Okay, perfect. >> Yes, I can. Thank you. >> Hello. Hi. >> All right. It being six o'clock, call this meeting school committee to order. Can we all please stand for the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This meeting is being live streamed by Chelsea Tele Media and posted to the CBS website for interested community members to access and watch. In-person public
participation will be taking place tonight in accordance with the CH school committee public participation policy. Anyone speaking tonight during the public public input portion of this meeting is notified the superintendent's office of the desire to speak and has been provided with these guidelines. Upon request, written comments received
no later than 12 p.m. on the day of this meeting will be read and made part of the record of the meeting during the second public comment session. So, welcome to this meeting of cha school committee. Um, just for those watching at home, um, member Diana Leau is going to be zooming in with us tonight. So,
um, um, so our first order of business is to approve the minutes for our meeting on July 22nd. I make a I move that we approve the minutes of the regular school committee meeting of July 22nd, 2025. >> Second. >> Second.
>> Okay. Any corrections on those? >> All right. We'll do it as roll call just because of Diana. So, uh Susan >> I. >> John >> I. >> Maria. >> Hi. >> I And Diana >> I. >> Perfect. All right. Um we have no
student reps yet. So any good news to share? You know, I didn't really think about good news when I was like, "Good news. It's it's August. We're opening up school soon." Now, we're in pretty good shape um for getting school ready and a lot of the projects are happening and we're starting to see people filtering
in just to say hello, check in, get our systems up and ready. So, good news is school year is starting soon. >> Great. Anybody else have any good news to share? Okay. All right. We don't have anybody here for public comment, so we'll move right on to new business.
>> Thank you. Um, yep. The first up tonight, Christine Clancy, our DPW director. We're going to invite up um to just share the fourth quarter um work order summary with us as the year ends. So, thank you for coming. >> Thank you. Should be all set right here. >> Yep. You're good to go. >> Great. So, this is the fourth quarter
update. So, this will be the first full year of having updates. As you know, we um moved to a new uh software program for tracking work order systems in January. So, we kind of did half the year reporting on our old system and then half the year on this new system. So, we hope as we have more data put
into this database, we'll be able to in the future year and and moving forward have more analytics to to kind of report back to you. Um but this and I put some information into a PowerPoint slide and also I have another update to give you on an we did an electrification roadmap
study which I'll get into too after this update. Um so this fourth quarter which covers between April 1st and June 30th um we track the overall work orders by location and by trade. So this is just a summary of the work order uh by location
um and showing it in tabular form and then graphically um it tracks in terms of it looks like we're generating between like 350 to 450 work orders each quarter depending on um the you know it change it varies slightly between each
quarter. This quarter it was 437 work orders which was pretty um one of the higher uh quarters. And my guess too is as we plan for the summer, a lot of people are putting in some requests. Um, also to note that we've had the lowest percent completion this quarter and I
think part of that is a lot of these projects we knew. So an example and I'll get into the trades like flooring, we knew we had to do flooring this summer. So I suspect that we'll see um when we do the first quarter reporting for this next year, we'll kind of see a lot of those work orders completed. Um, so it's
broken down by school here. Um and it so overall it's 72% um combi you know overall completion 314 work orders completed it varies school to school um varying between 60% complete up to 84%
complete um I think the next slide kind of breaks it down a little more. So we have 20 21 or uh yeah 21 trades that we're now reporting before I think we only had 10 or 12th through the previous system. So, we've um you know, anywhere from athletic fields to delivery um and
then snow and ice and then all the trades, carpentry, HVAC, electrical, plumbing, we're tracking all of those work orders. Um and and so again, the total is the same, but this is broken down by all the the trades. Anything like delivery, those are more more
instantaneous. Complete is those are completed. So, that's 100% completion. We fortunately don't have any snow or ice problems right now, so that's also not reportable. Um if you look at flooring, we had five requests that quarter and none were completed because again a lot of these some of these work orders were generated um knowing that we
would be completing them in the first quarter of the next fiscal year. Um and then other some other items too like roofing kind of jumped out to me where we had six work orders and you know three going only and some of these are tied to some larger projects whether we're completing them this summer or we're designing them for we have a lot
of roof work design being designed right now and planned for next year. Um, so when we look at the work orders, we kind of look to see, well, what's the oldest work orders and how can we try to fasttrack that to have it completed, you know, so we have the least amount of days days aged. Um, and that's hope
we're hopeful for the next year to report some more of the information. We just have to have the the data available to report it. Uh, so just a quick summary of the year in completion. So in the year it was uh,540 total work orders and these are all school work orders. We also track
this across our DPW sites. I would say we mostly use it for the schools because that's how it started, but we're we are using it for all all the other buildings in town as well. So, 1540 81% complete. Um I think that the trade you know the previous slide shows more the detail but
just the volume. So I am interested to see when we we start to use it next year um how you know this trend if we're seeing an upward trend. Now it's more usable with you know mobile phones. So, I do think that people more there's more work orders being generated whether they're being generated at on the school
side, the custodian side, or if they're being generated with our staff because now if we go into a building and quickly change something, we can enter that as a work order right there uh real time. >> I don't know if there's any questions on the work order or the school reporting for the work order because the next slide is a is a transition to a
different topic. >> Any questions on the work orders? >> Crushing it. >> Diana, any questions? >> I think Just a comment. I think it's going to be >> just going to be good to try have this trend because we'll be able to see this
when we're looking at um the money allocation for any >> you can put that's the thing there's so much more we could do with this program. You can start pro you can do we are also starting to build out some preventative maintenance work orders with this too. So we can pre-plan work orders. We could do that before but it was more manual.
