to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you this meeting is being live
streamed by CH ter tele media and posted the CPS website for interested community members to access and watch inperson public participation will be taking place tonight in accordance with the CH school committee public participation policy anyone speaking tonight during the public input portion of this meeting as notifi the superintendent's officer
to desire to speak been provided with these guidelines upon request written comments received no later than 12:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting will also be read made a part of the record of the me uh meeting during the second public comment session so welcome to this meeting of the child school committee our first order of business is to
approve our minutes from February 25th I make a motion to approve the regular school committee meeting minutes of February 25th 2025 I'll second it looked all right any corrections questions all
those in favor I was Zero all right next up will be our student Representatives hi everyone so last week the class of 2026 elections took place with um our future president being Cody D Stacy vice president Ryan Gomez
treasurer saz aad secretary aaac congrats to those four this year 12 people ran for office um and then we have had seven finalists at the mes DEA Career Development conference with pava aburri pava and Arvin dreo qualifying
for the international Career Development conference and three there was also three hard-earned spots to the ICDC Leadership Academy so congrats to all and this week is our house Olympics where our three houses Hawthorne Emerson and Whittier battle each other for the
most school spirit so Monday marked the start of the spirit week and we had a we have a hygiene drive and this is all ran by our interact club and then we also have sports days every day and activities so Monday is badmington or was badmington Tuesday we or today we
had trivia tomorrow's dodgeball Thursday we'll be having Minute to Win It games during the school day a robot race and a battle of the paints and then um and then the senior versus staff hockey game and Friday we will be having karaoke basketball and our dance and that will
Mark the end of the hygiene drive along with this um we also have a spirit week at the high school um Monday was pajama day today was Hawaiian day tomorrow is crazy hair and or sock day Thursday is cultural day and Friday is color um per for your house day um
tomorrow's a half day I'm very excited for that along with this spring sports are starting up um registrations are up and they're going to be closing on the 13th this being said all winter sports are done so congratulations to all coaches and teams for their successful seasons and the Shamrock shuffle dance
will be taking place um this Friday the 14th for all grades at CHS and congratulations to the CHS math team um for taking first at the UMass L mathematics challenge I want you to know it was a pajama day at my school today and I had a change out of my pajamas to come here
so that actually Nick maybe we could have a meeting Pajama Day me meeting I would do that I would do that um all right any other good news anyone like to share um I'll just add in just more of a public service announcement the Parker middle school will be putting on their play starting next week which is The
Wizard of Oz they're doing two performances um on Thursday and Friday will be for grade five students and then on Saturday the mat and the evening performance will be the sixth grade students performing so always a great take get your tickets online happy to
see you there okay anyone else good news Surprised Patrick missed it but uh just congratulations to Thomas Brown u a wrestling team who won his third New England title to go with his fourth All State title to go with his fourth divisional State title his sectionalist
title like one of the most successful wrestles in massachusett history never never mind Cheng fit so congratulations to Thomas and then number four what's that number four yeah except for one yeah all right um we don't have anybody for public comment no so we'll move on
to new business sounds good uh first up this night is a uh Spotlight I see a lot of faces in the crowd and Dr chrisy Whitty I'd love to invite you up to hear a little bit about um find and Performing Arts um chrisy is our department coordinator for finding performing so she handles k12 and she's
going to tell us a little bit about what's happening hi everyone thank you so much for welcoming me here uh it's apt to do this presentation in March because March is both National Youth art month and music and our schools month so I will explain how
we're celebrating these events in our schools as the presentation continues I will make this as brief as possible um but here are the points that I'm going to touch on first I'll discuss some uh work that we've been doing aligning our curriculum to the new
Massachusetts state Arts Frameworks I'll talk about how we're using our really exciting new renovated CHS art spaces and I'll discuss recent achievements in the arts that students have experienced and then we'll wrap up the presentation
with our award-winning Acappella Ensemble satb Ensemble the Thursdays so the chumford public schools vision statement addresses how we strive to provide all students with multiple Pathways to optimize their own potential
