of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. This meeting is being livereamed by Cheldia and posted the CPS
website for interested community members to access and watch. Inerson public participation will be taking place tonight in accordance with the Chsa School Committee public participation policy. Anyone speaking tonight during the public input portion of this meeting is notified the superintendent's office the desire to speak and provide about
these guidelines upon request. Written comments received no later than 12 p.m. on the day of this meeting will also be read and made part of the record of the meeting during the second public comment session. So welcome to this meeting of the ch school committee. Our first order of business to approve the minutes for our meeting of February 3rd.
>> I move that we approve the minutes of the regular school committee meeting of February 3rd, 2026. >> Second. >> Okay. Any corrections on the minutes? All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. 4 zero. >> Great. Um, our CHS representatives have
a snow day today, so they're not here. >> So, yep. >> Do we have any other good news we'd like to share at this point? >> So, my good news is actually here in the audience. And, um, I'm hoping that our extra good news is that we'll be in session tomorrow for school. So, very excited about the kids coming back where they need to be. Okay.
>> All right. Anybody else have anything they want to share? Okay. Um, anybody here for public comment? Right. All right. If not, let's move right into new business. >> Thank you. Um, the first thing we have on the agenda this evening, and you're going to see this on the next couple of
uh, school committee uh, agendas, is uh, just an open comment period for the Parker Middle School building project um, related to grade level options. So over the last uh number of months and you know up to a year or so for people who have been following um we've been talking about the new Parker Middle
School building project and taking a look at different locations where the school could potentially um go. Um there were three that we were vetting. Uh one was right on the Parker site. A second was up on Graniteville where the softball uh and baseball fields are and
then a third option was over at McCarthy Middle School in the back left corner of the property. Um, since that time, we've actually kind of ruled out the McCarthy and the Granite Bill site. So, the only site that we're actually focusing on now is the Parker site itself. Um, so we made that decision not too long ago, but
we still are looking at the three different grade level configurations. The first being a one forone replacement of Parker as a two-grade level 56 school. A second option which incorporates uh fourth grade and brings fourth grade up to the new school. So it
would be a three-grade level building four, five, six. And then a third option would be to build kind of a mega middle school combining Parker and McCarthy together to be four grade levels, five, six, seven, eight on that property. And all of the different options, the three
options have pros and cons. Um, and one of the things that we've been working with in the school building committee and then even uh internally with some of our work with Left Field, our OPM and AI3, who's our architect, are refining different uh models and how it could actually get laid out on the site. Um,
so we've had several uh public forums. We're going to have another public forum coming up in March. Um but both on all of our meetings kind of going forward, we want to just have a standing um uh item where if anyone from the public would like to come forward and kind of give us any input about the three grade
level configurations that we're still considering, they can feel comfortable. They can feel free to do so. So you're going to see that agenda item be a standing item between now through the springtime. Um no one had registered to speak on that particular item. Uh but you're going to see that now. You're going to have more opportunity in the
future. Um, so that's just going to be a standing item, but that's why that's on the agenda. >> Yep. And just for the committee, you know, at the end of April, we are going to take a formal vote on which of the grade configurations we would prefer. Um, so we talk about that, you know, over the course of the next couple
weeks. Um, and then we'll take a formal vote formally the ED program, we have to get the final review of that. So we'll those are things that we'll have to do as well. So >> do you know the date right off the top of your head of the March form? >> 19th. >> It's the 19th. >> The 19th. Okay. It's a Thursday at the
Elks 7:00. >> Yep. Very similar to the other ones we had done. It's the um it's the 19th. We're going to have separate literature going out about that. Um now that we're back in school this week, it'll also be in all the different school newsletters, completely open to the public, you know, residents, people who have affiliations
with the school, not affiliations with the school. Anyone is welcome to come. That'll be a good opportunity to get these updates. And then as Dennis indicated in April, we're going to be voting on the finalized ed program and also on the grade level configuration that we want because our next big
milestone with the MSBA submission is in May. Uh so we need to be kind of gearing up for that. >> Yep. >> Any qu other questions on the building grade configurations? >> That's right. We'll be hearing from >> we'll be we're going to be here talking
about this quite a bit. Yep. You're going to be sick about talking about it when we're done. >> No, we won't be sick. Uh second item I'm going to ask Linda to just actually she mentioned under good news recognition for our tea program. So I'm gonna ask Linda to introduce them. >> Yes. So very excited. I know that each year I actually touch talked about it
last month too that when the fellows were here. So these are our teaching excellence and achievement fullbrite fellows that are part of the UMass um relationship that we have that are bringing the best and the brightest from their countries. So in Chumsford we have
several of them and our Chumsford public schools at our high school and then what you're seeing here tonight is all the fellows that are in all the area Marramac Valley schools. Um this has been a program that I've been part of for years when it first started with um
Dr. Angelo and Dr. Bay Ronaban who's here tonight as the liaison. So he has been um working with the fellows running workshops. So, it's just been a great way for us to be able to share what we know and then students to also hear and
get information and learning from our fellows. So, we're so excited to have you here tonight. A few of them are going to be here um tonight to actually share some of their experiences. We have two of their cooperating um teachers with them here tonight. We have Madame Gabwa and we have Miss Ferinetti who
have come with their people tonight to just also share in the excitement. So, I'm going to actually turn it over to Dr. Dr. Bay Ronaban, a familiar face for the Chsu public schools. Can't get rid of him. Keeps coming back like a bad penny, but you know, here he is. So, Dr. Bay Ronaban, thank you so much.
>> Yes. Thank you so much, Dr. Hirs, Dr. Lang, members of the school committee. A real pleasure to be back here um within the Chumps public schools in this capacity representing UMass Lowel in that fullbrite tea program. Um, this is a program that has been running for
eight years and Chumsford has consistently been one of our biggest and best supporters. Of our 20 fellows that are here uh as part of the program this year, six of them have been assigned to teachers within the Chumser public schools more than any other school
district uh in the area. So we really value this relationship that has been built with the chumser schools as it has always been a very strong partner. Um this could not have been done without the volunteering of the partner teachers
all of which are from Chelmsford High School. We have a um a greater number of science teachers this year than we've ever had before. And luckily uh through the leadership of John Morris, the science coordinator, Steve Murray,
principal, and John McGisac, the dean, we were able to find additional partnered teachers to support all of our fellows. Uh as Dr. Hirsh mentioned, Madame Gadwis, uh Miss Farenetti are two of the world language teachers. We had
three science teachers who are partnered teachers, uh Linda Tanini, Michelle Kender, and Brian Aerson. And then we also had Peter Zopes from the social sciences and they continue to be great partners uh in the program.
All of the teachers who are part of this program here as Dr. Hurst mentioned are the best and the brightest from their countries. They come here partly to learn from what we do within the schools in Massachusetts and the Chsford public
school, but also it's an opportunity for us to be able to learn from them. It is a really nice partnership where it is something that all of the teachers and members of the UMass Low community have been able to learn their educational
techniques, things that they can bring to help us as well. So, it has been a really strong partnership and as I mentioned, we have six of our fellows here tonight who have been assigned and been part of the um program within the Chumsford public schools. and we're
going to invite each of them up to share a brief uh summary of their experience being within the schools and their partner teachers and then after we'll be open for any sort of questions that the committee has and then um as Dr. Lang had suggested we'll do a group picture
uh with the entire group and uh the committee as well at the end of it. So first I'd like to invite up uh bank if you want to take this seat over here with the microphone. >> Okay. >> Good evening distinguished committee
members. My name is Olua Bank Adi and I am from Nigeria. I am a steam educator and a science researcher specifying in breast cancer research. My experience in the US school chford high attached to
Mr. Zopes a distinguished gentleman has been quite enlightening. I saw firsthand Mr. Zopes demonstrate student centered instruction. There was differentiation and inclusivity. I really enjoyed seeing
that in practice against theory. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name is Susanna and I am from Slovakia. I teach English and literature at the
secondary grammar school in Djna in Slovakia and I'm delighted to be here as a part of this program. Uh I cooperate and uh co-e with Mrs. Gatwa and uh I I really admire the way she um conducts
her lessons. I think it's very engaging and the students are uh curious and they love it. uh I can tell that after the lesson u some of the students even individually came um to ask me uh further questions so it was really a genuine interest which is very pleasing and I'm really
glad for that I'm also managed to observe other lessons in this school and I can tell that the difference is huge you have great facilities it's well equipped school your teachers are really distinguished and uh well prepared and I
can only say positive things thank you Thank you very much. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Hayan Sharin from Armenia. I teach uh English as a second language in the middle school in Armenia. Uh I have had privilege of partnering with Jessica Ferroni, a
wonderful bride teacher. She is really supportive and I'm really thankful to her. I also want to express my um sincere appreciation for the warm warm welcome I have received here in Chssworth community. I have observed many classes and I can say that I admire
the inclusivity and engagement of each class. Uh the students are really respectful and um they are really confident. Uh thank you. It is really a valuable experience for me and thank you for every everyone for everything.
>> Thank you. Middle school. >> Good evening everyone. I hope you're all doing well. This is Sia Kamal from Iraq Kurdistan region. I am a high school biology teacher, a curriculum coordinator in an international school and also a senior project assistant with
the United Nations. This opportunity adds value and helps me to go back and contribute effectively in both our international schools and United Nations because of the partnership with the with the teachers
of both special education and also biology. It helps me to positively contribute into our curriculum management and also special education requirements in United Nations because
we are training trainers and the teachers with TICC training and actually this experience will help me to fulfill the gaps that we have with smart technique as well as with special education facilities and requirements
for the children with special needs. Miss Michelle actually helped me with lesson planning and also lab work preparations and also lab work implementations within the classes and specifically with the lab work safety which was really creative for our
environment and our country which we do not have those lab work safety protocols and procedures. that helps me to contribute effectively and also teach train other teachers in my community to do the same for chemistry and physics. Thank you for providing this
opportunity. We are really happy to be here. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Uh good evening everyone. Uh myself is Dr. Neil Kamal Mishra from India. uh coming from the capital city New Delhi and uh it has been really a very
wonderful experience because uh my partner teacher is Brian Aes and he was also visited he also visited India under the same program in 2018. So the kind of repo kind of bonding he was very much
aware about the education system of India and uh the moment I was attending uh his classes I was observing and co-eing so uh the the method he you he was using in the classes is really a
very nice experience for me how the observational techniques activity based learning methods which is considered very much essential for teaching science is using by him with the use technology and you the safety pro protocols in the labs at every moment at every minute in
the chamsford I learned a lot of new informations that is definitely going to help you one very remarkable thing which really touched me uh the counseling services provided in the Chamsford high school I got the opportunity to just
understand and many models were being used for the students for their social emotional well-being and one uh very good model that I can recall is biosocial psychological model and that model is very uh helpful and that can I
can use that in my country as well. So this is a wonderful opportunity for me to be here and to learn the things. Uh thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay ladies and gentlemen, good evening. >> Good evening.
>> Okay. My name is Ellie Hmon. I'm a Kenyan. I teach in a high I teach in two schools. A little bit loud. Okay. I teach in two schools. One of the school is in Kenya. Another one is in in USA called James Ford.
>> Yes. Zaki school is called um uh Uru girls is in Tukana County where the uh the first humankind was uh was discovered. I've really enjoyed being here as a teacher and I still be a teacher because we are about to call according to this
thanks to this guy called Cmens who came up with this kind of theory of coconutism that we shall do online. In fact yesterday we were supposed to have a class with my student in Kenya through zoom a symposium is Dr.
Tanini. She has been there for for me. Uh in fact it's my first time to to learn how to use the smart the smart board. I'm going back to my chalkboard at home. I have also I'm also with me I'm going
with so many materials from aa through the email and so forth. I've really enjoyed the up to now I've discovered indeed learning belongs to the learner. >> Yes. >> Uh thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> All right. So, those were our six fellows and as I'm sure you could tell, very impressive both with what they bring to the table and their thoughts and experiences uh being at Chsford High School. So, if there are questions for either me or any of the fellows, we can
entertain that and then we'll finish up with the uh group picture. Anybody have any questions, comments? >> I got to ask the question. >> Yeah. >> What do they think of the snow? Well, I would answer for them and and probably say they don't really love it.
Mainly because there's been so many cancellations of events and Monday is the day in which they get to visit the schools and there's been two cancellations because of Mondays, but they're going to be coming in on Thursday as like a makeup day, a snow day, makeup day. Um, so
>> yeah. >> All right. Anybody else? Well, I think it's it's always an incredible program. I've been on the school committee now. I think this is my seventh year and every year the group is different. The group brings their
individual talents to the table. Uh we see it and we see incredible stuff every single year. And this year, I don't know if what everybody else thought, but I thought each one of you really presented something technical or that you got um
in prior years, it was more social type of um explanation of what you got in the classroom. And I just honestly think that this is the best thing we can do because you bring so much diversity to
us as well and we learn something new all the time. So I really appreciate it and I I know students are impacted by it. I've sometimes get comments from students about the teachers they met during this time. So uh it's wonderful
and thank you so much for sharing and for our teachers. What an amazing testament to um you know our great staff and so really wonderful. >> Right. Anybody else? I just wanted to make a quick comment
that I was really encouraged to hear how many of you mentioned um the inclusivity that you felt in um our classrooms. I know that's something that we strive for and we talk about a lot and someone mentioned the social emotional learning um where I might not have expected that
you were really coming to get that out of it. Um more of an academic. So I'm really encouraged to hear that you noticed um what we put into those programs. Similarly, I loved hearing the mentions of student centered learning, which is something I care a lot about. I work in
education aside from this role, and that's something I'm always curious about um uh from what an external set of eyes might see in our schools. So hearing your perspectives on what you see as you look at our classrooms is really valuable to me cuz you come with
um knowledge about teaching and pedagogy but with truly new eyes on our schools and our systems. So thank you all for sharing your insights and what you've noticed. >> As everybody said, you know, it's great to hear from you. It's great that we have so many science teachers here. I'm a science teacher, so I'm kind of
prejudicing that way, but >> I had to get that in there. Right. Um, and very very impressive credentials and everything else. And I I thank you very much uh for coming tonight. So, they're going to try to do a picture. So, do real picture. >> Bring everybody back here. M. >> Oh, I'm glad I dressed up.
>> You can put your arm up. You need to hold your arm up. >> Hide it behind your back. >> Oh, I think she should show it off. >> Just come around here. No, no, no. I can't be wrong. I'm out of my contract. >> I know. I know. It's really sad.
>> So sad. >> We're going to have to squeeze or make two rows. Two rows. Two rows. >> All right. Yes. I know. I'll say some other people got to get in the picture. >> Yeah, I saw you. You're a school committee member.
>> You're a school committee member. >> All right, everybody look over here. Everybody >> can move into the middle here. We have plenty of room here. >> Nuke behind because you're taller.
