To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. This meeting is being live
streamed by Chster Tele media and post to the CPS website for interested community members to access and watch. Inerson public participation will be taking place tonight in accordance with the Chelmsson school committee public participation policy. Anyone speaking tonight during the public public input portion of this meeting is notified the superintendent's office with the desire
to speak and provided with these guidelines. Upon request written comments received no later than 12 p.m. on the day of the meeting will also be read part of the record of the meeting during the second public comment session. So welcome to this meeting of the ch school committee. Our first order business is to approve our minutes for our meeting on January 20th.
>> Okay. I move that we approve the minutes of the regular school committee meeting of January 20th, 2026. I'll second. >> Okay. Any corrections on the minutes? Hey, all those in favor? >> I Okay, 40. >> All right. Next up, we'll hear from our CHS representatives.
>> Good evening, everybody. I hope you're doing well. I know the groundhog isn't really helping lighten the mood, but uh I got some good announcements that will. So, Chet High School junior Rhea Cananan has recently won the 2025 congressional app challenge. Her app, Yard toy Yum,
brings together restaurants, composting facilities, and farms in order to lower food waste, support local farms, and create a more environmentally efficient food system. Along with this, congratulations to Miles Reading Cooper, Jaylen La Rochelle from the Whittier
House, Emily Tran and R. Reese Boucher from the Emerson House, and Anika Gurala and Danny Sang from the Hawthorne House for winning student of the months for the month of January. This weekend, the CHS ac capella groups, the Thursdays in the Crescendos, participated at Any
Voices with the Thursdays placing first overall. And congratulations to junior Rose Love It for winning the best soloist along with senior Mikey Lays for winning the best arranger. >> Uh, the Chumsford High School Theater
Guild is putting on a play this weekend which is directed by and written by Klaya Lamb, a Chumsford High School junior. And the shows are uh both starting at 6:30 on Friday and Saturday. And the Lime Club is hosting the Limes
and Tune event, which is where high school students have the chance to display their singing talent in front of an audience, which uh takes place this Friday at 7 p.m. in the M McCarthy auditorium. And some good news to end it. There's a uh half day this Thursday and February break starts in two week
two weeks on February 16th. >> Thank you. Important stuff. That's it. But All right. Any other good news to share? >> Didn't think half days and no school was great news part, but that's okay. So, um, couple of things. Um, one is I talk about this every year. So, each year we are fortunate enough with our
partnership with UMass Lowel that they have brought back the um, teaching excellence and achievement fullbrite scholars and um, there are 21 total within the Marramac Valley. Chsford High School has six of them. So they're with uh Jessica Ferinetti who was in world languages, Brian Ason for science,
Michelle Kender for science, Linda Tanini for science. So a lot of sciences here, Peter Zopes and specifically looking at um civics in the history department and um Veronica Gaba. Did I say I No, I didn't say her first. I said Jessica. Veronica Gabwa for world languages. So that's great. So they're
coming for the ones that are at Chumsford High are from Armenia, India, Iraq, Kenya, Nigeria, and Slovakia. So, it's great opportunity for um you know, they're the best and the brightest in their countries coming here and giving our students that experience as well as
they're receiving the experience of what it's like to teach in the American schools. So, at our next school committee meeting, um they will be all 21 of them will be coming um from the Marramac Valley to watch our meeting because one of the requirements is to look at a government board and how it runs. So, same thing we do each year.
So, they will be filling the room next week. So, we're very excited to have them. And um I guess this is good news because we get um closer and closer to the end. Tomorrow is the hundth day of school. >> 80 more to go. >> All right. Great. Thank you. Anybody
else have any >> good news to share? >> Yeah. >> Just wanted to share that um I had the opportunity to go to the McCarthy Middle School play last weekend which was really wonderful. I think they did a very good job with what was a very
complex play and um I heard that many of the students got the flu the week before and they still pushed through and put on a really great show. >> Great. Right. Anybody else? Okay. All right. We're now to our first public input session, but I don't believe we
have any registered speakers. We do not. >> So, we'll move on to new business. >> All right. Under new business, our first item of the evening is South Row. So, we're going to invite uh Terry Gilbert, our principal, and Jason Ramalo, our assistant principal, up to do a little spotlight on South Row. So, just for the community watching, um one meeting each
month we focus some of the work that's happening at one of our schools, and the second meeting of the month, we take a look at one of our departments, but tonight we're fortunate to have Jason and Terry with us to hear a little bit about South Row. >> Don't worry too much. Not everybody is going to talk back there. Most of them.
>> You do have quite the crowd with me. >> We're not going to say much, right? Um, so hi everybody. Nice to see all of you again. >> Um, and tonight really, um, so I'm going to try to keep mine brief so that we can kind of get to the content here. Um, you
know, I I think with the help of Jason and his relationship with UMass LOL, um, since he's finished his doctorate, he's an adjective professor over there. We are strengthening our relationship with UMass LOL. We like to think of ourselves as a learning lab. Um and we hope to
continue to do that. So we have some people here from UMass Lowel um that are part of the program there. We have some people um that are students at UMass Lowel. We have some host teachers here and we have some students that have been part of those classrooms um to kind of
talk about how those relationships and partnerships are going. Um so some of the other uh partnerships that we have going or have had in the past include the Marramac Fellowship um which has been really a really wonderful experience. Um and we are in the process
of securing somebody for next year. Um but we also have had students reach out a lot of Tomsford students that go to Bridgewwater State and we've hosted them for observational hours. uh the Wuburn School District um a parent in our school reached out to us and they were
adopting the reveal curriculum after we had already been using it for a couple years and we hosted I don't know a dozen couple dozen teachers come in and do observations. Um we hosted people from North and the North Andover District um
for through the music program. Um we also like to do some interd district um collaborations and partnerships. We host psych interns every year. I know that the other schools do that as well. Um but tonight we really are going to focus on our partnership with UMass LOL and
kind of how it benefits everybody. Um I would say that the foundation of it is the relationship piece, right? And it always does start with that. um the communication between between between mostly Jason and the UMass Low people
and then our communication with any of the candidates um and then the communication with the teachers that are hosting and so forth is really kind of the key to making this all work. Um, we really like to front end that by like inviting the people into the school,
anybody who's considering being a part of the program and wants to possibly be doing it through South Row, we like to have them come in and meet with them. Um, you know, not not just a phone call, not just some emails back and forth like we want to meet them and we want them to
meet us and we want to see if it's a good fit for everybody. We want to find out what are your hopes and dreams, what do you want to get out of this? and we really want to try to be able to meet their needs. So, it's like um it's not what you can do for us. It's like what what can we do for you? And if you're looking to even expand the opportunities
beyond just like what your program is, oh, I'm also kind of interested in this or that like we really like to tailor the opportunity to give them as many varied opportunities as possible. >> Yeah. So, um education's a field as many
in this room know that's very collaborative, right? and it's really important to um work together to help strengthen um our future teachers. Um there's a lot of great um research when it comes to the impact of pre-ervice teachers um and even individuals coming
in to receive observation and support um around long-term academic gains. There's been some recent studies on that. Um it really helps the mentor teacher and the school culture in the sense of being reflective and innovative with new ideas, right? So it's not only um like
Mrs. Gilbert said about what um what they can do for us, it's what we can do for them too, right? They come in with a lot of new ideas which our teachers will talk about. Um and on our pres-ervice teachers, um this is the opportunity that really helps them with classroom management, those things that you're not really going to get in a textbook, so to
speak. Um it helps build quality um student teaching and emotional resilience and belonging within a school. Um, so I thought we'd kind of bring some of the research into what we're talking about today, um, and the impact um, that pre-ervice teachers um,
have on our building. Terry talked through this a little bit. Um, but we do do a lot of steps to make sure that we're thoughtful in our partnerships. Um, like she had discussed about meeting with faculty, meeting with administration. We try to set uh, clear expectations as to what we expect. Um,
and of course there's that fun paperwork that happens uh to make sure that we're all ready to go on the Chumsford side, but also on the UMass LOL side. Um, we communicate with students and families um when there's different partnerships happening as appropriate, right? Um, when student teachers are coming into a room, um, that's something that we want
to make sure our families know about. Um, there's continuous opportunities for feedback and check-ins throughout the experience to make sure that um, it's positive for everyone. Um, and tonight's presentation is primarily focused on our um, strengthening partnerships um, with
UMass LOL. So, we're going to start inviting our entourage up. Um, and I'm going to invite uh, Dr. Colleen Tapley, who's an assistant teaching faculty and co-director of the bachelor's program up. Um, and her sidekick uh, Sarah Zatskis, who's responsible for a lot of
