##VIDEO ID:https://vimeo.com/1026343831## What? I love it. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to call to order the school committee meeting for November 4th, 2024. Ms. Sullivan, can you call the roll please? Just gimme a second. It's good to see everybody by What it was connected to a different sheet. I apologize. There. It's, uh, Jeffrey. Got up there. Here, captain. Join here. Settle here. Heather. Settle Here. Mike Terrell. Here. Tim o here. And McKay Here. These rights for the pledge, belief, Liberty and Justice. I'd like to open up the, uh, the group to public participation. Um, anybody would like to speak to us about anything that you have on mind related to the school committee? You have three minutes to do, so we'll keep it open for about 15 minutes. Does anybody would like to address the school committee? Come on up. We're just gonna need your name and a, uh, address. Okay. Hi. Um, re can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. You can pull that down a little bit if you like. Okay. Yeah. There you go. Okay. Re 84, Christopher Drive. Um, so I'm here in support of the, uh, municipal resolution on, yes. On to the MCAS question. I just have a couple bullet points to point out before I, I know that's not until item 11 for you guys tonight. Um, so I'm a teacher not in Westfield, but I teach in Palmer at the high school. Um, the MCAS exams do not provide a comprehensive assessment of student learning and relying solely on this exam to determine post-graduation readiness is insufficient. The high stakes nature of the MCAS exam leads, teachers and students to spend excessive time preparing for the test, reducing time that could be spent on instructional content, um, more relevant to life, sorry to life after graduation. I forgot my glasses. Um, for example, at my school alone, we have 10 students just in, um, for math, and I think there's eight in English who didn't pass. So some of them are sophomores, some of them are juniors, some of them are seniors. So we're pulling them out of like their history class or science class right now, because the retake is coming up next week. Um, in Massachusetts, a disproportionate number of students who identify as black indigenous people of color, English language, language learners, or low income, as well as those with disabilities are denied diplomas due to not meeting the MCA requirement, despite having fulfilled all local graduation requirements, research shows that leaving high school without a diploma has a lifelong impact on an individual's employment, earnings, health, and likelihood of incarceration, as well as significant ramifications on the economy as a whole. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. I'm gonna close public participation and move on to the Westfield Middle School presentation. Good evening everybody. Jesse McMillan, principal of Westfield Middle School here with two of my colleagues, Beth O'Connor and Jackie Osky. They are instructional coaches in our building, which are two new positions this school year. So we wanted to take some time to talk to you a little bit about how we're leading our pack, uh, forward with teaching and learning. So the instructional coach role, while it's rel relatively new to Westfield and specifically the middle school, it, it's something that a lot of districts in the surrounding area, um, are, we're starting to see incorporate into their buildings a little bit more often. We have a tremendous amount of support in place for students at different tiers. You often hear about tier one, tier two, tier three intervention. Um, tier one means access for all tier two, little more intensive support might be in small group settings with the close monitoring. Tier three are students who need a tremendous amount of support. And, um, it, it should be fluid. Kids will move in and out of those levels, depending on their need, depending on the content area or specific skills. But one of the things we often don't talk about are the tiered supports for teachers as well. Um, at the middle school, we have over 700 students, over a hundred staff. Um, as you know, there is, uh, there's an achievement gap and we're trying to work to close that gap. We've had interventions in place over the years, um, over the past couple years that I've been in the building. While I tremendously value those interventions, I wasn't seeing, um, the impact that we needed. So if we're investing positions and funding into this, we need to see growth in our data. Um, so I wanted to pivot a little bit and to use this funding, it's title one funding specifically, um, to approach it from a different lens and to approach it from the lens of supporting teachers, all teachers in our building to provide high quality instructional support. And the idea and philosophy is that when we provide that level of support for all staff with high quality instructional strategies, and that's being implemented in all classrooms at all times, that that in turn is going to help close that gap. Uh, 'cause before, with our tier two intervention, when we had two interventionists, they were specifically for math, they would meet with approximately 30 to 40 students. So, as you can imagine, in a building with 700 and many who have a significant amount of need, uh, we weren't seeing that impact, um, as much as we would've liked to. So that this year, with the support of our administration, I was able to transition those roles into two instructional coaches. We've looked at our MCA data, our current practices in the building, um, considering the need for continuous professional development as opposed to just a few days throughout the year where how can we get the most bang for our buck and give our teachers quality PD every single week. Um, particularly from staff members who have been in our building for a long time. I, I did hire from within, these are two former ELA teachers in our building who have served Westfield Public Schools and Westfield Middle School. And in some capacity over the years, I also did a tremendous amount of research into turnaround practices in other school districts. So we're, we're fortunate that we're not a turnaround district and we're not a turnaround school, but there are practices that are being implemented in those schools and districts that I think are really high quality and that we can use in our building to help move the school forward. Um, and of course, you know, putting those supports in place for teachers in turn is going to support our students as well. So I'm gonna turn it over to Beth and Jackie to tell you a little bit more about what their role looks like during the day. We're gonna have to move this down. Sure. Good evening. I'm Beth O'Connor. I'm Jackie Osky. We are the instructional coaches at the middle school, and we just wanted to share with you briefly for those of you who are not really familiar with this role, the districts has had, um, curriculum coaches in the past, which people are familiar with. But our job is, um, different from that in that we support, uh, all teachers. We are not specifically supporting math or writing or reading. Um, and one of the things that is a big part of our role is this continuous professional learning support. We started the year off, um, excuse me. We started the year off during our faculty meeting, supporting our staff, helping them to prepare for the district's initiative, which is to increase the amount of discourse that's happening in the school. We present the jigsaw strategies and help teachers kind of not only look at the strategies, but what they are also working on at the same time is it gave them an opportunity to start to dig into some of the student vocal data that is part of the MCA, so they could see what students were interested in when it came to their, their expectations for their level of participation in class. So we kind of balanced the idea of teacher, um, learning new strategies they can bring into the classroom at the same time they're thinking about teaching. Um, one of the really cool things about our positions is that we are in classrooms constantly. So when we go into, um, just the different classrooms, we have different ways that we can provide teachers feedback. We started the year by asking teachers specifically where they wanted feedback. So we got things from like, the flow of the lesson, um, student versus teacher talking, what students were saying, how they were saying it. Um, and that's morphed into really looking at specific discourse routines. So we use a feedback form that we provide them and just we are looking at, are most students saying it? Some of the students saying it. Um, we've been using discourse mapping, which is a really, um, neat visual way to see who in the classroom is talking how much. Um, so you can see like the lines from one student to another or from student to teacher to really get an idea of what discourse is happening in the classroom. And then we will record, you know, out of that discourse, who's asking questions, who's using sentence stems, who's providing evidence, um, in there discourse routine. So it really gives the teacher, um, feedback on kind of what students are in front of them and the depth of their knowledge during the discourse routine. And what's interesting when giving teachers this back, I, this may look like a hot mess initially when you see it and all these lines coming from one place into another, and it just looks like, but the information that it's giving to the teacher, if you look at the one that's closest to the bottom right, who's doing the majority of the talking in that classroom. And so then they can start to say, how am I shifting the responsibility from me doing all the talking to students, doing more, talking amongst themselves, with each other in small groups, um, in our larger group discussion. So it's that idea of starting to push the responsibility of the learning away from the teacher doing all of the delivery and the students doing more of that participating. So it's kind of exciting. Teachers are very much, um, I'm gonna say that word again. They're excited about this. It gives them information that they didn't normally have. The other thing that, um, is really unique this year, and we're really fortunate teachers get a regular collaborative meeting time that Jackie and I run. Um, what you're seeing there, we've provided 'em with a bank of resources. So everything that we present to them, they have resources using, we support the instructional model that we use in the building of having a specific do now a starter class, helping teachers to decide how are they gonna do that practice in some, um, and presenting some ideas. And then what we just did recently, we asked teachers where they are right now, um, what are some of the things that they're noticing are working really well in their classroom when it comes to presenting discourse. And then what are some of their struggles? And we're starting to pair them up so that we can put somebody who's feeling like, this is my strong suit, this is what I'm doing really well. We're able to match them up with people who are saying, this is something that I'm struggling with. So that it's creating this community within the school of teachers supporting teachers, um, in a way that's related to teaching and learning. Um, and for me personally, I've been in the district for quite a long time. This is the first time we've really had something like this that's working in a way that it's supporting teachers but not coming nec It's coming from peers. And I think connecting it back to the, um, feedback forms that they're getting from our classroom visits is they're getting a better view of what's actually happening in their classroom. Because I think sometimes when we're in front of a classroom, we're focusing on that group that's not working well. Um, and trying to get them back on track that