##VIDEO ID:https://vimeo.com/1053234547## Good stuff. Okay. Good evening everybody. I, like I said, I dunno, I know less about it than anybody right at this point. That was just a preemptive good evening. Apparently She's getting tired. She's getting, she's better than she was. Gonna give him two seconds to get settled in. And, uh, then we'll get started. I can't do anything without the secretary, so that's where we are trying To get to the bottom. Yeah, I get it. Good one. Sorry. Fine. The best part was, I didn't even get it right away. Sorry. Yeah, yeah. I'd like to call the school committee, the Westfield School Committee. Uh, meeting to order. It's seven o'clock. And Mme. Sullivan, whenever you're ready. She said she was ready. I'm not her house owner. Long. We all have that. Okay. Jeffrey Gunther. Here. Kathleen Hill. Here. Bo Sullivan. Here. Heather Sullivan. Here. Mike Terrell. Here. Jim O'Connor. It's not here. And Chairman McCade here. Uh, it is time I'd like to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Pledge Allegiance to the, the Republic for which it stands. One Nation under God, invisible civil liberty and justice For Always worried. I'm gonna mess up the words. It's awful. This time I'd like to open up the floor, public participation. We will leave the floor open for 15 minutes or so. If anybody from the public would like to address the school committee. You have up to three minutes to do so. And if you choose to do so, please tell us what your name is and where you live. Wow. Seeing none. Moving on to item number three, which should be the Westfield River Elementary presentation. Look at you. How are you? I'm Good. How are You? How are the otters? I'm sorry. How are the Otters? The otters are great. Rocky, Mrs. Gy actually asked what the otters were doing tonight, and I said it's just me. Sorry. Oh, there you go. We have a lot of little otters not feeling good. So Good evening. I'm Jill Feland. I'm the principal of Westfield River Elementary School. Um, and I just thought tonight, uh, the building is quite new, obviously, but I thought I would share some of the ways that we've been using our spaces and some of the, um, activities that have been going on in just a few details about the school. Um, so this is our PBIS acronym. We say Westfield River Rocks, and we tried to tie everything into rivers and otters. Um, and we know that otters like to collect rocks and collaborate and work together. So we did our respond with respect. O own your actions. C collaborate. Kay. Keep trying. And s show kindness. And we practice this each day. The students say it each morning during our announcements and we hand out our rocky reward tickets for students who are showing rock's behavior. Just a little bit about the current school community. We currently have 406 students enrolled in pre-K through fourth grade. That includes our RISE program as well as 82 English language learners. Um, we've had an increase in students in the last week and a half, um, as far as English language learners, and you can see below just some of the languages that our students speak. Um, we have quite a variety. Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, Urdu, Kinyarwanda, Portuguese, and I know I'm forgetting some Chinese and Farsi are also up there. So we have a lot of students speaking a lot of different languages. Um, and they're working together and they're receiving their EL services and just working together nicely. So onto the pictures. Um, so we have our pre-K students who have been doing a great job getting into the school routines in the last three weeks. Um, they've only been with us for three weeks. They're already in the cafeteria carrying their trays, eating lunch with their friends. They're doing their center rotations, they're doing, um, their circle time and they're just fitting in very nicely and making lots of awesome progress. And they're so fun to see every day. They're always happy and smiling and excited to see you Kindergartners. It's like My office. I'm sorry. Your time. Oh Yeah. It's like my office. Um, so our kindergarten students are obviously working just as hard. Um, they're working on their center rotations. They're using their devices to work on iReady. Um, they celebrated Martin Luther King Day and they all created reasons why they have a dream and what their dreams are. And those are hanging outside in their breakout spaces. Um, and they're also very excited to have their new touch views in today. And one of the classes when I was in there was learning about animal adaptations and how animals adapt to the cold. First graders love their classrooms like no otter, We, We are not afraid of puns either. Um, each first grade student created an otter, uh, with their name on it and they're hanging outside in the breakout spaces. And they did that as a little come together activity. Um, and then you can just see them using the breakout spaces, which they do quite often. Those are great areas for students to collaborate. Our student teachers use those a lot when working with small stu small groups of students. Um, and our intervention staff are also using those breakout spaces. Second grade loves the entire building. Um, you can see them doing some quiet reading on the stairs. They love the quiet, calm down spaces, the little reading nooks by the windows. Um, and they also recently celebrated the Lunar New Year and they all made lanterns and learned all about that. And they were very eager to share and show those off on there. They're way out of the building. This is third grade. They're also using the breakout spaces. They recently took field trips to the Springfield Science Museums prior to that happening. The museums on the go comes in and, um, works with the students with what they will be seeing when they go to the museum. So they worked, um, in that breakout space on different activities, again, around adaptation, which fit really nicely in with their third grade curriculum. Um, and then prepared for the traveling, um, temporary exhibit at the museum called Robot Zoo. And then our fourth grade students. We also have a collaboration and partnership with the FAA much like Highland does. Um, and so we were fortunate to experience our first lesson at the start of January. Ed Cormier came in and worked with all fourth grade classrooms, and he's back in again this week for our second lesson. The students are super excited. He brought in all sorts of tools that they use for precision and navigation and measuring. Um, and then did activities with the students in the classroom to also kind of show them the importance of precision and attention to detail. And they absolutely loved it. They were just so engaged and completely enamored by everything that he had. And then just some of our specials. So this is, um, Mrs. Van Henigan, our art teacher, has put together some amazing work. They're studying artist Jim Dine. Um, and he does, um, a lot of like pop art and focuses on hearts. So they made the Giant Heart, which was on display at our open house. And then you can see some of the other heart displays that the students have created in third grade. And then the Otter artwork to celebrate our school courtesy of our fourth graders. The gym, of course, which is the best part of the entire school according to all of the students. Um, and they're really having a lot of fun. And you'll see at the end, one of the students said the best part of the new school is that they have a cafeteria and a gym. And that they don't need to be splitting their time and not being able to have lunch and, and gym at the same time. The library space is also very well used. If the librarian is not doing a class, a lot of times teachers will take their students down and do an activity with them in that area. And then coding for second graders in STE in our innovation lab. So doing a lot of hands-on work with Mrs. Conland to learn how to code and then actually sitting in small groups and making it happen with their partners. So lots of collaborating. And then finally in music learning to, um, keep time with the music and learning all about rhythm. And again, a lot of movement in in that class with Ms. Baker as well. And those were just a few of their favorite things. So you can see the Gym Rocks, um, and then just having the big breakout spaces. And one of the students actually said that they're doing so many cool things and the building is so much bigger that the day goes by so much faster and they are actually looking forward to school. So that was one of the best things to hear. And that is all I have for you. Thank you. Jill, Will you follow up with, I had an idea as you were doing this. I have some, uh, some visitors coming in March to Westfield State University. So I have something maybe that your students could do for me. Okay. So just if you circle back. Okay. Okay. I'm circle back. Yes. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you for the update. It is time, it's time for that Westville High School update. Well, I don't know how we can follow the otters. Okay. Who's Rocky? Who's Splash? I, I asked Mr. Raik if we could change to Otters. 'cause I want to be an Otter. Don't get me wrong. I love being a bomber. Nothing Wrong with them. Otters are cool. Good save. So good save because I was on it. Otters are super cool. They're awesome. All right. I feel like it's been quite a bit since we saw all of you. Hope holidays are well. We have a little bit to catch you up on. All right. So starting with our student council a few weeks ago on January 6th, students from our student council were able to go on a field trip to Worcester State University for the Inspire Massachusetts program. We got to hear from members of the Board of Education and teachers throughout Massachusetts and it gave us a lot of really good information moving forward with student council. We had a lot of things to talk about when we got back from the trip and it helped us kind of gather everybody together and bring together our more tight-knit student council. We have some awesome events that are being planned from student council that are happening this week. We actually have our one X show on Thursday where each grade gets to perform their own play. It's a really fun event that we host every year. Um, and another event that we were planning for is our second annual I Adore You Project, which is for our teachers in the building. We each pick a teacher and we decorate their doors after school at one of our meetings for Valentine's Day. And it was a really fun event this last year. So we're really excited to do it again this year. Before you go, before you go further, there are folks watching from home that don't know who you guys are. So could you just, oh no. Introduce yourselves. We know who you are because it goes say Rule number one. Alright. I'm Emery Smith and I'm on the Executive Board of Student Council. And I'm Sydney Duggan and I am the president of the Executive Board of Student Council. Thanks. Alright. And now moving on to Last Thursday, we held our science and engineering fair at the high school, um, alongside the Westfield Tech Academy. We had over 400 projects that were presented. Art presentations in three capstone projects being presented for feedback in their initial stages of development. We have 17 projects being chosen to move forward to the regional competition in March. Westfield High School would like to thank Mrs. Kagan, all of our science teachers, and all of the judges who took time out of their busy schedules to come and make the day. Great. Now leading up to fe February break, we have a spirit week for our students to get excited and involved in. We have our bummer pride day. We have our athlete versus athlete Rhyme without a reason. Dress your age, which is my favorite with underclassmen, dressing as babies, upperclassmen as senior citizens and teachers as teenagers. I'm excited for that one. And finally on Friday for Valentine's Day, everybody can dress in pink, red, or white. I'm excited for the pink one, but maybe that's just me. Alright. Our yearly NHS induction will be held in March inducting 60 new students with a quarter of them being seniors and the rest being juniors. This place take, this takes place in the auditorium and is a great way to celebrate the honor and accomplishment of being accepted into our National Honor society. Speaking of accomplishments, seven of our swimmers made it to Western Mass this weekend and are hoping to advance to the state tournament representing Westfield. The Boys Hockey Senior night is this Wednesday and our girls and boys basketball senior nights are the following week. And a little bit about our clubs that we have right now. Dear Le is a new club to Westfield High School and focuses on sending care packages, letters, and first aid needs to those in foreign countries who don't have access to these items. Our club here at Westfield High School has sent out three care packages to Costa Rica and Panama this year. In addition to partnering with a company to send construction supplies to Costa Rica for the summertime, when a handful of our students fly down there and work on community projects, jumping clubs, the Westfield High School Library Club has been working hard to create cards and to decorate our libraries for, which is a great way for students to make our space beautiful. Leading up to Valentine's Day on February 6th, we have an opportunity for seniors to join a class on scholarship applications. We will have a class period all day, or one class period during the day for all students interested in learning about how to apply for different scholarships that align with their future plans. It's a great opportunity for us to prepare for the future. And all interested members in senior class will be invited to participate in the workshop sponsored by our school counselors. Speaking of school counselors, it is National School Counselors Week, and we would like to thank all of our counselors and adjustment counselors for always being helpful in being such a valuable part of our school, especially during this time of the year, as counselors and students who are making the important decision of choosing what to do with the the rest of their lives. After high school on February 14th at six 30, our award-winning show choir will be performing their 15th annual cabaret, whatever pays the bills, honoring Billy Joel's greatest hits. It'll be an amazing night full of singing, dancing, and we hope to see you all there. And on March 14th, our Westfield High School band will be holding a Taylor Swift tribute artist as a fundraiser in our auditorium. We would also like to say to wrap up our presentation today, a big congratulations to Westfield High School Senior Luke Bolon on being selected for Massachusetts Allstate Choir. Oh, Cool. Great. Good for him. That's all. We All right. