##VIDEO ID:9tkujxv5ios## stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you this meeting is being live streamed by chel Tel media and posted a CPS website for interested community members to access and watch inperson public participation will be taking place tonight in accordance with the Chums school committee public participation policy anyone speaking tonight during the public input portion of this meeting has notified the superintendent's office the desire to speak and provided with these guidelines upon request written comments received no later than 12:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting also be read and made part of the record of the meeting during the second public comment session M so welcome to this meeting of the chelon school committee uh first order of business is to approve our minutes from our meeting on December 3rd I move that we approve the minutes of the regular school committee meeting of December 3rd 2024 second okay right any corrections that people have minutes okay all those in favor approval I I 5 Z right next up are our student Representatives uh Lori Tran announced chump high school students obina onua Wilson Ochi and Ken kenith Travis as the winners of the third Congressional District's annual Congressional app challenge their app ecosense was selected by judges from a pool of many submissions from middle and and high schools um who participated in this year's competition the ecosense app um provides data on nearby water stations and in animal habitats mapping Geographic coordinates to locate species across the country it tracks and Records animal cited displays water quality statistics and Compares these to the government's safety standard and The Long awaited twoe Winter break officially starts on December [Laughter] 20th um the student council is running a gifts R teen Drive collecting donated new and unused items for teenagers in our community to use and appreciate so far a total of 148 items have been donated and to add some holiday spirit to this great Act of service the plus block that had donated them or that will donate the most um items is rewarded with a holiday breakfast this Friday and then freshman Sophia Lynn was awarded first place in an art contest at the chord climate action team and the chord Public Library sponsored back in Maine her submission was called an IM imagine a world it featured a polar bear sea turtle and other living things that had been impacted by changing climate and our high school gift Club has been working closely with the Paul Center this month with the holiday holiday festival taking place this past Saturday there was a hot chocolate station face um face painting a bonfire s'mores gift wrapping and a hay ride and some popcorn in letters to Santa great thank you very much right any other good news um nothing specific but just to piggyback on what the what you just heard from the high school this just been a lot of activities at the school just leading up to the vacation week people are very excited about that so um I just it's a lot of energy that's happening a lot of spirit weeks two I'm sorry two weeks off yes even Dr Lang is very excited about what's going on um so keep keep in spirit of what's happening for this week the schools are just going to continue to have some fun they're traveling to go see concerts I know I spoke about the concerts the lot at the last meeting they're still happening actually one's happening tonight as we speak so if you can still make anything that would be great right anybody else have any good news they want to share I just want to say I wasn't able to attend any of the concerts but I've heard great things about them the people I know who went said that they were fabulous so good news for that great I it's probably come out before I just we got an email today about U Nas and the high school officially was uh granted their accreditation again for another with 10 years is it now yes it's process yeah so not surprising but it's good good news that that yes that task is done and now uh they'll continue on there's still some items that they be working on just because they'll have reviews as they go along but it's great news to know they receive their accreditation great all right anybody else okay all right um no public comment no no public comments so we'll move to new business we'll jump right in uh and tonight we're going to welcome up uh McCarthy middle school so I know we have principal uh pox and assistant principal cell brazy here with some students and staff from McCarthy as you know the first meeting of each uh month we try to highlight one of the schools and some of the work that they're doing on their school Improvement plans and uh work with students in the buildings and this month we're going to take a look at uh some of the activities happening in our seventh and eighth grades over at McCarthy so we'll let them get set up and then um they can jump in whenever they'd like and I thank everyone for coming out on the week before the break I know everyone's uh busy but it's it's great to hear what's happening so we have a a fairly sizable group here so we're going to we're going to make it work right um i' just like to start off by saying thank you for having us this is one of the things that all principles look forward to being able to do um this early in the year it's nice to see the the student reps you know Lana my good friend back from the Parker days and then Patrick's one of our rugby players at the high school so it's good to see these guys stepping up and taking on this role too it's very exciting so we appreciate it it's good to see you both just like to start off and just ask the team to to introduce themselves hi I'm Carrie calii assistant principal at McCarthy Middle School I'm Julia Ganon I'm the step counselor at McCarthy um I'm Emma Marino I'm a student rep at McCarthy I'm Addie mey and I'm also a student rep so here's just a quick look at the agenda these are the three uh areas that we'll be highlighting you tonight talking about year two of the reconfiguration and you know a little bit of an overview there um Miss gon we'll talk to us about the step program and then Addie and Emma will we'll talk about our student leadership opportunities so to start off uh we have two Primary School Improvement goals each year and our student achievement goal you can see written up on the board is in direct alignment with the Strategic plan academic goal really focusing on mathematics K to8 but for us we have you know obviously just our seventh and eighth graders at McCarthy so one of the initiatives that I wanted to highlight it's a pretty exciting opportunity that we're working through uh in partnership with the DM group I trust that you've heard that those folks before but with the DM group they have a specific program uh breakthrough results and it's a very intense 10-week cycle that we're working on primarily with our seventh and eighth grade students in our grade level math classes and what it looks like is uh the teachers got together and identified specific standards for each grade the teachers are doing ongoing progress monitoring with students again in that in those grade level classes in order to try to really kind of have help the students progress and identify in a few different areas that will that they will be seeing on mcast for the teachers part they have weekly meetings that are facilitated by a team leader so our team leader in seventh grade is Jackie hessen and in eighth grade it's Glenn Maher Glenn and Jackie both get weekly about an hour of weekly coaching with a performance coach through the DM group and then they take that skill that they're building and facilitate the discussion with their own colleagues really kind of diving into the data seeing what they want to do for the next uh part of the um initiative you know kind of changing their assessments what they're doing in classes so those grade level classes are really seeing a lot of parody with the teachers focusing and working on very very similar things um again with the hope that we'll be able to see some some um specific student progress through this 10 we cycle I think probably later on this year at some point when Katherine Richard our new mathematics Department coordinator comes she'll probably be speaking you know maybe in a little bit more detail about this but we're at about the halfway point the five-week point of this of this 10-week cycle so it's pretty um exciting to watch the teachers really come together as they're only in their second year uh working together but again the the leadership that Jackie and Glenn are giving it's it's pretty cool to watch them um you know step into it a little bit nervously in the beginning but to be able to participate in the meetings now and seeing how well they're moving is uh it's pretty fun to watch so stay tuned for more on that uh Miss calabri is going to talk to you about our second uh Improvement goal sure our second Improvement goal is um School climate and we believe this is an important goal for our school as this is our second year uh housing upper middle school students seventh and eighth graders the data points that we use to craft this School uh included staff feedback from year one as an upper middle school um we solicited feedback from our students and we also took a dive into oural Data um there are two times during the year where we survey our students um in the realm of social emotional learning and one particular data point that was important for us is the students perspective and their sense of belonging within the school Community um so we take a look at those data points and it was very important for us to craft this goal um some of the things that we're going to do to bring this goal to life this year is we're continuing a lot of the foundations that we laid down last year with our PB PBIS framework and within that framework one of the most important things we're doing is constantly teaching reteaching schoolwide expect expectations but also rewarding students on the spot when we see students unsolicited demonstrating those expectations um also we're rewarding students with pride tickets when they take those extra steps and go above and beyond that's one of our favorite things to see um and every week we have a raffle and we pull about uh 10 winners per week and uh because we use student feedback to help craft our activities we know that our teenagers in seventh and eighth grade are very much into eating so a lot of our prizes with the raffle our different food establishments in the Drum Hill area cuz we're also aware that our students like to stroll over there there after school on Friday afternoons and whatnot for a little social time so it's really worked out well and it's created quite a buzz um within the student population also we like to plan opportunities schoolwide activities for our students and staff to engage with each other outside of the academic setting um so our PBIS team typically plans a schoolwide activity every six weeks or so um and it's an opportunity for students and staff to engage and ultimate volleyball or watch a minute towie time uh type of game show we're also building our framework to bring in outside performers um for assemblies that also touch upon you know that character messaging um and goal setting messaging so that's something that's a plus as well um to bring all these things to life we wouldn't be able to do it without a lot of different people in our building um we have a fabulous group of volunteer staff members they've named themselves the bring on the fund committee um and that they have since the beginning of this year they are responsible for bringing the staff together um they have organized you know before school school early morning uh coffee meetings uh where staff can come and socialize they have organized uh staff lunches on the halfday professional development days um which has been a hug huge hit this year um and we're just coming off of one of our favorite activities that it's uh been known in our school the past few years is reindeer games uh that is a daily challenge in the days leading up to the vacation um where teachers are given a certain holiday related type Challenge and they're able to lean on students um whether it's trivia based questions or you know historical facts um things from pop culture that has to do with holidays and certainly holidays around the globe um so that's created a buzz as well and all of these things we feel are important because they just bring our community within the community together um and we know that how that important how important that is where we are in year two you know and we um did merge two staff teams and we did merge two student populations so um but this is the last year we're going to talk about the merging um one of the other things that was important for us to keep that sense of community this was a big piece of feedback that came back from our staff members and that was the teaming structure that they believe would be most beneficial and most opportunistic for staff and students in our school um so right now we have established our teaming structures so we have four teams and there are approximately 200 students on each team we have have an eight maroon and an eight white a seven maroon and a seven white and there resides 200 students on each of those teams and within those teams the 200 students are broken into an A and B cohort what our goal is is Although our campus and our building is rather large our goal is to create a small school Feld and we believe that our teaming structure this year is doing that so with the A and B cohorts with having that 200 broken down into a 100 and change on each team each of those teams has become localized with their own English language arts teacher science teacher history teacher math teacher and World Language teacher so this population of hundred and something students will rotate amongst those five teachers daily um and the teachers are able to get to know the student profiles better of course students get to know the personalities of the teachers better and that helps to strengthen our student and teacher relationships our specialists in our counseling and school Psy psychology staff they will see a bulk of the students across all teams because of the different supports and of course our service providers um we'll see a lot of those kids across teams as well so um with that being said we feel that the team the teaming is really helping us build that strong sense of community thank you [Music] um a few more things that we'd like to highlight is within the school and for those of you who have visited you know that this was a kind of a long-standing project but the vestibule is done in the main lobby area it's been working great the whole I guess quote unquote storefront of the building has been updated