This is uh there's a lot more ability to pre pro pre-program. We could put cost information, hours. We're not there yet with that, but at least in terms of planning of what we need to do for the year and what we've done, you could potentially put some estimated level of effort for what we've done. >> Um there's a lot a lot to do. And I was
thinking in terms of a trade, you could start tracking like, well, how many HVAC >> did we have this quarter? I assume they're higher in the probably highest in the winter. So, you could start tracking some of that and is a trend that our systems are aging, too. So it would be good to track as we plan for
the f the upcoming capital years. >> I think I think that's great because as we head towards you know this new school building and so on people can see that there is a lot of work that goes into maintaining these older buildings. Um,
and I sometimes wonder, I mean, in the allocation of work between what goes for town buildings, other other buildings versus the school buildings, there must be some way to tell that as well. Quite a bit of it goes. >> Yeah. So, we've tried to estimate
before. Um, I don't have any hard numbers, but I would say based on the square footage and also like priority sometimes too. Um, I would estimate like 70% in the schools and that probably includes the grounds, too. So that's just an estimation. It could be a little less, could be a little more. Also
depends the time of year. I mean, if there's a certain event or elections, we kind of shift to certain need. We we prioritize, but I would say that a lot of our effort goes into the schools. So I would estimate between 60 and 70%. But that that's just pure based on our kind
of gut check of what we how we see. You know, a lot of times we're in the schools. We have so much square footage in the schools because I forget the square footage breakdown exactly but I I think it's close to that same percentage. >> That's substantial. >> Yeah. >> Thank you.
>> Um I was just going to ask like on some of these like electrical is it just a matter of getting the subcontracts in? >> Well, electrical we actually have a pos we have a vacancy. We have so we technically have two electricians. Um Brian Orso is our electrician. He's also our operations manager. Um and we had a
previous electrician retire uh I think it was in January. So, we've been trying to fill that position. Unfortunately, we just haven't been able to fill it. >> Keep posting it. Um, we do interview and it just doesn't we just haven't filled that position. So, that's why electrical is down is because we're missing that
person. We can outsource too. So, that's the thing too is this will help. That's actually the next step is I want to look at this a little more closely and say, "Okay, what's our backlog and how do do we need to outsource some of this stuff?" And that if I especially if I can't fill a position, okay? >> Or like long term, do you need to add
>> a plumber or add something? I know it's hard to add staff right now, but that's just that's just resource loading, I guess, as to what our needs are. >> Thank you. Any other questions on this report? >> Okay. >> Really thorough work. It's really good. >> Thank you. all the the staff that are
doing all these work orders. >> Thank you. All right. So, the next update and I thought it would be timely to give you this update. So, going back uh about a year ago, we did receive notice. Maybe it was a little over actually it was going back fiscal it was almost over a year ago. We received
notification that we were part we were awarded a um study. It was about $75,000 to complete this study. Um and it was through a state earmark. And what it is essentially is you know the town is committed to a goal of net zero
greenhouse emissions by 2050. So we you know through this was initiated by the clean energy committee. Um also you know it's it's been now part of strategic planning. Um and it's also you know recently the adoption of the stretch code. So if we're you know new buildings has to be all electric. So it's
electrification. We have um you know electric vehicles is we're starting to implement that. And then it's but the question is how do we how do we get there? You know what I mean? So especially when we talk about our buildings like how do we electrify our buildings especially our old buildings
and and and so this the purpose of this study was really just to I call it a road map because it's really just to see like how how we what's the order of magnitude. How do we lay out that road map to get to 2050 because 2050 is not that I mean it's it's a far away but
it's not that far away. and how do we plan to get there? Um, and we have nine, so we have nine schools. So, we thought that it would be great to do this for our schools. We also are starting this process for our town buildings as well. Um, it would be great to do it for a lot
of our uh assets in town. Um, so this was a really the first town adopted plan. I know some other communities did it. Um, Actton had done completed a similar study. What's that like? What's what's the road map like and what's the the anticipated cost? Um so this is very high level. I just want to say it's