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank You. I'll see you next month. Oh yeah, we'll be back. Don't you worry. Next up, I think it's Patty and Milk, but we got some exception of a donation. West Springfield, Westfield Lodge. Elks Lodge. 1481. You want the motion? After you wanna know, I'd like to make a motion to accept a donation from the Westfield West Springfield Elks, uh, 1481, uh, of 379 dictionaries to be presented to grade three students. It's got a value of $6,818 and 21 cents. Second Motion made. And second, is there any further discussion? Well, Patty Floor, yours. Okay. Hello, uh, so this is Bill Vasquez. He's the exalted ruler. And I'm Pat O'Connor. And I am the Lodge secretary and the literacy project chairperson for the Westville West Springfield Lodge Belks on 56 Franklin Street in Westfield. Our largest jurisdiction includes Westfield and West Springfield, but also Agawam the Southwick Tall and Grandville region, and the towns of the Gateway region. It's a pleasure to be here tonight to talk about the most powerful life changing, mind expanding project known to humanity. The Elks Dictionary Project. Yes, folks, we're talking about the noble mission of handing out dictionaries to third graders. You might be thinking dictionaries and the age of smartphones, AI and autocorrect. Yes, because let's face it, autocorrect has been doing us dirty for years. So in 1992, Annie Plumber of Savannah, Georgia gave 50 dictionaries to the children who attended a school close to her house. The project caught on. In 1995, Mary French, a school volunteer in Charlton, formed a 5 0 1 C3 nonprofit. And the dictionary project was born by 1999. It was adopted throughout the country. And the benevolent from Protective Order of Elks joined as a sponsoring organization. 2004. In the 20 years since the Elks have provided over fif over 5 million dictionaries to students nationwide. Now, for those of you unfamiliar with this project, here's how it works. Members of the Elks Lodge visit local schools, distribute dictionaries and ignite the joy of learning. It's kind of like Oprah's favorite things except of you. You get a car, you get a car, it's, you get a dictionary, you get a dictionary. And while the kids might initially think, wait, where's the wifi button on this thing? Soon enough, they realize the true magic is inside. You see, these dictionaries don't just define words. They open doors. They introduce young minds to the wonders of language, the thrill of knowledge, and most importantly, the ability to spell Supercalifragilistic Osis without just mashing keys on the keyboard and hoping for the best. So there's some who question the need for dictionaries with the current technology available. So can't they just look it up on their Chromebook? Well, at the same time, don't So many also complain how kids these days always have their face in their electronics. So why would we encourage and contribute to that behavior by denying them access to printed material? Now, some skeptics might ask, why give kids dictionary when they have Google? Well, let me tell you, Google is great, but it won't teach the kid kids the joy of flipping through the pages and accidentally stumbling onwards. Like flip, flip Gibb. Anybody know Whater? Gibb means ary. Let's get these people. Dictionary. Dictionary, yes, ary. It's an excessively talkative individual is what it is. Uh, and let's be honest, when kids Google something, they don't end up learning definitions. They end up watching cat videos and somehow two hours later find themselves researching whether Bigfoot is real. But a dictionary, it's focused, it's dependable, it doesn't run outta battery, and it won't start showing you ads for things you wished about last night. Plus, let's not forget these dictionaries contain more than just words. They have maps, they have the longest word in the English language. The Constitution is in there. It's like the Swiss army life of knowledge. You could get lost in desert with this book, and you'd still be able to locate Antarctica while correcting spelling dehydration. Besides the fact that physical book is much more easily transported and does not require internet capabilities, using technology as the primary source of information can create learning limitations and allow for greater distractions. Research has reported that students who read print versus eBooks experience less mental fatigue and significantly lower levels of eye fatigue. That eye fatigue can result in behavioral and motivational issues, or a dislike for schoolwork in general, which can also affect their overall education and even their love of reading for, for enjoyment. The research will also tell you that the tactile satisfaction of printed materials, the touch, the feel, the smell, all add to the experience of reading and age, and a aids in retaining more information leading to higher performance on comprehension tests. The goal of the literacy program is to assist all students in improving their communication skills to become better writers, active readers, creative thinkers, and resourceful learners by providing them with their own personal dictionary. It's implemented in the third grade each year as this is the age at which dictionary skills are usually taught. A time when students transition from learning to read, to reading, to learn, even if schools do not use paper dictionaries on a regular basis, the dictionaries are a gift for the students to bring home to be their own. In nine, in the 20 23, 24 school year, 43% of the students in Massachusetts lived in low income families. Not all children, especially at lower grade levels, have computers at home, plus children love books. And placing a useful and potentially influential book like a dictionary into a child's hand is a very powerful thing. So tonight, let's celebrate the Elk's Dictionary Project. And as corrected by the secretary that it's now the Elk's Literary Project Literacy Literacy Project, sorry, she's still correcting me. So, um, let's celebrate not just for what it is, but what, uh, for what it represents. A commitment to education, a belief in the power of words, and the simple yet profound act of putting knowledge into the hands of a child. And who knows, maybe one of these days, one of these kids will use their dictionary to write a bestselling novel, or at the very least, learn how to spell definitely correctly the first time. So tonight, it's our privilege and our pleasure to formally present to you and through you to the students of Westfield Schools, a total of 379 dictionaries as our gift to each third grade student to use at school and at home for the years to come. Thank you. And remember that words matter. Thank You. Thank you. Appreciate any further discussion. Can I, Yeah, I just, I just want to thank the Elks, 'cause this for making us laugh, first of all. Um, but it's more than dictionaries with you guys. I know there's a, a ton more that you do for this town. You still do the free throw shooting contest. You do bike rides to raise money for different charities around town. Uh, I know you donate money to, uh, put computers in different labs around town and things like that. So this is one of the things the Elks does, and I think they get kudos for all they do for, uh, not only Westfield now obviously West Springfield and all the hill towns that you, that you mentioned too. So kudos to you and congratulations. I'm pretty good at remembering faces, so I expect to see you all come down and get a membership application at other Times sitting at my desk. I'm good For you. See what happens. Except It's Filled out on my desk. It's Paul And I gonna get to figure out where we know each Other from. Yes. But please consider being a member of Thes. We do a lot of good stuff here. Any further discussion? Ms. Sullivan? Just thank you. Yeah, it say just thank you. Yeah. Um, did we make A motion? Yep. Your motion been made and seconded. We, Mike gone by discussion way. Who did? No motion. Second Mike. Me and Mike. Oh, Mike. Okay. Sorry. No, It's good. Alright. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman. Yes. Bo Sullivan. Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. Chairman McCabe, Matt and Patty? Yes. Thank you very much. Appreciate It. Thank you so much. Next up, Uh, Thank you guys. We might need a larger podium committee. Alright, good evening. Uh, so several months ago when we were talking about the Fort Meadow, uh, process, uh, we talked about putting a committee together to plan how this would happen. And so we did that. And the majority are actually here tonight too, that you can see. Um, and they will let you know, uh, what they went through and what they found out. And I know you have a copy, uh, in case you can't read that as well, that was put in the, in the share. So without any further ado, we'll let them begin and then come back up at the end. And that was Stefon, our Superintendent in schools. Thank you. Please introduce yourselves when you come up. Good Evening everyone. Chris Rogers, uh, Westfield Schools Operations and Safety. Um, and I had the, the privilege and the honor to be the, uh, the, the committee chair for our pre-K transition committee. And I'd like to take a minute right now just to introduce all of our members, um, and so they can be recognized for the outstanding work that they've done, um, you know, since really November 1st. So, I'd like to start with, uh, Dr. Gunther. Thank you Jeff. Um, and Mr. Mike Terrell. Mike, thanks for being a member of the team as well. I'd like to introduce Dr. Shea. I ended up, oh, you ended up on that side. Thanks, Christine. Uh, Mrs. Deb Ecker, um, from Special Education. I'd like to introduce Mr. Jonathan's schedule, current principal of Fort Meadow Early Childhood Center. Uh, Ms. Carrie Cox, our, uh, elementary special education supervisor, Mrs. Erica Mare, current principal of Highland Elementary School. This is Alexandra Kleins, principal of, uh, Munger Hill Elementary School. Um, Ms. Mariana Sullivan, a current staff member paraprofessional at Fort Meadow, ECC, uh, Mrs. Sandy Gilbert. Current teacher at Fort Meadow, ECC Mr. Matthew Roth, representing the WEA and Mr. Jamie O'Neill, our lead manager of Autism and Social Emotional Services for Westfield Public Schools. Not unable to join us tonight, uh, as Mr. Brian Osa from our district maintenance department, who is a very valued member of the team. So, without further ado, I'd like to turn this over to, uh, myself and Mike, I guess. Yeah. So Mike, do you wanna talk a little bit about what the, what our charge was? Yeah, I mean, it's, it's pretty, pretty clear here, right? The, the charge of this group was to plan the transition of the Fort Meadow School community into the Highland and Munger Hill School communities. Um, anybody that's followed this story for some time knows it goes way beyond, uh, that, uh, this has been, uh, something that started, uh, before my time, uh, back here on the committee, uh, in the form of trying to do investigation as to what it might take to rehab the building, the, the Fort Meadow building. Um, we've had a, a few different plans as, uh, as, as many of you know, uh, along the way as to how we can solve the sort of dilemma, the, the facilities dilemma that we have with the Fort Meadow, uh, with the Fort Meadow building. And this is the, this has been, this is the, the, the last, the latest and last iteration, um, of, uh, of, of, of our solution to a, uh, move past, uh, the physical problems that we have with the building. And b, to figure out how to, uh, to really transition, uh, that Fort Meadow program into the overall, uh, pre-K program within the city as we've had more and more, uh, pre-K classrooms, uh, coming forward in our, in our individual elementary school. So, I dunno if you have anything to add to that, Chris, but No, I really can't, can't top that Mike. And again, just as you know, this has been a, as Mike said, this has been a, and, you know, has been a long process for us. It's been a long time in the making. And, and I really, again, want to tell you how privileged I was to be able to, to, to work with this fine group of people since November 1st. And we've, we've met 10 times since then. And we've, we've got a, a good comprehensive plan to share with you tonight. And I'd like to turn it over to one of my colleagues, Erica Mare. Hi there. So our process, just to give you some information, um, the committee has convened 10 times since November 1st, and we will reconvene as necessary going forward. Um, we focused on three areas, logistics, which includes details about the building, specifics, available spaces and estimated financial impact, and a comprehensive plan and timeline for movements scheduled. In June, July and August, we've mapped out potential locations and identified spaces for future layouts, including the outside spaces of the schools. Our program integration committee worked on work, um, worked to ensure that our program aligned effectively and efficiently. Our student needs discussed about the emphasized, emphasized understanding, and addressing the needs of our students. And additionally, the committee has toured the spaces at Munger, Highland and Fort Meadow. We were particularly focused on the configuration for incoming 4-year-old students that are already enrolled in the preschool program, that into account their needs, the homeschool and current peers. Finally, we have proposed a transition timeline for both internal and external classroom moves. So, as we looked at those classroom needs, we identified a draft based on current projections of students coming in, and identified 14 classroom layout between Highland, Munger Hill, south Hampton Road, and Westfield River Schools. So, at Highland and Munger Hill schools, we would have five classrooms for preschools next year at Highland and Munger Hill. We would, in the draft proposal, have three, 4-year-old full day classroom programs. And then we would have half day classroom programs. One of those half day classroom programs would be a half day, 4-year-old program and a half day, three-year-old program. So where you see one 4-year-old and three three year olds, one of those would be a 4-year-old and a 3-year-old combined in the one classroom. And then the other classrooms would be half day, 3-year-old, half day 3-year-old. At South Hampton Road, there would be two preschool classrooms, one of which would be 4-year-old, full day, and then a half day 4-year-old, half day 3-year-old. And that would be mirrored at Westfield River as well. Two classrooms, one full day, 4-year-old. And then the other half day program, which would be half day four year olds and half day three year olds. Um, our classroom configurations will be that most of our four