I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all right um school committee
meetings operate under rules which are adopted to improve information flow to the public make it easier for the parents Guardians of the public to uh um talk with us and uh we have a public comment uh session for about 12 minutes
right here and ask you to please keep your time under three minutes if possible anyone from the public here to speak seeing none um we will have one later at the end of the meeting as well all right moving on to correspondence
and recognition bunch of recognition uh today um Conor James uh turned all four judges chairs in the blind auditions of the voice securing a spot on this season's show uh and uh he was a
rainwater player here at uh at VR and when he was needed to play Team Angel he flew back because once a rain water player always a rain water player um take a moment to commend uh Lisa white and Kelly Baron staff and
parents whose dedications to our student uh made the this uh rain water really work and just a reminder that Hades town is coming up uh the teen Edition at the beginning of May and I'm sure we'll hear more about rainwater from the student
advisory Council as we go through our spring meetings um a special thank you to Walsh moving company for supplying the district with a much needed office furniture um obviously it's the generation it's the generosity of folks
like these in the community who help us keep our costs down and help us replace broken things uh bridging lines a substance free Coalition at the high school uh five members including the co-presidents K Caleb arnam and Corey
kahel uh went down to uh National leadership training in DC and from all accounts it was a very successful and very good meeting that everyone learned a lot from uh case faul buzzer buzzer beating
shop uh who made it on to ESPN great job Carson Cas uh BR wrestling team uh has won the SE uh D2 South championship and uh they'll be joining us in at a future meeting to be
recognized on uh February 14th U BMS held a be like Bey day the day of kindness honoring the me Legacy of a former Bas director David buy once again this year Deca uh
will compete at the state level with the competition begins tomorrow and Friday at the seaport Convention Center in Boston we wish them all luck and then on March 15th if it's if there's not enough on your calendar this is a really
important one and I'd suggest people go is Bridgewater rham Educational Foundation Corporation will hold its fourth annual Galla uh you can look that up on the web the foundation supports uh Innovative programs outside the operational budget
that wouldn't be available to our students and staff um it's it's run by past school committee members Mr solber Mr Doan Dr Kowski and um it's it's a great time and
uh encourage people to buy tickets early because I imagine it will sell out once again other than that we had um many emails continuing to be concerned about the budget we just did as I said meet
with the budget subcommittee and he'll hear more from that from Mrs King later in the meeting uh and um Senator duner came down to uh visit us at Bridgewater rham a couple weeks
back we get to take her on and T for school and uh Lobby her for more support for from the state coming toward the district she was very sympathetic to our needs and promise to look into what she could to to try to help us
out um and again we continue to struggle with our audio uh downstairs at the auditorium and a few folks uh have been trying diligently and I'd like to thank Jeff fer specifically on that for trying
to um make sure we have the right audio set up that we can hear in the auditorium and also out on our YouTube channel so we continue to be aware of that we continue to uh try to work on it
that was all I had for correspondence and recognition Mr Powers you have anything else uh no the only other thing and I know Miss Waton will talk about it we a u National Merit finalist as she will mention that uh but also our debate team I'm not sure how they made out um
but we had several of our students in the debate finals today actually be hosted um and it was quite uh quite the event to go see I know the finals might actually be over by now but hope we get an update on that okay great moving on to educational
reports Mrs K be student advisory Council good evening to all today I would like to share the amazing once a lifetime experience that was spent in Quebec over February break on Monday February 17th 15 students including myself embarked on
an 8-hour bus ride to TRC city in Canada once we arrived we were greeted by ter guide cat who gave us so much information and was overall such a sweet person on that Monday we went to baining got CES for dinner and walked all around the upper town of the city and saw many
landmarks on Tuesday we went out to breakfast dog setting and had three times in the Lower Town to choose a lunch place with our peers after lunch we went to the St and pre Church into the Mont Mory Falls the tallest
waterfall in the province of que Quebec then for dinner we went to a Sugar Shack which makes its own maple syrup and serves many courses and has live music to dance to on Wednesday we went to a different breakfast place a hotel made completely of ice and went to an iconic
tubing park with so many different types of snowy Hills then the group went to Tim Horton's for coffee and we were required to order our drink in French after all it's the national language of Quebec after that the group went to wendake at First Nation at first
nation's Village and then to dinner on Thursday the final day of our trip we went to a delicious breakfast place then a lesson taught about the war on the plains of Abraham and we're given free time to explore the upper town before everyone boarded the bus and endured the
long trip home this trip was truly life-changing and it couldn't have made been made possible without our beloved French teacher Mrs meckelberg and all the hard work she put in to make this trip incredible it was a trip I'll never forget and like Mr fitzg referenced
earlier um Hades Town ticket information that will be posted on the uh bridgew RAM website shortly tickets are not on sale yet but um be on the lookout for when those do come out for sale and thank you for your time and I would like to welcome Rachel Cory with the stand
um good evening school committee tonight I'm going to report on ongoing events that are occurring at VR um yesterday was the first day of the stth day events and presentations at BR the RMS eth graders came to and got to hear from staff students and Club leaders about
how BR has been a source of great opportunities and memories um they also experienced tours by many student leaders including myself where they got a snapshot around the school with some stops in teachers rooms and many stories told by our student tour guides um the BMS students will be having their turn
for step of day tomorrow um also yesterday the National Honor Society held a very successful pizza bow event in the BR uh cafeteria this was a wonderful night where many individuals and families came to try out the most beloved local pizza shops um they all
all they needed was $5 to enter and then they were able to get eight slices from any pizza brand that they wanted to have which was b b style um and they got to try many different pizza companies that are local um ading for those many companies and as a form of enjoyment for
the people coming um I volunteered as one of the members to help sell the pizza and I truly enjoyed the event it was so nice to see members of our community socialize over pizza and um there was also a gift card raffle so Winer got to get all those goodies um thank you and I hope you have a great
night I now welcome Sophia good evening good evening Mr chairman school committee inter Powers tonight I'll be speaking to you about some recent events and trips that have taken place at the end of January a ski trip was hosted by the school as a fun way for students who
have who have skied before to take a trip and for other students who' never gone to try it out the Bus full of excited skiers and snowboarders eagerly left after school on Friday January 29th and head up to watch for a night of fun on another note TJ squ recently our
first competition while we didn't bring the official robot with us as we're still working on it and we didn't want to bang it up before our next competition we managed to try out some new ideas and get rid of some ones that didn't work quite as well we considered
it a resounding success we did we managed to successfully win many of our matches until our loss in the semifinals unfortunately eliminating us from the competition we were incredibly proud of the students we sent homeover and we believe they diding amazing job thank
you and I now introduce Kayla to the stand good evening tonight I'll be sharing the initiatives that post has been working on in the achievements of the briw track f team in honor of American Heart post encouraged the V Community to wear bread for National