>> I'm here. I'm good. >> Okay, everybody. You're getting in there. >> Oh, you're getting the chair out. >> All right, beautiful. >> Make sure you take your picture on the camera, though. >> Okay, everybody look forward. We're going to do several of these. Smile.
Don't smile. Do whatever you'd like. >> All right. >> And I'll step out of the way. >> Matthew will appreciate that one. >> Okay. >> All right. Done. >> See why I have Thank you all very much. All right. Enjoy the rest of your time
here. >> Thank you. >> Matthew, are you guys staying? >> They're going to hang for a while, right? >> Yeah, they stay for a while and then at some point they'll subtle relief. Okay. >> But um probably before the budget just Yeah. >> But they have to observe for a while.
Okay. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So, we'll continue with the um with the meeting agenda and our T fellows are going to participate and watch some of the meeting and then at some point in the future if you uh need to leave that's totally fine. You just
kind of get up and go out. Um but stay for as much as you would like. >> All right. >> Exciting budget. >> I know. I'm very excited about it. Maria, >> well, we have first we got a couple things first. Yeah. >> Get worse. So, next up, we're actually going to hear from um Catherine Richard,
who is our uh mathematics coordinator. >> Much friendlier than the former coordinator. >> He's still back there. >> He is going to provide an update. >> He's here to confuse us. Confuse the former. >> I was confused when I walked in inside. >> We were always confused when we see him.
>> So, welcome Katherine. And uh this continues our spotlight on one of our meetings. Again, sometimes we have a school present. Tonight we have mathematics to get a little update K12 of what's happening. So we'll turn it over to Katherine. >> Great. Thank you so much for having me. I apologize. I have a little bit of a
cold. So if I if you can't hear me, just let me know and I'll try to speak a little louder. So tonight we're going to talk about mathematics. Um, first I kind of wanted to share kind of the vision for the work that we're doing this year and it's really about having a coherent
K to2 program that built on understanding skills, problem solving with the idea that we're preparing all students for future learning and beyond school. So that's kind of a theme that we're we're using in our work. So to start out with, we'll talk about year
three of implementation of reveal. We'll talk a little bit about what we're doing at the middle schools and some new opportunities and partnerships that we have at the high school. So to begin with, we are really focusing on taking
the last two years where we've really worked on using Reveal and the the parts that come with Reveal and really now taking that to the next level with focusing on the pedagogy and using data to inform the work that we're doing. So,
we've had two professional learning days with the elementary school teachers, myself and the two math specialists, and we've also done one um professional learning with our pair of professionals. So, that's a new thing that we did this year that went really, really well. So,
we just had one couple weeks ago and we had a theme. The theme was subtraction. So I know you can imagine that we spent a whole three and two and a half hours talking about subtraction K to four. So that was really exciting. Um but really
it was about understanding the progression of the standards. So, one of the activities we did was we did a sort and we had all the standards K to6 that are related to subtraction and we put them on the table and we had the
teachers kind of figure out what grade went with what standard and we had a problem that went with that and so they had to sort it all out and I think that they were a little surprised at how low it goes and how far it goes. um part of
the day we also talked about the implic the implications of subtraction for the high school because everything that they're learning kind of moves all the way up to algebra because we subtract in algebra just like we subtract in elementary school. So um it was a great day. I think the teachers took a lot
from it. Um so we've been really talking about um the standards connecting representations so that um they understand why um you know I think there's a lot of talk about
the new math and the new math has been around for about 20 years now um so it's not so new anymore but we keep calling it new math but it's really just about understanding um before kind of the manipulation that
we kind of all grew up with. So, it's kind of breaking habits for teachers to understand that we don't just jump right to the algorithm. We really want to build conceptual understanding first. So, that's really been our focus for this year, which has been really good.
So, we have one more left. Um, and we're kind of working on we took a did a survey at the end of this um last professional learning day to see what the teachers might want to focus on for that one. They I think they really liked we mixed them up a little bit by grade
and by school and I think they really enjoyed that. So that is exciting. Um next to move to middle school um I know there was some talk earlier in the year about um that we were changing the
criteria for placement into seventh grade from sixth grade. And I I want to assure you that we're not changing the criteria. Um we are replacing two assessments with a new assessment. So we
um prior to this year um students would take two assessments at the end of the school year. One was called the basic skills assessment and one was called the um aptitude assessment. And those two assessments along with MCCAST, I Ready
grades, um, our students participate in the Continental Math League competitions, um, teacher recommendation, all of those things combined would kind of give the students a placement going into seventh
grade. So, all we've done is take away those two um district um developed assessments and we're replacing it with a nationally normed assessment called the Iowa Algebra Aptitude Test. It's
been around for a really long time. Um we used to do with paper and pencil and now we've now it's on the computers. It takes 45 minutes and um it gives us it gives us more information than just
readiness. It also gives us where students are across the standards as well. So we will be able to use that information along with kind of where they are in their readiness as part of our criteria. So this kind of explains it a little
bit. We created this tablet, I mean this table. And you can kind of see what we're the expectations for the three levels. So we have honors, accelerated, and grade level. And again, we're still using MCCAST, we're still using I Ready, we're still using
grades, and now we've added the Iowa Algebra Aptitude Test in there. We're going to give it in May. teachers will still have a big input into placement and as normal um if parents have any
concerns or um questions about placement they can reach out to their teacher or myself. I sent the parents a letter at the end of January with the same information. So parents have been informed of this information as well. >> While you're here, can I ask a question?
>> Absolutely. definitely no vested interest as the parent of a sixth grader. Um, but I I I do I hear from a lot of people asking questions about this because I know a lot of parents of sixth graders >> and one question I keep hearing is so
people have seen this chart and as an educator I know a lot of kids are jagged profiles, right? They may be getting really good grades but not strong test takers or other kids are doing well on tests but maybe lack some study skills so their grades are just a little under
one mark or another in what's the ultimate decision rest on is it on the teacher is it on the family is it on some like if four out of five categories fall in one of these things you know what is the final decision on this
>> ultimately the teachers will make a recommendation Once that is done, parents will have the opportunity to um override that decision and then that decision then comes to me and I make the ultimate decision. I take
all the information along with um typically I have a conversation with the teacher. We look at the data. Um I'm not as black and white as it's all or nothing. I try to think of it more as a holistic um way of looking at a
student's readiness. I think that's one of the reasons why I brought the Iowa Algebra Aptitude Test in because it is less subjective um because it is nationally normed. I feel pretty confident about its ability to um
predict readiness. So um you know this is a this is the procedure that has been used prior to um me coming to Chsford and it's also the way we do um placement at the high school. >> Right. So that was going to be my follow-up question which is
>> does my concern to some extent as a school committee member here. So this is separating from my parent question is tracking it. It gets me a little concerned about tracking if a kid who's
still developing their kind of executive functioning skills and tracking skill um and um overall numerology numer >> numeracy >> numeracy thank you skills um in sixth grade is set in a path that
predetermines what level of math they can do in ninth grade and I was just curious if you have any information on how many kids wind changing. You know, for example, a kid who's in honors in seventh and eighth grade who realizes that that's not the right path for them in high school
versus a kid who might be in the grade level classes in seventh and eighth grade who shows real promise and is able to to move up in placement or is it very frequently what you are in in seventh grade really determines your track in high school? I personally have strong
feelings about that as well and I believe that kids do develop at different times. So for me it's understanding that there is not a direct path from say grade level to CP2 at the
high school or accelerated to CP. I I feel like the the path is more fluid fluid than that. I think it's all about setting up the student for success and that success may come when they're a little bit more mature and they've, you
know, maybe developed their thinking skills a little bit more. Um, it's all about recognizing where the student is and that can change. So we spend a lot of time in seventh and eighth grade
talking about students and there tends to be some movement at the beginning of the year when a seventh grade teacher makes come to me and say, "Hey, Katherine, I noticed this student seems to be really shining. I I would like to move them up a level." And we've we've
done that. Um it's not a blanket. We don't look at every single student. we look um when the the time arises and we we you know again we look at the data we look at the fall I ready data um I feel
like the best predictor of Iowa is probably one of the best predictors but um I think MCCAST is a really good predictor and I feel pretty confident that the kids that are getting exceeds will do very well at honors across you know middle school into high
school Um, I don't necessarily think, um, grades are a great predictor of readiness because grades are subjective. >> And so I that's why I feel like we've got a nice mix of
nationally normed assessments along with some teacher input. Um, >> yeah, I mean I >> jump in for a second here. Um, so we don't I I when you when I hear tracking, I think all kids are in honors for everything that they go through. So the high school, especially when you start
getting to the high school level, they have leveling, right? So kids actually eb and flow in and out of levels. Like I've seen students who have taken multiple um honors courses and then all of a sudden they kind of realize I might be more on the humanities side. I'm more on the STEM side. So I'm going to put my
focus towards that. So they might change their levels. I've seen students change their levels in, you know, 9th, 10th, and 11th grade. Um I I see some nodding from some of the teachers in the um audience. So, typically what ends up happening is beyond the data, there's a lot of conversations that happen to with
the students, like we've had some kids that like they they kind of get into their groove. They're ready. they've taken some courses over the summer, they've studied on their own, and they'll come in and advocate for themselves, which is something that I always try to push forward is make sure you're children talk to their teachers,
right? Because we're always talking to them. Let them know that you have an interest in this and what are some of the things that they would like to do to in order to move forward. So, it does eb and flow. You're not lock step. this is you're going to be in honors for math, English, science, social studies, world
language, you name it for the whole for the whole gamut. You can come and go and we've seen them go up and down. when we look at the trending um when we're doing scheduling and in speaking to the high school teachers specifically because that's where you see more um honors classes and obviously getting into the
AP we don't have a lot of movement at the high school like kids typically get in there and maybe a handful tops depending on the on the coursework make a change but the teachers are right on top of that saying this is may not be working forward or the opposite they
might be like why are you in this class you actually need to bump yourself up to an honors class. And we always recommend if you're right on that that fence, push them up. Like always try to try to, you know, get higher and if it's not working out, then there's there's some movement
after the fact. So you're not stuck in a track, per se. >> I I I hear what you're saying. And yet the fact remains that the only thing kids are placed on in middle school is math. And so that I guess I'm gonna use the word jagged profile kid who's really
strong in a different subject area um but maybe weaker in math may by de facto feel like they're left out of this push toward more uh challenging classes because they're not following the same
courses as peers who just happen to be stronger in math. So that that is a concern I still have. it goes beyond the scope of today. Um, but I I do I guess here's here's I think a broader question that might put one of my concerns is
where are the kids who are let's follow the grade level path wind up when they get to high school at the end of the day. Are they entering high school with the equivalent of algebra under their belt? >> Entering high school? No. Because the standards don't cover algebra in eighth
grade. Eighth grade standards um cover some linearity but they don't cover whole entirety of algebra 1. Algebra 1 is taken in 9th grade. All of our students have the opportunity get to get
to um pre-calculus at every level whether it's honors or grade level. At the high school we don't call it grade level, we call it college prep. Um, everybody has the opportunity because we do have a four-year math requirement to
get to pre-calculus, which um is what most universities are looking for students to get to is at least pre-calculus. Um, math core, which is the desi, they are looking for a course beyond algebra 2, and we offer that. So, I feel pretty confident um that we're
providing students with um a very comprehensive program that prepares them well for college. Um, I've done a lot of observing in my last my two years that I've been here and I've seen incredible
um hardworking kids doing hard math um at every level and it's not the curriculum doesn't change um for the level. So I can be in an algebra 2 class and they
are both studying rational expressions. you know, honors might be, you know, making it a little bit more complicated with trig or whatever they're adding into it, but everyone is still getting the standards, covering the standards. >> Yeah. My reason for asking about algebra
specifically is because I know there's a lot of research showing that students who enter high school with algebra under algebra one under their belt have a lot stronger likelihood of finding success later in being strong in math and being able to pursue if they choose two STEM
degrees and things like that. If if but the research shows if they're ready to push kids into algebra in 8th grade is not been the research if you just even look at San Francisco and what has happened there they had to back it up because they were pushing kids. Um we
followed the state standards and the standards are are that's the norm. Um you know some eighth grader we have very few eighth graders. We have a very small percentage of students in eighth grade doing algebra 1. the majority of our students
at Chsford High School are in algebra 1 in ninth grade. So that is the standards and that is what we're following. So I feel pretty pretty confident that that's the right answer. >> Yeah. No, that's good to know. I think my main reason for asking about it was more to to make sure that kids weren't
being prematurely as early as sixth grade kind of locked out of >> getting a college preparatory experience in high school. Absolutely. Sounds like there's some >> Am I correct? You test again in eighth grade. only if if if need be. So in eighth grade, the teachers will again
make a recommendation for classes and levels. And so a student who's in accelerated for 8th grade could get a recommendation for honors algebra 1 or they could get a recommendation for college prep. It it just depends on where the student is and
their readiness at that moment. >> No, that's helpful. I I just like to know that there's more valve points for for students to make those movements and not be necessarily locked into whatever their 12-year-old selves are. >> No, I I I I couldn't agree more. It's all about question.
>> Yes. M >> um having had two students who went through this um and both they're different in in terms of math, but um what is the student's role in this selection process? This is this is the
one concern I have, >> okay? Because >> I remember one of my girls was taken aside by the person who makes the recommendation and that person said to her,
>> uh, if you go to accelerated, you will be a straight A student. If you go to the, uh, highest level, >> honors, >> you are not going to always get A's. M >> now it took her strength to say I want
to be challenged and I want to move forward and that's what she did. Okay. It concerns me that the student is not there advocating for himself or herself.
Maybe they are but it's not on this list. And I think that that's really important because some students will come home and talk to their parent and the parent is very well equipped to come in and challenge whatever's going on, but some students are not yet they
really feel the need to go forward. And it concerns me that at that point you're removing a huge level of confidence from an individual. I I I know that at that level the person who feels bright enough
and suddenly is they they're told okay no you you can't do that it really impacts their confidence in the mathematical move forward especially women believe it or not I think >> so um so I think it's it's and I'm not
going to say it's all boys too I really think that it would be important importance to make sure there is a place in here for the student to self- advocate. >> I can tell you that students are more involved at the higher level. So starting in 8th grade, the teachers do
have conversations with the students and definitely in the high school. They all have conversations with every single student about what they're planning to study, what they are interested in. Um they have those exact conversations. Are you okay with not getting an A? Because a lot of students aren't okay. And that
brings up the anxiety because they're so pushing because they want to be to have to be perfect. So they would rather be in a lower level and get the A versus being in a higher level and actually maybe getting a B. So that conversation
is had when the student is a little bit more more mature. I think at the sixth grade level they are 12 year olds and I I don't know if I think that it might be better to have those conversations with the parents maybe the students involved
in the conversation if there is a question about it. Um but as the students get over older we certainly do involve them in the conversations. Yeah, I it would seem important to me that the students realize they can be part of that conference with a parent coming in
and talking to either the teacher or to yourself about advocating for themselves because they're the ones in that environment. I understand what you're saying, but I think that, >> you know, just saying to kids, okay, it's great to get a straight A. Oh, it's
wonderful to get straight A's all the time, but then where's the challenge and where's the ability to continue to grow and so on? And that's part of what we teach as well. So, I think that it's I would love to see more that in writing
that there can be some kind of evaluation and participation by both parents and students in the process. But this is just from my own experience and what I went through and many parents have approached me before on this. So
that concerns me as well. >> I appreciate that. Thank you for >> Can I just ask a question on the curriculum? So you said the way the curriculum set up for the most part the students are ready to take algebra one freshman year and get to pre-cal. What would be the sequence for those kids that want to get to calculus and AP
calculus? How does how does it how does they fit that into >> So, right now, um students have the opportunity to double up their sophomore year taking geometry and algebra 2 concurrently because the curriculums don't necessarily
overlap. Um there's a little overlap because you do a lot of uh algebra and geometry, but you can take geometry and algebra 2 at the same time. And that has been the norm for I don't want to age myself but I doubled up myself when I was in high school a very long time ago.