for academic Excellence leadership and social and emotional wellness and that we work from a Rous a rigorous curriculum that's aligned with State Standards so that our students can contribute to the chelsford community as self-directed creative and well-rounded Learners who are ready to become the
innovators of tomorrow in 2019 the Mass Department of Elementary and secondary education desie introduced a brand new Arts framework to guide our work anchored by the standards for artistic practice that you see on this slide that describe the processes and skills
students learn to achieve artistic literacy the new Frameworks present ambitious standards that highlight the importance of the Arts as part of a well-rounded education that prepares students for college careers and Civic partic ipation they emphasize the
importance of creating original work in the Performing Arts and on presenting in Visual and media arts as well as responding to the work of other students and the work of artists in the field with a focus on understanding the context in which artworks were
created aligning our fra our curricula to the new Frameworks has been a focus since they were released and I'm pleased to share now that all of our K2 Arts curricula are currently aligned with these domains and this work has looked different at
varying levels as I'm sure you can imagine for example our elementary schools have already been assessing student progress toward meeting standards on our standards based report cards and so when the new uh Frameworks were release we updated these to reflect
those and have continued collaborating to keep the curriculum updated this year the Elementary art and music teachers have worked to create a grade level glossery aligned to The Standard and you see here an example from the visual art glossery and this
work will continue through the rest of the year in middle and high school we've addressed our curriculum alignment in different ways to meet the shifting needs of programs to both support our middle school reorganization and also engage in our neas re accreditation
process at the high school so here you see one example of how our art teachers in the Arts foundations classes such as Studio one appreciating the Arts introduction to digital photo Etc are aligning assessments to the framework
domains of creating presenting responding and connecting so this slide here starts with the responding domain that supports students in developing artistic literacy through analyzing and evaluating their own and others works of art including
works of peers and artwork from varied historical periods and cultures students are assessed on this domain in their classes as they engage in analyzing the style of an artist how that style manifests itself in a given artwork identifying specific elements in a work
that connected to a genre or style and they also participate in peer critiques which are structured evaluations of artwork where students analyze interpret and provide constructive feedback to help artists refine their skills understand different perspectives and
improve their creative process critiques are often verbal or written and focus on elements like composition technique meaning and emotional impact this process of aligning the K to2 Arts curricula to the new state Arts Frameworks have encouraged collaboration
between K12 Arts Educators and will ultimately support a logical progression of artistic skills and concept from elementary through high school and help students transition seamlessly through the K to2 Arts programs next um on behalf of the Arts
teachers and students I want to extend my sincere gratitude to everyone in this room and to the Comm Community for supporting renovations to our CHS art rooms this space was originally designed as an open concept wing and it was not
an ideal learning environment for the art students after this Summer's renovation we now have updated floors lighting sinks storage and student Furniture uh so that they can actually see the artwork that they're creating and we also have walls for each
classroom which not only reduces distractions inside the classrooms but also provides us with increased space where we can exhibit student artwork in our new hallway uh and you can see that on the left top left picture there we in
addition we also have access to our Kiln through one of the artw art rooms now which is a new development as we used to have to go in through the TV studio to access the the K with full carts of of ceramic so this is a really fantastic
update to the space as a result of the renovation work we have spaces that are more appropriate for 21st century studio and digital art classrooms so for example on the bottom left picture here you see two students using pottery wheels in our clay sculpture classes and
now we have the infrastructure to support this and while the art teachers could not be here in person tonight they wanted me to relay how thrilled they and the students are with the art rooms and also wanted me to relay an invitation in case any of you want to pop in and see
how the spaces are being used now so thank you for all your support and now it's my favorite time to celebrate Student Success in the Arts this year as we honor student artwork for National Youth art month we are hosting our annual K to2 Student Art Exhibit at