based on assumptions. Those assumptions or the industry could change. Um and the report it it's nearly 50 pages. It has a lot of um without the appendices. So it has a lot of a lot of data in there. It is available on our website. Um link here on our solid waste sustainability
website. There's a link I think is technically on the clean energy committee's website, but this is available for download. Anyone can review it. It gets into all the the the the number crunching and the math of how they get to these recommendations and really it's basically what's the level
of effort cost and then what's the timeline for that. Next slide. So, so the report had many assumptions. Um and just to go over some of these assumptions um so reviewed existing heating, plumbing, electrical, building
infrastructure, building envelopes. They had, you know, our total square footage are looking at all of our energy loads on the buildings. They had all of our our um utility bills to understandable our buildings as they are. What energy do they consume to to operate? Um they
looked at the also our DPW operations budgets to see what do we spend in the schools to maintain the buildings. They also assumed um a square foot a dollar per square foot capital cost based on industry references to to you have there's so much anticipated cost to m
just to maintain a a building. Um whether it be so it says capital planning not panning. Um so that is so that was b that was put into the um the cost in uh estimate as well. And we do have solar panels on all on eight of the
nine schools except this building. Um, so that was factored in because it's not I guess if we didn't have solar panels that could be factored in as an opportunity to electrify, but we already have electric um solar panels on most of our buildings. And the electrification looked at air source heat pumps just for
the purpose of the study. There's obviously other methods you could use. You could look at geothermal without making the the in um we want to have we wanted to make some assumptions. So typical heat source pumps. So that's what we we looked at or air source heat pumps. Um and then we all so we have
very old you know old buildings. So with these upgrades we also assume that they have to be electrical upgrades and potentially some building envelope upgrades. That was part of the assumption. So in terms of this timeline this and all the the math is in the report is
each school is broken down and what it takes to electrification and then the BAU is business as usual. So if we don't do any electrification, you know, a a gas system a a boiler basic after 20 years we have to replace. So if we just do business as usual, we're going to be
spending so much money till 2050. What is that delta to electrify these buildings and so we're basically completely net zero and have no gas um connections to the buildings. So each school is broken down. And I just want to note too is South Row, you know,
we're we're looking at a new school for South Row. We wanted to do this analysis to show the existing cell what it would take to you know to eventually um electrify under it being self the current cell school. When we do a new building there's more opportunity we're required under the stretch code to
electrify it. So a new building has different opportunities. This is just based on like what would it take to electrify the existing south row school um as is. So, so bas the the end result is the delta is essentially $43 million
of additional costs that we'd have to spend. >> And and I the next slide I think actually breaks it down a little better to show where where's that cost. And so um so basically the electrification requires a capital investment cost of
$84.8 million versus the $41.4 million. So that's the capital cost because not just is there there there's two parts of this analysis. It was a life cycle cost because what does it cost to operate an existing system from electrification versus gas and what does it cost to
replace it, maintain it? The separate cost, the upfront cost is that initial investment cost. So that's substantial. So that 41.4, that's what you see in the orange here. That's that that cost. And so, um, you know, we've seen going back, maybe not right now, but we've seen some
grant opportunities for electrification. So, that's really where we I think we'd have to rely on some of that funding to be able to get past that. That's really the biggest hurdle I see. Um, then you get into maintenance costs. And so, that this is gets into more industry assumptions like what does it cost to
maintain a gas gas versus electrification? There's there's industry um reported figures plus the cost of electricity, the cost of gas that could also change too by the time this you know 2050 comes around. But based on the current industry averages,
we estimate $3.7 million in savings on maintenance costs. So basically it does if you have an electric system versus gas system and working in looking at all the the fuel versus electric costs, it is there is a savings um $3.7 million.
