and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. This meeting is being live streamed by Chaford Teledia 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 cha school committee public participation policy. Anyone speaking tonight during the public input portion of this meeting is notified the superintendent's office of the desire to speak has been provided with these guidelines. Upon request, written comments received no later than 12 p.m. on the day of this meeting will
also be read, made part of the record of the meeting during the second public comment session. So, welcome to this meeting of the cha school committee. Our first order of business is to approve the minutes from our meeting of December 2nd. >> I move that we approve the minutes of the regular school committee for
December 2nd, 2025. >> Second. Sorry. >> Got it. >> All right. Any corrections on the minutes? >> All those in favor? I 40. >> All right. Next up, we'll hear from uh Chford High School representatives. >> Thank you. So, trade week started at uh
the Trump High School yesterday uh with the regional council of carpenters coming. Today, the National Aviation Academy um came today and students learned about aviation mechanics. Uh tomorrow the Army National Guard is visiting to teach us about programs,
scholarships, and how much the Army has to offer in their uh many different trades that you can take up there. And on Thursday, Franklin uh coming Tech is is coming to allow students to explore many different trades. On Tuesday in the learning commons, uh the CHS a capella
groups, the Thursdays and the crescendos are hosting the listening lunch. Uh a time where students and teachers from all around the school can spend their lunchtime listening to our a capella groups. And from December 6th to 8th, the National Honor Society of CHS held a
festive of tree fundraisers. A number of trees, wreaths, stockings, and festive gifts baskets were raffled off for a worthy cause. The CPS holiday fund for families um in need received all the proceeds. And on Thursday, December 11th at 7 p.m., another amazing Chronford
High School winter concert took place at the performing arts center. And uh class of 2027 representatives had held their annual holiday lights event at the front of the high school on Sunday. People who came by were able to receive a map of the homes that were participating in the event and also able to receive plenty of
cookies and hot chocolate with great amount of holiday joy. Okay. Most important thing. How many more days till winter break? >> Uh >> school days. We got five. >> I knew one of you would tell me. >> Those are the important days. >> That's important. >> All right. Any other good news we'd like
to share? >> Yeah. And on that being u just a reminder that schools will not be in session from the from December 24th and we'll return on the 5th of January. So that is important. And then just to piggyback on the concerts, um it is concert season for the Chser Public
Schools. Actually, tonight as we speak, we have a concert happening for Parker and McCarthy. And on Thursday will be another Parker McCarthy orchestra. It's the orchestra tonight, I believe, is the chorus. Thursday is the orchestra. So, if you're looking for something to do, I always say please go and um see the the
different kids performing. They're amazing. Tomorrow night, 700 p.m. is going to be our third public forum for our building project for the Parker Middle School. So, please join us at the Elks at 7 PM. >> That's it for good news. >> All right. Anybody else have anything
they want to share? Okay, then we'll move on. I don't believe we have anybody for public comment. So, we're going to move on to new business. And our first order of business is to hear from our science coordinator, >> Don Morris, is here tonight. He's going to go over all things science.
>> Science of science. >> Science of science. >> I got to tell you, I've been learning science from you for now like 10 years. So, >> you've been here for this long. Hope you've learned a lot. >> I have clearly things clearly. Don't worry. >> I used to come with gifts, but not tonight. I'm sorry. >> That's all right. We'll get back to it. >> Uh so, it's great to see everybody uh
and be back here. I know the last time I was here was uh June of this year, but I do have some pretty good updates of what's happening within the science department. Uh grades K to 12. So, tonight few things that I'll focus on, something that has been new for us this year, me specifically, is our science
learning walkthroughs. Uh also an update with the new performance tasks which are aligned with Desi. uh some information about some grants that we recently acquired and then open to any questions you have about where we are with science and where we are going. So the first thing we have is learning walkthroughs
which we also had today in grade 5 um over at PAKA. Uh what's great about this is so this is a small team uh if we go over to PA it's myself, it's Dr. Hirs, uh representation from special education, uh Mr. Black, Mr. Soua, we all go in and we're looking at all the
science classes in grades five and in grade six. And our aim of what we doing here is we're we're looking for inclusive practices that we're seeing within the classroom. Uh we know that our staff do a phenomenal job of how they are inclusive of our students in their learning. But for us to come together and go into these rooms and
then when we come out, how we kind of in a way debrief to say this is what I saw from an inclusive standpoint, but to hear perspective from from Dr. Hirs or to hear from Mr. black from the principal end and then from a special education lens of what we're seeing. It's a really good opportunity for us to um to really like have an honest
discussion about what we're seeing, what does it mean, how does this help kids, uh and what we can take away from it to share with other staff as well. Uh so these teams that have come together, another thing that we have um is the actual practice I linked within the the presentation. I'll show you those practices on the next slide. Uh but
moving forward, so today was our second time over at PAKA. there will be at least one more time that I will be over there. Uh but again, we want to look at what are the real roots of these practices. We want to look at UDL, right? We actually want to look at what are some positive behavioral intervention supports we can offer. Um and also we're looking at social
emotional learning. So to go into the rooms when you see all of this happening at once, like you know the learning is going on, you know the students are engaged. Uh the rooms today just to see uh grade five, they're all on mixtures and solutions. They just started that unit. And to see the kids doing hands-on tasks and to see them actually arguing
with each other of no, we should do this step first or no, I think this is magnetic because uh or this is iron because the magnets's attracting it. So they're just hearing the the accountable talk, the argumentative talk, the sense making, it's just awesome to see. But to see how they're treating each other and being respectful of each other and they're going through that process,
that's an awesome part of it as well. So when I talk about these inclusive practices, uh this is straight from Desi and I wanted to be able to at least show you. So when we do go in, right, this is just a little list of, you know, what we could see with the educator, what they would be doing, right? What are some things that the student would be doing?
And then in general, what's actually happening within the classroom? Um, what's great about this is I don't have to look at this list to say, I wonder what I'm going to see in the class. The the joy of me being able to go into so many classes throughout the year, not just what we're doing with the walkthroughs, is that I know I'm going
to see these things when I walk in a room. It's just a matter of what does it look like from an elementary perspective, a middle middle school perspective or a high school perspective. Uh but it's been a great experience. U and you know I look forward uh to continuing to do this um at Parker and McCarthy.
Uh next thing we have uh the new performance test. I talked a little bit about this back in June of how there's a new MCCAST test that is coming uh for SY27 for grade five science and grade 8 science. I should say science, technology, engineering. And uh one of
the nice things that the state uh has released are performance tasks and these are you know something that has been released for districts to actually try out to give feedback to refine and to hone to make them more improved. I'm fortunate enough to be part of a science leader network. So we do get together
periodically throughout the year. We do look at these tasks and we actually say all right those of the districts who have done it, how did it work for you? What was working? What did not work? Some of these when they come out a couple years ago, they say this is going to take three days or this is going to take one day. And now here we are a few
years later and they're saying okay so we're way way off on this. It's actually, you know, three days instead of one or it's like one day instead of three. Um but they're phenomenal resource and uh they are locally developed. They've been released online and they periodically release more and
more on the Desi site. in terms of uh what we're going to do with these is we're going to have to find a way of how can we put these within our larger units in grades five, six, seven, and eight. At the same time, how do we take this transition to these new types of uh assessments in grade five and eight?
What does that look like at the elementary level? How do we actually prepare students to come up >> all right for what this is looking like? Uh but these are they're actually really interesting tasks. I want to give a few examples. So grade five one that's been released uh this is actually something
that is also unique is that they described districts to localize them if possible right so you know I like to say like the term chumps for eyes right so this first one uh in grade five it actually talks about a mil foil infestation uh this is something that is right out of the newspaper that happened
in North Chumpsford this past summer uh over at um Crystal Lake Freeman Lake um I always say both names uh and that was something where I money had to come in. A grant was written to reduce that mil foil because it chokes out the oxygen supply within the lake. It's a similar type of study that grade five students
can come in. So, I can actually take this study with my team of fifth grade teachers. We can transfer this and say, "What does this look like at the real local level here in Chsford?" Put those places in places that kids relate to, kids that they know, and they can say, "Oh, this is why the beach was closed for a period of time this summer." Uh,
so they're learning about it. There's also that local connection. Uh also in terms of uh conserving rainwater is a great task that we're going to be able to look at. And then in grade six, this one's a little different. Uh it's actually similar to a a unit project we
do in grade six now with waves of how we have to reduce um the effects of sound and sound mitigation. Um we do it with a small like shoe box example. But one of the things that we've talked about is how can we make this an actual better assessment. So, what's nice is that with this new one that was released, I can work with sixth grade to say, "What can
what can we do to have this happen in our classroom? What does it look like?" But also giving our PD time to really sit and discuss what is this going to look like? How are we going to implement this? How are we going to score this? How are we going to be common with the scoring? And then get feedback to actually help our curriculum going forward. So, uh it's a great resource.
Uh I look forward to uh not only working with the staff with this, but even to see the kids work with this. And then last big piece of information, there's some recent grant news that relates to science. So this is more so at the upper middle school and the high school level. Uh we're fortunate enough this year for
innovation pathways, we did receive another implementation grant. So implementation grant are funds that help you sustain your pathway program. So we do have a life science pathway which has a focus on biotechnology or environmental uh technology.