bread awareness helping raise awareness of woman's number one killer cardiovascular disease they have also been holding heart Friday announcements grazing awareness for heart health by reporting data on Fridays that are relev to help high school students and Educators students and staff were also
able to stop by a table at lunch to purchase a red Li to show their support also the VR traing field team had a handful of athletes qualified for the division 2 indoor tracking championships on February 1 me of Champions on the 22nd the track team is looking forward
to a banquet being held this Thursday to celebrate the hard workers of the season and organize their achievements thank you and I would like to welcome C to this student council had a Valentine's Day fundraiser before break he sold roses with the option of a single rose for a
dollar or personaliz message from then we assembl ERS Ander them to advies to be distributed we Happ to say that the fundraiser did extremely well and able to make many of our students and staff here in addition to this the schoolwide student council has returned back to the
before this student councils were assigned and cared by class in year now is a choice for students AC come together and help the school our three main objectives we are hoping to achieve achieve soon are finding cost effective ways to decorate our school creating a
survey to get to the student population and also finding ways to recruit new members to help to help diversify and bring new ideas to the thank you I just want to say thank you to the student advisory Council for their report um and I also want to give a
shout out to Lua um he brought back Ski Club this year which I know a lot of students were really excited about um and metam M for taking the students on this trip to Quebec um over February break those two the club and that trip
um was a really great way for students to get new experiences so I just want to say thank you to Miss Watson um for that and if you can just share that with those teachers I appreciate that um and that concludes my report thank you all right moving on BR
R RH course schedule Miss Waton good evening school committee superintendent Powers um before I present on the changes to the course selection booklet I do just want to take a moment to um let you know about GI and Tumi so the National Merit Scholarship
program has determined which of the 16,000 semifinalists who were named back in September of 2024 met all the requirements to advance the finalist standing in the competition I am pleased to announce that Gianna Tumi has advanced to the finalist position of the
16,000 finalists approximately 15,000 will move on as to the finalist position of those 15,000 6,870 Merit scholar scholarship winners will be selected that selection process
is now in progress and in March the National Merit Scholarship Corporation will begin notifying the scholarship recipients and their respective schools in my 26 years at VR I can't think of more than one student that comes to mind that made it this far in the competition
so this is an outstanding achievement um kudos to Giana her dedication her hard work or commitment um one that others can definitely aspire to so I'm hoping that I have good news as we move forward uh that will continue it also seems an appropriate time to announce that Giana
it is officially the valid Victor in of the class of 2025 so huge huge accomplishment for car core selection um we did submit a our fore selection book to um the superintendent
for his review unfortunately um due to Staffing shortages anticipated budget impact um we do not have much to change going into next year um we do have one addition that we're looking to make it's contingent on Staffing um if there's a
possibility of getting an additional PE teacher um we would be looking to introduce a new elective in the PE department for upper um class students to take currently Juniors and seniors don't have the opportunity to take physical education so it would be offered to to those folks um and we are
going to make a little swap in the math department this year we ran an inclusion section in statistics and next year we kind of want to broaden that so we're going to move it to our selected topics course which is aligned to um like a college level course but to of the high school LEL we are hoping to still run with our
18 AP courses that's obviously contingent on Staffing as well as um student enrollment but I'm happy to answer any questions if you have regarding the course questions from M Watson is the highlighted yellow is that supposed to signify something on
oh you've got the full book there oh I guess yeah it was just in the folder that's okay the highlighted yellow is probably parts that that either changed from year to year okay or I want it I'll go back and make sure that it's all accurate before we finalize it to go to CR okay all right that's good question
other question um I have a question I've heard a little bit of rumor that going to bad um I know that kids in freshman and suff had to semester of PE I believe and I
heard next year that there would be no PE offered at the Freshman level so I'm glad you brought that up so that's actually a point that I should have clarified more um ninth grade PE is is not changing at all so it's currently a semester of PE and then those students in the alternate semester either take a
business class or an art class or a music class staying exactly the same 10th graders take a semester of PE and then they take a totally separate semester of Health we're going to merge them together and do Wellness year so it's really the same thing but but a little different so they'll be they'll
have a mixture of class time gym time outdoor time but for the whole year instead of semester semester okay that makes sense that a little Mis thank you yes no but thank you for bringing that up thank you other questions see none I guess we'll move on
to ni presentation I know that do have the full slide presentation so oh I'm sorry we need need approve it sorry getting ahead of myself is there a motion to approve the cour
schedule by Mr post second by m King discussion hear none all in favor it's unanimous thank you thank you for keeping me on track uh all right so now moving on to NAS presentation excellent thank you so
the slide presentation has been provided to you folks um I actually shared it with the faculty today at our faculty meeting I just want take a quick opportunity just to summarize the last year and a half in regards to our Nas accreditation where we are now where we were and where we are now and kind of where we're going um I hope you had an
opportunity to review it I'm happy to answer any questions at the end if you folks have any as you know during the last school year during 2324 the high school participated in an extensive self-reflection and that's part of our ongoing accreditation process the self-re collection report was written by
all members of the high school staff and included input from parents families as well as our students it's viewed as both research and reflection and it helps us focus our vision and our quest for continuous Improvement the self-reflection report also helps inform
the school's growth and school Improvement plan the collaborative conference visit took place at the high school over the course of two school days in this past fall it was October 21st and 22nd during their two-day visit they observed over 40 different classrooms met with administrators at
both the building level and as well as central office level they met with teachers staff members students and parents and Guardians and they also reviewed the school self-reflection report that we had written the goal of the visit is for the nesque team which is an independent outside Professional
Organization group of people to review and determine the extent to which the high school is aligned to the standards for accreditation and identify priority areas for growth and Improvement after the visit the nas team finalized their report and they did sub sub it to the
high school so what happens next this month we developed and wrote Our growth plan based on the findings in the report by June of next year so that's June of 2026 we will have to implement the action steps in our school growth plan and write our summary reports in the
fall of 2026 we will host the desial accreditation visit that's like the culminating visit the desial accreditation visit it's it's the final visit it's similar but it's larger than the collaborative conference confence visit team members will again arrive to the high school they'll determine the
progress that we're making in meeting the action steps that are proposed in our school growth plan the result of the denial visit determines whether or not we maintain our accreditation or move to probation or lose our accreditation I'm happy to answer any questions there will