year olds will attend a full day session, um, which equals up to about 180. Uh, 4-year-old students would come full day. Most three year olds would come to a half day session, um, which would allow for 120 3-year-old students to attend. Um, the enrollment, as always, for special education, um, would be ongoing throughout the course of the school year. Um, as children turn three and are found eligible under IEP, um, under special services, they would continue to enroll, um, or move in, or potentially peers that are found eligible for special ed would just roll into the special education slots. Um, enrollment for peers is based upon availability, um, and our related services, ot, pt, speech A BA would be distributed amongst all of the preschool classrooms based on student need and caseloads. Um, one of the things that we were very aware of and tried to do is make sure that we had not only full day programs for the four year olds, but also half day programs for, um, some four year olds based on what the parents wanted, what the student's needs were, um, and availability. Uh, good evening. Members of the school committee. My name's John Schedule, principal of Fort Meadow. Tonight we're excited to present this strategic timeline for the transition of the Fort Meadow School community into the Munger Hill and Highland School communities. Our goal is to execute this transition with efficiency care and a strong commitment to minimizing disruptions for students, families, and staff. While being mindful that budget considerations may impact some aspects of the timeline. This is a structured timeline that will guide this transition. So this month in February, we're laying the foundation. We have our presentation to the school committee tonight for, uh, preparation and release of community communication, including a press release and frequently asked questions document to ensure transparency and engagement. In March, we'll be preparing for the physical and organizational transition that involves hiring professional movers to assist with a relocation process, initiating classroom construction to prepare the new spaces at Highland and Munger Hill, opening the student enrollment and lottery window. Fa to facilitate a seamless registration process, sharing tentative to floor plans with staff. In April, we'll be assessing and organizing resources. This involves placement of dumpsters at Fort Meadow to assist with necessary cleanup, conducting an equipment, furniture and materials needs assessment to determine what will be relocated and what will need to be discarded. In May we'll be finalizing logistics and school readiness. We'll be conducting pre pre-K screenings. We'll be completing necessary fence work at Highland Munger Hill to support a safe and developmentally appropriate learning environment. We'll be notifying staff at Highland Munger Hill of the designated classroom locations, allowing for preparation and planning. In June, we're beginning to move. We're gonna be pack the packing of Fort Meadow classrooms in preparation for the transition, initiating pre-K room preparation and internal moves at Highland and Munger Hill, removing obsolete equipment and supplies from Fort Meadow to streamline the move and optimize space in the new locations. In July, we'll have our internal moves and summer cleaning. We'll be finalizing all internal classroom moves at Highland and Munger Hill, conducting summer cleaning to ensure a fresh and welcoming environment for students and staff. In the fall, in August will be our final preparations for the move. We'll be executing the formal move of all necessary materials, including changing tables, dividers, and other essential pre-K equipment to Highland and Munger Hill. Be hosting pre-K play dates and social events at the new school locations to help families and students acclimate to their new settings. We'll be planning transportation routes to ensure a smooth first day of of school experience for all, all families. In September, a new beginning, welcoming students for the first day of school in their new pre-K spaces. Fully prepared and excited to embark on this new chapter. This transition is not just about relocating classrooms. It is about creating a nurturing, supportive, early learning environment that will serve our students and families for years to come. We are confident that by adhering to this timeline, we'll ensure a smooth and successful integration of the Fort Meadow community into the Highland in Munger Hills schools. We look forward to working together to bring this plan to fruition and appreciate the continued support of the school committee, our staff, and the entire community. Thank you. And I think at this point we'll be taking questions. Thank you John. Yeah. At this Thank you everybody for presenting tonight. At this point, we'd like to turn it over to you to ask us some questions and, um, we'll do our best to answer. So before we move on, I want to thank everybody for participating in the committee itself. I know it doesn't, you know, 10 10 meetings a lot. 'cause I can do the, the, uh, the weeks in my head and it comes out to about one a week and trying to get it right. So you're to be applauded for all the work that you're doing. It's, it's kind of hard to believe that we're almost there. Um, but that's enough from me. Are there questions from the committee, Ms. Hillman? Um, I would like to know, um, with the projected numbers for, uh, the three year olds and the four year olds, what percentage are we servicing with that breakup? More special education? No, just as, as for anything kids going into the program with the lottery, with, I mean, what is our projected numbers of kids that age in our, in our city right now or next year? Mm-hmm. I think the projection, because I, I would like to know a percentage of how many our kids are being serviced by these programs and how many are not being serviced. And how will, um, the preschools in our area be used? You know, are they being, are most of the kids getting serviced with this? Or are parents still have to go out and find preschools? Um, So, so just quick, if our average class size is about, say, three 50, right? And we just heard 3 79 in grade three. So this looks to service about 300. So that would be, I would say don't, maybe 75% ish of, I mean, what's 300 to 3 79? It's, it's only 184 year olds though. Oh. Oh. But she said what percentage? Thank you. That's two grades. It's two grades. So even less than half then, because, you know, this is the capacity that we have at this time, but it is more Than previous. I, I get that. Oh. But then there's parents who aren't going to get in because of the lottery. And now what happens to our, our preschools here in town. That's what I'm wondering. Um, well, one of the things that we have through our, um, CPPI grant, one of the goals is actually to provide access to all children through the school, is, you know, one area. But we also have our partners at the Y and the Boys and Girls Club. We have family daycares, we have other center-based cares. We have Head Start. So, you know, together, we're hoping to be able to meet the need. Um, it's a work in progress, but there's definitely, um, that's the goal that we're working towards. Because these are free programs, right? They're free for the parents, where parents, other parents who are in our city are gonna have to pay for their child because they won't be able to get in here. Yes. That's a concern of mine. Right? Absolutely. And through EEC, there are other funding sources. That's not my area of expertise, but, um, there's a couple other funding sources along with CPPI that provide some funding for that. Um, but it is definitely, um, something that, you know, is a concern that families may not be getting the, um, care that they're looking for. Um, we are, we just concluded a survey, so we have to be looking at the results to see, you know, what the families that did respond, um, how, how they're seeing their pictures, you know, how many families are saying their needs are met, and what do we need to do to, um, try to meet other needs. Thank you, Dr. And that's a community wide, you know, that's a Westfield Communitywide conversation. Mr. Uh, I just wanted to just point out that, um, you Absolutely right. Um, Kathy, in terms of, uh, the overall number versus the number of the projected number of each of those, um, age groups? Uh, we don't have enough seats at this point. Through this plan though, we are basically increasing. We have, uh, somewhere rough numbers around 240 open or 240 pre-K seats in the district right now. This would put us at about 300, so about 25% increase, uh, from what we have today, uh, with this new plan. So, still a problem. And I'm, and I'm not, I'm not denying that, but a, a step in the right direction. Tell, um, just a question. Um, busing, are kids gonna be bused here or are parents going to have to drive your talk? Like what happens right now? Well, if the student, so when we are, um, when we looked at projected enrollments and placements, uh, we looked at various things. We looked at the student needs, we looked at what their homeschool would be, um, and then their current peers. If a student's on an IEP and requires transportation, they would be transported. If the student is in their homeschool. If a Highland pre student who is preschool goes to Highland and lives near Highland, that the parent may bring them. Um, so it really would depend on the student in their homeschool. Okay. And whether or not they have an IEP. Thank you Ms. Second. Any other questions? Mr. Sullivan? Does every three yearold that's in the program right now guarantee a spot for next year? Yes. The projected four year olds? Yes. Correct. Yes. Yes. And does every employee that's in Fort Meadow right now be rehired? That's our plan honor. Yeah. The, the reason to, to follow up on that first question, the reason that we started with the four year olds first is because we wanted to make sure we took care of the kids that were currently enrolled first. Mm-hmm. And made sure that they had a spot. Thank you, Dr. Morris. Mike Morris, human resources. And, uh, the short answer to your question is, uh, coming up for some budget conversations. And so this is true not for Fort Meadow. Not Fort Meadow across the district. We're having to consider all sorts of options as we look through budget, uh, in terms of, I think as we shared earlier in terms of student needs and kind of resources that would go with kids that's moving. But I don't think we can make definitive statements on, you could ask me about Fort Meadow. You could ask me about the district office. You could ask me about any other school. And right now, until we start talking more about budget, we can't say anything definitively. Okay. Dr. So for a comment and then a question to that I want to make sure, did Dr. Morris, that Dr. Morris, Dr. Morris would agree with, but maybe others, the comment Don't go too far. Um, I think to your, to your question, um, one of the things on the prior slide about the reason for third grade, like half day, 3-year-old and half day 4-year-old, one of the things that came up in the committee conversations was ensuring that the three day, 3-year-old, 4-year-old, half day full day structure would allow students to promote within the, where they were in the prior year. So trying to make sure that the con that like those sat, those seats, and the continuity that comes with that, since one of our stated objectives is reducing the number of transitions was a core design constraint that came up a lot in the committee conversation. Um, the question, my understanding coming away from this that I want to make sure is, is true, is that I get the budget, the, the budget is, affects everything about this. My understanding, walking away from this is that the instructional staffing, the support staffing is intended to be, would be the scene if we were making this transition or not. We are not using this as a def as a justification for, as a plan to reduce instructional or support staffing. Is that a true understanding? Yes. Right. Okay. Yes. Got lots of questions. Um, when will parents, um, learn about what school they're gonna go to? Because I don't see that in the plan at all. And I, I live in an area where my students would, from my area would go to paper mill. But Who's gonna, who's gonna handle that question for us? Um, I think the timeline for enrollment is March. So, um, I mean that does require finding out who's interested, getting parents to potentially fill out a form of interest and then figure figuring out, um, numbers and as you said, neighborhood schools and all of that. So once we get through that, then would we'd reach out to families? Are you taking, oh, can I ask another One? Why not? Are you taking requests? I know somebody in my neighborhood really wanted their child, they had one at Fort Meadow and they want their next child to have a specific teacher. Are there any requests gonna be granted for a specific teacher, uhhuh or a school? I mean, one thing that we are looking at in terms of preferences is, is going to the school closest to where families live. Um, I'm not sure that we've gotten to that question yet about specific teachers. One thing that we are doing when we're getting questions about preschool, um, because people don't wanna miss the opportunity, is we're taking names and contact information so that when we do send out information, we'll make sure that they'll get, you know, anything that we're sending out and who follow Up. Hold on just a second. That seems to me that that would become part of a slippery slope, Right? Yeah, I don't, just asking because I don't, I don't think that that's something that we'd actually want to entertain, to be honest with you. I think that, you know, if the school, if the child got to the school that the child wanted to go to where the child got placed would be up to the administration of the school. Yeah. I mean, that's not something that we've talked about at all at this point. No. And I wouldn't, I didn't want that when I was a middle school principal and I didn't want it when I was an elementary principal. Right. It's just, It's Miss Hillman. It's Up to us. Lemme just think of what I was gonna ask as a follow up. Um, so are the have, if someone the lottery did, I think you were going to ask Well, who to contact? They can reach out to me if they wanna get on sort of just the list so that we can send out information. Okay. And has the lottery been, have people been notified that there's a lottery now? It hasn't come out yet. And how is that gonna come out? That's gonna be a community wide, um, communication. It's gonna go out as we send a lot of things out through the community, through our Facebook, through thrill share, maybe put something