Um these are funds that are really geared towards instructional supplies. Biotechnology supplies are not cheap. Uh we see these costs go up and up each year. Uh but this is a grant that is huge for us and able to support uh keeping these classes going uh and have
these hands-on uh activities for our kids. So for this school year, we received 50,000 from the state. This 50,000 actually gets split. It's not just for life science, but it's for all four of our pathways. It also um is looked at for uh tuition programs for our students who have dual enrollment
who are in the advanced part of our pathways. Um we've had this grant I think this is year three we've had implementation uh for life science pathway but it's been a huge huge huge support uh of how how we can actually run the program. And then the other
great news or actually before I even get to that you're probably saying like what are some of these things we buy? The first one I always have to talk about because everybody looks at this picture and they say puppies. What is what is going on here? Uh it's actually a lab that our high school students do and you guys could probably chime in. I don't know if you if you did this one, you know, maybe maybe not. Uh they call it
the oodles of poodles lab. >> Uh now you remember. Okay. Uh so they run gel electropharesis. They have to determine uh genetics of a dog and who the parent and the offspring are. So it's pretty interesting. Uh I will not do this with real dogs. We're not going to do no breeding happening here at the
school. Um, but other things that we have to do uh with this money, we actually look at uh soil testing. We look at water quality testing. Um, and and our kids are pretty active with this. They get outside, they they're doing a lot of testing on the school grounds. We have the science pond, you know, so we see them get in there with the waiters and everything in the fall
and the spring. Uh, but when they actually get these samples and we have to do some data analysis, it takes supplies, right? And this grant that, you know, helps pay for these supplies. And the other great news that we have is sometimes we have the supplies but a lot of the things in science you also have
the have to have the equipment and equipment costs for scientific uh materials are extremely high and we were lucky enough that we received a skills capital grant. This is similar to what we received a few years back. We're looking forward to implementing this again. This is going to be geared
towards life science and our manufacturing engineering pathways. So this is equipment that is used within those classes uh that support those pathway programs. Uh also we look at equipment that relates to industry skills and industry applications. We try to reach out to industry partners to say
hey what do you expect for you know somebody coming into the workforce right now graduates down the road what do you want them exposed to? What do you want them learning? So that way when they do see something it's not totally new for the first time. Um some of the larger purchases with this uh does come back to
our biotechnology and some of our chemistry classrooms. Uh looking at more uh I think the analytic balance more equipment for gel electropharesis. From the manufacturing engineering side uh there are new laser engravers and laser cutters uh and components for our
robotics program. With both of these grants I cannot you know have done any of this without the support from um obviously in the career center when we had Miss Cunningham and now we have Mr. silver in there, but also working with uh Dr. Sweeney uh and Bill Silver to say, "All right, how how can we, you know, support both these programs?
They've been a huge huge huge resource for this." Uh, and I appreciate the support they've been giving me. And of course, Joanna, who gets to deal with me doing the the payment and budgeting and everything with it. So, it's been great. Um, but we're looking forward to, you know, receiving these funds, getting these products in here hopefully before
the end of the calendar year so when we come back from break, we can actually hit the ground running with these. And that is all I have in terms of our major updates. So I'm open to any and all questions that you may have. >> Any questions
>> on on the Pathways program? Are you seeing that the people the students who enter the Pathways program, the freshmen that have just come in this year, >> what are the numbers? How are we looking? >> So we have seen a we've seen a small steady increase throughout the pathways.
Um I can tell you this past year was the first year we actually had have a lottery for our business pathway because it was over subscribed >> for business >> for business finance. Correct. Um science usually teeters right towards the edge of 20. We we cap each pathway at 20 per year just because of the funding that has to go with it in terms
of um tuition and supplies. It's beyond what our budget is. That's where the implementation money comes in. >> Um we do see some students that do not fully metriculate through and that's for a variety of reasons, right? One of those could be um they just lost interest in that subject, right? Some
students come in, they say I am going to do business and finance and then they might end up taking some other class in another department and say that's what I want to do now. Like they're what they really want to do could change. >> Um >> no, >> uh some of it is scheduling,
>> right? So it's they our kids are really great kids. They want to do a lot of things. They want to be, you know, invested in everything they're doing. But the joke I like to say is there's no H block, right? So there's only so much time in the day and sometimes they have to make a decision and they'll say, "You know what? I'd rather take this other class I really wanted to take versus
finishing out the pathway." Um, another limitation that can come in is having that availability for students to do the internship, right? Some students might be taking multiple AP classes, so they can't juggle the rotating schedule to come in to take the AP class and take the AP test versus an employer who would
say, "All right, so Monday you're going to be here from 7 to 9, then Tuesday you'll be here from 9 to 11, and then Wednesday you're it's too much to go through." Uh, we do have the capstone component of it, which is great. Um but even finding more industry partners is also a huge challenge not just for us
but everyone who's doing the pathway program in you know other districts um having somebody that can take on high school kids right uh you know to come into their building work with them they can teach them it's just a lot to take on so >> little bit of a struggle that we have with that aspect too. Mhm. So now we
have the experience of we're at a point where some of our pathways folks have graduated and gone on to college. >> Yep. >> Right. What are we getting as feedback from them on benefits of this? >> Yeah, great question. So last year was
our first year where our full uh business and IT students went >> uh and and had graduated from the program. So we've not heard directly back from them yet this year. >> Okay. This is part of our data acquisition of we have our um we have the data of did they actually go into a program that was similar to what they
studied. >> We just don't have that data that says well how did that prepare you now that you've done a semester right? The real point of the pathways program is for kids to be ready to enter the workforce within those fields >> or go into that college aspect. Um and sometimes you know really making sure
that kids understand this is the real purpose of this. It's not something that's going to be um this isn't like a pre premed type program, right? This is something where we want you to get exposed to this. We want you to learn some facets of it so you can just do the internship, see what it's like. Is this
enjoyable? Is it not? Um and funny side note to this is we actually had a student last year was very vested in engineering um was starting the internship and they said this is not for me and actually had a little bit of a switch and looked at project management.
So we actually changed his whole internship to look at project management. He was able to actually he spoke with Dr. Lang last year too about um school design, school construction projects. He visited several other districts to look at their construction. So sometimes the pathway isn't just supporting what you want to do. Sometimes it actually tells you maybe
this is what I like, but it can help me find another passion, too. >> So, >> well, it's better to explore that than high school. >> Yeah, it's free. >> Yeah, I was going to add just congratulations on those grants. That's great. Um, as you know, I'm really supportive of the innovation pathways
program in large part because I think it's actually really fantastic information when somebody picks a path that they don't actually want to pursue, right? like at the end of the day that's information they're getting much earlier than they would have gotten if they waited until they picked a a school and
really like intended to major in that um or something like that. So I think high school is the time that we want to see them trying and sometimes making the wrong choice at first and you know pivoting. Um I did have a kind of a a separate question going back to the
performance tasks >> yep >> piece that you were talking about. Um I'm just curious in general. Um so I know some there's obviously preparation for official
required state tests for MCCAST and things like that. But um and and then there's these performance tasks which you've shared some of with us. I'm curious how in general performance assessment is
integrated into the science curriculum. Is this something that students have as um as every year they have, you know, one to two expected performance assessments that is part of their science
experience. Is it something that certain courses have and some don't? is this, you know, part of a series of assessments where sometimes they take test tests and other times they do performance tasks or there's choice
built in. I'm just curious how it's integrated. >> Great question. So, the big push for us is especially at the middle school level is to integrate more of these performance tasks. Um, personally with grade five and six, I view these more of um their culminating task that should
replace a quote unquote final assessment. Uh, our current FOS, uh, curriculum does have some more of the traditional type of assessment. Uh, whether it be like a a fill-in-, a multiple choice, short answer, um, constructed reasoning. Uh, but with the performance task, it actually has them
go through, uh, you can look at it through the lens of the science practices of they're actually quote unquote doing an investigation, working together, coming up with a solution. Um, and the new MCCAST illustrates that. So, it's not something that I, don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a full slate of these for every grade, but it does take
time for us to to really sit how do they actually factor into the curriculum. Um, and then the timing piece comes into it, too, because it's one thing to you have to look at your curriculum to make sure that it um prepares them for this type of assessment, right? Um, >> but I see, you know, some of the big
changes, what does this look like going to the high school level, >> right? Because at the high school level we do have um so we have a greater focus with um lab design, lab execution depending on the class, the different type of reporting they have to do. Uh but from a
performance task perspective in this format it doesn't look like this. So we have to have the discussion of how do we want to have this continue up through grade 12. >> Uh we're also fortunate enough that we have quite a few classes at the high school that are also dual enrollment. >> So we get this feedback from the college, right? And that hasn't been
relayed to us from Middle Sex of what they're looking for. They're looking more of like the actual content, you know, the full assessment of it. Um, but those types of tasks isn't something that we really looked at how does that link at the high school going up to past grade 12. >> It's going to be an interesting journey
over the next couple years with the way that the assessment system at the state level is shifting period. So, it's going to have a definitely an impact in all the rest of this. Um I'm curious when these are graded are they graded by individual teachers? Is there a calibration process? Is it
>> Yep. So the idea is going to be um we want to look at we have to come together to have the rubrics that we agree that we can actually assess this properly. I think looking at student work is an awesome activity to do. Uh and then this will be scored with the teachers um for
the respect. It isn't like we're going to have one teacher do like somebody else's. It's their own students scoring. Yep. Each >> there'll be some sort of calibration of the rubric that's being used and things. >> Yep. And I think the calibration not just with these tasks but anything that we measure I think is important because you know the kids change their learning
changes and sometimes um it gives us an idea of like if we modify the curriculum going you know before they take that assessment we want to be able to take that data and say okay we have to look at how we're measuring them. Do we have to change the measuring stick? >> So >> cool. Thank you. >> Yeah. I was just going to ask on this.
