60% or above because 60% shows that students are on track for College and Career ready according to fford so um every grade level except for grade one which was at 54% and we would like to see them at 60 so we're doing some internal things with our intervention teachers and our intervention team picking up new students in order to make sure that they get to that to that point and math grade 1 and grades 3 through six scored 80% or better which is fantastic I mean to to have 80 as the threshold is unbelievable because it's still 60 is on track and so all those kids were at 80 and grade two scored at 58% and we would like to see them at 60 um and we're going to be testing kindergarten students in November so some school districts across Massachusetts hold kindergarten testing until students have been in school for a while and we never did that before so this year we decided that we're going to do the same as most districts which is not test the kindergarten students until they've had time to acclimate to kindergarten so it will be um before thanks a couple weeks before Thanksgiving and then based on that testing we'll pick up any students that might reach the level of needing an intervention in kindergarten September 12th we held um grade five and six curriculum night caregivers were invited to meet their child's teacher and learned about the expectations for classwork and homework and then on the 19th we had preschool through grade four um for open house and it was very well attended it was a great night on September 25th we had half day for professional development we introduced all staff to the new IEP and the different expectations and components of the IEP and grade two went to kosinski's farm on September 27th we conducted a bus evacuation drill on October 4th it's mandated by law that we have to do that we conducted another fire drill on October 7th I think I um reported out last month that we had one in the first five days of school now we had another one on October 7th and this is um again just a drill but it would include our afternoon preschool class which didn't get the F preschool didn't have the first one so walk to school day is scheduled for October 9th which was today we had a fantastic day what a great morning it was today to walk to school with everybody it's a great Community event and our new preschool van arrived last week and we love it and there's the picture of our new van I already updated do about professional development next week in my report last month about what we're doing so next month I'll report out on how it went and what we did which is next week see this year I didn't receive a single complaint about the walk to school day from anybody in town hall so I appreciate the advanced communication lots of communication this year yep any other comments or questions on the principal's report yeah um just just came up during today is walk to school day something Norris does independently or is it part of a larger initiative there is international walk school day and Massachusetts Department of Transportation do um communicates it Statewide and many schools in our state sign up for walk to school day and across the country so we are signed up as one of the schools that participates in it does is that beneficial when we apply for the uh safe routs to safe routs to school they want to see that we are taking advantage of some of the things that they're offering and this is one of them to teach kids that walking to school is good for exercise is you know trying to increase signage outside to make sure it's safe for kids to walk to school to encourage families to walk to school with their children to decrease the amount of kids that are on buses emissions and things like that good yeah anything else okay thank you superintendent report thank you uh the the focus of the superintendent report this week or excuse me this month is on evaluation generally and specifically on the superintendent evaluation uh one of the things things that I'm uh I'm in my intent to do is to ensure that uh the the Strategic plan the 22 to 27 strategic plan is not just a a a file that sits on a table somewhere and collects dust it's something that drives our thoughts about what school Improvement looks like what district Improvement looks like what department Improvement looks like and pushes down into professional practice and student learning goals of all educators so I have shared my goals and the thought process behind it or excuse me behind them with uh all the principles I've uh had discussions with them about the through line vertically from uh District or excuse me strategic plan to school Improvement plans and District impr Improvement plans and then all the way down to professional practice and student learning goals my focus specifically is why I shared this there where uh there were needs that that had to be addressed from my perspective based on information I received from the surveys I sent to the principles and the surveys I sent to the faculty and staff and so I wanted them a to understand that they had voice and B to understand that I was listening and I am going to continue to listen and ask for input and feedback on the direction that we're taking taking so one of the things I heard was around school culture and District culture and the culture of the central office so that aligns quite specifically with the Strategic plan and one of the Strategic objectives I also heard about the need for processes and protocols and an alignment if you will and cohesion between and across the districts and so that would be the second big buck um uh in which uh the goals that you're going to see that I have created uh uh reside and again I I think there's value when we recognize what our strategic plan addresses and then we uh reflect those things in the goals that we create to drive our instruction or our practice as Educators so um I have uh then what I really wanted everybody to understand is that the state provides rubrics for all professionally uh licensed uh Educators in the Commonwealth and those rubrics are specific to a license so there's a superintendent rubric and a business office rubric Educators rubrics UMO School support staff rubrics and I want to make sure that again we are recognizing indicators of focus that are relevant and authentic to the work that we're doing and so if you look at the document that I shared and I'm not asking you to peruse it right now but if you look at it it's kind of progresses from strategic plan to rubric specifically for the superintendent and then the indicators that I felt based on the feedback that I've received a from the principals B from the staff and C from the Department uh excuse me the the chair people in my meetings with them as I was going through the process of being hired that there needed to be a focus on those specific indicators in order for communication to become more effective transparency to be an expectation for um the processes and the protocols in the ba various offices to be formalized and expectations to be set around them so when you look at my planned activities the elements of focus that excuse me the indicators of focus that are reflected in them I hope that you'll see interconnection and cohesion and when I start looking at the principles goals as school Improvement and student learning professional practice I should see that vertical through line for consistency and for transparency so that's I want people to understand where I'm coming from and why the f focus is what it is from for this first year in in uh in my uh my time here in in uh the the districts okay oh I'm sorry and the last piece is ADC of course um the um all district committee has in its language um a focus on superintendence evaluation and a process building so I wanted to come into that meeting on the 