the fieldwork um, experience. >> Thank you. Um, we're so excited to be here. Thank you for having us tonight and we're very thankful for our partnership with South Row. Um our bachelor's of education program at UMass LOL is a dual license program. It's the
only duallicens bachelor's program in the state of Massachusetts. We think it's really important for our students to get that general education grades 1 through six and special education prek to 8 degree and license. Um, it's designed to help prepare highquality,
equity-minded educators. We do a lot of work with culturally responsive teaching practices. Our coursework is grounded in evidence-based instructional practices and culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy. Um, it is field intensive. So,
our students start their very first semester fall of freshman year out in the field. um and they continue their field work throughout the four years that they're in the program with lots of our courses having field experience connections. Um it's f we're focused on
creating strong collaborations with local school districts like Chsford um and supporting our students in creating those strong connections to the school community. So, one of the new essential elements from CAP really focuses on making sure that our students are
prepared to make connections with families and be involved and engaged in um communities. So, that's a little bit about our program. Sarah, so um I am the clinical field coordinator. So, I do all the placements into the schools. I work directly with
the schools and I have the privilege of working with South Row pretty consistently to set up um what our courses are going to look like when we do visit South Row. So, we've had the opportunity to place several classes um into South Row. We've done education
3600, which is our science course. They came in, they did some observations. Um we've also done our intro to moderate disabilities. um and they did some observations as well. These are different semesters. Um and so we've had
several opportunities to collaborate which has been great on the classroom aspect of things. Um but this semester we are introducing two pre-practicum students into South Row. Um it's been a great start already. Um they're very excited to be there. They work in two
different placements. So our students come in one day a week for the entire day. Um, as Jason mentioned, this is an opportunity for them to start seeing that classroom management that they've never really been able to see before. Um, and then we've had our practicum students, which are both here, and um, I
think excited to talk, but um, I know Jason wanted me to talk through a little bit about just the partnership itself. Um, South Row has been one of my favorite schools to work with, and I mean that so genuinely. um they are
always so organized and willing to support not our needs but their needs as well and making sure that we come together to figure out what that is because I'll bring something to the table and they're like I love the idea not possible in a school but here's what
we can do instead and it's been great to collaborate when we bring new um things to our program creating new forms that I need you know school districts to fill out because Desi is requiring something else. I come to Jason and I say, "Hey, Jason, can you look at this? Can you be
my testing guide to see what you can what you think of this? Would a school allow this?" Um, you know, when we bring our entire classes in, he talks to the students. He's like, "These are expectations that a school is going to ask of you. Um, I want you here 15
minutes early. I want you professional." And it's so nice cuz we can say it all day to our students. And we do, but it's so nice to have a school come in and be like, "We are supporting you. Please make sure that you are also on top of everything that you're supposed to be doing." And they really really hear it
when when Jason's talking. Um, >> so I I cannot say enough about the South Row Partnership. They've been a tremendous support for us and um we just absolutely love having you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. So just a couple of other things
on our strengthened partnerships and the impact that it has. I know we talked a little bit about um how it can impact everyone, right? Students um staff and um our students at UMass LOL. It really has helped build our staff development um where a lot of our staff members are
looking at this opportunity to grow from the students. um they have um this has allowed our partnership for networking, right, and being able to start talking about the job search application process for our students. Um we've allowed opportunities for like expertise sharing. Um they've participated in a
lot of panel they've participated in panel discussions at UMass LOL. Um they've shared tr tips and tricks um which has been really helpful. um diverse perspectives is key in the sense of we're really trying to continue to um really um gain varying input from
various uh viewpoints. Um and that's been something that's been wonderful through our partnership um where we've been able to collaborate and bring in um some diverse ideas. Um it's really increased our student engagement, right? having an additional person um in the
room to help um to allow our uh teachers candidates to have experience modeling um has really helped us and like I had said resource sharing um so there's some photos um on the side of some connections that were made um with our students with our uh student teachers
and some creativity that was brought in um uh from different ideas uh through our teacher candidates. So I'm going to invite uh Mrs. Driscoll up to share a little bit about um the benefits from the teacher perspective
with Mrs. Heene. >> Hi, how is everyone tonight? I'm Ally Mrs. every year. >> Um I'm Ally Driscoll. I'm a second grade teacher at South Row and this is >> Allison Heave. I'm a special education teacher at South Row. Um so we both hosted um student teachers this past
semester. I'm going to talk a little bit about the benefits to being a supervising practitioner and then Allison will talk about the benefits to our students. Um so having I had a Marramac fellow last year and then I was able to support a um UMass LOL student
teacher this semester. Um it was nice to have someone start the year with me. Um I think there are many benefits to having a student teacher in the classroom. Um, one of which, you know, when when you have 22 students with many varying needs, it is nice to have another adult in the room to help you
meet um those tier 2 needs, IEPs, 504s. I'm able to um better plan small groups, um have more rigorous instruction, differentiated instruction. Um and you know those the student teacher can also
um attend the IEP meeting with me, maybe discuss some um accommodations and modifications um support a behavior plan. Um they also encourage me um to be more reflective and intentional. I think a lot of times teachers, especially teachers who have
been there for many years, are kind of on autopilot and they do the same thing every day and you know this is the way I do it. um when you have to explain to someone what you're doing and why you're doing it, I think you can be more reflective with your own practice and
maybe say why am I doing something a certain way and and can I adjust or maybe um Sarah who I worked with will speak in a minute um had some great ideas from her program that she would like to try. So allowing new strategies
and new ideas. Um and I think when roles are clear and you've built a relationship with with your student teacher um that there's also parts of the day that are demanding where you're you're tired and it and it's nice to be able to kind of share that load um
during demanding parts of the day, maybe during small groups or reading centers. Um, and just to have that other adult in the room, especially when, you know, you might not be a supported classroom. That's all I have for that one.
>> So, I'm going to talk about benefits for our students. So, having a student teacher, I've had um a couple of student teachers. This is my first one from UMass LOL. And um it's
great because you there's another trusted adult for students to build a relationship with. Um I have the liberty um which I talked about actually at school committee last year about the push-in model and being in the classroom um for two and a half hours a day in a
fourth grade classroom. And Michaela who's about ready to come up and talk a little bit about her experience. It it was great because there were three of us in there and she was running a reading group and then the classroom teacher was running a reading
group or math groups and then I am able to support kids maybe that are doing independent work. Um and then the kids you know build this relationship with the student teacher and it's just another you know positive relationships
go a long way in schools. So, um it's really nice for the students just to have um that uh struggling students can get extra support while others are enriched. So, in this classroom um that I that I'm in, uh there's six to seven
seven IEPs, one on a 504. And so, we're able to differentiate a little more. Um, I'm able to do actually because Michaela would run reading groups, I was able to do some interventions with kids that were on SST,
um, that needed a little more little extra help. Um, more efficient feedback during writing, reading, and math. You know, we were able to split when it's just the two of us in there, the classroom teacher and myself, then, you know, we have bigger small groups. But
with Michaela or any student teacher, it's like you have you can split that among three of us. Um, and student teachers bring new ideas, updated strategies. You know, this is my 18th year teaching. So, hearing from
Michaela, what about this? or um you know she was the one who was doing a lot most of the planning um for a couple months and we she'd bounce ideas off me and I'd be like yeah I haven't thought about that or um so it's just you know
it's not only a benefit to us as teachers but also to our students and which is I'm sure you'll hear from that >> from the kids that are here. >> Yeah. So they're the most important part. So
um we love to hear directly from our students. So we're going to invite um a student in fourth grade, Clara Bagy, up and Jack Riby in second grade to share a little bit about their experience. >> You want to go first? >> Sure.
>> My name is Clara Bagy. I am in fourth grade. I liked having a student teacher in my classroom because I could always ask her questions if I needed help when other teachers were busy working with other students. Also, it was another teacher to have a positive relationship
with. Miss Cody helped me in class and reading and math groups. She also helped me think about what to write when we were writing about what we read in guided reading. Thanks, Clara. Ready, Jack?