This I see the skills capital grant was awarded to CHS, but does that mean that so the equipment has to go to CHS, but does that mean that now some of the older equipment from CHS can kind of trickle down to the middle school? >> So the the things that we be obtaining with this grant aren't going to move things out to another school. These are
going to augment what we currently have from a class perspective. >> I don't know, just balances and things like that where getting more balances, you know. >> No. So these are like the ones that we're getting are going to they're there's fewer of them. Y >> they're just much more sophisticated. Uh so it isn't like we can say, "All right, now that we have 12 of these, we can
move the eight older ones down." >> Okay. >> Right. So everything will stay. >> Everything's going to stay pretty much. Yep. >> Right. >> Great work. >> All right. >> Thank you. >> I also found out there was a science bond >> or that there was waiters, but thank you. Great work. >> Yes. >> I'd like you to stop by and we are the waiters and go in.
>> Well, it's a little it's a little frozen right now, but I can give you the tour. >> Listen, if I if I was invited in, I would come in and do something with the waiters with the kids. I would do that. You're on the record. I apologize. >> It's on public record. I would do that in a heartbeat. >> All right. Any other questions? >> Can I ask one other?
>> Yeah, absolutely. >> In the science field, you and preparing these students to continue on and explore more. One of the things I'm kind of seeing is in the labs there's more and more the computational scientists,
the understanding of using data uh that already exists, the sharing of all of that information. So they're bringing together more of the engineering with the science >> uh more and more I seem to am I wrong?
>> Uh no, not at all. I I think we see kids who are not just taking just science courses. we actually see more and more kids taking engineering courses with the science courses as well >> together. Um and that that's a it's a good thing because they actually see more of that um application side, not
just that content side, which is really important for them to understand when they go into the next level where it's not just >> all right, these are all the things you learned. You have to put it into practical practice, >> right? And so when these guys presented at the beginning, they were talking about all the things that are coming in that are, you know, the carpenters, the
skills, the that are hands-on actual doing, which we need more of more in society because we don't have enough of these folks. And um uh in the science field, it's more the thinking and all of that, but also the doing, the actual
doing that robotics can't do. uh the human being can in the lab versus the robot. Is that something that you find our students have to learn more and more the actual uh performance of the experiments and so
on? Does that make them more uh amunable to doing better when they go on in the field? >> So I think the more real life application that they do within the classroom is part of that preparation. So a few years back, one of the big focuses we had at the high school level
was to look at the current lab activities that we do and say, what does this look like in current industry practice? >> Is this actual industry practice? Right? Yes, we know that they're high school students, right? But again, we try to look at different things and say, how can we tweak this to actually make this
more relevant that this is something that is happening outside in the world today. Uh I think our biotech work has done that and our life science teachers >> have been phenomenal support with that. >> Um but even in terms of like our chemistry teachers have modified quite a few experiments to say no this is what
actually happens right in the field. Um in terms of what you talked about like the other trade aspects um not as much the focus with that but you know that's obviously something that um maybe down the road we could look at of how we could have more of an integration there. It's interesting.
>> Getting more and more interesting, isn't it? >> Yeah, it is very interesting. >> But yeah, >> like a movie. >> Don't know how it's going to end. >> Yeah. >> All right. Any other questions, comments? All right. >> Well, thank you very much. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Have a good holiday.
>> See you in the spring or the January. >> January. All right. >> When you go over to read. >> Yeah. Uh we are going to transition to our >> No, I'll help him one thing. >> Um we're going to transition to our uh second item on the agenda tonight. We
have um Left Field Hamdi uh from Left Field. He's our uh owners project manager representative on the Parker School building project. And then we have three individuals from uh AI3 architects uh Troy, Julie, and Tori who are here tonight. And I know the
committee has been very involved with the work on the Parker Middle School project. We have another uh community visioning session tomorrow. This is actually a very busy week for us. We have um on Thursday night we have the building committee meeting. So this is a week of Parker uh school building project, but um the folks from AI3 and
left field are here tonight to just give the school committee a little update about where we're at and then a couple of school committee specific um actions are going to be taking place over the next month or so. So, um, with that, I will turn it over to AI3 and, um, I'll just advance the, if that's all right for you, the, uh, the slides because we
didn't sync up our computers. >> Oh, sounds great. >> Okay. >> Thank you. So, we'll start a little bit with the schedule overview. The, you know, thanks to actions of the school department, already there have been prior reports as well as that
submission to the MSBA with the statement of interest. As a result, the Chumsford has an opportunity to receive grant funding through the Massachusetts School Building Authority for a building project. So, what is that project? It,
as you can see in this MSBA flowchart, it's actually a very prescribed process that they outline. We are currently in the feasibility study phase. So, that's what's outlined in green. And just as Dr. Lang alluded to, we are focusing tonight on sharing the status of that
feasibility study as well as just pointing out some action items for directly related to the school committee's part in the feasibility study. The following sort of five phases will
ultimately fulfill a project hopefully and then that will ultimately be completed in 2030. um assuming that it's funded and there is a proposed project to move forward with. Focusing on that feasibility study
specifically, there's really three phases within that study. So we are in step one outlined by this yellow box here called the PDP phase. Um we'll then move into the PSR phase and then schematic design phase. So those three
steps encompass this first phase and then a proposed project can then be put in front of the town to vote to appropriate funds. If that goes in favor of the project, that will then move into phase two where it will start to really
be developed into a physical building um via all the construction documentation. >> Could you just share what PDP stands for? Yes, absolutely. So, the PDP is the preliminary design program. Um, the components here are a lot of the
chapters that will ultimately be a part of that big report and the highlighted portion here in red is again those action items that we're looking for the school committee to complete over the next month. And it's really just one action item. The first being the review
of something that we call the educational program document. and we'll be able to share more about what that what's involved in that document in tonight's presentation. the district leadership has already been able to draft this program document um
that will be shared with the committee later this week and ultimately that is outlining sort of the purpose of the project goals um and the spatial needs of what is happening in the district right now as
well as a proposed project. Um, so that educational program document is a little bit of the educational aspirations for a project of any of the three enrollment options for consideration. We will return in January. So I think
January 6th is a school committee meeting. Um, at that point in time, we'll be looking for the school committee to have reviewed this educational program document and have at least an endorsement or sort of a approval of the draft version of that
educational program document. Once that's complete, then the full school building committee will be able to submit that entire PDP package to the MSBA to complete this first step of the process.
and what's involved in that PDP. Um, it's over 1500 pages of reports, documentation. Um, it we have been visiting your schools. We've assessed the existing conditions of the middle school buildings and the sites. Um, we've also
been able to start to put together some design, conceptual design options. So actually starting to think about what a building project could look like for each of the enrollment options. Um and all of that has been informed by this
educational program document as well as its sort of corollary document which is a series of spreadsheets that just outline space requirements, size of spaces and those two things coming together has helped inform the
conceptual options that will fill out this PDP report. So just to clarify, the report will include the variety of options that you're laying out here. It will not be recommending a single option.