and upgraded so all new doors uh the new accessible ramp that goes up the entire walkway it really really it really looks sharp and uh you know credit to our parents getting used to the vestibule kind of check in knowing exactly where the door is you know we don't have a big sign like the high school door 44 but it's pretty easy Once the people come up and and really kind of get the hang of it um and you know also kudos to our staff who have been you know Manning that area and making sure that people are checking in appropriately it's really user friendly and it's a again a much needed security measure for our school and even within the lobby the whole area was cleaned and painted over the summer the floor was cleaned very well the walls were painted uh the stairs which were maroon before are now like a a gray color the entire place is just so so much brighter and more inviting you know quite honestly so we're really excited about that um and and it just looks great and we went a few days with no front doors but everyone rolled with it and it was a little chilly but everyone dealt with it and then here we are with with a brand new front of the school and it looks great so it was well worth the uh well worth the weight um and then as far as a few staff additions so uh officer lindstad is a new SRO this year he's been on the police force for several years but he's new to us officer Rus who transferred up to the high school so David lindstad took over for for her if you haven't seen him yet when you come into the building you will not miss him because he's 6 fo8 and which is not a bad presence to have in a middle school so D but he's just a a great young guy and and he's been doing a good job getting interacting with the kids and things so we're excited about that we've had a lot of new teachers we've hired this year in a few of our core subject areas some special Educators some of our parent Educators and even AIDS in the lunchroom so you know again with the staffs coming together we really have been able to continue to bring in new teammates um who have who have been great additions to the school so we're very excited to have that continue but within you know these new programs and and staff coming um one of the ones that we're most excited about and that's why we asked Mrs Ganon to come and talk to us tonight so I was fortunate to work with Julia over at Parker for a few years she was um hired as a social worker and once we had the opportunity we St no we didn't steal her back but it just worked out for us that she was able to come into this new position so this new program um and again having Julia join our team has been awesome so she's going to talk to us a little bit about the step program at McCarthy so the step program um has been at the high school for at least 10 years at this point uh it's modeled after what's the called the bright program program which had started at Brookline High School in 2003 and that was a combination with Brookline High School and the Brookline Community Health Center um and it was responding to a need of students who were um having long absences mostly due to mental health but also could be physical health uh and then trying to return to school and really struggling to get back into the school building and the school day um so in general this program Services sort of chose types of students now so we support students who are coming back to school after an EXT Ed absence um again due to mental or physical health it could be a hospitalization it could be a surgery it could be a concussion or an illness um and then the other type of students we support are those who are sort of in a general crisis so it could be um attendance challenges academic challenges mental health usually it's a combination of all of those um and so we the counselors are the ones typically that refer a student they let me know about that um and we enter the student into the program um and we start supporting them um we reach out to their families as well and have a meeting about that um one of the the best things about the step program is that it's open the classroom is open all day every single day so um unlike the school counselors who are so busy all day long trying to see every single student on their case load or um you know those High hitters we are able to support um our students all day long so whether it's um they come in in the morning and they need support right away or they're coming in um in the middle of the day or they're going to some classes but then not able to go to some other ones we're always available so we're always there for them um and with each student we're creating a very flexible very individual plan so a student might come in one day and be able to go to every single class a student might come in the next day and only be able to go to one class or two classes or only be able to go to lunch um and so each day we're just sort of trying to figure out what exactly is going to work for that student um typically students are using the program it's meant to be short-term temporary so they're typically use using it for anywhere from about four to 12 weeks um again some students might use it for less time some students might use it for a longer time um but we're hoping with each student to get to a point of exiting them and at that point that would mean that they're no longer needing to use the step program because they're going to all of their classes they're coming in regularly for school they're mostly are all caught up with their missing work um and at that point we would determine that they're able to exit from step um in terms of the staff within the room so I'm the counselor there and then we also are very lucky to have a full-time intern um Courtney Morgan through the marach fellowship um and that's been an amazing support um for our students as well and she's there every single day for the whole day which is amazing um and so McCarthy um specifically this program so so far we've already been able to support actually this the um slide says eight but we actually have one more this week so nine um since September and um that's been amazing with it being a brand new program and we're not even halfway through the year and just to give a little perspective to that so the high school has had their program again for over 10 years and they're right around 14 students for the year um so just kind of giving a little perspective to that number of nine um so this slide just kind of you know really explains exactly how we're supporting every single student so we're supporting them completely with their academics with their social emotional um working with families whether it's um for outside supports for uh outside counseling or any sort of programs that the student might need outside of school whether it's a hospitalization type of program um we're working with staff all day long on terms of catching students up with assignments um letting staff know if a student is not going to make it to class what the plan is for the day um we're working with students sometimes on actually completing the classwork um so a student who is in our room and is just totally struggling even with starting an assignment we might be sitting down with them and starting the assignment um and we're providing regular counseling I I typically meet with every student at least once a week for counseling um but often it ends up being more than that um for whatever types of needs they might have um and we're reaching out to families again it depends on the student it could be some families it's every single day we're talking with their family other students it might be just once a week kind of a touching paase with the family um but it's to it's sely sort of a fully wraparound type of support system um we're also collaborating all the time with the counselors and the psychologists um because once a student does exit from the program we're making sure that they do have some sort of support system within the school um who would then be their main person that they would be going to um once they exit from step and that's really it excellent thank so this next picture as I introduce our student uh student reps who are going to be talking to us tonight the picture on the left is uh Addie and she worked on this art project this was one of the kind of first things we did two summers ago when I went to McCarthy when you walk down the hallway towards the cafeteria which everybody does throughout the course of the day there's this Bright Beautiful mural now that that Addie really kind of um ran the group so the other two students um Amelia and Isa helped her but Addie was really the driving force behind behind getting that done she did a wonderful job and then the picture on the right is Emma from the one of the conferences that you'll hear a little bit about where over 300 middle school students from all over New England and they needed a volunteer and Emma had the courage to go up and facilitate a game in front of all of these people so it kind of gives you a little bit of uh how talented and brave and confident the students are and we wanted to bring these two to to have them share some um some ideas with you tonight hi thank you for having m& we can't wait to tell you about McCarthy leadership McCarthy student leadership is a group of students selected by McCarthy teachers or nominated by previous 8th grade student leaders we have meetings every few weeks to talk about fun activities for our school or things we should change we also go on trips to help us become better student leaders all right so to talk about the trips um part of student leadership is attending leadership workshops so we've been to three um over the course of two years we went to one last year um kind of just like to introduce us about like being in the group and like what it means to be a leader and then this year we went to one at snhu yeah we went to one at snhu which was a lot of fun we learned a lot and we met a lot of new people and we also um had a talk with Mrs McKinnon and she um taught us what it's like to kind of be in here and yeah so it was a strategy meeting just read so um we learn a ton and thanks to Dr Parks we've gotten to do all this fun stuff so yeah um so another aspect of being a student leader is giving tours so we've do guided tours for upcoming seventh graders and show them where their classes are and we also like tell them how the school is structured and where they need to go to get to their grade level or to their Specialists um we also pass out schedules and walk around the school helping parents during school orientation and like it's u a stack of papers just with names and you have to flip through the names hand out the paper and then lot of people don't really know where they're going so you have to walk them to their class and then do it all again all right another big thing that we help out with is Project 300 so normally in the January um our like early winter type area um we do we do a huge can drive called project 300 and we ask McCarthy students and teachers to donate as many cans as they can um and then we take these cans and we bring them to the Salvation Army and it's run by one of our eighth grade teachers Mr Gallagher and we play a big part of it because not only do we carry the cans everywhere but um we also like try and get the school like excited about it and make them want to donate cans we also do get to skip classes to um take the cans around but that's not that's not important the important thing is is the important thing is is that we're helping people which is really what we like to do as student leaders um so our group has meetings typically at 7:30 on Thursdays um and we meet every few weeks to plan fun activities for our schools I I mean school um we also discuss things in our school that we can improve or issues that are going on yeah for example our Field Day this year it had to go a little bit different than it has in the past because of a double amount of kids so it turned into a week-long Olympic event where there wasn't just physical events there were also mental events and like like the knowledge Bowl was a big hit because it pulled another group of students that normally wouldn't participate in um physical challenges and we've also brainstorm ideas for all those activities and spirit weeks um another thing we do are Pep rallies like where we get everybody in the gym like minute to Wi it in Ultimate volleyball like they said and it's just a lot of fun it brings our school together and it makes us feel proud that like we're having an impact on our school and yeah that's really it yeah yeah thank you thank you both this last image is all the students who uh who attended that conference with four of our staff members as well so thank you thank you again for having us but we'd love to you know entertain any questions that you might have John I would love to hear more about the tours what can we hear about the tours that you guys get like what's the craziest thing that's happened on a tour is it for the kids is it for parents like who are the tours for typically parents are the only ones that go to the tours students are typically at home um but the craziest thing is probably was probably when like we'd have the same parent coming up to us asking where the class like the one class was or over and over again when we've like walked them down there and walked them back again definitely a dad all right that's cool no thank you for doing the work and um School leadership is really important and the fact you have an opportunity to help your classmates and to give back to the the whole community that that you've gone to school with all these years is really important so thank you anybody else Maria go ahead you had your I had told uh this body about when we came to meting the rest here um I'm on the town's strategic plan steering committee and we just trying to gather input from any residents in town about things the town does well things the town needs to work harder on all kinds of ideas about how the town runs and I talk to the kids about kind of how the government of our town works and how their input was going to fit in with what we're trying to do and I was so impressed with the maturity with the um integrity and how they tackled the discussion um and really hit upon the same kinds of things the adults in the community were hitting upon that you recognize what the needs and the challenges in town are and where articulate where you wanted the town to go and it was just so helpful and I was really really impressed I want all of you to know that as I said to this group the future is bright I really felt that you've got a great team of students here who really are ready to be leaders and I really appreciated when you reached out to see if we could get some eighth graders to do it because it shows like some some confidence in