##VIDEO ID:yE_IaeFyknI## okay all right good evening welcome everyone I call the meeting to order if you could please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God with liy and jce for all oh say can you see by the dawn early light what so proudly we held at the Twilight last gleaming who's brought stripes and bright stars through the perous fight or the real parts we watch were so gently streaming and the rocket red glare the bombs bursting in a gave prove through the night that that our flag was still there oh say does that star spangled then I yet wave or the land of the free and the home of the brave Mr enus will lead the invocation Lord as we begin this session let us acknowledge your goodness and mercy and ask for your blessings on all the deliberations we thank you for this opportunity to be service to our community to the young people in trust in not care amen thank you roll call please Mr enus Miss Lura present Miss Santos pres Dr Dello pres pres Miss shavs pres Madame mayor president miss is presid okay thank you uh approval of the minutes of July 17th 2024 motion to approve as read and date of July 17th second Motion in second to approve all those in favor I opposed none opposed so voted now we have the student advisory committee report and Isaiah Wendell is good enough to be here in the summer with us thank you Isaiah thank you as Marl Connell said my name is Isaiah Wendell and I am part of the student Taunton High School student advisory committee as we gear up for the 2024 2025 school year here's a look at the developments of the summer and what we look and what we look for as the As We Begin the school year summer school completion we are thrilled to announce that 137 students successfully completed summer school this year congratulations to all the hardworking students who dedicated their time and effort to their studies new furniture we're excited to announce that both the main lobby and the library will have new furniture at the beginning of September this will create a more comfortable and inviting environment for all staff and students patio Renovations the patio outside the tiger Cafe is still undergoing Renovations and I saw it the other day and it looks great so far I'm excited to see it finished and see everyone enjoying the new space fitness center and wait room our campus remains active throughout the summer with students continuously using the fitness center and wait room it is great to see many students on on the campus and staying fit and healthy during the summer break meet and greet with Dr Harrison Taunton High School principal will be holding a meet and greet for parents and Guardians in the Taunton High School cafeteria on August 22nd from 8:00 a.m. to 8:45 and on August 26th from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 this is a fantastic opportunity to connect with our principal and discuss the upcoming school year eighth grade orientation eighth grade or um we are excited to welcome our upcoming eth graders with a student orientation on August 23rd from 12:00 p.m. to 4 p.m. this year the orientation will be run by upper classmen both seniors and juniors who have been trained through the our new program called link crew additionally there will be an orientation for parents and Guardians for of our eighth graders on August 22nd from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. student schedules student schedules are in the process of being finalized and are expected to be released the week of August 19th they will be available for viewing on school brains or Parent Portal we look forward to seeing everyone soon and starting the new school year on a high note that concludes my report thank you okay thank you Isaiah uh thank you for keeping us updated it's good to hear that students are still connected throughout the summer um and if there are no comments we will just move on to item D which is public input is there any public input this evening no public input uh item e is school choice and Charter updates thank you madam superintendent as has become customary I have assistant superintendent Brenda moan and director of student services Stephanie Hoy here to provide you with an update or our annual presentation on school choice and Charter so I think you'll learn that we have made some strides by implementing some new programs that the school committee has approved and we now have a tool that Mrs boan will discuss towards the end of the presentation where we can more accurately monitor the fiscal impact that school choice and Charter has on the on the Taunton Public Schools but without further Ado I'll turn things over to Stephanie and Brenda thank you for being with us this evening thank you good evening and um as superintendent cabal stated we're here to discuss your annual school choice en Charter update so just starting off with some brief facts about school choice I won't Bore You by reading it but I'll highlight some of the areas so school choice is gives family options gives family options across the state to basically have their child attend a school outside their town or their city so this past year 185 districts across the state were considered receiving school choice districts 3177 were sending districts so 300 School 3177 school districts sent students to receiving districts um overall little over 177,000 students participated in the school choice program out of the 177,000 4,000 participated by attending a virtual Commonwealth virtual school so the Commonwealth has two virtual schools they have tekka and they have a greater Commonwealth virtual school so 4,000 students across the state participated in attending those two virtual schools so this basically demonstrates the trend and and this is um something you've all seen before for those of you who've seen this presentation in the past it comes right from the desie website and it just demonstrates the trend over the years and it highlights time so you will see receiving and sending Trends this particular slide also highlights all the districts in our that basically accepts school choice um assistant superintendent waran