be more information as we uh obviously proceed with this questions on the study mber um so on the summary that you gave us there's some item action items in here that um you've clearly laid out kind of um the resources needed some of
them for far funding and Staffing yes so if we do not do that and we do not have funding to do this what is some what is the potential outcome of when they come back lose accreditation for on probation so there there's different levels that
they can do um I'm glad that you asked that that question I can't speak for them I'm not sure what they would do I guess it would depend on which ones we don't meet um out of the four priority areas two are viewed to be critical areas uh number one and number two
meaning you have to have those in place to remain accredited and if you don't like you stand the chance of losing your accreditation um 20 years ago when we went through the process we were put on probation um so we didn't lose the accreditation but they gave us time to
work on the the aspects that we had to fix um some of them were were fiscally dependent um this bu building was the result of one of them um some of them were not they might have been curriculum based can't remember exactly 20 years ago but but I do remember going on probation was a scary thing um you don't want to lose your accreditation as a
high school or as any school um so we are going to work hard on these but as you noted in the priority areas many of them are either contingent on Staffing time and or money you follow no okay other questions
okay thank you thank you very much appreciate it uh moving on to consent agenda you want to step away um approval of minutes from January 26 Declaration of some Surplus four chairs for
conference room chairs uh 20 plus year old plow truck acceptance of gifts and grants as I indicated while moving in storage F office of furniture uh had G given us a bunch of stuff for which we're very grateful approved the general
ledger warrants from January 23rd February 6th and February 20th uh acknowledge the receipt of the Reed's collaborative uh annual report agreement and the Personnel report is submitted by rhr director is there
emotional approv made by m marelli second by m Conrad lto all those in favor I opposed it's unanimous thank you Mr Lo and moving on now we can get to administrative and school committee
reports report of the superintendent Mr B thank you Mr chairman members of the school committee uh members of Rob the administrative team and uh guests here tonight I am here to provide a brief overview of the superintendent
evaluation process uh in terms of my progress towards my goals uh obviously uh there'll be a full presentation towards the end of the year where you will complete the evaluation of the superintendent uh but as required I'm here to provide a a midcycle
review uh my first goal that was approved by school committee was a student learning goal uh 60% of aish language Learners will meet their Desi established progress targets as measured by the 2025 access test um as we talked about this this is one that really have a lot of evidence until later in the
year because the test uh is the the testing window is open now um many of our students have already completed that but the testing window uh closes February 28th so we we may have some students still in within that window uh we tally expect results reported uh towards the end of April and then uh
paper results mailed uh to the district and uh we'll be able to distribute those in May so obviously having additional information for you uh then second part of that was to make sure that uh we were providing professional development to our faculty and staff in regards to best
practices with instruction to our English language Learners uh and through the uh new platform elevation I included there the elevation slides uh that we shared with our faculty during November uh to all of our buildings we uh did a
professional development program and this is you know one area that I think obviously we've been able to self-reflect as great uh as the feedback is that we're getting from the faculty and staff that are participating in those professional development modules uh we realize we haven't necessarily
created a structure in time uh for our staff to participate and know it's a lot of them are doing it uh above and beyond and outside of the workday so we've just already uh assessing what we need to do differently next year and making those part of our professional development cycle to be able to provide teachers the opportunity during the work they to be
able to take uh take some of those professional development offerings uh also part of this goal uh was the creation of an lpac which is the English language parent advisory Council much like our CPAC except for our English language Learners um our plan uh this
year was to have a fall meeting and one again in the spring I'm pleased to report that we did have a meeting on October 24th 2024 at the Bridgewater Middle School in the library I did link several items there for you uh the first one is the meeting invite you can see the invite that was uh sent out to
parents also um shared with our parents of our English language Learners uh during uh parent teacher conferences um and uh individual meetings individual outreaches uh individual Outreach uh and then obviously you can see the translated copies and all the different languages
that our families speak uh the second link there is the actual meeting folder for that evening uh what was accomplished or what was uh on the agenda I should say um the presentation that we shared again in translated Lang
of all those that U responded and we tally have a spring lpac meeting scheduled for April 3rd 20125 but I certainly informed with that and lastly part of that goal was the language acquisition team process uh as I've
shared with you in the past language acquisition teams have to be held for students uh that need to be placed on a um English learner Student Success plan not making because they did not make enough progress on the4 access obviously you will really know that how they did
once the 2025 results come out but we did have to place them on um success plan obviously that only applies to students in uh grades two and above um we did have a set of meetings this past fall I did link that meeting schedule
there for you and obviously another meeting will happen in the spring as well I know a question was asked about uh the number of English language Learners by building uh so that is also on that uh document that is linked there um second goal was a professional
practice goal uh I will engage with at least one student group per month to assess their experiences of high quality Equitable instruction and course offerings as well as extracurricular activities in order to ensure the student voices shape programmatic decisions and offerings um I've had the
opportunity to meet with a couple student groups and obviously have additional ones uh scheduled coming up so excited that I was able to meet as I share with you here in December with the high school student government group
where we talked about the budget process and I also uh we collaborated on developing a student survey um I shared with them the potential survey that I wanted to share out and maybe feedback on that and then obviously as you heard tonight they're also developing in uh in the process of developing a student
survey for themselves but I did link uh the scheme survey that uh was created and distributed uh in I had the chance to meet with the high school social justice group again it was an awesome opportunity for me to be we talked about obviously the state
of the country and some of the fears that these students and their families are currently experiencing with some of the ex obviously some of our students um you know are arrived to briw a Rain from
countries all across the world and we certainly welcome them with open arms you that has caused some angst with those students and their families but we assured them that obviously we were safe and supportive environment for them I think they appreciate hearing that from
faculty staff and administration uh and then um I did obviously link the district's correspondents and families there that we did send out about U some of the executive orders that were issued as well as our internal protocol and then I also shared with you the student survey
that was sent out to students in grades 6 through 12 I we're looking for at least a minimum of 10% response rate please to share that we had a 26% response rate of all the students that we sent it out to so great response uh already had
some feedback on that survey uh in terms of you know expanding the questions that were asked to try to get some additional information so whether we res survey the students or making part some of that feedback part ofs um me schedule with some other