>> That's correct. Yes. So um skipping ahead a little bit, the we are not here tonight to request that the school committee select any kind of option. Um, it's really just to introduce you to the process, outline your role in in the
program, educational program review, um, and then be able to continue to reduce the number of options as the steps go on. >> Um, so we currently have 14 options that we're studying. Um, and those range in
their level of complexity. the code upgrade options really only address code upgrades base repairs. Um so there is an option for each of the middle schools that will be um part of the PDP. We also have a series of addition renovation
options to the existing Parker school as well as new construction options on the Parker site, the Graniteville site, and the McCarthy field site um for all three enrollment options. So, a lot of options that we're looking at. We're actually
sharing more detail and some graphics associated with each of these options in tomorrow night's community forum. So, we won't share that tonight, but it'll be a little bit of um intrigue if that entices you to attend. >> And when do the options start to get
willed down? >> Yes. So, as a result of that SBC meeting um to approve submission of this PDP to the MSBA, um we'll be looking to the building committee next month um to be
able to start to make some selections. Um it's it's likely that um it's likely that at least probably six or so will continue into the next phase. Um, but that at least allows the committee as well as the design team to
be able to spend more time on working through refining each of those options. >> At the end, if I could, at the end of the next phase, the preferred schematic report phase, that's when you whittle down and decide on a single option. That
single option then goes into schematic design through the entire process and further developed as the option preferred option to move forward. So that it gives the um uh gives the group the community uh building committee uh
the runway for the next four to six months uh to identify a single option. Yeah. >> And so the timeline for that phase that you're talking about is that the step two or the step >> that is correct. >> Step two. Okay. >> That's preferred schematic report. And
these are all all of these acronyms and all of the uh these specific um number of options were prescribed because of the uh grade reconfiguration options, the number of sites and the MSBA's uh
standard uh identified code repairs uh within each uh within each project. So the collective at least at a minimum we'll be looking at 14 options that will uh as as Julie is mentioning that will start to restrict down to four six uh
options and then ultimately a single option. Now as we move through the next phase uh some of these options might peel off into two or three or four different option or variations of that single option. So there's a lot to uh a
lot that will occur over the next several months and um a lot of investigation on individual options as we move forward >> and at the town meeting when the town vote they will only vote one one single option with the scope and budget
together. >> So we're going to talk a little bit about educational visioning and programming. We have summarized the visioning process a lot in the past community forums that we've shared, but that's important because it's informed a lot of the documentation that has now
been written out in that educational program. So through the visioning process which included interactive meetings with students and educators and community members, they were able to provide direct input on current
instructional practices, grade configuration through their own maybe lived experiences or of what they've observed as a educator. Um and then also the facility needs. So commenting on you know the way the
existing Parker Middle Schools may be inhibiting some of the educational delivery or aspirations that the educators are looking to provide. Um so all of that content has been summarized in we have a full visioning report and
then that information has of course also informed the educational program document that you'll be reviewing. A little background on what that educational program document is. It is something that the MSBA requires as part
of this phase. Um, and it documents both the existing conditions of the ed of the educational program, so the existing curriculum at Parker Middle School, for example, as well as outlining the proposed educational activities. And
it's worth noting that that is written for all three enrollment options. So those proposed educational aspirations in terms of a 56 enrollment, a 4 to6 enrollment and a 5 to8 enrollment. Um
and then once that has been documented um it allows the OPM the design team to develop, evaluate, select design and continue to work through those conceptual options to just as we talked
about be able to filter down to that preferred option. At the end of the next phase when we are uh when we get to a place where a single option is identified a single uh grade
reconfiguration option is identified that's when the final educational program will be inserted in the uh preferred schematic report and that's that's when it's it's finalized. This first step is the draft. This is the
working document that identifies all three grade reconfiguration options and then ultimately next phase it will be a single grade reconfiguration and a single document >> just just I'm sorry to keep asking questions in the middle here um but um
is there a I didn't see it in your slides. Is there anywhere that disambiguates who makes decisions at which phase as these get winnowed down for as like where the site is versus where what the grade configuration is versus whether we're going for a full
new construction versus code whatever. Which of those decisions are made by the committee that has been designated for the school project? Which things have to be the school committee making that decision? which things are just eliminated by the people doing the
work because they're not feasible. Like I just didn't know if there's anywhere that disambiguates that. >> Yes. So the so the educa the uh grade reconfiguration uh decision is um is essentially this
group the school committee makes that u uh decision um as part of the um um you know in conjunction with the leadership group. Mhm. >> The building committee will identify most of the other parameters of the
project whether that >> the physical site >> Yep. the site the site the um um ultimately the the um the project as defined by the um uh the educational program. the space
summary and um the materials, the aesthetic, the all of those components will be uh the building committee's u oversight. >> But what if um the decision of one impacts the other? So for example, if a
particular site is chosen and that site or I guess that makes it a little tricky but like if the code decision is chosen for example that precludes us from changing the grade
configuration is that correct >> what >> and which of those decision gets made first I guess is my question. >> The first the first decision is grade reconfiguration. Okay, >> that's that's ultimately what the um uh the committee um will as part of the u
the educational uh program and finalization of that document uh within the next phase that will be uh part of the uh process. the first the first stage we have to we have to identify that first in order to get
to a place where we can proceed to the next uh decision-m >> okay so that doesn't need to wait until the decision is made about code versus >> correct >> okay >> correct we have to by MSBA requirements we have to bring along the code required
um option until the schematic design till the end of PSR uh and that single option is selected Got it. Thank you. >> Sure. >> Good questions. Um, and we so we also
just wanted to commend the district leadership on having assembled this very comprehensive document. It's over 86 pages at this point. And we also just wanted to share some of the highlights within that. and it's a little challenging to be able to speak to the
highlights without the contrast of the existing Parker building inhibiting a lot of achieving these ed program aspects. So, um it brings to the surface how just providing a full range of programs consistent with state and
approved local requirements, you know, things like that that are critical. Um, you know, sometimes the the existing facility constrains or makes that more difficult to achieve. Um, integrating STEM or STEAM programs really to support a lot of that science curriculum that
was just talked about. Those are aspirations within the educational program. Ensuring that students feel safe and they're excited to come to school and they have flexible learning environments to support shared collaboration. um and ultimately resolving overcrowding
across the district. We recognize that that is an ongoing issue. Um so all of those things and are included as part of the educational program. They're outlined as proposed um as well as a description of maybe why
that's not successful in the current facility. Um and so you'll notice that um all of those are involved in more detail as in the educational program visioning sessions. We have held four visiting visioning sessions since
September. Um as I mentioned these have included students, teachers, parents, community partners. Um, and they've been very interactive and we've we've gained a lot of input by talking to these user groups. Um, and we just love sharing the
photos because they show just a lot of activity and engagement by all of the attendees. What we heard during educational visioning, um, these goals are a little different from the educational program in that they really focus on goals for
the entire district. um and a broader look at a project. So for example, having a project that can be a community resource. We have here honor community culture and core values. So something that's really specific to Chsford. Um
additionally empowering every learner through collaboration and adaptability. So even how does that trickle through the district? You know, how do you create a environment that is supportive of the elementary school kids? maybe
it's a resource for them as well um and resolves a lot of those overcrowding issues within the district. One of the things I would just say is like is um the vision educational visioning sessions were um were part of the uh
part of the process but it was a really really interactive and an awesome uh series of exercises with students with faculty staff with some community members with uh board members with the leadership group. Uh it was a really
really exciting um component of the process. A lot of feedback, a lot of interactive activities. uh we gained a lot of insight um related to the future of um education here in uh in Chsford
and was able to and if you look at the report the um um 70 80 um 80 page uh report on the educational visioning uh you'll see some of those activities and you'll see photos representing the
interactions and it really was an exciting part of this process and so that is baked into the educational program and then filters its way into the educational space. Summary is really exciting. I just I think it's important
to just uh um to relay that uh because because you don't not everybody saw the excitement or the uh interaction u but it was really a fascinating uh part of the process. >> Yes, definitely. and we, you know, work with other districts and we would say
the consistent participation was worth noting. >> Yeah, for sure. >> Uh, a few slides again through educational visioning, a slide for each of the enrollment options that summarizes the considerations through
the lens of developmental fit, advantages, and challenges. And common themes across all three of these enrollment options are that you know looking at the challenges educators lensure for modifying the
grade reconfiguration um came up often. Um, but really the focus and consistent theme with the advantages was that having an enrollment that exceeds two grades
um, allows for students to be in a the same place for more years. So having more continuity in their middle school education was something that came up a lot specifically for the 4 to six enrollment and the 5 to8 enrollment. Um,
so that was a consistent theme and then it just allows for students to build relationships over a longer period of time and h and make less transitions across district schools. So that's something that um you'll see in all of
these or in the four to six and 5 to 8 um educational considerations. I'd say those would be kind of the key takeaways for these two as well as the four to six um alleviating that overcrowding issue at the elementary
school level without the need for an additional enabling project like the 5 to8 option would. Then actually we took a deeper dive into analyzing that four to six enrollment in
terms of what is the actual impact of removing grade four from all four of the elementary schools. So the following four slides we have an analysis for each of the elementary schools that looks at the si physical size of each of the
schools and uses three different methods to ascertain the level of overcrowding in that school. So the first chart we have here that identifies overcrowding for grades K to four the current enrollment
at the biome elementary school. The first method to looks at the MSBA's space guidelines. So the MSBA has a space summary template. Tori will talk more about the space summaries later in the presentation, but ultimately you can
plug in a enrollment number into their spreadsheet and it'll calculate what the size of the school should be. Obviously, there's a lot of variables with that. Um, but it gives a good sense for an easy analysis. So the when you plug in
the existing enrollment at biome um it shows that the physical size of the building is inadequate to support the 58 students that are enrolled at biome this year. Additionally we looked at the
square footage per student. Um, typically we like to see 180 square feet per student. Um, as a metric for the size of the building from that method, biome is also considered overcrowded for
508 students. And then lastly, just looking at the number of actual classrooms in the school and trying to keep that enrollment per classroom within DESI's recommended range of 17 to
21 students. Um that is not possible at Biome with the 20 classrooms that they have. The enrollment would exceed 21 students per classroom. Um so ultimately this is no surprise to the school committee. You all know that biome was
considered overcrowded in terms of its enrollment. So when we look at removing grade 4 from biome using this year's enrollment that reduces the total population by about 104 students
the MSBA space guidelines when we look at method one it still shows that the physical building size would be too small to support grades K through three in that building. Um however if we look at
method three the number of classrooms is sufficient to support as little as 21 students per classroom. So just removing grade 4 from biome does resolve overcrowding in terms of method three
the students per classroom capacity. >> Does this factor in the modular classrooms? it does not and that's specifically because the modulars aren't considered a permanent solution, permanent construction. Um, so if you were also to remove grade 4, that would
at least allow for the option of eliminating the modular classrooms as well. And we did this analysis for the center school, Harrington, and South Row, and actually found the same results across all four elementary schools that just
being able to remove that fourth grade satisfied method three, the students per classroom capacity. And so, as I mentioned, we're not looking for the school committee or even the building committee to determine an enrollment option at this time. Um but
we just wanted to mention that the the um findings were showing that the grade four to six option does resolve the overcrowding issue at the elementary school level at this present juncture um
without requiring any kind of enabling project um such as an additional elementary school. And those findings as well as all of our other research and information will additionally be included in that full PDP submission next month.