will go into the finances for you a little bit on this slide you'll see that adelar no longer accepts school choice but all students that were in adelar prior to that are grandfathered in so they still have students of ours um or and of course we can receive students from adelar but all students that were school choice before they stopped the school choice process have been grandfathered in so also on this slide you will see the last two columns where you will see the Chapter 70 funding increase from FY 23 to fy2 24 so that's that amount of money that remember how we always get our monies each year from um the state usually as you will see the bigger districts will have or the districts that have um more of a need will have a higher increase in Chapter 70 funding so as you will see there with Taunton we had over $10 million increase and then a smaller District like a um a Norton or another smaller District a Dartmouth as well you'll see they only increase Dartmouth of 198,000 and then Norton of 131,000 so where do they make their money they make their money by school choice and that's that last column so how much money these districts received through school choice Taunton and FY 24 we've received over 600 $600,000 in school choice revenue and then looking at those last those two smaller districts that I referred to before Dartmouth received 742 th000 and again look how much of a difference that is with their Chapter 70 increase to their ch um to their school choice that is why a smaller District where you have a higher tax revenue um wealth income as well they will receive less money that $60 per student in difference than what we would be in a um in an urban District again smaller district will make more of their money through school choice than Chapter 70 and this slide just gives you kind of a rough idea and also comes right from the Department uh our desie website so it's it's as accurate as of March first because that was the last time that we actually sent this data to the state we just recently certified but the state doesn't have those actual numbers from the summer um so this gives you a glimpse of the receiving and send in tuition from not only our our district but neighboring towns so school choice revenue and I'm hoping that this um the color codes will help you a little bit and then the example so right now in front of you you'll see that students who choose who choose school choice out of the district do count towards the Chapter 70 foundational budget so again students who school choice out of the district re do count towards our Chapter 70 budget students who school choice into the district a student coming from Berkeley from Dion re HTH do not count towards the Chapter 70 foundational budget they give us our school choice money but again I'm hoping the next few slides will help sending districts retain roughly 2third of the per pupil Chapter 70 funds and you'll see that again in the next slide here's an example and this is not going this is going to be a fictitious um School Bayside High so the first one again please notice the color codes I'm hoping the Reds you'll see how the numbers are and what it means so if we're saying the number of leaving students times tuition so the average tuition of school choice is at about $5,900 because of course remember depending upon the level of services a student receives it will go ahead and increase or be at that round about 5,000 so we average it about 5900 so again we'll say about 100 students are leaving Bayside High and times that about 5900 that calculates to be $590,000 in sending tuition so the number of students receiving coming to Bayside High is about an average of 5900 so those 50 students times 5900 is $295,000 so again now let's look at it a little different ly so the number of students leaving students times the Chapter 70 per pupil for taunt for Bayside excuse me 16,27 to minus the sending tuition so remember we get money from the student for Chapter 70 but we also have to minus the tuition the sending tuition so what does that mean retained Chapter 70 so if we'd had that hund and that 100 students those top ones there the hundred students times the average Chapter 70 which is 16,27 to minus that tuition that we have to pay to send those students out of Basi high that will equal 1 Point a little over a million dollars so in other words if you take that retained Chapter 70 that number though over that million dollars plus the school choice income those students coming into Bayside that 295,000 Bayside District will go ahead and get for CH school choice Revenue $1.3 million so let's take that that example and put it into ta and Public Schools numbers so the number of leaving students at TA and public schools we have about 268 students leaving Taun and choosing other districts so you take that and take that by 5,900 so that sending money going to other districts is $1.9 million so then the number of receiving students numbers coming to Taunton from other districts times that average tuition of $5,900 we will take for school choice revenue or income is $619,000 so then you take the number of leaving students again the students choosing out times that Chapter 70 because remember even though the students are leaving we still get some monies from them that CH that um foundational budget 16,27 to minus the sending tuition again that sending tuition the money that we're paying out for kids to go out equals that retained Chapter 70 so we're making some money so we're taking that so 268 students that are leaving times 16,000 um time 16,000 272 that foundational budget minus the $1.9 million of sending tuition that t means we are saving or retained Chapter 70 money of $2.5 million so that means for Revenue we retained money money for Chapter 70 again the amount of money that we have then the school choice income for those students coming in choosing taunt you take those two numbers we have a a combined school choice revenue of over 3.1 just about $3.1 million so you may wonder where our students are going and this will give you a kind of a rough idea of where our students do go coming