>> My name is Jack Rogan. I am in second grade. I like having a student teacher in my classroom because she is nice, fun, and and helps me with my work. Miss Pump helped me in class when I needed
help with math and writing. She helped me come up with ideas in writing and helped me solve addition word problems in math. >> Nice job. >> Good job, you guys. >> Thank you guys. >> All right, Jack, you got it. You're
done. >> Are we done, too? >> Thank you so much. >> Next, we're gonna bring up um two of our student teachers. one that just recently graduated, u Michaela, um, and Sarah to talk about their experiences from the
student teacher perspective. >> Hi, I'm Sarah Pon Bryant. I was in a second grade classroom in the fall with Alli Driscoll. Um, all all we learn about is hands-on learning, and that's what student teaching is. It's applying everything we've learned in the past four years, and they don't just throw
you to the wolves right away. It's a gradual buildup to 10 full takeover days. So the first thing I took over was morning meeting. And then they slowly build up to I really like math. I'll start taking over math. And Ally was very great with me. She goes, "Are you comfortable with this? If not, we could
hold it off for another day." And when I first start, do you need help? You need support. How can I help you? It was a very gradual, supportive process. And I also love not just South, but the Chumsburg community. I would attend the ice cream social and all of the movie
nights where I saw all my kids. It's just seeing them outside of the school setting. You see a completely different child. It's not just the quiet in school timid child. You see them at movie night and they're going crazy with popcorn and candy. It's a completely different child. And I love seeing that duality of
education. So, I'm Michaela Cody. I just graduated with UMass this past December and I took a new teaching role in South Burrow. Um, something that I always think of when I think of self-grow and just like the UMassel partnership is just how much I
learned. I did a lot of kind of pre-ervice work in LL in like Low Public Schools and then my pre-practicum was actually in Bedford and then Chumsford was kind of my first introduction to Chumsburg public schools. Had no idea where South was, what Chumsford looked
like or anything like that. So, it was kind of my first of many things at Chumsford. But something that I really valued in my experience was just similar to what Sarah said is just that hands-on practice. >> Yep. >> Something that just being an older student in the program is I told my
supervisor practitioner Allison is I just want to like know as much as I could. So I think it was like the second week in like I started taking over math. And that's something that I really valued in the program is whatever you were interested in or any like areas that you really wanted to practice in,
they kind of gave you that opportunity because something, you know, being again older, it's one thing to learn the material, but it's another to practice it. And I think my time with South Row, I was able to practice a lot of things that I learned in the classroom of UMass Soul. And I found that super valuable
and just really positive for myself to grow as an educator and a future teacher. Um, and I don't think I would have had the same experience with another school other than Southro just because they offer so much like MTSS, PBIS, like there's just so many things I
didn't really know of until I was able to be in that student teaching experience. So, I'm very very grateful for just Southro and the UMass partnership because I don't think I would have got the same opportunities elsewhere. >> Thank you both very much. Good luck in
the in the future in your teaching. >> We didn't pay them to come here tonight. You know that. You know that. Um, so we'll wrap up. I I know we've been talking for a little while, but there were so many people that we really wanted you to hear from. And I I hope you heard that like this is founded in
relationships. It's founded in mutual mutual respect. And like we all are sincerely learning from each other through this entire process. So, I don't know if you have questions for anybody, but >> anybody have questions? Diane, you look like
>> I have a couple. Um, first just a comment that um I always love hearing from students, but it was actually a really great bonus to hear from people who are in a lot of different roles with this. Um, so I really appreciated that. Um, it's nice to hear about something
that is working successfully for all the different stakeholders, right? uh including the students, including the student teachers, including the university partner in the school. So, that was really great. Um my son is in a class right now at South Row that has a student teacher. I'm not sure if it's
through UMass LOL, but he asked me knowing that this was on the topic today. He left a quote with me that he wanted me to share about his student teacher, Mrs. Donovan. He said, "I think Mrs. Donovan is getting really good at being a teacher. I really liked the scavenger hunt that she planned for us
because it was really fun and otherwise we might probably be doing the same old social studies stuff. >> It was a good scavenger hunt. >> Second grade teacher. >> Yeah. Um so anyway, um that uh I have
heard great things about these student teaching um experiences that he's been able to see as a kid. Um I did have two quick questions. One was um so way back when I student taught, I wound up eventually being able to work in the
district where I had done student teaching, a different school, same district. Um and it was so invaluable to have had that prior experience. I'm curious if in Chsford we've had a track record um of student teachers coming back and working in the district. I
don't know if you all or or somebody at the district level might be better able to answer that, but I'm just curious if it's been a recruitment technique. >> I mean, to some degree, I have to say like >> Oh, there's one. Okay, we got one. >> We do. Yeah, I you know we at the end of
each year I mean Sarah well she's still wrapping up but Michaela and our Marramac fellows like we wish we had a position for them and we typically will reach out to the other elementary schools and say we've got somebody really good for you. So like we do would
like to keep them in the district. Um there just often aren't a lot of positions for that meet their needs. And >> sure it's it's hard. I mean for me it was like a few years later like I didn't immediately get a job and but I think it's nice to have those relationships established and if something ever does
open up there's some great folks. Um >> Diana just to that like we actually have been very fortunate as Terry mentioned whether it's like the Marramac fellows or the UMass LOL fellows. Um typically it's elementary school where we're getting a lot of our candidates for is because of the lensure they're working
for. But when we do have openings it's like you know they're in they've been trained um they kind of know a little bit about our programs. we've got to see them in action. Um, and it's like the first group you kind of go to and you're kind of encouraged to make sure they're applying for the jobs. For us, unfortunately, we just haven't had a ton of turnovers at that level. But whenever
we do, I know the principles and everyone kind of reach out to um suggest that we really try to bring them in and it's worked out very well. It's a nice little feeding ground. We just haven't had a lot of jobs, but when we do, we've got that that pool. >> I guess it's a good problem to have that we have teachers who want to stick
around. But yeah, um the other question I had is so I know in my son's class, um it's been described to the parents that the student teacher is acting as the paraprofessional in the class. And I was curious if that's a model that is frequently used um where the student
teacher also, you know, acts as a substitute or as a paraprofessional or other roles in the classroom. >> That's the Marramac fellow model. Um that UMass Low is different than that. Um so each year most the four elementary
schools um as long as I've been here um typically will take a Marramac fellow um we work with Marramac on the placement of that and they are hired as a as a parah in that role >> um for the entire year they'll be in that one classroom right so they're a
part of that community and there is like some gradual release of responsibilities throughout the year um and then they end up doing what would be considered like student teaching in during that spring. But um that that's how that Marramck fellowship program. >> So that's a little different than the
model that we're talking about here. All right. Thank you. >> Yeah. Um just to elaborate briefly, so the Marramck and UMass LO slightly different models. The students coming out of UMass LOL on the bachelor's program already have the two licenses or they're kind of completing their two licenses. The Marramac folks um have one
license that they're coming out with and they're actually doing their master's degree, but they're doing an add-on license. So they we what we typically do is we place them in a supported classroom um and instead of the PAR we put a Marramac fellow in and the funding
from the PAR basically pays for the Marramac fellowship. So that's just our little mechanism. It's slightly different but um again similar in some ways >> but they're a CPS employee for >> I'm not sure I realized that. So that's interesting. Okay.
>> Right. Susan questions or >> just I guess it's just a followup to what Diana had said. You talked about whether or not we're able to reach out to your student teachers if we have positions and do we find that most of them who've had the experience here kind
of hope and are asking to to work here. It's not just us reaching out to them. They're reaching out to us. I hope >> that we're an attractive place to come back to if if it's possible. >> Yeah. I also think too like um I know we
haven't had many positions like open in our building currently as Dr. Lang had said like people like to stay in Chster, right? It's a good place to be. But I like I'd like to think that um if we did have positions, right, with even with our neighboring um schools, right, that we have if there's positions opening,
it's still a great partnership within Chumsford, right, to um hopefully be able to share some candidates that were really successful at South Row through their student teaching that might be um just great fits in some of our other buildings in in the across the district as well. Um, so I think that the partnership is schoolbased, but it also
can be supportive to the whole district when positions do and if they do open up. >> Anything? >> Well, I'm just going to say it's wonderful. It was a great presentation. Thank you. Uh, everybody was excellent that presented, but I think even more
than anything else, I'm thinking about this, putting it in perspective, and just thinking that it's wonderful to know that we as a district are open to continuously learning and improving. And I think that's what um students who come in to our district do for us and for our
students and they model in many ways what a student is um in continuing to be able to learn and be open to learning uh throughout their entire lives. So I'm really really glad to see this. Um, I have a daughter at Marramac
who is right now at another school district doing her student teaching and uh, and so this is familiar to me what's going on here. And I realized how important it is to have the communication from the school end and to
be able to really um, have a program that you know is well communicated both ways. So thank you for doing that and Saltro continues as the laboratory of the district. This is it just to you
know it it it is great to to hear that we don't really hear about this very often. You know this is you know to hear how the different programs are working and to hear from the you know the the student teachers and their their their uh supervising teachers especially the students. It was it was a great you know
great bit of information to get. Um so I appreciate you came in. um want to go off off off script a little bit and just you we have you here you're experts um in elementary education. Um we've had a couple of people come in over the last couple of meetings talking about
technology at elementary level and where you know are we is it too much is it not too much since you're there and you're you know seeing what's going on. What are your opinions? >> Yeah I think technology um is ever so
growing right um and expanding. I think that um we really try um at South Row and I can confidently say throughout to really try to balance you know technology um it has great it has great platforms um all developmentally appropriate programming that we have
that really helps um see our students different levels I ready um there are a lot of interactive type um learning that can take place um through technology but it's not replacing our direct instruction um and it's not replacing small group work. Um I like to think of
it as a tool um and a tool that is growing that we need to um to work with um and learn from. Um but I really like to think at South Row and across the district we do a good job of that balance, right? Um balancing um it for
its benefits um but also um really taking pride in like our teachers that are in the room and our support staff that are in the room to support our students needs. >> Great. Great. Yeah. because again I don't teach elementary school you know Susan used to but you know so to have that perspective of of you know how you feel it's going
>> well and I think you heard you know about all these small groups right um that are going on in these classrooms and I think if you were to go in walk into a math class right you would see some instruction that would be done probably through the clear touch >> um and then you would see students break
off into centers and it's going to be a teacherled center there's going to be an iaty center right to get their their minutes in and and then you're going to see probably students collaborative collaboratively playing a game on the on the carpet or something like that. So, um I I think it's a pretty good mix. I
feel like I've seen um a lot more like handwritten um writing assignments and things like that rather than everything being typed on the computer. Um so I feel like that there's been a little bit of a shift there. Um it definitely has its place, but I would say that it
doesn't dominate um the classrooms. I I don't know like don't be afraid to share but if you have any thoughts on that you're in the classroom. >> Um technology can also be a great >> You just got to come up to the mic. >> We can hear you. I think technology can be a good accommodation tool as well. I
think like in tier 2 meetings you know when you talk about students who may um struggle with writing it is one of those executive functioning tasks that require a lot especially from elementary students. Um, so I've been in meetings with Terry and Jason where we talk about, you know, is text to speech a
good tool for a student who maybe has those ideas but has a hard time making the capital letters, forming the sentences where we can find that balance of like, okay, maybe they're writing the first paragraph, but then the rest they're they're orally using a texttospech feature. So, I think if you
can kind of find that balance, especially um with the use of some of the um the AI tools we were given in professional development that you can find the balance, but I think all of us as teachers do also really value the pencil and paper stuff. Um especially with all the screen time they're getting
at home. So, I think finding the balance is important, but but some good some good stuff you can do with it for sure. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate the input on that. >> All right. Anybody else? Anything before we wrap up? Thanks question. That was that was good.