they're missing, you know, the three other groups that are using sentence stems that are referring back to the article that are building on each other's ideas. So it's really helped us focus on those positives that are happening in the classrooms as well. And then identifying, okay, now that they can do this, where can we take it, want that one step further? And because we're peers, we're not evaluative, we really are just visiting and sharing. It has a different feel to it. If that's, so, why even bother? What is the really big impact? And this is where we're talking about like, really you're seeing way a huge increase in discourse opportunity or opportunities. Um, and it's been really neat 'cause a lot of teachers will shoot us a quick email, stop by our office and say, Hey, I am trying this today. Can you come watch it and give us some feedback? Um, we had two classrooms this morning stop and ask us to squeeze us in today. So that was really cool. They were trying a fishbowl for the first time. Um, they kinda ran through some initial ideas with us. They tried it and then they were looking for feedback. So teachers are looking for this. Um, they're looking for another, you know, set of eyes in their classroom to help them grow. Um, not only help their students grow, which has been really fun. Um, but we're seeing a lot of great things. We're seeing more tea, more students talking. We're seeing use of sentence stems. We're seeing really explicit teaching of routines, really connecting. Like, why are we having discourse with their students? Um, very clear graphic organizers. A lot of, um, focusing on preparing for a discussion so that when the class period arrives that they're supposed to participate in a fishbowl, participate in a jigsaw, they're ready and they know what to say. And I think what's really exciting is we're also hearing from teachers that students are excited about this. That they're saying things like, we really want to have more of these conversations. We wanna do more of this. So clearly this was a need that students felt that they had, and it's showing in their desire to be more involved. It was exciting today. 'cause they were debating in one of the rooms we saw, they were debating question five and into question two in question two. Good. So it was really interesting to see how well versed, how well prepared, how articulate they were in discussing really two really important ballot questions. And to hear some students have voiced that, you know, lack, you know, some of our eighth grade students we knew last year that really hadn't find, found their voice last year and are finding it this year through these discourse routines. So just quickly, Jackie and I wanted to go with three of you because, um, it's a new position. So people often are like, well, what do you do all day? What does your day look like? So, um, these are just two examples of a typical day for us. On a Tuesday and a Wednesday, we have four meetings. So those, um, meetings where it says Team 81 coaches meetings. So we meet with each team for 50, 45 minutes, uh, each day, uh, each week in between those where you can see teachers' names, that's where we're going into classrooms to visit either because, um, one, uh, one month, I'm sorry, we're only a couple months in. One week we were looking all at one department, specifically English teachers. What do you want us to come in and look at? Another week we looked at focused on science, and then you'll see on the other one where it might say, it said the teacher's name. And then those were the look fors. They wanted to know teacher versus student talk, student talk, how engaged students were. So teachers are looking for us to give them feedback on specific things. Um, it's a busy week, and then those are, one is Jackie's, uh, Tuesday, Wednesday, but we're working together in those periods. She covers seventh grade. I cover eighth grade. If there was just one of us, I have no idea how we would be able to manage it all. Um, there's a lot that, there's a lot of teachers and a small number of us, but it's, uh, I think that we have had so much positive feedback. I mentioned this when we spoke earlier, um, in front of the, the principals, um, that I don't know how other schools are doing it with, you know, how they're supporting their teachers in the same way without some coaches, because we really are able to get in visit and get feedback that in two ways from teachers and to teachers in a way that I don't think you can do alone as a principal and vice principals. And one of the biggest like surprises in a good way was how well, like we've been received and, um, how often we're being invited into classrooms and how often teachers are coming to us with really thoughtful questions. And, um, just new and exciting ideas that then we're able to share with other colleagues in the building. 'cause we, you don't get time as a teacher to go into other rooms, um, and see all the amazing things that are happening. So Thank you. Thank You. I have to give a huge shout out to my entire staff. Um, as they mentioned, they, they didn't have to embrace this work. Um, it's, it's been, there's been a tremendous amount of support from our union representatives, um, the union as a whole in our building. The teachers are responding incredibly well to this. Um, so I, I have to, to thank them for that, uh, because it's, it's a big change and it's, it's very vulnerable to open up your classroom, um, and to let others come in and provide that feedback. And as I keep sharing with them at every staff meeting, every opportunity we get, I would like there to be a culture of feedback in our school. And, um, they're embracing it. So I'm very proud of the work that they're doing. So thank you very much. Thank you Very much. That's excellent. Thank you. Thank you. No, any comments That we will be doing? Um, December 2nd, I think we, we'll be talking about our instructional priority as a district and sharing it where it's going across the board. So thank you for the preview, uh, of how it's working at Westfield Middle School. But we rolled this out to all of our schools actually at the beginning of this year. It's, It looks great. I love it. And the discourse piece, if you're wondering, it's increasing student engagement and the student engagement piece is key. And it's also increasing student knowledge, right? Because they tell you if you ever wanna learn something, teach it. Right? So our kids, by talking about it, are getting more out of the curriculum, are getting more, or are actually say, are accessing the curriculum more. And, um, we're excited to where this is going to take us. So I wanna recognize Mrs. gy as well, and Christine Shea and, um, for rolling this out. But, and we meet with our administrators about this once a month for what we call Westfield Leadership Academy. So there's support from the district level as well. Ms. Heldman, Um, just a question for you, Stefan. Is this gonna roll out to, are we gonna hire instructional coaches at the elementary level or At wis? So we do have, um, a, a two coaches at the elementary level now. So, and where there's not one per building, but also our school, our elementary schools are a bit smaller. Um, so right now we're, as we're rolling out this year, we're, we're certainly learning from, uh, where we can support more. So stay tuned for for more. How about wis? Um, also having, yeah. They also have co have, uh, coaches, right? They have the supervisors five to Yes. But they also have, um, interventionists that this year are taking on more Of a coach role as part of it. So it's all brand new. We just rolled it out this year and we'll iron out the differences and see what works after we reassess toward the end of the year to see what gains have been made. I think it's wonderful because a lot of teachers just feel like they're in isolation sometime. And now they have a park co-partners that can see some wonderful things happening and, and celebrate those, those wins. And, um, and if there's something that they need to or deficient in, they can find some support of that too. Well, and I think, thank you. The big part was just that the non-evaluative piece I think was huge. Mm-Hmm. Because people feel more, but some teachers may feel that way, that they could use something. Yeah. It's more comfortable when you're not being evaluated by your, by an administrator. That's Great. Thank you. Mm-Hmm. Good. Good. Okay. Sydney. Hello, my name's Sydney Duggan and I am the Executive Board President for the Student Council at Westfield High School. Um, we've had a lot of great events and many to look forward to with the starting of quarter two. So I'm just gonna try to get through, there's a lot to get through, so I'm gonna try To do this take, take press. We got this. We're good. As Quick as I can. Um, student council held their workday with over a hundred students. Um, in attendance, we planned our upcoming events. Spirit Week is being held from November 20th to November 26th with our pep rally homecoming, also on November 26th. Um, this year our theme for homecoming is Hollywood Homecoming. Um, this past week, students from Ms. Saunders and Mr. Ball's classes at the high school went to our local elementary and preschools. In order to assist with STEM stations, we were able to conduct hands-on experiments, such as using tweezers to put acorns into boxes, using Q-tips to paint leaves on trees to show our different seasons, and even using vinegar and baking soda to make pumpkin volcanoes. Though their favorite project was definitely our dancing corn project, which was using baking soda in vinegar to make corn kernels pop up in a cup. It was a great way to celebrate the beginning of STEM week and get the young students involved with hands-on projects. Um, our girls volleyball game raised over $200 in ticket sales for breast cancer research organizations. Our field hockey team also held a breast cancer awareness game and a sale that generated over $700 that, that would be donated to charity. Our girls gymnastics team got second at Western Mass Championship scoring 0.75 points behind, uh, Hampshire Regional High School. Westfield High School would also like to congratulate Annika and Van Newton for winning the all around title at Western Mass Gymnastics, as well as Megan Moran for winning her second straight Western mass division one girls cross country individual title. And as well, our girls soccer team won in overtime one to zero. This is why Emery is not here with me today. She is at another game. Um, our annual college fair was hosted on October 22nd with over nineties universities in attendance. Our juniors and seniors each had about 50 minutes to be able to speak with representatives and gain new information about schools that may be in their future. Our band is constantly looking for ways to display their skill and entertainment, and they will be marching on November 11th for the Veteran's Day Parade. A Stick and Westfield State University representative came to our school last week to talk to our underclassmen, currently enrolled in our science classes about future in the medical field. Our biomedical program at the school typically starts sophomore year, and our freshman class had a chance to receive a presentation about this pathway and actively ask questions. Information about Westfield State Open House was also shared, as well as insider tips to build your resume before applying to colleges with a medical focus. We recently had two speakers come in from the US Navy speaking to our engineering and advanced science classes about the importance of nuclear energy. We learned about how the Navy uses nuclear power and renewable energy within their machinery and how these different processes work. They provided a new outlook on nuclear energy involvement and taught our students about the different jobs available for nuclear engineers and other