from Taunton those residents in Taunton you'll notice that there are a couple communities who have the bulk of our students I'll speak to one of the communities a little bit later in my presentation I do want to highlight one positive area that I'll also speak to a little bit later but since all of you have approved the virtual school um in Taun and what we've noticed is a decline in how many students are actually leaving us to go virtual so kudos to principal Rodriguez and all of you for having that happen because that is one area that we have definitely seen uh some rides in so um again I'll speak to some of the communities a little bit later in the slide but this will give you a little bit of a snapshot to where our students are going and our next slide is where they're coming from so again a bit of a snapshot of where they are coming from these are the towns and the area cities that we are uh receiving school choice applications for and this is a rough estimate of where students are coming from so the next we want to discuss Charter Schools charter schools are our independent public schools that are given a five-year Charter by the state and later in our presentation um Su assistant superintendent morning Han will discuss a little bit about what that Finance looks like here are the area chart of schools that our students are going to that will give you a break to down it also gives you the past couple of years so that you can actually compare so again let's talk about Charter School Revenue so the FY 24 Charter tuition reimbursements and that's on our Cherry sheets the mass Cherry sheets where we get that that figure and please know that Charter School reimbursements not always just coming out all at once a charter school reimbursement is over a period of time in percentages so 143 students chose to go to charter schools taau in students so again how does this happen so we're going to try to go ahead and as superintendent cabal did mention earlier um about some type of a tool to utilize so here what we're trying to say is we're closing the Gap and we're going to use some of the numbers that were previously um presented so the assessments three things for the assessments school choice sending tuition so we're sending tuition of $1.9 million Charter School sending tuition $2.4 million so when you do that sub total a plus b equals c okay so again that is going to be about those two numbers equal about 4.3 million so then we take that Revenue the revenue that we're getting is that retained Chapter 70 funding remember for the money that we keep when kids are leaving the district that's about $2.5 million the income of school choice tuition for those students choosing to come to toen it's about $620,000 the tuition chapter um the charter school reimbursement that I had stated previously is about $340,000 those three figures will equal about $3.4 million so I'm hoping you can understand now we're taking the assessment part C which is $4.3 million minus the revenue of $3.4 million the difference is $89,000 so we think sometimes that oh my goodness we're sending kids out yes but we are still having Revenue stay here either by of course having kids coming to Taun in public schools for school choice or for those students that are leaving but that we do retain some of the Chapter 70 Foundation budget so one of the biggest questions we always ask is why um why families come here and why do families choose school choice in other districts so families we we talk to a lot of our school choice parents some parents that do enroll in the school choice program we don't even see or know because they do it right at kindergarten so we wouldn't even have their names they've never been taught public school students so when we discuss with parents these are some of the reason why they do why they they choose Taun so a lot of it's work related some of it's because they they them themselves were taunt public school students and now they might live in a neighboring town so they want their student to their child to have the same experiences um we also talk a lot about our Athletics so there is we are so competitive and there are plenty of our athletes that have decided to do enroll in school choice program in order to come play a little more competitively one of the things that I want to bring up before we hit this slide is that so there's one particular community that neighbors us that seems to um receive many of our students when it comes to the school choice program so we don't necessarily have those names available to us the children that attend so we did a little digging and I was able to go into some of the students and compare them to where they left us or have we ever seen them so what I found was um many of the students that leave us to that particular Community are leaving us before they've even stepped foot into taunt Public Schools so they're leaving at the elementary level they're starting kindergarten there so these are students that we have never had the opportunity to meet these are students and families that we've have never had the opportunity to speak to um and then it seems that once they're in they stay in until we get closer to the high school so there are families out there that choose to to not send their child to an urban high school and they look at other choices around their neighboring towns and that's that's where the other bul goes so looking at that particular Community it does seem that we have some work to do because we've always concentrated on how how we can Market especially our high school because it offers so much and I know Isaiah would be the first person to say that but we haven't really thought a lot about what about the students that we have never even had an opportunity to meet or the families and of course this becomes generational if I have two and I've chosen to send one outside of Taunton then more than likely I'm going to send the second child out of Taunton so that is something that was enlightening I think for me and and even for some people I spoke to about that today so moving forward that is definitely work that we're