this age group right and clearly like a high school would be a natural fit but to tie in you know some 13 to 14 year olds and asked them what their opinion was and I think they appreciated it um we had a nice you know nice walk over we stopped at the Veterans Park and talked about what that is for a little bit it was just kind of a cool field trip but the work that they were doing I agree with you was was pretty impressive the different small groups they were into it and they they gave good feedback and they were they were focused which was great so next month the group we're working with is going to be kind of ready to compile what this strategic plan is going to look like and I'd love to come to one of your meetings I can come during the school day and let you know what this is going to look like for the town just to kind of see where all your feedback went I'd love to come course about the step program so you mentioned some numbers I think 14 students are participating this year right at the high school at the high school yeah and then we've had nine so far this year and you've had nine how about this is the first year we have this full program at McCarthy yes you really don't have a sense of comparison yet from year to year now year to year how about at the high school do you know what those numbers are is it they do and I think that um when I had met with them a couple weeks ago they said they were right around where they were last year same number um I'm not sure they actually they would have the exact data cuz they're really good at keeping that information um and I think sometimes it it can range a little bit year to year but I think in general they've um had around the same numbers every single year well I think it's an incredible program because it is so important to keep folks uh going and and really committed to you know continuing with their schooling and being engaged then by the same token congratulations to the students uh it's really wonderful to see the leadership um good for you too each one of you individually wow and I'm looking at Colleen's daughter here wow hi because uh I remember when you were very little and it's really really wonderful to see um what what you're doing now as students at this age and then what you'll be able to do as you move forward which is really wonderful can I follow just follow up on Maria's question just of the nine so are nine students currently enrolled or have you had nine over the year have you ever have you had people transition out not have to so it's been nine as of the start of the year so currently we have six okay we've had three that transitioned out and we have two more that um are on the path to transition out at by the end of January that's great thank you I'm sorry go ahead please so another thing that that this does is it ensures that those students who need the additional support uh get it and it takes a little bit of relief or gives a little bit of relief to our other three counselors who have massive case loads right so they're not only responsible for you know their portion of the alphabet which is how we have it divided up in addition to these students who you know really struggling to come in and those type of things so it gives Julia the ability to focus on the students who need a tremendous amount of support while the counselors can um you know can manage their daily case loads so it provides a lot of Rel in that way too um I two things one um is around the step program um thank you for speaking about it um it sounds really great I love the case management with um I'm curious if so you mentioned some of the student populations that whose needs it's meeting is it do is it targeting potentially like s student students who have unstable housing environments um who might experience homelessness as well or is that not as so it could include those students but it's not necessarily specifically focusing on those students um however if there was a student in a situation where um in addition to being homeless they were also having trouble getting to school every day their grades were really poor they were struggling with their mental health that could be a contributing fact the homelessness could be a factor that would contribute to these other things that would then impact their um eligibility for Stu specifically targeting EX do you have like what do you see as the capacity of the program so right now you have six students over the course of the Year there have been nine what do you see as like the The Sweet Spot or the Target so I believe at the high school and they have say they have a full-time counselor and a full-time teacher within their program I believe they said their sweet spot is 15 um and that means that they're able to meet the entire needs of those students so I would say um we have six right now would think maybe like 10ish would be like totally ideal where we could really right exactly where we could really meet um make sure that we're meeting those students needs while also serving as many students as possible um I know they've had more than the 15 and that's been really overwhelming up at the high school where they're they've kind of felt like they're not actually completely meeting the needs of all of those students um it also depends a little bit on the student like the population of the students because um we might have a student who's taking up our entire day right where is there might be another student who's only using us to get into the building and then once they're in the building they're pretty set for the rest of the day um so it kind of depends too on on that piece of it thank you I also have a question for uh the two students joining us um you are you're both an eth right yes um so you are you will be the first class to have sort of all been at McCarthy for seventh and eth grade and I imagine in your role of student leaders you talking to a lot of your fears all the time so I'm curious are you what do you hear uh generally or or you could just talk about your own feelings about how the transition has gone to all being under one roof across the whole um we've definitely heard like a lot of positives definitely being able to like reunite with some people like cuz I know a lot of people play sports and with the two different schools it's kind of hard to like talk really about like what's happening at your school cuz two different things are happening at the different times so definitely being able to like all be on the same page is definitely a big plus to having the schools combined um making friends bringing everybody together is also a big thing where that people have enjoyed um but yeah um so I did um five and six at Parker and then I switched seven and eight to McCarthy and I honestly I really liked it because I did meet a lot of people through like basketball and stuff some of them being like Emma and it was really nice to um like actually like have classes with those people and like actually be seeing them throughout the week and not just on weekends and stuff like that thank you um in the same vein I I was thinking of that in terms of this is your second year um you know with the seventh and eighth graders and this the what you discussed about making having the small school field is that something that you wanted to do because you saw the need for it at this particular age level or is there a correlation between the two so last year we had um know four different teams but the way it was structured is that within each team the students could have had any combination so there were two math two science two Ela Etc and the kids could have any com combination of those teachers which was good for the flexibility to bring the students together we had a bigger team so the teachers were kind of out of that just four or five team feel and they were you know essentially automatically networking with people from the other building and and that was the goal you know right out of the gate and then throughout last year um you know Gathering some feedback and really looking at it from the counselor standpoint and from the standpoint of some kids um just you know potentially getting lost in the shuffle because they didn't have the same teachers looking after them that we wanted to shift and and do that intentionally uh it allows the counselors to have a little more focused meetings where they can go and meet with five teachers and they know they're all talking about the same kids whereas before there were 10 teachers and only half of them had the student they were worried about or talking about or supporting or whatever the case was so it does within the cohorts and I'm you know you two could feel free to kind of let me know how what you think about it as well but within the cohorts it does give us a little bit of an opportunity to to keep better track of of student progress you know academically emotionally socially you name it well one of the Strategic PL goals is definitely to uh see greater connection between uh adults in in the buildings and and in each student and to see to track that and to make sure that there is relationships being built so this seems to uh be part of that and and work towards that end which is great do you guys feel that it is a better way you see people more I like it because um last year was kind of like a hassle to find people that you shared a teacher with to like have if you like need help on assignment but like this year I know like the people if I have math with someone I know that all my other subjects we share the same teacher so I know that if I'm like struggling on an assignment they can like help me like I know that I can just like they're in one of my classes they have all my classes like that type of thing that's good um I feel like I can more like bond with my teachers more instead of having to worry about bouncing between like different teachers um I just feel like that there's more of like a close-knit type of thing that like they're all like kind of in like the same like General like area and like they all have the same people like also kind of what Addie said um it's EAS easier to find people that can help me and that I can like connect with like academically which is probably a bit which is a big thing because last year it was kind of hard to do that yeah that transition from sixth to seventh grade in the academics is not that easy so maybe this makes it a bit uh better uh glad to see this so thank you in in addition it's also helping uh cohort of students students that are new to chelsford public schools for the very first time that have never attended any of the four elementaries or went to Parker for 56 um so that localization of the staff teaming has certainly helped with new students to chelsford also students that come in after the school year has started um and that's a very very hard transition because remember we're seventh and eth and especially for 8th grade year um and we seem to have a a cohort of kids that have come in eth grade so to to welcome them into the district into the school and then just have them you know we want the transition to be as smooth as possible for these students and that is something that we were able to gain by ret teaming and structuring the way that we have so it also helps the more transitory populations like the El students and so on absolutely that's fantastic y really fantastic great anybody else one question question about the step program you said you don't have a dedicated teacher right so I for those kids who really just can't manage going to class how do you provide their direct instruction and do you for the need to have a fulltime teacher so the teachers are really good about posting I would say almost every teacher is posting an agenda every day of what they're doing in the class um on Google classroom and they're posting the whether it's a video or a reading or an assignment everything again for every teacher is posted there um so typically if a student is not going to a class I'll call down or I'll go down to the teacher and I'll let them know the student is not going to your class today what can they work on during that class time um so that at least keeps the student doing the work um the actual teaching of it I've learned a lot of math this year I've done a lot of Googling of how to do different types of math but yeah I would say that is a challenge at times for students um if they are missing say a week of math class um making sure that they're still learning the material can be difficult um I think in terms of adding a staff member that's not up to me but um it potentially I guess I think it depends on numbers and sort of what the need ends up being I think the high school started in a similar way where they had a um a lead counselor or a lead social worker and then a parah who was assigned to them similar to how we're kind of structuring it now and then over time they grew so I think we just need to to watch and see how this program continues to develop but it's clear that there was a need for it so we're happy that that was support it's very important for the school and we've even I've had teachers um in their during their prep periods come down to work with students individually to catch them up on a math um concept or an Ela thing so I I do work really closely with the teachers or I'll send the student down to their class during the prep time so um we make it work yeah mhm okay anything else right well thank you all for coming that was great thank you [Music] enjoy yeah I do have to say the the week or two leading up to the holidays it's one thing after another after another it is and and Souza mentioned earlier the the bands if you miss them they were all posted online because I've seen a couple of them just play so uh the kids are doing a great job but thank you everyone for presenting tonight good to see holiday have a good holiday vacation Jo you two weeks off yeah I'll see you soon yes I'm I'm in theen Just J thanks thank you good night holidays could just okay we good yep all right um moving on to the second item on the agenda tonight I'm going to welcome um Chris Haley who is the sustainability um manager or coordinator manager for the uh Town's DPW department and he has some information to share with us regarding um um electric vehicle policies and a decarbonization road map that the town is working on um that has implications townwide but obviously also on schools as well and um some of the different uh programs that they've been working on potentially open up different funding sources and things like that in the years to come um so Chris has some information in your packet tonight he's here just to kind of walk us through a little bit and uh I will turn it over to question awesome everybody uh so the first thing we'll go over is the EV first policy um it's pretty straightforward it goes off of our current policy already that