the chelsford public library that features hundreds of pieces of student work and special thanks to to the library for hosting that annual event they're wonderful they are really a cultural hub for our town if you haven't already had the opportunity I encourage you to visit through the month of March
to view this fantastic collection and we also have K to2 student artwork featured in the Massachusetts Art Educators Association virtual gallery to recognize students work and um Dr hirsh has a handout that she'll share with you at
the conclusion that has a QR code so you can see those pieces of art so congratulations to all students who have work selected for these exhibits we also it seems to be lagging I don't know why it will catch up with me up we have
three CHS students who have just had their work accepted into the UMass lel's fourth annual High School exhibition and the students will be celebrated at a reception in Coburn Hall later this month so congratulations to them that
artwork is fantastic and in other visual art news our studio 3 students at the high school are once again participating in the memory project this year the memory project is a nonprofit organization that invites our teachers and their students
to create portraits for youth around the world who have faced substantial challenges such as neglect abuse loss of parents violence war and extreme poverty this year students created portraits for children in Malawi and the portraits are
being sent to those youths in Malawi for them to keep this Fosters a beautiful connection between CHS students and children across the world so congratulations to all students participating in this initiative in Performing Arts news our
theater students have also been B busy excelling each year the musical is entered into the Tammy musical competition and results are posted in the spring so last spring CHS actually won best overall production in the state for Legally Blonde as well as Myriad
other honors and we will learn about how this year's fantastic production of Beauty and the Beast fares um and so fingers crossed there the theater Guild is also engaged in this year's Massachusetts educational theater Guild competition and won several awards at
the preliminary round they will be advancing to the semifinals so break a leg to all of the students involved since 2013 we have received a best community for music education designation from the N foundation and
within that supportive Community uh our music students are continuing to thrive so for example each March and April we have many students participating in multi-district and state music festivals this year eight of our grades four
through six students have been selected to participate in the Massachusetts music educators Association All State treble choir and they will be performing later this month with students from around the state in addition at the high school level seven students have been selected
to participate in the mass music educators Association All State ensembles and will perform at Symphony Hall at the end of this month I do want to note that Ryan Blaine not pictured here uh will also be representing chumford at the National Association of
music educators all Eastern Festival in Connecticut in April which brings together students from many states on the Eastern Seaboard so congratulations to all of these students and finally we have a thriving
AC capella program at CHS and in the middle schools and our ensembles the Thursdays and the crescendos at CHS plays first and second place at the International Championship of high school Acappella quarterfinals and will advance to the semi-final round at
mechanics Hall later this month so Bravo to all of these students for their hard work and dedication to their craft and now it is my pleasure to introduce our award-winning satb Acappella Ensemble the Thursdays who are going to perform a
piece for us [Music] don't the transition don't do the [Music] [Music]
me send me to outer space you [Music] someone's to Heart Break
[Music] [Applause] [Music] It me
[Music] you stop to [Music]
say stop to [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh but I love a [Applause]
[Music] [Applause] [Music] little you take it all away take it it'sing me
inside feel should be over but my heart [Music]
still [Music] say in all situ [Music] sit [Music] [Music]
[Applause] all right thank you very much great than you thank you very much thanks guys that was really great thank you I a few questions you should come every meeting honestly just every
meeting anyone have any questions for just outstanding work I mean really all of us have seen the programs throughout the time we've been here I think in the programs to speak for themselves and the kids so my family's involved in it now and has been for a little bit and I
think all of us are just really lucky to have you guys in the district so well we have thank you so much for saying that and thank you for all the support uh it is really important to have the community support and also I just want to acknowledge the excellent work by all of the art and music and theater staff
that we have um who go above and beyond to support their students um skills and also their personal development and give them every opportunity that they possibly can so thank you right anybody else question um one question I get
quite a bit from folks is what are we doing at the elementary school level in the Arts in terms of digital art is there because when you move Move Along into the high school you've got quite a bit of a digital art presence now but