>> No, just I did get a couple pictures of the students. So I'll email the teachers just so you have the picture of the students to share with them. >> All right. >> No problem. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you very >> students. Thank you very much. >> All right.
>> Yeah. We'll take a minute. >> Yeah. >> Thank you very much. Have a great night. It >> was good information though. I like >> they really do a lot. >> Yeah, that's that's great. >> Elementary and special.
>> I'll throw in center have a lot of like creatures and a lot like >> Toby's really cute. He like loves her and he refuses to let me call her. >> The downside is >> he's like no she's my other teacher. >> We literally teach feels like a teacher.
Oh, I'm definitely going if they have >> whatever we do, right? >> Anything to go to South Africa. Yes. >> As somebody I when I student taught it was >> um >> a teacher who was one year from retirement and basically let me just teach the class.
>> I also appreciate that they're a little bit intentional about the gradual release process because for me it was like >> thank you. You're here. You have ideas. Cool. Go teach. I want to see these animals. >> I mean, it was, but it was like feet to the fire. >> Have a good night. >> We're going to teach ninth grade honors
English. Have fun. >> Not enough. >> All right, we're going to jump back in on the uh agenda. So, we're um >> Yep. Item two on the agenda is approval of uh some non-affiliated employee salary schedules. Um these next two items we discussed in executive session
prior to the last meeting. Um just as way of history, typically once we settle um contracts with all of our um union staff, we then come back and take a look at the non-affiliated or the non union staff in the district. Um so you had four different um groups for you tonight
that we're looking to um provide salary increases to. Uh the first group, as I outlined in the memo, um are actually four positions that kind of align themselves with secretarial type positions. they're non-affffiliated at um at central office. So the second uh
page just lists those four individuals and what we basically try to do is just align them with the um the CFT the support staff contract uh to make sure that the non-affiliated wages aren't falling um under the affiliated wages and that they're actually um comparable
or matching. So Joanna just compared the fiscal 26 that we're currently in year and then fiscal 27 uh I've incorporated the um correction into the budget document. So it's part of the base. Um happy to answer any questions on this one. Uh but we'll be looking for your
approval that would affect those four individuals at central office. >> Any questions on these positions? >> Good. Okay. I'll take a motion. I move that we approve uh an increase to the annual salary as specified to the
central administration support positions effective July 1, 2025. >> Second. >> Okay. All right. So, any further questions on that? We'll do roll call. Susan >> I. >> Diana >> I. >> Maria >> I >> I 4 Z.
>> Thank you very much. Uh the second group of people are our building uh principles. And so we actually have a um they're all on independent contracts because uh by statute in Massachusetts principles can't be part of a collective bargaining unit. So uh they all have individual contracts, but what we try to
do is have a salary schedule to just make sure that their salaries are um in line at the district level. We have an elementary grid, a middle school grid, and a high school grid. Um we had previously approved a grid that went up through fiscal uh 27, and it had a 2 and
a.5% increase in fiscal 27. Um the rest of our union groups um got uh 3% increases. So the you the grid reflected for fiscal 27 actually just increases it from 2 and a half to 3% to be consistent with the wage increases that were given
to our um contractual employees and then it goes out in 2829 uh with a three and a three. Um so basically it's a 3% uh colar increase in 27 28 and 29 uh for the three different levels of the principal group. I'd recommend your approval of that. Any
questions on this one? >> Comment. I don't have a question, but I have a comment. I I I really appreciate that there is a schedule even though this is the kind of position that needs one, but I think it really keeps everything transparent, so everyone knows exactly what everyone's weights
are and there's no questions and worries about who gets what, why. I I just appreciate it being really clear that way. >> I think it's a difficult group because their contracts are all different. Yeah, the contracts come into place at different times, right? But we've tried to have there be some consistency and some thing to reflect back to. Some
districts do and some districts don't, but um we have just found internally that even like say hiring a new principal or the principles we have, they can kind of understand where they fall and there's a rationale to it. It's not just on a whim something's happening. So, >> I really appreciate that. >> Yeah. So, it's worked out well. >> Great.
>> All right. Anything else on the principal contracts? Okay. Take a motion. I move that we uh vote to approve the appendix A non-affiliated principles salary schedule covering FY27 through FY29 as presented.
>> Second. >> Great. Right. If there are no further questions, Diana >> I >> Susan >> I >> Maria >> Hi. >> I thank you. Our uh third group are also uh central office administrative positions. These are our uh director
level positions at central office. Again, um to um Susan's point, very similar. We have um two different salary scales. We have one for non-affffiliated licensed individuals. Um this is for our director of business and finance, student support services, personnel,
professional learning, and um IT, our technology position. And then non-licensed positions for director of human resources, and director of facilities. Um this again, their their um current rate had gone up through 26. Um, so we're recommending uh 27 28 29 uh
just with a 3% cost of living increase each year of 333. >> Okay. >> Any questions on this? Okay. >> Okay. I move we vote to approve the appendix B non-affiliated central
administration licensed and non-licensed staff salary schedules covering FY27 through FY29 as presented. >> Second. >> Right. Right. If there are no further questions, Susan, >> hi. >> Anna, >> hi. >> Maria, >> hi.
>> I >> thank you. And then our fourth one, the other individual in the district who's on an independent contract is our assistant superintendent for curriculum. Um, consistent with the um the salary grid we've done in the past. Again, for consistency sake, we have that. Um the
salary grid had gone up through fiscal 26. um this salary grid appendix C um adds uh step five and then it adds a 27 28 29 for the next three fiscal years a 3% 3% 3% cola again consistent with the
other wage increases in the district so I would recommend your approval of that salary grid >> any question on this one so all these 33s are just in line what we giving the teachers and the pair professionals and >> yes so if you recall actually that the
teachers grid um had a um slightly higher three and a half% on the top step and a two and a half down low but the average cost 3%. Um when we did the administrators bargaining unit they did 333 so it's basically a 3% cost so this is consistent with what we have
incorporated with all the other contracts. >> Okay. Okay. All right. Uh any other questions on this one? All right. Mariel, >> I move we vote to approve the appendix C, non-affiliated salary schedule for the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction covering FY27
through FY29 as presented. >> A second. >> All right, if there are no more questions, Diana, >> hi. >> Susan, >> hi. >> Ria, >> I >> I zero. Thank you very much. >> Um, that covers item one and two. Item
three is the actual um contract for assistant superintendent hers. Um this again is a um contract covering fiscal 272829. It incorporates the um salaries that are part of that salary schedule. Um
would recommend approval of that contract. >> Questions on this? In terms of language like minor minor >> Yeah, there was minor minor changes. Yeah, very minor. Uh, in this particular contract, for whatever reason, when we talked about in executive session, the
contract did not include a bereavement um language and we had bereavement language in every other contract. Um, so to try to streamline our contracts, we try to have the same language. So, you'll see that a bereavement um section was uh included as hang on one second.
And that's the reason actually this contract is back before you because we actually did um change the base document. But under uh other benefits on page four, you'll see that um the second paragraph just adds the same bereavement language that's in everyone else's
contract. Um and the other item that was changed was in the sick leave in the paragraph right before it used to be capped at um 7500. This just increases it to 10,000. Uh those are the two changes to the contract. Thank you language wise. >> Right. Any other questions on the
contract? Okay. I'll take a motion. >> Okay. I move to approve the three-year employment agreement covering the period from July 1, 2026 through June 30th, 2029 uh with Dr. Linda Hirs to continue to serve as assistant superintendent in
accordance with the terms and conditions as outlined. >> A second. >> Right. Okay. Maria >> I. >> Susan >> I. >> Diana >> I. >> Myself I 4. >> Yes. Linda, you get to stay.
All right, moving right along. Item number four uh this evening is our budget for fiscal uh 27. Thank you. >> Um >> Oh, yeah. Joanna Joanna will pass the um the document to you.
>> Can I get a water? >> Oh, sure. Absolutely. >> Got a physical. >> Here I come. >> Be here till 8. They're incredible. >> She can have one. >> I always get one. >> All right. Sorry. >> I just returned mine from last year.