Um so this has been the norm for a long time um for students that for whatever reason whether their middle school didn't offer it or they weren't ready at the time to be algebra 1. Um so we do have that opportunity and and a
lot of students do take take us up on that. So, we have a um a nice number of students that double up sophomore year. >> So, they would do that sophomore, then they would do pre-cal count. Y >> how do they get to AP? Like how do those >> um that if you uh get to pre-calculus, you can
get to calculus at any level. So, if you are in um pre-calculus your junior year, >> um it it's not a it's not an easy jump. I'm not going to say it's easy to go from maybe CP algebra to I mean CP
pre-calculus to AP >> um calculus >> kids do it um they they need to um probably do some work on their own to make sure that they have the um the skill set that they need to be successful in calculus but um we do have
students that do that. >> So we just do we just offer calc do we >> No, we offer we have they get the CD. I mean we have that's what our math is already. >> Yeah. No, we have three levels of calculus at the high school. We have BC calculus >> which is equivalent to two semesters of
college calculus. We have AB which is one semester and then we have calculus CP. So we offer calculus at the CP level for any student who is interested that if as long as they've had met the prerequisites >> they would have to double up a couple times to get the >> just one time. Just one time.
>> All right. >> Yep. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yeah. math. I know everybody math curriculum just spider webs out like crazy. So that's why I was trying to figure out how we do it. So >> y >> all right let's talk a little bit about
what's happening in seventh and eighth grade. Um in seventh and eighth grade we are continuing the work that we did last year with the DM group using the breakthrough results program that they offered us. Um we are taking some of the
tenants from that program with a the idea that you basically use data to come up with a target area. Our target area is algebra and al algebraic thinking. We have collaborative meetings with the teachers weekly and during those
meetings we we look at data, we progress monitor and we come up with strategic interventions for students whether it's um pulling small groups um and different things like that. So, we're taking what we learned last year and kind of um
adjusting it a little bit, but still using the idea of progress monitoring to inform um the work that we're doing. So, that's been really positive. And our high school, this is where I'm
really excited about some of the things that we're going to be offering at the high school level. We are offering for the first time ever a financial mathematics course and it's really that bridge between math and life and so
practical approach to real life choices using math and it is um a senior course full year and um people seem to be pretty excited about it. The enrollment looks really good so far. Um,
it also supports the state literacy initiative that is um in in draft form right now. So, this would fall under that as well. So, we're pretty excited about that course. And finally, um, we just got approved for a
new dual enrollment course at the high school. Our pre-calculus class is now been approved for dual enrollment with Middle Sex and um we're we're pretty excited about this. This really complements the early college um grant
that we're working on. Um it provides a second math because we already have one dual enrollment class now for our statistics class. So now we have two math classes which is what students need towards the associates. they actually needed two approved dual enrollment math
classes. So, this will allow students who are interested in early college to satisfy those requirements. So, this was a big big deal for us this year. So, pretty excited about that. Really, I promise this one's really quick.
>> No worries. Do all students who who take pre-calculus have the option of taking it as a dual enrollment course or is that only open for students doing certain pathways? >> Um, right now it's our CP pre-calculus course that has been approved for dual
enrollment. >> Okay. >> So, we had to submit our curriculum and our teachers have to get approved by Middle Sex to teach. So, >> other questions on your financial mathematics? Uh, I
assume it's an elective. >> It's not. >> It's not. >> It's not. It will be a core math course that kids can take for credit. So, senior year only. Um, this is for somebody who might not be on the calculus track.
>> Mhm. >> That still needs to satisfy their math requirement to get some really hands-on, really applicable, practical math for life. >> So, could they take it in lie of pre-cal? >> They can. They can. Yep.
>> Okay. >> I mean, they can also take statistics if they don't want to take pre-calculus. There's there's options. We once you get past freshman year, things start opening up a little bit more and we have lots of options for students. Um, kids that can take calculus don't necessarily. Some
take AP statistics, some take our intro to statistics. Um, and some kids will end up taking this financial mathematics course. >> Okay. And this is, I assume, at the CP level or >> um, it is at the CP level. Yep. >> Okay. >> Yep. is is this so I know it's not
finalized yet, but the state is working on a new requirement for graduation and there's talk of a financial literacy course as part of that. >> If that passes, would this be the course that would meet that requirement?
>> It's too soon for us to determine that. I I it would satisfy that, >> but I'm guessing that >> it needed forever. >> Dr. person and I will be spending a lot of time together over the next four or five years figuring out what >> what's going to go and what's going to replace it. That's where it's going to
be. >> It's going to cause a lot of disruption. >> There's only so much time these the students already take more in their class load than they need for retirement to graduate from high school. So it's like there's only so much time in the day >> and this is a full year course. So I wouldn't like this is not >> Oh
yeah. >> We probably will do something. >> Yeah. Um our next pres presentation is on the strategic the strategic plan. >> Yes. >> And one of the items that's been on that plan for a long time on academic achievement priority is getting those
percentiles up in terms of the MCCast results. And when I look at this and look at 2024 actual for students with adequate annual growth in math from 55 and 24 to 48%
848 in 2025 it worries me and so you had said that it looks like MCAS is a good predictor of um what's going on in mathematics with a with an individual. Um, is this
what can we do as a district that we're not already doing? What would be your recommendation on what we need to do? >> I know >> given whatever we have in the budget, >> um, Dr. Hirs and Dr. Lang and I meet with
Dr. Parks monthly to talk about math. >> Um, so I've spent a lot of time with them sharing some ideas. I think um calling attention to it. Um putting um
I don't the house is on fire is kind of the analogy that I've been using with teachers a little bit to share like this is important. We need to do better and how are we going to do that? >> Um there's we we do have limitations as as
a district. So we have to work within those limitations. Um but allowing us, you know, we worked the schedule around this year to add more common planning time for teachers. So having that time gives teachers an opportunity to
collaborate a little bit more on a weekly basis. So I think that was a a step in the right direction. Um this is only my second year, so I'm I still have to, you know, figure things out. And um I'm my goal was really to learn last
year and not make changes. And so even though I'm making changes, I'm trying to make them in a thoughtful way and not, you know, throw out the baby with the bathwater, as the saying goes, to really learn and um
and and make changes that make sense. So, I think we're still I think I I I do think that last year we made some progress and I think um looking at the preliminary um middle of the year data, Dr. Hersh and I looked at that with the I Ready folks um a week, two weeks ago,
we just got some preliminary data there. There seems to be some movement. >> Yeah, it's going to So, what what's hard especially at that level? So, when you start getting seventh and eighth grade, that's like education the way probably most of us remember, right? you have your four separate teachers. Um,
starting that work where we're looking at the focus standards. That's new for seventh and eighth grade teacher. Seventh and eighth grade teachers having been one. You you're going you're going unit by unit. You're going to keep going. Taking that step back and really actually progress monitoring. That's a
very common term for your elementary school teachers. But when you start getting in those upper grades, they're kind of like, what are you talking about? You need me to stop, look at the data, back up, retach. Like, we got to keep going. So that's going to take like this is only the second year that those teachers are now
>> been exposed to something like that and looking at their you know pre and post test it's going to take them a little bit more time and then they'll get that aha moment of like okay how can we stop and how can I spiral this skill all the way through because if they don't do that we're going to still see flat data
and negative data as we go along. So, like Katherine said, this is like a slow process and it is moving forward with the teachers and they're doing a good job with that, but it's going to take a little bit more time because it's not common practice for a secondary teacher to do progress monitoring like an
elementary up to grade six possibly teacher. So, that is one of the biggest things that we can do is stopping, pausing, looking at those foundational standards because without them the, you know, the house falls down. Not on fire, it falls down. All right, that's that's probably better.
>> A little less. >> Yeah, little little less dramatic, but still some >> Thanks. I appreciate that you address that. I I really do. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Um, you don't want me to ask my last question? >> And this is it.
>> I've been thinking a lot about math in in the sense of what we're going to do with an AI policy coming up. And we have some discussions coming up for AI and I think and maybe I'm wrong but more and more um okay the problems have been
solved. I mean the AI knows how to solve the problem and the AI is going to be able to tell you what the solution is. Um so it's creating new problems and being able to think in a different way
um and so on. How do we h are we thinking of that as we continue with our curriculum with the development of our math curriculum? Are we thinking two, three years from now and where that
senior leaving high school needs to be as they move on? >> I think that math has always had that that challenge because the answers to the odd problems were always in the back of the book. And I know as a teacher myself of mathematics, I actually would
give the odd problems as the problems that I wanted them to solve because I wanted them to check their answers. >> I think that AI is a little bit different in that it gives you the answer, but it also shows you the steps.
>> I don't think I mean to be truthful, it's been photomath has been around for more than five years. I think AI is hitting different subject areas at different times, but kids have had the ability to do that for a long time now. I think it's really about having students
explain their reasoning, explain their thinking, which is the skills that we're trying to build at the elementary. So, it's not just I can manipulate this and I know the answer. What did you do? Can you solve it a different way? Like those are the things that we have to say all the time because guess what? If 10 kids
have the same work and the same answer, you know what we're gonna say? Uh, yeah. Hello. We're not stupid. We know that you got this from photo math. I mean, we're I think we just have to
expect kids to show their work, do problem solving in class so that they're not just doing all the problem solving at home. there's problem solving in class so that the teachers circul asking questions, you know, having kids
present their solutions. Um, all of that >> I think helps us, but I I don't think it's going to I don't think it's going to change math a lot >> because I think it already has a little bit.
I've been impressed with some of the presentations we had on those early grades and the math and the thinking ev the evolution of the thinking which is great. I think it's the in between group that is going to have a bit of a
struggle for a few years and th those kids are already getting that kind of thinking um which is good. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Right. Anybody else have any other questions? Thank you very much, Catherine. Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> I'll shut this off. >> You can leave it >> or you're going to need Okay, I'll turn it back on for you. >> All right. Thanks everybody. >> Thank you, Catherine. Appreciate it. >> All right. Let's hope we don't drive snow tonight. >> Oh, don't be talking about >> only a couple inches. >> Only a couple inches.
>> We'll be fine. >> Delay. >> No. >> No. >> Regular start tomorrow. >> Please. As somebody who works from home, please no. >> All right. We are now going to shift to our next presentation on the night. Uh Maria kind of touched on it a second ago. Uh Maggie Gallagher from U DM
Group, our partner who works with us on the strategic planning and this is year four of our strategic plan. We're in kind of the progress monitoring piece that Linda talked to about a little earlier. Um is going to provide the midyear update for us. So Maggie, thank you for coming. Great. >> And uh you've got your little clicker. Got it.
>> All right. We look forward to having you. >> Awesome. Thanks Dr. Lang and good evening school committee members. I'm excited to be here again to share our midyear update. We'll use a similar format that we've used in the past. Um, so none of this should come as a massive surprise how we're going to tackle this tonight. Um, but do stop if you've got
questions as we go. Um, so as always, these are our folks who work on the steering committee that helps to lead this work. We meet uh every about six six to seven weeks as a full steering committee and then these groups meet in between those meetings both to do the work um but also to give each other
updates on that work as well. Um, you've seen this many times now at this point, but this is the process that we're using. We are in that second phase of implementation around tracking and reporting on progress. Like Dr. Lang said, we are in year four of this process. So really, the bulk of the work
is just what is happening, how do we test if it's working, and how do we make sure there's cohesion across all of the different groups. Some of you are on those meetings as well, so you're very familiar with the process that we use, but really ultimately want to make sure that people are working together to get to all of those measurable goals that
are part of the strategic plan. Um, as you also know, this is the framework that we've been using throughout this entire strategic planning process. We spend a lot of our time in each of those meetings talking about those two boxes you see at the bottom, the orange and the red, the initiatives and the action
steps that go along with those. So that's how we're spending the bulk of our time when we are coming together and talking about the strategic plan. I'm going to go through now each of those five strategic plan areas, academic achievement, equity, social emotional learning, human capital, operations and
facilities and really do two things. One, give just where we're at with the data midyear and kind of benchmarking how we are in terms of meeting progress towards the end of the year targets that Maria mentioned as it relates to academic achievement earlier. and then just giving a couple highlights from what we're hearing qualitatively from
folks who are doing that work every single day. Um, so we will start with academic achievement here just to orient you to what you're seeing on the slide. The top box around metrics, those are all of the measurable goals that are part of the strategic plan. Um, and then
you can see from 2024 um data all the way to the 2026 target. And then the midyear data there is in the second to last column. So that's where we're at right now. And green means that we are on track to meet the end ofear target based on where we're at. Yellow means we
are not as quite on track as we'd like to be, but growth is being made. You'll see kind of throughout the presentation where that's the case. And then red being off track. And then below what you see with the orange box is the initiatives where each of the initiatives for this particular school year are in terms of their ontrackness,
if you will. So for academic achievement, what you can see here is that for all of the metrics that we have data for so far, we are very much on track to meet the 2026 targets. You can see that there's one that's not highlighted. Um the percent of eighth graders meeting standards and reading
based on I Ready. Um that's because we actually don't have that as part of the plan, but we're keeping track of it just because it makes sense to include that if we're also using math. So um not exactly measuring that in the exact same way, but as you can see here, lots of great stuff on track here. um which this
is has not typically been the case and we've come together mid year um throughout the strategic plan. So, it's really exciting to see um where we're headed for all of these goals before the end of the year. >> For the equity priority, it's set up the exact same way that you can see here.