how about at both the other levels how are we doing on that so that's a great question because now we have in the new Frameworks we have media Frameworks that are kind of embedded within our art uh visual art Frameworks so because we
don't have a separate class like we do at the high school where we might have a Graphic Design course specific speically for that digital piece or a studio art course specifically to develop studio art skills they're integrated in into
the into what we teach at every level so uh it's obviously a different type of lesson that you might see at an elementary level but because the students have access to Chromebooks there are ways that we can integrate digital uh artwork
into every level okay and we're doing that already we are doing it yes that's great yeah um so I actually don't know if this is new since the realignment of Parker and McCarthy but I know right now fifth
and sixth graders who take an instrument or who do voice classes don't have the opportunity to take Visual Arts as well and I'm curious um what that does in let's say seventh and eth grade when kids who've been
doing visual arts for those two years in fifth and sixth are sort of now mixed with kids who have taken two years doing you know music and you know performance instead and what that looks like at the seventh and eighth grade level okay sure
so just to clarify in case people aren't aware in terms of scheduling we're dealing with the schedules now in course selections as students in grade four are selecting their Arts block for grade five and we try and make that as streamlined as possible so I'm actually really glad you brought it up in case
there are people watching who have students in grade four So currently the offerings in grade five for their Arts block are that students can choose between a full year of band or chorus or orchestra which are performance-based or they can choose a half a year of General
music and a half a year of visual art so as you said students who a student who chooses to be in band for example would not have that Visual Arts piece during the day if I could wave my magic wand and change that schedule I would love to do that um how we have accommodated that
since I was hired in 2007 was that we offer an art after school art club for the Performing music students in grades five and six that's taught by an one of the our teachers at Parker and that is that club is very highly attended yeah
it's our way to try and meet the needs of the students who do want to participate in Visual and Performing Arts as they move ahead to seventh and eighth grade every student takes a quarter of visual art regardless of whether they're in a performance
Ensemble and we're fully aware that many of the students weren't enrolled in their visual art classes in grades five and six so we have talked about that a lot this year as we've engaged in the curriculum alignment work so that we can make sure that all students entering
grade seven can be challenged by the art curriculum but also make sure that we're reinforcing those foundational skills that they may not have um received in grade five and six so there's some differentiation buil in for the students they do a fantastic job differentiating
for all the levels of students absolutely great any other questions right well thank you again thank you for bringing in Thursdays it was great to have with open door just the sing no we just sing once once a week thank you Christ we should open a
meeting with a song you can you can sing the first one I'm going to run that in re-election song per meeting tell me when you're doing that all right I will terrible all right moving on uh moving on to our second item on the
agenda this evening is the um the annual vote that we take um to participate in the school choice program so school choice is a um a program that allows the the district and the school committee to actually designate um a certain number of spots and even it's certain grade
levels based on um where you have room uh to be able to allow students from um other districts to come and uh attend chumford public schools like a student who resides in chumford so um the district has always um again this I've been this my 10th year so this predates
me um we have always taken in somewhere between 40 and 50 students in school choice um the advantage to the district is a little bit of Revenue offset that we get from um having the students come in um so it's 5,000 per student that comes in through school choice we use that uh funding to
actually help offset the cost of our one-on-one computer initiative so that's the direct offset for that and it also um obviously allows um some students to come into the district and take advantage of our programs where again we have space we traditionally have not um
had students come in in elementary just because our elementary numbers are are large um and then even with the middle school it's been really rare uh cases that we've had uh Middle School spots um what we've had the most um space has been at the high school level so
traditionally we'll take in students um who want to begin their freshman year their grade nine year with us and then once they're um accepted into the program they stay with us right through the four years they don't have to reapply every year um so right now we have 37 Uh current students enrolled in