>> Oh, we're good. >> Oh, the boys can have one. >> You guys want one? >> Yes. >> I want to review it. We're going to ask questions tomorrow. >> It's really good to understand them. >> All right. So, we are getting uh just
for for committee's reminder and then obviously for anyone watching at home, we're quickly approaching uh budget season. So, uh the budget for the school department actually begins being formulated um in the fall. So, right when we hit um October, we start working
internally on the budget. We have individual meetings with all of the different uh schools and principles to talk about their existing staff. We do a reconciliation. We talk about needs and things along those lines going forward. um get some input from the various departments about what's happening uh in
their worlds. A lot of it also is tracked through our strategic plan and the various meetings we have to talk about um how performance is going in the district between um October and now. Uh we kind of finalize what our budget recommendation is going to be. We work
closely with the um town manager. I work with uh Paul Cohen on both the school department budget as well as um ultimately the town budget that he'll recommend to the um uh town meeting in the springtime. We actually had two different um what we call them tri board
meetings this past fall. We had one in November and then one in December um because the fiscal outlook you know not only for Chelms but I think statewide was relatively bleak um with regard to various levels of state aid. We had a significant increase in the town for the
cost of health insurance. We had um significant increases in the Middle Sex retirement system. Now, not all employees of the Chelmswood public schools participate in the Middle Sex retirement system. The administrators and the teachers are actually in the mass teachers retirement system, but all
of our paras and secretarial staff and custodial staff are actually part of Middle Sex retirement. So, that assessment went up significantly. So, it was putting a lot of constraints on the available um resources for the um both the Chelsea public schools as well as the town. Um originally back in
November, we were projecting on the school side about a $3.5 million um cost for what a level service budget in the schools would be. As I'm going to explain to you tonight on a positive note, um that actually got down closer to $2.5 million based on uh some of the
different figures that kind of worked in our advantage. Um and ultimately as I walk you through this document um working with town manager Cohen um the recommendation for the school department and ultimately he'll be making recommendation to the select board next Monday at their meeting um will be a
level service budget for the town and the schools. Um, so I think in the scheme of, you know, what's happening both locally and statewide, while we certainly would love additional funding beyond level service to expand upon programming services, the budget before
you tonight is going to maintain uh the current level of staff uh services and programs that are provided in fiscal 26 and fiscal 27, which again I think is um is significant. Um what we have always done is um just as way of background
again and I'm not going to get um into as much of this as we did at the tri board meetings um but I'm just going to um kind of glance over it for you um for anyone maybe watching from from home for the first time. But with regard to our current fiscal 26 budget which started
July uh 1st 2025 and it's going to run through June 30th. We're very fortunate that all of our collective bargainings were in um contracts were in place so that we can actually really hone in on exactly what our expenditures and our liabilities for the current fiscal year are. So that's very helpful for us. Um
it's also very helpful for us going into fiscal 27 that we ratified u our major contracts last spring. So our um teachers, our administrators, our paras, our secretaries. So those numbers are kind of known for 27 and ultimately 28,
which will be helpful for multi-year planning. Um, but with regard to fiscal 26, we really have no concerns with um our local operating budget at this time, both our salary and our non-s salary accounts. Um, our grant and revolving accounts uh again are strong. We haven't
had any issues with any of our federal grants, which I know we talked about previously about whether any of the funding would ever be interrupted. It hasn't been. Um, so we're really in very good fiscal shape with regard to local funding, grant funding, and all of our revolving funds. And again, as I
mentioned, we did um conclude all of our different school and department level meetings. And I feel the budget before you tonight is a good reflection of again our current programs and services. It keeps us on a good trajectory to um to keep working in the areas that we're focusing on.
back in October. Um again, there are four or five slides that I always review with you just to kind of show you where we're stacking up with um statewide what Desi calls our comparable districts. Now, these change from year to year, but what Desi does is it goes through a process of figuring out what
Chelmsford's 10 most comparable districts are based on not geography, but uh student composition, um level of special ed, level of ELLL, um level of free and reduced lunch, grade level configurations, what are offered in the
districts. And so, I would say typically seven out of the 10 districts are usually the same year to year. And then there's a couple that change in. >> A couple of them that surprised me uh quite honestly off the bat for for Brookline and Newton to come in as a comparable to us were a little bit um
surprising, but um they are comparable as far in Desi's eyes. So we do have to take a look at them both spending wise and performance-wise. Um you know, Andover is not too much of a surprise. Andover is typically um a comp. It's one of the ones that's on the borderline.
Sometimes it's in, sometimes it's not. North Andover is the one that's traditionally always a compromise and our demographic is very similar to North Andover as compared to uh to Andover, but um NATIC was a little bit of a surprise, but NATC's been in there for a couple of years, so we do benchmark
against NATIC. And obviously, like I took um Franklin's been a comp for a while, so those those didn't surprise me. But with regard to every year, a district is required to at least meet net school spending or whatever the state defines as the minimum amount of money they need to spend on education to
provide what they term adequate education. And that all ties back to the chapter 7 funding formula. So in Chelmsford back in 2024, which is the last year that was certified across the state, um Chelmsford exceeded its net school spending amount by 30%. So they
spent 130% of net school spending. Statewide the median is slightly higher than that at 30.7. Um and then we had four districts uh actually three districts that spent less than us. Marshfield, Franklin, and Melrose. North Andover actually spent
the same at 30%. And then you had um six different districts actually spend uh more. Six of our comparable districts uh more than uh Chelwood with regard to their percent over net school spending. And obviously the one that jumps off the charts is Brooklyn. You know, they
almost spend twice um as much as what their required net school spending um is. When we talk about um you know, ability to fund and you know, our programs and services, again, I think we're all very proud of what we actually offer here in the district and we provide a very good education. And my
takeaway from these slides is we're providing that very good education um at a very reasonable cost. I think Shelford is is well um positioned based on the funding that they give both the schools in the town when it comes to you know police and fire and public safety. Those
are kind of the cornerstones of funding in this community and I think the town does get a very good bang for its buck when it comes to um spending in particularly on the um on the school side. Another area that we take a look at is what the state terms um what we
spend per pupil um in district. So this is a collection of the total budget that we spend in the district. Again, fiscal 24 was the last year that was actually audited statewide. So we try to see where we stack up on this front. And again, we're actually second to the bottom as far as our per pupil spending
is concerned with just over $17,000 per student based on 24 figures. You can see the median value statewide is uh 21,153. So statewide, you know, again, we're we're spending less than that. Um, again, I'm not overly surprised that
Berkeley, Newton, and Andover are spending in the top third. Um, and we're in the in the bottom third. Again, this is something that, um, we would love to see additional uh, revenue to support, but um, I think for the $17,000 per
student, we're actually getting a very good return on our investment. Um, and again, this signals to me we're not spending too much on education. So, if someone says you're actually spending too much, well, no, compared to our comparable districts and even the state, we're certainly not spending too much. Um, we take a look at our student
teacher ratio um to just kind of see where we're stacking up against our uh comparable districts and also the state average. And this is another slide. You can see we're in kind of the bottom third. So, we're certainly not overstaffed in Chelse uh because that you will hear from time to time, but uh
the state average is 11.8 to one. Um, no, obviously there's not every single classroom with 11.8 kids statewide, but what they do is they take the total number of teachers a district employs and divides it by the number of students they have in a district. A couple of things that throw this number off
slightly, obviously specialized programs. So, um, like in Chelse, we actually do have um, a lot of in district programs for special education and we have a lot of autism programs obviously that wouldn't have 20 or 25 students in them. Uh, we have life skills programming. We have ELLL
programming. So you take the total number of licensed staff that you have divided by your headcount. And again, what I find valuable about this is just to say in general terms, are we over staffed? You know, and certainly we're not among our comparable districts and we're certainly not uh compared to our
state average. You know, we're we're spending and staffed at the at the lower level. An area that we've actually focused on on this next slide over the last uh number of years is our average teacher salary. So, our average teacher salary, again, 24 was the last year that was
audited, was just above $90,000. And you can see uh again kind of where we stack up against our 10 most comparable districts. And we're in the bottom third on this one. This slide can be slightly um difficult or um challenging from time
to time because it doesn't necessarily take into consideration um staff turnover. And we we do have a very veteran staff in the district. When we just did our teacher negotiations, I believe about 52 or 53% of our staff were actually on the top step. But
obviously that meant, you know, 47 48% of the staff were still moving steps. So when you're moving steps, um, you're not only getting the colar increase, say the 3% that we just talked about, but you're also picking up 3 to 4% per step in between. So people are getting a pretty good jump until they get to the top
step. And then when you're on the top step, you're getting just the annual cola. Um, when you take it cumulatively and you take the average, that's where it's coming out to the 90,000. Again, I use this as kind of a benchmark. Um, and again, we're in the bottom third. This is something in the last round of negotiations, we talked about this a
little bit early with some of the non-affffiliated contracts, we actually added three and a half% on the top step to just try to start to move that number a little bit. Um, so we're hoping in time that we'll at least kind of jump up to the midway point, but you know, we're not far off it, but um, certainly this
is an area that I think the committee is focused on. I'm focused on trying to make the salaries as competitive as possible to really attract and retain um, teaching staff. And we we've talked about it earlier. We we don't have a significant issue retaining it. When you come here, you typically do like to work, but we want the staff that are
here that do a very good job to um, feel valued and feel like they're um, being compensated appropriately. So that is something that we work on. And >> just before we go on just sometimes you you add them in sometimes you don't is that this is all the financials if you
put the academic achievement where we're on the bottom third here we're at the top third. >> Yeah. actually in the slideshow that we did for the fall town meeting um when we do so we typically spending wise staffing wise are in the bottom third but when we do take a look at our
academics whether it's um like different levels like third grade 8th grade certainly the high school we're typically in the top third um across the board and that's when you look like historically I think it was 2004 the MCCAST was the last ones we looked at and we even broadened it a bit beyond this 10 comparable districts to look at
our geographical neighboring districts we're certainly outperforming our geog geographical neighboring districts, but even when you look at our comps, yes, we're in the top third. >> So, going back to bang for your buck, >> a very good bang for your buck, correct, for the uh for the money that's spent. We take the money that we spend very seriously. You know, we're not trying to