24th I leave with um a solid foundation upon which they can provide me feedback and input and then they can also gain some feedback from the members of the various committees because they'll have already seen this and it's again my intent to be communicative and transparent in the work and why it's being done okay questions comments no are we going to um are we going to take up the uh Finance team in central office under budget other yes okay all right okay chair's report um everything seems to be going smoothly from my point of view so we um I have not been to a uh all district committee meeting since uh the the summer mhm so um nothing to share there uh Hampshire Regional school committee I believe is Margaret PTO is Kim Jen School counsel no that's not you Margaret Mark what do you have Dylan CES next one okay then what do you have I don't have anything you have to have there's no because Mark has both I was going to do school council but she's was there last year and she's like continuing a project that they already started so I can tell you that go ahead email for school council volunteers will go out by the end of the week and I'll be asking for two parent volunteers and a Community member um and our first meeting will happen before our next school committee meeting so she'll have an update that okay collaborative for Educational Services I I com with the last minute was an able to attend the meeting I'll upd after that's one if you want a PTO update I sure the PTO gu um PTO met last night in our library um the treasures report for September has an ending balance of 33,000 um the openhouse bake sale made $933 that's a lot of cupcakes the Cherrydale fundraiser raised $4,000 in profit um teacher grants were passed out for a total of $4,700 um they they approved some requests that were asked asked of them um they made a $100 donation to Magic for Maddie um we're going to be using mantis graphic store for school spiritwear yes so we'll go back to um some of the things in addition to the one that just closed did they have what what one yeah Spirit North Spirit Weare just closed I didn't know that oh I okay I didn't know that trunk Retreat will be held on October 18th there are 37 cars that have signed up people who are decorating a car have been asked to supply their own startup candy and then the PTO will replenish it we have tons of candy uh during the week of November 6 7 and 8 parent teacher conferences are happening there will also be a book fair teachers will be given the opportunity to look at the books and create wish lists also during that week um we will participate in spirit week and a memo will go home to parents to letting them know which day is what um there's going to be a local photographer doing family photos there will be a sitting fee of $30 and the PTO will be given $15 for every it's a fundraiser oh okay yeah fun holiday bizarre will be Saturday November 23rd plan on uh the teachers will plan on creating a craft so they sell that at the craft fair along with many wonderful vendors it's a great day Smencils will be sold again in the office during the holidays and the next PTO meeting is November 12th and thank you to Sunday Burke for doing that update that I just read to you she's very good about sending that out it's fantastic uh as far as the select board update goes we are moving in budget season uh we are continuing with um developing a five SL or rolling fiveyear Capital program that will include Norse uh we are going to allocate funds in the budget for the envelope study that we previously discussed on the walking tour of Norris uh where Norris will be incl well Norris is going to be the key stakeholder in that but we are going to include the other municipal buildings um to create the plan to then apply it to the rolling 5-year Capital project um and we are working on changing the bylaw um that oversees the capital project committee um to give it some more they're going to ultimately if everything passes the committee will have independent authority to um request debt obligations for capital projects uh rolling forward so more of that to as that comes along and then we are um this will require some lift from the from your the building principal board through the superintendent but we are going to convert if you're familiar with Hadley and how they do their budget presentation the 215 page book we're going to go to similar 100 page book so every department is going to have their n how many how many faculty they have what's different from year over-year justify their budget and explain things in there in a positive way um we're also the intent of this after we get the first year done then the next year you're just kind of like updating the numbers maybe change some of the key points but this is going to be our living document for the free for the following year each year as we uh get more aggressive into grants you know the story will kind of already be written there MH um as we go along when we pick along with that so um there'll be more to come with that I know I know Norris will need to come in when we get to the budget season at that piece um we should be thinking about Capital request you know as normal and that's all I have from there the uh I'm sorry Tommy ask a question um I I when I think about that document I think about what Springfield did and that was kind of a template for what we would we had done in West Springfield uh around that uh document that had some narrative in it to be used as you described but there's also and this is my question especially with Don sitting here is are there going to be any directives around um you know level service level funded or different uh levels of funding for the budget projection like directions for how we uh present so normally the select board's position has generally been unless we're anticipating a need for an override we pretty much stay out of it okay for the first draft okay but it will be expected I forget what the deadline is for um Norse to come in and it usually Southampton will usually because the regional has to be done and there's generally less ability to push back on the regional budget in the past Norris has always had to take the hit so if the regional budget went up by four and we could only afford a three we were carving 1% out of Norris to start with um I think it's probably been four or five years since we had to do that okay um and we've taken steps to avoid that and I like how it went last year where Norris's budget was actually for the most part the draft was out before regionals was um so we could spend more time work on that and I'm sure with Don it's going to have the details are going to be there um okay you know if you go back 2 or 3 years it's kind of like here's your front page and you can't look behind it so it makes it hard to sell that story um I think we've made a lot of progress on that I wouldn't Invision you know I I think it's safe to assume a 2 and half% increase and then if there's more you have to have a story as to why y right understood y anything else budget other so you have a document in your packet so just because folks are watching from home right okay hello I'm Don scaparotti I'm the business administrator um for Hampshire Regional School District and I have been there five weeks now and I've had an opportunity to look around and um ident ify major activity that needs to take place in order to produce the reports that all the stakeholders need a budget versus actual report um we can produce reports now but I think I may have mentioned before I can't remember last time if we had talked about it that there are some significant holes in the data and so I can speak to that and this document speaks to what those holes are and identifies um resources to try to fill fill in that data okay so in terms of um critical activity