that's over essentially the next 30 30 years. Um and then and then the so that sorry that was the maintenance cost they all then the electricity cost. So the reason why there's an increase of $10.4 million for electricity is really because our
building envelope. So electric when you electrify a building you want to have a very sec struct you know the structure it's important what's what's the structure our structure is very old. So when we have you know looking forward to the new Parker school that will be have a very different building envelope that
has a lot more energy saving components in it um that would you know you basically get your money's worth by converting to electric. If you have an old building you there's a lot of heat loss that you're going to be um or the energy is not is contained within the building. So these buildings that we
currently have um you know there's they're they don't have the appropriate building envelope to provide for um the electrification. So that's something to think about is when we talk about you know it comes before us at town meeting like think about geothermal geothermal
or other you know electrification is really right now what I see is just is when we do new buildings that's really opportunity. We want to try to see if there's any other opportunities. But what this report is telling me is that just that's such a large capital investment and maintenance costs
associated um because of the age of our our buildings. And also in that too um our switch gear, the electrical load coming into the building, they're old in all buildings. So that that $10.4 million also probably includes some um or actually that was covered in the
41.4, but that's part of that capital investment in and upgrade as well. And then um lastly, as part of this analysis, the natural gas cost, so it does decrease by $2.5 million is still shown because um it takes the next 20 we
won't be completely off of gas into 2050. So after 2050, that purple band should disappear, but it takes time to to to get there. Um and then through so through all the analysis and looking at all of our um backlog or what we've done
for building upgrades, we looked at like this is what systems are due next. So you know we just recently did the high school. the high school would not be um until 2043 because that was just recently done. Um in here Parker Middle
School that would probably I mean that's 2028 but we also know that's an opportunity for a new building that we're pursuing. Um and then you look at so said a lot of the reason why we have some of these schools in here is we just recently completed boiler systems. McCarthy we are just doing the boiler
this summer so that's why it's 2046. Um, and so that was how we came up with the the anticipated timeline. Um, we didn't break down I guess I didn't present the detail because if you think about the the 40 plus million dollars over 20 years that I mean it just depends. I
think this is a helpful document to plan. Um, right now I think we're focused on if you look at short term it's Parker and so Parker the cost information in here in here the cost information isn't accurate because hope hoping that we're looking for a new school. Um but at least it shows in here
that the the next electrification process would be the Parker School. Um and then behind that is um is South Row like what's the opportunity there? Um and this is just a highlevel planning document just to help us to see how do we get to 20150.
>> This is really really good. >> If you the report online is actually very interesting. Um, it's a lot of number crunching, but the if you look at their assumptions and how they got there, it it crunches the data and it shows you and I think it comes down to older buildings are just harder to
electrify. >> That's interesting. >> Bottom line, we need to build a lot more new schools. >> Yeah. >> More schools. Yeah. I mean, unless there's unless the industry changes or if there's some grant opportunity um you know, to to build infrastructure, that's
really what we need because I don't I just don't know. We already have to spend I mean it's $84 million over the next 28 years and we have to spend 41 of that. But to do the the upgrade that's just a lot of money. Just >> want to point out one more thing that I noticed the dates in the 30 you know 37
38s. I will not be on the school committee. >> Okay. So, let's just set them up right so when they get there they can make that choice. >> All right. Anybody have any questions on the >> electrification? >> No, this was really good. I really appreciate this the the amount of work you put into this. Nobody I mean I
really learned a lot. So, uh thank you for that. I'm especially interested in capital and projects. So, you know, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Long-term planning just really helpful for >> Yeah. >> school committee members for years to come. >> That was really interesting. Yeah. >> Yeah. Plus, Director Clancy has a very
beautiful supporting team today. This is great. >> That's you. >> Diana, any questions? >> No, thank you for asking. That was a really helpful presentation. >> All right. Well, thank you very much.
Thanks, Christine. I appreciate it. Have a good night. >> Thanks. You as well. All right. Um, second item up tonight is uh Joanna is just going to share the fiscal 25 uh end of the year financial report. So this is for all the activity through June 30th.
>> Thank you. At the June at the July 22nd meeting, I had presented the preliminary results um that um and then said I'd go back and give you the final figures for fiscal 25. Our operating budget was 73,880,000.