student groups and also in the process of uh working with the principles to to capture some other groups that we haven't been able to meet with uh but in March a meeting with the student council over at rhan Middle School um also the high school triam music Honor Society
Miss Watson is Champion that effort so I'm going to join her at a future meeting um the GSA Club at the high school as well and then the Bridgewater Middle School school climate and Culture Club publica meeting with them at the end of March uh so again looking forward to those I think I've shared with you um
this is you know not to be offensive to any adult that I meet with on a regular basis but the best meetings I attended the once with the students uh so very much looking forward to those uh the third goal is a district Improvement goal uh again was revolving uh revolving around the budget process
this was a goal that obviously I had last year as part of my educator evaluation um and we decided to continue this goal for this year as because we knew the budget would is so important so dur the 2425 Academic Year work with both Town governments and District staff to identify advocate for and secure
funding to support our Student Success plan the district Mission excellence and education for all again I link some documents there for you for your review uh one being the FY 26 budget timeline uh the uh overview of the FY 26 Town
Outreach and meeting schedule that I had with Town officials going back to uh late summer early fall um obviously the communication we out to our stakeholders across the district we did hold a uh parent Giver
uh parent caregiver budget presentation even uh it was well attended probably one of our best attended parent nights that I've been part of we had 6 uh 65 parents and caregivers attend in addition to our um faculty and staff um
so again very pleased with the response that uh we had from my parents uh and it was I think it was you know hopefully they found it very informative it really was to give an overview of the budget development process it wasn't necessarily to get into specific numbers uh but it was done the week before
theary budget presentation so I wanted to be able to provide some context and some background knowledge for our parents and caregivers um so the numbers that I presented the following week and then obviously I included the FY 26 prary budget that was presented in janary uh then goal four was also a
district Improvement um goal this was to uh expand our offerings for our students um all of our students uh but specifically our students with disabilities uh during the 24 25 school year in conjunction with the Special Olympics of Massachusetts the MIAA the district we begin to develop the Unified
sports program at the high school level for students who disabilities and student Partners uh very excited to report uh that we have uh our first session complete we were actually able to uh run a unified strength and conditioning program I did include a
picture there on uh progress report uh we were able to uh provide a little swag for our students that participated uh so we're very excited but just to kind of walk you through uh the timeline going back to September uh We've obviously had several
internal meetings to begin to plan for uh the implementation of the Unified sports program uh so starting in September uh you can see we obviously met with Special Olympics uh to plan for this as well uh Mr O and I attended a training in November for program
administrators with the Special Olympics of Massachusetts and I can't say enough great things about the Special Olympics of Massachusetts and the support that they have provided us uh they're always responsive to anytime we reach out the question and they've actually been on site uh several times which has been
fantastic uh but in uh January we also held a student information session in a parent information parent caregiver uh information session uh that evening uh and and pleased to report we had 57 uh students parents caregivers respond that
they would attend those information sessions um and pleased to report that that everybody showed up we had 19 parent caregivers respond that they would they would come and they all came and we had 38 students respond and they all showed up as well uh we gave an overview of the
Unified sports uh program in general we did uh spend a lot of time talking about the strength and conditioning program but also the other offerings that we plan to offer uh registration is now open for unified track and field this spring we're very excited about that as
well but I don't have concrete numbers for you in terms of how many students plan to participate in that registration still open I can tell you though however we did have 16 students participate in the unified strength and conditioning program uh it was over seen or coached by uh Mr baldeck and Miss prear um two
teachers here at the high school I had the opportunity to come over uh for several uh several sessions and uh watch the students participate uh again it was great not just uh watching them progress through the program but also the way they're interacted with each other Miss
wats and I were actually talking about that uh we're really excited to see as we start to expand this program the relationships that you know happen in in in small groups and small cohorts in an after school setting uh really starting to you know transcend the school day um seeing these students hopefully
eventually interact with each other not just after school but also during the school day um so again we're excited but you can see a lot of smiling in that picture um I think it kind of sums up how the students felt um and a lot of positive feedback already from the students and staff and
parents so we excited about track and field um and we hope next year all well this year that we'll be able to run both of those sessions again as well as expand to basketball questions or comments on the
superintendent's mid updates m a question um how many families attended the was it seven seven um is that a good number or um I
think for our first one yes uh we were pleasantly surprised uh we had actually tried to start an lpac last year and even the year before and we get no no response uh so the fact that we we got seven uh it's progress for us certainly we want to um see that expand I think
what we're trying to do is capture other opportunities when we uh run our multi um lingual award ceremony in the spring for our English language Learners that is very very well attended um Auditorium is packed so how can we kind of capture some and I was think she knew what I me
on on the um enrollment by school you have two columns one that says number of El's February 24 25 and then C it just says number of elps what is that uh to the number of students that required a success plan okay okay I didn't get the
SP okay thank you problem sorry Mr just more of a comment it's great to see the Unified sports program amount of progress It's Made in such a short amount of time um it's a great inclusive opportunity for all for that feedback I I really you know again
to that point M Watson and Mr opono have really led the charge and I'm happy to you know support them however I can but when you come over and see the smiles on those kids faces it's it's well worth any effort that needs to be put in to get that up and running so thank you for
that M con lberto um you talked a little bit Mr Po about um your meeting with the social justice group I was just curious um in some of the inks that's out there right now with our um of are new learner new students or students
from other countries um I'm hearing from other districts kids are not coming to school because of The Angst and I'm just wondering if we are seeing more chronic absenteeism or absences due to angst around again immigration issues and
everything we definitely saw that In Pockets uh especially when those executive orders first came out that was feedback that came to uh to miss Richard over the E program heard from you know the El staff that hey you know I'm getting some Outreach from parents I'm
not going to send my student to school until this is resolved uh that really was kind of what prompted us to take action and put some internal protocols in place and then share those out um I do believe that those students that were being held out have been coming just again I don't want to say they you know
feel relieved but at least they we put something on as a district that you know we will not uh not engage in this anything further I'd just like to thank M M for continued work on the uh superintendent evaluation I think the
process has work really well this year M mang so thank you very much for that I certainly appreciate it uh for long all right moving on uh budget subcommittee report M King thank you Mr chairman um the budget subcommittee