say that this isn't significant money or it's not a lot of money, but I think we use the money that we have very wisely. I think we invest it heavily in staff and services and supports for our students and in the end, our students do very well. I think you get a very good education in Chertfordshire. >> And just a quick comment on the teacher
salary. While we do have to be concerned about whether or not Chsford is attractive for teachers to come to based on the salary, we also say to the community, we are not being at all extravagant in how much we're spending on teachers either. We're really working
on keeping the financial picture as low as we can and still have great services. So, >> I think that's a tricky thing here. Like, oh, the poor teachers don't get as much, but the town gets a lot for that amount of money. It's a balancing act, right? Because I think the slide that talked about class size shows that we're
not overstaffed. The staff that we have are not overcompensated, but a lot of that also plays into the fact that, you know, we're able to have a level service budget when many of the districts around us are in really tough financial shape and they're looking at pretty significant cuts and we're not looking at a cut scenario, right? You know,
again, I think we manage the money that we have very well. Um, and that's it's been aligned to the strategic plan work that we're doing and it's going to allow us to keep moving forward. Again, when a lot of our neighboring districts and statewide people are really in tough financial times. >> So, as we look at the budget itself, um,
again, I did work very closely with town manager Cohen on this budget. Um, both the schools and the town are going to be able to support a uh a level service budget for next year. Um, again, happy with the fact that we're able to maintain our staffing levels, our programs and services we're offering
this year. Next year, our budget increase um will go up $2.5 million. That's the recommendation from 75.65 million to 78.15 million. Um obviously because this is a level funded budget, there's not significant
uh changes in the budget document as you go through it, but we have incorporated um all of the salary increases from the negotiated contracts. And again, fortunately, we know what they are. So that's very valuable for budgeting standpoint. We've rolled forward all the salaries and the step increases, the
lane increases that we know individuals are contractually um able to receive. Um we've budgeted all of our vacancies. We have about eight or nine uh teacher retirements. And just to that when we're kind of talking about like the south when the South row staff were in here
talking about retirements, we actually only have one retirement at the elementary school grade level next year. We have a kindergarten teacher at Bay and retiring. We don't have any other retirements at the elementary level. So we've got some great staff that we're in working with, but we just haven't had the turnover to be able to really, you
know, hire a lot of them. But when we do, you know, we've got a we've got a a built-in brew there. But we're very stable. But we did account for um a budgeting um savings of um obviously when people retire typically the top step we budgeted step three that's what
we've been historically doing. So just under 75,000 is what we're budgeting for the replacement. Again building in those um savings helps us get to the level uh service rate. We have found when we've looked at um you know regionally we're going to maintain day-to-day substitive
teacher rates uh day-to-day power rates, long-term sub rates, day-to-day sub nurse rates. Um I think they're on the high end. They're probably on the top third end of uh of spending, but we want to make sure that when we do have staff out that they're replaced with really as highly qualified individuals as we can
find. Um that's something that we do every other year. we do a benchmark on to just make sure that we're comparably paying those positions. Um, but this budget's able to uh to maintain those increases. And when I talk a little bit about, you know, because we talked previously about a $3.5 million ballpark
cost for the level service budget, but we're receiving $2.5 million as the increase or just about a 3.2% increase. Um, part of the reason we were able to do that is because, um, we actually saw a $425,000 decrease in special ed out of district
tuitions, which doesn't happen often. You know, usually your out of district tuitions are going up, but we actually have several um, very expensive out of district placements that are aging out um, either at the end of the spring or early fall. So, we're able to account
for those savings. Um, so that was a decrease in tuition, which you typically don't receive. Um, we also have an extra $235,000 in circuit breaker revenue. So, that's like an extra help. And we're able to budget um a revenue offset again from
Valley um of at least $300,000 at this point. And I do I don't want to get pinned to a number because I don't know what it's necessarily going to be, but I think the 300 is conservative. Um, I think Valley's return for next year because there was a change in the um um
the retainage that collaboratives can uh can keep um on on record. I think we're going to end up getting probably a little bit money back. Uh but again, I want to be conservative at this point. I don't want to overestimate what that uh revenue offset would be. Um but, you know, between that and minor little
tweaks within the budget, um we're able to come in with a with a level service budget. um $2.5 million increase or 3.2% overall. The budget document before you um worked with Joanna and the staff and the business office um to put before
you. So you have your narrative on pages 1 to nine. Then on page 10, you have the uh summary level totals. We've kept the um the format of the budget consistent because I think people that do look at it year to year u find it helpful. Um it's a good working document for us. So
you can see on page 10, the far right hand column where the fiscal 27 budget ties out to 78 uh 150 and then when you start pages 11 all the way through uh pages 47 is what we call the category level
detail. So when you look at the category level detail and let's say on page 11 you see 34,960 for the school committee and you go back to the summary level total on page 10 you can see 34960 for the school committee sum total. So
everything basically crosswalks back to that main page. So when we get together the Tuesday after February vacation and we're going to have the budget hearing that night. We're going to go page by page through. I'll answer any questions with Joanna that you may have about the budget or where we came up with different numbers. We've used the little
footnote section again on each of the pages. So, anytime as we've been preparing the budget and something jumps out to Joan or I that the public may have a question about, we try to put a footnote to just help you. Um, so try to read the footnotes when you're um putting the um review together on the
budget, but we'll go page by page and answer any questions you may have. Um and then ultimately on page 47 um vote to approve a bottom line of 78150 which would then go forward to uh
town meeting in the um April town meeting for approval by town meeting. Um when the town manager recommends his budget next um Monday night, uh the number that he'll include for the school department is a 78150. Um so we'll be on in on line with that. After page 47 is
when the staff salary book comes in. This is just another level of um tie out. So again, this actually crosswalks every position in the district back to the um category level details, the FTEES and the dollar amounts and then that crosswalks back to the main page. Um so
again for transparency sake um everything is there as a crosswalk and it walks back to the main document. That's been consistent with what we've done previously. And then um we've put three different appendices in this year. Uh and again this is for consistency
sake. Appendix A which begins on page 60 is the um student enrollment summary. So this is the student enrollment report which I shared with you in December. And then NZDC also does an annual update for us on our student enrollment. We had done a significant uh demographic study
with them and enrollment projection a few years back for the MSBA project. But um as just kind of an update, we send them our numbers after we do the October 1st certification and they end up just doing a year-to-year rolling update for us. So they might pick up a few students here or there. It just helps our
longerterm projection. So I always include that in the budget book for you. And then on page 86 is the student activity and club section. So again, this just talks a little bit about the uh the money we receive and the money we expend at the Parker, McCarthy, and High School for our student activities, which
again are very popular. Um page 89 is the grant um fund summary because while the school committee doesn't really go grant by grant um through for approvals, we do want to include them for you just so that you can see this is additional money that augments some of the different work and services we do in the
district. So you have a listing of each of the different grants and what it's actually supporting. And then appendix D, which is the last appendix, is on page 92. This is just a listing of all of your um revolving funds in the district. Um and the uh estimated balances at the end of the uh the fiscal
year. So the the big ones are obviously a school nutrition account. Um you know, we have our athletic accounts, our um you know, KMED line is in there. Uh, so those are some of your your bigger accounts, but again, these aren't
individual votes that you make on the revolving funds, but um all of our evolving funds, our grants are in very solid shape going into fiscal 27 as well. So, I really don't have any concerns um with those funds. >> So, yeah. >> What what civic activities what actually
encompasses that category? >> So, that's when we um rent our facilities. >> That's what I thought. Okay. to the community. So, um, like the pack, >> right, >> the gyms, what it is, >> that's kind of what I'd garnered by looking at the words. I just wanted to
make sure I had it right. >> U, but really over the next because we're off for February break, right? So, we're kind of off cycle, but over the next week and a half, two weeks, if you reading through this, if you have any questions, if you want to send them to me in advance, I'm happy to answer them and respond to you so things just move
smoothly that Tuesday we get back. Um, you certainly can ask questions at Tuesday as well, but if you want me to do like a digging thing to figure out anything for you or work with Joanna, the sooner you just ask the questions, it just makes it a little bit easier for us. We can do the data and pull for you
and have the information. Um, again, we don't have too many that typically take us up on this, but we will email all the town meeting reps a link to the budget posted online. Let them know that we are going to be having a budget hearing when we get back from break. and um we'll review the document then and prepare for
fincom. We then will go forward to the fincom with whatever the committee's recommendation is and then town meeting in April. >> Anybody have any questions, comments? >> I do have one uh immediate question. I think it's probably something you could answer pretty quickly tonight.
Um, it just my first thing I look at is is personnel and I noticed under the teaching staff that there is a note about um an apparent decrease of one full-time
staff member. >> Yeah. >> And it's because of the bubble year, but I thought that was this year. So, I was just curious what that is. >> Yeah. So, no, I'm appreciate you bringing that up. So, we're not down a staff member. Uh, so we're technically down a staff member this year if you think about it that way. So when we
create the staff salary book and we put the budget together, it's based on like a snapshot in time of who's working in a particular school during that year. >> So last year we ended up having um three what we call them bubble teachers in the fourth grade. Um, and this this current
year that we're in. So the budget carried three FTEEs. We added a split team at McCarthy, I'm sorry, at Parker because of the student enrollment, but a split team is only two people. So, it's a teacher to teach math and science and a teacher to teach ELA and social studies. But technically,
there were three positions that were budget. Bless you. Three positions that were budgeted. So, only two were filled for this year. So, we technically have like a vacant um teacher. What we typically do is when a bubble uh kind of rolls up because when we do the kindergarten registration, we're
assuming that we're going to do four kindergartens at each grade level um based on numbers. If we ever had to add say a fifth section, sometimes I'll float that bubble down to K. Um we didn't have to float that bubble um this year down to K. So we basically ended up with an unfilled position. So the
unfilled position is is in the current budget. It's not filled. So it's now just going to kind of factor out. So it does look like we dropped an FTE, but it's no one's losing a job. We don't have someone in that job right now. It was a vacant bubble. So this budget just accounts for that shrinkage that going away.