in the paper, you know, we'll get it out there as widely as possible. We have a connection with the, um, like early intervention with, um, playgroups and town libraries, things like that. Okay. Okay. So I have a toss up now. It's between the two celibates. Let go first. There you go. I just want one clarification on that last question. This lottery's no different than any other elementary school preschool program. Correct. They're all gonna be done at the same time. It's all gonna be March and people will find out what school they're going to, Right? That's our plan. Same As everything else, Correct? Yes. Mr. Sullivan. We, We, but with the caveat that we also will continue to admit and serve special education students in the same way that we do currently at Fort Meadow and are required to and are gonna make sure we retain adequate seats in the lottery to Correct. Serve those students. Right. I gotcha. Okay, Ms. To, okay, so I have, um, I am pretty sure everybody here knows where I'm gonna go, so I No, we don't. Well, I, Fort Meadow has is a particular program that is dealing with a particular group of students and their ratio of teachers and support staff to student is remarkably high. And for that reason, we see such great results out of there. These two programs are going into schools that quite frankly, after looking into a few things, um, are inundated, uh, overworked, um, groups are too big. Whether or not we're going to say that's the real thing or not, that's what I'm hearing. That's the questions that I pose to these people. And that's what I got for feedback. So I don't have any data, but I have plenty of human contact that are doing on, on the streets every day with these kids. So with that said, how are we going to service? So take a school like Munger Hill pretty big and take a, take a program like Fort Meadow and put it in there and tell me that they're, they're, they're staffed. Tell me how we're going to, um, work out the special ed issue. Um, because their students, those particular students need that ratio they're used to and the support that they're used to. With that said, Munger help could use some help their over text with their speech, ot. And that's every school, but we're talking about this one right now. So I want to, and, and behavioral. 'cause I just looked over at Jamie and realized I forgot that. Um, so I want to know what you see through the CPPI grant, you know, uh, classrooms, what you see with what you have now and what that looks like. What you guys see is, um, numbers coming through that are gonna need services and can, do we have the staff to fill it? And please, please be clear of whether or not you have the staff or not. So looking at, let's look at Munger Hill. I kind of did a little bit of a break, but down. Um, of course this is all depending on which students are actually gonna be in Munger, right? And which students are actually gonna be at Highland or how many high needs are gonna be at Munger versus Highland. But let's look at Munger right now. Munger Hill without, without these additional preschools, they have, uh, one speech therapist and two speech assistants. Alright? Uh, Fort Meadow has two speech assistants, uh, two speech therapists, three speech assistants. The Versus how many students now say No, No, that I'm getting to that Heather. Okay. So we're not looking at the, we are not looking at the current Munger Hill speech staff for our pre-K students. Next year, we're looking at the Fort Meadow speech staff and the CPPI speech staff to service our preschool children. So we are not going to be number one taxing the existing staff that are in the schools now. And granted they have large caseloads. No one is denying that they're Already taxed. Right. Um, but what we're saying is we're going to take the, those Fort Meadow staff and divide them to the schools based on the student needs as well as the addition of the CPPI staff. So the CPPI staff and the Fort Meadow support staff are pre-K staff. pre-K. Just pre-K. And I hope that answers your question a little bit. A little bit. Okay. So they're not gonna be absorbed into the school the following Year? No. Because you know, with the CPPI, um, we know that there are students that are not being serviced in that program either, right? Now, am I correct in saying that? Say again? I'm sorry. So some projected students that we see Coming in right, Elected that could maybe use behavioral or some other services, are they receiving it now in the CPPI classrooms, We have a, we just had A-B-C-V-A start. Um, so just let me, I'll tell you right now from, just if you wanna think about without the existing, um, let's not talk about the related services at the schools that are ex that are servicing students at these schools. Now let's just talk about the, the, the staff that we're going to have, I guess, reserved for our preschool students. We're going to have from Fort Meadow, two speech therapists, three speech assistants, plus an additional speech therapist from CCC CPPI, which Will go to four schools, Depending, it depends on the caseloads, but that's in addition to what we have already. And then for ot, there's an additional OT from CPPI for preschool only. They'll als there's also going to be A-B-C-P-A in addition to what we have and an RVT in addition to what we have. Okay. So with, you're saying that though, uhhuh, you're saying that they're gonna service all the preschools and these numbers right now that, that we were talking about that Fort Meadow had was only for Fort Meadow. Now we're taking that staff and we're putting them at, they're gonna do the, they're gonna do four schools. But if you look at the BCBA, let's look at the BCBA, and I don't want to talk for you, Jamie, but let's just look at the BCBA. Fort Meadow has A-B-C-B-A. That BCBA is going to be working with the preschool students as well as the C-P-P-I-B-C-B-A. We haven't had No, I'm Just, I know, but, but we, let's, let's talk apples to apples here. Yep. The CPPI, um, BCBA, all these acronyms, how, how much, how many kids are they seeing and for how long? Right now take that one. So currently we hired a behaviorist who's in a program to become A-B-C-B-A. So she's Who, how many people have been serviced this year from A-B-C-B-A in the CPPI classrooms? I'd have to look at the numbers, but I know that the individual case load is not as, um, rigorous as the Fort Meadow caseload. So essentially You haven't had anybody though. That's the reason. Well, we did have a person, yes. She took a job at the middle school. So she moved up to the middle school. We've had a, a month or two where we didn't have a person hired this behaviorist. She's coming on board to take that over. The individual caseload for the CPPI fund, uh, grant funded positions is not as dense as it is for the, for Fort Meadow. So it's more of a consultative model where she's gonna be going to the classrooms assisting on the art tent team with behavioral strategies for classrooms, and then picking up any of the cases that would be more I-E-P-A-B-A services based. So if I am a person that's asking, I'm sorry, but I I've been waiting a long time for this one. Yeah, no, absolutely. I'm with you. But can I, can I ask you one thing? Yeah. One question at a time so that they can response. Okay. Yeah, that's my, So I, I know I, I think as far as like the, the caseloads, we need to know where kids are going first. Right. And then, like Deb was saying, the Fort Meadow VCBA, who we just hired today. So we've been about a month without A-V-C-B-A. See, I've heard it was longer. Uh, the And, and The current BCBA from Fort Meadow left right after the, uh, Christmas vacation. And we've had a month, so she started today. So there's been basically a month without a BA services or BCBA services there. Okay. If I wanted to project what was coming in to kindergarten from the preschools right now, including CPPI, do we have numbers of what we see are gonna need services? Do we have the numbers for, Do we have a tentative number from input from the other programs teachers, uh, uh, you know, who are in the classrooms every day? Do we have a tentative number of, or, um, perspective students that they see might be needing extra services, ot, PT, whatever. Do we have a number? I know that for, for example, there's about 14, uh, kindergarten students potentially slotted for like the milestones program. Um, do you want me to put the Behavioral? Yep. Okay. Yet we have only one person that's doing behavioral doing 14 who just started today. This is what I'm saying. I feel like we're already understaffed for this whole endeavor. And it's a concern of mine because what we're doing is you guys are the base baseline right here. The more services they get here, we're hoping to alleviate the issues when they get up into the upper grades, which we're seeing such an increase in sending people out of district. I'm not blaming anybody. I don't want this to be a blame game. I want it to be a, what can we do different? Because I don't trust what's going down. I don't, I don't think we're servicing all of our students right now. I don't, not in the effective way that is going to create change in our testing scores and keeping them in district. So for me, I get what we have to do fiscally. I understand it makes sense, but I'm trying my hardest to stay calm and, and effective in my speaking that we have an issue. And if we don't start addressing it, we are gonna have bigger issues to come. We're seeing it now. So I appreciate everything everybody's doing, but you cannot help kids without staff. And I don't think we're, I don't think that we have enough, and I know we have budgets. I hear that. But we have to re, we have to get creative. And I have been watching kids not get serviced and hearing and asking, and it's enough. And I see it in the CPPI only because it's not your fault, but you can't service somebody if you don't have A-B-C-V-A in there. And you can't go in once every four weeks for an hour. It's ineffective. It's ineffective. You are already seeing 14 or 15. We haven't been servicing 'em. It's February not, I'm just saying, let's put this together. And it is such a concern for me, and I need everybody to come together on this. I, I can't be the lone star out here. Don't tell them my name and don't say this. I need people to fight for this. It's that important. BCBA. How over words are you, Jamie and your staff? It's, it's pretty tough. It's wicked tough. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot, there's a lot of, uh, stuff, you know, we're definitely seeing major increases in, in the rates of, uh, autism moving in. Our programs are getting pretty full, Wicked full. And we need, I I, I think going back to the preschool, and I, I hear what you're saying. I, I, I do. I've talked to, I know that, but I think going to with, as far as the support staff, the original question of the support staff that we are going to, the takeaway is that, at least I was trying to get to, I know is That, that it's going to be the same amount of support staff I don't feel with the CPI to the students that are in the preschools and in addition to the existing support staff that are in the schools. I guess that was the takeaway that I was trying to come Across. One last question and I'll leave it. Yeah. I, I got to say my piece and I feel happy about that. With the increase in the number of students going to preschool in this community, do we have a body that will be overseeing, uh, just the preschool As in an Administrator? Well, like at the high. Yeah. Like, so at the high school we have, you know, so for the different subjects we have, okay. Do we have, um, We have the evaluation team leader for the IEP students. And then as far as there will be someone to oversee the preschool community, I guess programming As well. One person or a team Would be an administrator, Right? It would be a team. A team, right? Because I mean, one person to oversee all of the issues that we see coming in and merging all of these programs, they're beauty. Alright. That's all I have for now. Thank you. Thank you. And this is not a blame game. This is not open our eyes Game all. I appreciate the support. Absolutely. Mr. Sullivan, I got one quick question. Uh, I've heard a lot about CPPI. That's a grant. You have to, because When they don't fund that grant anymore, and that's a big money grant, I know. Um, we better come up with plan B to figure out all these things we just talked about and what Heather's talking about, because that's a lot of people written into one grant. And when, when and or if we lose that grant. I'm gonna be sad. I can tell you that. But there's gonna be a lot of people who we're gonna say, what do we do now? So it's just one of those things. 'cause it comes up next year. One more year left on it. One competitive. So it's up again. It's up now. Okay. Okay. That's all I got. Anything else? Thank you very much. No, I appreciate all your work. Oh, sorry, Doug. I, I was not a, not a question but comment. Um, but because I, I just wanted to note I was one of the votes against making this move right away. I had a lot of questions initially, and I just want to thank everybody on the committee for helping us work through everything. Just to like reveal my thinking, I had three main interests to not decrease pre-K seats. And I agree, this is not getting us, we are not meeting the need yet, but we are moving in the right direction. Um, I wanted to make sure that the program reduced transitions, which it seems like it will, and that it's meeting student needs. My understanding, I share many of your concerns about the overall level of support, but this does at least keep us in the same situation that we are currently in. Whether that's adequate or not, I think we need to dig into during budgeting. And then I had questions about finances in the facilities, and I am, it like, was happy to be able to see floor plans, to be able to see that things like, you know, art and music weren't gonna go on art on a cart as a part of this transition. Um, and to understand that it was a net improvement to our finances. So just, I got a lot of clarity for questions that I had both sitting in the seat and as a parent of somebody who is, has a student at one of the schools that this program's gonna be moving into. And so want to thank you all for helping me get to that clarity One else. I don't think so. No, I'm just kidding. And I appreciate what Dr. Gunther's saying, and this is why this body works the way it does, because you need level. He is right. Uh, he has talked to me about some of these concerns. I feel good about him, but I have my own thing. And so I appreciate all the work that you all did. I don't want it to be like, you didn't, you did. I'm just trying to let you know that I, my eyes are wide open. And that's it. Thank you. Sure. Mr. Rell. Sorry not to, not to belabor the, the point here, but I just wanted to take a second to recognize the, the, uh, the committee that came together. It was a very, as you can see, it's a very diverse, uh, a very diverse group. We have representation from the code team. We have, uh, school committee members. We have teachers, we have, uh, special education professionals. We have union representation, principals, um, you know, a lot of brain power, uh, in that room. And the one thing that was really clear was that everybody was there, uh, concentrating on, uh, the, the wellbeing of the program, the wellbeing of the kids, and making sure, um, that everybody gets the services, uh, and the education that they, that they require. It's not ideal that we have to move, um, out of this building. Right. Uh, Location wise, setup wise, that, that building is, is, is in a lot of ways very good for this program and having everybody co-located. But, um, again, I think that, uh, this group did a great job coming together, putting any differences aside, putting, um, putting any emotions aside and really just, uh, getting down to business and figuring out, you know, what is best for this program and for the district. So thank you to, to everybody that participated, uh, really, uh, really productive, uh, meetings. And, um, I think, uh, we got a lot done in a, in a relatively short period of time. So, thank you guys. Thank you, Mr. Terrell. Um, you wanna take a minute? 