And then as I mentioned, educational space summary, I'm going to turn it over to Tori who will speak to these slides. Yes. So, um, Julie kind of took us through the educational program. Um, and that's a little bit more of the general what and how those spaces come together.
Um the space summary is like Julie said a spreadsheet where we input some information and that calculates total numbers of classrooms, different spaces that you need um for public use like the cafeteria, media center, things like that. Um and we have started developing those for all three of the uh different
enrollment options working with the educational leadership. Um and combining these two things together is what's really going to help us uh to create those design concepts. Um, so the MSBA does provide us with a template, which is our starting point, and then working with the educational leadership, we're
able to kind of amend those, change the numbers around to make it work for your educational delivery um, here in Chsford. So, you can see the beginnings of these design concepts with these diagrams here. So, the one on the left shows what
could be an academic neighborhood. Um, so this supports your team teaching methods. um also creates some student collaboration spaces, breakout spaces, things like that here. Um and creates sort of a small school atmosphere even though your school is pretty large. Um
by grouping several teams together in this way, having them have some shared spaces, they have this kind of community sense within a smaller group of students. Um and there would be several of these neighborhoods per grade level as well. Um, with this kind of layout here, we're also starting to look at,
uh, how this affects more of those public spaces that I was just talking about. Um, so, for example, we've heard a lot about the music spaces, how they're very important. You have a very robust program, much more robust than the MSBA sort of provides for. Um, and also making sure that those spaces are
not directly adjacent to your core academic programs. Um, so that during MCCAST testing everything, these spaces are sort of separated. So looking at how those spaces instead can interact with other more public spaces and create some interdisciplinary connections um between
dining, the possible stage in a cafeterium situation, the arts, music um sort of wing with your teleia studio and your more traditional media center as well. Um some more type of public spaces we're looking at are also the wellness spaces. So that would be your gymnasium,
some health classrooms, OTPT spaces that would be needed and some locker rooms as well. So there are many spaces that are not included in the MSBA space summary um that you guys still need here in the district. So for example, they don't
include a health classroom. Um, there's no space allotted for student collaboration or teacher collaboration, um, or your local access TV studio, extra fitness spaces, or many of the music classrooms you guys need for your robust music program. As we discussed,
however, this is pretty typical. Um, the MSBA kind of keeps things pretty efficient, I would say, with their thing with their uh, space summary here. And so on average we see typically um middle schools and these are a bunch of middle schools designed and constructed in the
last 10 years in the sort of range of your enrollment overall for all three of your different options. Um so we see about 10 to 15% over and above what that what that space summary calculates for the MSBA. So having these additional
spaces is not unusual. every district that we work with um has additional spaces that they require in their schools in order to support their educational delivery. And here you can see sort of our early phases of the space summary. Um we've gone through several rounds of refinement with the educational
leadership. Um and we'll continue to refine those space summaries as well. They're certainly not complete at this point, but you can see all of these are under that 15% overage. That's kind of that average. Um, I want to be clear here too. These are all in a similar
percentage over, but obviously the grades 5 to six school is significantly smaller. It's under 170,000 square ft versus the 5 through8 which is significantly larger at almost 341,000 square ft. Um, so just keep that in mind. But both of those schools are
around 12% over the MSBA number whereas the 4 through six is around 7%. So even a little bit closer to that MSBA number as well here. Um, so still pretty average in the extra spaces that you guys would need. Here in Schumsburg, >> we did include in the draft presentation
some all of the space summaries for these enrollment options for reference. Um, so you know, if if you enjoy looking at a spreadsheet, um, they at least show that the MSBA's standard rooms are in yellow highlight.
And then we've had numerous meetings with the district leadership group and educators to get their input on what are the other spaces that you would need to fulfill that educational delivery. >> Yes. And those are all broken down kind of by category. So you have your core
academic spaces, special education spaces, media center, all of those different types of things. So it's all grouped together in that way. So then in summary um as I mentioned we are here tonight just to be able to introduce everyone to the educational
program. Um, and the next time we are together in January, we would be looking for the committee to have reviewed that educational program and feel confident in endorsing the draft at this phase for
submission to the MSBA. >> Great questions. Yeah. >> As we move forward, at what point will we have a sense of the impact of costs? Um because you know I can make any
decision but what's my budget? Um so I think it would be at what point? >> Sure. And actually very soon. Okay. >> So yes. So last week we in addition to assembling all of those options. Um we did send them out to the cost estimator
that we work with. So, we will receive that information in January um in time to at least be able to inform the building committee of, you know, the the preliminary costs of all those options. As you're probably well aware at this
stage, they're so conceptual that there is a large margin of contingency with those. Um, but it would definitely give a a order of magnitude for each of the options and and their cost associate with it. Um, as Troy mentioned, when we
return in sort of step two of this feasibility study phase, um, we will also have that will give you the opportunity to then approve the final version of the educational program, at which time we will have all of that cost information. So, when we see you in
early January, we likely won't have it yet. Um, but when we return for step two, we'll have a better sense of all of the costs. >> So, I can just see the question coming up. you know, it's four years to go or almost five, whatever. Um, and we don't
know what the the economy is going to do and how much more expensive things are going to get, the costs are going to decrease, right? >> If as we move forward, what happens with that? Let's say that you know we say
okay to this project and then we find out that it really is going to be millions more than what we want it to it to be. What happens with the MSBA and with us? >> Sure. So at the end of October of the of
next year um we will have completed this feasibility study phase. At that point in time, the committee and the district will have committed to their preferred option and that will be the option that goes to the town to appropriate funds
>> prior to it going to the town. We will have established a total project budget. So that total project budget number will consider a lot of the unknowns and we'll um estimate it out to escalation of
construction time. Um, so we won't approach the town with that number unless it's been extremely vetted, which it will be at that point. That being said, it does happen where given the market, the economy, the construction market, um you know, there are unknowns
and so by the time it goes out to bid to the general contractors or if we use a contract construction manager, um you know, there is always the possibility that it could be bid higher than what the budget allowed. Um at that point,
there are a couple options. It might be that we just need to return to the town to request additional funds to be appropriated for that. Um or maybe we're reducing scope of the project to get for closer to that budget number. >> Thank you. Let me just I just want to
just want to u expand a little bit on that in that when the budget is identified in the fall of next year as we finish the schematic design set and we prepare for town meeting. We
prepare for the uh dead exclusion vote. That number will get locked in. That will be a specific number that's identified um for those two votes. the estimating process through PDP this
current phase the which is an order of magnitude cost comparative to each of the options so you'll be able to see option 1A versus 3B how they compare an ad rena versus
new construction or two ad rens and how they compare with cost right so that gives you a sense of what what the cost is comparative to each of the projects and one facet of the uh decision- making
process. Right? The next step once the uh options are reduced to a handful during the next phase, we'll go through the same activity and we'll identify costs during
the next phase for the three or four options that are on the table. that will give you the um the ability and it will be more refined like each project each option at the next phase will be more refined um as part of um part of the
process. So an estimate will be attached to each of those options and like I said earlier we're going to have probably um you know a couple of iterations of each of the options as well. So uh there may be several cost data points for each of
the options that will allow the committee to identify a single option based on many variables including cost. So once you get to that single project after the end of next phase and and say
okay design team project management team continue with this single option through schematic design there'll be another estimating phase. So we'll go through and estimate that single project in much much greater
detail. So when we get to the point next October when there's a single project, there's a single uh budget, we'll have a really good idea as far as what that budget what makes sense for that budget in that project from a from an a total
project budget and a construction budget. U like I said, that will be the the number that goes to town meeting. That will be the number that goes to the um the vote. If we get through the the the next phases that what Julie mentioned early
early in the process, which is the design development and the construction document phases, that's when that's when we de develop the design further and then document the construction documents for the contractor to build the project. When we get to that point, there are
multiple checkpoints of cost data during that in estimating during that process. So there there's one at the end of design development, 60% CDs, 90% CDs, and then whether it's a bid or a GMP, a guaranteed maximum price for uh
construction management. There are many checkpoints of um making sure that this project is moving along on budget. So it's very very rare actually to to come back to the town. It's highly
unusual to come back to the town for u additional funds. In fact, those checkpoints are are in the process to make sure that the entire team u the building committee, the the uh school department, the professional team, we're
doing our due diligence to make sure that the project is being designed um on budget. So that's um >> thank you. >> Yeah. >> So we went only one time back to the town meeting for additional funding that
was during pandemic and as many other communities districts. So um >> so it's it's higher rare very rare very unlikely >> that it's rare. >> Let's keep it that way. Even more
recently it has gone the other way where we have seen a a large bid savings um at the time. So projects coming in under budget. Of course that's no guarantee but at least coming out of the pandemic it was really positive to see the market making that change again.