the town has which is just a you know it's more fuel efficient first kind of policy so it's it's changing that a little bit more detail um requirements for this program which is called the climate leader program now this program is is a step two from the green communities that most of every town in Massachusetts is already part of gives us access to a ton of funding uh that pool has shrunk very small because every town is now on or is a grean community and so funding is just not there little projects here 50,000 100,000 the clim leader program which is what we're trying to get to is $60 million in Grants and the pool right now would is eight um not including us if we do happen to get into it by the deadline uh of December 31st so the EV first policy is one step doesn't really affect the schools too much there only two vehicles currently that it affects U both under 7500 lbs because this is only uh light duty Vehicles buses are included trucks AR included small SUVs cars is about all it does doesn't really affect you guys too much but is a requirement for the climate leader program just on the vehicle piece um when I looked at that and I even looked at the road map yeah there were um four vehicles that were identified by the school department the school department doesn't have a ton of vehicles but there were four that were originally um identified for when they do get replaced to look at electric Alternatives first and go down this kind of higher it's a step process yeah um the two buses that are on there um number one are over the weight limit so they actually wouldn't fall under the the lightweight policy and you know at the time when they going to be replaced if there was ever an electric equivalent or hybrid or whatnot it certainly could be looked at but those two really don't fall into the policy the only two of our vehicles that do is we have a facility truck and a food service truck that just travel around the town doing uh different things so under this policy if and when those were to be replaced um the requirement would be that we look to try to do something again electric first um and yeah it's electric first it is plug in Hybrid next regular hybrid after that and then a alternative fuel vehicle before you head to back to a combustion engine and can you just touch on because I know you mentioned me but it is like cost Effectiveness does need to can come into play oh absolutely and also like ability uh because some of the stuff I assume is going to take some build out so correct there there's a couple things in factor for you guys one is if you know it comes up you're going to replace it you know cost is definitely up there it has to be cost effective for you yes this program will allow grants to help with that um and probably make it cheaper than a gas alternative uh second it is you know going to be something where you guys have to worry about charging your vehicles you don't have a huge Network at the schools so that would be something that has to take in play and if you don't have a network in place at the time it doesn't make sense to have that and it's got to be able to do what you needs it needs to be able to go a certain time and distance and if it needs to travel a lot for something like those are all factors that can play into that yeah it is not something you set in stone it's just that you look at it first so it's sort of a decisionmaking protocol of sorts that prioritizes electric vehicles correct are we going to talk about EV charges in the town too we can yeah if you want to I'm just curious one of the well I know there's a lot of these um Federal rebates are probably going to end pretty soon right i' so I'm way ahead of it yeah iig I've already I got a approve for $2.4 million of superchargers you'll see them I'm in the middle of it now awesome it's just in National Grids hands which is which is a whole yeah that's I'm a homeowner I understand that yeah yeah um but no that's great to year I just I I am hoping to just see more EV Chargers out there I know the some at the high school and I've used them there they're really good yeah they're out there but we we have a lot of level twos I have two superchargers at The Forum right now yep uh the 2.4 million I got is five locations six superchargers each awesome so we'll have plenty of network here in town for residents to use um stuff for the schools would probably be Fleet Focus and only Fleet that makes sense yeah I love I have an EV now so I'm a big fan okay it's actually changed my life like it's really much different when you own an Eevee and like I'm super glad we're supporting it uh I think the carbon impact of those cars is just much lower I am I'm a big fan yeah and that's a part of this clim leader program yeah not necessarily part of this presentation I'm more just curious so like when Town departments even adopt the um electric vehicles and things like that yeah is there a different charging scenario for them like if we will we eventually get to some point where we'd have like a charging station say at the school department or at McCarthy or something like that where you would be able to charge the vehicles well how do individual Town departments do that now uh so right now everything that we have because the grants have focused on public charging and infrastructure yeah um all the things we have are shared units so everyone public and and Fleet use the same Chargers and share it everyone has access to them in town um right now DPW has a handful we have four currently electric vehicles at DPW they use the charging stations that we have there level two public access to so it can it hasn't been a point where they have issues getting charged yeah you know but they're only going in around town so they never really have an issue those type of stations eventually going to be like added in more locations around town right so that's what I'm doing with the superchargers because they're faster and a lot of people just charge at home honestly the public charge at home but when they're out on the r in the weekends fast Chargers are just so much Ed my my superchargers that we do have currently are occupied almost 247 on the weekends yeah again just out of curiosity how quick does a car charge on a supercharger or whatever it will depend on if the vehicle can accept it the rate in which the vehicle can accept speed but anywhere really from 25 to 45 minutes to like 80% which is recommended to be up there really y yeah I bring I have a book at my car yeah it all depends charge at home I do I charge at home too yeah I do yeah I'm just curious thanks yeah of course don't yeah but most people at home don't have like the super speed no I understand that no but most of the time you're parked right charge part over night yeah any any questions regarding the EV first policy if you guys had a chance to look I love it I think it's a great policy I don't have any questions no notes thanks for securing the money too oh yeah of course I looked at the policy at home I don't have any questions I I mean I guess my concern is if you're asking us to approve a policy tonight I don't know if that yeah is something we could do in one night session normally if we have a policy that we want to look at we take some time look at the policy talk to MC which is our governing body have our lawyer look at over just to make sure you know and I don't think there's anything controversial in it but just our procedure is not normally to just take one look at a policy say you know thumbs up thumbs down so you know I I definitely think it's something we we could consider but I don't know if we'll be able to act on it tonight yeah so this just needs to be done by December 31st to get access um another meeting yeah we don't currently have another meeting I understand that yeah and um I do know the select board meeting is on the 23rd uh they are going to have this on their agenda as well this will be their second time after they had some wording they want to changed right I guess chances are they'll approve that had a time to look at it and and ask for some wording and is the wording in even in the policy you have in front of us or we don't know what the wording is yet oh yeah the policy for you guys is complete well no but there oh no that wording is different no okay so that's what I mean like I think it's a different it's a different policy uh CH minor changes to for you guys specifically the other ones have police and fire and some other specific Stu well I guess that's my concern whether there something we want to do in you know a first look at something like So within this document is the actual warning of the policy itself you're you're looking at the road map yeah it's at theend towards the end the end the policy is on I think it's the last two pages page 3 55 if you're looking at given the timeline though I mean they're extraordinary I don't know if this is extraordinary like and nothing has gone fire but um we don't where we don't have another meeting maybe it makes sense to talk about it today I don't know if the town needs it by the 31st the town needs it right it just you're just going to miss out in the first route of funding right you can still reapply you want to wait till right so what happens is we we'd have to reapply at the end of June um at that point in time a lot of other towns will be adopted and because it is a very competitive program right now we we have ch like a very high chance to succeed with these grants uh if we wait our chance is drastically reduced I I really say we could I think we could come out of our shell here and talk about it we could discuss yeah I I would like to discuss it even if it meant postponing a vote to do something asynchronous ly or not asyn remotely or something but I would hate to have our I wish we had gotten this earlier but I would hate to have our lack of approval be the one thing that stops us from being able to be in a less competitive pool that could potentially open up a lot of funds given considering some of the things we're dealing with next year too like money is always good to come into the so that I guess my next point so is there anything else you're going to ask us to approve tonight that would be the decarbonization road map and that's I guess where my concern would be that there's lot more to this than just this policy on EV and I think that that's a much deeper deeper topic that we need to really look at I don't know if that's something we can do you know over the you know with a Christmas holiday coming up you know I I think this is definitely going to be something we're going to have to spend some time on and I guess that's my concern you know um the EV policy I get it we have two cars it's not a big deal but if we're looking at that bigger picture of you know if you have a building we got to try to do this and this and this and there's a lot of things that could impact funding of of projects and future project we have a building coming up online I can speak to this road map is a lot more it looks a lot more than it actually is so I can explain what the intention behind this and what adopting it actually means for the school yeah let's do that that's a good idea so if you guys are ready to move on that don't have any questions for the policy I can certainly speak to that yeah let's do that yeah you guys can that yeah I I'd like to hear about again my concerns is there's a lot to digest and sure I don't know if we have the time to do that but so this road map is all it is it is a guideline how to get to Net Zero by 2050 it is only a guideline that we do not have to follow we do not have to get the things on this list it is in good faith that we consider the options when we are going to replace certain things roofs solar panels boilers anything that has any sort of fossil fuel that can be replaced with something non fossil fuel or full Electric in this case it gives guidelines this thing has to be updated every 3 years um by myself when new technology changes when we do projects um even if it requires me to replace a gas with another gas on that list that is what it is and it is something that we're going to have to go out to bid for everything anyway we're going to have to find out if it's competitive when we go out to bid for the price differences and that if we do have access to this climate leader program and we're budging out for the future I would apply for Grants using that to find out if reducing the cost of the full electric stuff is feasible with the grants uh there's no commitment at all regarding either of these policies financially these are just one's a guideline and others best practices so this is ultimately the question I have is I didn't see that there was a cost to us in this policy there isn't there isn't so all we're doing is we're accepting and I agree with you Dennis I do think that um this is extensive it was a lot of reading to do in you know a very short period of time and to understand what the uh whole concept is here this would have been back to us sooner if we had it yeah it took a while to create this get it I'm not blaming anyone I'm just saying that I I think in the end of it after I got through it was to think that really truly it doesn't appear to have a cost right that we are voting on for us but it might have a big benefit in terms of getting uh you know us to another level correct um and we're the schools which essentially this is why I would like this because i' like my children and grandchildren to live and uh you know this decarbonization is is an important thing so I felt that you know even though I agree 100% it's not something I would like to do just immediately vote on something that's just thrown in front of me I just think in the end because it doesn't have that cost impact to us and does have the benefit and has this deadline and we don't meet again I'm leaning more towards going with an acceptance of it I'm on the same vote I feel the same okay can I just a couple when I read the um deconz uh map like three of the buildings the big buildings that come up with a high school Park marthy so one of the questions I had for Chris was you know let's just say the maccarthy because the capital Committee just approved new boilers for the school right $6 to $700,000 something like that to replace but like boilers so we have natural gas boilers now so we'll be putting natural gas boilers in I said you know can you kind of walk me through what we would have to do because there was verbiage in the plan that basically talked about Wells and like alternate uh fuels and things but like can you just use that as an example of under the plan the expectation would be what it really means yeah so with what we got going already that's all been approved and you're already going forward with those projects correct right you guys are in well we'll go in a town meeting in April correct and then if that