uh under this first section it's uh we have to be prepared in November I think it's the middle to late November that our external Auditors are coming and in order to prepare for that audit we have to look back a little bit and make sure that balances that need to coordinate our coordinating and we have started to do that and of course they do not so the the ending balances for 22 um should be the beginning balances in the general ledger for 23 and that isn't the case so we're starting to look at why that isn't the case so we need to get that together because the Auditors have an expectation when they come that our trial balances will be in order so that they can then audit them and when they audit them they they B basically do sampling and they say okay we'd like to look at this aspect of your accounts payable we'd like to look at this payroll from this date so they just do sampling based on their statistical analysis and uh we have to be prepared to give them the details but you can only get to that once they look at the overall picture right now for example it shows at the end of 23 that we still had accounts receivable of over $800,000 and that's probably not true so accounts receivable basically that that somebody owes us money as of the end of the year and so um we have to dig behind that and make sure that those numbers are accurate um and so that that activity is has started and that needs to uh be finished by the time they come which is mid November so the way this is organized is by year so that's going to be 2223 then we go to 24 and the uh largest piece of a school's budget is often the salaries and we have 26 pay periods that would be reflected typically in a full year and right now 20 of those 26 pay periods are missing from the general ledger so people got paid um it's just that when last year the payments started to be paid out of our system which is called infinite visions and July August and September operated that way and then the business administrator at that time decided that he needed to Outsource the payroll to Harpers so I'm not sure if if you were familiar with that but that did get outsourced and so the good news is people got paid people got paid accurately however that data didn't automatically transfer to our general ledger where we have to accumulate all of the financial data so we have to find a way to put it in and what we're trying to do is avoid the very tedious cumbersome timeconsuming effort of re-entering 20 payrolls so every by person is how it would have to be done and so we are in the process and tomorrow there's an an extensive meeting to find out if we can upload that into our system from the Harper so we try to come up with an electronic way to do that is that just so that's the backlog is has a bridge been built now so forward no so not only do we have the 20 pay periods in um in November but I mean in 2024 but we have to do it for 2025 as well so that it will be uploaded automatically okay and we continuing to use this Harper for payroll yes we'll be continuing to use that for the new future for the indefinite future so that that's a primary activity and then there are some other things related to payroll that you will see in the next so the one I just talked about is number three and you'll see some other things in four five um and six that have to do with payroll um I won't get into those specific weeds unless you want me to um why pardon me I I guess my one of my followup not necess followup question one of my open-ended questions is if it hasn't been completed are are we making significant progress on people's retirement contributions yes okay I can say with with some certainty that we are okay um and retirement contributions are are two ways one is the mtrs and the other is a 403b so the 403b would be equivalent to you know 401k and so there are contributions made not everyone has them but many teachers do and or many staff do and that's um being that's being done and it's being done at the Harper level so they're taking those deductions and then they are sending um the money that would go to the individual Fidelity or or whatever organization it is and and that's happening okay and mtrs did have a backlog and um I think as of today we're just about if not completely caught up in uh Hampshire Regional and um Chesterfield Goan um Southampton is is um we work with uh Jen day the the treasure collector and we had a large meeting yesterday with her staff and um ours to iron out who does what and I think we came to a mutual Accord as to it's a shared responsibility uh the central office team will be a little clearer in the information they provide for example there are some things that are non mtrs salary eligible and so we will just put non-eligible or non mtrs so that it's just easier payroll after payroll for people to see and we won't get into the trouble that we got into before so yes and Don if I if I may I think it's really important to say one of the things we're really trying to do is ensure that we're building relationships with the districts and that could part of the goals right but it's also part of what we need to do to move forward in a positive way after what has been so we're meeting with all the select boards we're meeting with um the treasurer collectors we're meeting with those people with whom we work uh and should be working collaboratively and we're establishing those relationships building trust and we just met yesterday um Scott was there and Jen was there and you know we're coming together to make sure that we do not repeat what has happened in the past okay yeah because there are some interdependencies where the where the town's um Financial staff does something and we do something and and there's some overlap and we're trying to get clarity around that so I've just started I wasn't clear about that to begin with and I I think that a lot there are a lot of new people um and there are some people who have who just they weren't clear to begin with either so we are clarifying that and I'm hoping you know I'm hoping that that's I feel that that'll work yeah and you know again I'm confident everything's going the right direction there's a few things that we can say okay all right I mean this account is overdrawn but this one is overstated and you know it's going to kind of work itself out and that's fine but when you impact people's paychecks oh I agree um you know the other qu again Harpers was supposed to solve this issue but you have to you have to load the initial load to start with on vacation time and sick time and guill time right and and you know some staff didn't know how to access their pay stops you know it's little things that we're going to do but and that's that will be showing forward yeah I think we I think we are showing forward progress or that there is forward progress there will always be you know a hiccup here or there and um one of our one of our staff has been has implemented with Harpers the automated time in attendance for uh the districts and I know some towns are are thinking about doing that gen said that they've they've been thinking about possibly doing that as well they just haven't done that yet but in implementing it there are often these little punch lists because this isn't quite working and that isn't quite working but we're aware of that and we're working through those things okay so um then uh the other item uh number seven is that at the fiscal year end the way accounts payable was handled wasn't handled quite correctly and so some of the at the towns the towns have this down it comes you have a c off date for purchases you um do encumbrances you say this is how much it needs to be charged to FY 24 that didn't happen um at the district level and so the 24 some of the 24 invoices were charged against the 25 budget and so we need to reverse