We spent 73,69,818. We have $810,81.92 in open encumbrances. And so that means our budget was fully um expended and encumbered. the grant and revolving fund summary had
a little bit of a change. Um why I told you that some of the revenue uh hadn't posted yet. So this June report reflects the final numbers for the grant revolving funds for the year. And then the student activity balances did not
change since the last report. Um those uh those remain the same by um sport and club. So, no no big changes from last month's meeting. >> Any questions? >> I have just one. I don't know why I've
never asked it before. Why do they need to keep so much money in those student accounts? I mean, the high school 244 almost $245,000. Why do they need to have that much money carrying over?
Well, they're allowed to carry it over and it's kind of class by class. And I think we have um conservative people, you know, running the clubs and I think too that they, you know, they cautiously do fundraising so that they have it
available and then they um don't always, you know, execute on everything. The largest one being the theater guild. Um they do make a conscious effort because they do raise the most through their ticket sales. Um and then Principal Murray is you know thinking of ways to
um you know spend it maybe not um have to raise so much money um because we do have the balances but you know if that um addresses your question. >> So I suppose like theater guild might come up with something really big ticket
item that would be worthwhile to have. they try >> and that way they know that they've been saving money for a while to possibly do that in the future >> or do less fundraising because they do um have such a balance. >> That's what I wonder if they kind of
consider maybe take a year off sometimes because that's a lot of money. >> Other questions? Diana, any questions on the budget report? >> No, thank you. Um it looked pretty
straightforward. Thank you. >> Um on the grants, is it true things are looking a little rosier than it was last meeting in terms of some of those grants that we were talking about? >> Um yes, we did get our allocations um
on the 4th, I think. So it wasn't really enough time to add it agenda item. Um, so we are pretty much uh similar funding to last year for the entitlement grants. >> Okay. >> We still haven't heard from the USDA
yet, the federal monies for the reimbursement for breakfast and lunch, but for the uh entitlement grants, so title one, the sped IDA, it looks like we're going to be um close to level funding. And then we will those are
those applications are due um September 9th. and September 30th. So like Dr. Hirs will be working on curriculum type ones and then Amy Reese will be working on the um >> He loves doing that stuff. >> That's great though. That's a relief. >> No, it is it is it was good news to hear
that. >> It was good news. >> Yeah. Yeah. All right. Any other questions, comments? Okay. Should we uh take a motion to accept this as a final budget report? >> I would. Okay. >> Okay. I move that we accept the um what
would I call it? budget transfers the year financial report. >> Okay. As presented. >> Second. >> All right. Uh Susan >> Hi, >> John. >> Hi. >> Maria. >> Hi. >> Diana. >> Hi.
>> I 5. Right. >> Thank you very much. >> Do you want one of these? >> No. Just cover everything. >> Next up, I believe is >> later. Okay. No, but in that report, you got everything. Oh, good. Okay. Okay. All right. >> Good. Good. Okay. Good.
>> All right. So, next up, we have the superintendent's uh performance evaluation. Um, so, first of all, I'd like to thank everybody for getting their uh parts of the evaluation in in a timely fashion. Made things much easier. Um, I sent everybody a copy of the final summary uh over the weekend. So,
hopefully everyone had a chance to look it over. Um on the final summary you have all the rankings that each of you gave the superintendent in the four standards which are instructional leadership, management, operations, family and community engagement and professional culture along with overall rankings. Um I take everybody's comments
and try to summarize them into an overall narrative along with some accommodations and recommendations in the four assessment areas. So rather than read the whole thing, I'm just going to read the the summary, the one summary at the beginning and then if anybody has any more comments, I can do that. So, um, so for a final summary, as
was noted in one committee member's comments, this year was a year when the Chelsea public schools continued to move forward despite a financially, politically, and socially challenging period. While many local school districts have struggled with these challenges, the Chsa School District under the leadership of Superintendent Lang has not only survived but thrived.