>> Great. >> I vote for that. >> Other questions? So just to clarify our role, we're going to get this whole educational program narrative 1500 page document or >> no no what are we going to get? So you
we we are happy to share that but the component of that 1500 page >> 70 page >> is right >> okay the 70 page right that's why I want to make sure >> more digestible >> okay what am I going to do with the next >> 1500 pages don't
>> right so the 70 page that's that was my question we got the smaller 70 page >> yes yeah in coordination with Dr. lying. It sounded like that would be available maybe at the end of the week to share that with >> I was just going to ask if we'll have some lead time. >> Yeah, you're going to have lead time. So, um it's obviously it's a working
document though. So, this is going to be something we're still refining over the next number of weeks, but our goal is to by the weekend have the um draft document shared with you so you can start to read it and peruse it over the coming holiday break and then we'll be finalizing.
>> Sorry, sounds like sounds like a blast. >> Happy holiday. What else are we going to do? >> We'll be finalizing and a um like a draft kind of final draft will be in your packet for the next meeting. But at least you'll have been able to, you know, really kind of like sink your teeth into it for a couple of weeks. But then as Julie and the others have said,
even after the um sixth when you kind of give you a blessing for the general direction, we're still going to be working on this document through the through the springtime, but you're basically kind of endorsing the direction. Um, a lot of it is just documenting what's currently in place in our schools that we want to see continue
and opportunities to enhance our current programming. Um, so it shouldn't be super controversial. Um, but it just, uh, at this point too, it's, you know, it's a challenge because it does lay out all three options, but again, it'll continue to get refined this spring as we hone in on the actual option. But,
um, this weekend the draft will be coming your way. Great. >> It's great work. >> Right. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you very much. We'll see you tomorrow night. you thank you very much for the all of you helpful and >> let's do it again. >> It's nice to hear though that it's been
good in Chsford that we've been getting good input. >> Yeah, we've I mean just quickly like even like the uh the after school sessions that we did in September um we got I've had very good comparatively speaking with what I've heard from other districts. So >> that's been good. >> Yes, absolutely. Yeah, we've been in you
know not to the discredit of other districts but there sometimes hasn't been the same level of excitement. So appreciate >> it was the free pizza at the meeting. >> Maybe that helped. Yes, >> eating people with the taco bar. That's right. >> Well, thank we didn't get that.
>> Uh thank you guys very much and we'll uh we'll see you tomorrow night. >> Apologies. >> All right, let me just switch off this real quick. >> Okay. Um, moving along in the packet, uh, third item up for business tonight
is the, uh, continuation of a discussion around the private school approval process with, uh, Drake Academy. We had, um, their application back on at the last meeting and, um, some committee members had some uh, questions about that. I corresponded with representative
of the Drake Academy, um, Esther. Correct. >> Yes. >> Yes. and and and Esther actually did respond to us uh and I put information in your packet and then is here tonight if there were any follow-up questions to um to ask of them. But um we'd be looking for further discussion and then
hopefully um approval of their application this evening. Hey, people still have questions. Would you like Esther to come forward if anybody has any questions or >> I know Diana, you and Susan had questions about the >> I appreciate the responses to the
questions that I had, but I don't have further questions. >> Okay. Um, any other people have questions? >> No, I do appreciate the responses as well. It was good. It >> was a good response.
>> So, is everybody comfortable taking a vote at this point? Is there anything else you want to discuss? In regards to this, >> it's not something I think we need to like ask for more details on. I wish that the financial plan was updated to
project for the current situation. Right now, it presumes students there this year that there aren't. I I recognize that our role in this is not to get into the weeds of the financials, but just naming that um my hope is that you know
before families are engaged um to have their kids attend the school that the um the plan is in shape to make sure that it's a uh a stable financial situation for those enrolling. >> Okay. Anybody else? Any other thoughts?
Any comments? All right. I believe there was a motion that was in the packet. >> Yeah. And I'm looking for it. >> I have in the bottom of my >> You can make it. You can make it. >> No, the bottom of that. >> Why is this This is why he's the chairperson. >> Oh, thank you. So the very bottom
>> I move that we approve the Drake Academy of Excellence um to operate a private school in the town of Chsford consistent with the terms outlined in the Drake of Excellence Academyy's application dated
December 10th, 2025. Thank you Dennis. >> Y second. >> Okay, you second John. >> Second. I didn't know if D. >> We have a motion and we have a second. Uh any further discussion? >> All those in favor? >> I >> I zero.
>> Thank you very much for coming out tonight just in case. All right. Thank you. >> Did great work. >> Good luck. >> Good luck. >> And thank you to uh Jay and to everybody for giving us outlines of the process and it's the first time we were exposed to >> first time I've actually gone through it
as well. Uh thank you Esther. We'll be in touch. We'll figure out whatever paperwork we have to file with Desi. Okay. >> And uh we'll be in touch and we'll just stay in communication. >> I appreciate it. I have a checklist of the things that I need to give to comfort. So, we'll be in touch. >> Perfect. >> Thank you. Have a nice holiday. >> All right. Good night. >> You
>> good. Yeah. Marie, it's my first time. >> Thank you. >> Doing it as well. So, >> first time >> we wish them well. Um, next item. Uh, this evening at our last meeting, Linda had prepared a draft policy that we discussed on the comp
competency determination and um it's back before you this evening for action. >> Right. Anybody have any question? Anybody? I assume everybody had a chance to take a look at it. It doesn't seem that much different from what we had approved earlier in the summer just to
make it a policy rather than just a general guideline. >> Right. >> Okay. Right. Any other questions on it? And I'm sure we'll be rev by next spring we'll change it again. But >> June's going to be more interesting. I feel like there's going to be some long-term decisions. >> Is that when they're going to try to
Yeah. Good. All right. Um, if there are no further questions, we'll take a motion now. >> Oh, I move that we approve the competency determination policy as presented. >> Second. >> Second. All right. Any other questions? All those in favor. >> I. >> All right. Check that one off. Get that in.
>> Super. Yeah. We'll get that up on the website and we'll get that into Desessie um and cross off that task. So, that was good. Thank you very much for doing that. Uh, fifth item on the agenda tonight. just we had them in here a few minutes ago, but just a reminder that tomorrow evening at 7:00
at the Chelred Elks over on Littleton Road, we'll be having our third uh community visioning session. So, the community will be hearing a little bit about the presentation tonight and then some follow-up um slides as well on some conceptual um ideas for the school. So, >> no pizza at these ones.
>> There's no pizza at these. No, >> cookies would be nice. >> I heard about pizza. >> Well, we do pizza in the afternoon. Um I had asked Linda for didn't happen. >> The cookies would be nice, I guess. >> We'll see if we can have some nibbles. >> All right. I know what I'm doing tomorrow. >> All right. But I know in all
seriousness, uh, Chelsea Tele Media, I want to thank them. They tape the first two. They're going to be there to tape tomorrow night as well. We've gotten good feedback from the community that if they couldn't come, they've been able to watch them. They're all posted up on our website. And um, we hope to get some new people out there tomorrow night to hear a little bit about the project. >> Is this going to be again more
information, more Q&A? What's it what's the theme of this? >> Um, yeah. So more similar to the second. So I think the presentation is going to be a little bit longer than it was the first time because it'll be a lot of the slides we went through tonight as well as getting a little bit deeper into the visioning like some of the neighborhood concepts they talked about showing some
pictures from like other schools even conceptually taking a look at the three different properties and like where the building will lay out things along those lines. So um I think it's going to probably be about a half an hour to 40 minutes of kind of presentation followed by questions and answers with the
audience. Um, I don't believe it's too interactive um, tomorrow like we did the first session, but more just information sharing and then hopefully looking for responses. >> Right. We could give Maria and and you know the wrong microphones. >> Oh, that's funny.
>> It It'll be It'll be a good night. People can join us. >> Get to print those 1500 pages. >> I know. They should uh they should come. So, >> great. >> Um, that is tomorrow. Uh, sixth item on the agenda tonight is a capital plan update. Um did you want to give this one Dennis? Would you like me to?
>> No, I mean most of us are already the tri board they presented this but um you know we we had I forget how many projects but we whittleled it down to the the ones you see here for about six 6.4 million. Um and then with recapture funds it composed 6.2.