that and we're working on that um so that's that's number seven um and then what I would say for uh then another very very large one uh in terms of time is number N9 and 10 so when you receive money into the district the you turn it over to the treasurer and the treasurer records it in his cash book and then what the treasurer's responsibility in the district is it's different than in the towns he just takes that money that he has recorded into his little spreadsheet which they call a cash book and reconciles that to the bank account so he knows what's in the bank he knows what he's deposited that all lines up once again we have to get that same information into the general ledger and that information last year wasn't input into the general ledger so we're going back and inputting all of that information into the general ledger that's what number eight what number nine is anything we've received we are um ensuring is recorded and then what we need to do is to leads us to number 10 which is reconcile what is in our district treasurers cash book to the general ledger so uh and then once the audit is complete and we've got all of the information into the 24 general ledger then we'll roll those balances over and then we'll prepare for the audit um that I don't have written down but I'll add that this is a living document and as we identify things I'll be adding to it so that's what's happening for that's what needs to happen for 24 and for 25 it is some similar some similar things um one of the things that we need to do the budgets were loaded at a macro level so like all teacher salaries was in is is a particular line and a number of teachers or principls have asked could you please put them in first grade second grade third grade how you know break them down for the high school it would be in by Department math history Etc um which is how they will manage their budget so we're in the process of trying to create that at that level which will help the principles uh look at their budget and manage that so um I guess I would just suffice it to say rather than droning on what I just said about 24 the same thing has to happen for 25 um a very large um project is the grant reconciliations uh we have somebody uh that veto has brought on brought on board to help us with some of that forensic work he's looking back to 2019 um and we are looking at what the balances are because not all of the balances are recorded or straightened out so there's a lot of forensic and and look back but uh we are we've identified that and we have identified resources to try to help us with that and and if I could piggy back I think you know Don she's been very humble throughout this but she's done a great job in the week she's been here to identify these items and that list un fortunately has grown M but we've assigned resources to address it and the next step as we work with the state because we have met with Jay Sullivan and his team twice now we have monthly meetings moving forward is to develop a timeline and kind of a triage method for those items so that we can again fix them and start checking them off the list have created protocols so that we never go back there again and we're able to move forward in a positive way so that's really this is and we are sharing this with each select board and each each Treasurer and we are being 100% transparent so people understand where we are the realities of what we need to do specifically and then the triage of how we're going to get it done and do you still feel that uh based on everything you know right now you have adequate resources based I would say we have adequate resources based on the the work that was done by you in the uh the last budget cycle to assign a pot of money to to find resources so Carrie Sheen we brought on board we have the accountant that's been working she's our longest tenured employee right that's a contractor from February um we brought another uh accountant that is part-time to work on things so yes however the next phase as you said is 26 budget we have to look at a real um uh confident assessment of Staffing and what what that looks like moving forward and the Auditors have given us a an initial their initial opinion on Staffing levels and so we have not made any decisions about that they haven't come here to talk with us yet but um we are that's something that we're evaluating and that was again one of the things that we are trying not to do is make assumptions I feel like assumptions have been made in the past and that has gotten us into trouble I I will I refuse to make any assumptions I am not going to assume that you as a a a the chair of the Southampton committee saw the treasur reports so I shared them with you for the last five years I did the same with all the other chairs I want to make sure everybody has the information they need so that they can support and give us feedback and input on the work we're doing and the direction we're going okay um then I think the other thing that's important is this the required state and federal reporting we talked about mtrs reporting and we're moving forward nicely on that backlog the other thing is there are endof year reports I don't know if if the school committee ever sees those reports but there are endof year reports that are required um for each of the five um schools and they're due by September 30th they're all about the financials they have to be put in a certain way and then the state uses them to analyze uh the expenses of of the um schools we there's no way we can do the September thir meet that deadline that deadline's passed but we did meet with Desi and got an extension so our extension is till February 1 if we can get it done beforehand we will because they would love to see it by the end of the year we would love to have it done by the end of the year in order to do that report which probably just putting the numbers in itself will take 3 weeks anyway um or longer but we don't have the information in our system yet to be able to extract so that information has to get in the system and then we can do the reporting the one that um the one that I know everybody is familiar with is end that end certification is also dependent on all of that information being put into the system and um we need to see where that you know where that ends up uh we can't do it until the until that information is in so both both end of year and both and uh e and D certification extensions are out till February 1st um no the end of the year report is February 1 and I'm not certain what the situation is with end we spoke to desie about it and they said um we understand we think it's going to go February 1 but we're going you need to talk to do is that your understanding correct yeah so we have to talk to the do and I have calls into them and I'm waiting to hear back from them um initially when I contacted them because I contacted them right away when I could see that the information wasn't in there the person I spoke with um said said oh well that's you need to talk to desie about that so when I spoke to Jay Sullivan he said okay actually you got to go talk to do so I'll get to the bottom of it um but that's that's a really important one so even if we don't have certification in the time frame that we would like we're going to have to work parallel paths with the budget and we're going to have to move forward with the budget side and then drop in the end as it's available so I'm hoping and planning that it's not going to hold up our budget cycle we will continue with it but um it's it's it will pop in at the end well transparency is right is is one of the is the end of your report the one that um deter has the busing information in the reimbursement calculation a separate report I think it is that one I'm not positive I'll check I'll check on that I think it is I