meeting the budget subcommittee met several times uh since the last um meeting as you know we're going through the budget of fiscal year 2026 process uh we met on February 3rd February 4th February 11th February 18th and then
just before this meeting on February 26 um on February 3rd 2025 budget sub met at 5:30 in the superintendent conference room in attendance for Mr FG Mrs Martelli Mrs staven for superintendent Powers assistant
superintendent Mrs babalola Miss robow Mrs Healey Mrs McDougall and myself uh the sole item on that agenda that evening was the fiscal 2026 budget as Mr Powers had just presented his preliminary budget at the prior school committee meeting we went over to his
presentation and the members gave feedback concerns and discussed our action plan between then and the March 12th public hearing Mr Paris discussed how he and the business office were reviewing the budget and cutting any where they could we discussed the
community concerns regarding class size offerings and special education also the subcommittee noted the town's Financial concerns our strategy going forward from that meeting was to meet regularly meet with the towns as much as possible in person in person as well as telephone
calls and to continue reviewing different budget scenarios on February 4th 2025 the budget subcommittee met at 6 o' at the Academy building at the Bridgewater Town council meeting in attendance were Mr fitzg Mrs Martelli
Mrs DAV for superintendent Powers Mrs babalola and myself pursuant to the Bridgewater Town Charter which requires an annual joint meeting during the budget cycle with the Bridgewater rham school committee the budget subcommittee attended a joint Town council meeting at
that time also in I'm sorry um the Bridgewater Town Council the acting Bridgewater Town manager and the Bridgewater finance committee at that time Mr PW highlighted points from his budget presentation and Mr Powers and the budget subcommittee took questions concerns and comments from the
Bridgewater Town Council regarding the fiscal year 2026 Budget on February 11th 2025 the budget subcommittee met at 5:30 in the superintendent's conference room in attendance were Mr fitzg Mrs Martelli Mrs DAV for superintendent Powers
assistant superintendent Barry Mrs babalola the Director of Business Services Miss Treasurer Miss oti fiscal assistant to the business office Miss sedor witz who took the meeting minutes and myself again the budget subcommittee
continued discussions on the current budget proposal following the joint Town council meeting feedback as well as meetings Mr Powers had with Town officials in both RAM and bridgew that week Mr Powers and Mr fitzg had also met with Senator Kelly
juner the budget subcommittee reviewed the budget where line items have inreased inreased um especially Transportation due to new students coming in um and also made further Cuts where they could he also discussed and reviewed several proposed budget
scenarios based upon the financial positions of both towns the budget subcommittee meeting approved the minutes of February 20 February 3rd on February 18th the budget sub committee met again in the superintendent's conference room in attendance were Mr
fitzg Mrs Martelli Mrs Davenport superintendent powers assist superintendent Barry Mrs babalola Miss Robo Miss oeni Mrs mcdouall and myself um there was a discussion and a vote on the Declaration of surplus which
was included in the consent agenda we also approved the minutes of February 11th 2025 the budget subcommittee continued strategy discussions and different budget scenarios following a lengthy discussion and review of different scenarios and ways to move forward a
further budget subcommittee meeting wased for February 26 2025 at 6m prior to this full school committee meeting and to invite officials of both towns to up discuss Financial options for the budget
accordingly on February 26 2025 2026 I'm getting of myself um the budget subcommittee met at 6 PM in the lecture in the library at the ringham bridge ring Regional High School in attendance were Mr fitzg Mrs support
superintendent powers and myself as well as many other members of the community um Bridgewater town councilors rham selectman finance Committees of both towns and town managers of both towns um at that time this is not
something that we have done in the past or at least since I've the on school committee is have a joint meeting with the town at this point in the budget discussion um as you know we create our budget presents a preliminary budget the
budget sub goes back and forth we narrow that down to a budget that we present at the public hearing on March 12th we go back we might make edits to it based on feedback and then at the end meeting in March 26 we present a budget to the full
school committee that is voted on and sent to the town however we do not fund our budget so creating that budget in this vacuum knowing financial distress potentially um we felt we needed to talk
to the talents and get feedback and show them our concerns of what the budget looks like right now and what their feedback might mean Staffing wise operationally for next year we wanted to know how are we going to get
through this budget cycle and what is the plan going forward because last year we were in this position and we got rid of 24 positions and a year later we're here again potentially to get rid of more positions if we don't get funded so
we needed to know what is the plan going forward we need to know what are we going to do for this cycle and going forward so it was an uncomfortable conversation I don't know that they wanted to show all of their cards um but
they were all there which I was happy about they all gave feedback asked questions commented um as of right now the budget that Mr poers presented was $109 million which is
approximately a 21% increase to itance that's not able to be supported right now they don't have a 21% increase available to give us which would not decimate all of our other Town departments but at the same time we're looking at it like we also can't bear
the grunt of cuts on our end either because foring point so we need to figure out where do we go from here without cuts and potentially going forward so we got some feedback from them we're going to provide more
information from them and have more conversations at the very least I need to know that there's not going to be any Cuts this year if we present a budget with no Cuts but if we do that what is next year going to look like we did discuss an override which no one wants
to say the word R and I understand it means a tax increase to everyone in both Community which is hard there's a lot of people that are struggling or on a fixed income but it can't be at the expense of
the school district which is the the biggest draw in towns generally and we are the biggest part of both towns budget but we can't bear the Brun of continuously getting CS so we need a longterm plan and potentially hopefully
an override would be that point um so like I said we're going to have more budget meetings between now and March 12th and March 26th um before we present at the public hearing and then present final budget um
but hopefully we have more conversations with the town and come up with a plan to bridge this Gap and at the very least not have layouts layoffs but at the best try to figure out because we
can't every year to year be back here I'm gonna just put it out there um I was at the budget meeting I heard people talking about maybe an override maybe not an override spend money on another evaluation um I'm just curious in our you know they want us to go back and
look at the numbers again any of the conversations now that I put this out there lightly my kids all participate if we cut Sports if we cut extracurriculars would that mean we don't have L teachers I I just I we keep hearing this conversation of that got to make it hurt
to make people like stand up and say we need something to change it's already hurting but again I just I know they asked the meeting to like show different numbers and what that would potentially mean if we cut Sports in extracurricular what would that do for
us again it's not think is the right direction to go but we do need teachers in our classrooms at this point um so I I think you know I can answer in Broad terms um certainly when we look at what we budget and expend for
athletics extracurriculars um it would not make up the potential shortfall that we're faced with now um certainly when you look at you know over a million dollars I that's could potentially be a million jobs that were're able to save um but it
certainly wouldn't be enough if we were just to eliminate extracurriculars in in athletics that would not the shortall this C other questions just to follow up on that um you know obviously it's a portion of our
budget and obviously it's not going to cover the whole short how much of the short would it uh based on some of the the numbers that were shared uh this evening um you know from the towns in terms of what