going to need to do it's not just reaching out to those families and students that are within our community already enrolled in TPS but how do you engage the families that don't know us and have not been enrolled in TPS to to start with us and stay with us um a couple things I'm really proud of so this doesn't differ a lot from last year and I'll be the first one to admit that and the reason for that is because this work is ongoing I will say that last year our middle schools started an opportunity with many clinics that were sports related in our high school students were running these clinics so some of you might have gone to the middle school wrestling match over at Parker the amount of kids that participated from the Middle School was enormous and they had all high school kid coaches coaching them to wrestle we did the same thing with soccer basketball has always been kind of a staple we've had basketball over time we're looking to continue to enrich that because our hope obviously starting last year is that as we increase the opportunity for m midd School opportunities to engage with our high schoolers that they are going to want to go to high school they have a person right they have they they have that sense of belonging because they have met that older person in that particular sport that they can connect to connect to so I feel very proud in saying that our former athletic director did a wonderful job starting to build that that up and I have no doubt that Mr Dy will continue that tradition and and already looking at other opportunities in sports uh we have started to reach out to different commun communities uh Community Resources and agencies to do some community events within the city just to make sure that people see Taun public school not only as you know the school system but also a place where you belong a place where your family wants to be so those um talks are happening now and we're hoping as the year goes on that we'll have a calendar of events that we will be participating in to really welcome new families into Taun Public Schools so that they see us more than just a school district and I think that might conclude our yes it concludes our presentation thank you excellent thank you both very much I will uh open it up to the members if they have any questions or comments Mr Laura and then m m Santos you saying uh M Hy about students that never come into our system but parents who've had other children that go to another school system no so I was trying to make the difference so the reason there's there's two slides there that we talked about one is why do why do parents choose ta as a school district so parents that might live in a community neighboring us and they may like I really want to join the school choice program in taau and some of the reasons they do that and our polling parents some of them are because they them too were TPS students but now may not live in Taunton so they are now applying for school choice so that their child can come um so the other point that I was making was when we looked at the numbers of of kids that are leaving us in a particular School District that neighbors us when we looked deeper we found that there were many many students whose parents and whose student they live here they're residents of taon however they have never given us the opportunity they have automatically applied for school choice outside the district and so that requires more reach from the school department here to try to bring them back to I think it means in my eyes I feel like that just means that we need to Market ourselves more right from that Elementary level I think lots of times we concentrate on the older grades particularly the high school however I think we need to start doing that work so much earlier so we need to start you know with our prek programs now expanding um uh director morning Hann and I working on a particular Grant right now to continue to expand our prek and then being able to really Market that those are the opportunities that we're going to need to pull these families in that may not know what our resour resources are and choose to go elsewhere for whatever reason so it's it became very apparent to us as we dug deeper that the concentration isn't just at the older level but it's also at that prek level to let families know everything that we have to offer so they're not choosing to do school choice beyond our town or city thank you you're welcome Miss Santos um just a couple of math questions that would be her because just I Tried reading this a couple of times before I came and it just like so I just wanted just clarify so we don't lose any money with school choice if you want to say it overall with school choice I mean there's we always lose money when you send some kids so we Lo if you're looking at the whole Chapter 70 right um we are retaining some money because part of the the um 16,000 whatever we are the 16, 272 for the foundation budget we go ahead and get that amount per student but then you minus that $5,900 per student so that's about you know just under it's just over $11,000 still stays in the district and then the remaining around 5900 goes with the student to that sending District if I could if I could if I could just add to um the 5900 that's the minimum that a town will receive for school choice it does fluctuate depending on if the child is a multilingual learner if the child has an ed individual education plan then it could be more than 5900 because there are assessments that I added the numbers that we used were the um this the averages the minimum that you're going to rece it doesn't indicate that $5,900 doesn't indicate the fluctuation that you'll see depending on the needs of the student right okay but just so that 2.5 million here and the one 3.1 million those are that's revenue for the district correct okay I just want absolutely um in which harder schools we lose money right we do lose money but we're also making some money as well because I just saw that the state then deducts the same amount from the sending State account desend District besides the school district that