would assume transport it is it's it's different schedules it's and you put in different information and it also includes the the transportation um oh now speaking of Transportation if the end of year report isn't in by a certain date what they will do is they will let's say you do a million dollars in transportation reimbursement that you'll still get your full million but instead of getting it in January and May you'll get it all in May it's a slap on the wrist and we're going to have to take that I guess we got some slaps coming I know I would say as far as cash flow goes I think it's been that way for the past couple years yeah I know so then the the next thing is just about budget development and we can talk further about that um but the the this is kind of boring maybe but the exciting thing is we have a assistant business administrator and he's starting November 1st so that's that's the real positive I'm I'm trying to cast this in a positive light we know what's wrong and now we just have to f fix it um fixing it is a huge Endeavor um and you're just going to go about it one step at a time and then of course there's the longer process improvements um trying to document things and get standard operating procedures in place and um the the one thing that I've seen that's that's a little scary is that there's so many single points of failure if the payroll person is out for a week payroll doesn't get run there's no cross trining um the same with accounts payable our accounts payable person while she is uh a cruise vacation she doesn't take it except for one day a week during the summer because she can't be gone for a week that's unacceptable and we're going to have to do something about that and and just I don't want to make an assumption here but under the 26 budget development there's going to be a will there be a concentrated effort to include building principles so that principl AB know their budgets absolutely okay yes yes one of the one of the key things um John that was my experience in the budget process when I was assistant and when I was inim was a transparency and a a process that was shared so the first thing that's going to happen is here's our process here's our timeline here are the stakeholders who are going to have feedback and input and these are the deliverables okay MH and then the last page of this report just shows what are current Staffing levels are um under this Finance business office team staff and then the additional support that we have throughout what I'm calling the forensic period so if you have any questions now or if you think of them later feel free to um to contact me i' be glad to answer them go ahead I just have one quick question on your your Staffing yes the um not to mention anybody by name who's not here but the employee that's listed as 6 are they point4 somewhere else in the district um no no that's a that's an excellent question John the um the employee so we had a payroll person and that person left that's a full-time 1 FTE y um this particular person has been um this person who's listed there has been cross trining and overseeing payroll for a long time and we wanted her to be there because as you had mentioned payroll is so critical we can't afford to have somebody new coming in and learning that however um she is a young mother and doesn't want to work full-time that's so so what we said is you can work 6 and we will find a point4 because the function itself requires a 1.0 FTE so we are on the hunt for that um and have had several applicants uh come through already so we're we're on the hunt and so we'll have the point four to complete that you're budgeted for 5.0 right now you're running at 4.6 that's correct d with that with that but then we've got all of these others the temporary that may run two or three years yes exactly exactly and that the Kyle landrio in there um the assistant business administrator it's he's just in italics because he hasn't started but he's planned to start um and he and one of the things I want to say about that in addition to what I was saying about the cross training um for several years I don't need to tell you this but for several years as you know the business there's been a lot of turnover in the business administrator for the business administrator and it's very hard to find them now not only for us but for for so many schools it's a very difficult position to fill and um so one of the things that I had spoken to veto about is the next person we hire we should try to work with them so that they could take over as business administrator if the business administrator left I'm not planning on leaving but the reality is who who knows there needs to be somebody there trained so in the event that somebody leaves they can step in and so we have found someone who is who has been a teacher for 18 years a math teacher who has um experience in extracurricular things that's Finance oriented and he would like to switch his to an administrative role and is um has agreed to get his license um so that he could be prepared to take over so that's that's um I think something of note okay okay uh oh no Dylan you had a question yeah U I think last time you were here we talked about fiscal year 23 still not being closed out is that still the case yes and that's but it has to be closed for the Auditors to come so so the Auditors will come and they'll say oh and they'll look at things and they may give us they will give us entry so that we can close those books and then we can roll those balances over into 24 um so we're not yeah yeah the time frame on that looking like well they're going to be here between mid November to late November into January so the Auditors are expected to fill in the gaps in the general ledger and the well maybe they wouldn't see it that way but I'm saying um they will look they will look over our financial statements that we will produce based on our review and then if they think there's uh gaps they'll give us some suggestions for and that's what I was talking about making reference to the audit reports and in the audit reports there are recommendations for specific actions and um other things so uh to your to your point though Dylan 23 is already late but the uh discussion we had in July with them was that they would be here in mid mid November to audit 23 and then they' come back in the spring for 24 and then it would get us on on a regular track yeah yeah yeah and I just want to make sure I understand this correctly because so my understanding is we really can't close out 24 until 23 is fully figured out because you have the rollover back that's correct we can't get actuals on 25 until we know what 24 is closed cuz we had to roll those balances over which also makes 26 challenging to plan because we're not sure what our actuals are for 25 until we get that I mean am I I'm afraid you understand it well yes and um but it's not as bad as it sounds in that the expenses are independent you know the balances like Grant balances and cash balances and different things that require a rollover um yes that's true but the expenses themselves just are pretty much year toe and so I think we can make we can still make progress on the budget um we will still make progress on 25 once those other things get into the general ledger we'll still be able to make progress and provide information in terms of where we are with the budget to actual but until those numbers get in there we it's it's I it's just so hard because principles want that they want to know where they are they've already been operating for a couple months so we're going to work hard to get it done as soon as possible yeah I think from U the committee point of view um we've been operating under the interpretation of of past individuals that if anything we're going to get more money meaning meaning we haven't