So, you see that middle of the year column with the red, I'm sorry, with the green and the yellow are where we are at in terms of being on track. um for the two areas where you see yellow there. So percent of third grade students with IEPs meeting or exceeding standards in
math and then the bottom 1% of eighth grade students who are economically disadvantaged meeting or exceeding. We are not quite on track but it's by like one percentage point when you do the math. Um so really close there. Um seeing a lot of really great movement as you all know. Um the district has been
working really hard around ensuring that para educators are able to help provide support for students in a really effective manner. Um, and you heard Katherine talk earlier about what that's looked like for math. Um, but the real focus here this year is on that onboarding and continued training for PAR educators. So, we spent a lot of
time last year thinking about roles and responsibilities. This year has been spent really thinking about what does it mean to make sure those folks are equipped um to provide the support in the most effective way that they can that supports both the special education teacher and the general education teacher. So, that's been a huge part of the initiatives that have happened here
in this group this year. But that is where we are at in terms of the equity priority right now. >> And what distinguishes being on track and growth means like 75% of there and what's the you said. >> Yeah. So we Yeah. So we took where the G so much percentage point growth would need to be made between beginning of
year, end of year, and just haved it. >> Um so if it's green, it means that you're more than halfway to that sort of percentage point growth. And then yellow is just like a few percentage points. >> I wouldn't want to call that off track just to only be one or two percentage points away.
Great. Um, for social emotional learning, this is actually the first year that this group has had me midyear data. So, that's really exciting that they're able to kind of track where they're at. In the past, the panorama hasn't covered midyear and so they've kind of had to find creative ways throughout the year
to figure out if they are on track. Um, so it's exciting to actually have this data this year. So what you can see here is that for all of those except for that first one, they are on track to meet or exceed actually the end ofear target. This is tricky for a few of these just given that they're starting really high.
So if you look at students reporting having supporting relationships from grades 3 all the way through 12. 88% and 87% are already really high starting points. Panorama at this point is getting a pretty good base of nationally normmed data and they've also noted that
this is really high and so don't want to penalize them too much for um not taking it even higher by the end of the year. But that's where we're at with this particular group. Again, a little bit of a celebration that we even have this data that's going to really help this group to continue to action plan towards
the end of the year. And then for human capital, similar to SEAL, we haven't always had formative data throughout the course of the year. This is the first year that this group has really worked with principles to ensure that principles are not only
continuing to incorporate topics of equity, inclusion, and meeting the needs of diverse learners within their PD, but that they're actually measuring whether or not that's happening. So they did a mid-year survey with about almost 500 responses from staff um throughout the
course of the winter months. Um and so there were the questions were a bit more granular in nature to really help them action plan moving forward. But there was a comparable mid-year question that said, "How easy do you find interacting with students at your school who are from a different cultural background
than your own?" And 92% of staff members who took that survey um responded positively. Um, so again, don't have the exact same questions that we asked on that Panorana survey at the end of the year, but some early indicators from some PD surveys um are really positive so far. So hopefully that means that
we're on track with this group. Um, uh, but just good to have that data. >> I just want to make a quick comment on that. That's things we've talked about in our um progress monitoring meetings is it was really good to have that question um be very specific because we've talked about that is is some of
the data ambiguous because we weren't sure what people me interpreted that meaning of diverse as. So I'm really glad to see that that question was very specific. So that the answer the percentage helped us to know exactly what they understood that question to mean. So I'm glad to see that happen.
>> Yeah. And there were about five other questions that they also asked that really helped get under some of that as well. So the questions themselves really teased out some of these bigger understandings that we have for these questions as part of this life. >> I think that's really helpful. >> Yeah.
>> Great. And then finally for the operations and facilities um on track on all of these different metrics. Obviously 2.7 million already approved for next year at the town meeting. So that's really great news. Um so everything on track here. Um this is a group that oftentimes gets
their uh it's their final data sooner than the rest of the groups because of where different um initiatives fall throughout the school year. And then obviously Dr. Lang shared a lot about everything uh related to the new building. So that's not explicitly here but is obviously a big part of that work
as well. >> Great. You all are very familiar with these updates at this point. So, I'll open it up if there's any other questions or thoughts here. >> Anybody have any questions about the >> I'm very familiar with
>> we've got a good routine at this point. >> The climate seems like we're we're heading in the right direction. >> Yeah. >> Based on this stuff, which is great, you know, because I know sometimes we have our ups and downs, but this this data is, you know, very positive, I thought. >> Yeah. Especially as we head into year four, it starts to get very real that we want to meet those targets. So we're
really really happy with the mini results and hope those continue. >> Upon that I actually do have one question which is really a simple one which is just for for those who are not necessarily attending these meetings in the loop. You mentioned we're heading into year four. Um could you share when
the process will begin for strategic planning for the next strategic plan? >> Yeah, so we're in year four. We'll wrap year four this and head into year five of this particular work. Um, obviously the district might have a choice of whether or not they continue to utilize us to use that to to help craft that
next five-year plan, but we would recommend next school year starting right at the beginning of the school year in the fall to really start gathering um that needs assessment data and then ultimately using current performance as a metric for how you all move forward for that next five-year plan. So, next year would be our recommendation.
>> Yeah. So having been in there right from the beginning of the strategic planning and this is why I don't have a lot of comments or questions because I've been in this for you know this period of time. I really think this has been extremely important for the district.
Um, and I want to commend you for um, you know, bringing in the outside group, making sure, and they've done, I think, a very good job. Um, and being able to assess on a quantitative level something
like where we're going with a social emotional component where we put quite a bit of effort and money uh, assets into it. Um and it's so important for any student's achievement but it's so
difficult to quantify and being able to look at that and say okay maybe we are heading in the right direction there things seem to still be okay uh you know and this is what's happening on the ground and we can see it in a number uh I always question what's behind numbers
but there you go um I think is important uh I've seen in the district people remain involved and I which has been great too the administrators the uh staff that's part of the group
anybody who's on this strategic planning um feat I think has really given it their all which is important to see too and having been in there from the beginning it is really good to see that they're still there and they're still
moving forward and they want to continue to improve. That has been a great thing for me personally to see. >> You wanted to answer? Yeah. >> Yeah. Oh, >> I just wanted to also comment that um like I don't have questions now because the process we go through these every
six weeks is everyone from these subcommittees is in the meeting together. So the people in equity are talking to people from academics, talking to people from facilities and we're asking questions of each other during those meetings and that helps inform next steps, but it also keeps
everyone in the loop. And I think that has just been incredibly valuable. And and since we're talking about that every six weeks, that's why I don't have questions today. But I don't want people to think that those questions aren't happening because that's a important part of every progress monitoring
meeting is being able to ask questions of people on the other subcommittees. >> Yeah, I was just going to add, I mean, I think the relationship with DM Group right out of the gate has been um exceptional. I mean, we've very much enjoyed working with them and Maggie and
her colleague, um, Tess have been kind of our our primary contacts with the district. Um, it started out as the strategic planning, um, to really make sure that we had alignment within our um, district with regard to the academic elements we wanted to focus on and was
obviously a major component with that. Um I think even as Maria mentioned as you get into the seal, you know, a couple years in when we're able to adopt panorama and be able to have those um surveys that go out regularly and even be able to have them where they're kind of normed nationally to kind of see where we fall has been helpful. So we've
continued to try to advance and to um to kind of better what we're doing programming wise. Um I think it's been super. I think having those subcommittees meet regularly also keeps us on track and on on a schedule to be talking about this and to make sure as we're going to talk about a little bit later when it comes to budget like
everything is really aligned. You know, your budget document identifies your priorities in the district and it really is much aligned to uh the work of the strategic planning. Um, I did have a conversation with Tess because it's something I certainly want to continue and I want to recommend to you that we continue next year as far as kind of a
revamp of the process and as Maggie indicated it would start right in the fall and I think it could be in a bridge process because we don't have to do kind of a year-long review but really between September and December um we could do our needs assessment have some focus groups kind of redefine what we want to
have our next five-year priorities be have that plan in effect by January 1 and then again as we're going into the budget cycle will make sure that our budget is budget is really aligned to those new priorities for the years to come. So we'll certainly be working with DM Group to get a proposal on the table
for that to continue the work. I think it's been excellent for us and you know even beyond the strategic planning work we've seen like the special ed opportunities review and the work we've done with the power educators in the district there have been a lot of positive offshoots from that and again I think the alignment piece is important
and that's something that we want to uh to continue. So, um the update tonight was was excellent. I think it's nice to again um have that kind of third party outside group working with us um because again their experiences that they bring to the table even in the work they see in other districts has helped it helped
us and been beneficial to us and um and and it's been excellent. So, I certainly appreciate and it's something I'd want to continue. >> Quick question. When I we're talking about math, they talked about using the BTR alongside with the DM group. Does that stand for breakthrough results? >> It does. Yeah,
>> I figured it out. >> Okay, >> another acronym. >> Thank you. >> We'll have to add that to the list of acronyms. >> I think I know what that means. I got it. >> All right. Any other questions? All right. Well, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Have a good night.
>> Thank you. >> All right. Continuing on, uh item number five this evening is um a revision that I would like you to uh consider. At the last meeting, we had approved uh salary schedules for some nodded uh affiliated
staff in the district um support staff, some central office clerical staff, our principles, central office administrators. And as I mentioned in the memo, um as I was putting employment agreements together, I had made a um calculation error in one of the uh formulas. The top uh this was only in
one of the cells for the non-affiliated um non-licensed central office staff. the 3% 3% 3% formula was carried forward in step one. That's correct. But uh in steps two to seven, I had a formula inserted that only added 2 and a half%
not 3%. So it was throwing the numbers off inconsistency wise. Um so the schedule I had before you this evening just corrects that error on the one uh salary schedule that had an error and I would just ask for your um approval to um to amend that.
>> Right. Any questions on this? This is the only one. You went back and checked all the other. >> Yeah, I checked all the other ones and they were fine. It was just a um a cell insertion error that I made. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Sorry about >> AI AI could have helped me maybe. >> All right. I'll take a motion.
>> Okay. Um I move that we approve the appendix B non-affiliated central administration non-licensed staff salary schedule covering FY27 through 29 as amended and presented. I will second.
>> Okay. Right. Any further comments? And we'll do a roll call. Susan, >> Diana, >> I. >> Maria, >> I >> I was zero. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate it. >> Uh and next we have the budget hearing. >> Now we get that. >> Here we go.
>> All right. Um so all been through it before, but what we're going to do is is is go through it page by page. Um, if anybody has any questions on a particular page in the budget document, that would be the time to ask. We'll then vote on each page individually and then at the end we'll
vote on the bottom line um budget um which is the final number we need to get to. Um so >> correct >> any questions before we start? Any comments before we start? I'm so excited. >> Just real quick, just as way of background u for like folks that might be watching the summary level total page
on page 10 has all the macro level accounts uh by Desi function code. So ultimately we're going to go through all the pages that correspond to that and then you vote to approve the number that's in the far right column and so that ultimately at the bottom will add up to the number that we bring forward
to town meeting in April. Um, and again, as like Joanna will present from time to time, if we happen to have a macrolevel account um that needs a transfer or whatnot, those transfers come back to you. We manage the budget within the micro accounts that are on the individual pages. But we've always found it helpful to just go through page by
page, ask answer any questions you may have on them, and then uh ultimately again this budget would go forward to town meeting in April for approval and then um we go on from there. >> Yep. >> Yep. >> And I just wanted to make quick comment. I went with the superintendent that done
this for several years now. This is this budget has the least increases decreases in the nine years that I've been doing this which again is very indicative of the time we live in where budgets are really really tight. You know if you look at a lot of the communities around us they're really struggling. So I think it's a credit to the superintendent and
the business office Joanna um that we're able to maintain the services we've we've we built up um given those situations. So >> it is tight. I think, you know, we've had tri board, we've had different meetings with um our counterparts on the town side. Yeah, I think we're actually
fortunate to be in a level level service budget. You know, we'd always like to add additional um staff and programs to the budget, but um again, I think just based on kind of the economy, the state of affairs that we're in, even locally within the the town um to be able to bring forward this budget that again
provides all the staff and services that we're currently providing this year and next year. um have it be in alignment with the town's budget that's also a level service for next year I think is um is favorable to us. Um if you do if you look around the local communities that are in the Marramck Valley and
across the state particularly even when you get out a little bit western part of the state some of the rurals and the regionals are really uh looking at significant budget impacts and budget cuts and I think we're fortunate that we're not in that situation. I think we um we appreciate the budget that the
town meeting grants us. Um, I think we spend the money wisely uh that the town um affords us. Um, and I think we have a consistent pattern of doing that. So, um, happy to talk through the budget. Again, where this is a level service budget, there's not a lot of change. Um,
we try to make little side notes or footnotes to each of the pages if things do change, but uh, we've always found it to be a good experience going through and actually just uh, answering any questions you may have, making sure you're comfortable with the budget that moves forward. And um again, just as an aside, I actually met with Joanna
yesterday. Uh even though it was a snow day, we did a remote meeting with the budget subcommittee of FINNCOM to review this. And then we'll actually be going forward Thursday evening to the full Fincom um to present and ask answer any questions that they may have. So, this is actually moving fairly quickly this
year, which is um I think uh positive because ultimately once we have a budget approved by um the school committee, we're able to then go start actually doing our raverisements for um postings for our we don't have a lot, but for our a handful of retirements that we have, we're able to uh start that um actually
later on this week. >> So, all right, starting on page 11. >> How's it going? >> Our first uh item is the school committee budget. Um, does anybody have any questions or comments on the school committee budget? Okay, I will take a motion to approve
that item. >> I move that we approve the budget for item number 1110, school committee, in the amount of 34,960. >> Second. >> Second. Do we have to do roll call on all these? Yeah, we do. Okay. All right. Here we go. Susan >> I. >> Diana.
>> I. >> Ria. >> I. >> I. >> Okay. Moving on to page 12. Superintendent. Any questions on the line item for the superintendent? Okay, having none, I will take a motion. >> I move that we approve the budget for
item number 1210, superintendent in the amount of 519,413. >> Second. >> Okay, any other questions? All right, Susan. >> Hi. >> Anna, >> hi. >> Maria, >> I >> I was zero. All right, page 13, assistant superintendent.
Any questions on that one? Okay. >> I move that we approve the budget for item number 1220, assistant superintendent in the amount of 299,958. >> Second. >> Okay. All right. Any other questions? Okay. Susan,
>> hi. >> Anna, >> hi. >> Hi. >> Hi. Great. All right. Next page. Districtwide. Uh, any questions here? >> I actually do have a question on this one. Um, I saw the note about the vital
records preservations line item. Um, I'm just curious. So, it looks like that was not included in the 26 or 27 budget. Um, so I'm presuming we are done with vital records preservations. There's no more needed. >> There's u minimal at this point in time.