gets approved then yes then it would go go forward right and then they'll go through that pis I mean same thing you're going to send out quotes you know you're just going to ask for additional quote for you know for a full electric change over you can't really do geothermal with the existing buildings it's just it'll never be cost effective unless you're doing a brand new building it's it's too expensive but there's other things you can Electrify there's doing that there's you know stuff in other stuff but the boilers itself it will have to come but it will not affect that project so it just adds potentially a step to the process of explicit you just ask for you ask for different for the quotes you just ask for natural gas and ask for electric option yeah it sounds like you said it's good faith you have to look at it and then we would go back to you and say hey there's this geothermal option is this expensive yeah it's too expensive but maybe there's a grant right I was going to say the things that look too expensive on paper now may become affordable if there's explicit grants that explicitly could support them let's say as we're looking at a new school project where it might be something we could consider I guess it's a concern we are looking at a new school project yeah yeah it's not I mean but it's still not committing to the the way in which we would spend it's just committing to a process you may have groups come in and say listen you say you've got to do this I mean that's going to always happen anyway I think we do do it we're we're going to have Clean Energy Group will probably have comments on something like that specifically um you know where they ask why wasn't it considered but if we have it considered with all of our details on pricing and can explain that that's what it's there for question so on yeah go so ju now I lost the question you go I forgot the question was quick no I had a question I forgot it go ahead my I I'd like to understand the concern though your your concern is that um with the new building projects okay we are going to have to take do we have to commit to your okay so let's say something comes back and and you say it costs 50,000 and we have another thing that costs 25,000 and ours takes two days to get going and yours takes a 100 days to get going and we choose ours does is there does this put us stuck on any choice in any particular I mean it's going to be normal procurement rules and and stuff you're going to go with yeah yeah you're nothing's going to change you're just looking at adding an option instead of just going out and you're bidding a design scope of a project and you're like I want a replacement of this you're going to say I want a direct replace of this and I also want its electric it's electric alternative and there's a lot of steps to get full electric that's not just getting an electric boiler you have to make sure the network in here you got to have a studies an engineering background on it you got to make sure that your switch gear can handle the load for there's a lot that goes into it yeah um that has to be considered and that's just a step in the process so it's just a step that we would have to explicitly ask for those alternative options to be laid out for us it doesn't mean we would be required to select correct and then the grant itself would you look at options within the grants um with what the different programs they have and where it can be used and you're going to I'm going to submit it and see if they're going to how much they would give us for it and if it ends up helping with that project great if it doesn't then we go with okay have to ask for the alternative once we adopt this this guideline when we when the yes in the DPW we will put that in there as you know we'd like a quote for that as well it doesn't cost a lot to get a quote no no there won't be additional cost I guess we're we're committing to a program we're saying okay we're in this program this is what we're and now we go on the line say and we say no we're not going to do that electric we're not going to do that one because I don't know you know I I just that's where I'm uncomfort with it I'm just uncomfortable with like yeah you know we're saying yes we're we're part of this program and we're going to commit to doing this stuff but then you know we want money give us that grant money oh by the way we're not going to do all of that stuff well let's take the grant money away I don't know I we still we still have to apply for the grant stuff I know I'm just it's I'm just saying I don't know I'm nothing a lot to digest and I'm not comfortable doing it I don't I don't feel so I a quick question I had though is so we're doing msba processes on roofs on schools and all these other things Mt msba and these other building projects must be looking at their they must have their own set of rules around you know reusab re uh about procurement of the project not procurement but they must have their own environmental standards that they have to apply to their projects right wouldn't those kind of coincide with what the state's goals are probably not actually I don't know enough to speak about it they what they do is they sometimes give you like in the um Point scheme like when you when you get to schematic design and you weigh options sometimes you'll get like a bonus points almost or like additional percentage if you do something that's maybe going to be clean like I haven't gotten to that level yet because we're not Bay yet but what you'd have to do is go through the whole process to figure out you know what what a traditional um gas system look like in this I assume like you know if we I doing the new school someone is going to bring up geothermal and like what would that actually cost and you know is the cost that much um can it be negated by a grant if it can't you know what is the payoff if you do it ultimately it's going to come down to the town needing to vote to support something you know you it is going to muddy the waters a little bit as far as having like alternate ways of of looking at things um that would be my only concern I mean one thing that the committee could do just is something to think about like obviously this deserves I think more discussion and attention to things the select board um they was presented to them he made some revisions going back to them next week with the EV first policy they're they're seeing that you're actually seeing the de car's road map before they are okay so they haven't even seen this part of it it's yeah side un scen well no they've seen it before and I and I've talked to them and I've spoke with them like they just I just sent it to them today but I have spoke with them already about the expectations what it actually means for commitment for the town and it's and it's exactly the same for you guys it doesn't change anything we we do still have two weeks before the end of the year and there's nothing stopping us from having a single item on an agenda if that was the will of the committee before December 30 for us to give you enough time after the select board votes to give you enough time to do it we could even do a remote meeting still under the public uh meeting law you could have a quick meeting after you've had time to digest this maybe even oneon-one ask your questions with absolutely you reach out to me at any point time and then bring that forward if that was the wish of the group so you didn't have to act on it tonight you're not totally closing the window by the 31st um I'm okay with just doing it working on it tonight I I feel like it's it's 7 o'clock it's not like it's if it's non-binding and we've had these this packet for a while I mean it's non-binding and we did something like this with the green communities this is the same exact when we had to do the green communities program it's the same exact thing this is just the next step we had to commit to making you know changes towards uh solar panels we had to make stuff towards electric cars um there was other stuff for the green communities that we specifically to do LED lights that we had to commit to then I think this is the first time the school is being asked to also adopt it but this is this is just a step two of the same program that already exists right yeah and I think the the the biggest probably I'm not speaking for the committee but the biggest possible concern is the um the new school building project and what are the implications potentially for that and um again Pros cons signing on this this has no implications on that project I mean we we do need to we should as a town everyone look at all options for making a new building whether they are full EV geothermal uh just heat pumps or you know back to a traditional stuff but right I was going to say I would Advocate no matter what we signed or didn't sign in this process for us considering all options for the new school I think the advantage of signing on to this is that that could potentially open us up to potential funding to support some of those decisions that we may not get if we don't get this certification as a town and kind of my my point is here either we sign it or we don't get it we don't get in early right and for me I think it's more important for the town I don't think this is a very high-risk item and I think for the town it's a very high reward item that if we don't I just think it makes sense to get it done now and not to start throwing we can just work on it and the only other towns we' be competing with is Arlington in Lexington well getting back to your point you said there's no implication of the building proct but we don't know that and you know if we had another week and a half what maybe we can contact msba just see you know we're we're thinking about getting this program is this going to impact you know how we get funded what we can fund you know I I don't you know that's I guess that's my my main I like I mean I like the idea don't get me wrong I'm all for the idea I just think that we need to take a little bit more time to make sure we cross all our te's and Dot all our eyes that's that's all I'm saying and we have these two weeks and we could do one agenda item yeah we could we need to so I my two concerns is a policy that's not in bonding seems to me like it's not really a policy I do worry about that a little bit but I also understand the need to not lose the ability to get these grants I get that and the goal of course I would hope all of us believe that eliminating fossil fuels as much as we can is is the is a goal but I'm also a little bit worried that there's nothing in here to include how do we deal with things that just become cost prohibitive that we know that they are you just don't buy it yeah it doesn't commit it goes through the same procurement rules everything is the same except we're saying we're going to try really hard to put electric stuff in as long as that's what it really says is that we're going to try really hard you don't know if it really says it until we have time to look it over that's what does it really look it over that may just because that's our goal we don't if it's cost prohibitive then we can't do it then we okay then we don't do it like we wouldn't do it now like if it was cost prohibitive this document has nothing to do with what we're going to do in msba in three years how do you know because we're going to look at all of the options we're going to look at the elect we're going to look at geotherm we're going to look at heat pumps all those things are required to be looked at anyway this is literally just telling us hey we're going to try really hard but it says more than okay then we'll just let's schedule another meeting then let's schedule like five more meetings before the end of the year or we could just get the work done so this gentleman can continue doing his job what if we don't vote on it and then the select Board gets cold feet and decides not to vote good then they took their time too they've had time they've looked at it how long you had to pack it how long have you had the packet we've had the packet for what three days yeah three days is a lot of time did you read through the whole packet yes I've read through the whole packet every time I come to the meeting we'll leave it at that okay if there is an if there is an interest in the Comm voting tonight I would like to vote tonight you could put a motion in play and we can take a vote and if we'll see where we go from there well how would you how do you like the Motions I you could make a motion to approve the EV policy in the carbonization road map or whatever it's called you would probably need to take two separate votes for the two different proposed policies okay I make a motion that we vote on the EV policy any seconds second you have a second any further discussion um I would like to propose another motion can't propose a motion we got to vote on this motion second so dat are you for or against the policy I'm in favor Susan as it stands now I'm not prepared to say yes so I say no yes I'm going to say no I am also going to say no okay would you like to make a second motion no why would I waste my time I don't know I'm just asking a question you didn't prepare in the three days you had to read this policy I read every part of it and that's why I have my concerns so I'm going to make another motion yep I make a motion that we um considered the CL the decolonization policy at another meeting and we set another meeting we don't need a motion for that I don't think we can just decide to schedule another meeting okay yeah we don't need a motion is everybody comfortable with somewhere between now and the 31st try to find a date I was going to say I would like to be able to vote at this meeting which means the date that we select is critical that's right and we we can come up with a date after the meeting we'll look at I'd like to come with a meet date now because we're coming up on vacation weeks no know but well how can I just propose this how about at the end of the meeting before you leave we'll poll and we'll see what available dates are and then we can get something on the calendar okay we can do it after after the meeting concludes people can check the calendars and we'll figure out which day we could possibly meet sounds reasonable okay okay everybody okay with that yep great so did you guys say you're not adopting the EV first policy or you going to come back on that one we did not we did not adopt okay right we're going to meet again and we'll discuss then do you guys have any other questions regarding that I can answer now what's the uh temperature of the select board the temperature of the select board yeah do you think they're going to vote Yes on it yes okay yeah I'm I'm fairly certain yeah yeah yeah they are meeting Monday evening yeah the eveve first policy they wanted one change which was totally