their percentage is we kind of looked at a couple different scenarios um you know again would probably be remember the the latter scenario that was talking about this evening with bring and giving three 467 and I know they shared that this
evening I can't confirmed uh we'd be at roughly about a 5.1 million doll deficit so certainly a million dollar plus that's a deficit to level Services yes correct deficit to level Services million dollar plus C
that certainly not up that that other questions Mr Lo so just sitting there this evening in the prior meeting sounds like we need to do a more comprehensive job of educating both sides of the table in terms of what is going to be the impact of longterm moving forward if we don't actually fund
this budget to an appropriate level we're going to lose teachers we're going to continue to have the special education issues we have across the district it's only going to become more cyclical and more impactful as time goes on if we don't step up and do something to put forth a budget that actually
educates our children in a probate man the same excuses on the Town Council C the same things we should do from their end year after we need to go after the state every single school district is doing this right now it's not changing you it's not
making difference at this point it's up for us to push for a budget that actually is going to move things forward for our kids and break the some of the current Cycles we have going forward in the district along those lines Mr lo I would almost propose I would be interested to
seeing a kind of fq is if like if we did didn't get this funding it would mean that our class sizes I don't know what it would be Mr Mr Po but our class sizes on average would be 35 kids 40 kids we would have no Sports we would have no
extracurricular like I think we need to start putting that out there very factual I say factual but somewhat factual of what this impact is going to mean for our schools and I don't none of us want that but unless people start understanding that I don't know again Mr
Lo was saying is like it's the same excuses over and over again well yeah and it's been here to year the same just pushing it down to another year another budget cycle and we're here again and you know they're saying a three and a 4.67 which
is still a deficit it's still so that means we would have to take the cuts where they they would be fine and not have ta C like that's what makes me upset too because why are we bearing the Brent of it not that I want any not that I want
any Department to do that but we've already laid off 24 last year we can't handle anymore and I think there was some recognition from Mr Collins on the RH side around you know the school did lose 24 positions last year and you know
the towns do need to step up to do something this year to try to alleviate any further our side so it that was nice to hear any other discussion uh I just add one thing to
the whole mix and I've said it before I'll say it again I'll say glue in the face what we what we have to do eventually we have to get the funding right Mr L you're absolutely right but what then we have to do is control expenses because we can't count on more
than 3 to 3 and a half% growth in Revenue but we're going to create structur deficits as we spend as we as we spend 4% plus when revenues only growing three and a half for the towns and from the state so it's it's a it's a complicated
game but you got to figure it out um all right moving on quarterly budget reform M babalola Ro good evening Mr chairman scho committee members and superintendent po I'm here to report this evening on the treasur
leing bo of October 1st 2024 through December 31st 2024 Chapter 70 School 8 this quarter will received 7 million 88537 these payments are coming in timely at the of each month athletic
fees fiscal year 25 we estimated receiving $80,000 during this quarter we collected 8,640 we have exceeded our yearly budgeted balance by $ 29,8 investment of funds interest earnings for fiscal year
25 we estimated receiving $45,000 due to high interest r Ed 9,594 for this quar we have exceeded our yearly budgeted balance by 355 42597 miscellaneous receipts we
estimated receiving 65,000 F year 25 during this quarter we received 876 we are still expecting to receive 5,163 Medicaid Revenue we have collected $794 4548 we estimated receiving for this
year 250,000 and we anticipate receiving 17,5 5452 by the end of the school year parking Fe we estimated receiving 30,000
for fiscal year 25 we have received for this quarter $3,250 for this account we have exceeded by$ 10,000 year to date rental of school facilities we have collected $
39,7 192 and 50 cents during this quarter we estimated receiving 65 fisc year 25 and still anticipate receiving $1,482 and Appropriations we have transferred $2 million fromd to support
the fiscal year 25 budget as voted charter school this quarter we have taken in $ 34,99 in year to date we've taken in 91,4 construction debt Appropriations and town ass assessments excuse me have been
receiving these funds on a consistent and timely basis this concludes my report thank you questions from M Ro we go on yes do we still think the Medicaid well Medicare we um budgeted the
250 and I did look previously and we have collected um previous years more than that so I do do feel this year it would be the same chairman we've also expanded our medj ERS program um we're using the add
on to Power School service capture that now our service providers are in the process of being and log the services that they're providing so to your point we're trying to capture um every dollar that potentially could be available so we hoping to see as we expand this
further that that number does go up further questions thank you thank you good evening chairman member of the school committee superintendent powers and members of the
B tonight I will be presenting the quarter two budget performance from October 1st through December 31st 2024 I believe everyone has a copy of the budget report in their
packet the fiscal year 25 budget Still Remains 96 million of that amount 90.7 million is allocated for operation 4.3 million for debt services
and approximately 1.8 million for capital projects as of now budget free has been in effect since October of last year prior to the phe we have
funds for for all known contractual obligations including salaries and recuring expenses and continue to do so as new obligation obligations
arise as we all know we are halfway through the FIS year so let's look at some numbers we you have a with us for tonight instead of going through the
line by line and by series I will only be able to focus on a few points tonight so please try to follow along as I mention the page
numbers so first over 90% of all contractual salaries have and and this is reflected throughout all the pages the
14 pages of the reports especially from Pages if you look at the report the salaries in see majority of them on the first four pages of the
reports now if you look at page five of the report is a substitute line items as detailed on that page this line items are doing very very well with a posi positive
balance of $24,000 while this is very very encouraging at this time we know that unexpected leave of absences or even maternity um leave could impact that
so for now we can say that those line PS are doing well and again continue to flip over page six of page top of page six you see some
one or two salary items andc items and but I want you to please for out over to page where we have our 3,000 series out of the strect line item numbers these L item numbers are under
continuous monitoring as well why we are obligated by Desi to provide transportation for all students the rising number of out of District placements has
significantly increased cost and that is why you can see budgeted number for some of those lines lesser than what we encumber the reason being that like what
Mr car said influx of students Med the services that the district is required to provide so for this year due to better forcasting we're only
seeing we're seeing um a 64,000 positive number or positive balance in this series for this quarter whether this positive balance remains until the end of the fiscal year
is actually contingent upon um enrollment stability because you never know um a family that M that could need the special education service that we
have to that the district have to absorve and again if you continue to look at those line items like 4,000 series which is a maintenance and
operation of the buildings those lines are currently going within the proed projections I would like to direct attention to page 10 where we have our L
numbers as discussed in Prior project meetings we entered into new electricity and gas contract at the start of this FIS year this is reflective of these
changes however we continue to monitor those lines and we all know that gas um prices even though we have we do have a contract the delivery charges are going