So, uh, this is an account where we typically, um, we had a couple of, um, former kind of retired employees, um, who came back to help us just scan a lot of our records to kind of digitize them so that we didn't have to maintain all the different paper copies. Um, and
working with, um, Joanna, this is really the appropriate line to just record the expenses because the actual expenses are actually more important for reporting purposes than the budgeted amount. So, at this point in time, the vast majority of records have been digitized. what's going to need to be digitized is minimal
um you know just kind of like year-end type things. So there may be a small amount going forward but it wasn't um really necessary to um kind of budget it. We would within a central office account uh pay for the cost and then ultimately we want to just make sure we're reflecting the expenditure in the
appropriate place. So again the vast majority has been completed. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions on districtwide budget? >> Okay, take a motion. >> Okay. I move that we approve the budget for item number 1230 districtwide in the
amount of 51,700. >> Second. >> Susan >> I. >> Diana >> I. >> Maria >> I >> I >> Okay. Next up is business and finance. Any questions on this one?
>> Okay. We'll take a motion. I move that we approve the budget for item number 1410, business and finance in the amount of 570,159. >> Second. >> Right. Susan >> I. >> Diana >> I. >> Ria >> I
>> I 4 Z. All right. Next page 16, human resources. Any questions on this one? >> Okay. Take a motion. I move that we approve the budget for item number 1420 human resources in the amount of 376,5782.
>> Second. >> Susan >> I. >> Diana >> I. >> Maria >> I >> I Okay. Uh page 17, legal services and settlements. Any questions here?
>> Are there any anticipated how do I put this? Does our reduction in the legal fees um feel like it's a savvy choice in this current circumstances? >> It does. Um we typically increase the
legal legal services um budget when we're going into negotiations with all of our employee groups. So like last spring when we were doing like teachers and administrators, whatnot, we uh do typically increase for negotiating year. So if you look at the trend like every three years we have to increase the budget but we settled all of our
contracts last fiscal year um we really just have the minimal kind of operating legal fee costs. So we don't see the um the anticipated need for um really the negotiating line item to be as big as it was. >> If there were a legal issue that were to arise or a
grievance or something like that would this be sufficient the 45,000 being held in the budget? I think I mean certainly if you look at the the trend even in your actuals um you know your actual in 24 and 25 is well under the the 45 that would be a general year if something
extraordinary ever came up um we'd obviously have to consider a transfer from a different fund but it wouldn't be an account that I would want to overfund um because it would really just be kind of like a placeholder and it would be taking money from somewhere else in the budget that we probably need to expend. >> So I'm very I'm very comfortable.
>> Right. Any other questions on legal services? Do we right now have pending litigation? >> Uh, no. We just have the one contract open with the custodians that we're negotiating. Um, but we actually do most of that in-house. Um, we just consult with the attorney at the end of the
process for the drafting of the MOA. Um, but other than that, we just have our ongoing um, >> that's contract negotiation, but no litigation. >> No, just the regular like, you know, legal questions that'll come up from time to time, but we have no pending litigation. No, >> it's a good thing. All right, I'll take
a motion. I move that we approve the budget for item number 1430 through 1435 legal services in the amount of $93,000. >> Uh second >> I >> Maria >> I >> I >> Yep.
>> All right. Next is districtwide MIS. >> Any questions here? Uh yeah, I would love just a little bit more of an understanding of what the note is explaining here around
um is is this something that needs to be approved or or how does that work? >> Uh which one? >> E-ervice the note on the MIS. >> Oh, so no. So, um, we apply for -ate
funding, um, each year totally aside from like anything in the local operating budget. Uh, and then if we're awarded -ate funds, basically it pays for a portion of the project. So, we won't know if the funds are approved or not or appropriated. >> Approved by whom? That's that was
>> Oh, it's a um kind of it's a governmental agency. Is it through >> FCC? >> Yep. It's a federal um they're called USA. >> Okay. And yeah, it goes through the FCC and they get a pretty large pool of
money and then everybody applies nationwide and then it's kind of takes about a year and then we find out um how much were awarded. >> Got it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions on this one?
>> Take a motion. >> Okay. Okay. I move that we approve the budget for item number 1450 districtwide MIS in the amount of 1,728,646. >> Second. >> All right, Susan. >> Hi, >> Diana.
>> Hi, Maria. >> Hi. >> All right. Next up, curriculum directors. Any questions on this one? Take a motion. >> Okay. I move that we approve the budget for item number 2110, curriculum
directors, in the amount of 1,518,744. >> Second. >> All right. Susan, >> I >> Diana >> I >> Maria >> I. >> All right. Next up, curriculum director special education. Any questions on this page?
>> Okay, I'll take a motion. I move that we approve the budget for item number 2110, curriculum director, special education in the amount of 1,125,961. >> 126. >> I think it's 126. >> 126. Okay. >> Yeah. 961.
>> That was tricky, Dennis. >> I'll second. >> All right. Uh, we have a motion. We have a second. Oh, you second. Okay. All right. Sorry. Uh, Susan. >> Hi, >> Diana. >> Hi, >> Maria. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> 4 Z I. Sorry. Four.
>> Now we're getting all confused. >> 4 Z. All right. I'm an I. Next up is school leadership. Any questions? >> I just had a question on the accreditation process. It used to be a one and done. what how what's what goes
on now that where >> they they changed it up a little bit where it used to be like an every 10 year cycle there would be the accreditation process you'd go through they've changed it so now there's kind of recurring things that that happen year to year so once you get your uh
report um they give you like different things to work on and each year you actually have to have some staff work on them you submit like progress monitoring reports almost to NISK um so this includes on the top side the stipen for a couple of staff members at the high school who really facilitate a lot of
the work with the the teachers. Uh we have two teachers that receive that stipen. It's split in half. And then down below in the non-personnel side, the accreditation uh line item for 3500 um that's an actual um kind of like a a workshop um that the
staff go to. Joanna, >> right? They go what do they call it? Couple conferences. >> Okay. uh specifically for this every year, Principal Murray, and then he brings uh different staff people with him um to keep up with everything. >> So, so during our 10 year cycle, we have to keep >> you have to keep doing like like updates
because when they identify different areas you had to improve on or work on, then you have to put a a plan together to address it and you're periodically submitting reports or evidence that you're progressing and then they review it and they kind of give it its blessing and it keeps going. >> So, this is a whole whole new process. >> It's a whole new process. Yeah. It's not
like just the 10 year thing anymore which is >> it can is a little bit every year >> you went the 10 year maybe they had five years they made you check in but that was it now. >> Yeah. No, now it's annually. >> Okay. All right. Any other questions on this page? Okay. We'll take a motion. >> I move that we approve the budget for
item number 2210 school leadership in the amount of 3,414,530. >> Second. Okay. >> Uh Susan >> I. >> Diana >> I >> I zero. All right. Next is uh classroom
teachers, regular education. Any questions? I know I know we quote unquote lost a position, but we didn't really lose a position, but also the shifting like from FY25 26 the shifting the middle school to
elementary to middle. Can you just explain like we went from 73 to 71 elementary? >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> So when we um Yes. So we we haven't lost any people that are currently working for us this year. >> Um when we put the budget together, it's a snapshot in time with regard to like
who's in what roles. So when we meet with all the schools this year, they're giving us their current K teachers, one teachers, grade two, three, four, right up the line. So last year when we did the snapshot in time, we ended up having um three uh fourth grade um I'm sorry,
actually two uh fourth grade classrooms that were we considered bubble classrooms. So we had five instead of four. So those actually rotated up to fifth grade because we needed two extra teachers to go to fifth grade. So if you'll see the elementary school went from 73 to 71, it's because two fourth
grade teachers really kind of went up to middle school. So middle school went from 32 to 34. So that was the offset. And then uh the other one I believe was uh kindergarten at the time. We had had um two schools that had five sections of K. And this year based on the actual
number because we don't know until the enrollment is done in the spring, we only had one that had five sections. So we actually had like a floating position this year that was unfilled. So this budget basically reconciles that. It doesn't continue the float going forward. Um, so we we this year have
286.4 teachers actually on the books. This is the baseline going forward for next year. Okay, >> great. >> Okay, >> so nothing has been lost. This is just the um how it shakes out moving from fourth grade because they're considered elementary up to fifth grade when they're considered middle.
>> Okay, great. >> Any other questions on this page? >> Okay, we'll take a motion. I move to approve the budget for item numbers 2300 through 2305 classroom teachers regular education in
the amount of 27,871,859. Second. >> Okay. Susan. >> Hi. >> Aa. >> Hi. >> Maria. >> Hi. >> Hi. >> Okay. 23 teacher specialist regular education. Any questions?
Uh >> I I did. So I saw the note about the tutoring line item um for part-time instructional staff positions to augment grant funding. Does that essentially mean that this is to fund the part-time
roles at the schools that are not eligible for title one? >> Correct. >> Okay. >> And had did we fill all six positions this year? >> And yes, fortunately I mentioned I asked Jo earlier. We did. We we were able to actually fill them which is good because um a year ago we were kind of struggling,
>> right? No, I know there's been >> So we were able to do that. >> Great. Awesome. >> All right. Any other questions? >> Take a motion. I move to approve the budget for item number 2310, teacher specialists regular education in the amount of 2,227,259.
>> Second, >> Susan >> I. >> Diana >> IA >> I >> I >> Okay. Page 24, teacher specialist special education. >> Any questions? I just a question. And I'm going to ask
another question about this later, but so the CHIPS revolving fund is where we get the offset. Where does that fall in the revolving funds like under what category on page 93? >> 507. >> 507. So that is >> it's within the whole community.
>> Okay. So under child care. >> Okay. >> Under it's a subset of that. >> Okay. and they um bring in about 200,000 of revenue. >> Okay. >> Okay. I just Yeah, I was trying to find where I know I know it's in there, but I
just didn't know what what category I fel. So, it falls under childcare then. >> Yep. They have their own account numbers. >> Okay. >> Within the 507. >> Great. And so also in that account would be the um preschool and all that also under
child care would fall under that. >> Yes. Okay. >> Been okay. >> Extended day. >> Extended day. Right now. Okay. >> All right. Any other questions on this page? >> Okay. We'll take a motion. >> I move that we approve the budget for item number 2310 teacher specialist
special education in the amount of 9,44,372. >> Second. >> Susan >> I. >> Anna >> I. >> Maria. >> I >> All right. Uh, next page 25, medical
therapeutic services. Any questions on this page? Okay, we'll take a motion. >> I move that we approve the budget for item number 2320, medical therapeutic services in the amount of $67,087. >> Second.
>> Okay. Susan >> I. Diana, >> hi. >> Ria, >> hi. >> Hi, Lizo. >> Uh, page 26, substitutes. Any questions? >> I do. Um, I So, I I received some emails
actually about this one, and I wanted to follow up a little because I see that there's a day-to-day substitute teacher rate of $125 a day, and then there's a different rate for formerly licensed retired teachers at 150 a day. I absolutely see the benefit of bringing
back retired teachers at a rate that recognizes their understanding. I received an inquiry about why Chumsford does not do what some other districts do and have a slightly higher rate for certified teachers who may not be
necessarily retired from the Chumsford public schools, but who might bring in um even a current certification and experience in that sense with teaching pedagogy. And I'm curious if teachers with those credentials qualify for that
higher rate in the way that we use it. >> Yeah. No, I appreciate I probably got the same email um from the the inquiry. So, we have the um the little bump up to recognize the retired teachers as kind of an incentive um really recognizing their length of service, their
experience working with um classrooms, primarily jumped classrooms. um if an individual had um a certification or current certification for licensing, they wouldn't get that rate if they weren't retired. Um and again, that could be someone who maybe just got
their license, so they really have the license, but they don't have a lot of experience. Um if someone is licensed though and we have a long-term sub position that they're filling because we require lensure for that, they would actually do the $200 a day, not the 125. So, if someone is licensed and wanted to
fill a long-term subsituation, then they could actually get the higher rate, um, the 200, but the 150 is just reserved for, uh, like an incentive for retired teachers. every just again as way of background about every other year um we do a salary survey of the greater
Marramac Valley districts to just figure out exactly what they're paying for their day-to-days their long-term subs their par educator rates because we want to maintain um um you know competitiveness with that and we made some adjustments I think it was two years ago to actually kind of bring it
up to these rates and we are very competitive we're actually now one of the top districts in the area as far as the uh the pay goes for the day-to-day Um, others do also recognize the retired rate as slightly higher than the day-to-day rate. Um, so we're relatively consistent with that. It's something we
obviously can always look at and I think if other districts, you know, kind of popped or started doing something differently to attract individuals, we could potentially do the same. But if someone actually has a license and wants to um to work, then they're really in a different classification than like a day-to-day, we would love to have them
apply for long-term subposition. we have long-term sub positions to fill, but um the slight differential for just a regular day-to-day unlicensed, but who has a degree and the retired is really just an incentive to try to get those uh staff back who again have the vast years
of experience that have actually retired from us. >> Yeah, I can absolutely see the benefit of of the higher rate for retired teachers. I can say I I do know what a difficult job day-to-day subbing can be for uh any educator and I think an
educator who brings lenture has whether they have experience or not has an advantage over somebody who might have no degree or or an associates degree and and no specific background in
teaching. So, I really would advocate for us um to consider a rate that reflects that for um some of those folks who may not be necessarily in a position where they could take a long-term subposition, but who might bring um some expertise that would be really
beneficial in our classrooms. Um it's always hard to find enough good subs and I think any way that we can you know attract um some of the ones who can bring a little
bit of uh extra skill sets um it could eventually be a a you know a way for that person to maybe get familiar and eventually take some of those harder to fill long-term sub positions. But um I
do see the reasoning in paying at a higher rate for someone who brings credentials. >> How has that coverage been this year? I mean I know in the coming out of CO it was really hard to get subs. Are we >> Yeah, I mean everything kind of postco is a little it's a different world,
right? >> Um we're generally um fairly well off when it comes to the um teacher subs dayto day. Um it really does depend on the day, depending on the activity that's taking place. Um the teacher subs typically get filled first and then uh par educator subs would get filled um
after the teacher subs. So we certainly have you know vacancies um we have different uh things in the contract that will will pay other people to kind of slide into roles. So, we have that. But, um, the next time to Diana's point though, if you like, I mean, the next time we put our survey out to the other
districts, I can ask specifically if other districts do that to to kind of incentivize licensed people, but um, we could certainly incorporate that mix. It would be something we'd have to quantify. I don't know how many of our staff even have the license. And what's hard when something like that comes up
is we don't require them. If you're just a day-to-day sub, you don't have to tell us that you're licensed because all we need to really see is your degree. So, I don't know if in our subpool if we have two people that are licensed or we have 100 people that are licensed because that would affect the rates that we're obviously paying out. We would have to
do a projection, but I'd be curious to see like if other districts have that as a differentiating factor. Um, so we can see if that question can be added going forward. Yeah, I even wonder if like an intermediate step might be to have that be a question that is asked um at the
point of hire um of a substitute or somebody being added to our pool to have that information. I even if it didn't immediately translate into anything different from a salary perspective, it might prove to be if we are in a position where we have a lot of really
great people in our pool, it might help us to make decisions sometimes where there would be an advantage to someone with an extra credential to be brought on. >> Any other questions on substitutes? Okay, we'll take a motion. I move that we approve the budget for item number
2325 substitutes in the amount of $811,000. >> Second. >> Okay. Susan >> I. >> Diana >> I zero. >> All right. Next page 27 par
professionals. Any questions on this page? >> Okay. We'll take a motion. I move that we approve the budget for item number 2330 power professionals in the amount of 5,128,621. Second, >> Susan. >> Hi,
>> Diana Anna. >> Hi, >> Ria. >> I >> All right. Next up, library media center. Questions? >> I do have a question. To my understanding, there is an un is there. Am I correct in saying that there is an
unfilled role at the li for a librarian at the middle school level that's shared between the two middle schools? >> Not at the present time. It was um we had a an individual that splits between McCarthy and Parker uh as a librarian. We had hired a new one for September right around the holidays. I don't
remember the exact timing of it, but somewhere between, you know, Christmas and New Year's, uh the individual resigned to go take a position in a different district. Um so we had an opening for a while. We did have a difficult time um trying to fill the position. We'd advertised a couple of
different ways, both uh part-time, full-time. um we had an individual who we actually offered the position to that ultimately ended up declining. So that was a little bit of a a stall, but um we ended up having one of our internal um
library assistants uh be able to get um the waiver to be able to get the license. So they're in the position now um full-time through the end of the school year in June. And then we'll be looking to um probably advertise to hire a full-time person for the following
school year. But we do have the three um librarians on staff right now. >> I don't know the exact timing of it all. It was somewhere around the uh the new the new year. Um but we are fully staffed right now. We have the three librarians. >> Okay. And I see that there's no shift in
terms of the way that the personnel are deployed here. So I'm assuming that's reflected. Okay. >> Well, yeah, because the hope is to have the three u the people who's in the position is kind of irrelevant to this. But no, there's the three full-time licensed librarians.