'cause I have a feeling there's gonna be a mass exodus. It's just a, just a guess on my part. Are You gonna say something? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jay. Don't leave. I have a question. Thanks for everything you guys. Next up, I'd like to make a motion for the approval of the January 13th, 2025 school committee meeting, minutes as presented. Second, second. Motion been made. And second, there is a little further discussion on the, uh, January 13th minutes. We just need to update some couple of things. Very simple, very easy. Under the exception of Grant, the BYRT, um, we're gonna switch that back to the B-R-I-B-R-Y-T grants. And, uh, if we can make a motion to that effect, that'd be great. So, moved. Is there a second? Second. Opposed in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Next item. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of a field trip for Westfield High School to state line propane and oil in Granby, Connecticut. March 12th, 2025. Second motion been made. And second, is there any further discussion on this? What are they going for? Why, where are they going? That's why. So Actually that's, That's a connection we made through our Westfield Education to Business Alliance. And Patty Healy has some students that are interested in looking at that field. So she's taking 'em down there. So she's, did she know anything about, about that area in Granby specifically? Like that site We had met, we had met with them a couple weeks ago. They gonna look through the HVAC and things like that. So we meet with them. They came, had representatives come down and meet with Patty and me as well as with, uh, west Tech as well. West Tech is gonna be joining us. Should ask to get a side tour. A side tour. There's some pretty cool cars down there. Yeah, there's Some great cars down there. There are, are you looking to chaperone? You want a chaperone chap? I'm just telling you, there's some pretty cool cars down there. Alright. So if your, your kids would find them fascinating, I'm sure. And maybe they'll leave wanting to fix cars after. There you go. Uh, he's a, uh, Mr. Guo is a super, super good guy. He's, you know, the whole thing. So anyway, all those in favor? A aye. Opposed? Motion carries. I'd like to Make a motion for the approval of a field trip for the Westfield Technical Academy to the New England Air Museum. WinDor Locks, Connecticut, February 5th, 2025. Second. Motion's been made in second. Is there any further? This is kind of self-explanatory. All those in favor? A opposed? Motion carried. Item nine, secondary school's cell phone policy update as promised. Good evening everyone. Jesse McMillan, principal of Westfield Middle School. Jeff Dre, the principal of Westfield High School, tastings principal at the tech. The Place to be Shop Check. You need to come up with one as long as you. Okay, Jeff, We are here to present, um, a non-controversial topic in secondary schools, Cell phones. So you think talking about to, So at the last, um, few meetings ago when we presented general guidelines, we included, um, you know, restricted usage, very specific language that we included in that policy. This is included in the presentation, uh, if you'd like to go back and look at that. But this is what you approved several meetings ago. So we're here to provide an update on each of the schools. Principal Miller was unable to be here this evening. Um, so he just wanted to share a few things. Um, before we jump into that, though, the intermediate school and the middle school both have the same policy. Um, we, we don't want cell phones in our school. They're off and they're away. They should be in their lockers. They shouldn't be in the student's backpacks, um, or on their person if they are caught with that. We have a first, second, and third offense. Um, we are confiscating them at both the intermediate and the middle schools, and we are tracking that data. So this is also the language that was approved by the school committee. So for the overall data at the intermediate school, um, the cell phone use at the fifth and sixth grade level specifically is only impacted or interfered with learning minimally. In the school of 725 students, there's one to two cell phones per week that are confiscated by staff and turned into the office. One student has had more than one incident of cell phone use during school hours requiring a parent to come in. It's gonna look a little different at the middle school. Different developmental profile. Um, so anytime a cell phone is confiscated by staff member or member of administration, I have one of the secretaries in the main office track all of that data. Incoming, uh, first, second, third, fourth plus offenses. Um, so we have 683 students. This is the percentage of infractions among the student population. So, so far this school year, 17% of our student body have had a first time offense. Um, considering the, the data, the informal data that we had previous, the past two years, this is a substantial decrease. Second offense, 6%. So you can see that that first time that they're caught, the, the phone is confiscated. It's a warning. There's no detention, there's no suspension. It's, please don't do this again. Keep it in your locker. Here's what will happen. If we do see it again, you can see there's, uh, a substantial decline there to 6%, three offenses, 3%, and four plus offenses. 2% of our student body, these are the total offenses. So we've had 200 so far this school year, as of January 30th, um, 119 first time offenders, 46 with two offenses, 23 with three offenses, and 12 with four plus offenses. Keep in mind, this is outta 683 students, The number of monthly infractions. I was hoping to see a decline, um, as we move along as to your, that's not happening yet. Um, but I am happy to see the overall data so far with the implementation of this policy. Um, so our daily average, and this, this feels about right, two infractions per day. Um, today we had none. Tomorrow we might have four. So it, it really depends on the day and what's going on. But overall, um, you can poll any of our staff members. Um, I have yet to come across a staff member to say, this policy or the implementation isn't working. Every single staff member at Westfield Middle School is implementing this. We have a united front. We talked about that at the beginning of the school year, that in order for this to be effective, every single staff member has to be on board. 'cause the kids will pick up if a certain administrator, a certain teacher doesn't implement it or just gives a warning. We confiscate the phone. I would say nine times out of the 10 families are incredibly supportive. Um, if we do have to contact home, um, sometimes we, there's additional follow up meetings, but for the most part it's been a success. Okay. So at Westfield High School, um, we have a little bit different policy. Obviously we had talked about the age appropriateness of the students and teaching students how to use, um, how to use technology the right way. Um, we have a policy in place where the teachers are empowered to go and interact with the students. The first two times, the first time that there's any type of cell phone issue with the students, um, they, the teacher goes and meets with the student calls home and forms the, the family of what's going on. And then the second time after that, they give some sort of a classroom discipline, whether it's a detention or something to that effect. Um, after the, after the, uh, third incident, that's when it goes to the administrators. The administrators then meet with the students. We have them have some type of dialogue. They also reach out home and communicate with families. And then subsequent times, we have the cell phone cases that we begin to lock up the cell phones. Within. Over this year, we've had 107 incidents that have been brought to the administration's attention. So our teachers have done a nice job of going and trying to quell the concerns. Um, and the past had been much higher. We went through January 31st of the 20 23, 20 24 school year. And we had 281 referrals, um, as opposed to 107 this year. So we have reduced them quite a bit through going and enforcing this policy. And also trying to work with the students, uh, when we can. Um, this school year, there are, I'm sorry, 76 referrals. Uh, which is obviously a significant decrease. We have had a number of students, a few students who have, uh, not complied with any of this, which have resulted in further discipline up to suspensions. I believe we've had seven suspensions this year for students who would not go and allow us to take their cell phones and things like that. Um, but we have seen a lot of gains. We've seen a lot of improvements. We're happy to see that it's moving in the right direction. Obviously there's always room for growth, but we're happy with the direction that we're going with in regard to the cell phones. And, and I think we've shown a lot of progress. Good evening everybody. So at Westfield Tech, again, we have the same, um, I'm not show that now. Um, same policies as the teacher gets to set their own rules, um, it's similar to any other teacher classroom rules that a student goes to different classes and has to adapt to that teacher's rules. Some teachers have strict homework rules where it can't be late or you're not getting any credit. Others let you hand it in three days late and still give you credit. Um, the cell phone is the same thing. Um, one of the thing that has really helped us we're a little different quote than, than Mr. Jen is our shop teachers. Um, some of them are very scary, um, if you've met them and as a student going in there, I wouldn't want to go against them either. And I still don't as their boss, um, prefer not to argue with them. We have many shops that have a no cell phone policy from the time they step into aviation, from the time they step into electrical wiring, auto tech, auto collision, um, manufacturing, uh, construction. Those phones are gone. They can use them. They get a nine, like a nine 30, what we call shop break. Similar to working in the real world where you would get a union break, excuse me. Um, they're allowed to use 'em for that 10 minute break. And then they absolutely have to go right back in the, either they have their own little shop locker or right in their backpacks. We've accidentally had one official referral from a teacher, um, this year of a student who just refused the teacher consequences. He didn't show up for detention, he didn't show up for, you know, whatever he was supposed to do. So we locked his phone up in one of our cases and locked it in, um, the assistant principal's desk for the day and showed him it was locked and safe. Um, called home, let him know, uh, student has not offended again. And that was back in October, I think. Um, we had one recent one where the teacher just asked the student to go down to see Mr. Paquette. Um, it was early in the morning, I think the teacher had a bad night and was just in kind of a mood. And the kid wasn't using the cell phone, but it was out on the desk and was refusing to just put it in his backpack. And that's, that's a teacher where, um, sometimes they're allowed to use them. Sometimes he doesn't want 'em seen. And the kids know each day. Um, I believe it's right on their, their their entry, uh, instructions for the day. Cell phones away today. Cell phones can be on your desk ask. Um, we have had some situations, but not as many as you would expect, involving kids using their cell phones to produce wonderful comments about their fellow students. Um, things like Snapchat and I get x used to be Twitter. Um, unfortunately with Snapchat, there's no timestamp when the kids show it to us. 'cause Snapchat goes away, I guess. And you have to take a screenshot of it. Um, there's no timestamp. Most of them are occurring at night. But as you know, we still have to deal with it. It affects the learning environment. Um, but we've had less than 10 of those this year. 10 of the 13 shops do not allow phones on the shop floor. Only during a break. Students are allowed to use them at lunch as well. Um, and one student I worked with personally, um, the mother was very concerned 'cause he was getting graded poorly during shop week. And the teacher said, well, if he just put his phone away when he wasn't supposed to have it, he'd be getting graded. Well, he's not following directions. He's a senior. He should know this. He's been here four years. And the mother was concerned. I said, how about if I just during shop week only? I lock it up. And she said, a hundred percent, absolutely. He will be in your office. And so every morning he would come in, I would lock it, I'd walk in my office with him and lock it in one of my cabinets. Um, so that's kind of what we don't have as fancy statistics or graphs that the middle school has. Um, because our, our IT department is not the ones having, uh, cell phone issues. So I didn't get to get them. So, uh, any questions? Yes. Oh, So what's an example of why a teacher? Well, 10 out of 13 don't allow the phones in the, in their shops. I'm not sure why. So I guess what's an example? I feel like Mr. O'Connor right now, uh, what's an example of why a teacher would say, uh, yes on one day and no on another in their classroom? Uh, most of them don't allow it because of safety reasons. 