necessary scientific roles within the Navy. Our key club recently participated in an out of darkness walk to raise awareness for suicide prevention, as well as the raise of hope walk in support of the Cancer House of Hope. We are planning on starting, starting an eSports club next year. Within this club, students would be able to play online games competitively and have the ability to earn scholarships for gaming. This club would also work hand in hand with our virtual reality club that is going to be in the works for next year as well. Our engineering and physics classes will be going to Western New England University this Thursday to get a tour of their campus and specifically their engineering and their science programs. They will get the experience of walking through dorms, eating in a college, dining hall, and sitting in active classrooms. Our engineering capstone continues to receive amazing field trip opportunities as well with the help of our new school vans in the science department coming up, we have a trip to an engineering firm in Connecticut, as well as a renewable energy field trip to tie in bond and a trip to a power plant. All of these trips are planned within the next few months, and they're incredible experiences for our students. Speaking from firsthand experience, I have gained so much from these trips and it is amazing to be part of these programs as it allows me to learn so much about different fields of engineering. One of our past trips that we attended was hosted at the Basketball Hall of Fame by our governor, assistant Secretary for career education and our commissioner for education. This was the Mass Makes Engineering challenge, and we were able to speak with engineers from all over Massachusetts and work with students from surrounding schools through different problems. The most popular problem of the day was creating a design for a cardboard bed, similar to, similarly to what they used in the Olympics. And my team got second place allowing five people to stand on top of our design. Awesome. Uh, Westfield High School is really big in finding pathways for our students. One of our career center's biggest messages to students is Find your path. We currently have a number of pathways at the high school, and we are still expanding to Fillmore our biomedical pathways gains credit from Holyoke Community College. They receive their C-N-A-C-P-R and first aid certifications, and this year they will also be receiving their phlebotomy license. We also have our engineering pathway, which is continuing to add another course, computer Integrated Manufacturing. And all of our courses throughout this pathway are through Project Lead The Way. We finally have our Chapter 74 criminal justice program and our preschool pathway, as well as our early college. This Halloween, our preschool classes with their student leaders participated in trick or treating throughout the school. And it was a great experience for everybody involved. Massachusetts College acceptance celebration will be held during the week of November 19th. At this event, students will have the opportunity to be instantly accepted to numerous colleges and universities free of application fees. Our Pathways campus recently celebrated the launch of their PBIS initiative by having therapy dogs visiting the buildings. They're also celebrating a student of the week each week in establishing a Pathways advisory Council within the students. On October 17th, Westfield High School was visited by the Massachusetts Secretary of Education, Patrick Tweer, and Dignitary dignitaries from throughout the state. The secretary held a round table discussion with early college students who are participating in Westfield Promise. To learn a little bit more about the impressive work our students are doing with collaboration in Westfield State University. Finally, we would like to recognize and thank junior Lily Gao, who completed her Eagle Scout project. As part of her project, she helped to landscape the preschool's, play scape, painted the play bus, and helped get new mulch for the areas. That is all I have today. Thank you. That's it. Thank you. Yep. That's all I got. Thank you. Thank you. Next on the agenda, um, Fort Meadow Early Childhood Update. Good evening. Stefan Zaki, superintendent of Schools. And I just wanted to provide some updates from our last meeting. Um, and my intent is to have updates like this similarly, some more involved, some less involved. But, uh, as we move forward, we have identified five classrooms at, uh, both Munger Hill and Highland School. So there'll be four classrooms for each of the, uh, preschool classrooms from Fort Meadow and the existing classrooms. This is different from the last, uh, two weeks ago presentation. The existing classrooms that are at Munger Hill and highlight our full day will remain at those schools at this time. So, um, and, and, uh, there's also four of the five classrooms at each of these schools will have their own bathrooms, which is actually more than what is currently at Fort Meadow. In all of Fort Meadow. There are only two classrooms with their own bathrooms. So this is an, an upgrade. Um, and then, uh, when meeting with both principals, we talked about the retrofitting piece, there's not much that's going to be required. We will need additional changing tables, which will not be a problem. Uh, but we are looking at some playground equipment, and that is something additional playground equipment, and that is something that we are working on as well. But I do wanna share that one of the things we want for our Munger Hill School and considering that they already have, are programs with handicap students or DLP and uh, uh, ELS. And those classrooms for special education students really needs to be handicap accessible. So I think that's a bigger issue that we need to look at and see if we can get some grant funding for those things. But, uh, we are looking, um, and then there, so in, in, in terms of the high school, we had talked about potentially moving the two high, the two full day programs out of Munger and Highland to the high school and decide we don't need to do that. But this does leave us now with an opportunity for expansion for the high school. So, uh, one of the, uh, areas that I would like to look at is, again, is how can we generate, if, if a program charges, uh, tuition, um, then a school will not get, or a district will not get chapter 70 funding for that school. And they, they do charge tuition at the high school. So we wanna take a look at that so that we have, have access to the Chapter 70 funding, because the chapter 70 funding is higher, much higher than the tuition that we charge. So, um, it'd be nice to build maybe even a self-sustained program, a self-sustainable program. Um, the committee has been developed. They met for the first time, uh, last Friday at 8:00 AM and they'll be meeting, uh, the next two Fridays, 8:00 AM They'll be meeting, uh, weekly and, uh, or biweekly depending on where we are. Uh, they have, uh, so the, uh, committee is made up of, I'm gonna need help here probably. But, uh, an administrator from Highland Elementary School, an administrator from Munger Hill Elementary School, two staff members from Fort Meadow, uh, an administrator from Fort Meadow, which would be Mr. Schedule as he's the only administrator. Um, the director of special Education, the Director of Assessment and Accountability. We have, uh, Mr. Rogers is leading the committee. We have someone from the barn as well. Uh, Brian Osa, who's on the committee, who's going help us with the move. So that would be, that's why he's there. Uh, we have two school committee members and Mr. Uh, Dr. Gunther volunteered. And Mike obviously is a facilities chair, uh, subcommittee chair. Who am I missing? Matt? Matt. Matt. And then we have the union representation as well to represent the interest of the teachers. But, uh, the, what came out of their first meeting, um, is that what their charge is. The charge of the committee is to plan the transition of Fort Meadow, the school community into both Highland and Munger Hill. Recommendations for the transition will be made to the superintendent, including a timeline and a deadline for planning and logistics. We will, we will communicate that to you, uh, to the school committee through these updates and the deadline. We, we thought it was important to establish a deadline that if we determine that we could not resolve or plan those things by January 31st, 2025, that we will come back to the committee and let you know that at our February 3rd meeting, meaning that we've run into logistical issues, there's something happening that we, we, that has, has, uh, stumped us or something that is gonna make that a problem. Um, so those will technically come from me, but the committee, the committee will address several areas, including student needs, staffing, budget, logistics, and just, uh, and then they'll be communicating and working in subgroups and as a group as a whole, depending on where they go for their next step. So again, their next meeting is this Friday. Uh, and one of the things I liked about the meeting, I think, uh, going through the minutes and the notes, is that each committee was member was given time to express something that they were excited about this change and an area of concern. So it kind of also helped, uh, set the focus, uh, of, of the group moving forward. And that's all I have for tonight, but I want to keep this going because obviously it's a ongoing process and I wanna provide you with where we are at every meeting. Sounds good to me. Any questions? Sure, of course. Yeah. So, um, and, and the deadline, you talked about January 31st, um, just by example. And, you know, there, there may be some things that you, you know, that you'll be looking at or some things that you don't know will need to be looked at. But what's an example of something that you get to January 31st and it, it makes the group pause, uh, and then come back to the school committee with just, just an example? Nothing yet. Nothing has come up yet from the group. Yeah. Um, and I don't anticipate anything as, but you know what, you always have to plan for a con for that to happen because things do happen. Uh, it is still very early in the process. So, um, I would say by January 31st, um, you know, does something happen to some of the rooms or does enrollment vi, you know, change astronomically, which I don't anticipate happening, but it's only thing I can come off the top of my head. Yeah, I, and I didn't know if there's anything that was standing out that the group was focused on or, or not. It doesn't sound like there's anything really Not from the group's. A great Concern. Okay. Right. Thank you. Do you have anything else, Coleman? Um, I just have a question because I have a parent who came to me in Halloween and was very concerned because her child is gonna be there. Is there going to be any parent participation? I think once we have the, the, you know, the, the, the, you know, what, what a parent to help us with the move would be very beneficial once we get to that point. So yes, there will be, at that point She was concerned about her child being in a specific school. 