drawn down the grants we haven't pulled in that cash but we've paid the bill right and the fact that you know they're always quick to say there's still cash in the bank yeah I couldn't verify that right now but I know so I guess what I would want to know is and um if it ever comes up where it suddenly becomes clear that there is a shortfall that you know we would know about that absolutely know and that's that that I can assure you because we are going to be transparent with everything the good and the Bad and the Ugly we will all three yeah you know there was an email that came about the user funds and we had spent it all I mean our the T as far as Norris goes the town record show we spent every penny of it but there was like a I don't know I mean it was a small number but I I was it was concerning to see all the other large numbers when that's come and gone yeah correct so yep did you yeah can I ask a couple questions see as I'm knew the whole budget thing um if you waved a magic wand today and all of the problems were solved and you were starting from square one and everything was fine do you think you have enough people working to continue on how this works like having to manually put things from one to another think so at this point but I told veto I felt I needed to withhold judgment because I need to really I I need to see what a normal situation is like but because of because of the Cross training everybody's job takes the all of the time so they don't have time to cross train so I I don't think so the other thing I told veto was I'm sorry to say it so definitively but I said record and on record go ahead I did say I wouldn't join I wouldn't sign the contract and I wouldn't stay without an accountant the reason we're in this mess is because unlike the towns the schools do not have an accountant and all of these entries have been messed up because there isn't somebody there isn't a trained accountant who knows the debits and credits the debits and credits this kind of an account takes a debit balance this kind of account takes a credit balance and things have been put in backwards and it's just I think that the business administrator um in the long past maybe had was an accountant but they're very hard to come by as as evidenced by the do themselves who can't find enough accountants and has partnered with I think I can't remember if it's it's a community colleges to create a municipal accounting curriculum so that there'll be more people trained who can then come into municipalities municipal accounting is very different than corporate accounting um so in private accounting so we need an accountant um the Auditors have indicated that as well and so I feel it's like um this is Coming Attractions it's a little too early to say definitively yes or no but I would say if you asked me and I had to go on record I would say no there needs to be some cross training and there needs to be an accounting person but if that magic wand got waved I would suggest this that um our our Administrative Assistant staff would be cross trained we would um ensure that there's a patch that um does the export import or yeah export import between those systems that we need done and that we would then be able to develop a story and the the rationale to to uh support um a business office staff that includes an accountant in some capacity yeah and and Harper has the ability to a bridge with what's called You're word going to be my other question is is there a definite way that the payroll company we're using can get the information from one to where we need it to be so there's not this continuous need to manually there is and we're we're doing parallel paths we believe that there is we have to talk with them we have to talk with the our infin vision system and Harpers so that they so Harpers knows what what format they need to put things in we believe that that's going to happen if it doesn't we still have to get this in right so besides manual entry um we have veto has identified someone who J whom J Sullivan knows well and respects highly um who could come in and do that an IT person um that wouldn't be our first choice at this point because we have a system and Harper should must this regularly it's just we had to get connected with with the person who does that implementation the accounts that you want to have and you know it's they basically build it to your based on our specifications so we're developing those specs and working with both organizations to do that so I do think that bridge will happen Okay and hopefully sooner than later I just don't know how long it's going to take to do that but Jen if you can bust out the wand I'm all in I really wish I could yeah thank you Don thank you sorry on that I know last time we talked to again I understand it's been 5 weeks I'm not expecting Miracles here but I would love to see projected timelines for these things to happen of dates that way I'm not trying to hold people's feet to the fire but I feel like if you know with the number of issues we've kind of covered covered I understand everything's press I understand everything is you know important right I mean there's not you can't make a list of this is the most important thing and then down this is the least important thing right because keeping the keeping the ship afloat is important as well as fixing all the past problems so I think a time frame or timeline would at least allow us to create some sort of priorities on that and that way if you also come to it and say we're not going to be able to meet these here's a specific request we need to be able to make this goal happen by this date I'm hoping we can event we can try to find resources and figure a way to make that happen cuzz right I mean the way I read all this and you know I've been following this for years now is you you say well I got to fix this well but then we got to fix that but first we have to fix this and it becomes almost overwhelming but the amount of stuff that needs to happen simultaneously so I think if we can break it down get timelines expected completion dates and then if it's not going to hit those figure out why we're not going to hit those and what can we do to make sure that we do I yeah and I just say along along those lines whatever document that is from the town's point of view um the distribution list right would be the Town Administrator the chair of Finance the chair of the select board y you know so again cuz those are the two big Outsiders within our group that if if at least if they're seeing this on a monthly or quarterly basis I don't think it needs to be weekly but you know here's the update here's where this is we discover they see it and it doesn't all come out at budget time yes and then they're sitting there like what mean there's a problem I thought this was all set right okay and that to your point and that's what I meant when I was referring to that before the triage and Jay Sullivan said the exact same thing Dylan that you said as you work forward please develop a timeline and attach it to these items and we what's the bleeder we get that first what's the parallel track what's the timeline what are the resources we need to bring to bear do we need anything else so to your point I will produce that timeline I think by don't even give it you're working on the timeline as soon as possible looking for dat as soon as this allows us to direct resources to you so age I appreciate that so I I will get that and then it'll be my best estimate at this point and then and then we can talk about it as we go forward yep perfect great thank you so much thank you hope to see you at your 90-day evaluation you're 5 weeks in hope to see you at your 90day evaluation she hasn't Run for the hills yet all right new business uh any other business I cannot wait until until our next