means that we lose some of the state correct because of the student choosing to or the parents choosing to go to a charter school yes okay all right and so just the other things and and and you kind of spoke to this is there any way to get information as far as why people I know you say a lot of them start out right from the beginning are those people completely Anonymous to us or is there a way to try to gather some data as to why people are choosing outside of so they are pretty Anonymous there is so today there's a way to dig through desie it just takes a little time um we don't have them in our student information system they don't exist in our student information system so these aren't families at all that we would have any contact information with so it it does like I could have a name but I don't necessarily have any contact information and the name I would have was a student name so today when I was when this week when I was cross referencing I was basically taking a name putting it into our student information system to see have you do they pop up have they ever been registered with us so those I could find the trends that way and there was like I said a a large number of students that had never even been registered with us and the last thing I just want to say um with the you know trying to sell Tau in high school this is really personal for me it's just kind of a funny story but most of my my sibling my older sibling my older cousins they all went to coil and I was supposed to go to that test and I skipped the test because I didn't want to go to coil and I went to toon High I was the only one out of most of my family that went to toon High most of the only one that got two college degrees none of them did so I was thinking I'm like can we look at success rates of Taun and high school students as well too like maybe graduation rates college completion rates and then that's something that could be used to sell the school as well too we can absolutely do that because all that data we have so that's a great suggestion thank you okay you're welcome Dr D thank you mayor um so celebrating my seventh years as of school Committee Member there are two things that I have most fearful of one is net School spending which I've overcome the inverted triangle Dr Coto rest his soul so I've overcome that but school choice presentation is the second greatest fear the reason is if you can go to slide three please so from FY y 21 to fy4 the Gap from 112 to 162 seems to be an issue or problem okay so we're sending more students out than we were taking in so fy21 112 then 121 then 127 the LA last one FY 24 is 162 so for me if I don't understand the financial piece it says well that's a big problem but if you should now go to page eight please it seems like we're making $3.1 million and we're not educating 163 students correct me if I'm wrong leaving students are 268 are leaving right but we're getting paid the full assessment for the district which is 16 and change and you're missing uh after that 167 272 the the summation is 4 , 3,896 then take away the 1.9 that's how you end up with the 2.5 so there's a little piece missing there no big deal what I'm saying is then you go to the next line you get the 2.5 million plus the 619 which is the 105 incoming students at 5900 we're making $3.1 million but we're not educating we don't need resources to educate aund and 63 students mean we don't need classrooms we don't need teachers I think we want to send more students out then we want to have in the classroom is that correct no no what am I reading wrong because for every student for every student who leaves the to Public Schools we're losing 5900 Plus instead of getting the full $1 6,272 right so every student who stays with us we get the full assessment of$ 6,272 so what what the what the state takes into account is that we still have to hire teachers we have buildings that we need to heat buildings that we need to make sure we have staff we have transportation cost so the state takes into account that that child resides in this community and the parent is making a choice to send their student elsewhere so because it's just the the portion of educating the student right the rest of the fees that go along with educating a child stay in the district that they're from okay uh again I'm going to excuse myself because I I I'm I'm very confused once again and this happens every year you can check the tapes when we do the school choice based on the example on page eight okay the way I'm reading it on the financial piece right we're making $3.1 million but we're only providing resources in a classroom bus transportation for 100 and uh we don't we're not providing School space teachers bus transportation for 133 students but we're still still making $3.1 million because it minimizes the Impact versus losing so I mean I I excuse me all I'm trying to say is it doesn't make any sense because if we send more students out we're actually making money because we don't need classrooms and teachers but if we sent those students out in the 16,000 follow those students well did not because we're keeping 11,000 but if it did so what the state has taken into account that if we lost 107 students or 268 students times 16,000 that would be detrimental to our school system so the state takes into account again the state takes into account the portion just to provide the education because if not then school systems we we would be decimated and you would see a lot of these smaller communities that surround those who only get $60 a kid $60 a student is their Chapter 70 increase you would see a heavy competition from these surrounding communities to really Target communities like taon to to ract more students because they would be getting 16,000 per student it's very similar think of it in terms of um like of of of Vocational School a vocational school that receives Taunton students when we lose that Taunton student that vocational school is getting the full ta assessment plus an additional $5,000 and we don't we do not receive or recoup any portion of that Chef for the $70 even though they