Financially, the school system remains on solid footing, not only in its local budget, but also in many of its reserve accounts. This has allowed for the growth of services and programming in a climate where other systems are finding themselves having to cut staffing and course offerings. Despite many students nationwide struggling to recover
academically in a postcoid era, those in Chson continue to achieve levels well above state and local averages. In individual evaluations, committee committee members all made note of the superintendent's effective handling of the district budget and successful labor negotiations with various bargaining units which led to new contracts being r
ratified in a timely manner. Also of note was the superintendent's leadership in advancing major directive uh district initiatives including the strategic plan, special education opportunity review, school safety improvements, and the ongoing collaborative collaboration with the Massachusetts School Building
Association for a new middle school project. Several committee members also comment about Superintendent Lang's growth in family and community engagement and his continuing effort to foster two-way communication and involve stakeholders in key decisions. Because of the stability and forward thinking provided by Superintendent Lang,
committee members found him to be proficient or exemplary across all four standards of his evaluation and given him an overall rating of exemplary for his work during the 2024 2025 school year. So that was his final summary. I don't know if anybody wants to add anything. John,
>> uh, I'll keep it simple. Uh, this was also in my review. 1010 work. Let's go build a school. Really great great year. Thank you for that. Okay. >> Anybody else want to add anything? brevity. >> I don't think I I wrote out what I thought. Um I know I sent it along. Um
it continues to be great to work with you >> and I think that um the challenges that we continue to face that you know you take them on and you've been listening things that we've been saying which I
think is really important and um so >> for that reason let's move forward >> and I'll I'll say the same thing. I talked to you last week and while there have been concerns because we should continue to look for challenges that need to be improved upon, but I think
through your leadership um we're doing really well here in Chelard and I I appreciate all the work >> that you do to lead the district. I think we're in good shape. >> Diana, any additional comments? >> Yeah, thank you. Um I just really
appreciate the responsiveness um when things as they inevitably will come up um that are areas uh where we all you know might have different perspectives um when I bring concerns to
Dr. Lang, he's always incredibly responsive and I have seen even over the past year um a real move towards some of the things I was really excited to see us move in the direction of. Um a deeper look at the data about what is happening
in schools on many levels. Um has really been a hallmark I think of this year and I'm really appreciative of that and looking forward to working with Dr. Lang in the year ahead. >> Okay, great. All right. If there are no other
comments, uh I'll take a motion to approve the evaluation. >> I I move that we approve the superintendent's uh evaluation for 2425 year school year. >> Um I excitedly second. >> Okay. >> Slightly better than a normal second.
>> Susan, >> hi. >> John, >> I >> Maria, >> hi. >> Diana, >> I >> and I. >> Great. Very briefly, thank you very much. Um, I enjoy the um I I enjoy the work here genuinely, but I appreciate the the feedback and really working
together to um to advance the district. So, thank you for the comments. Um, they're taken um seriously and into consideration as we move forward, but I very much enjoy working here with you and with the team that we have supporting us all. So, um, thank you and continuing to look forward to a good 2526 school year.
>> Great. All right. Moving on. >> Moving on. Um, and thank you Dennis for putting all that together. >> All your stuff. So you just said >> many thanks. >> A summarize. So >> it's really great. >> Uh, next up, Linda's just going to review a couple of additional, uh,
changes to the student handbook. So would you walk us through those? >> So um, in your memo, you'll see that there are a few changes that came to be. One was from our last meeting when we discussed some of the language surrounding attendance and then also the addition of um communication devices. It
connects with the cell phones so that we can kind of encompass all of the different communication um pieces that are out there. Um health services actually came to us after the fact. There's been some recommendations for changes in administrating um the uh medications also some of the surveys
that we do for students and I went through it with Peggy Gump as well as our attorney um to make sure that we put the correct information into the health section. And then lastly, um just given the tenor politically and some of the advice that we've been receiving from our associations and from um you know,
other people that are going on to just add some information regarding curricular um inclusivity. I made up I made up that title. I just want to be very clear. So, I'm open to any changes um to just make sure that we are stating that we are, you know, an inclusive district and that we will have
curriculum pieces and if somebody does um take issue with the issue with any of the curriculum, they can go through their principles and through central office as well. >> Okay. Anybody have any questions on any of the changes from last time?
>> I have just a question for clarity on the medication. Um, so many kids have asthma and need inhalers. Are there any provisions where older students are allowed to carry their own inhalers for use or is everything have to go through the nurse?
>> Um, the nurse has to know who has escort, right? So, I think that starts there. I can check with um Peggy Gump, but there are some provisions of some students that can have their medication on them. Um, and that's part of the process that was in that wonder. I just want people to be clear because there
are kids for whom a rapid, you know, a quick response to use that inhaler is necessary and if they're old enough and responsible and she knows. >> Yeah. I think it's a matter of what the doctor puts in for their orders and then they would work with the families, but I'll definitely get some clarification on that. I don't want to pretend I'm in
charge of >> Yeah. >> Just thank you for incorporating the changes. No problem. >> Appreciate that. >> And these do not affect the high school addendum. So that's why you don't see that on there. I made sure I went through that because the this main handbook is the handbook for the
district. Those are just additional things that affect high school. >> Okay. >> I think you did a good job of rewarding and summarizing what we talked about last time so that we're all clear on what we mean. >> Yeah. Diana, any questions or comments on the new changes or suggestions?