>> And And which schools are they at? The three. >> So there's a full-time at the high school. There always has been. And then we used to have one at McCarthy and one at Parker, but the library program is predominantly for grades five and six. So we actually need like more than one at Parker. So the person is at um this
that's why we have a swing person. They're at Parker for um the first two periods of the day and then they're at McCarthy for the other three. >> And there's one who's just at Parker. Yeah, there's a full-time at Parker and then kind of like a one and a half if you think about it because >> So the person to hire is the third. >> Yeah, the person that we had to rehire
does traveling. Yeah, they go between the schools. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions on the library? >> I I just as a point of clarification, the library clerks circulation, >> is that the elementary? >> No. So the librarians, the three
licensed full-time librarians, that's the top line. the library assistants, the four is one in each elementary school. >> Okay. >> Um those um don't require lensure. Then there were two um library clerks for circulation at the high school. Ironically, it's one of the two library clerks at the high school who was able
to get their waiver. So that's the individual who's filling the role. So now we're trying to backfill the circulation uh job at the high school, but that's a little bit um easier to fill as opposed to the librarian position. Um and then the tech assistants are at um each of the
elementary schools and then there is one at um I believe Parker and one at McCarthy. That's where the six come from. >> Yeah. Okay. So that was going to be my follow-up question which was the difference between a librarian and a librarian library assistant to some extent comes down to the certification
required. >> Yep. So the librarians actually have the regular Desi uh required lensure and the library assistants don't require the lensure. >> Okay. Thank you. >> They may actually have it, but the position just doesn't require it. >> Okay, >> take a motion.
>> Yes. I move to approve the budget for item number 2340, library media services, in the amount of $912,617. >> Second. >> Susan, >> I >> Maria >> I >> I All right. Next up, page 29,
professional development. Any questions on this page? Right. We'll take a motion. >> I move that we approve the budget for item number 2357, professional development, in the amount of 220,727. >> Second.
>> Okay. Susan. >> Hi, >> Diana. >> Hi. >> I I Great. Uh, next up is textbooks and instructional materials. >> Any questions? >> Yeah, so I'm confirming something. I
believe I know um which is that the piloted literacy curriculum that we've been talking about over the last couple of meetings is not reflected on here because that would be a one-time expenditure and it would probably fall next year. Is that correct? >> Correct. Yeah. So, we're not we're not actually budgeting for that. Typically,
the um the adoption phase uh that bless you. the um companies would be given the materials at no cost to us to be able to actually pilot, but then when we make the selection next um winter, we would allocate one-time funding to make the purchase. So, uh that would actually come next spring.
>> Okay. >> Okay. >> Oh, go ahead. >> Go ahead. >> Okay. Um my sort of followup on that is, you know, as we explore the potential gaps in our existing literacy
curriculum, are there any materials or or budget allocations needed for, for lack of a better word, remediation at the upper grades for students who are struggling with reading? >> I don't see that now outside of the budget need that we have. I mean, I think we honestly have um sufficient
resources in place to cover us between now and whatever the adoption is, both um materials and staffing. Um you know, in addition to this there, if we ever needed um something, we do have the one-time funding available that we could always look at, but there's been nothing
identified that's necessary at this point. >> You had a question. >> Well, I it's okay. is kind of in line with that because I think what we're going to do is probably also look at the budget for the professional development and so on in line with the new literacy
uh curriculum that we may adopt and so on. So that's for next year. >> Yeah, that would be for next year. And then the other thing is too at times there are like targeted grants that we would receive from DESIE. Um you know Linda and and her staff also work with like the title one grants through you
know title well five they're all different ones but there are PD specific grants as well that aren't included in your base budget. They're included in the grant section on the back but oftentimes those grants specifically will support the professional development for different initiatives that we're rolling out. So that can be
that is part of the budget as well. >> That's great. >> The curriculum that we purchased comes with professional development. So that price that we're paying for that curriculum is included built in professional development from the company. They have to give us professional development.
>> Okay. Thank you for clarifying. >> I won't buy it. >> Anything else on this before Okay. All right. Take a motion. I move that we approve the budget for item number 2410 through 2415 textbooks and instructional materials in the amount of
494,550 >> second >> Susan >> I >> Diana >> I >> Maria >> I >> I 4 All right, next page is instructional equipment. >> Any questions on
this page? This in um this includes the No, we do that as a one-time purchase. The materials we give the students, >> that's a onetime purchase. >> Okay. >> Right. Other questions?
>> Right. Take a motion. >> Okay. I move that we approve the budget for item number 2420, instructional equipment in the amount of $188,200. >> Second. Okay. Susan. Hi. >> Diana. >> Hi. >> Maria. >> Hi.
>> Hi. was there. All right. Next page is general supplies. Any questions? >> I do. This is related to the note about the increase of the industrial arts costs. Um, is that something that we
anticipate being a one-year bump because of some kind of new and and specific needs to get that online, so to speak, or is that something we anticipate being at that higher cost for the foreseeable future? >> I believe for the foreseeable future,
but do you want to cover that one? >> Yeah, sure. Um we got the capital skills grant from the state for about 149,000 and there is some um very nice equipment that came with that for this um for
these classes. So Marilyn did write Dr. Sweeney wrote about it when she submitted her budget and you know for this year it'll be a bump up and I didn't ask her about 2028 but I could see it continuing based on uh how it
goes with this first year with the new equipment. >> Yeah, this almost like other curriculums like this consumables materials now that you have to use. So I see that being on the higher end closer to what we're budgeting this year as opposed to dipping back down to pre >> and that and that is not covered by the
grant itself. These are consumables that go beyond the actual grant. >> Correct. Yeah. The grant was very like equipment specific, but we need to to purchase the product to be used with the equipment. >> And what courses do we offer under industrial arts? I know there's a wood
shop, but is that the only course under industrial is other? Well, I mean, some of the project lead the way pieces go into that. We also have um our architect courses that go into that. So, that kind of all falls under industrial arts. Okay. >> Depending on which course they're taking.
>> Okay. So, there's several different drawing too. >> Yeah, we do have CAD software. Um but that's in the architect classes. So, yeah, there's a lot of stuff that goes into those courses. Those are the ones that are downstairs in the science. >> Sounds like engineering too. >> Say again. >> Sounds like some engineering as well.
>> Absolutely. Yeah. >> Okay. Great. All right. Any other questions on this page? All right. Take a motion. >> I move that we approve the budget for item number 2430, general supplies in the amount of 650,232. >> Second.
>> Okay. Susan >> I. >> Diana. >> I. >> Maria. >> I >> I. All right. Next page. Other instructional services, special education. Any questions on this? >> Right. We'll take a motion. I move that
we approve the budget for item number 2440, other instructional services special education in the amount of $215,000. >> Second. >> Okay. Right. Susan >> I >> Diana >> I >> Maria >> I
>> I All right. Next up, classroom instructional technology and software. Any questions? Yeah, I'm curious why the fiscal year 2027 uh
is so much higher um in terms of the laptop lease. >> Go ahead. It's an additional lease, but go ahead. Yeah, because um there's an additional lease and remember
we had uh funds during COVID and we bought a bunch of the computers then so we didn't need to lease them but now it's several years out so Bill is uh eventually there should always be four leases but we were at two for a pretty
long time then we went to three and then we'll go to four. So every year we buy a new set of computers for like fifth and nth grade. So for the four years like the first year we did it we had one lease in place. The second year we did it we had uh basically two leases in place and then we would have gone to
three and four. But when um again we use some co money we use some money so we didn't have to kind of tag the local budget for a couple of lease years. But now that we're beyond that uh we do have to go back to the local budget but we're utilizing school choice funds to pay for the multiple leases.
That makes sense. Um I'm curious how so I see there's a school choice funds offset that obviously matches um that also goes up. Does that mean that we're going to be taking more school choice students into Chelmsford?
>> No. The So we always typically um target around 50 uh students. So we wouldn't be taking more in, but we've built up a very healthy balance in the school choice uh fund. it's at the back of the book. Um, and we basically have taken the stance that we wanted to um, have
the computer leases be net neutral to the budget. So that's why the number actually matches the um, the the lease cost. Um, but we're still and Joanna, can you give me the we're in excess of $2 million in that account. Um, and when we had actually um um, done this, we had
that in mind, >> right? We expect to be at um, 2.6 six million at the end of this year. >> Okay. >> Well, you're on that page. Can I just ask a question that just kind of related, not related. What's the difference between school choice and out of town tuition reimbursement, which is
two lines up? Because when I first went to look, I saw that and thought that was school choice. I'm like, wait, no, that doesn't make sense. So, >> so school choice is the $5,000 per student incrementally that we get when we bring in the school choice student plus uh any additional special ed costs
if those students have it. And then out of town tuition is if one of our teachers um who does not live in Chsford would like their student to come to Chsford, which is in the contract, they can pay a tuition. It's about 8,000 a
year. It's half of the per pupil. >> Um and they pay that tuition um for their student to come. And we've had like right now I think we have three three or four and but this revenue has
just been accumulating. We really haven't assigned any costs against that revolving fund. >> Okay. Right. Just Yeah. I just wanted to clarify. >> And at the beginning of every year we do we lease uh a computer for each student. Right. >> For the two for the two new groups.
Okay. >> So because the kids keep the computer for four years. So when you go into fifth grade, we're buying a computer for the kids, but we're spreading the payment out over four years. >> Oh, got it. >> When students go to the high school in 9th grade, they're getting a new computer as well. >> And we do a lease and we pay for those
computers over four years. >> Okay. >> So again, now you've got like multiple groups going through. So we have multiple leases that we're managing. Yeah. >> Um to and we're we're tagging it or assigning it all to the school choice revolving fund. >> Okay, sounds good. >> So this is the four is this four leases
now? I think so. >> Yeah. >> I' I'd have to look at the >> I have >> it's at least three of the four, right? >> Um but that that was the uh the need for the increase on that one. >> All right. Any other questions? >> Does that answer your question? >> Yes. >> Any other questions on this page?
>> Okay. >> I move. >> Yep. I move that we approve the budget for item numbers 2451 through 2455, classroom instructional technology and software in the amount of $871,000. >> Second,
>> Susan >> Hi, >> Diana. >> Hi, >> Maria. >> I >> I Okay, next up, guidance and psychological services. Um I had a question just on on the second item says guidance council stipen
extended year CHS is that also include I think we moved McCarthy to also have an extended year. Does that also include those people extra? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> For three there's three. Yeah. The middle school and three days
>> at the middle school and four days at the high school. >> Okay. >> What I'll do and I just didn't pick up on this. That's why the amount increased from the 216 to the 26th. I'll just change the header on that. It'll just be extended year. I'll take CHS out because it's CHS and McCarthy right when we when
we negotiated that in the contract. Yes. That the guidance councils of McCarthy now come in for the 3 days. So, I'll just change the header so it's clearer. >> It's it covers both. >> Okay. Great. >> Any other questions on this page? Okay. I move that we approve the budget
for item numbers 2710 through 2800 guidance and psychological services in the amount of $3,375,437 with the language as noted by Dr. Lang. >> Second. >> Okay. Susan
>> I >> Diana >> Hi. >> Maria. >> Hi. >> Hi. Good motion. All right, next page is medical and health services. Any questions on this one? >> I guess this is more of a parking lot
question, but I would love to know um I see the note about the increased needs of students and families being reflected in a higher allocation of budget for contracted services around care solace and AED support. And I would love in a
future meeting to have some statistics about the um the different services being offered for students with kind of you know tier three social emotional needs and and family crisis and things like that. Just have a better sense on the rising needs in our community.
>> Yeah, happy to. Um when Shannon Bishoff comes um to do her update for the committee, she usually brings um statistics on that, but I'll make sure she incorporates that into the presentation. >> Yeah, that sounds great. Thank you. >> Right. Any other questions on this page? We'll take a motion.
>> I move that we approve the budget for item number 3200, medical and health services in the amount of 1,54,243. >> Second. >> Susan >> I. >> Aa >> I. >> Ria >> I >> I was
all right. Next up is transportation. Any questions? >> I just wanted to make sure I'm understanding it. Um, so this is kind of a clarification question. The special education transportation line item. Um,
does this include the students attending Valley Collaborative? And in those cases, I know that we attempt to share transportation costs. Is that something that we do on a routine basis? because we obviously know the neighboring
districts send their students to Valley. >> Not not only Valley, but really any special ed school that we're um sending kids to that like another local school or a school even like on the way might be able to do cost sharing. We definitely try to um so the special ed
transportation is really twofold. We have a contract that covers just like the indisted transportation. And those would only be like Chumsford kids on either mini buses or little 7D vans that just go to Chumsford schools. But really any out of district and we would consider Valley an out of district. Um you know we actually have a contract.