live in our community so this is the state's way of minimizing the impact mhm but in the example just to conclude okay in the example on page eight that's right there FY 24 numbers that were presented 105 coming in 268 going out did we or did we not make $3.1 million will you leverage it yes or no answer superintendent no you need context matters okay context matters so when you com we retained 2.5 million in Chapter 70 yep we retained .5 million Chapter 70 because Taunton votes every year to be part of the school choice program we made 619 th000 so we retained 2.5 and we made 619 when you combine those two numbers together it minimizes the impact of losing $1.9 million and then when you factor in the charter piece which again for years we've heard concerns that we have $4.3 million leaving the community when in essence it's really 890,000 so I think there's something to be said about the fact that we've been aggressive with school choice we're putting systems in place taau and virtual prek to try to retain more families to minimize the impact of of losing students so instead of saying we have 4.3 or $4.4 million leaving the community because of the work we've done with retaining the Chapter 70 the incoming choice and the chart of reimbursement know that's almost $ three and A5 millionar so we're it's a it's a net loss of a million dollars which is again I don't want to lose a million dollars but it sure beats losing $4.4 million but but we're not losing 4.4 million we would be if we didn't have these programs in place understood right well I mean I I just doesn't make any sense doesn't make any sense how we could actually be making money sending students out of district and I'm glad we are uh I guess I wouldn't say I wouldn't say we're making money I would just that's that's not correct we're not making money money we're minimizing the impact of losing all those students if we did not retain some of that chap some that Chapter 70 refunding and I think it's important for the community to understand even though we're losing students we're still retaining about 2third of that Chapter 70 tuition okay thank you so much thank you Dr Deo uh Mrs shs thank you thank you for the presentations first time I've seen it in this format so I enjoyed the numbers and and yes and I like to the Cal so two things one is there a cap on how many students we will take so that's just based on our enrollment so that differs year to year so when a school choice application comes in the first thing I need to look at is the enrollment in the actual grade level that they're requesting if there's room in that grade level then we automatically accept the school choice application so depending year to year what our enrollment looks like in those particular grades are being requested would um would would base in the school thank you Brenda would make the decision for me whether I'm approving it or not one of the things that that was brought up with Melissa and you had brought up about is um the high school and how much um we um marketed the high school and I do think that what you said is important that I think we need to give that same attention to marketing the preschool because if we look at the eighth graders when it came over to the high school um we had a drop in um students leaving in ninth grade because once they got acclimated to the school and they got their friends and they got into activities when it came time for ninth grade we didn't see them necessarily leaving and going to other schools that were going 9 to 12 so I would think maybe similarly if we could mark it to really get those preschool kids in that they probably would have a sense of community and the parents wouldn't then leave and if we've got a lot of a lot families that we're not even seeing um I think we have to really look at how are we marketing the preschool you know especially in the coming years they come up to try to mitigate some of that and we would agree that's part of the work that we have so um director Amy Moran and I have been working diligently on a particular Grant with the state to increase the prek classrooms within our district so there'll be a lot more you'll hear about that and there'll be a lot more work around that as we pursue the Grant I think that's a great idea thanks just just this morning I had a meeting with Secretary of Education Patrick toiler and that was one of the topics that we discussed and with if and when we can expect the Chapter 70 formula to fully capture you know the full tuition that we would receive for our four year olds in the 4 Day program so again similar to chapter 74 programs this is an investment forward anticipating that by maybe 2026 2027 they you will see Universal pre for four yearolds okay if everybody's all set we thank you very much for the presentation than you okay next we have the superintendent's report superintendent Cal thank you Madame mayor so I'm very proud and honored to introduce our new Director of Human Resources Shannon Turner Shannon brings a wealth of experience in both human resource management and educational leadership to our district for over a decade Shannon has been instrumental has played an instrumental part in the education Community most recently serving as the assistant principal of Plymouth North High School so you have my report but I think it'd be more advantageous of us if we had an opportunity to hear from Shannon herself who's with us so Shannon again um just in the the the little over a week and a half that I've worked with Shannon uh I've noticed uh I've noticed a level of professionalism and seriousness as she has brought to the to the office and she like me she agrees that 21 vacancies is way too many and she's working very hard to minimize that number but I'll let her talk about her work and her vision for the office thank you superintendent cabal I'm happy to have this opportunity to introduce myself to all of you tonight and I look forward to working with each of you in this new role being born and raised in taon I can say with great certainty just how special taon is to me because Taunton is home my deep