reasonable which was just asking for on that I had something on keeping and maintaining and upgrading or continuously upgrading superchargers and other chargings and they didn't want to commit to that because there was a financial piece to that and we don't know what it's going to look like in 10 years um so we took that out and that was the only change and they wanted to be 100% sure that DPW fire and police were on board board and that was that was it um as far as the decar road map I've only talked to two of them um the other ones I'll have phone calls with hopefully tomorrow but again it is just a road map which is a guideline on how to get there not a commitment to get there and it's okay if any of our individual members want to reach out to you directly yeah I you have my cell phone you can feel free to share it I can never remember it off top my head you sent me the final draft of this today I did the final draft only was some minor changes but that would be the the M after the meeting and I'll give you Chris's number and you can reach out to him directly I don't have any questions for Chris I voted yes I know I'm just going to send you the policy and I would have voted yes on the second one too yeah the policy only changes I did with the road map were two buildings that shouldn't have been on there um that came with some error with the billing and then uh number of the two x's on there actually populated so that was it all right any other questions I think so good all right thank you to me guys thank you have a good one all right third on the agenda this evening is the uh just a follow up from the last meeting I had done the student enrollment report based on the October one numbers and um I know Susan and Maria had a couple of follow-up questions on the L students specifically at Center so Linda put together a little update for you so I'll let her share great um so yes so when you saw the numbers from our last meeting those were the Sims numbers that is the specific coding that we put into Aspen it allows us not only to OB obviously report to the state but also for us to follow who which students are L students and in that report you saw total L's sheltered immersion so that means they were receiving instruction and then any opt outs for each of the individual schools so great there was a there was a higher number of L's at the center Elementary School compared to the other elementary schools so I met with Kelly Rogers who is the um elll Title One and reading Department coordinator and we just kind of just dug into the numbers a little bit more so we look specifically just at Center I didn't do a breakdown for each school because Center was kind of the the question at that point and um you'll see though that of the 74 L's that are reported on that Sims data that 62 of them are the ones that actually receive ESL instruction um indiv interesting enough last year there was 58 of them and we didn't even have an additional teacher so um it's interesting that was somewhere like four different four students difference between last year and this year and um if you do see like a a change in some of numbers I pulled the numbers directly that day so it es and flows it's a fluid number so students opt out move out move in we may have had 20 when you saw the report and then I report 19 so that's why you're seeing maybe like one or two student difference so um typically um we do not service students specifically with the time for L service um during the day when they're in kindergarten because it is an immersive program we do identify those students that might have a weed a level of one and great is as a kind Gartner because those are students that have no English background so most of our kindergarten students are here with their families they've listened to you know people speaking talking their whole entire lives but a level one weed a level one what is a WEA by the way say again what's a weda weda we a level it's the level that we give them that's based on their English proficiency at that time how much English that they've been exposed to and are able to speak right and from the test that is a test okay that's that's I I I assumed it was but I just wanted to make I we do we we screen them so um a weeda level one kindergarten means that they've had no English in they may have just moved here or they they're home nobody speaks any English they've had no exposure to English so that is why you'll see that um so at Center of those 62 students that are receiving those Services there's one kindergarten student because they are designated as a level one WEA level so that student is receiving ESL instruction so to alleviate some of the um case loads at the schools we do have an additional L teacher that floats between the Four elementary schools but she is specifically scheduled more at Center in order to service those students and make sure that they're receiving their services at the school there is some flexibility within our schedule like if we had an influx of students that showed up at another school you'll also see a self row you know climbing up there as well in terms of numbers compared to the other schools um that we could change her schedule but that is what Kelly has been monitoring with the teacher and the principles just to make sure that we are giving students their L Services during the week questions so this drives with what I've been hearing that the numbers at Center are substantially higher and I see that they're getting one half day more out of the additional teacher than the other elementary schools are but is is that really enough for that many students is that you getting feedback that it's working out or is is this a real struggle for those teachers yeah I think uh well scheduling is always tricky in general right so given the amount of time that they're supposed to have ESL instruction when you're looking at a schedule an Elementary schedule specifically you cannot pull them out of their English class so it does get a little tricky they they kind of push in here they pull out there so it's not like always like a a good chunk of time that they could do this but that's what they do they we've looked at the schedules and they built in time that those students are being seen okay so I just I want to understand the 62 okay receive instruction out of that 12 are kindergarteners are kind so that's why the number rece instruction May what you've seen in previous years for the initial amount of L students at that school there's a larger influx of students and during the kindergarten I I am very bad at that word at the K year yeah um what happens do some students then receive instruction because they're retested and they wouldn't suddenly test lower they would test at their weeder level so there's only the one student now the teachers do consults similar to what we do at the preschool level because we can consult at the preschool level so that additional L teacher we have actually goes over to chips to just to consult to make sure those students are not in need of additional service there hasn't been a new student they'll do the these screening of the students as they're registering but um that's that's those teachers just consult with those teachers because the kindergarten student is already immersed in English language learning so oh I see what you're saying you see what I'm saying they're all coming in learning English at the basic level okay so kindergarten students do not need to receive Services based on but it's it's still like 50 students this is why um what do you mean 50 students so if I take 6 2 - 12 yes because they don't receive the instruction well no it's 74 students minus 12 62 receive oh I see so it's already subtracted there okay yes I took it out for you it's 62 it is 62 it's a substantial number I still and again it es and flows I mean I understand all teachers have to have coursework in sheltered English um version so kindergarten kids are getting I mean the all the kindergarten teachers have have professional development in how to instruct kids who don't aren't English speakers I get that part all the students so that makes sense to me I just see that the number at Center is so much higher that I and I heard this was an issue last year also before having the extra extra person was hired that I just feel like they maybe need even more of the time um certainly than buy them for instance I mean some your flexibility right so you do have at the other schools how much time do they have to go down to Westland so there is flexibility as needed but they did work out a schedule making sure each of the kids are being seen yeah I just hope that the teachers feel like they're not overburdened because the schedule is so they're looking for parody As opposed to where it's really needed so I just want to make sure that the teacher is not feeling incredibly overwhelmed because the schedule looks fair but is it really fair based on the numbers that's all I'm asking just to keep a real close tabs on how that's going we can't do anything else can't give her any more help right at that I think what Linda is saying is they do look at that as even as the year goes on because you are going to get some movement in uh kids kids are going to come kids are going to leave and they do adjust the case loads but when looking at the schedule for the teachers who are servicing the kids at Center in particular this case all the kids are being um serviced at Center okay that's and then we can only ask again in a couple months how's it going be flexible enough to be flexible when it's really needed is all I'm saying right right any other questions on this okay thank you thank you like I said just wanted to follow up because I was lingering from the last time with some more data um fourth item on the agenda this evening is um good news uh actually very good news so uh the msba reached out to us early part of last week we weren't scheduled to go before uh the msba board to move into the feasibility study for Parker until the end of February but we had done all of our Milestones ahead of time uh we were one of the early districts to get it done so they ended up taking four districts that was set to go in February up uh to the December meeting so we actually attended the December board meeting on Friday afternoon and got invited into uh the feasibility study to begin at Parker which is again fantastic so two months early it also gives us um kind of a Competitive Edge in my opinion with regard to uh going out the first thing you need to do is hire your ronus project manager R PM for this we'll be able to get working with the building committee right after the first of the year on that um I think there were 14 or 15 districts that are going to be waiting until the February meeting to get started so we got a two-month jump out on them um so this is just very good news overall the uh msba board meeting was excellent um Treasurer Goldberg was um super they were very uh complimentary of our project and um uh State rep's all signed on in support of the project so we were happy to uh to attend and be invited in so that's a huge huge milestone we're officially now approved and uh moving into feasibility which we'll um work on for about the next 18 months or so 18 to 20 months and we're still looking like we're on track at this point to um ideally we kind of look on the fall of 26 is the potential vote to support the school again ton of work to be done during feasibility it's going to be a lot but uh to get a two-month Head Start into it I think is uh great for us so happy to report that uh School building committee will begin meeting right in January and um we'll be on the road um on the streets looking for the uh the OPM and the designer very very near term so you'll start to get regular reports on that Jo does anyone from our group happened to be on the building committee I just Dennis yep good yeah I was going to ask what you know what's the timeline but I did see the time it's pretty quick I mean so first couple things are like bang bang bang so yeah this all lines up quick you can't do anything until you get the OPM on board so right in January we'll likely we'll meet as a um School building committee authorize the um request for services to go out we'll do that process I think they were saying between now and um like April um April will have an OPM on board then you go into the designer selection process probably have a designer on board by the end of the summer and then really hit the fall with the full blown feasibility setting those are the two key pieces when will we need to start to reach out to the community just to get you know public input on things in the fall or yeah it'll be in the fall so it's going to definitely take the spring and the summer to do all of our OPM and designer on board there's not a lot of public input with that okay um the summer is going to be downtime just getting everything in place but I would think September is when we're going to start holding almost those Community visioning sessions again and kind of talking about the three different options we're going to have to start talking about locations um that's when the work's going to start heavy right 6 months from now great yeah the fund begins great any other questions um my my only question is does the slightly early I understand other advantages of the slightly early approval um does that potentially shift the timeline for any further steps in any meaningful way or is it just longer in this feasibility phase it gives us just a little bit more wiggle room in the feasibility phase um ultimately we were kind of targeting that November of 26 probably for the ballot question and that would be the next step after feasibility yeah that would actually be picking our schematic design picking our preferred program and actually bringing that to the voters to have them support and uh hopefully begin finalizing documents so okay that's what we're looking on I'll update the timeline for one of the upcoming meetings just so you have that um so you can see but the key next step is going to be the OPM thank you and I'd like to see us just get the word out to the community that as much as we can that we've reached this stage because it really lets the public know that it's not just the school department the school committee that the state itself recognizes the Merit of this program and I think the more people we can help understand that the more we'll have on board yeah that's a good point yeah we did push out an announcement we did a press release it was on the um the Facebook channels and Instagram and the local news and things like that so we'll continue to push it yeah and it and it's on our website check yeah Jenny has had done a nice job kind of keeping whole tracking page for the project so it's posted there as well okay it was in my newsletter last Friday yes I