>> No comments. Just um it looks all straightforward to me. Thank you. >> Okay, great. We'll get these um up on the we'll do the translations and we'll have them up on the handbook by the beginning of the school year. >> Okay. So, I'll take a motion to approve this. >> I I move that we approve the 202526
family and student handbook uh with the updates as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. All right. Susan, >> I Maria >> I >> Diana >> I >> I 50. >> Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Uh number five of the
agenda tonight is uh Joanna is going to review a recommended uh budget transfer for fiscal 26. This is the coming year budget or the current year budget. >> You were just ahead ahead of the curve. >> I know they separated out Joanna's thing and I got all confused. >> She almost made this earlier.
>> I know. I This is the only time this happened. So I separated out all the 25 stuff early agenda and then we kind of shift into you were getting tricky. That's why >> that's what happened. Give me that. >> I didn't try to do that. keeping me awake.
>> Thank you. So before you tonight is a request for one budget transfer for fiscal 2026 in the amount of $27,915. Um and this is to purchase um enhancements to the industrial arts
classroom. So that's the wood shop at the high school to include student seating, workbenches, teacher desks, and miscellaneous tools and equipment. If you may recall, as part of our one-time purchases in fiscal 25, there were some upgrades to the wood
shop with um walls and floors and safety lines and things like that. And once they got everything out of there and refreshed everything, um, Bill Silver came forward and said, you know, is this something we could, you know, shift from his computer services line item, um,
over to industrialized equipment to complete this project? >> Okay. >> Anybody have any questions about the transfer? >> I do have one question. Um I am just because this is a relatively large
budget transfer early in the year. Is this going to impact some of the things that were initially intended to be paid for under the computer services line or is this money that um you know we feel relatively comfortable will not be
needed for the original intention? >> Uh Bill feels relatively comfortable. I do too. uh this computer services line um also funds um like our internet services and we do receive -ate funds to
help cover that. So we once we know the -ate funds that we will get later in fiscal 26 and we do the transfer to the rate it's kind of like a little grant you see that on the grant and revolving fund summary. um this 27,000 we should
be okay because we'll we'll be expecting you know probably around 80,000 or so in the -ate funds. >> All right, thank you. >> Okay, >> any other questions or >> Okay, we'll take a motion. Okay. I move
that we approve the FY2026 local operating budget transfer from computer services to CHS industrial arts equipment in the amount of 27,915 um as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. Susan.
>> Hi. >> John. >> Hi. >> Maria. >> Hi. >> Diana. >> Hi. >> And I 5. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Um I'm trying to open my Dennis. Can you help me with this next one? I'm just trying to open my packet, but um we had started to talk at the last meeting
about possibly um >> just doing some updates to the private school approval process and I just need time to pull mine up, but if you want to talk. >> Yeah. So, um you know, at our last meeting, you know, one of the things we did talk about is the new private school um and the approval process. And one of
the things in in looking at that, I looked at our old policy and our old policy basically just says that, you know, we have to approve that they're meeting our standards. But it doesn't really get into any the right up here. Um, >> it basically says in accordance with
state law to approve a private school when it satisfy the instructional program of the school equals that of the town's public school, thoroughess, efficiency, and progress made. That's it. That's that's what our policy was. I just want to say it's hard when the district is beyond equal because Chemford is beyond equal. But continue.