school choice seven of which are seniors who are going to be graduating from the high school so next year that'll leave us a starting place of 30 um and the recommendation looking at the numbers um would be to ask an additional 10 students to come in enroll as ninth grade students so that would keep our
number at 40 um to start which is a good number for us again I'm always just kind of conscious of the the overall numbers not having too many students in a particular grade level that could throw off um you know course enrollments or things like that um but I think taking in 10 would obviously be consistent U we
will traditionally see like right now uh next year we would have a lower number of sophomores in 10th Grade grade five but we would have 13 and then 10 in 11 and 12 so if we bring in another 10 we'll keep a pretty um steady number of students enrolled through school choice at the high school um the students do
get to attend school at no cost again I mentioned they're treated like a chelsford public school student the only catch is they do have to provide their own transportation to and from school so because they're coming from another Community we obviously don't have busing for them but I'm happy to answer any questions um the recommendation is
written at the bottom of the memo if this is something the school Comm supports and the process would be if you do support this um there's a form we use to notify the state that we're actually going to participate in this we then have an application process that will post for about a month or so we have an application we put on the website people
would fill out the application they'd get us information from the school They Se to transfer from if we ended up having 10 or less students then all 10 or less students would be welcomed in if we ended up getting 12 students then we have to hold the lottery so it's just a blind draw of 10 names out of a hat
those 10 get to come in the other two are on a waiting list if someone decides not to come in then we go to number 11 and number 12 and right down the line but uh that would all take place between um tomorrow and right around April school vacation is when we wrap up and have our Lottery and we then tell people
if they're going to get in or not uh because sometimes they may be looking at other Alternatives as well we want to be able to let them know there be the coming and they're not coming so happy to answer any questions about school choice for you um but just based on the numbers that would be my recommendation for next year I have kind of a general
question I'm I'm comfortable with the numbers for sure but look who are the students who typically want to come to chelsford and what do you hear about why like are they from surrounding towns or they tend to be faculty members kids what's no so I mean we certainly do have
faculty members kids um they are some not a significant number maybe a handful of them might be faculty related we actually have a um clause in our contract that would allow faculty even if they don't live in chelmford to have their kids come um even outside of this
program and enroll here the family would just have to pay half a tuition fee to do that now if a family um of a staff member didn't live in chelsford but applied through school choice say for the high school slot and they get in then they wouldn't have to pay anything okay so it could be a a staff member you
just never know based on what but typically it's students from the immediate surrounding towns um LOL pora tingbo um M get a tuxbury um they might just be looking at the programs that we offer give compared to what might be being offered in their particular
schools um a lot I I do think generally um we have a very again competitive and well-known theater program arts program a lot of schools don't offer the same level um that we do so we certainly get some kids that come for that um and it's honestly I think enriching for our
students too to um diversify just beyond um the chelwood community but to meet some uh friends and acquaintances from neighboring towns and cities I get that I as I didn't say it well um Dr Whittle was here but I was at the seaon meeting the other night and I did say that our
like our music program in particular what a gy you know so I could see why kids would want to come for something like that sure di you had a question yeah I was I have two one is what has been our typical let's say last year um
what was the interest as compared to how many spaces we had opened up I'm just curious like how many kids we were turning away if any and that sort of thing I want to off top of my head if we let in about 10 last year I think we had maybe 16 or 17 applications so there
were a handful of students that did not get in okay and I'm curious so I see that we have one sixth and 17th or Rising Sixth and Rising seventh grade are currently in the program so I seem to recall at some points there have been kids let in at other age groups I
totally understand why we are not letting kids in K through six given the physical structures of the schools I'm curious why we are not considering adding a few spots in say seven um right now fifth through eth grade
like five and six we know next year's fourth grade is already a very large class coming up to fifth grade um so I really wouldn't as you indicated I really wouldn't want to add anything fifth or sixth grade Parker is really at capacity yeah um we're even looking to try to find spaces within the school to just um take care of the existing