'cause going all the way from where I live to either one of those schools is a trip for her. And I can't ask about the student, or I would get, if we were alone, I'd ask you more questions, But I just wanted share the concern. Okay. Mr. So actually I'm gonna, I'm gonna move to Florida. Mr. Rogers? Yeah. Mr. Roger. Mr. Rogers, do you have something, Mr. Answer? No one can hear. Good evening everyone. Thanks. Just to let people know too, one of our me, one of our team members from Fort Meadow also is a parent of a student who attends Fort Meadow and has students at Munger Hill and will be, tra will be going there as well. So we, we did, we, we did have a one serving a dual role. So we do have a parent on the committee. She just happens to also be a staff member, Had Mention that. Thank you. Anybody else? Thank you very much. You welcome. Oh yeah, I'm sorry. Welcome. I'm just gonna continue, I'm just going to say it each time. I wanna make sure that the schools are staffed heavily, properly, uh, adequately. Everything I can say to be able to, um, duplicate the services that they're getting now and not be, uh, merged in with the, the overall school. You know, just, I wanna make sure that we have the, the amount of coverage we, we need that they're expecting again. No, they have more than any other school and they're going into bigger schools. I just, I'm gonna say it each time just 'cause it means so much to me and to take our time. So, Mr. Roski, if I may, 'cause I'd like to dovetail off your, off your comment. It's my understanding that we're going to take the entire faculty, divide it in half and move them to two schools, or roughly, give or take. Right. We're not Gonna, I mean, it's gonna depend on need. Divide the human in half, right? We're gonna, yeah, we're Not numbers. Say, but let give you an example. So hypothetically, hypothetically, so I know we went and looked at the rooms. Right now, the three speech folks that work at Munger Hill are in one classroom, right? It's a large classroom. So we talked about getting dividers. So we can add the, if there are three moving over from four, they'll be, they'll have their own space doing their own thing. So we've already taken that into plans. Again, what you said, I mean, but it is gonna depend on where the students with the needs end up, but Sure. So if I have more students that need speech services at Highland, they might get four or something, you know what I mean? We're gonna break it up accordingly, but we're not reducing services. Right. I just wanna keep that in the forefront and making sure that it, it, it's, we're not talking about, you know, a budget or we have to, or we can't, or I just want, listen, you know how I feel about this, so I just want us, I do take our time and do it. Right. Right. Yeah. Okay. Understood. I appreciate it. I just have to say it. Appreciate the work. I appreciate. Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. Yes. How about some minutes? I'd like to make a motion to accept the, uh, special school committee meeting, minutes of October 21st, 2024. Second, second Motion been made. And second, is there any further discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of the regular school committee meeting, minutes of October 21st, 2024. Second Motion been made. And second, is there any further discussion on that item saying none. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Motion carries. Item seven, declare surplus. I'd Like to make a motion to declare the Angela Holmes property located at 12 West Silver Street in Westfield as surplus property and turn the property over to the city. Effective November 5th, 2024. Second Motion Been made. And second, is there any further discussion on the matter? Do we know what we're gonna do with the property? We don't. So, um, the property was originally, do you want me to go back to the intent of the property or you want me to leave it? I, I would, the only, uh, let me, let me rephrase that. The only concern I got is that you're adjacent to a school. And I just was wondering if there is a plan for the property itself, understanding that the house is probably coming down. We all know the house is in bad shape. I didn't know if there was just something gonna go in there that's not anything school related or kind of work against each other. No, I, I can promise you that this is where I get to wear both hats, right? Correct. So, um, I could promise you that there would be nothing that would go, that would be detrimental to the school at all. That, that, you know, even if it was turned into property that helped out the, the program at Westfield Middle School, Jesse's Comp, but, um, where they're doing the grant work to have the Eco-friendly parking lot and that kind of thing. So, you know, I don't think that there's any plans moving forward. The, the problem for me is that I think it's a liability and I'd to get rid of it argument here. I thank you guys for your work. Is there any further discussion here? All in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. I what to do? I don't think so. We can if you want, but I, I don't think so. It's a, it is more of a policy than a, than a financial. Well, what do you want? I'm good. Go Eat. Nice. How about we go to the acceptance of an exchange student? I'd like to make a motion to accept a foreign exchange student at Westfield High School for the, uh, 20 24, 20 25 school year. Uh, accept. And I'm gonna kill this. Ana Morillo my close. We haven't Met her yet, so we dunno. Oh, well then I'm good. Uh, from Spain is a foreign exchange student at Westfield High School for that school year, uh, pending the receipt of a J visa and on the condition that involves no financial obligation in the part of the Westfield Public Schools. And if there are any such obligations, this acceptance is rescinded. Second. Second. A motion has been made and seconded on a tie to Mr. O'Connor. I think Any further discussion you give it yourself. He got It's okay. All is in favor. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. I'd like to make a motion for the first reading by title only of school committee policy file AC non-discrimination policy, including harassment and retaliation. Second Motion I made. And second, is there any further discussion Ms. Hellman? Um, I just wanna say that this is an update to our policy. Um, the old one was very, very dean with verbiage. Um, and it, this new one will clarify, um, with two paragraphs that who, how people could be discriminated against. And, um, so we wanna make sure that we're current with, with all legal, um, general law in Massachusetts. Any further discussion? Dr. Gunther? Am I reading correctly in the packet that this, the new version cut a significant amount of the, the operational components of this? I'm, I'm making an assumption that all of that exists somewhere else in policy handbook and that the, or in student handbooks that we're trimming down the policy and keeping the, the management of that policy to the, the student handbooks. But this language around what is discrimination, how to respond to discrimination, et cetera, exist in student handbooks And it's in other places in policies. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Yeah, nevermind. That's one by the way. Is that, Oh, it's just, Yeah. First reading is okay. Uh, 10 approval of South Hampton Road School. I'd like to Make a motion for the approval of a South Hampton Road Elementary school trip to the Connecticut Science Center, Hartford, Connecticut. November 7th, 2024. Second Motion been made. And second. And who are you gonna give it to? Ms. I give it to me. This. Okay. Nicely done. Any further discussion? All those in favor opposed? Motion carries. Item 11, I'd like to make a motion to approve a resolution by this committee supporting the removal of MCAS test results as a graduation requirement in the state of Massachusetts as second as presented. We gotta get the motion out board. Second. No, I'm so far, so, so we, we can make sure Ms. Hillman gets a second. Fair enough. I was trying to meet you. Any further discussion. I say Mr. Terrell, um, As you all know, question number two is on this year's ballot, uh, and concerns the use of the mcm CAS has graduation requirement for public high schools across the state of Massachusetts. Specifically, question two calls for removal of MCM CAS as a graduation requirement and proposes that school districts certify whether or not students have satisfactorily completed coursework demonstrating mastery of the skills and knowledge required by the Commonwealth's statewide standards in order to graduate. This is a topic that has been supported by both the Massachusetts Teachers Association as well as the Massachusetts Association of School Committees from whom we rely on for policy, uh, due to the many, many reasons cited in the enclosed, uh, resolution. As such, this resolution's being brought forth to the Westfield School Committee for Consideration discussion and vote as this is a resolution. It is, uh, non-binding from a municipal standpoint for Westfield graduation requirements, but rather a vote of support to the state legislature for the removal of MCAS as a graduation requirement in the state. Um, I don't know if you want me to read the resolution into, I think we have the re everybody have number 11, right? Yeah. Mm-Hmm. Um, Dr. Gunther? Yeah, I, I want to, um, I want to put into the record, um, you know, I, I don't know if we want to debate the resolution itself. I, I'm fine to vote on the resolution as is. I want to name that the, the fifth paragraph of the resolution where we're naming that the MCAS is significantly limited in its ability to measure whether students are meeting standards. I would not go so far as to say that, and I also want to name that, um, you know, you all know I'm a data person for the curriculum instruction committee. I don't want to lose the site of MCAS as an important measure for us as a district, but I do strongly support removing it as a graduation requirement for individual students. And so don't want to lose the fact that this is one of many useful data points for us as a district, despite the fact that I'm fully on board with this resolution To remove it as a graduation requirement, I think. Good. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump in as the chair, um, and offer my thoughts on the matter. I don't think we should ever be in a position where we get a resolution on a topic that is as weighty as this one is on the day that we're supposed to make that vote, because there's no chance whatsoever, and I'm not being disrespectful to the parties in the room. There is no chance whatsoever to have any type of meaningful back and forth understanding of both sides of the house unless you already came prepared for it. So, as a matter of a resolution that's gonna go before a sitting committee, such as a school committee, I think it's inappropriate that it shows up the day of the meeting. Having said that, I certainly respect the, uh, wishes of the parties, and I'll go along with whatever you tell me to do, but I just think it's completely inappropriate to be doing a resolution the day that we get the resolution package. Ms. Hillman, did you have something I'm taking, I'm done. Did you say Hillman? Hillman. I thought she had her head down. Okay. Anybody else? Mr. I, I'm gonna support the resolution as well. Um, we might have gotten a packet of information recently, but this has been something that we've talked about for I don't know how many years in terms of, uh, the high stakes testing of, of MCAS and, um, you know, it's a, it's an ArcHa. I, I I think the exam is, is outdated. Uh, I think that it needs to be retooled to Mr. Dr. Gunther's remarks. I, I agree that we can't lose sight of the focus of what its intent is because I think it's very important. Um, but I think it's time to take the high stakes testing portion out of it and, and look at, look at the exam and, and what we're doing. But I, I don't, I'm not uncomfortable voting for it tonight. Um, this has been something that we've been talking about for a long time. So, respectfully, and I'm gonna go a little back and forth with you. I've been here for two and a half years, and I've never had the topic come up out of school committee meeting that I know of. So the, the point that I'm trying to make is if there's no participation, there's no public participation, there's no thought process, it just seems that this is what we have. Here you go. Go ahead and vote. Seems to me just to be a little bit, um, not the way