saw that was but everybody reads that of course they do way I'm missing it I did hear from someone that they disappointed that you weren't wearing a hat was kind of a boring picture this week I know there's a new editor for the newsletter I actually actually so you got L away from the they don't have the creative uh trying to get fired everything cre that other people have I'm just telling you what I heard do maybe there'll be a surprise someday you don't you don't know Valentine's a little Cupid outfit that be nice we'll see what we can do see what we can I didn't even think about that until you just said it someone actually said it to me yeah it's been the stock photo for why isn't he wearing a hat all right moving right along um next up on is the capital Plan update so the uh we talked before the last school committee meeting um Dennis also served as a rep for the capital planning committee um we had our meeting in December to reconcile all the different town and school projects and the 10 different capital projects that the school committee prioritized um were all funded uh so that was good news so the funding came in at uh $22.75 million um again the the tier programs um that we had requested were funded which included the adding the secure entryway the vestibules uh to all the other remaining schools um the extra emergency egress at the high school we talked about adding a doorway down one of the hallways for better egress a partial roof replacement for Center uh s row Water Heater replacement uh continuing with the partial roof replacement at McCarthy and then also the boiler replacement at McCarthy so um overall just under $6 million of uh Town capital is going to be um brought forward to town meeting in April um but it was a good um Obviously good meetings for us I think people um understood the needs very supportive of the uh the project so we look forward to defending these at town meeting and we be beginning the planning uh because several of these like the secure entry ways we want to actually do over the summer so we'll be preparing the bid docks and everything to actually go out to bid this spring just in anticipation of the funding being awarded in April so that we actually can do the work in June so more to come but it was good news yeah I think one of the good things is is I want to say it's a trend Setter but you know the fact that we've over the last couple years have really kind of prioritized and said this is what's most important to us all the other departments are doing that now so you know instead of having 50 projects and having a pick 20 we had 24 projects and had to pick 20 so I I think that that made the the C Capital planning committee appreciate that I think that made the process much more easier from our end in the past so that's good so we've become leaders in the prioritization trans Setters this is us this is us are we good with that we good with that yeah I think we're good okay well I'd like to thank Dennis because I think you've been yes thank going to these meetings for us representing us on this so thank you very much for doing all that it's a pleasure all right um next for Action we have the proposed school calendar for the next school year the 2025 uh 20 School uh six school year in front of you uh similar format with us returning to school uh for Teacher orientation the Monday before Labor Day and then the kids coming back that Tuesday Wednesday Thursday four day long weekend for Labor Day and then we kick right right into the uh school year so on your calendar you see the all the blue days of the professional development days all the red days of the um uh vacation weeks um the December holiday is not going to be quite two full weeks next year just based on the way the the calendar Falls but seniors at the high school L is all set on that one the only thing I want to bring to your attention the only two kind of U changes we had here is we had negotiated out of um contracts previously um Good Friday Friday as a holiday in April um so we do not have that on the calendar for next year that was kind of the last uh religious um Christian holiday we had on the calendar and we've kind of gone non um religious specific on the calendar and then what we've been doing is actually just recognizing all the different religions as um um religious holidays on the back and anyone who subscribes to those particular religions obviously is exempt for that day um we did add uh to that an additional um holiday ell here eat I'm sorry eat which is and at the end of May so that was added as a religious holiday I guess it's one of the two U major ones for that religion so that's listed on the second page but uh other than that we we keep with that pretty normal um calendar um we do 186 student days even though we only have to go 180 just to help people as far as um you know vacation planning and things like that um that's before you if you have any questions concerns or thoughts I'm sure this is the final schedule well it usually does change a few times but uh lost one we're feeling pretty good about this one so I I have a question so from an equity point of view I absolutely um agree with taking Good Friday off as a day off from school um I think it's only right but do you anticipate that a large number of Staff members will still want that day off I'm hoping not um and for two reasons there that is a holiday that really is kind of Hit or Miss now in districts so a lot of our neighboring districts don't have that as a day off abut and the teachers work and it's not an issue for them our under our contract uh staff are allowed to take religious holiday if the tenants of their religion um really require exstension from work that doesn't necessarily happen with uh with Good Friday so I'm really hoping that that's not an issue for us um but we're not going to know until we try yeah just curious when you we had when again this happened in the in the last round of negotiations that had gotten taken out um because it was contractual and we included the juneth holiday so the juneth obviously went on the calendar but we just hadn't moved the other one I think if we had tried to move it in this current year that we were in because it happens to butt up against April school vacation week we already had folks that had um it were extending their vacation staffy and students I think that would have been problematic but next year where it's kind of isolated by itself in early April uh I'm hoping it's less problematic I I have an unrelated question um or rather I guess concern I the number one thing I hear when I speak to people about the calendar and this is mostly coming from parents is um specifically around and I actually hear this from Educators as well how broken November is in terms of every week there is a day off or a half day is there any flexibility around the November 19th half day to be moved to a different time either in the month of May where there are currently no half days either falling before the school year is there a way to not have that month have yet another thing that is broken yeah I I absolutely understand what you're saying in November is kind of a crazy month even if you look at next year that happens to be when we do the parent conferences so contractually that's the day when we do the elementary and the Middle School conferences in addition to yeah so it's CU that's not really a PD day for us we just CED as a PD day because it's a half day fourth but it's kind of hard to show her that PD day and a no school day so we just leave it as a no school day because the adults that work for us know it's a a full work day so um that's the real PD day in November yeah it just feels like there's there's a lot these half days that all and then like at the very beginning of December I know there's the other one it's just it feels like there's a lot and there's no half days in May yeah well that was purposeful so um after surveying staff um we did used to have it in may we didn't have one in September but they wanted to frontload September so that they could get some skills that were needed especially if you're like launching a new curriculum or if there was a new initiative so the May has always been moved over to September that makes sense to me front loading it it does make sense um by that same token I was just wondering if there was any flexibility at the beginning of the year but I get it if it's not intended as PD it's intended as conference the PD day is the full election day on the 4th we just leave it blue because that's to signy full day though high school students are there for a full day it's only elementary and middle school that students that are released one other question this is just really a question I don't have a horse in this race I'm just curious when is the last time we used six other than Co years when everything was a skew six snow days Joanna would know for payroll purposes well we we would don't talk about this that year that was the year was the year I'm assuming it was 2015 which was the year 100 in of I was in Boston that year but it's 2018 oh 2018 we had to add time onto the school day that was the year of the snowstorm after snowstorm it was one year we had to add half a day to buy them oh that was the power issue yeah two years in a row two years in a row the reason I'm wondering is just I I understand adding days with the Assumption of snow days but I just didn't know if you have to add you have to build schedule with 185 days that is the regulation Chum's always done that's why I was asking because everybody else does five I don't knowa just I I actually think for whatever reason our our teacher contract says we'll schedule 186 days okay I don't necessarily know why I I think I'd be fine with 185 but I believe the contract says 186 and we've just always done 186 I'm not I'm not advocating for doing something different than the teacher contract but it does feel like the vast majority districts go for five and I just I can't remember the last time that we needed six but it wasn't that long ago it's way better to think that's when you're getting out and find out you're not than to have people thinking they're done and then suddenly and this year would actually be on vacation this year it would actually be early it would fall before juneth which is not the case in 2020 and then we usually announce when the last day of school is after that whole April time then we can say this is when it is everybody starts doing the countdown beautifully at Bome um and Dawson counts the days every single day she'll tell you that today is the blank day of school is the 73rd day of school absolutely not I can't handle that I love it she does no I need her in my life yes I always did that counting up counting backwards I was deployed I used to count up and down yeah it I did that I I I think again I think this calendar is solid okay all the elections in it we have all the elections we know I did I went through the election calendar beforeand unless there's something that you know should be an easy election year right that September and March one that that March one next year next year will be an easy election next year should only be the town election um right there's no State primary federal election oh no I'm just meant in terms of like not as many there's no primaries can I make a comment though State elections I want to make a comment on that calendar so uh just so you know for the people that don't know this there's been a group of people within the community that have been advocating with you guys for Eid um to be added to the calendar and we just wanted to say I mean outside of even just the school committee the community at large um eat is an incredibly important holiday a lot of the kids you don't know that these Muslim kids that come into school they eat before the sun comes up and they don't eat throughout the rest of the day so to not be in school or to be able to take that day is actually a really uh big deal and it's probably one of the easiest ways for somebody to be seen and be like my religion matters too we did this a few years back with some of the Jew holidays and I felt like it was the right thing then and I'm super glad we're still uh doing that now so thank you yeah no and again to them too because they were very nice to speak with I know their desire was to have us have the whole day off yeah um but you know we're kind of getting away from that for all religions but recognizing them all so they can all take it and uh teachers be understanding and it's it's now going to be on the list of holidays U and I think that's at least universally what this calendar does across the board and I like you put the policy there too for for people are that day the homework policy and all that so the people understand what it all involves I do appreciate that thank you guys I I have one tiny question this comes up every year so I'm sure there's logic behind it but the 26th of November is an early release day but it is not colored like the other early release days oh it's it's still it's considered a full work day for uh staff they released at for the half day but for rest for like accounting purposes and everything it counts as a full day so it doesn't um it's like one one of the 180 full I know half days don't count as one of the yes it does but it on the calendar I know what you're saying it's not blue and you like expect it to be blue for the half day it's confusing to not I mean as a parent I find it super confusing I get that I I know so many people who are shocked that wday was a half day this year because they were looking at the calendar and didn't see a color to denote it you mean they thought it was a half day they did not know that it was a half day cu the Blue's not there to to Blue designates a professional day so that would indicate a full day right for teachers because the students would leave parents read it as a half day and it's in the narrative on the side under November where it says 26 early release Thanksgiving recess yeah I'm just saying as parents we look at the look at it as when there's a color it's something you pay attention to if it's white you don't pay attention in the blue it means the staff's really working all day particular one no can we make it like we make it so it stands out just something well how about if we do this what if on the kind have being difficult about everything Jesus well you can't people because the staff are leaving half day too no I get it on the second page where it actually lists out the uh scheduled days we actually have Wednesday November 19th as noted as a student half day Elementary Middle School only what if we listed it right under that I this I I don't know what your opinion I I mean that's fine I I still think like having it be slightly different color I mean there we have different colors for August why can't we add like a pink