programming we have that's going to be shifting from say Elementary up to Middle School it's it's very tight um McCarthy still has very strong numbers you know we we actually haven't had anyone reach out to us with any um interest in coming in for just seventh
and eighth grade um from a pure um kind of scheduling standpoint we just have a lot more flexibility at 9 through 12 to be able to take in students because um again they not it's not a teaming concept it's an individual class concept and they can just much easier
get a schedule and just less impactful overall to the numbers any other questions um just one comment I think from what I've seen at McCarthy or the 7th and eighth grade
level I also think it's hard to transition in at seventh and eighth grade very difficult to transition to another District um so that might add to socially socially emotionally or and also one of the thoughts had been to
keep the class together so I think it's nice if it from 5th through 8th that whole group does eventually stay together you can't wait to see the first group at the high school at the ninth grade level where this happens I think
that that will be really good um I hope but in any event for um I totally agree with the numbers I think that uh the elementary there's no way we could possibly do it and I think it's really chancing it to move anybody into the
middle school because of what's happening at the elementary level we don't know and we also don't know how many more people will move into the town so that's always makes it difficult I never hear negative comments about this program I've never
heard one while I've been on the school committee no the I mean the the students who participate from the outside U they really enjoy it um the parents are very happy and it's interesting because get very engaged in the chall for Community as well um so their kids are participating in clubs and activities
and again the play and things like this and I'll even bump into some from say LOL that I know from when I worked at LOL and they're absolutely loving their experience here so um no it's it's i' I also have not heard a negative word I've never have yeah all right any other
questions take a motion okay I moved to accept 10 additional students at chumford High School in grade nine under the Commonwealth of Massachusetts school choice program bringing the total school choice participation in the chumford public schools to 40 enrolled students
during the 2025 26 school year second second okay any further comments or questions all those in favor 5 zero thank you very much all right and uh last field trip right so we have some approval of uh some trips and travel
requests uh for before you this evening they're all high school related um the first one is one that I had emailed you on U because we got the request for the uh travel after our last meeting uh but this actually took place last U Saturday and as Dennis alluded to at the start of
the meeting um Thomas Brown was one of our seniors at the high school who qualified to wrestle in the New England tournament and ultimately was successful and uh was named Champion that took place in Providence this past week I believe um we typically meet the first
and third uh Tuesdays of the month and I think the High School's um frame of mind they thought we were going to have a meeting uh prior to so uh that was just an oversight uh but that did happen so this is basically just a retroactive acknowledgement that the trip did occur nothing happened on the trip except the
championship but uh everyone came back uh safe and sound the second trip before you this evening is the high school the theater Grill uh Guild just going to Boston for Nova night competition March 27th and 29th um the third one you actually previously approved this is the chelwood high school kids who are
enrolled in Spanish the cultural exchange uh program to Panama in Costa Rica it was originally going to be April 17th leaving after school which is a Thursday but the flights have changed so they need to leave the 17th but they need to leave before school so they're
going to actually miss school on the Thursday because their plane's going to leave in the morning as opposed to the afternoon so you've already approved the trip but the the um the time of the travel has changed and then last is our kids who qualify for uh the Decker International Conference um they
actually have gotten a very good number of students who are going to be able to participate in this and this is held April 25th to 30th um in Orlando and again this is high school kids who qualified for the DECA U Nationals so those four trips before you for since they're all high school can we
just together yeah we just do one motion for all the all four oh I knew I move that we approve um do you want me to name each one of these just the four High School oh the four cool uh field trips and
travel requests as presented second second okay any questions all those in favor I all right great actually I do have one very quick question it it's not a contingency I'm just curious is the reason we have to vote for the Boston
one because it's overnight even though that's not out of state yeah correct so our policy is the school committee would approve any trip that is either overnight or out of state has all been out of state so it's out first time I saw an in State Overnight yeah it's just because it's