it should be. That's just me, Mr. O'Connor. Mr. Yeah. Um, Mr. Sullivan? Yeah. I, I, I gotta be honest with you, I went back and forth on this question, um, but I did come to the conclusion that I, I will be for the resolution. Um, but I am also, uh, you know, Massachusetts gets year after year is number one in education. And I think part of that, like, like Mr. O'Connor said, and, and Dr. Gunther also said, is that part of that is the data of the MCAS and taking the test and knowing and finding out where students are, um, the stress level on that, not only on students, but on teachers obviously is palpable. It's, it's a lot during a week when you have to take and administer test and teach, uh, the old saying, teach to the test. Um, but I was at an event with the superintendent a week ago, 10 days ago, and he brought it up too, that there's a better way forward. Um, and it made me think that maybe that's the way this should go in, that taking the stress level out of all these classrooms, starting in third grade all the way up through high school, um, is probably a smart thing. And I don't know if the number's right, but I'll quote the superintendent when he was at the event, talking about $30 million to administer this test. There's probably a better way to spend $30 million to make sure kids are getting educated. Um, there may be some other outcome to use that money to find out how they are doing in a classroom, or how it is being taught in a classroom. It's not just students that we're talking about here either. So I will be before the resolution, but I don't wanna lose fact, like everybody else here has said that we don't lose fact that this is a piece of the puzzle to get kids. This is gonna sound stupid. Get kids more educated, um, to get them better educated. Um, it's been this way for more than 30 years, and like I said, Massachusetts has always been number one in education. We've, we've been able to do it comparably speaking to, uh, everybody else in the nation. So I don't wanna lose fact of where we can spend that money to make it better. So I, like I said, I'll before the resolution, but as long as it's in everybody's mind that, that we're still where we are because partly because of this test, Mr. Rell, Uh, just a a a couple of items, uh, as, as I think everybody that's spoken, uh, already, uh, I, I agree that we are, we should not be voting to remove the standard, but rather voting to remove the high stakes. And I, and I don't think, I think a lot of the concern on the, on the other end of this is that we're taking our high standards and we're, and we're getting rid of them by passage of this, um, uh, of this, uh, question. And, and, and that is not the case. Um, the, the, the expectation is that we still have MCAS, even though in, in my estimation, I do think there needs to be some revisions to it and a better, a better path toward, uh, toward that evaluation. Um, we will still have that as a benchmark, uh, locally and across the state. Um, just to address a couple of items, um, in terms of the fifth paragraph, the word significantly, I'm fine removing that. This is a template from, um, from the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Uh, I'm fine striking the word significantly, uh, from the resolution. And also, um, while we haven't discussed this much in open meeting in terms of, um, MCAS requirements for graduation, it is something that in my experience, people have come up to me, uh, constituents, um, families, uh, faculty, students, faculty even, uh, and have expressed concern over it. So, uh, while it hasn't been necessarily an item on an agenda, it is a, it is sort of a running narrative that I've had, uh, over the past decade. Thank you. Now I have, Um, from what I understand, there are only 14 states in the United States that will give it as a graduation requirement. So it's down to eight. It's down to eight, okay. So we're one of eight, only of 52 states that demand it be a graduation requirement. That's why I wanna see it gone. I have, I have administered this test and sometimes it's very biased. I had a student who was from Russia, and she wanted to pass this MCA so bad. I read the test to her, I read the questions to her, I read the an, the answers given to her. I reread the test to her again. It took me almost a hell day to administer this test to this one student. And she cried when she was taking it. So it was very difficult as an, as an administrator of this test to provide this. So there's only eight. So I think we're, well, well past due our time to get rid of it as a graduation requirement. So the reason, again, I'm gonna state that I don't think that this is advised tonight, but I'm gonna lose. But I'm just gonna add something. When you're allowed time or afforded time, you get to do some education if you deem that that's something that you want to do. And when I went back and I started to look into the matter this afternoon, um, there was something that came up in an article, the Berkshire Eagle from Tom Birmingham, who you might remember as the senator or the Senate president. Oh, yeah. He was the author of MCAS, so understood that he would be decidedly on the MCA side of offense. I totally understand it, I get it. State SAT scores rose for 13 consecutive years in the Commonwealth scores in the National Assessment of Education progress improved dramatic dramatically. By 2005, Massachusetts students became the first to score best in the nation in all four major categories, fourth, eighth grade, reading and math. Since then, they have been able to repeat the defeat every subsequent NEAP administration except one. So when we talk about it, there's, you know, there's more to this story. I've never heard this story before. We, we, we never spoke of it to anybody before. So to anyway, I just want you to know there are things out there that say, you know, maybe it's not such a good thing to go follow up. Can I, Dr. Got, yeah. I wanna, I wanna try and more clearly lay out my position here, because there's a little bit of debate. Um, you know, I, I actually think that the MCAS as far as standardized tests go is a strong standardized test in terms of assessing things more than rote memorization. It does test things higher up on the critical thinking skills. That said, you know, it is, I do think it has done a real, has a, had a real emphasis on the narrowing of our curriculum. Um, I think that we have had, by putting such high stakes on it, it's, it's twisting, it's forcing schools to spend too much time teaching exactly to the test, as you said. Be, um, and I do worry about measurement error for individual students. I do not want to lose this as a, you know, I know things like this, the standardized testing explosion from no child Left behind gets, is not the popular thing in the education world right now. We would not know about the systemic inequities that exist in our educational system, were it not for these sorts of assessments, but it is my view that these are better done, assessed at the school and district and potentially classroom level to inform instruction and to measure progress as opposed to using them as a high stakes measure at the student altitude. And so that is why, that is why I am in favor of the, um, of this ballot measure. I would also, I totally, I, I hear the, uh, as I said, I went straight into some of the language here. I hear the concern about having the full resolution put before us. I would be totally happy for us to say the Westfield School Committee supports passage of question two to replace n cast graduation requirement period. Um, to get us on the record without, if there's not full alignment on the, on everything that's in this resolution, Oddly enough, I would support that. Ms. Hillman, I just wanna state that, uh, Massachusetts's better, because we have a frameworks and we have a curriculum guidelines. That's the reason why we are better in Massachusetts because it's consistent throughout the state, and it's all mapped out for, for the teachers and for school committees to look at. It's not just the testing, it's the curriculum that's made our students better. Mr. Sch. Yeah, I would, uh, I just a, a little history here. I think back, you mentioned Senator Birmingham. He was, he was the, he was the chair of the education, uh, committee at the time. That was 1992. And this was called education reform because they hadn't done anything for education reform since the late seventies. So if you do the math, we're now 32 years later, right? If I did the math right, I didn't have to take it. Think it's 93, But I won't Quibble. Okay. 93. So we're 30, we're 30 years later. Give or take. Um, I think it's time for education reform. Uh, back in 1993, I don't think they had a thing called stem, did they? No. So I think some things have changed so much in the last 30 years that it's time to take a look at it again. That's why when we talk about $30 million to administer this test, I think there's better ways to spend it. And that's, that's where, this was one other real quick thing. Just before everybody votes tomorrow, and we see that this is a yes or no, whichever way, remember this goes back to the legislature. They can do what they want with it. They can take that yes vote and say, you know what? We're gonna tweak it. And by the way, it's still a requirement, but it, we don't have to take, give it in third grade, or we don't have to give it in eighth grade or whatever it is. Um, just remember, so if you see this change after the vote, the outcome of the vote, the republic is gonna rear its ugly head somewhere down the line. Watch. So just, just be careful of that. We didn't have core either, by the way. We didn't have core curriculum either, by the way. So there's some things that have, you know, it's not like you guys have been sitting there not evolving, right? I mean, you guys are, you know, you're working to do the, the best you can. Again, my only issue is the fact that we're getting it tonight. You can clearly see that there are definitely different ideas that work in, I dunno, like, Um, looking, looking through the resolution. Um, the first four paragraphs are fairly generic. And the last paragraph is the actual resolution to support the passage of question two. Uh, if, if the group is more comfortable passing, uh, the resolution, uh, minus paragraphs five through 10, um, we could, we could amend the motion, uh, to just make it a more, a more direct statement of Yeah, we, we, we support the resolution for Yes. On question two. Yeah, I will. I'll move to amend the, your motion offer an amendment to pass the resolution of item 11, paragraphs one through four and 11 through 12. Only Second. Hold on, man. I got a number now. Don't laugh at me. Moja been made in second. Is there any further discussion on that? Okay. So the motion on the floor now is on the amendment To amend the motion. So to amend the motion one vote. You're good. So my real question is, do I go All in favor? That's the question. All in favor, I think. Aye. Aye. Good, Jim? No, I just think it, we're, we're voting on a resolution. Um, I would expect that to be a roll call, but if I'll go with where committee. I honestly think it is a roll call, which, but I, I, I think it's fair. I That's fine. You could have everybody On the record. I'm not taking a hit on that. I got one. I'll take it ahead. Let's go. Roll call for that. Bo Sullivan. Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Tim O'Connor. Yes. Chairman McCabe. So I'm gonna restate the motion. It's to, uh, pass the resolution paragraphs one through four and 11 through 12. And as originally stated before, the reason why I'm a no is not on the resolution, it's on the timing of the resolution. So I'll be a no there. Motion passes next. Hmm. Um, okay. So just a report on the weekly report. Uh, the weekly warrants, um, October 18th, 2024, the 28 batches, totaling $391,285 and 42 cents. And October 25th, 2020 4, 25 batches total, um, what is it? 1,000,099. $174 and 25 cents. That's a common, no, that's it. Thank you. Take a motion. Item 13 for financial report. I'd like to make a motion to accept, uh, Westfield Public School's financial statements as presented. Second, sorry. Motion by May 2nd. Further discussion. Good Evening everyone. Shannon Berry, director of finance. I just have a few comments for you. Um, first on the expense side, if you look at page two, you'll see that the human resources technology supplies line is in a deficit. Um, our website fees were actually charged to that account by an error, so that'll be moved. So that account will not be in a deficit. Shannon, before you go all the way through Sure. I have a bunch of questions, but I'm gonna assume that the answers are all pretty much the same. There are no transfers here. Is that because we've set it off to another point, uh, of reporting? Yes. Okay. Yep. Um, on page three and four, just to talk about our gas and electricity. So we just received, um, recent estimates, again from the G and E. They've remained unchanged from what we budgeted, so we are still, um, you know, in good shape there. Um, obviously I'm hoping that this warmer fall will help us, but it's, you know, with the gas cusp, but still too, too early to tell. On page 24, the WTA purchases services for athletics isn't a deficit. Um, as you know, in the budget, we have put, I think for at least two years now, a halftime athletic trader position. Um, we have once again, not been able to hire a person to fill that position, so we're having to contract for those services. So you'll see a transfer coming up at a, at another meeting to move that funding from the personnel line to the contract services line. Um, on page 31, actually, sorry, page 31st, contractual services, the tutoring line, um, is in a deficit. We do have some funding in the other contract services line, so we won't move that at some point. I kind of wanna just wait and see how tutoring plays out through the year, because that's really an unknown how much we're actually gonna have to use. So I'm, I'm holding on that transfer for now. And then now on page 31, the tuition's in state, um, we are in a deficit there. We had a pretty significant, um, tuition that was not budgeted for, um, to almost $300,000. So that's why you're seeing that line in, uh, deficit there. Um, But before you move on Sure. What's the plan? So, um, I was just speaking with our director of special education and there are some students that, um, she's thinking are gonna come back to the district, which would obviously save us some tuition money. Um, I'm trying to move tuitions as I can to our two 40 special education grant. Um, but otherwise it's going to have to be moving cost savings from other lines to cover that cost. That's a big nuts. Quarter of a million, right? Mm-Hmm. Okay. More questions to follow as we go down further. Sure. Um, and then on again, on page 31, regular transportation. It looks like the people transportation is in a deficit, but that's just because I do an expended transfer to move part of that cost to the line below. Um, the vocational transportation. Do we wanna do questions on expenses now before I move to personnel? Or do you want me to do it all first? Um, Members? So do you have any questions on expenses? I have a couple, but I Have a couple as Well. Go ahead, Doc. Um, the, so you explained the, the in-state, the out-of-State tuition, I see 98% encumbered or Mm-Hmm. Expended. Is that a for, is that how in line with the forecast is that We're gonna be in a deficit on that line too. We have a couple tuitions that have not, um, do not have purchase orders yet because we don't have contracts back. So it, it's gonna be another line that's going to be, Shannon, hold on just one second. Could Doc, when you, um, Dr. Gunther, sorry about that. Hey, doc. You know, okay. Um, could you just point out what page you're on? Sorry, I'm on page 31. So the last page, the one eight Yep. 5 31. The, uh, 5 32 0 0 3 is the line number. Yeah, I got it. Um, and then I, it's maybe worth taking after the mayors. I just, I'm curious about how, um, you know, how close to typical being about 92% expended or encumbered at this point in the year is how, how, what's your, what's your forecast, I guess is my, I mean, we're significantly higher than we normally are for tuitions. Yeah. And we're not usually in this position right now. And are the drivers of that primarily the, those two special education lines, or are there any other It's, it's those two. Yeah. It's the tuition lines. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. I'm gonna channel my best radias. Okay. Um, let's go to Human Resources Supply number two. Mm-hmm. That is in, um, deficit 21,000. I assure that, that, I'm going to assume that that's a transfer. So that was the one that I first spoke about. It's the, um, it's the website. So it's actually, it should be charged the admin software, which is offset on school choice. So that'll be moved On page four Mm-Hmm. You have, um, telephone. Yes. And then you have an encumbered amount of six to 8,000, and then you have an unencumbered amount. Mm-Hmm. Unencumbered amount of 18,000. Is that money going somewhere else, or why was it kind of separated Out? It separated out because we switched phone systems this year, um, to be in compliance with the, is it the rebound act? Yes, yes. So we had to switch phone systems. So, um, we have money encumbered on our previous vendor. We're just starting with a new vendor, so I'm kind of unsure how the costs are. So we need some funds there to be able to make sure we have enough money to cover the rest of the year. But we also get charged back from the city for some phone cost, which just hit the line through an ID charge. Okay. Um, same page. Mm-Hmm. Maintenance of equipment. We have a lot of encumbrances that are made, which is, you know, clearly the way to do it, but there's no encumbrances for gasoline or at all. Right. So we Is that a different vendor? Do iiv charges from the DPW in the airport for gasoline? So that's just an ID charge. So we don't encumber the funds Tuition's in state page five mm-Hmm. You have 269, 7 68 encumbered, but you have a balance of 58 9 52 unencumbered. Yes. So that line is for Smith Vocational and LP vec. And so we've had a few students that did not end up attending those schools. So right now that is a cost savings. But again, if we have someone that goes to one of those schools during the year that we're responsible for, you know, that might, might not be fully available. Understand. Okay. But it's a possible, it's a possible savings. 58,000 is the good finally, maybe as Of right now. Yes. Um, technology and supplies. Page nine, Munger Hill. Mm-Hmm. I don't know why I have the question mark there. Maybe 'cause it's, nothing's been spent from it, but along the Munger Hill line, Yes. We've, um, heard from our community about, um, maintenance on the grounds and there's only $500 in the revised budget for maintenance of the grounds, which would seem to me to include, you know, specific day-to-Day stuff, you know, materials that you would use to kind of prepare the grounds to be cleaned up and that kind of thing. Um, whereas other schools have sign significantly more than that, um, it hasn't been encumbered and it hasn't been spent. Um, just thoughts. So yes, in general, at the elementary level, they do not budget for maintenance in that manner. I mean, we're talking, they budget $500 for Home Depot for the custodians to get small parts in general. Um, the major maintenance is taken care of through the maintenance budget. But there's, and that's true of all schools, but the, the larger schools have a larger budget in due budget. A little more for maintenance, But there's also a maintenance line on page 10 for Monger Hill maintenance of the building. They seem to be, um, for lack of a better term, it's synonymous. Well, On page, on page nine at the top, that's Highland. Um, it's the last line of Highland before it goes into Munger. Oh, I'm sorry, Highland. Okay. Um, And then Munger's on page 10. And then we have Powder Mill School on page 11, which has 4,100 in the account. Paper mill. Paper mill. Mm-Hmm. What did I say? Powder mill. Sorry, I'm in Southlake. I'll come back over. I got you. Welcome home. How can I go on though? Um, so yeah, four mentioned paper Mill School has 4,100 in it. Yeah. I mean the, it's budget at the discretion of the principal. I'm unsure why 4,100 was put there. It'd probably be transferred somewhere else. In general, elementary school principals do not spend a significant amount of money on maintenance. It's done through the maintenance department. Right. They don't, clearly they don't. I'm just trying to be funny a little bit. Right. I mean, We spent, Okay, um, Westfield Middle School three grand. Which page? Uh, I dunno, 15 If I could just add too, it's only November. So I mean, they still have seven more months to suspend this funding. Well, no, I, I get that. But you assume that you're gonna open a school, right? Yeah, but things pop up through the year and just having been a principal before, you need to keep a little cushion. 'cause in April when something breaks, you've gotta pay to fix it. I totally understand. I get it. But if they com Uh, okay. Um, WHS guidance, what Page are you on? Is it 17? Yeah. Tuition In state 17. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, that is for our Gateway to College program in Westfield Promise. So those contracts just aren't done yet. So the funds aren't covered. It's not, it's not money that we're not gonna use Athletic equipment for schools at WHSI know this is more than usual, but athletic equipment for schools, WHS total school year to superintendents just chimed in, um, response to the previous question. There's $60,000 in the total. There's 52,000 spent, there's $7,000 left. And I'm gonna take it that there's no gonna be no other needs for athletics for spring. It's an issue and we've already recognized it. Okay. Mm-Hmm. I'm just poking a little up. That's all. Um, alright. I'm good. I guess. No winter or, uh, spring athletics. That's, don't quote me on that. That was a joke. That's what it would appear. Um, and then again, we've encumbered in, uh, page 27, WTA, the maintenance of buildings. Mm-Hmm. I, I, I know you're seeing a theme here. Um, we've encumbered 25, 79, 79, but we've got a reserve of 800. Um, but we've only spent 400. Same. I'm just kind of just pointing things out. And then page 31 is, you've already explained, so I'm good. Is there any other question on expenses? Personnel. Okay. So personnel, if we look at page one and the top of page two, there are some lines in a deficit. Those were lines that we are offsetting with school choice as part of the budget. So those accounts just didn't get updated in time. They've been updated. Um, they will be out of a deficit on page three. So just in general you'll see, um, some abnormal abnormalities with the health and PE lines. It's because we've combined them. And so if you're a health and PE teacher, you're budgeted on one line. Now they used to be budgeted separately. Um, some of the accounts for those teachers just didn't get updated in time. So again, as you go through, you know, on page three you'll see that that health teacher is in a deficit. It's just because it should be on a line above. On page five, the school leadership building temp hourly employees, those are our, um, temp SEC secretaries. So right now we have a temp secretary working at Abner Gibbs. So that's why that line has been so significantly used. We do have funding on the actual secretary line at Abner Gibbs that we can transfer into that line to cover that. On page five. Again, out of grade, as you know, we eliminated the whole out of grade line. That is actually the custodian retros that need just