connection to this community fuels my enthusiasm and my commitment to making a positive impact I'm excited to bring my passion and experience to this role and to collaborate with each of you as we work together with shared goals together I believe we can achieve great things and continue to make tten a wonderful place for everyone part of my initial efforts in this role I have already begun meeting with building leaders to explore how our HR department can best support their needs for the upcoming school year my extensive background in school leadership provides me with valuable insights into the day-to-day challenges that our schools face allowing me to better understand and address how HR can assist I'm eager to leverage this experience to strengthen our collaboration and ensure that our HR our services effectively and efficiently support the success of both our staff and our students in addition in the coming days I will be emailing each of you because I would like to schedule a time that works with your calendar um to hear the areas of feedback feedback of areas that we can enhance our overall effectiveness see what's been working well and where we can improve we are really committed to attracting the best and most qualified staff for our district and getting those vacancies filled um we have recently expanded our job postings onto social media platforms so if you see those in the coming Days please share them on your own pages so that we can reach an even broader audience um and then Additionally the HR department has currently undergoing cross trainining um to Foster positive growth and further improve our efficiency I am also dedicating time to learning and refining the systems that we use in the office to identify opportunities for improvement and like superintendent cabal said I think I've had a positive and exciting first week and a half here um but I'm eager to continue to support each of you and the district in any way I can so please never hesitate to reach out to me if I can help in any way thank you thank you Shannon we are thrilled to have you on a Taunton Public School team rest of luck no if if I may mayor the only comment I had uh I mean I've been pretty vocal about HR in the last turns that I've been here I think it's the backbone of of the uh the company the school district whatever it may be uh I'm I'm happy that you're bringing in a new Fresh perspective and of course I want you to succeed by succeeding you need to surround yourself with people that can support you technology that can support you and we as a school committee will support you 110% so please don't be afraid to ask the superintendent or through she reports to you right superintendent through the superintendent whatever your needs may be and I'm sure the school committee will definitely support you so thank you for being here thank you Dr Dello I appreciate that and thank you school committee thank you thank you Shannon So speaking of attracting the best and the brightest and most talented to our school system I am very pleased to announce that we have a newly appointed principal at the benett elementary school Amanda EAD Amanda is no stranger to the Tom Public Schools as she has served as an assistant principal for three years at the East Town Elementary School so again I don't think I would do her justice if I read my superintendent report so I think the committee would benefit from hearing from Amanda so Amanda congratulations on your first appointment as principal of the Bennett Elementary School thank you very much thank you superintendent cabal and thank you school committee for having me here um I'm ex very excited to begin this new chapter in toon Public Schools this is my 15th year um so believe it or not I graduated college and I landed a position as a speech therapist in a preschool at Barnum um so it was a great experience to be in a program where that building then closed and we moved on to Ley um and I was able to continue growing in this district and became a special educator and then under great leadership I knew that I wanted to pursue something further and I went in for my Administration license and I served as an assistant principal for the past three years at East Toton Elementary School um so I'm very fortunate for this opportunity to be part of the Bennett Community um I'm excited to work with the staff the families the students to make Bennett the best school that it can be I look forward to Bringing fresh perspectives um and just being their cheerleader and their servant leader of what do I need to do to get them to where they need to be what do my students need what do my families need and what does my staff need um so again I look forward to the new school year and being in this position and thank you for for this opportunity as well if you have any questions congratulations congratulations Amanda and last but not least I'm very proud to announce that assistant principal Carn blenau was awarded or has been awarded a very prestigious Fellowship so tarton high school assistant principal for teaching and learning Carn blenau has been awarded the prestigious transformative leaders of Massachusetts Fellowship by springpoint education as part of her second year second ever cohort of this two-year program program Carolyn joins a select group of secondary school assistant principles and teachers the suen fellowship established in collaboration with the bar foundation in the summer of 2022 aims to promote equity and transformation in school leadership across Massachusetts this recognition highlights Carolyn's dedication and underscores the broader impact this program will have on our education system the fellowship is a rigorous leadership program designed to prepare emerging leaders to rethink high school education during this program carollyn will gain essential skills positioning her as a creative leader and a catalyst for change within our school and the broader Community the fellowship emphasizes instructional and student centered leadership offering a tailored approach to each fellow to craft their own leadership path in the first year