It's a joint contract with Bull Recker and Tukbury. So like our three districts are kind of pooling uh students that might be going to different places but it goes even beyond valley. So we do try whenever we possibly can to car share and to put multiple students on a vehicle that's going to the same out of
district school. And then the bus company actually just splits the bill and it's because it's a per vehicle per day rate. They say if it's two kids, one's ours and one's Bickas, we get a bill for half. Bicka gets a bill for half. So we do try to do that. I I think I mentioned one of the complicating
factors this year and part of the reason of the increase is we're still working to obviously try to um control those costs and find those economies wherever we can. We did have a significant number of students on vehicle runs with LOL previously and LOL
changed special ed uh providers um this past year. So we're still kind of catching up to see if there's opportunity to be able to still do some shared runs um with their students whether they're on our our vendor or we go to their vendor. Um that's all kind
of in play but um it really covers both in districts and out of district's bed but we try to find those economies whenever we possibly can. >> Okay. Yeah, it just struck me that Valley Collaborative would be the easier one, I would think, to find uh partner districts because of the fact that we know that they feed into there.
>> Well, and we I mean for us too, we're kind of fortunate in a sense that we have several students going to Valley. So, at least we have multiple of our own kids on the vehicles. It's not just like one student from Chelford driving to Valley. That would be quite costly. >> And where are we in what contracts with
both regular ed and special ed? Are we towards the end but at the beginning? >> Yeah. So for the big buses, >> y >> we are in year four. >> Okay. >> And um so we have the opportunity to
extend for one more year into year five. >> And then for out of district that Dr. Lane just described, we are in year three right now. So we will go we have an opportunity to extend
one year for year four and then we'll have an opportunity to extend one year for year five. >> So these numbers are the what the extended year would would come in at >> right these are we know what the per vehicle rates are. What we don't know is
um and we know the the big buses is easy, right? And but we don't know um how many vehicles we'll need uh for our special ed students >> because that population can fluctuate a little bit even like what school they're at and things like that. like we know
the kids we have now, but if other kids come into the district or leave the district, that's when some of those runs can get um >> shaken up. >> And are we still when homeless transportation is still very uncertain still? I know >> and it is it's uh thankfully it's um
this year has been lower than prior years. >> It's also February, so you never know. But um >> Oh, I knew it was an issue last year, so >> Yeah. Yep. It's we're not um this year at this time this year our cost is lower
than at this time last year. Right. >> Right. Any other questions on transportation? >> Okay. We'll take a motion. >> I move that we approve the budget for item number 3,300 transportation in the amount of 5,691,534. >> Second.
>> Susan. >> Hi. >> Diana. >> Hi. Maria >> I >> I 5 Z 4 Z. All right. Next. Food services. Any questions? I see that they are going to have put
the funding into the state budget again for free and free lunches. Is that true >> for next year? >> For next year. >> So I um never say yes to that until I see the final governor budget.
>> Yeah. Yeah. other districts are a little more optimistic, but I just want to see her that final budget and but I think it is in >> um both versions. We'll see. >> Okay. What would that do if they didn't have it? Would that do to this this budget here? This
>> it wouldn't do anything to this budget. What it would do is families um would have to go back to um free, reduced, and paid prices. >> Okay. And what would likely happen is our participation would decrease
and then in theory then our costs would decrease and um the majority of our costs for that are in the revolving fund. >> Okay. Okay. Hopefully none of that happens. I'm just >> right playing out the scenarios. >> Yes, absolutely.
>> All right. Any other questions on this one? >> Okay. I'll take a motion. I move that we approve the budget for item number 3400, food services, in the amount of $25,000. >> Second. >> Okay. >> Susan, >> Diana. >> Hi. >> Maria. >> Hi.
>> Hi. 4 Z. All right. Next up, page 39, athletic department. >> Yes, sir. >> Any questions on this one? Are we raising rates as an offset to the raising of the game official and police
detail rates? I just see that it's offset by gate receipts, right? So, I I just didn't know is it is it going to become more expensive to go to a game? Is that >> No, we're not changing any um I don't know if I'm understanding the
question correctly. We're not changing any of the proposed like student user fees or or like the ticket prices. >> Okay. Yeah. No, I just saw that there's a a reflected increase on the MIAA rates. So, um I didn't and I saw that
that, you know, is offset by a revolving fund. So, >> Oh, it is offset by a revolving fund. But you'll also see like on the revolving fund as well, um, athletic participation is actually, it varies, but it's been trending upward. So, we're
taking in more user fees. Um, so we're able to then offset more, um, cost to the budget. >> Got it. >> Because when we negotiate a contract, that also increase the coach's stipens as well. >> They get the cola. Yeah. Right. So, like each of the grids might get like a a 3%
um, cola added. So, those rates do go up for the coach's salaries or the stipens, I'm sorry. >> Right. Go. All right. Other questions on this page? Okay. We'll take a motion. >> I move that we approve the budget for item number 3510, athletic department,
in the amount of $935,492. >> Second. >> Susan. >> I >> Maria >> I >> I 50. Next. Other student activities questions. My question is just a night school is it
still a viable program? I mean I know it used to be a fairly large program. It is still >> it's not a huge program but it's it's has its purpose and we want to make sure we give everybody an opportunity to get a high school diploma. So >> just the line is only 2500. That's why I'm asking this is
>> it's not huge, but it's >> No, it's a it's a stipen. It's basically a stipen for a teacher at the high school who like after hours one teacher who almost more of like a case manager uh type thing. They check in with the students, make sure that they're doing their work um trying to get them to the
point of being able to earn their credits to graduate. So, it's a not a large number of students, but for the handful of students that need it to be able to graduate, it's helpful. And for us, it's only one um staff member who's basically stipended to help coach the kids um to get to the point where they can graduate.
>> I just remember it used to be a more robust program, I guess, you know, at one point. So, okay. >> Right. >> All right. Any other questions on this page? >> Okay. We'll take a motion. >> I move that we approve the budget for item number 3520, other student
activities in the amount of $199,440. >> Second. >> Okay. Susan, >> I Diana. >> Hi. Maria. >> Hi. >> Hi. 4 Z. All right. Uh, next page. School security. >> Any questions here?
>> Can you just just remind me how those five supervisors of students are allocated among the schools? >> Sure. So, u they're full-time positions. They work school year. We have two individuals at the high school, two individuals at McCarthy for 78, and then
one individual at Apocrypha for 56. >> I know that this year reflected an increase in that role. There's two at McCarthy, and there used to be one. >> There was one at each middle school. >> Have we heard that it has made a positive difference to have the two supervisors
>> significantly? Yeah, it's it's been a welcomed addition at the uh school. It's honestly gone over very well. Um, and they were able to trade off some staff, some positions last year for it to work. But, um, by all accounts, the teaching staff I've talked to, the administrative
staff I've talked to definitely see it as, um, making a world of difference. >> Great. >> So, yeah, that's been very, very positive. >> All right. Any other questions on this one? >> I move we approve the budget for item number 3600, school security, in the
amount of $311,626. Second, >> Susan Anna. >> Hi, >> Maria. >> Hi, >> Izz. All right. Next up, custodial services
questions here. How are we doing with the negotiations on that end? Custodians. >> So, two parts. Um so on the custodians we we actually we had our introductory uh introductory session a couple weeks back and we're going to be meeting um on
March 4th. It's a very special day. Uh we're going to meet on March 4th to continue the uh his >> birthday the birthday. So we're going to continue the negotiations that day. Um very similar to what we've done with the other bargaining units. Um we have a set aside
back on page 22. We do a cost of living adjustment. And so we've set aside funds for that negotiation and then once we negotiate we'll do a transfer. Um but yeah again I I think that'll go well. It's it's traditionally been a very good um group to bargain with. So we have
that coming. And then uh secondly the contract. We have a contract with a company that comes in to do the nighttime cleaning. Joanna are we in year going into year two? >> We're in year one. >> Right. So we'll be going into year two on that contract. So we have a contract in place which is great.
Great. Any other questions on this one? >> So, we've allocated under this item for any potential increase. >> No. So, the potential increase is carried on page 22. >> Okay. >> Um, we have a line item called >> Yeah. >> Uh, salary reserve for cola and that's
what we do for life for teachers, the administrators. So, we have we're carrying a number there consistent with the other settlements. Thank you. >> So that we can um best track it. >> Okay. >> Okay. All right. All right, we'll take a motion. >> I move that we approve the budget for
item numbers 4110 through 4230, custodial services, in the amount of 2,231,475. >> Second. >> Hey, Susan. >> Hi, >> Diana. >> Hi, >> Maria. >> Hi. >> Hi. 40. Getting there. Okay. Uh, next
up, heating and building of and utility services. Any questions here? What do we do for a just a general increase? What do we guess for 5% 8%? >> We did last
>> I think you did three >> 3%. >> I think we did three. >> Okay. And that seems to >> Yeah. And we're going to see how this year obviously comes in. Um because we do take a look at like actuals going into it and and that was a big bump up for this year. >> I am curious to see what's going to happen um this summer. We've got a
couple of projects that could affect electricity and because we get credits for all the solar panels we have, but the solar panels are going to come down from the south row roof when we do the south row roof over. So, we're not going to be getting solar credits there. Also, McCarthy roof um the solar um is on the
roof there and that roof is being done this summer. So, we're going to lose the summer season of solar credits at that project. Um so, it wouldn't be something that I'd want to cut like too tight. Uh I'd rather have a little bit of wiggle room on that. But um once we get those roofs done and the solar backup um you
know we can kind of see how we're trending on that um that could potentially be an area maybe if you know we could realize a little savings for maybe 28 or 29 but for this year I think we'd be safe to just do the 3% increase to make sure we're not cutting it too closely.
you the other thing is usage is also a factor, right? So, this has been an incredibly cold winter. So, um like the electricity um you the modular classrooms and the natural gas we have to watch as well. So, it's it's been cold. >> The solar panels have been covered with
snow a lot this winter too. >> Thank you. >> Which I've noticed at my house. >> Yeah. You can't get the sun in to point. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> All right. Any other questions on utilities? Okay. Okay, we'll take a motion. >> I move that we approve the budget for
item numbers 4120 through 4130, heating of buildings and utility services in the amount of $1,559,000. >> Second, >> Susan. >> Hi, >> Diana. >> Hi, >> Maria. >> I
>> All right. Uh employee separation costs. >> Any questions? is the plan to prepay if we can this again this >> okay >> there's um eight retiring um we'll have to see what they select
for if they want their incentive in July or January >> okay >> and for those who select July we could bring forward a recommendation to pay it in June >> that's been helpful to just give us a little bit of a question going into next year as well
>> the retirees spread out or is it in like across the grade levels? Are they more concentrated at the upper levels? Do we even know? >> No, we have um two teachers at the high school, a business teacher and a music teacher. At McCarthy Middle School, we
have three teachers. We have two social studies teachers and a music teacher. >> We Oh, where's technology? Oh, maybe it's technology then instead of music.
>> Why don't you read it? You just tell us. >> I thought I was doing good, but >> kindergarten teacher at the biome. Uh, three teachers at McCarthy, as Dr. Lang said, technology and social studies. Um,
one at Parker, one at center, one at the high school business teacher, and another music teacher at Parker, >> right? So, kind of spread out, right? >> Spread out. Not not a ton, but spread out all over. >> Sorry, I had them alphabetical, not by
>> That's okay. >> You were much better than his list. So, >> that's hurtful. >> All right. Other questions on this page? All right. We'll take a motion. I move that we approve the budget for item number 5150, employee separation costs
in the amount of $125,511. >> Second. >> Okay. >> Susan, >> I >> Maria >> I >> I zero. >> All right. Do we have to vote on this one or we just let it >> Oh my gosh, it's zero. >> You don't. Uh and this is just in the
budget because it's carrying the actuals from 24 and 25. If you recall during COVID, um we ended up voting to pay out of some reserve funding. We had the cost for the chur field um the lease and the interest payments. So um we obviously
haven't been doing that in 26 or 27, but we still have the actuals on this page. Um so you don't have to take any action. There's no vote, but it's just still part of our budget to reflect the payments. >> Okay. >> Right. Anybody have questions on this?
Okay. All right. Moving on to tuitions. >> Mhm. >> Any questions here? >> And our numbers are down a little, you said for next year. >> Yeah. So, again, this is one of the areas that kind of helped us with the um
solving or getting to a level service budget because we originally anticipated needing about $3.5 million to be level service and obviously we're coming in at 2.5. We had a couple of different things go in our favor which don't typically but we actually have a decline in out of district um tuition at this point in
time. We have a couple of very expensive um residential out of district placements where the students are aging out either later this spring or over the summer. Um so we're not going to have to account for those um tuitions for next year. So that was helpful. And then we're actually getting a little bit more
in um circuit breaker reimbursement. Um so that was helpful. And then thirdly, we're going to be able to allocate um $300,000 again, which I I think should be um conservative if anything based on the way valley is projecting the revenue for next year. So that's another um kind
of revenue offset from there. So uh collectively that really helped us kind of bridge the gap to get to only needing the $2.5 million um for the level service budget. Um isn't always going to happen, but we're fortunate this year that it did. Um the only thing obviously like Joanne and I will think about is if
our tuition for fiscal 27 is lower then when we do a circuit breaker claim it's going to be a lower tuition. So in 28 that could affect our circuit breaker reimbursement. So it's all kind of cyclical but fiscal 27 it's working in our favor. >> Yeah hold over like one year is it?
>> Yeah you can hold over one year's allocation which is the 3.79. So we're basically carrying the max over. Okay. Um, so we'll have a little bit of play, you know, if we need to a year from now. But, um, >> you know, at least for fiscal 27, it's a it's a good news story.
>> Great. >> I always just a comment here on the Valley Collaborative tuition credit and refund. I always think it's wonderful that our special ed students who go through this Valley Collaborative actually give back to the district again.
>> This is what's happening here, which is wonderful. All right. Any other questions? All right. Take a motion. >> I move that we approve the budget for item number 9300, tuitions, in the amount of $2,854,075.
>> Second, >> Susan. >> Hi, >> Diana. >> Hi, >> Maria. >> I >> I Which brings us to page 47, which is the final total >> of the budget. >> All right. All right. >> Any final questions?
>> All right. So, we'll take a motion on the final. >> Here we go. I move that we approve the overall FY2027 budget in the amount of 78,150,000. >> Second. >> Okay. All right. Any final questions?
All right. Susan, >> I >> Maria >> I >> I Okay. All right. Thank you all. >> Yeah. And just for the folks watching at home, you know, that's a $2.5 million increase uh over fiscal 26 or 3.2%.
Um we'll present that Thursday evening to the finance committee and then ultimately uh that will go forward to to our meeting in April. Um I'll incorporate all of the final uh votes and numbers in the revised u budget book. We'll get that printed. can fit
out to um the town meeting reps and we'll get a copy to you and we'll get it copied up on the website a little bit later on this week. >> Okay, but thank you. >> Great. >> If anything comes up questionwise between now and um you know, April, you certainly um we can
continue talking. This is again our best guess at what's going to happen for the next fiscal year. It's aligned with our goals which I think are uh great and I think it's a good uh good spending plan for us. >> Okay. All right. Next up, we have a personnel report.