'cause kids can't be using machinery if they're paying attention to their phone. Um, one that does allow it at times is culinary. Um, it's much easier to place a phone at a recipe than a computer, than a laptop. That's what I asked. Um, we also have a, a, a young lady freshman that literally speaks no English. And right now the text to translate is really helping them communicate with her. So I wanted, she's she's brand new to, you know. Yeah, No, I appreciate That. You thought all the languages that Jill had up. We don't have translators for some of those and we still, we cannot find them. I'm, I'm sorry. I know you can't. So, because they don't exist. Um, so I, uh, TJ actually, when we did our tours that, uh, of tech, uh, two weeks Ago, two, Something Like that. Yeah, yeah. Um, TJ was actually explaining he just got a brand new immigrant and that's the only way they can communicate is through the phone. Right. So I thought that was really, yeah, it is. Cool. Well, it's the only way we can communicate, so, and if the kid is learning English mm-hmm. But to start, it's a help. Huge help. Yeah. And, and some like in, uh, IT and graphics, some of the apps don't work on our laptops, and they do, they work much better with the kid can create stuff on their phones. So They're allowed just outta curiosity. Sorry about that. Um, are you guys familiar with the Study Act Study act that's making its way through the LA mass legislature introduced by Andrea Campbell to Yes. Eliminate All Cell? Oh, yes. Yeah. I saw, I read a little article On that. Um, and there's certain statistics out there that say it's 72% harmful and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I've got a couple if you want. Oh, I, I'm looking at it. So I cheated a little bit. Right. It's not that I know this, but your feeling or, or I think the feeling of this review is that you guys feel that you can handle the problem adequately at your schools by this hybrid model that you have and you actually like it, or no? Oh, I do. I I, to me, it's part of teaching them about life. That there's a time and a place for everything and everything has a time. And, And even though it's causing you all of this administrative Extra stuff, if we're only having less than 10, less than 10 situations at this point of the year in a high school, is, is is really good to me. As someone who's been in other schools and other districts, I can tell you at South Hadley, oops, sorry, I shouldn't show you that. The other place I was at the middle school, um, it was 10 a day. And, and that is lower than even when I was a principal, assistant principal there. Um, I feel like a lot of what our principals and assistant principals deal with is the texting and the messaging and the Snapchat and the Twitters that occur after hours too. And then you're dealing with it in the morning. Yeah. So the, the only reason I, I'm trying to highlight this is mm-hmm. I was fully in favor of what you guys rolled out in September. And I think that the review process is helpful. Other members don't see it the same way I do. Mm-hmm. And, you know, that's why, that's why we kind of agree to differ. And I don't agree with the study Act, to be quite honest with you. I think it's something that should be dealt with at a local level. It shouldn't be, I, I don't see the mandate. And if you guys can work with it and you think it's working well for you and to the benefit of our students, then I applaud it for it. Dr. Gunther, go ahead. I, Jim had something. Oh, oh God. I had a question for Mr. McMillan before. I have a comment. Um, I am cur, I, I really appreciate all the data that you guys, you guys have. And, um, you hear that Bruce, he appreciated the data. And I'll say I, I also, um, I actually, you know, 200, you know, 200 offenses is probably not what you want to see, but is also a signal that you all are taking it seriously. And so I I appreciate that. I am curious what sort of interventions you all are trying with the students that are hitting that third and fourth offense. So that's where we're really looping in the counselor. Um, so fewer than 10 students, um, several, not all several of them truly have some anxiety about being separated from their phone and being able to contact family members in emergencies, whatever it may be. Um, right now at Westfield Middle School, there's only, there's only one student who has an approved use other than of course, students who have type one diabetes or health matters that's separate from everything else. Um, who's allowed to have their phone? We've worked that out with their family members. Um, we're not gonna be unreasonable in these situations, as we've talked about with our policy before. Um, you know, if they can present a case and they're a student who can demonstrate that they're utilizing this appropriately, then that's fine. Yeah. Okay. That's helpful to hear. Um, but I just, you know, and that's the, as I'm about to get one of those, um, where I scan my arm. So I think, uh, we have students with that too. So when you have some students with exceptions, it becomes an issue for others, whether it's health related or not. And the other part too is watches. So we'd have to start banning watches. And I just saw an ad for a smart ring. I don't, who knows what they're gonna come up with next. When I was a kid, there were mood rings. Now they're smart rings. I mean, I don't even know. The technology is advancing so rapidly that I feel like it, it, it really, it reinforces the point that I want I made earlier is that I think we have to teach the right way to use it because adults aren't using them many better. I mean, they're driving and using their phones, which is more scary. Um, and I feel as though if we don't have a mechanism to, I mean, when, when they go to work, they're gonna fail. When they go into society, they're gonna fail because they're on their phones. And I think I've mentioned we've had students be terminated from their co-ops because they're on the phone the whole time. So they learned a hard lesson, but it was learned. But like to what, like, so like, how is that showing up in the formal curriculum to explicitly teach students the appropriate usage of their cell phone? Like, is that a, is that it's not a Curriculum standard. It's not anything that's in the frameworks, but I think it occurs through, at the beginning of the year, like what Mr. McMillan talked about when, and having the staff all on the same page and saying when it's appropriate, when it's not appropriate at the tech. It's really, uh, it's the employer. And often cases, that's another way that they learn. But it's through that, that place. So, I mean, I guess it's is there's not a class on cell phone use, right? I guess. But there is, there are messages that are delivered at the time if, if there is an infraction. Uh, and I think the vast majority of our kids really will listen to the staff member. I mean, the vast, vast majority, you have a small handful as I think you've seen. I, I, I just, I will continue to name, I, I really appreciate what's happening at the middle school and the, the intermediate. I, I appreciate all of the efforts that are going in at the high school and the tech. I think we have the wrong policy. I think, you know, I was there for the, um, for the science fair, which was excellent last week, and the number of students that I saw on devices over the course of that time, and it was, it was dozens and dozens and dozens of students on their phones during that, that period. And to quote one of the stats in here, we, we know that students who are spending time on social media are greatly increasing their risk of mental health problems, depression, anxiety, and I just don't see us, it makes me feel guilty being in that room knowing that we are giving students the space and opportunity to do that harm to themselves. And it is okay with us from a policy standpoint. It's not interrupting an academic class. Thanks. Sure. Um, I do like when Mr. Hastings comes every time because he is got a different outfit on and Like Flying the colors of WTAI like that. The hoodie week Mr. Got Too. I know I dealt with him a couple days ago. Um, uh, I actually ran into Senator Vilis, oh, I don't know, a week ago actually. And where the mayor says the Attorney General's got a bill. There's 14 other bills being filed right now in either the House or the Senate to do away with cell phones for good. So my question is, would you guys be available or be willing to, particularly the two high schools, to sit and talk with them, to come up with solutions for it of what, why some kids need it in school or the process you guys go through to make sure it doesn't happen. You know, you can make now really nice graphs and I'm sure that, I'm sure the senator would love them, but that's, that's where it's coming. This this is gonna be not only the one the mayor's talking about with the Attorney general, but these other 14 ones, they're coming to a head because it was, he said for a week it was the topic of conversation inside the state Office. So, can I poke a little fun? Just a little fun. You're gonna give me a hoodie. Ready? Our agendas are public documents, right? So we've had this discussion at length three times where we could like invited the senators or the state reps to actually come here so that we didn't have to keep making all these special arrangements. But just, just something, I just think, I think we, everybody needs to be prepared for that to happen. 'cause it's going to be on the front of the newspapers or every other media you got. Good. Thank you very much for your presentation. Oh, oh, oh, oh, Mr. Terrell. I was trying to, you trying to jump in? You Want a hoodie? Sure. Um, I just, I, I, I recognize the, the, the value in all of the use cases that, um, that were brought up in terms of the technology in the school and, and, and there, there, there's a value to that for sure. Um, I wish there was a way you could, you could somehow distill the value out of those devices because obviously it's not physic, uh, uh, fiscally possible to provide somebody with a device that is blocked for Snapchat and X and this, but is, has ability to, to use a recipe or it has a translator, things like that. I, I wish there was a way to try to distill the benefit out of that, um, out of that technology and, and, and sort of leave some of the, some of the negativity that Mr. Gunther and, and and everybody mentioned, uh, behind maybe through technology that'll become a, that that'll become a, a possibility. Um, the, in terms of teaching kids that there's productive ways to use your phones and there's times when you need to put it down. I, I kind of, I kind of go either way on that because I feel like you also need to teach the kids that there's a time when you just can't have your phone. You, you have to put it away. You, it, it, it can't be accessible to, to you. And knowing that that phone is always accessible to you. And, and listen, I'm as guilty as anybody. Like when I don't have my phone, I, I'm, I don't know what's going on. So, but, but I, but I, I think though that, you know, we laugh about that, but that's a reality that that's a reality. We didn't have cell phones in school. Right. They didn't, they didn't make 'em back then, thankfully. Yeah. So it wasn't a problem. Um, but I do feel like there's a value to teaching the kids that, hey, this is non cell phone time and, and this is gonna be away for a while. It's not, we're not taking it from you or anything like that. This is just, it's not appropriate right now. Um, and, and I, I, I love the idea of the united front, uh, that Jesse, that that you, that you mentioned, I feel like in the absence of a united front, um, and, and, and, and I know the numbers have gone down and I, and I, I'm not questioning those numbers by any means, but I wonder how much of it is the teachers just, just being tired of making it a distraction and just letting it go as opposed to kids actually putting their phones away and not using them in class. And, and I think that's the, that's where I have the tough time because I see all of the value of the technology. I, I see it and, and I just don't know where, how, how you marry those two things together. And, uh, maybe there's, maybe there's 30, 40, 50% of the high school population that, that can do that, that can use them responsibly and use them for the things, use 'em for the good and not for the bad. But even just a couple of of students that don't quite have that ability yet in a classroom, I think causes a, a big distraction not just to, not just to the teacher, but to all the other kids in the, in the classroom if they have to stop and, and, and continually, uh, reprimand them before they escalate, um, down to the, uh, to, to an administrator. So I, I don't really have a full on baked thought about that quite yet in terms of like a really good solution, but I just feel like there's a, there's a better way, uh, to handle this. And maybe the state's gonna dictate that. Maybe the state's gonna say that, but I, I, I feel like we're kind of putting the teachers in a tough spot to a certain extent by making it a subjective disciplinary process. So that's all I got Kevin. Just, just so what you commented about how some teachers have just like given up. Um, I'm sure there are some that just, you know, I'm not gonna deal with it today. I'm not gonna deal with it. It's just a pain being in education. Oh God, I hate to say this. Since 1986, working in, yeah, you can laugh ball. It's okay. Um, working at, at pullout schools, I worked at a residential, I worked at Brightside to start my career where we had 10 emotionally behaviorally disturbed kids in the same room. It didn't matter if you had two staff or 20 staff, they would just go. Um, there are teachers that do that, but that also happens with other things too. Not just cell phones. You know, when we used to have, um, hat rules, there's teacher, I'm just not fighting it. And they would, it's just, it's just the teacher, you know, it's the person, kids coming late, It's Their personality. Things like that. Kids wear 'em down and they just give up. It happens with everything, not just cell phones. So it's, it's just another, you know, it's another thing that we ask teachers to do to, you know, be as forceful as you can. And then that's why we're here. Uh, you know, admin for 10 years, I've been the air to support teachers all the time. No matter what it is, if we can get everybody on the same page, it will work. So to be continued, I guess is probably the fairest way to do No, Mr. Gunther, you cannot have a seventh time. Oh, I just wanna, Just one more thing. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Is it possible that you can do a synopsis, a yearend synopsis of what you, what the outcomes were, what your beliefs are for a cell phone policy that you guys can get together and do that and present it in in June? Mr. I, I just want to say, you know, uh, Dr. Gunther gave a statistic that 72% of something on social media is bad for kids or something. What was the It was the 72% was, was, Read that for me. Let Me read it to you. Okay. Phone news in schools can lead to distractions in learning, shortened detention span, increased anxiety, negative peer interactions, and increases in cyber bullying, harassment and hate incidents. In fact, 72% of high school teachers cite all cell phone usage as a major problem in classrooms. I I was citing a different, a different one. There you go. In there. Um, It was the social media one that caught my Attention. Which, which was that, um, sorry, let me find it real quickly. Children, adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of mental health problems. That's one. Experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety. Yes. Would it not make sense then for the legislature, Senator Oli, representative Pease, to address the issue of social media, which The Study Act also Was, does it, to, does it shut 'em down? Because TikTok went out for an hour and people flipped out. That's quite bad. They really did. So let me just, I'll give you, I'll give you the a g Campbell introduces the study act to promote, say, technology use and distraction free education for youth. And it goes into the different, The things, my, my, my concern is that, so we stop it for six hours a day. There are still 18 hours left in the day. Well, so like to the point of every that everybody's trying to make though, and specifically Dr. Gunther, if you don't have it, you're not distracted by it. Now my daughter was 16 when she got her cell phone. I was the most hated man walking the earth, but she didn't have to live with age 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and then 16 with all the social media stuff that goes beyond it. I just think though, if, if there's a policy that's in place and it seems to be working and I'm gonna trust you guys to tell me whether or not it's working or not, if you come back and you say it's not working, then the next logical step is that you eliminate it. That's the next logical step. But if it's working, then it seems to be working. I agree with Mike Terrell, by the way. I don't wanna be the teacher telling the student to get off the phone. But if that's what the policy is and it's been vetted through the schools, and the schools are comfortable with that, then that's kind of where we are. But if it raises to the level of, you know, this, everybody's on their phone. I'm Dr. Gunther, you're absolutely right. There was a, there's 406 exhibitions. There were probably 300 people on their phone, but I can't tell you if there were on their phone trying to make the, and I'm not being funny, trying to make their, their project better. And I was there while they were trying to do that. Oddly enough, I had my phone out and I was trying to do it with them. So, you know, you're kind of in a, in a weird situation. Well, some of them are reading their notes off the phone. Correct. So, which I Can't do 'cause it's too small. And yeah, we're, My part of my, so to Mike's point, uh, Mr. Trail's part point, I do want that we, I think we do have some devices that get many of the benefits and block many of the negatives, which are the huge investment that we've made in devices as a district to maintain. Right? So like one-to-one Chromebooks and things like that are, so as we think about what the, you know, how we're making meaning of this, one of the things I'm interested in is what are we getting out of those cell phones that is a benefit that cannot be done with district provided resources. Um, and then to the, the success point, I think that the, you know, to, in my definition of success, part of that is students not adding to their, you know, number of students exceeding that three hour mark, which I'm sure is an arbitrary mark, but you get my point on school grounds during school hours. And so if the students are, if some percentage, I would wager to bet a majority of those 300 students that are on their phone during the fair are using that for and engaging in things like social media during that time when there's no judge in front of them. I think that that is a, that is the policy not meeting it stated not meeting the objectives that I would hold for it. Would you agree though that that would be something that would be stated by the folks who were running the fair? So sure the expectation would be yes. And I'm not, I'm not picking on Westfield High School. The expectation would be if they were told that this is a scholastic event and you're not to be on your cell phone during the Scholastic event prior to that event. I will guarantee you that those folks wouldn't have been on their phone. Yeah. I mean I think that like either, But I don't know. That wasn't the direction though, was it Mr J? I believe Like one of two things happened. Either we said don't be on your cell phones during this event and many students were not following that. I suspect that's not what happened. Or we made it a cell phone optional space. And I would argue that, that then we're creating too many spaces and times in the school that are cell phone optional, given what we know about the mental health effects of that on the students. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks guys. Mr. Reza? Yes, go ahead. Go on the next item number 10 10. I'd like to make a motion for the approval of the homeschool applications number 1 76 to number 1 78 for the 20 24 20 25 school year. Second. Second. Motion motion's been made, has been seconded. Yes. Yes. Motion been made. Seconded. Is there any further discussion? Say none All is in favor. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank. Let's I can Do this one if You want. Go, Go ahead. Oh, okay. Um, the Massachusetts Association of School Committee members have put forward two resolutions, resolution nine and number 10, resolution nine calls for tiered system to access school building projects, accounting for the higher costs associated with these special schools. So what they're trying to do is they're trying to put forward these resolutions and we are looking for, um, a letter from the school committee to agree with that resolution. As you know, we're trying to build a tech school and um, this will allow the MSBA to look at different tier levels for funding. I'd like to make a motion to accept resolution nine, um, as a school committee and send a letter to, um, our legislators to agree to support this, this resolution. Second, You want me read? I don't know anything else. First I've heard, can I read? So most have been made and seconded, but I have no idea what it's going, but we did send it out early. It's in, it's in the system. Um, so just real quick 'cause it's a pretty short resolution. Uh, whereas chapter 74, vocational, technical and agricultural high school incur higher costs to build chapter 74 educational training spaces. And whereas MSBA currently assesses all school building projects at equal value and whereas vocational and technical and agricultural high schools renovation building costs are dispersed to sending districts impacting local budgets, therefore we resolve the, uh, Massachusetts Association of School Committee calls upon the Massachusetts legislature and MSBA to create an evaluated tier system to separately assess the cost of one elementary, two comprehensive high schools, and three vocational technical and agricultural schools resulting to true cost reimbursement for each school category. Any further discussion on that? I do have a couple questions. Um, Stefan? Yes. Is the current name comprehensive or we using a different term? That was my Question. So we're, well we are kind of a hybrid of a traditional vocational school and comprehensive so, and academic. So we're creating our own path because why not? No, but like when It turns to reimbursement, what we want though is the reimbursement of the vocational 'cause. That'll be the highest. But that's not what we used last time around. In our own vernacular we used sub collaborative. It was hybrid, hybrid, hybrid, Hybrid. Straight up. It was a hybrid model. So it's unique to, to, so even if they were to fund us for a comprehensive or a, um, vocational school, it'll be higher than what it is now. Step. Okay, go ahead. Step. Do we have to call it a comprehensive high school if they take it that way? I mean, or can we Call it a high school? I'll call it whatever they want me to call it while they fund us and then we can do with whatever we need to. Okay. So we can do that. Yeah. Whatever gets us the highest reimbursement is what we, we should call it is my vote. I completely agree, but I wanted to ask the question because I know that there was some conversation at masc, if I've used the term correctly, that was talking about calling it something else rather than whatever We need to call it. Let's call it then. Blended or blended blend. Blended. Blended. That was the other one. Go. Does elementary include middle? Because Middles, middle and intermediate in our case, they're not on here. So our intermediate is actually kind of considered on that level. Elementary and the uh, seven up is considered secondary, but I don't know how they would fund it. Honestly. That does, it's not clarified in the resolution. Right? It just doesn't say anything middle. It doesn't say anything about Middle school up is elementary Seven it up is secondary. Secondary, Secondary. Yeah. And six and below would be elementary. Okay. I have no problem with the resolution. Yeah, I don't either. What's been made seconded? Any further discussion? Say none. All those in favor? Aye. Roll call. Oh, Uh, for resolution? Yeah, if you want call ahead. Bo Sullivan? Yes. Mike Terrell? Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. Kathleen Hillman? Yes. Heather Sullivan? Yes. And Chairman McCabe? Yes. Okay. Um, the other one is for resolution 10 and it calls for the expand, expanding capacity in chapter 74. Vocational technology programs to meet growing demand and reduce, reduce, uh, wait lists. This provision will allow, um, for more seats in our, in our, uh, tech schools in our, um, vocational. So I'd like to make a motion to send a letter to, um, our legislators as a school committee to approve this expansion of seats. Second Would been made. Second. So Is that motion due? Accept resolution? 10. Yes. Yes. So not the letter yet. Well accept the resolution and send the letter. Okay. So she did a twofer. She did a twofer. Okay, that's fine with me. And the resolution is adopted in the languages here? Correct. Okay. Yeah. Each of these resolutions requires a letter. Gotcha. And we included those any further discussion. I just wanna, uh, say that this is exactly what the superintendent was talking about, um, when he was talking about a new high school and all of that is that we're going to eliminate having, um, this would help ale alleviate having, uh, wait lists and being and having kids be able to go into what exactly they want to go into. So I appreciate that. Well, and I like the resolution because the state's answer for some folks is to do a lottery, which still keeps people out of the seats. Right. That doesn't solve the problem. Yep. It just changes the problem. How about solving the problem? Well, you add more seats. That's how you do it. Good job solving, huh? Be solve What? Good at solving problems. Mme. Sullivan, you wanna call the role as I do? Sure. Go ahead. Mike Terrell? Yes. Jeffrey Gut there? Yes. Kathleen Hillman? Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Sullivan? Yes. Chairman McCabe? Yes. Um, I guess it's my turn. The weekly, uh, the report of the weekly warrants, which by the way, we have a few that are unsigned. Um, over there. Um, January 10th, 2025 19 batches totaling $574,118 and 87 cents. January 17th, 2020 5, 21 batches, totaling $336,246 and 86 cents. And lastly, January 24th, 23 batches totaling $762,550 and 1 cent. Nicely done on one second. Can we go back to, uh, the resolutions for a second? Um, Mr. Sullivan asked a good question. Um, Who's gonna sign it? Who's gonna sign the resolution? Um, my guess is if it's on behalf of the school committee, it's me. That's gonna be the But who's gonna it just as a matter, we'll prepare it for signature. That's Fine. So we have the letters written. Okay. May have spilled a little water on 'em. Okay. So they're no longer signable. Can we, can we hit the button again and maybe reprint those and Stationary? We don't unless we just photocopy it, but it's on yellow paper. Very nice school committee stationary. They're all ready to go and then we Can't we do that tomorrow? Yeah, you don't have to do it right now. We don't have to Do it now. Okay. We can. Yeah. Um, I solved. See us solving problems right here. Dead solving problems right here. Whew. Um, but before the end of day tomorrow, 'cause one of us won't be here on Wednesday or Thursday or Friday. Okay. Next item. Thank you. I'd Like to make a motion for the acceptance of the special revenue accounts as presented. Second motion's been made and seconded and since they are as presented any further discussion, I can give you the floor. Good evening. Shannon Barry, director of Finance. Um, so I just wanted to point out the gifts arts account. Um, I had spoke last time that we went over the special revenue accounts that we had purchased instruments for the band at the high school. Um, so another large purchase has been made for, um, the art classrooms at the high school for furniture for those classrooms. So there's about a balance of $12,000 left in that account at this point. Um, at the bottom, if we look at athletics, you can see the balances are pretty low. Um, we were scheduled to have our budget meeting with the athletic director, um, last week and then today, and it got moved till tomorrow. But this is something we're going to have to speak with him about because he has spent down most of his general fund money already. Um, so I'm a little concerned about the balances we're running in the revolving account. Um, only being Jan February now, um, with a lot of the school year left. And then last thing, school choice. So right now we have a boy about $2.6 million. Um, we are scheduled to receive another around 625,000. Again, our revenue is dependent on the claiming process that happens in the spring. So that number is not definite until that happens, but it usually ends up somewhere around what has been estimated. Um, and we have another $614,000 worth of expenses. So basically we're gonna end up around the 2.6 million as a balance at the