>> Um you know it it's it's it's quite a process. Um you know they only have 30 projects here and we got it down to what 11 or 12. Um, you know, I would love to all the school projects to go through, but you know, when you look at the needs of all the different uh departments, a lot of these
are actually continuations like the library already started HVAC, so this is a second phase of that. Um, the at town hall, they started the elevator project. It's they have to get more money for that. Um, a lot of the projects that get approved were also from earlier years
that we had to defay. Um um so at some point they they need to get the equipment to do the the plowing and the things in the cemetery and all that. So I thought we we got our our top five or six that we were looking to get um you know all the roof projects and all the safety components and all that. You know
the ones that we're left with maybe we'll have some money at the end of the year and we can take on some of them or part of them. So um but it it's it's it's quite a process but you know in the end I think it serves everybody in the town well um all the different departments. Yeah, six of our nine projects were funded, which is excellent. As Dennis
mentioned, the big ones, um, and pretty much in our ranked order, a little over $2.6 million of projects, which is excellent. Um, the three that didn't get funded, um, we obviously continue to track. So, we have that on our internal list, and when we do determine how much available onetime funding as a district
we may have, oftentimes we bring forward some of those projects to try to um, accomplish. So, you may see them again next spring. But um all in all, I thought, um the major projects that we had uh on the list, it was great to get them funded. We can now kind of shift into planning for them um they'll go
before town meeting at in the spring with the budget, but um they were big ones for us. So, I'm very happy to get those done. >> Now, like the roof project, I know McCarthy roof is leaking. If we get approved in the spring, would they when would that would that work be able to get done over the summer? Were they going to take another year to get that
roof fixed or >> No. So the um the McCarthy roof is actually getting done this summer. This coming summer, the back roof. Yeah. >> So like basically from the um like you know when you go to the gym down the ramp. Uh so that going back over the calves is going to get done this summer.
I believe it's going out to bid early January because they wanted to get the pricing in by by February. So that one's already been funded and um Paul was able to actually fund the balance of that project with free cash. Yeah. >> This past um this past fall. This one is for um the study on the remaining
McCarthy roof. >> Yep. >> The high school roof um and Harrington roof. Yeah. So, we'll actually get like true cost estimates and um some help kind of phasing out those projects. And then there is the roof at um Chelford High School for about $100,000 um in the
front cafeteria that had an active leak. Um that actually is going might be able to do that this summer. Uh that is um set to be uh to be repaired. >> That's the million. That was the one one point. I'm sorry. That's the million. >> The million is the That's what the one I was wondering if it's an active leak. I don't know if that was going to get >> They're going to They'll They'll try. I
mean, I I don't know because it does have to be designed and everything. How They're certainly going to do patching. Okay. >> Um and try to kind of keep it long, but um >> I'll report back to you. >> And where does the South Row roof all this? >> South Row roof, it's already out to bid. So, the South Row roof actually opens I
think later this week. It might be Thursday. Um so, that's also being done next summer. So, a lot of roofs, >> some major roofs next summer. So, South row roof being completely done. >> Um, back of McCarthy, that's another big roof being completely done. >> Um, interior of South Row, the drop
ceilings in the classrooms. Um, that should be going out to bid in January, February to get done this summer as well. So, a lot of activity roof wise. >> Yeah. And is the summer as a result of the schedule that's coming up, is the summer shortened? >> No, this actually should be a pretty
long long summer for us. That's right. Um, you know, weather, weather permitting, >> summer, >> they're all excited, though. >> Weather permitting. Um, you know, hopefully we actually get out earlier in June and can get a few good weeks in before the 4th. It's always nice when we can do that.
>> Yeah. >> But we'll report a little bit later in the spring on all the capital work to be done this summer, but there will be a lot. This is also the summer of elevators, >> so you know. Yeah. So, the high school elevator, the McCarthy elevator, and there's a third one. Wesland. >> I think
>> the town hall is also >> town hall, but I thought I think there were three schools. >> I forgot the one more. >> If I had never to join town government, I wouldn't have known what a cost elevators were, >> right? And if you get like an old one that's out of service, you just have to buy a new one. Like there's no >> And our schools, a lot of people didn't
realize this, only have one elevator. >> You know, it's not like a building that might have multiple elevators and you can afford to have one down. >> You can't afford to have one down. And there are very limited companies that actually service elevators in the state. Um, so if an elevator goes down and it's a vintage elevator, people aren't stocking these parts either. So it's
very difficult to get like a a panel and a board and stuff like that to keep them functional. >> Well, that's why they they needed more money for the town hall elevator because the town hall sold building. >> They went in they they you know did the estimation said no we don't we need more money for that. So >> right most regulated parts of
construction. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It's even very difficult to get an elevator inspected because there are very few elevator inspectors in the state. You have to kind of get into queue to get your elevator inspected. It's an ordeal. >> That sounds like a need we could get. >> Could be second. I never know.
>> I don't know if I'd want to do that. >> All right. Any other questions on the capital projects? >> Great work on that, too. >> Yeah, Dennis. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good. >> Uh, next up is some discussion on the uh we started this at the last meeting just unofficially at the end. also the
proposed um school calendar for next year. Um I had in my memo to you uh kind of laid out a few different options. Um just as way a brief background for um first timers. Next year Labor Day falls incredibly late. It falls the latest
that it can on September 7th which uh basically backs up our um calendar because uh traditionally we've been going back to school for the last eight or nine years. um the Monday before Labor Day, staff would come for orientation, then some of the students would come Tuesday, some would come Wednesday. Um everyone would come
Thursday, and then we've been doing a Friday holiday and like a 4-day weekend, even though it's not a holiday, we've been doing that, then coming back to a 4-day week. Um this current year, if we follow that, that's option A. If we follow that current uh schedule, um staff would come
back that Monday. Um students would come back that Tuesday. And the concern was raised about students coming back on Tuesday um and the state preliminary election being um affected at McCarthy school on that um Tuesday uh first day kids and some people coming in to vote
as a potential issue. Um if the decision was made to not go with um option one and to not have school on Tuesday, it honestly wouldn't make sense to have staff come in on Monday, take Tuesday off, and then come back on Wednesday. So option two basically has staff returning
on Tuesday um kids coming on Wednesday or some of the kids coming on Wednesday um some of the kids coming on Thursday um a third option would be oh then taking the 4-day weekend third option would be similar staff on Tuesday staff
on uh students on Wednesday and Friday because Friday is not an actual holiday so it kind of picks up a day uh that week um so those were the three options ions I laid out if you had a moment to read the the memo. The other thing that all three options does though
incredibly backs up the uh calendar at the end of the year so at the end of June. So the the first option of the traditional holiday has the um kids getting out on Thursday the 24th, staff on the 25th, Friday. The second option if we don't go to school on the election
day has the kids getting out on Friday the 25th, the staff not getting out until Monday the 28th. Um the third option at least corresponds with the first option where the students get out on the 24th and staff get out on the 25th. It doesn't bump into the last three days in June for a little bit of
flexibility. Um following all that discussion, I have had um you know just some inquiries and some conversations with um the union because a lot of this is predicated on the union type stuff. Um they also realize that this is incredibly late and I think everyone agrees with kind of
frontloading a calendar as opposed to having days at the end of June just because of um you know it's hot in the buildings and and people's kind of mindsets moving on to the summertime. Um so they expressed some interest in actually discussing you know possibly bumping up the calendar to the week before. If you think about it this past
year we started school on Monday the 25th. U staff came and then students came that Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Um if we bumped it up a week earlier this year, it would only be the 24th. It would only be one day earlier. So staff could come on the 24th and then you know kids the 25th and right down the line.
So um if the committee desired as well, I'd be happy to just have a if that was a direction you wanted to even explore, happy to have offline conversations with the um the union over the rest of this week and report back to you um their willingness um to you know potentially look at alternate schedules and what
those could be. and then we could come back at the January 6th meeting and actually vote that night one way the other. Um so those are kind of the I guess four options. One of these three or um happy to go back and talk to the union and then come back to you with
another potential option to do that on the sex day. Thoughts? >> Um as Dr. Lang knows I've been advocating for considering coming the prior week if we can work out anou with the union because I do think um
that I I've heard from several stakeholders both on the educator side and on the parent side that the the late June um release is really tough um for many reasons. Um, but I also think um
because we're no longer if if this were to happen, the first week of school would no longer bump up against Labor Day weekend. We could um start a day later in the week because we wouldn't need to take the Friday off because it wouldn't be a long weekend for people in
that first week. So, we could look at a 25th return and not be or whatever it would be to be the same as last year rather than being a day earlier because um we could still squeeze in sort of three school days in that first week including
the Friday since that wouldn't be a budding a long weekend. So, that is another possibility. >> We could do it one of each ways. We could either do it like you indicated or we could do the four and then take that Friday off to have two like say um weekends in a row or off on the Fridays. It could go either way, but at least we
could have the dialogue with the union and see what >> Yeah. Um I guess I'm not strongly advocating for not having a long weekend necessarily. I just mean it gives us some flexibility if the 24th felt like a step too far for staff to return. Like we could do the same as last year. Literally the >> be kind of getting a long weekend one
way or the other. Either you don't come Monday or you don't come Friday. But it would allow us to at least pick up three days of of school at a time. >> Exactly. >> So I I mean I I don't know, you know, how much support I've certainly heard from a few individual educators interest
in moving it up. I don't know whether the union is going to be supportive of it, but presuming that there is informal dialogue that that expresses interest. I I definitely would advocate for us exploring that option before we try to solidify one of these other options. All
of which are for various reasons imperfect and all of which have us getting out very late in June. >> Other thoughts? >> I think option four is a good one. >> Yeah, I mean I would like to explore that with the union and then you know I I don't know what we do with the
election day. I would feel uncomfortable if we kept our schedule and we had our kids coming back the first day and it's an election day for the McCarthy kids. You know, first day on the bus, first day of finding classes, but if we're already in school for a week plus, you know, those kids already >> Well, we've done that before,
>> right? But those the the students would be more adjusted. You know, parents would know the the routines. I would feel more comfortable with them going back. >> I feel the same way as the parent of a child who would be starting at McCarthy this year. Um, I uh I am less enthused about having that be the first day of
school, but um I think we have a lot of different things that come up, including other elections um during the school year. And I think once you're 4 days in or whatever it would wind up being, I think things are more established and you can slightly change up the routine a
little bit without having everybody learn the wrong thing as the routine and things like that. All >> right. All right. So, everybody comfortable with talking to the union? >> I just won't take action tonight. I'll just >> see what they want to say and come back with some >> I'll do that. >> Okay. Great. Thank you.