regularly scheduled meeting no okay ongoing business Title 9 policy update second read ac- ACA and acab John I don't think you were here last time but I think we just to be remember correctly we discussed this these were developed within central office in cons consultation with Council and with the masc guidelines to update these policies to be in Conformity with the current laws correction and and I would just restate that a little a little bit differently I would say masc and our Council provided them initially they were reconciled by District Council to develop these which reflect some of the masc and our council's determination on what is best suited for the districts so that's what's in front of you then it came to us and we brought it to each of the Committees for first and second reads okay so the Southampton school committee is this body what is the Southampton School District what is the Southampton School District what is that is that not a is that not a thing is it intent to be Norse so if you go on to if you do go to Desi and you look up there is no William Norris it is William Norris is under the Southampton School District okay just so you know so for as far as you go to I believe under Desi we are categorized when you get for all the data reporting we are the through District correct okay because my understanding of the organization is that there's five districts that include yeah I just I yeah never but it's actually consistent with how Department of Education labels o yeah as long as somewhere in there I mean yeah it's fine right you would see Westfield then you would see Southampton which is Norris we aren't named as a school because we're considered I think Southampton Road school is under Southampton Road school would be under the Westfield School District correct but when you look it up on the accountability reports your choice yeah if that's what you were saying do you know what I mean but but the the again this was provided by Kimberly um so what I could say is we could quite simply put Norris no I so I think of Norris not as a district but is a department of the town that falls under the town understood so that but yet the school committee has independent Authority from the so we school committee could adopt a policy that is in conflict with Town policy and still be okay with it I may have said that as a question but that was really a statement okay so I'm just saying so just just by example if we didn't regionalize and we decided to build our own high school yes I didn't say it I'm all for it um and you know that would fall within the Southampton School District which would be consistent with the way these policies are written because guess how's hoyo on the Desi site it's not the city of Hoy school department it's school hoyo just the hoyo district look it up right I believe you never heard that the district's labeling I just think that it's something I think that is a legal thing that's of coming I get what you're saying as far as like that part of it but I would assume if it came from our Council that well yeah but that wording would be correct but that same Council a previous member of that same Council firm said that when we all gathered in Williamsburg in the library one snowy morning and voted to absolve the the superintendent Union we're good four years later I'm told that vote doesn't count technically that Union still exists okay lawyers are like Consultants hey they tell you they tell you what you pay them to tell you easy but that's it's more of a question I mean I'm I'm not opposed to anything that's in here okay so um um what does the committee want to do I vote that we adopt policies ac- R ACA and acab as policies of the Southampton school district and Southampton school committee and effective as of today's date effective as of October 9th 2024 is there a second a second motion made second discussion hearing none all in favor I opposed so moved security upgrade updates yeah so we had um the people in again this week I said last month it was 90% done maybe I should have said it was 80 and maybe now we're 90 um they did install a new intercom system when you come to the front door so when you come to the front door and you hit the button we have a monitor in the office that shows your face yeah and we can talk to you and the um it's not as it's it's more crisp now and you can actually I heard a new bell today when someone pressed it yeah some like a ring door bell yeah yes yeah it's great and then there's also one in the custodial office so that when a vendor comes or supplier comes they can see who it is when they ring the bell before they let anybody in before they open the door which is great we're going to get a price to see if I can get one in my office and one in the vice principal's office because as many times after school we're there alone or if people are at lunch or whatever just to have one in my office so I can see who's at the door as well would probably be good um the contact just on that is it possible to have uh access via a cell phone we will so but for your purposes could you then you get the alert on your phone you could just tap I'll ask them and if that's the case then I might not need one but if I'm in my office after School in a meeting and nobody's in the main office if I had the monitor I could see who as soon as the bell rings I could see who it is and I can remotely allow them to come in say it's a PTO member they're setting up for the big sale instead of having and I mean not that I'm lazy but instead of having to tell my meeting people I'll be right back I have to go answer the door and go into the office and see who it is you know so that would be good um but if if it's something that I can see on my phone I think that would be great I'm not I don't know about that but as for the phones we will have access certain people will have access to be able to um alarm disarm yep set things we'll have a separate alarm code setting for the gym area for the weekends if we're only using the gym but the cafeteria will be part of the whole alarm system for the school so the the badge cards or the key cards that currently are issued to staff are those individually tracked meaning one 123 is assigned to Mr Smith and 124 so I would you follow a similar process so you could identify who armed the building or disarm the building remotely by the we'll be able to tell okay and do we currently have or are we looking to get uh remote access to the cameras we have well right now the alarm company does have remote access to the cameras I think that the people that have the app on their phone will have remote access to the ceras so not not is this going back to the police station ultimately yes so say the alarm goes off and it's 11:00 at night yep nobody's in the building I'm home the custodian's home yep the police respond Y and say there's nobody in the building and I can also see that there was nobody or whatever I can reset the alarm from my phone but I can also see that the building is clear I get that piece because it's probably similar to alarm.com right so I have the same feature on might so like if one of our buildings the alarm goes off you know I can enter go into the alarm system and I can see how long it's been since each sensor has been triggered right so often I get it at 9:30 at night if the alarm hasn't been turned on I get an alert and it's because the custodian left at 7:00 and has now been gone for 2 and a half hours so then I just turned the building on right but there's a separate app okay outside of that that I can log into only certain people have access that you can then pull up all the cameras okay and see that so do you have the I don't know we should see if we have the ability to do that cuz a I think you as the building principal should have that and secondly I still think