end of the year. And, uh, our collection process is now robust and moving forward. Collection Process. Yeah, our, nevermind. Okay. Mr. Sullivan, what Expenses? So we are offsetting things in the budget. So payroll, um, there's a bunch of positions. The coaches, um, the supervisors and unit B are being taken from School choice. So that payroll will continue through the end of the year. That's about 480,000. And then curriculum still has another 134,000 to be spent. Mr. So we're, we're gonna spend, we started the year at about 3.4 million in mm-hmm. School choice and we'll spend about 800,000 mm-hmm. Or about, you know, 20 to 25% of that this year. Right. And our beginning balance ended up being higher than anticipated, as we've talked about, just because I was able to move some cost to Esser rather than using school choice funds. What did we budget for that? Did we budget 800,000? No, 1.9 million. How Much? 1.9 million. That's What I thought. Okay. I got one more. Go. Um, student connectivity, are we still spending $6,000? Are we just still So we're still Hotspots, we're still using hotspots. Requests still come in actually quite frequently with students not having access to wifi at home to do homework or they're part of one of the virtual programs. So we are still, we are still paying for hotspots for students. Okay. Cool. Good. The, the other one I got is that the arts one, um mm-hmm. The nine four, huh. Yeah. Um, is there any way, and I know we've talked about this before, um, about keeping that account alive, active. Is there a way to, it, it just seems like we got a hundred thousand dollars, we've spent 88,000 see that, and it's just, just gonna go away. It just seems like it's way too, way too good of an account line. Is there something to do with, you know, trying to team up with Wow. Or trying to team up with artworks or, or something where there could be a revenue stream for that account. It just seems like people would take advantage of that. So I get your point. That would actually be a different account because it would, it'd be under the revolving accounts. This is a gift account, so this is solely for donations. But to your point, that would be Yes. A special revenue account. All right. So that's just when that 12,000 is spent, that's just gonna go away just because it was a gift. Mm-hmm. Alright. Unless we have other donations. Okay. I'm good. I'm, I'm not though. I was trying to follow along with your conversation, but I see the gift of a hundred thousand. I see expenditures of 44 and a balance of 55. Right. So after, after the report was run, we did the contract for the furniture for the high school. So now there's about 12,000. A little slow on the Uptake. Sorry about that slate. Good, good. Thank you. Um, Ms. Jeffrey Sullivan? Yes. Kathleen Hillman? Yes. Oh, Sullivan. Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Mike Terrell. Yes. And Chairman McCabe? Yes. I'd like to make a motion to accept these gifts and donations donated to Westfield Intermediate School from Westfield Intermediate School. Parents in the amount of $5,773 and 75 cents for field trip to UMass and the gift account to Western, uh, Westfield Intermediate from Shutterfly Life Touch $2,451 and 93 cents for the educational purposes gift account to Westfield High School from the Ruth m Hanham 1999. Revocable trust of $55 and 84 cents for educational purposes. Library gift account, and Westfield Technical Academy from Bay Path University, east Long Meadow, mass in the, in the amount of $1,000 for the educational purposes. WTA gift accounts Second motion been made in seconded. Any further discussion? Uh, As always, like to thank all our contributors. Okay. As close. Is that good? I agree with you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you, Tim. Uh, Kathleen Hillman? Yes. Bill Sullivan. Yes. Heather Sullivan. Yes. Mike Ral. Yes. Jeffrey Gunther. Yes. And Chairman McKay? Yes. Trooper. Uh, so tomorrow night is our Countdown to kindergarten event, which is very exciting. Lots of folks will be their principals, vendors, kids will get to see a school lunch, they'll get to hop on a Boys and Girls Club. Provided bus. Thank you Bo. And, um, really it's a, it's a great event. All the kids, here's a secret. Might get a t-shirt or something like that too this year. So we're giving away backpacks, we're giving away all sorts of things. Even if you're not registering for kindergarten, come. That's what you said on the radio. So I'm just repeating that. Uh, no, but it's, it's a great event. It's at Westfield River School and it will be held from six to seven 30. You don't have to be there right at six. I wouldn't show up at 7 25 though. But, um, I would say, uh, come during that time. It's a great event. We usually get over a hundred folks that, that show up. So it's just terrific. And we're having at Westfield River School. And why not just show it off, right. So which, and then of course February break is coming up, uh, February 17th to the 21st. But we are having our mayor's coffee hour February 19th at eight o'clock at Westfield River Elementary School too as well. Uh, and then I just want to push out that the, our career fair, which we have had now, we only missed the covid year, so probably six or seven, um, will be held March 27th and Stanley Hall, it is starting a little bit later to accommodate transportation for kids. 'cause it's a BC runs. What's that? Is that Scanlon? It's gonna be in Scanlon Hall. So we're actually gonna go. So, um, working with Westfield State in collaboration, we're actually gonna start in dev the Endeavor Auditorium that we're gonna walk to Scanlon, where the career fair will be held, which is where they typically have theirs. So if you think about all the rooms, all the rooms open up. Why am I talking with my hands? Uh, all the rooms open up and, and so, uh, junior Delgado has told us they have about 75 in there when they do theirs. So, uh, what's what? We purposely picked a time when there are students on campus instead of their spring break because we wanted to make it a more authentic college experience. So more to come. The students will still be able to eat at the dining commons, of course. Um, but if you know of a business, it's posted on our website, it's posted on our Facebook page. Just have 'em email me as well. S zapp@schoolswestco.org. But we have the flyers are out, they have the QR codes. You can just scan and register, um, looking for another exciting event. And Mayor, of course, I'm inviting you to say a few words as well. Uh, we like to get the, the kids going. Usually about 400 students show up. Uh, Westfield High School, Westfield Tech. And last year for the first time, and again this year we're gonna keep inviting St. Mary's as well. So we're pretty, uh, pumped up about this. Our goal, again is to get 75 businesses. So Boys and Girls Club typically comes, we'll be there. Maybe Delaney's, mark, I don't know, Close out last year, but we'll try again This year. Okay, thank you Heather. And any other teacher for America? Wanna do a table? You know, we have a lot of kids interested in education. I will say Mike Morris comes too with his, uh, with his HR assistants and, um, they get a lot of business. We do have a lot of kids who seem to want to go into the education. They're Gonna reach out to White Oak. Interesting. Might be worth a phone call. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, let's do that. And close it, Right? Do I need's marker comes, I'll reach out to No, I'm All Right. But yeah, so that's March 27th. More to come, but we're very excited. Uh, it's a great day for our kids. And that's all I have for Tonight. All I'm just wondering why I'm getting the robo, uh, call for the kindergarten. Is there something, I dunno, I just asked, I just asked the they guy and they're like, no. I'm like, I, I did. Um, That's 'cause they want you to go and teach. I'm like getting another kid home. I don't think so. Mr. Mr. Superintendent, is there anything else? That's all tonight. Does Heather have anything Else? Well, she's under the other, so I can't really barely say anything like No one else got that call. I didn't, I didn't make the call. I can tell you that. No, I know. It's so funny. Alright, So I think that, um, I'm gonna jump in. We have any other, other, There, other That means? So once again, the, um, let's talk about the science fair for a second. Um, science Fair was, uh, terrific. Um, I truly enjoy the, the invitation to judge, and I mean that in all honesty. Um, it's really, really cool. And I hope that, uh, people, I get kind of a little bit of a unique experience because when you watch these kids and you realize all the other things they're doing at the exact same time, like, um, I'm gonna absolutely say give a special congratulations to Katie Gullet, who is the winner of this year's Science Fair. Thanks, Katie. But I also know that she's in the band, she's at the science fair. She's, um, Swimming. Swimming for sure. She's swimming, but there's something else. Uh, one act plays. So I'm just trying to get everything that goes in together at the same time. Astronom Club. So We're, we're trying to get the, the idea is, is that kids are doing a lot of things at an awful lot of time. So, um, my suggestion to the school, uh, committee is that Katie's project is a project that she could actually show. Oh, Caitlin. Yeah. Um, it would be cool to to invite her if you wanted to. I'm just throwing it out there. She's gonna absolutely kill me for suggesting this, but, um, no, no she won't. The Kathy, I know her very well. I got it. I get it. Um, I, I was being facetious. She's, she's very good, very good presentation. So it might be, might be fun to, to invite her to, um, you know, a meeting that's upcoming. Um, anyway, your SOI, your statement of interest has been submitted. Kind of. We went back to the 2014 template. If you read the I wish I had had That. I'm gonna give it to you. I'm going to, I'm trying to find that everywhere. So there's Danny Danny's stuff in this template that, uh, kind of gives you the, here you go, this is what you need to do. But I think It's changed some. It has changed. Um, but actually it hasn't changed as much as you think. Bo and I would read it a little earlier. It hasn't changed as much as you think. Um, you're on though. I'm not gonna be here on Thursday. Right. So I'm Gonna, so it's going to be in as a department head report. Somewhere along the line. There was some, some discussion as to how that should take place and where it was gonna go. But, um, I obviously it it's in good hands. If you would present it, that would be terrific. I'm sure they'll have questions and I'm sure they'll move it on into, um, a committee to, to discuss a little further in, In an open Forum so that people can kind of flesh out the questions. But that's for you. Oh, F**k. Come on now. You luck, Huh? I could. I don't, Don't, Hey, Don't. Okay. I understand the sentiment. I just, I really, we couldn't find this. We've been digging everywhere in any office and I was just like, I really don't want to have to reinvent all. Like, there's some facts in here that haven't changed. Yes. Clearly there are some facts that have not changed, which is the reason why we'd like the new build. Right. Exactly. Thank you. Oh my God, this is that. You just made my day. You, You're very, very welcome. Uh, how about a school committee update? I just want to piggyback on the, the, the science fair. Um, it was great to be able to be there as a judge. Really love being able to go see all the projects. Also wanted to call out specifically the art projects there. The, um, the, uh, project lead the Way capstones that weren't entered in the competition, but where there presenting were very cool. Um, and also I really appreciated the efforts to more deeply integrate tech and high school into the, the, We had to get a bus this year. So many tech, now we've been doing a van previously, so this is A good thing. They did kind of stand out 'cause they all came in uniform. So they, yeah, it was very cool experience. I just, I attended the science fair also and I made some really nice connections with some students. One student was from Nepal and he was very proud of that. So it was nice to see a very diverse kind of group there. And I made some connection about they're gonna work on the pollinator garden and the mural, so That's awesome. I learned that lemon juice and vinegar is really the way to remove your makeup. Yeah. I just thought I'd throw that out. Did you see the, uh, the bacteria on the makeup pad? Yes. That's, that's something Learned what a blender was. I thought that was something you put your food in, but that's not what a blender actually is. So, And the automatic window Items, uh, to refer to subcommittee, That would be me. Yes, sir. Mr. Sullivan. It'll be on meeting of the finance subcommittee on February 13th, uh, at 6:00 PM to talk budget. It's a Thursday. Nope, that's, that's the subcommittee, um, spot to be determined. The room to be determined. Um, we'll fi as soon as we figure that out, we'll let everybody know. But, uh, it'll be in this building. It's the 13th at 6:00 PM Super. Anything else, Kathy? Um, the, uh, policy group is gonna try to meet during February sometime to eliminate those check, uh, title ix. Um, I am gonna be away, but Bo is gonna work with getting those on the agenda for next time. So that's that. Any policy that we need to think about, anything come up recently that we need to think about? Are we good? Uh, that's what her report's Coming up. Okay. Yep. Um, items refer to subcommittee. Nope. Old business subcommittee Reports. Recommendations. Okay. The next one is me. Um, human Resources and Policy Subcommittee met tonight and we discussed two different policies. One was on the graduation requirements because of the MCAS being eliminated as a graduation requirement. And also we had a subcommittee, um, on the school committee policy. Um, BDE. Um, and we were changing the names of the subcommittees for, um, Jeff's group. Um, where he had, it was, um, instruction and curriculum. Now it's gonna be, let me just go back in and look. Um, it's gonna be curriculum instruction and Assessment subcommittee. So that was gonna be a change. And we talked about that tonight. Good. And so they will be moved Forward. Sounds good. Anything else? Any minutes? Got none. Any other, any other items? I don't know why I can never say it. Any other items? Not reasonably anticipated within 48 hours of this meeting. Seeing none. Next scheduled school committee meeting is, I'm flipping through quickly. March 3rd, 2025. I look forward. Motion to adjourn all there. I have a motion to adjourn. Second. I have a second From Mr. Sullivan. Do we have all those in favor? Aye. All opposed. Motion carries. We are adjourned at 9:09 PM.