>> Just for my clarity. So there are no elementary schools right now with five sections in kindergarten. >> If there are, it was based on budget at the time. >> So the prior Okay. So somewhere in elementary school lost some population. >> Yeah. You always lose it in fourth
grade. So la so last year we must have had three bubbles in fourth and only two positions moved on to >> I so for whatever reason ratios wise it was able to work with only two teachers at the middle school even though they had been distributed among three different elementary schools. >> Yeah. Well the issue is because you've
got all the group now divided by a bigger number of teachers where at the elementary schools if you only have four and you have too many sometimes you have to add that fifth to just make the numbers work. >> Yeah. But when you've got the four elementary schools feeding into the one school, you can take the 16 teachers to
divide them to still keep your class sizes at the desirable number. You just have more flexibility. But no, there's no less position in the budget. I'm glad you asked that. Um, this is just the cleanup from really a year ago. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments, questions?
I just want to say that as I'm listening to the budget presentation every year and especially now I think more and more it's going to be important for us to have a presentation at some point on all our special ed programs if we can is that's coming up that's on the list for
presentations this year right >> I believe it's in March or April it's on the list I just don't remember off top of my head >> yeah thank you I did have one other question um a propo our discussion at the last meeting about moving up the timeline for curriculum
>> um piloting and and the early literacy programming. >> How does that impact our budget or did that impact our budget in the way that we are allocating spending because I imagine there are potential even in a
pilot year potential costs incurred. >> Yes. So the pilot year really the costs are insignificant. uh most of the vendors are working with you um to provide product so you're not paying out of pocket for for the pilot itself. >> Um the purchase of a new curriculum whether it's math or those are the big
curriculums. I mean you're talking in excess of a million dollars for one of those purchases. >> Um that would have to be a one-time spend. Um we wouldn't put a I wouldn't recommend putting a a line item in the budget for that because it's not consistent year-over-year that you'd be doing something like that. That's like
an every six or seven year type thing, >> right? So, um, what we would do is we would allocate our a portion of our one-time spend next year to the purchase. And the way that the actual adoption process would work out as like we get into next winter and actually have a recommendation for the product
that would be purchased, it would be right in time for that March, April when we do the one-time spending. And traditionally, we've been somewhere in the two to three million range of available funds, right? A million would come right off the top to go uh to fund that curriculum adoption. Um, that's how
we've been doing it. >> Okay. I want >> the funding. Yeah, the funding will be there. Um, it's just going to come as a one-time fund as opposed to putting it in the operating budget, but I'm not concerned at all about not having the funding. >> Thanks. >> Any other questions, comments? >> I just had, you know, one quick comment
just look through um in general um at the budget. So, we have no cuts to staff, no cuts to programming, no fee increases, no none of that. If you read the paper, and I read the paper all the time, that's outstanding compared to
where a lot of districts are right now. A lot of districts are fighting with being a million dollars over, $2 million over, cutting staff, cutting programs, increasing their fees. I mean, you know, I'm up in the upper Marramac Valley, so I read the Eagle Tribune, and just every day there's another article about
another district that's that's in dire straits. and to be in this condition under these circumstances. I think that's a a credit to the superintendent staff and um the way they do their budget. So, >> yeah. No, I I I do I don't want to
belabor it, but I I do think overall we're in very good shape as far as that's concerned. I think we've managed the budget well, you know, since we've um since we've been here. Joanna I I credit and her donor and and the group in the business office do a very nice job of keeping us in line, keeping us uh
spending on track. Um but we've been fortunate. You know, the local budget supported us. Um we've got very good, you know, reserves with regard to like our circuit breaker reserve for any kind of extraordinary expenses that could come up. We developed that extra reserve on special ed on the s the town side
that we could access in an emergency. um our revolving funds are um you know solid. I mean we we just we we have the backup if something were to happen which again a lot of districts don't have any reserves. So like we're fully reserved. Um I think the money we have in the the
local budget is solid. Our um school choice fund we haven't had to tap to really help offset the local budget. That's helped us to pay for our technology expenses. Again we've been able to leverage some of our one-time funding to do capital projects that we can't get to with the town. you know,
we've done a lot. Um, and when we report on that each year, you know, we're investing back in the schools and the buildings to make sure that the students and staff when they're in the buildings have the very best that they can. They have the resources that they need to hopefully do their jobs and do them well. >> And they do. They do a very good job.
>> Yep. >> Right. And D, at this time, it always makes me realize how important it is because this is over 60% of the revenues that come into our town are spent by our schools. And so personally as a voter in
our town and as a member of the town, I really feel that it's money extremely well invested. >> I agree. >> All right. Any other things on the budget? >> Okay. All right. Great. So, we look forward to the budget hearing in the next meeting. >> We'll get that noticed
>> and this will get posted online. >> Yeah. The Tuesday after the break because we're off for February break. So, >> and when will this be posted? >> Tonight. >> Tonight. So, people can access if they want to. >> February. >> Yeah. So, it'll be post the pack will be updated to include it, but then uh Joanna has this page under the business and finance office that tracks all the
budgets. It'll be there as well. >> Perfect. >> Last item I have this I'm sorry. >> Okay. >> And we have field trips. >> Yeah, we have field trips. Yeah. >> So, we do have uh two field trips for your um review and approval tonight. >> The wrestling team. What's that?
>> I know. The the wrestling team actually got me. >> You want to go to the wrestling team? >> Which is great. wrestling tournament. >> That's the one. >> Yeah. >> If they have individuals that qualify for the New England uh state tournament on March 7th and 8th, they would like them to go to Providence, Rhode Island.
And then we have uh a field trip um kind of a service learning trip to South Africa that would like to be planned for February break a year from now in uh in 27. Um so those two field trips are before you for review. >> Yes. And tonight, Mr. Chairman, I would
like to delegate uh the motion to Patrick because both of these field trips are really important to him. >> I move that we approve the field trips and travel requests as follows. >> Oh, Chumsert High School wrestling team
New England wrestling championship tournament March 7th to 8th >> in Providence, Rhode Island. >> That's number one. Um and the chumpster high school service learning trips for interested students to South Africa from
February 11th to 21st, 2027. >> Yeah, >> I I will second that motion. >> Okay. All right. Does anybody have any questions on either field trip? >> I just say it's amazing that we're going to South Africa, not New Hampshire, and
Rhode Island and not New Hampshire. It's great. >> Now, it describes a service trip. Do you know what service organization is running the >> No. >> Yeah, it's on the back of Google. It's on the back. >> Yeah. I I think I'm I'm I'm an
interested student in um this the second trip. Yeah. And the first, but uh the second trip they want to do um I also checked the what they're going to do by the day and there's going to be work in the schools that um kids are going to do. Okay,
>> that's wonderful. I didn't know if there was a particular club this was for or >> one of the one of the people that are going on it is has a service learning club but this is a through the world language and that service learning club but it's really through the world language department. Oh, okay. Great.
Okay. All right. So, we have a motion. We have second on both field trips. >> All those in favor? >> I. Okay. >> Right. >> It's both approved. So, >> thank you, Patrick. >> You can apply here. >> All right. Um, does anybody have any
liaison reports for you? >> All right. So, I have a couple. I attended the um center school PTO meeting for me. Always a pleasure. They are an immensely incredible group. Um and they are right now in the middle of
Taste of Chumsford which is going quite well for them. Art always does. Um they're going to have um the first time for a while they're going to have an international cultural day
and they already have uh 10 groups or families that have signed up to present their culture and so on in the system. their fundraising is going extremely well and they're able to provide quite a few of their activities free of charge to families. So, that has been going
quite well. The second uh meeting I attended was the wellness committee and if you'll remember at the beginning of the year I said the big thing this year is the wellness fair and that's going to be March 6th and I volunteered for one thing on this thing which is hobbies.
So, we're going to have some fun things with hobbies. Um, but there's so much that they're going to have uh in the presentations. So quite exciting and they've been working very very hard at this. >> Susan, anything?
>> Yeah, I went to the Chford Friends of Music um meeting last week and they are really still focusing very much on the friends part of that. there really wanted to make it be a a community for anyone involved in all the music programs to take part in a lot of what
they do. Um, and a lot of what they do ultimately leads towards scholarships which they give out which I'll talk about in a minute. But a couple of things they've got coming along in the pipeline is hoping to do a music trivia night.