but we try to do as much as possible to forecast this way at the beginning of this Bud season so we able to capture majority of those
expenses and then as we continue to move on to subsequent Pages again we are the are spending in this quarter is within those um forecast
but when you look at the last page on page 14 of the report again as previously mentioned the growing number of special education
enrollments and the diverse challenges that come with it has definitely impact or impacted the cost in this 9,000 Series if you look at 9,000 Series you see you will notice some
expenses that were encumbered and balances in the negative these are led to increase out of District placement this is due to out of District increase out of District
placement the reason being that there are some services that um we could not provide for the for our students in us that we have to send them out of districts to be able to get those services but we are very fortunate to
have some cycle breaker reimb reimbursement funds which will be applied to this overages by quar if you look at the range to date and gear to date we have applied part of
uh ccle breaker reimbursement funding that we receive from the state and that is why those uh two columns are zero but next quarter the as we inur more expenses we will be
applying those reimbursements to those expenses also on the same page you will notice that the year to date column shows a 36.9 million expenses representing 38% of the
total budget of that 36.9% 36.9 million we are spent 22.3 million in this qu and also when you look at the en
conver line we have encumbered again the salaries the known um expenses we have encumbered those expenses just to make sure that those will be taken care of
out of the bottom line and that leaves us with 13.4 I say 13.8 million as our b l as we continue in the year it is
important to note that the charting point for 13.8 million bottom line includes unencumbered such as benefits ongoing
projects and other services that we don't have any um idea of what the numers could be at this point however as we continue in the fiscal
year we will provide more updated uh numbers to us by definitely so look at the report overall I think the report is doing well and um hopefully next month
there'll be more concrete numbers to present also in conclusion I did U provide a table and a chart just to capture the
trends of where we were years 22 through 25 just to be able to capture the trends of where we we then and where we are now and reviewing the if you have
time please go ahead and review uh the chat as well as the table and feel free to follow up with any questions that you might have and um with this M thank you for
the visuals and walking us through it I just um wanted a little bit of clarification because I'm not understanding how does the year to dat column interact with the encumbrance specifically as we're spending down are we is the incumbrance
amount being reduced or is just a fixed number a number as we spending them it's reding it'sing by the end of March I believe and and that's very helpful so is it a direct correlation between the
year to date column and encumbrance as and then I just add um if you add up the year to date and the incumbrance and then you look at what the budget was that budget balance is
what's left over as a the estimate of the moment so to speak so kind of gives you an idea of where we think we're going to end it but you know as Mr B said certain items we don't do an encumbrance on so even though it looks
like we're halfway through we're really probably on budget because they're halfway through so just to clarify the major lines that we're looking at right now this out of district will be offset by Circuit Breer we should see that next month yes
all and then homeless Transportation have we applied any to no yet I have a question on that I guess um if it's revenue does it flow through your sheet or does it come in cash through
the treasure treasure so the the budget is still going to look off but we have money coming in to offset how bad the budget looks yeah so it's not going to magically fix that budget number it's just going to be able
toet thank you else all right see thank you m b appreciate it uh moving on to new business approval of payroll payroll warrants stated January 23rd February 6
to February 2024 25 is there a motion move to Dem second by Mr King discussion Mr de Mr K any another discussion see none all those in favor I oppos it's
unanimous all right next item of new business is first read of the 2025 26 school calendar UMES has anyone got any comments right away from this from the superintendent to take back otherwise we'll keep it with school committee and
vote at next meeting reason so we start with uh some of the ones that are required obviously uh Contra and then we also look at um parent teaching conferences um when those have to occur and then we try to really essentially work around those
because we know obviously you know in some cases it's could be every other week in some months it seems like we're having out days um so we we do try to be mindful that it's it's never back to back we can avoid it U but we obviously start with some of those ones that we
know we have to have at a certain time of the year um because of either conferences or contractual language and then try to build off from there but certainly open to other suggestions or feedback I think just sometimes for consistency for kids especially when
they're already Opera and they come back a half day is for kids consistency I totally get it for professionel I just think for consistency we can to
those the I just had it's a dream that it may not happen um from looking at the calendar um we have a day and a half before the December break it's only a day and a half and then we go on December break is
there any flexibility just to say get the whole two weeks off and there may not be but it was just kind of like oh kids were here for a day and a half and then they go off for eight days right I think the way I read it in December um sorry I
just I I you know and so I I have somewhat of a different lens now in in this seat uh I'm always looking towards um you know potential snow days and how that impacts the end of the year that is something that we we did talk about um you know
obviously when the holiday fell this year on on the Wednesday we did not give the full two weeks and so uh you know now that it falls on Thursday we did consider you know should we do the two weeks um but we felt as though it made
more sense in this case not to do Monday Tuesday off and come back um you know for for Friday um so it seemed to make more sense if we came in on the Monday half day early Le day on that Tuesday and then head the Friday off um
certainly you can take that feedback and do a a reworking of the days just to have options to bring back the school committee um and see how that impacts the end of the school year if
that's other comments M yeah I just um wanted to make sure you check the town halls to make sure there's no elections that right that's always you know something we take into consideration we have in the past well with the um you know more
of the smaller scale Statewide total elections we have been able to operate school not you know in some cases obviously not ideal but where they take place at V middle school and RMS we've been able to manage the larger ones we certainly um would would try to avoid
school um but right now obviously last year was was somewhat of a challenge because it occurred in the first day of school and that's why we bumped it um but this year we confirm there were no yeah 20 25 into 26 is pretty easy it's going to be 26 into 27 is going to
have the state primary and the state general and then obviously every four years we get up the presidential right so whole different story um all right other question concerns on the calendar for the first
grade all right so you'll consider those see what options might be out there and we can bring it back next time all right uh new business other businesses may proberbly come before the school committee after the agenda is posted you
heard uh a suggestion tonight on putting together a smaller Committee of school committee members memb FL members Town Council and town uh selectman and
possibly staff level positions too um so I'd like to ask the consent of the school committee that I can uh go ahead and pursue that idea with the chair of the board select and R council president and just ask for their
suggestions as to what type of committee they might might like to and I can bring it back at the next meeting that okay with everyone that if you want to make a motion to that effect I'll make a
motion this is our second second any discussion further discussion all those in favor okay great so we'll keep moving on that front it was it was a good meeting but it was rather unguilty with that many