>> Thank you. >> Um item eight is a proposed um budget calendar for fiscal 27. So, um these just kind of put some dates on your radar. This is consistent with what we've done uh previously. Typically the first meeting in February is when I uh
provide the public overview of the budget document to the school committee members and then because February we always take February vacation off so we you kind of have an extra week to review it. We then come back at the the last meeting in February and we have our formal budget hearing. Uh that would be the 24th. Um I did just make a little
note in case there was ever weather impacting either. We would also hold March 3rd as a potential date for further budget. But, um, I recommend, uh, that timeline. And just as we, as an aside, as we, uh, continue to work internally on the budget, um, we're
making some pretty good progress, uh, this week and obviously over the holiday break where it's a little quieter, we can get, um, a good kind of head of steam on us. Um, I'll be meeting with Paul um, before and after Christmas break to kind of see where we're at with our budget numbers overall. But uh I can provide you an update u probably at
their first meeting in January just where we're at as far as kind of developing the recommendation. Um it's a little premature tonight but a couple more weeks will will give me a much better sense. >> Does this fall into I know at last town meeting or whatever they they kind of
changed the budget calendar so that we >> have to present a little earlier than than we would normally or before he had done. >> Yeah. I don't know that we necessarily have to present earlier because I really couldn't do it much earlier. His request at the time was basically to um be able to get a copy of our budget and see what
I'm actually recommending ahead of time because I believe he would be representing to the school committee, not the to the select board on like Monday the second and it was odd for him to not have our budget before he recommended the town budget. So, what I would do is on the Friday before um I
would just have our budget because it's technically part of our packet anyway. I mean, I just won't make the public presentation till Tuesday night, but I'll give you a copy of the budget ahead of time, and I think that will um work for him because I think that's what he was basically looking for. >> Okay, great. >> But I'll coordinate and make sure that that's fine as well. But I think these
these dates are consistent and work for us, >> right? >> Any other questions on this, right? We look forward to it. >> Yeah. >> Um Yeah, it'll be good. or
>> uh personnel report item number nine on the agenda tonight. Uh just your limited activity for the month of November. We had a couple new hires, a couple of res well a resignation and then a retirement. Um not too much action at this time of the year, but just sharing with you so you would have the ins and outs of the school department.
>> All right. Any questions on the personnel report? >> Oh, great. Okay. >> And then uh last item for me is um really just sharing the Valley Collaborative quarterly report of business. So uh they send this along to us four times a year. Uh we're a member community valley collaborative. I serve
um as your representative on their board and the regulations with the state indicate that they have to share these quarterly reports and we have to just basically acknowledge receipt um and then we've complied with the uh desi regulation. >> I will take a motion to
>> Okay. I move that we accept the um presentation of the quarterly reports on the collaborative business fiscal year 26 first quarter as presented. >> Second. Okay. Any other questions? All those in favor? >> I. >> Perfect. And uh we did not have any
field trips. >> No field trips. Great. >> Okay. >> All right. Anyone have any lays on reports they would like to go through? >> Yep. >> The high school the PTO did meet. Um they h ran uh the one thing they want to
make sure that I say is they ran a wonderful uh Candylandbased staff appreciation development day and it apparently was wonderful. They had a great time and
they want to say thank you for the um collaboration uh of the funding for these things because it really adds so much to what they were able to provide. So they really enjoyed it. >> John, no. Hannah,
>> I excuse me was able to attend on the 11th the Parker and McCarthy PTO meetings which is a kind of a joint meeting continuing to be that way. Um, so I can share a few updates about each school. Parker, um, had a really
successful craft fair on the 7th. They felt it was really well attended. It included several booths of students selling their crafts and um, many students left feeling really successful, too, which is great to hear. Um their be
the change project is kicking off again which is a studentdriven um uh project um that is related to giving back to the broader community. Um it includes um some groups doing meals of
hope or table of plenty um placemats, food drives and more. Um so that is going strong again this year. Um they had a very um vibrant 67 day on the 67th
day of school that was sponsored by the student council. Um and for anybody who is neither an educator nor a parent of twins um that is a very big deal um to
12y olds apparently. Um, next uh Thursday or Thursday in a couple of days, there will be a schoolwide concert of all of the students involved in performing arts. Um, and as you you've been hearing about the evening
concerts, but this is for the students to hear each other perform. Um, so um that's particularly cool for uh the band students who don't have their big concert until January. um unlike the other types of performing
arts which are happening I think this week. Um so that is Parker McCarthy um had a schoolwide pep rally with Ultimate Volleyball um among the different teams at the school and the winning team went
against staff just before Thanksgiving. Um so that was a fun sort of schoolwide bonding event. um they've been doing and finding successful the youth science career related um analysis activity to help
people figure out potential careers particularly in the STEM fields. Um they felt like they had very good turnout for conferences. Um they've decided if um you may remember from our last meeting they talked about this but um project
300 is now happening after the holidays um rather than December like usual. And um both schools are actively getting ready for their plays which will be happening in the winter. Um the other things to name are that um there's going
to be a showboat talent show on May 16th um and that is including students from both schools. And the Parker Pride Run will be happening again in May of May 2026
but date to be determined. >> Great. Thank you. Um I attended the CPAC had their a meeting. They had a online meeting um just to try to get the CPAC back going again. So they you know was very vibrant probably when I started a
committee probably like eight years ago. A lot of very involved parents and then slowly those parents kind of worked out and then there was another group that kind of took over for a while and they kind of worked out. So the numbers have been kind of dwindling. So they they decided that they would have this meeting and just kind of do what is CPAC
and and you know what's the role of CPAC and they had Leslie Leslie um who's a director of the Federation for Children with Special Needs on to to kind of go through that and um it was unbelievable. There was almost 40 people online. So um and very very interested you know a lot
of um you know memos going back and forth. They're in a meeting. So, they're planning to have a second meeting of people that would be maybe not maybe not on the board, but interested in kind of getting a board back together again and coming back with the bylaws again. So, it seems like it's heading back in the right direction. So, right,
>> I'll keep you updated if if uh >> if uh they do have that second meeting. >> Um the other thing is we obviously we have our thing tomorrow night, but then also on Thursday we have a building committee meeting. So, >> we'll get to listen about the park building again. So, no, just keeps on going. >> A lot of repetition. >> Yeah.
Uh, all right. Um, any new items? >> I do want to thank Dr. Lang for I'll following up on the Princeton Street um projects, uh, the West Campus projects. And I think what I concluded in the end
of it all is that we still have a very large part of one phase that is not um, tenanted yet. And then the last one fully uh doesn't even have occupancies yet. >> Yeah. So there's four phases,
>> right? >> Phase three is partially occupied. Maybe off the top of my head like half occupied. >> No, >> maybe the fourth one doesn't have anyone um in it yet. So that one's still to be occupied. >> And so far we have about 18 was it 18
students? >> Yeah. >> At all different No, that's really not too bad. And they were all different grade levels in the district. >> Yes. So it wasn't like really impacting a particular school or anything. So that was positive for right now. But um I did make contact with the um the representative who was in the leasing office.
>> They are all leased units as well. So because someone had asked that I I don't know if I clarified in the email, but they're they're not like month-to-month rentals. They're all like leases. >> That's right. >> And um uh the very nice woman in the office actually said she's going to try to send me regular reports as they um do
their not enrollments, but what would you call it? when they do their leasing >> at least >> as they get um their leases issued um she'll give me a little report from time to time to just help me uh track that. >> Yeah, because it is a more transitory group quote unquote because of the fact
that it's tenants rather than Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Happy to >> That was good. That was very good. >> Any other items? >> All right. Uh I don't look like we have anybody for public comment. I don't see any emails. So I will take a motion to adjurnn. I move that we adjourn.
>> Second. All those in favor? >> I. Great. Thank you very much.