need to be journaled back, um, by the auditor to the previous fiscal year. So that is not actually an FY 25 expense. Page 10. Um, if you look at the librarian at Franklin Ave, those two lines, the full-time hourly employee and the full-time school professional, um, it was just a budget loading error. The line that has the 65,000 should have actually been, um, loaded below where the charges are being made. Um, so that's already been corrected again on that same page. The Franklin Ave, um, special education, full-time hourly employees. That is for A RBT for the RISE program. We are unable to hire a paraprofessional that we needed for the RISE program. So we posted and were able to hire for an RBT. So the money that we budgeted for the paraprofessional will be moving to that line to cover the RBT page 11. You'll notice that the Franklin Ave teacher aids, there's unended money there. That is for the preschool paraprofessionals when the river school opens. Um, and we open those preschool programs. And then on page 28 at the intermediate school, the nursing position has no money expended. So we had a resignation from with for nursing at the end of last year, we decided to fill that position with a long-term sub. Um, because there's currently a nurse at Franklin and one at Abner. When we merge into the river school, there'll be just one nurse at the new school. So instead of having to eliminate a position mid-year, um, someone from Franklin or Abner will be able to bump into that WIS position. Mm-Hmm. So you have a question for that Mr. Sullivan? I I have the same question so you can ask her. I'll ask it. It doesn't matter. One nurse, All, all the element elementaries only have one nurse's, What's this population? School's got preschool in it About 400. So, uh, when we had our schools at 400, before there was one nurse as well. If additional staff is needed. If that turns out to be something that we have to do, we've added health para professionals before to assist a nurse. If that becomes something that we have to revisit, we will after the school opens. And the mediate school in middle school right now, only have one. I have one nurse and they have 700 student. Middle School has two. They have a nurse and a a health assistant. They have one. And then a health Assistant just has one with no assistant. Right. Right. I, I feel like just, I think that's an important thing. I know we've done it before. That doesn't mean it, it works well just because we've done it before. I'm just throwing that out there. I mean, the tech academy Has five 50 kids with one nurse and they could also use a health assistant. So I, I'm happy to take that up at budget time. Yeah, I'm just saying I think it's something to think about. I didn't realize. Go ahead. Sorry. So, um, obviously that extra funding there, if we need it in the long-term subline, we'd be moving it there to cover. 'cause that's where we're charging that nurses to the long-term substitute line on page 38, the children's corner, the full-time, hourly employees. That is the teaching, um, assistant in the preschool program at the high school. So that we actually made the decision through the budget. It's going to be charged to the tuition line, um, for the children's corner. So that is being moved there. And then page 41, these accounts that start with 5 3 2 are all Pathways accounts. So they had been budgeted separately from the high school. But in terms of reporting and how we're really budgeting the high school and pathways are one entity. Pathways is in a separate school, as you know. So those positions were all budgeted under the high school this year. So the accounts have been updated and we're, we're moving them under there. And then Page 43 at the top. Can you Mm-Hmm. Just gimme one second. How many people are Pathways? And the Nurses shared How many total people? It's one of each subject. Five, six, let's say seven or eight unit members. Um, Yeah, subjects, counselors. And again, these are the students that we are saving or making attempts to say. So there's a halftime nurse. There is and there is, um, counting classrooms. I think there, there are more Unit eight staff. I think there's five teachers. And so you have an adjustment counselor and, um, Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Okay. That's it. Mm-Hmm. I think we have a PE teacher that goes over from the high school for like a period to, so they get PE too. That's it. So, no, I didn't have to do that this year. Okay. But that's, yeah, that's it. So, But I was only asking how many students are there at Pathways. Oh, Oh, students. I thought you said staff. No, I thought you did two. I'm sorry. Did I say I was going off of Shannon's answer? Uh, so there are, I met Students. If I have said staff, you Could have said students. I was thinking staff. Um, so the capacity is 50. Last I knew there are at about 40 with more people coming in. So there's room for an additional, some additional students. I'm good. Okay. So page 43. There's another line in a deficit at the top. Um, that is for the lead manager of autism, social, emotional and behavioral services. Um, that account is actually on page three. You'll see there's no money expended on a line on page three. Um, so we've made the, um, corrections to move that there. And then finally on page 45 under, um, el, there's a pouch, part-time, hourly employee position, um, line that has none expended it. That money should have actually been loaded in the budget in the line above. So that's already been fixed. Any questions from the committee? Dr. Gunther does Too. Um, thanks for explaining the, the 50 5K and outer grade. I know that we zeroed that out. Yeah. Um, Where are we Doc? Uh, sorry. On I think it's, I believe it's page three. Um, is that Right? Page five Five. Yep. It was early on. Um, I'm just curious if we are seeing if there are places where we are, uh, increasing salary where we're having a higher salary expense than we expected at budgeting. Mm-Hmm. That would've normally been felt by out of grade. Um, and if you have a sense of order of magnitude of that. So yes. The salaries are running higher this year than I have seen in the past. And we've had more degree changes this year than I've seen in any past year. Um, so that has added to, added to The a sense of like how much That's not to put you on the spot, sorry. Yeah. I mean, there's open positions still, so it's hard to tell. It's all gonna depend on, on what gets filled because as you go through, you'll see there's psychologists positions open, there's some speech positions open. So, you know, I, I'd hate to put a number on where we are. Okay. Without knowing more about where we end up with hiring. Yeah, I'll let it go. 'cause we could ask Dr. Morris, you'd probably be able to fill in those blanks. Dr. Morris, how many vacancies we have? 30 Seconds. Sure, sure, sure. I, I know I've seen it it recently. Alright, so Mr. O'Connor, while we're waiting On that, have question on the, and I was gonna ask the question on the vacancies, not maybe not necessarily a number. We get those weekly, I think to, to look at. But if, if there's a, a vacant position, whatever, whatever that is. Yes. Let's say there's, there's money that's been made available to that and it hasn't been used yet because a position's still open. But we have a, a sub, right. Would we have potentially a situation where we have a subs in maybe a long term sub Mm-Hmm. Covering that position. So if we see an $80,000 salary and it doesn't look like we've expended anything, we might be spending on sub line that amount in another, in another line item. Right. It's the, the likelihood in some instances. In some instances. Um, but when you think about special education, like the psychologist positions that we haven't billed, we've had to increase on the expense side because we're paying for contracted services. Yeah. Or those psychological services. Yeah. That would be a good visual for me to see 'em close together. If, if that's, if that's the case. But I'm, I'm sure the, the, the budget is set up in a certain manner in which like, if, if that was in a position that was open, but we had to use money for consulting, seeing those Yes. Right next to each other would be really good visual. Alright. 'cause then you could just, you could see the, the expense Mm-Hmm. Of it there. Mm-Hmm. So, so can I talk about visuals for a sec? Sure. I I'll get you doc. Um, on the expense side, when you're, when you're trying to read the expense side budget, and I, I'm fairly comfortable reading them, what might be nice, and I'm not suggesting that we have to do this, but what might be nice is to show the percentage of the encumbrance. Okay. So like if you have a a hundred thousand dollars encumbrance and you know, over here you've got a percent used, but that percent used could actually be the whole thing and not what's encumbered. And it doesn't consider what's not cumber, blah blah, blah, blah. Um, you know, we have these encumbrance lines that we know we're gonna go through a nine month cycle or whatever it happens to be to. So if you're doing a quick glance and you know, you're 20% expended. If you're trying to read through it really quickly, there's no anomalies to it. You know, you can just kind of pass through. But it's just, just food for thought. That's all. Mm-Hmm. Dr. Morris Percent covered. Good evening. So currently, and I'm not including positions that like are leave replacement 'cause someone's going on, uh, medical leave. You know, I'm talking about like actual vacancies because I think that's what you were Yeah. Am I reading that? I'm trying get out Basically like, I mean, if I know I'm like asking for data live, but like in my mind, what I think would be helpful to understand is basically what our fill rate is by unit. Right. Right. Right. So that I could do, so we have one open PSA position, personal service agreement, two non-contract positions, three unit A and five unit D. And we sort of have one you to B, but it's just about filled. So that's, that's where we are. That's not inclusive just because of what, um, Ms. Barry said. It's not inclusive of like the preschool position that's opening at Westfield River in January. 'cause that's not really a vacant, it's not an open position that isn't being filled. It's being budgeted for starting in January. Yeah. Does that give you Okay. You know, if I can just, you know, these are the best numbers we've had since Covid. Yeah, yeah. Clearly. And, and better than 90% of the districts around us. And, and, uh, I know people have talked about teacher retention. We do that very well. And I think there's a mis a mis uh, misnomer out there that we don't. But I mean, we, we, a lot of our teachers have been with us for long time. Yes. And so, um, just wanted to put that out there. We don't have a lot of attrition. Thank you. Can I just make one more comment going back to Dr. Gunther's, um, former point that, you know, we're tracking payroll by payroll and line by line, you know, what we're anticipating spending throughout the year and where we're gonna be in each line. And obviously, you know, these lines where we have $80,000 and no one hired, we're marking what we have saved with those payrolls throughout. So I know what's accruing or what the deficit is in each line. Yeah. Well, I'd like to thank you. This was not stumped. Thank you. This was not stumped Shannon night, but you, you're terrific. So life is good. You did. I didn't, well, I didn't, I didn't try. But a sooner or later I'm gonna get one. My, my money's on her. She, She's me too. She's really good. Could she want a meeting? Awesome. Because she can just swing over. Next up. Thank you. I think we gotta vote. Motion. Yeah. Gotta go to motion. Motion. Yep. Roll call. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Bo Sullivan. Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Tim O'Connor. Yes. Chairman McCabe. Yes. Thank you'd Like to make a motion to accept the following gifts, donations that have been made to the Westfield Public Schools donated Westfield High School from the trust of Ruth Han in the amount of $96 and 80 cents to the Westfield High School Library to use for educational purposes. Westfield High School Library donated to Westfield High School from Pancake Sundays in Westfield, mass, a bakery case to the Westfield High School Hospitality Program valued at between 500 and a thousand dollars for use in the hospitality program. Second Most been made. And second, is there any further discussion? Thank you for the continued generosity. Thank you for the continued generosity. The pancakes, we don't have solutions. Pancakes. Pancakes. Sunda Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Jeffrey ler. Yes. Kathleen? Yes. Other Sullivan? Yes. Tim O'Connor. Yes. Chairman McKay. Yes. She's taking the reigns. Let's go. Getting up. Okay, here I go. Uh, a reminder, there is no school for students tomorrow, Tuesday, November 5th. It is the election day. There's also no school, uh, schools are closed on Monday, November 11th in honor of Veteran's Day. Um, I wanted to just bring up, you know, last week we were at a, uh, what we, they call the conditions of education, uh, by the Renny Center. Um, and Secretary Tutwiler, who we seem to be seeing a lot of lately, um, was the featured speaker. And I just, I think it's pretty great that he recognized Westfield for quite a few things on, on top of his, once a bomber, always a bomber in front of a whole crowd of non Westfield people. Um, he did, uh, recognize for our work, early literacy, our work in early college and work-based learning. So it was nice to hear that as, as the state starts to focus on high school redesign and bringing up ideas that Westfield Public Schools has been doing for about a decade. So a little less, a little less than a decade. So, but it was just really great to get that recognition. Um, the only ones that responded always a bomber though, was us, myself, Susan and Cindy and Bo and Kevin. Right. I think those are the five people that the whole room. You guys were on board. We listen, you've trained us Mayor. We had that response like without even a thought. It did. So I just want you to know and Bo too, I mean, Yeah, Right on that. So, um, commissioner Russell Johnson is coming out. He's supposed to come November 7th. He's actually had to move the date, but he'll be here November 13th, which is now next week from 1245 to 12, uh, to, uh, two 15. He will be going to, again the Hangar two at Barnes in for the first 45 minutes. And then he'll be going to a school to, for project based learning more can be determined. This is really just hot off the press. And then, um, a fond farewell final open house for Abner Gibbs Elementary School and Franklin Avenue School. I scheduled for November 23rd from eight to one. So if you would like to take a last peek at those schools, um, again, is open to the public. That is a Saturday, November 23rd from eight to one. And that's all I have. Mr. Superintendent, do you add no off the top of your head. When is the next tuba meeting? November 20th at 21 Cycle Street. If you are Interested, say well done. Say good. Plug knew it, knew. We knew it right off the top of his head. You knew where I was going. Nice. Uh, next up, other education To Business Alliance. Do you have any other? Next up is me. Um, I got to see a lot of the schools over the last couple weeks since we've, uh, recently met. Um, uh, I did not get to see Megan Moran's, um, win, although I did get to serve burgers to the entire track team for about two hours, which was an absolute blast. So congratulations to them. Um, I went to the soccer game, the first soccer game against Ludlow. I'd like to report out that it was freezing. Um, I stood there for 40 minutes of the first half. It was nil, nil, but they ultimately achieved a two to one victory. Eli Hje or Ellie Eli, Ellie Hje, uh, was in the back parking lot last weekend. Um, she was recovering, uh, electronics. She had more than 200 people stop by while Westville citizens stopped by and drop off their unused electronics equipment as part of her Eagle Scout program. And the highlight of the week, which caused significant post-traumatic stress for me was to be at Westfield High School at seven 30 in the morning to address Mr. Darcy's current events class, which was an absolute blast. By the way. Mr. gy holds a class that I used to sit in. So it was a little, little bizarre. Um, it was a super amount of fun. The kids were great. They were super engaging and a lot of interesting questions. That is it for me. But it was, it was a, it was a great amount of fun. Next up, hold on. I'm following my list. I don't know what to Do. School Committee update. School committee update. Thank you. Heaven's. She's School committee update saying none. Oh, no, I was gonna go last. But, um, I, I, Mr. O'Connor and I had a real brief conversation on this and, um, the Westfield City of Westfield, in particular, the Westfield Public Schools lost a, uh, a true hero, uh, in this town about a week ago. Um, he was a middle school teacher for about 17 years. If anybody had him for Team Red back in the day, that's what he, that's what he did. And I think Mr. O'Connor still owes him about five hours worth of detentions. Um, and then he was the housing Authority director, executive director for the next 17 years. Uh, you, it's, it's, It's gonna sound a little strange, but it's fitting that tomorrow's election day. Uh, Danny Smith was one of the guys in town that did not miss an election day. And he let everybody know knew where he stood. Um, if, if you were on Dan Smith's side, he would meet you at the tavern or the Foster House in the day or wherever it was. Uh, if you were against him, he did the same thing. But he let you know, let you know he was against him. So, uh, he was, he was an icon in this town. And, uh, he just so happened to be best friends with my dad. So they were, uh, out and about, uh, on election day all over the place. They started every seven o'clock election. They were sitting at Highland School, uh, holding somebody's lawn sign. Um, you know, it was usually a Sullivan, but there was a few times it was an O'Connor. There was a few times it was the bigger races in the, uh, in the Commonwealth too. So, um, we think of Mr. Smith. Uh, Dan Smith was a, a friend to everybody here. And he, uh, services our, our Thursday if anybody's interested in that. But if Mr. Mayor, if I could, uh, ask, uh, for a moment of silence for Dan Smith. Uh, he was, he was an icon in this town, Certainly. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for saying something Bo He was an icon. Yeah. He taught me a lot. And I am sad to see, hear that He, uh, one, one quick thing. He was the president, past president of WGA, uh, what? He was a teacher. So he, uh, he was involved with everything. He did everything. So thank you. Thank you. Anything else from the school committee updates inside the house? We got in a little trouble last time on this next issue. Maybe this next issue should actually occur much earlier in the, in the agenda so that we don't mess it up. I'll just leave it at that. Any items to refer to Subcommittee? None. Any old business. Any new business. I'm just kidding. Subcommittee reports I'm not. Um, On October 17th, um, the Policy Human Resources and Policy Group met, um, and we reviewed eight policies. They were mostly about discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. The state has changed some laws statewide and we must change our policies to comply with the Massachusetts General law. We met again today to finalize policies and we'll bring them forward to the school committee on hopefully on November 18th. Thank you. Uh, the facilities and Capital Planning subcommittee met, uh, earlier this evening. Uh, two items on the agenda for tonight. One was the, uh, the Parkside Academy building, the old St. Cashmere's building. Um, and they're, uh, just a, just a quick update to the group. Um, we're continuing to clean out that building. Um, we have, uh, the much, if not all of the furniture that was in there has been cleared out, uh, there's still a mountain of documentation and we have somebody starting next week to actually go through that, that documentation, clean that out and get to the point where we've got, um, what it is we feel we need to, uh, be able to retain, uh, based on the, based on the standards, um, put forth. But, um, once, uh, the plan is, once AB closes, once the Admir Gibbs school closes, those documents will be, will be moved and be housed in admirer Gibbs and will be ready at that point to take up the conversation of, of surplus in that, uh, that building back to the city and moving forward with that. So, uh, just we're putting a pin in that for a short time until we get everything squared away and we get the actual documents moved out of the building to the point where we can, uh, where we can surplus that. Um, Can I ask a question of Mr. Rogers? Sure. Uh, Mr. Rogers, will all of the documents that get sent to Abner be vetted already in terms of their timeliness? So along with, uh, state police, yes. State police, state records, compliance laws. So we're, we're not moving stuff that really should not be moved. It should be destroyed. So the I, right. That's our plan. That's our plan is to have them all feted prior to moving anything over to And on the city side of the house. Who should the city work with in order to coordinate the effort? 'cause I, there, there may be some stuff that we can work together in terms of like moving documents. You know, I'm, we're gonna have to move some stuff because there are city personnel records. You are gonna have to move some stuff. So if maybe we could get together on the same, kind of just coordinate the effort, maybe we can, uh, make the load a little easier. Perfect. Um, the other item that we discussed was, uh, the consideration of a statement of interest to the MSBA, uh, for the potential replacement of Westfield High School and or Westfield Technical Academy, uh, determined. We still have some, some research that we need to do. So we've, uh, scheduled another, or we're working on scheduling another, uh, facilities and capital planning subcommittee meeting for, uh, December 2nd, uh, at 6:00 PM Should the, your, your committee also may be in December, put an item, I don't know if I'm allowed to do this. Put an item on your agenda to, uh, surplus that property back to the city of Westfield. Parkside. Parkside. Yeah. Yeah. That already was discussed tonight. So, I mean, we're going to do that once the documents are clear, I think to do it. That's why I'm saying December. Throw out an agenda. I'm with you. I, I got it. I got, okay. Thank you. Next it's me. I don't, Mike, Donna, I didn't mean to talk. I'm done. No, I'm good. Yep. Thank you. Um, I'd like to make a motion to accept the minutes of, uh, October 17th, 2024 of the Human Resources and Policy Committee. Thank We made in second. Any further discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. I'd like to make motion To accept the minutes of the instruction curriculum subcommittee meeting held on October 21st, 2024. A motion been made. And second, is there any further conversation? Seeing none. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Is that it for reports? Yep. Minutes are done. Any items not reasonably anticipated within 48 hours of this meeting. Next regularly scheduled school committee meeting is November the 18th and 2024. And that will be at seven o'clock. Is there another motion? Motion? Your attorneys been both made and seconded by the same party. Can you get that down for Mr. O'Connor? He's got vote. Can you do that? I'm not sure, sir. Aye. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion. Carrie, thank you very much.