people um all right uh so back to public comment here um 12 minutes of open public comment try to keep yourself to 3 minutes please and uh please come down and state your name and address for the
record and what You' like to speak about hello everyone I'm pis 35 St thank you for all the time you spent on the budget just a couple of points I'd like to make or ask and we can't answer questions but um this we taking a high look at operations
maintenance health insurance and ways and analyzing those functions to see how we can self insure to some degree or privatize facilities or privatize business operations in the district I just I think we really need when I talked about the audit I think that's really where we need to focus on
attention we really need to develop a comprehensive plan of what we need for an AM get real numbers to compare to employees question I have you know because the goal is to get as much money as you can with cl the second question I
have is school choice have we analyed I know we $5,000 perid come in have we analyed what cost education those kids are those special so do we have a n thank you thank you Mr cisal as you
say we can't engage unfortunately but I think that noted them down and I believe he's familiar with your email address uh good evening Ashley Mard um 270 gra Park Bridgewater um I came tonight because I've been coming every night and I've
been going to every meeting and as I came today after an hour meeting over in Mar my kid cried is off the house today I need don't needers ship and I'm not just talking to you s just taking this opportunity to talk to my councilman and
rham oh God if I hear one more time suggesting that BSU can help satisfy our child's needs I said my peace to that person but that's not the leadership I need I need someone at the table here telling them that doesn't work that it's
a waste of my time when I come to this meeting for 20 minutes because it happened at the previous one just hearing the numbers thank you Mr pow for giving some some solid numbers tonight if we just took roughly 68
teachers I just say that number because I know roughly how many are nonprofessional status who would be rifted under this situation multiply that by the average of like 29 that's 1,972 kids if you took 10 teachers just from
the high school I have 30 okay that's 130 kids that I take care of every day that's 1300 kids who going to need to be placed somewhere off the top of my head I can think of three nonprofessional status
within throwing distance from me I know these cuts are happening I'm trying my hardest and sacrificing a lot of my personal time as I know many of you are but I can scream from the mountain tops only so loud they're going to
listen to you and you need to start saying hard numbers we need to educate the public and we need to say everything needs to be cut I can't [Music]
continue to watch this town fall my child is going to go into this District I grew up in this district and I'm ashamed that we are seeing we are afraid to ask for an override I am proud to pay
more in taxes if it raises the quality of education for everyone just happy to I'm happy to and that's probably why I'm a teacher but the cuts can't happen and I am scared when I hear these numbers I had teachers call me over vacation saying I have
bills to pay and what you're starting to see already is Teachers leaving we had one who put in their resignation recently over worked and exhausted and going into the private sector and we have other teachers who know they have bills to pay and they're
going to start applying to other districts and we're going to lose the best and not to say there are bad teachers here but those teachers who have responsibilities and have high earning degrees and are valued for very significant specialized jobs are going to go and they're going to get jobs other
places we cannot do this and I I encourage the school committee to give the town's a budget and if they say they can't pay for it let's go all the way and have the state come in and have a decision on where it needs to be I we cannot do this you all know I even me to
say it to you I'm saying it to the camera we cannot send our kids to school with 24 positions lost from last year now and 70 plus positions lost from last year 100 people is like shutting
down two School I'll leave it at that thank you m [Applause] m if you can identify yourself for the
record Elizabeth Shar 1 sou Street I just have a few followup comments um after the budget committee for this meeting so if the towns aren't able to give the district what is so darely needed to make the signicant changes that we need then I strongly feel feel
it's time for the community to vote for an override and I'm pleased that this conversation was brought up at the table tonight I also agree with Miss Miss Conrad who said that Athletics and extracurriculars and
arts we can't afford these things without more money I know we're already their bones in this area but I just don't think we have any business even offering these electives when we have 33 kids in a third grade class do I want to see them go no but we just
simply can afford it with this current budget I will say people of Bridgewater reham have a lot of Pride for this district and this district has a very very large group of supporters parents grandparents invested community members
who I think and know are fully committed to supporting and override so we can live in a town with a school district that we can be proud of I understand that this Deion ultimately is for the town counselors and I will absolutely share this with them but as was as was discussed tonight
some counselors stated that they thought it would be too rush for an override vote to take place by July that wouldn't give enough voters time to be informed in order to impact next school year I strongly disagree with this this major Community problem cannot stand to
be hunted into next year the people who are for this vote are for this vote this year or next year the people who are not for this vote will not be for this vote next year either no matter how many Facebook grants go on between now and then or whenever this comes to
fruition so let's stop pushing the problem down the road let the voters show what they value because the students and teachers of our town have already suffered too long thank you thank you any further comment public
comment hi Christine b uh 36 magol away I'm here again tonight um just like Ashley is um obviously we're on the same page tonight I think we made a little progress in the area of saying out loud that we need an override we kind of
battered around that word a little bit and I've talked to people within the um within the area about how that happens and the last time an override happened it's because the school committee begins to get the ball rolling and going and I'll tell you this they say that the
time is too short between now and the next school year I completely disagree I am ready to go up in arms and say hey this is what we need for our kids this is what we need for our district I'll do that I have friends who will do that and as long as we can get that information
out and tell them what it looks like because I promise you there are parents out there that are like as soon as you tell them that their sports are going to be canceled for their children that's it that's not and I've never seen Advocates like a mother and half of the people in this in this community are moms and and
we will advocate for our children I'll stand here today along with all the other mothers in this room predominantly moms I'll say that here I'm not saying that it's not Dad too but we will advocate St the nail for our children because that's what we decided to do the moment we've decided to have children
and we're going to invest in their future from now until the day that we die so here we are I say we do it I say we go full force I'm here I'm here to help I know there's others that are here to help as well than you other public
comment for one no okay thank thank you all for uh your passionate uh your passionate discussion of this issue um all right moving on to announcements uh kindergarten
registration opens on March 3rd check the website school choice submission uh portal opens on March 3rd as well again check the V website and then uh to remind everyone
uh March 12th uh is our FY 26 budget hearing community members are encouraged to attend there it can be a much more um let me say less rigorous process of back and forth at a hearing uh that
there is uh in this public comment that we have so encourage everybody to attend they can be as long as we need to do it we're certainly going to invite our state representatives and certainly going to invite all of our town counselors and Selectmen and finance
folks to attend as well hopefully they can make it all right any other announcements from folks no all right is there a motion to aour all those in favor