carollyn will take on additional leadership responsibilities supported by monthly programming and mentorship the second year we'll expand these responsibilities with personalized coaching to deepen and sustain essential leadership skills after the fellowship Caroline will continue to benefit from an Alumni network with potential opportunities for extended coaching for those interested in designing or leading schools this Fellowship aligns seamlessly with Carolyn's current work with the B foundation on reimagining the high school experience for taon high school as a catalyst for the B Foundation meeting the moment cohort Carolyn is well positioned to leverage the skills and the knowledge gained from the fellowship to further her impact on the high school education in community Community I am incredibly proud of Carolyn's achievement and look forward to the positive influence her participation in the fellowship will have on our school Community this accomplishment not only recognizes her dedication and expertise but it also brings valuable resources and insights to the toon Public Schools further enhancing our efforts to provide an equitable and and transformable educational experience and with that that concludes my report thank you superintendent next we have administrative business there's a staffing report and Taunton Public School Staffing update both of which I believe are informational unless you want to speak to them superintendent unless there are any questions um you'll notice I'm getting back on uh track we're providing you the a listing by school and by position of what current vacancies exist so you you can expect to have that on a regular basis each month okay thank you okay we'll go to subcommittee reports finance and law8 uh from this evening 8724 Dr Dello thank you mayor uh finance and law sub commmittee met present were Donna shavs and myself first item on the agenda was disposable disposal of surplus equipment it was a school shed that has an estimated value of $150 uh the uh vote was unanimous to put it onto the Surplus list to see if there's any buyers if not then dispose of it so that was approved unanimously and the second item was bills payable for FY 25 in the amount of 559 9,939 66 uh Mrs shz and myself had various questions concerning the the warrant uh just informational only uh and uh that was also voted unanimously to approve the fy2 and the amount of 559 93966 and that concludes my report thank you is there a motion to accept motion to accept the report second Motion in second all those in favor opposed none opposed so voted next we have new business use of facilities process review superintendent is there any business with that uh this was an item that I believe was brought up at the last meeting uh to be discussed uh my recommendation would be that a motion would be in order to refer this item to the rule subcommittee but obviously it's on the agenda if there's any discussion this would be the appropriate time for discussion Dr deala yes thank you mayor so I'd like to expand upon that so uh there were some recent events in the city that triggered some phone calls to a couple of school committee members regarding uh the use of our facilities uh there was a lot of miscommunication I I guess what we're trying to achieve here is a process to evaluate and better understand uh events of Greater magnitude that affect our school buildings our school properties and I I think it was um I think we all last time we met uh uh better understood this should go to a rule subcommittee to kind of develop a policy regarding uh different parameters you know is it inside outside the magnitude uh if there's City uh folks involved that police and fire and so forth I think there you know it's something that should be released we should have a policy going forward so what the superintendent has mentioned a motion would be an audit mayor thank you okay so a motion to send it to rules committee is that so moved second onor motion and second all those in favor I oppos N oppose so voted uh unfinished businesses action item up I think couple bu oh I apologize I only see fac um just uh the the curriculum subcommittee will be planning a meeting before the beginning of the school year so I just wanted to make note of that okay thank the same thing with the special programs we're going to look at the update of um the district website with getting all of the special programs up onto the website so we'll be needing to see where we are with that also okay thank you so uh unfinished business would be action item update okay thank you mayor I do have an unfinished business item we will go back to unfinished uh okay yeah we're start so uh basically in honor of a National Health Center week we'd like to recognize the incredible work that manic Community Health and other community health centers across our community are doing uh I would particularly like to shine a spotlight on how impactful Manet at Taun Public Schools our school-based health center has been to our students by bringing medical and Behavioral Health Care Direct to students in their school setting we have removed significant barriers to access Manet at Taun Public Schools ensures that our students receive the care they need without missing valuable classroom time today we as a school committee show our appreciation for man health care and all community health centers together we can build a healthier more equable future for all our students thank you and if I could just add if anyone watching at home I'm proud to state that this week being National Health Center week man it actually open their doors on Monday so they are open I believe Monday Wednesday Thursday and Friday from 8 to 5 8 AM to 5:00 P PM for anyone needing medical attention student athletes who need a medical physical man it is open okay please take advantage of this wonderful opportunity okay thank you superintendent caral okay there is no press here this evening so I will take a motion to motion to address second motion and second all those in favor I oppos not oppos so voted thank you everyone have a great evening thank you Ma