>> Anyways, so so in looking at that, I wondered if if maybe MSC had something that was a little bit more specific um and and and kind of outline the process better so if we do have people as they are that are are looking to start um a new school that they would know what
would have to be supplied. So, I did look up um and I think I gave everybody a copy of this last meeting what the MASC policy says. And as you can see, it's much more specific in terms of >> what um a private school would have to supply to us. And then one of the things
it does too is references a checklist that >> Desi has um that uh I believe we used last time and looking at >> that's what we actually we actually followed this policy even though it wasn't our policy. we follow the more thorough one >> which I believe is in the next stage uh next page is all the checklist. So I
what I would suggest is you know just so that it's clear u more clear than our current policy that we adopt the this policy of the MSSE standard policy um along with the checklist and then then everything is cut and dry. >> So
>> that is much more um that is much more informative. Yeah. >> Right. Right. Right. >> I really I think that's great. >> Okay. >> And outlines the steps. I think it's better. Yeah. >> Yeah. And to be honest with you, so when you even go to the Desi site, they say you basically they recommend you just
follow the checklist. So that's what we were doing anyway. So it's not like this the school that's before us are going to come before us at some point. It's not like we're changing the rules on them. This is what we were doing anyway. Yeah. >> The MASC policy actually just lays it out much better. And I think it would be easier for uh anyone in the future
coming forward to kind of know precisely what they have to do as opposed to a was just that little paragraph you had to guess a little bit. So this isn't going to impact at all what's going to come before you for the new school, but in the long run, I do think it definitely helps with other schools who potentially would want to do something like this. So
it makes a lot of sense. >> I I think it not only helps clarify the process, I think it also help clarify for the public that I know there's been a lot in social media about this new school and that we are not delaying it just because we feel like it. There is a
real procedure that has to be followed. >> Um and that's what we're doing. So now it will be clear and transparent what that is. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And it's not something that happens every single day. >> Um so I'm I'm move that we um adopt the
uh MSC policy as presented um for u non-public schools and the acceptance of a non-public school a approving a private school. >> Second. Second. Great. Any other
questions? >> No. >> All right, we'll take a vote. Susan, >> I >> Maria >> I >> Diana >> I >> I 5 Z. >> Great. Great. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay.
>> Um just what since we're talking about policies, just as everybody probably knows, the Senate did approve a cell phone policy, but it still has to go through the House. So, we still need to kind of wait and see what they come up with, if it's the same, if it's different. I know there's stuff out there in terms of what the Senate is
saying, you know, they would like to see in it, but, you know, until we know for sure what the House version is going to look like and how long it's going to take them to come up with something, um, you know, just something to keep an eye on, I guess. >> Okay. >> Great. >> If I get alerts, I'll send them my way as well. >> Absolutely. Okay.
>> Yeah. >> All right. I believe that's all we have for our agenda. So, uh, I don't any anybody have any liazison reports? >> Um, I have one correction. When you get there, uh, I actually don't, for some reason, was I I can't remember now. I looked at the meeting minutes from last
7:22 and it says I'm not present. >> You weren't. >> You weren't. I weren't. So, I wasn't weren't. I was not present. So, I actually could not have seconded that vote earlier. We should probably fix that. >> Oh, that's correct. Okay, I'll do it. >> I would have had to I would have had to. >> So, John has abstained. didn't even
catch. >> Do we have to redo the vote or like how do >> which one >> just approve the minutes? >> Oh, the approve the minutes. >> Why don't we just redo it? It's like >> it's approved the minutes as revised. >> Well, the vote has revised. No, >> I can make a motion again. >> Make a motion again. You can you
capable. You can >> It's on your list. >> Okay. John John was not present at the last meeting. So, he is abstaining in this. >> He can't second that. Correct. >> And I can't. >> All right. I make a motion that we approve the regular school committee what >> go good
>> meeting minutes of the July 22nd 2025 school committee meeting >> and I second >> John >> I abstain >> okay >> Susan >> Maria >> I >> Diana >> thanks >> I >> thank you >> 401 abstension >> thank you I just I I was sitting on it
and I was like oh I should probably >> all right so back >> back to the any layers on I Don't assume anyone has no any new items that people want >> head to the agenda for the next meeting. >> Do we have any final numbers on um who's
coming into the school? And >> oh, I'll I'll put a report together for you um for the next meeting. I'm happy to do that. >> Thank you. >> We've had a pretty stable summer. Nothing uh out of the ordinary, but I'll put a report together for you for the next meeting. >> And on hiring, things are going okay. >> Yeah, very good. If you'd like, I can do
that one for you, too. Um, we're down to, I believe, um, well, we had the one resignation, but aside from that, I think we're down to one teaching position, >> so it all good. Three weeks out, >> that's truly terrific. >> Yeah, but I'll give you that little um cheat sheet at the next meeting to just show you where we're at.
>> All right, Diana, anything adding new items? >> No, thank you. >> Great. Uh, okay. We have no further public comments, so I will take a motion to adjurnn. >> I move that we adjourn. >> I second. Well, you got it. >> Susan. Susan.
>> Hi, >> John. >> Hi, >> Maria. >> Hi, >> Diana. >> Hi. >> Hi. 5 Z. >> I just came back from Disney. You're in a great