or a purple or something but that you know I it is a minis school thing it it is not going to stop me from approving the calendar just sharing as somebody who's been using these calendars now for several years every single year it trips me up and I get tons of questions from other parents about it it it's confusing to me too CU I have to look and see which days do I have to go pick up early and if it's not colorcoded I'm not going to see that I know what you're saying it's the only day in the entire year that is an early release for kids that is not otherwise noted in color I know that it's written but not everybody looks at the right there's a reason why there's the printed calendar in addition let me uh it's not going to change the day yeah it's not going to really change the calendar let me see if there's something I can do color-wise that would be great you need to vote vote it's I'm just changing it color it's a joke I know you're all right any other questions in the calendar no that was great no take motion oh I I'm I'm looking forward to this motion um I move that we accept the proposed 2025 sl26 school year calendar with a minor change of a color added to the 26th of November and the caller shall be of the superintendent St choing second I clear motion all right we have a motion in a second all those in favor opposed 5 Z that was a fun motion that was a good we'll get that out in the um in the next newsletter I do appreciate that I mean people are visual so I am I am Visual and to me I always I'll personally color code you can calendar voice uh next up is just also sticking on the theme of calendar um just for us for our own planning purposes just a reminder and to kind of set our dates for the budget calendar but uh the proposed calendar for 26 consideration is um consistent with previous years so the first meeting in February which is the 4th I would provide the superintendent's recommended budget to you and all of the background provide a little bit of an overview and then we would uh because the February vacation week fall so we always meet the Tuesday after so we would actually have Tuesday February 25th be the posted public hearing on the budget that would be the night that we go page by Page and answer questions and concerns and things along those lines and uh just again because weather can come up at that time of the year we would just also hold tentatively our next meeting which is uh March 11th as an additional budget hearing day in the event that we need it so we have to send a notice out to the town meeting reps in case they wanted to attend they typically don't but if they wanted to and we'll just note those two as a public budget hearings so consistent with what we've done in the past but just for you to um acknowledge and hopefully agree with any questions on the budget calendar make a motion to approve I make a motion that we approve the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget calendar timeline as presented a motion a second any other questions all those in favor I 5 Z thank you very much uh next item on the agenda is the Personnel report for the month of November uh just details a couple of new hires we had join the district and a couple of resignations um the significant activity will begin in the spring when we start posting but um this is your activity for the month of November happy to answer any questions but no formal action needed I noticed that it's an unusual time to have a science teacher leave and be newly hired was this not anticipated at all uh no we actually we did have a science teacher leave the high school uh to go teach in a different district and we had to um hire midye which isn't typical I was happy that we were able hire a replacement for them um and it actually lined up fairly well so we worked with the other District as far as kind of the notification when the personal was going to be able to leave which gave us a little bit of time to post and hire and we were able to um to hire and have the person start um the our teacher left on a Friday the new teacher sat on a Monday so it was as good as as good as we could be but yes that is unusual chemistry teachers you can't trust them yes no there we go any other questions on the Personnel okay and the last for me is just approval of a field trip um this is the annual this is the McCarthy middle school students who are enrolled in World Language who would like to go to Quebec City Canada for a French cultural exchange and enrichment opportunity and this is uh from May 2nd to 4th so seeking your approval of that field trip take a motion I make a motion that we approve the McCarthy middle school grade8 students enrolled and French World Language French culture and language enrichment experience which would be from May 2nd to the 4th 2025 Quebec City Canada anybody else I second there you go wonderful sharing the love any questions on the field trip this is the traditional one they've done this for years I did this in eth grade in my town for a long it sounds like a great right all those in favor I 5 Z and that concludes my items all right great anyone have any leaone reports I have one I was at the McCarthy and Parker PTO meeting on the 12th um and in general all is is going well there was very good uh McCarthy noted there was very good turnout at their conferences maybe even better than they expected more parents coming which was great um we got to hear a lot about some of the things that you already knew about it with all the concerts and exciting things happening this time of year um the band chorus and Orchestra are invited to be performing at the middle school day at a Red Sox game on May 6th which is exciting um and at Parker um there be the change project which is student L during theal block um kind of organized by team is really successfully running they had a successful craft fair um and um there is work toward a science fair happening in March um there's a committee meeting to hopefully plan and organize that it would likely be at Parker but there is some discussion about whether potentially McCarthy students who might be interested could also be there if there is capacity for students from both schools and um I heard that apparently 10 people went to officer lat's presentation on Internet safety anybody else Ladi ons um I attended the Harington PTO meeting on December 4th uh they have a very active um complete committee working on all of their fourth grade events for the end of the year and they're really excited about that they have some upcoming events on January 18th they have night at the riverhawks on January 25th there will be a movie night um at the school that's a drop off event where parents can drop their kids off um to see a movie at the school and they are really working hard on making sure there's a very secure process for kids being dropped off and picked up again um I was really glad to hear that they're really working on making sure that that's really done very carefully so that's great they've done some really nice teacher appreci appreciation events uh they did something called stock the staff room with all kinds of snacks and supplies they had a candy apple bar they're constantly working on things they can do to keep the staff happy uh they're going to be running the Scholastic Book Fair um that'll be the week of February 10th to 14th Center didn't meet um this it's next month all right um my report is is one that everybody's familiar with here but maybe some of the people at home um where we had our tri board meeting last Monday where we meet with the select board the finance committee Town manager just to get an idea of what town finance look like um and not surprisingly you know the the outlook for next year isn't is quite as positive as been in the past um so according to the town manager we're looking at like a $2.5 million shortfall uh and that's for level funded budget so if all the department just had all the same Services before and they had their contracted increases their utilities all that stuff um nothing extra would be $2.5 million short as a as a town um so in order to deal with that you know all the different town departments are going to have to come up with some sort of cost covering cutting measures or or other ways of funding um that shortfall and I think that all makees sense I I think the one concern that I had from that meeting is just that it seemed like they were asking the school Department to take a big bite of that and I I just want to make sure that you know that everybody all the Departments are kind of doing their part um that you know although we do make up a good portion of the Town budget we don't make up the whole budget um so I'm hoping that superintendent can work with the town manager to just make sure things are spread out equitably I guess is the best way of putting it so yeah um no I know that meeting was a little um I don't know like surprising or just like some of the content I had going into this year knowing that it was going to be a very um challenging year I don't think we're looking to be adding a lot of positions I think we're looking level service across the board um I didn't think originally the level of reductions were going to be as significant as uh the town manager had laid out um for us it going to be a very challenging year uh with contract negotiations uh going forward for all of our unions we've got to account for that in our budget um so that we have a set aside reserve for negotiations and um it is it's just going to be very tight Lan in year um we've been working with um you know building staff already on building the budget for next year so um you know my work obviously the next couple weeks should be a little quieter with the breaks holiday break coming up but we'll be to continue to kind of refine that budget and try to figure out exactly where um we may be able to reallocate some funding um you know we may be looking at reductions in certain areas but to uh produce by um you know mid to late January in timeline for the town manager budget um a budget that really does maintain the Integrity of what we're providing in the schools um the staff and services we're providing now I think um are excellent I don't want to see any type of a um cut that's going to impact that um our population again I think this is happening in most districts but particularly postco um are very you know challenging uh you know we have a lot of needs that are coming up with our students and we have to be very careful with regard to how we um manage our funds and manage um the supports that we have in place making sure that we're maintaining them and that we not doing anything to compromise the uh ultimately the education product that we're putting out um so I will I'll be working very closely over the next couple of weeks to continue to refine that to make it as um you know look for efficiencies where I can but to do things that aren't going to um again hurt the Integrity of our budget so I'll be doing that I'll work with our manager Cohen on that and hopefully have something to report back to you by again early to mid January so that when he does his budget the last week in January there are no surprises and then we do our budget the first um meeting in February again there are no surprises and and I think one of the things was highlighted in during the night too is you when we compare ourselves to other districts you know were towards the bottom in terms of what what we're expending per pupil um and yet when we look at ourselves academically we we up there so so we get a pretty good bang for our buck right now so we wouldn't want to you know put ourselves in in in a bad situation where we're spending even less and we're not getting that that it's already pretty lean right exactly you know and uh and not getting the results that we we currently get so and I think tonight's presentation um by McCarthy the Middle School really pointed out that you know the decisions that we are making in terms of any programs that are being created that have to be staffed and so on uh are being done strategically and they're being done to meet the needs of the population that currently exists um and that was pretty clear uh for what we saw here so y all right any other lons I'm just a central office liaison thank you so much for the popcorn I think I ate most of them but thank you so much great we always love our PTO F central office all right anyone have any new items they want to bring up I had one um and I I don't know if everybody read we got an masc Bulletin about mcast and where it stands and you know what happens to like seniors that haven't passed it yet so I guess I have one question hopefully you can answer now and then you know longer term question do we have any seniors that haven't passed the mcast yet that yes okay all right not many okay I mean and are we in process they did take the November retake those on the 16th of um January so that would count then if they did correct okay that's good um and are we in the process of coming up with what do they called them the competency determinations yeah competency determinations just had it started that that conversation today okay schol okay we actually have a webinar tomorrow with desie as well to kind of get a little deeper into it so I think we'd be ready to do a presentation for you sometime after the new year I'd love to hear a presentation on where that stands once you feel like you're in a place where you're able to share I well I say we Linda will be doing a presentation on we get to uh probably at some point probably in January before we get how's it we have some around that because if you I mean obviously course work is important right um but you know there'd have to be some process around that course work so those were the discussions we were actually having today at the high school because we have like a separate high school council meeting okay um and those were the discussions we were having so we we'll get there we'll figure it out we'll do a good job all right unfortunately for us we do not have a significant number of students that we're dealing with right now there are other districts that are in you know a lot wor shape trying to come up with this quickly um it's a very manageable number we also have have to figure out the process for those students that didn't receive a diploma all the way back to 2016 right I didn't I can't believe that part wow yes I can right wow that's that's more work yeah we got it huh no problem we have it you got it all right so when you when you have a better idea if you could put that on the agenda somewhere that' be great will right any other new items important right if not there's no public comment that I can see so I'll take a motion to adjourn okay I make a motion that we adjourn I'll second oh all right all right all in favor I think we all got one in today oh my