Um perhaps doing something some kind of battle of the bands because apparently lots of different kids in the high school have their own bands and that might be fun for them um to do that and therefore fun for families to come and hear all the different bands that might participate in Battle of the Bands. Um,
they're also planning to do a raffle when they have the instrument test drive for the fourth graders, you know, rising fifth graders, that they're planning to do a raffle because they actually have a lot of donated instruments that they're ready to give out and if they have a
raffle perhaps to do that. That's one of their plans. Um, the middle school showboat talent show will be on May 16th. That's always really um popular. And of course, an ongoing source of revenue for Jumps for Friends of Music
is the bottling can drives. And they've talked about and it's relies on right now high school kids to volunteer and provide service hours. They're talking about maybe inviting middle schoolers to be part of that community as well to just kind of help do that and get them
engaged with their home events. And all that money that they go um goes toward um scholarships. They've got two big scholarships that are available for seniors who participate in um any of the um high school music ensemble groups and
also do community service such as working at the bottling crayon drive. But in addition to those um college scholarships, they do a lot of band camp and you know other music camp scholarships as well. So kids should pay attention to when those
come up and apply for them because they don't always have people apply and to take advantage of the fact that that money is out there. >> So >> thank you. >> I do have one other thing I want to bring up that's not quite a liazison but I don't know when else to say it just because I told people today I would on Facebook today a lot of people were
saying they couldn't access I Ready scores. So, I just said that I would bring it up to let you know that apparently people need a little more clear guidance on the procedure for getting their kids access to their kids I Ready scores. A lot of parents had
different solutions, but they weren't all the same. And some people say they gave up and they never even try. Okay. So, I just wanted to pass that on to make sure that everyone has clear instructions on how to do that because apparently
it's not clear enough. >> They have to go through the students clever portal and there's the same direction as I said each time. There were many people who didn't seem to know when one person said do this way and another person said it do this way and I do know from my own family member that
they did get access to it but one of the tests it wouldn't populate so they got all the reading ones but the math ones it wouldn't populate the information even when they got it open. So just to pass that along that
people need help. >> Just going to before I share my less on report I can share that I was able to get one of my two childrens very easily and the other one is not working. So I would just reiterate as somebody who definitely knows how to do it. I don't know what's going on but it's being very
the portal is being very strange. I don't know if it's just overworked. Um I um I do have two liaison reports to share, one official, one unofficial. My official one is that I was at the South Row PTO meeting last night and we just
heard a lot from South Row, but a few things that aren't covered because they're sort of in the unique uh focus of the PTO um to share. Um is that um we got to hear from the se second grade department. Um, I've really liked the
South Row PTO has rotated in educators from different grades for each meeting to really focus on one grade at a time. Um, which is really wonderful. Um, so as a parent of a second grader, that was a bonus, but it it's always really nice to
hear. Um, last month it was kindergarten. Um, South Row meets remotely in the winter and um, so that's been a bit of an experiment in recent months and it seems to be working well. Um, Southro has a try it Tuesdays program um, which is really fun where
kids try fruits and vegetables um, that they may be unfamiliar with in their classes. They're delivered um, into each class. And um, last Tuesday was olives, which proved to be the most controversial so far this year. Um,
my second grader loves olives, but he he told me he was offered many, many, many olives from classmates who maybe tried one and weren't big fans. Um, the um the other things that going on at South Row, um, they've been doing a lot
of, um, schoolto family initiatives. Um they had a kindness challenge that involved students filling out a sheet for um every time they do an act of kindness or somebody in their family does an act of kindness. And they had a big challenge um to support students
developing executive functioning skills where students would get uh signed off by a parent for every morning that they independently and correctly packed their backpacks. Um things like that. are really working on connecting with the community. And finally, there's work um
toward the science fair coming up on the 25th of February. Um my not official liaison thing is just sort of to share. I was able to attend um as I mentioned last time I'm trying to get involved um on our committee's
behalf in the district 10 um for uh school committees through mask and um I don't think the word is district I'm trying to think of the word region I don't know region 10 um and um I went to
they held a session on the 23rd at noon, kind of a lunch session focused on um using data to support increasing equity and how school committees um the kinds of things school committees can
look at to really dive into data appropriately. So they had a lot of really great tools that they shared um that were available for us to kind of walk away from um looking at basically
all the different kinds of data that one can look at to gather information on different aspects related to equitable outcomes. Everything from student engagement to um student voice and climate, family and caregiver engagement. So, um I have some tools
that we can look at at some point if it's ever something that we want to, but I think um I would just love to encourage u my colleagues um potentially to to join me on February 27th. They are having a follow-up session that's really
meant to be more of a handson ideally coming in groups. So, um wanted to share that. >> Thank you for doing that. All right. Um I don't have any reports but alumni association is going to meet tomorrow night. So we'll have that and then the building committee is actually going to meet over February break which I think I
mentioned before is a date change. It's going to be the 19th versus the 26th. Hopefully by then we'll have heard back from MSBA on our initial report and uh >> yeah uh they sent just a couple of clarifying questions more for AI3 and left field last week just preliminary
type things. Um, we haven't received the first battery of um questions, but as soon as we do, I'll let you know. >> Great. Okay. All right. Um, any new items? Anybody have anything they want to bring up? >> Not this time. >> Just want to bring up I I know Maria got
this email, too. One parent just had had questions about recess and particularly indoor recess which I'm sure is a big thing right now since it's been six degrees out and how they b teachers balance the need for the kids to have free time with also having organized you know non- chaotic time I you know so I
don't know if we could get more clarification on that they were just wanted to know how can the kids get their extra energy out yet at the same time they have to stay at a particular station and do a particular activity so >> right >> uh yeah no I actually have spen spoken to this parent um via email. We've gone
back and forth a couple of different times. It's a um it's a struggle, right? So, um all kids want to be outside at recess. I think all adults want their kids to be outside at recess. Um but there are times when you have to be inside either
based on the cold or like we've had a lot of ice. So, if you end up getting ice in the parking lots and things like that, it's very difficult to send the kids out. So, you do have to improvise. Um, the particular parent I spoke with, which I assume is the one you would uh communicate with as well, happened to
have been a um kindergarten a parent of a kindergarten student who was um upset with the fact that during indoor recess, the kids were somewhat limited in what they um could do for activities. The teacher uh basically designs like different activities for the kids to do
and like rotates them around different tables of uh students for the activity and the kids can work at the table or they can work on the floor or the carpet next to the table and do their activity for the 20 to 25 minutes of the recess. Um the parent would like the students to basically have unstructured time and
just be able to go around um the classroom or whatnot and not have it be so structured. Um this was a it's a kindergarten classroom. I think the teacher is well within her right to be working with the recess aids to develop the activities for the kids to do. Um
the I support the teacher. I support the principal who has met with and communicated with this parent around the need for structure and just not complete unstructured time particularly for kindergarten students in a classroom that has to turn into a learning environment 20 minutes after the re uh
the recess. So, um it's it's one of those situations where again we can agree to disagree on what should happen during the time, but um I do not personally have a problem with the teacher or the administrator and having the recess time for kindergarten students be structured as opposed to
unstructured when they have to be in the classroom. Um I would love them to be outside. I'd love them to just be able to go to the gym and run around and get a little steam off, but at the same time during the day that they're having recess, there's a phys class going on in the gym. It's not that the gym isn't being used. These schools are so
programmed. Um, but you know, again, I I think the the teacher and the principal heard the concern, they just can't accommodate it. And um I I do support what the school is uh doing. I think again, we'd love to see them get outside. And I think when the weather is is okay, they try to. But we're even
dealing like this week with just ungodly cold temperatures. So, you know, when you're talking about, you know, five and sixy olds having to get them all dressed up to go outside to come back in, it's it's it's just a lot. But, um, again, the concern was heard. I I think that that particular parent just was not
happy with the response. Um, but there are times when you have to improvise. And um I I do not have a problem with the teacher and the staff having it be a more structured recess as opposed to an unstructured recess, particularly for kindergarten students. >> I appreciate what you said about
realizing that as soon as that recess is over, that has to be a functioning classroom again. And when I know from experience, students are allowed to have free reign of what's in the classroom. Getting it cleaned up and ready to get back to the curriculum
can be hard. So they have >> it's tough for kids too and you know it's tough for five and six year olds to have in the same space to be able to have whatever you want to have happen for 20 minutes and then all of a sudden you've got to go back to rules and and kind of like a a classroom environment >> get everything put back where it needs
to be so that it's a functioning well functioning classroom. >> It's a challenge. >> I can see you smiling when you thinking about putting the kids coats on instead of bringing them outside. >> I've been there. >> All right. Well, thank you for answering that question. Um, the only other thing I had, and we just got this email today,
is that Day on the Hill looks like A, they moved it up to March. It's March 30th versus usually early April. And B, they're going to bring it back to the state house, which >> is much better. >> Yes. >> So, they used to do it in the state house and you had was you went there, you had your meeting, you had your
lunch, you went and saw your state reps. Then they moved it down the street. So, you had to go to the meetings down the street, then you had to go somewhere else for lunch, then you had to go to the state. So, I I think that this might, you know, I don't know who's has time, but this I I like this format a lot better.
>> It's a lot better. It certainly is a step in the right direction. I will have um Robin, if you'd like tomorrow, just email the committee the um narrative because we got it and just circulate and see if anyone would like to go. We certainly can register you and we can even talk as it gets closer, if people would want a carpool or whatnot. But I
can have her send an email tomorrow just to get started. >> Yeah. And then if we do have people interested, we can start talking to contacting our reps and making sure they're going to be around that day. Um, so we can go talk to them, which again, this is how it used to work. Um, so it'd be great to get back to that. So >> I'm curious about potentially attending.
I have to confirm that I can get the day off of my work, but um, >> I would love to talk to anyone in between now and and making that decision. I'd love to talk to anyone who's been before and and sort of get a better sense on what it is since I've never been on one of these. Absolutely.
>> Yeah. I I'm interested in going especially knowing that it's going to be at the state house because when I went it was at that other building. I think it would be much more valuable going to one at the state house. >> Absolutely. Yeah. >> Great. >> All right. Uh there's no other public comment that I know of. So I'll take a
motion to adjurnn. >> And I am once again delegating this motion this time to Richie. >> Go ahead. Move to adjourn. >> I uh move to adjourn. Second. >> All right. All those in favor? >> I Great. >> I I did.
>> All right. If everybody could just stay around, we have some documents.