>> You do. Uh so you have the personnel report for the month of January. Uh that just details a few new bless you. A few new hires to the district. Uh as well as a couple of uh resignations. Uh no retirements and no assignment changes in January. >> Okay. Any questions on this? I assume
the most the parah educator hires are interim just because of the time of the year I assume or just >> no it um so paras are required to be hired permanently to either have an associates degree or to pass the par protest. Um so if they don't we can hire
them on an interim basis or they work toward it. So if they work toward one of those two uh things between now and June they could be hired permanently for the following year. Um but if they aren't then they'd be we have to try to hire highly qualified paris first. Um if we
can't then we can uh look to like interrupts. Okay. And it's to help support people to either finish their associates degree or pass the parrot test. Um and it all just ties to our highly qualified uh status to be able to get the federal grants. >> Gotcha. Okay. All right. Anybody else
have questions on personnel? >> Okay. All right. Last thing then is we have a field trip. You have one field trip for uh the Chelsford High School students who may qualify for the DECA state conference. Uh this is uh March 12th to 14th and it's in Boston, Mass.
So it's instate, but it is overnight. So would request your approval for the uh DECA kids who qualify uh to go to the state conference. >> Okay. >> All right. Take a motion. I move that we approve the Chsford High School qualifying DECA students, DECA state
conference March 12th through the 14th of 2026 in Boston, Mass. >> Second. >> This is much better. All those in favor? >> I Oh, much better that way. >> All right. Uh, anybody have a less on reports they want
to share? >> I do. I can jump in. Uh on the 12th I attended the Parker and McCarthy joint PTO meeting. Um as always a lot of very wonderful things
happening at both schools at Parker. Um there was a Super Bowl food drive that was super successful. Um Pride Week at the school went well and culminated in a huge ultimate volleyball game before break. Um,
there's an ongoing calendar raffle which ends at the end of the month. And they were excited to report a $2,000 profit on winter socials. Kids are thirsty for opportunities to have fun together and be social at that age. And and so their um socials went well. There's going to
be another fifth and then sixth grade social this spring. Um at McCarthy, they were proud to have hit the 1 million mark for Project 300, which has been going on for a long time. The pantry was extremely grateful as you can imagine. Um,
of course we were all excited to discuss the successful musical Mean Girls. Um, and um, there have been a lot of other activities. The Black Light Dance is coming up. Um, which is always a a big
event. Um, both schools are receiving applications. I think so far there have been eight at Parker and nine at McCarthy for scholarships. Um so those are healthy and those are due April 10th. So there's still plenty of time for folks to get those in. Um
the schools are really beginning the call for parents to step forward um and consider joining um both PTO's as we look ahead to next year. There are several parents kind of aging up um with
their kids. Um particularly um I've been hearing it from McCarthy. So um I would say they are always eager if there are parents and and family members interested in getting involved. >> Good. >> Susan, you have anything?
>> I do. Um on February 4th, I attended the Harrington School PTO meeting. Um some of the things they done have since happened, but upcoming they're doing um calendar raffle um as a
fundraiser. So students will be bringing the packets home about those this week. And something sounds very interesting. They're having a week-long artist in residence coming soon. His name is Bren Bata Clan and he is going to be working
with the students to create art that well he will then use to create a big mural on the wall in the school and in one of the hallways. It's going to be a kindness and inclusion mural. I looked him up um on the internet. It looks
pretty cool the work he does. So that is um Harington. And then I went to Chips PTO on February 9th. They are doing a nice job keeping money in their balance so
that they can fund their very many enrichment um programs they do for the kids. They've got they do so many it's hard for me to keep track. They've got um Sugarbug in February. They have Big Joe's
Storyteller coming up and then Mr. Riga's music academy comes in March. In April, they have Goldfish Swim School coming up and more things coming later. Once again, this year they thank Dr. Lang for the money that he has given
them to hope help offset costs for their teacher appreciation days. They always express appreciation for that. >> It's the school committee as well. >> Okay. Yeah. Well, they thank all of us. >> Remind them of that. Yeah. Chips always is is great to thank all of us for doing
that. Um when they do their um teacher appreciations is for the CHIP staff and they also often include the Lions is it Lion's Den over there? Lion's Pride. Which one is which? >> Lion's Pride that's over there in that building. Um and they include them in
that because Lion's Pride is very kind to help share their um photo money with them. So they've got some reciprocity going on and work well together all having the preschoolers in that building. >> Yeah.
>> Uh Square One Art is happening again and parents will have an opportunity to order their artwork pieces which will be completed in their classrooms by the end of this week. So after it all goes into the company, the parents will get their
order information to buy the many wonderful products you can get through Square One Art for their kids. >> I think that's it. >> Maria, >> I did not have any. >> We're lucky. >> But uh just a reminder that the wellness fair is coming up at the high school.
That's one of my and that's on March 6th. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> Yeah. I'm covering hobbies which I'm very interested in. >> I'll be there. Yep. >> All right. Uh I have a couple alumni association met um there today we meeting they they just closed the
application deadline for the scholarships. They had 231 applications >> which is great. So now they have to go through them, read them, assign them. So they have some work to do behind that. Um the ceremony will be in May. Currently it's scheduled for McCarthy auditorium. Um I don't have the date right here but I'll be able to let you
know after the next meeting. Um they also uh would talk about the kind of revamp the application process for Hall of Fame. Um so they're going to start to kind of open that back up again I believe in March. Um with the idea of having uh a ceremony sometime in the
fall again in a kind of a revamp way. It used to be a very formal type of dinner. They want to do a little bit more casual um and and and maybe do something at a football game or something like that. So they kind of look at try to do things a little bit differently. Um, as mentioned earlier, we had the building committee
last Thursday. Uh, we approved our our usual invoices. We also approved some money to do some cleanup on the site. I'm sure remember the last time we heard from our our project man about small contamination that's going to be cleaned up at the site that should be taken care of by April break.
>> Uh, we also reviewed some different options for where the building might be cited on the on the land. um kind of a consensus of where the best place would be and and some of the the the footprints of what a building might look there and they're going to keep working on that. So that's an ongoing thing which kind of give us a prelim
preliminary idea on that and as mentioned before as part of the process with MSBA. We have to continue to have this conversation about grade enrollments. That's why we're going to have it on our meeting agendas. We're also going to have the public forum on the 19th, you know, and then moving all
the way into April, we'll actually take a formal vote on that. So, um, it's it's getting there. Slow but sure. We're getting closer and closer to to finalizing everything, which I think is great. Um, we'll see. >> All right. Um, any new items?
>> I don't know if this is really a new item, but I did want to bring up a topic quickly for discussion. I know many of us, I don't know actually who else has signed up, are going to Day on the Hill. >> Everybody. >> I think everybody. >> Yeah. And I was wondering, I have never been. Um, I was wondering if there is
interest or how we would go about potentially reaching out to some of the legislators. >> I'm gonna email them. I'm going to send them a Oh, I'll >> Yes. >> going to text them over this weekend. I just wanted to make sure everybody was who's going to be going and I'll I'll make sure. >> Yeah. I'm definitely interested in
connecting with some of them. So, um, if I can support in any way, let me know. >> Okay. >> So, you're all going? >> The four of us are going? Yes, the four of us are going. Yeah. un on my >> that was my exact question. So I no longer have a question. >> Right. Wonderful. >> Is there is there anyone outside of the
our reps that people want to see or just >> No, I I was going to contact uh Representative Catalo, Representiel. >> Um what's the third one? Oh, Elliot Elliott. Um he Yeah, he's still there. Okay. >> Um anybody else? I mean, our senator
>> I could ask Barrett Senator Barrett. I could try to make contact with him. Okay, I'll I'll add him to the list. Yeah, that would be great. Thanks. >> All right. Any other things? >> Yep. So, as a new item, as we were going through the budget, this is something that's been on my mind for a while. I
think it would be important at some point that we review the roles under that library, media, center, just the roles themselves and going forward, how they support the curriculum.
um as we start to see more and more changes in our digital world or non-digital whatever way we're going. So I think it would be really important to at some point go through those. >> Okay. >> Right. Any s I'm going to jump on
something Susan said to us. Do you want to speak to that? Uh uh you sent us an email about the ICE policy and just >> Oh, getting more information on that. It was in the um Desi Commissioner's newsletter that
schools should review their policies on what to do if a student's parent is unable to go home be if a student is unable to go home because their parent has been detained by ICE.
That was something that the commissioner said that all schools should be reviewing. I don't know if that's something we want to add to. >> I guess we should be reviewing that. >> Yeah, we we I mean we obviously have like plans uh in place at at the different schools. It's something the
admin team has worked on. Um coincidentally, in one of our conversations with um the union, I think this is also like a union type focus also to be able to support like teachers who may have students in the class who are affected by things. We totally get that. Um, so we're actually going to be
participating in a uh an updated workshop u on Thursday afternoon of this week with um the DA's office and a b a bunch of other resources from Mass Desi to kind of get um the latest and greatest information I guess um as to
what's been happening nationally and even within Massachusetts. So I'd have more to report out after that. I want you to know that we do have response plans in effect now. However, we'll see what ends up coming up Thursday. Um, our legal team at the Superintendent
Association has provided different legal updates to us as well about what to be kind of looking for and planning for. Um, so we can incorporate some of that into uh action. Uh, and I can produce something for you at a relatively uh soon school committee meeting to just let you know like how we're going about
uh dealing with that. Um, we can get that on as a topic. >> Sounds good. >> Yeah, but it it is being worked on. I don't want you to think it's not. Well, I know we had directive from Desessie just what to do if they show up at school. So, I knew that was something that was already um
>> in our policies or within our handbooks. But >> and I think question >> other layers about just even just supporting, you know, staff and families and even if something doesn't happen, you know, these are discussions that are taking place in homes and communities. Um so, we'll get more info hopefully on
Thursday. I like the idea of the support because there's a lot of fear right >> out there as well and it's good to know how to support people who are experiencing that. >> Good. Thank you. >> Appreciate that. >> All right. Um just quick review of we
meet again next Tuesday. So because of way the vacation family so we have this meeting then we're going to meet again on the 3rd. Uh I had sent out an email where our next meeting after the 3rd is scheduled for the 17th. then we don't meet again till the 14th of April just because of how the election falls and we
can't have a meeting on an election day. So that would be a month. So one of the options that Superintendent Lang had presented to to me to send out to you is we could move it to the 24th. Um which would then kind of split us, you know, in between the 3 weeks, three weeks. Um
it should be a fairly light I know Diane might have a conflict. It should be a really really light agenda if you wanted to zoom for it. Um, we don't have to do it. I just like to space it out. I know superintendent also has a conflict on that night. So, we'd have to be in the able hands of the assistant
superintendent on that night if that was the case. So, I don't know what people's thoughts are. Um, we want to kind of move to the 24th or that second meeting to so we're not going a month between meetings. >> Um, >> we are meeting on the 31st, but that's a special meeting on AI. >> We doing a workshop on the 31st. Yes.
>> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. Right. >> Um, yeah. I mean, as you all know, that's like the one week a year I am unavailable to be here. But, um, I I will do my I can't promise that I can
attend remotely. I will do my best if that is what the group decides. Um, that said, I very likely cannot almost certainly cannot be in person on this. >> Yeah, I know. So, I sent the email like, wait, wait, that date sounds really
familiar. Yeah, we we had circulated that for the for the AI. The same reason I said no to the AI thing that night. >> Yeah. Yes. >> I remember the email, but I'm confused. We have a meeting on the 3rd. >> Correct. >> And then we have a meeting >> scheduled for the 17th >> right now for the 17th. We're talking about that
>> moving it >> 24th because space things out better because then it's quite a few more weeks before the next one. Correct. Okay. I remember >> I'm available either one. So, >> is Maria your thoughts? >> I'm fine with doing it and changing it. Um, here's my thought. I think it's a
good idea to not have almost an entire month, >> right, >> without uh having a meeting. >> I think it's very important for continuity and for touching base on what's going on and so on that we actually have that in between meeting
agree and move it to the 20 the 24th. And it's it's an election year and I think it's you know there's going to be a change uh while whatever happens uh and I think it's important that we touch base during that time
>> right so we >> if just for if we do move it to the 24th thing just so you feel a little bit better um it is going to be a light agenda there's not like huge presentations that evening um I think the presentation is our um just health and fizzed um department not a lot of
like kids or anything uh like that just more programmatic um department-based and then even like the topics on the agenda are relatively benign. That's usually the the night that we do like the school choice vote, things along those lines. So, if you did have to participate remotely of all the meetings to have to participate remotely in,
that's not a a bad one as far as um like content. Okay. So, are we okay with moving it to the 24th? >> Yes, >> I'm going to say yes. >> Great. Okay. What's >> instead of the 17th? >> 24th. >> It'll be the 24th.
>> Do you need a motion? >> Uh, do we need a formal vote to move it? >> I would. And then I can just update the >> What's more like 100? >> Why not? I move that we change the uh regularly scheduled school committee
meeting from the 17th of March to the 24th of March. >> Second. >> All right. All those in favor? >> I. Anybody opposed? >> I'll I'll abain. >> What's What's the third thing?
>> I'll abstain. >> Abstain. So, three and one abstension. >> We're going to thank Diana this. >> All right. Continuing on with schedule. So, then we have that the So, we have our meeting on the 3rd. Then we have the public forum on the 19th. Then we have
our next meeting on the 24th. Then on the 30th, we have Day Hill. That evening we're supposed to go to the select board meeting. Yeah. To vote on a Nishoba representative. >> So that's at town hall. >> At town hall six o'clock. Um usually at
the beginning it's usually quick. Um and then on the 31st is our AI workshop at 6. >> Uh last I was going to ask did we say five or did we say six? I met with them today. None of us >> think it was six. >> I think we said six. I have in my calendar six.
>> That's my question. Yeah, I just couldn't remember and I let me just double check with the committee. >> Okay, so just I want to throw out that that's a lot of March is a busy month. >> Many in many many >> also negotiations with uh >> yeah so
>> and Dr. L's birthday >> and my birthday next day >> and mine too and Joan. >> What's yours? in July. >> Second, fourth, fifth, >> March. >> Jul two, three, four, five. >> Yeah. >> And then mine's right as soon as we start April. Mind
>> the beginning of April. >> I'm not an astrology person, but that's a lot of Pisces. >> Yes. >> Aries. >> All right. Um, I don't see anybody for public comment. So, I believe that we are ready to take a motion to adjurnn.
>> I move that we adjourn. >> Second. All those in favor? >> I. >> Thank you.