one of the intents of the original security upgrade was that under the in the event of an emergency that dispatch has the ability to turn on the cameras I believe right what I was told was they won't be monitored all day all day all day whatever but they will have access to it but I will verify that cuz you think about it the middle of the night 1:00 in the morning the alarms are going off you know and there's a car coming and this is Southampton there's only going to be two cars on after hours and they split up the town separately and Norris is in the middle so there's almost never going to be a car close by if dispatch can look and if they can say yeah there hey there's somebody somebody just bolted out the back door that would work cuz we're never going to have anything worse than that but but sorry last point on that is I think there should be school committee sets policy right and administration enforces absolutely but I think we should have a discussion at some point probably through executive session on security protocols who school committee should know and vote to say who has the ability to have those access rights right um and or delegate because you know I I don't see the need for every single employee at Norris to have the full access correct I do I do see key people um and possibly there's additional authorizations or commitment letters that are signed understanding that you're taking on this additional responsibility so go ahead I cut you off enough now sorry no I was just curious so when you only have access to look at the cameras like on your app if the alarm goes off or you can pull them up at any time like right now you could look and say oh yep no one's in there I think I would be able to pull them up on my computer at any time I don't really want to have it on my personal phone well no I'm just saying in general I didn't know if it was like the way you were asking I didn't know that was that was the agreement that the verbal exchange we have with the police chief that only the police chief would have the code and only he would have to enter his code or give his code and it would only happen under certain circumstances okay because there was push back's the wrong word there was hesitation at some point that the police would just constantly be watching the schools so our our chief said what's the hesitation huh what would be the hesitation at the police constantly having privacy concerns I think yeah children I mean you know okay never mind it's been for an emergency purpose and and you know Chief illingworth said that that would you know he was fine with having those restrictions where it had to be a supervisor and they log it and if they had their own code we could run monthly reports if need be say okay well we didn't have any calls for service at school but it looks like you accessed the system 17 times and here's when it happened and and really there's no expectation of privacy in those common areas in the schools especially after hours when no one's supposed to be in there so I I I I understand why people would have hesitation I understand having a policy that articulates who are those that are it makes perfect sense to me and are the blue lights are up and running now the blue lights are up they are working if I hit them the question is are they working will they go to the police department that is still a question that they could not answer for me today okay um and if you haven't done I don't think I've seen it but when they are up and running we should send out some sort of communication similar to what Lauren does I will yeah and actually I did notice in the minutes after you voted on them last month's minutes said that the parents had been notified they have not been they will be notified so we should so we'll amend our minutes we should yes go back to our vote on the minutes sorry we're going to amend them instead of saying that parents have been notified they will be notified shortly it's under security upgrade the lockdown lights have been tested and parents have been informed parents will be Beed will be i w I won't be informing them until I know exactly right and that's what you said yeah yeah yep okay thank you no problem anything else I have I have have a question sure or a statement we're pretty informal okay not respectful um one thing I wanted to mention uh is that the procurement laws still of course are in forced and for school they there's different thresholds but there's been some confusion about prevailing wage and prevailing wage has no thresholds from so from dollar one um you need to be paying prevailing wage um when any work is done in a municipal building a school Etc so we just want to make sure that that's happening okay and so it should be written on the quote when you're asking for a service right and so let's say you have you have a new project that you're going to be engaging in you would call me I would you have to submit a request each time you have a project and to the Department of Labor and um the Department of Labor sends sends so I fill out the form and then they send it back and say these are the prevailing wages for that particular project that you're doing and then I would give that to you you would then issue that to each of your vendors who biding on a job regardless of the amount of money that you're pay regardless of and I would suggest in in line with the protocols and processes that we're putting in place that will be one of them that are going to be communicated to all the principles yes and and I need to do that okay but say southampton's Department doesn't it falls under the town yes procurement laws not the district and I think the the big difference is the dollar amount the dollar amount for for for school you have up to $100,000 Regional districts do but I think the the municipality is 50,000 for Yes except for if it's a school even if it's part of the municipality it can go up to 100,000 before you have to do a formal okay I mean you you have to use best business practices M um and then um but but a school even if it's a part of a municipality um and I'll verify that but that's my understanding that that threshold is different it's 50,000 for a municipality but it's 100 anything over 100,000 need a formal right yeah and not the past year or two but prior to that Alisa where who did your procurement was it central office or was it Town Hall central office okay so but that's a good point because it's always confusing because it is part of the it is part of the municipality but because there's a school component to it yeah I would I would suggest this again uh I don't want to make any assumptions about any of this without confirming it so let's confirm and then yeah exactly Scot and just say square away on this absolutely and then communicate to the principles yeah I I was just going to add that if it was something that when I say central office did it I'd say central office did it when it was we were spending money from our budget but if it was something like Capital Improvement that was $28,000 it went more towards right yeah so I would agree with that if it's if it's within the budget and you're operating there then no problem because the funds are committed but if it's due to an override or if it's coming out of cap other another source that hasn't been committed that I would think we'd defer to the town right and that's the practice that we Ed in West Springfield that if it was a capital project um maintenance or um the the city Side would be operating on procurement yes okay that's good to know I'll just check y SC SC I think I I'll give you an answer but it's it's not going to be worth the paper written on but uh anything else Mo all right MO journ is made is there a second there is no discussion all in favor I oppose meeting adjourned at 720 thank you thank you e