overnight anything else on field trips okay uh any L on reports I have uh one I was at the South Row PTO meeting on March 3rd
um they are convening a committee to figure out what to do with this amazing windfall of the $20,000 that was won through that sweep Stakes um otherwise um lots of things happening as always um they had
the second Global Play Day on February 5th which many schools did and it was very successful again and they feel like this is now institutionalize this is going to happen annually um they used the new emergency system
for the first time in full during their February Alice drill and were really appreciative of the updates to the security system system in the school um and things went very smoothly um they had a huge success at a science fair in February with like a 100 kids
involved um chumford libraries featuring as part of their featuring a lot of Student Art which we've heard about um they're very excited to have several Sora students represented um and finally coming April 5th there's going to be a
multicultural festival at sorow um where families will be showcasing um things from their own culture places that they have visited places that may result um be related to their family's ancestry or um any sort
of other connections people feel to different kinds of cultures and communities so um that'll be April 5th and it's going to be a cool event I am going to be at a table with my son um I'm looking forward to it there going to
be dance performances food sample and um lots of kids and their families excited to talk about different cultures from around the world um so that is it for me I go to uh Parker and McCarthy's this
week else I'm tomorrow Susan you said I do have a few I I missed um chips last night um but I hadn't reported about their previous meeting so um they continue to be very busy and every month they bring in great
enrichment things so just for anyone who wants to know they have a spirit wear day coming up in April 8th in January they did a community service project where they um bring in socks and they collected 629 socks to donate to the
wish project um next week they have Big Joe the Storyteller coming in and a few weeks after that they have um Mr Rego who runs a music program in town coming to do something for the kids so that's what's going on at chips um Harrington
PTO they had their Multicultural night um a few weeks ago in February um it was very well attended really a nice variety of people coming in um I happen to attend and that was great there's a steam Fair coming up on April 15th they
work um with UMass LEL um in collaboration with that that UMass LEL helps them kind of set it up and sponsor it and learn about projects so that's really great there's going to be a pasta dinner hosted by the fourth graders um that's going to be on Thursday April 3rd
our families will be hearing about two choices to attend either 5:15 dinner or 615 it's going to be $20 per family and today they had new house wildlife rescue come in and do two shows just about what's involved with the
rescue and nibby the Beaver was there and Stanley the groundhog and I couldn't resist so I went and got to meet nibby the beaver and got my picture taken with nibby today so that was very exciting for me and finally I went to the chelsford
Friends of Music meeting on March 6th um in addition to many of the things that um Dr um wiy just um presented I have a few more things that are SE from direct um they did want to reiterate that their aim is really to join all chelsford um music
and theater groups kind of into a community and do a lot with students to really encourage student volunteerism and making them feel like they're all part of a group one of the ways students volunteer is to help with the bottle and can drives they um had to stop doing them for a little while they just had
one this past Saturday but there's going to be a another bottle and can drive on the second Saturday of every um month um now through November they um going to have the Middle School talent
show it's going to be on May 10th they have a nice collaboration going on with the chelsford Center for the Arts they're going to allow kids to participate in um some karaoke nights so they can practice for their talent show um coming to the CCA for um the karaoke
nights and they also um they do scholarships for um kids pursuing music camps or College and the scholarship application should now be available on their website which is cfom m.org so any
students who want to apply for those scholarships that should be up and available on their website that's super all right so um CHS PTO met last night and they sent a report because we
had a meeting negotiations meeting after the pro the after prom planning is moving forward and everything's on track uh pickleball hit a couple of snag snag snags is that what it's called snags snags thank you but this is
American saying sorry but team but the team is meeting tonight to regroup and they're moving forward with May 3rd tournament super excited it'll be great um they I had a brunch and they called
it thanks a brunch event for teachers and staff all 100 12 plus attended and the reports said that everyone loved it they started it at 79 when school opened and they said folks filtered in through
the lounge throughout the morning juice Donuts muffins bagels croissants yogurt fruit uh they especially want to thank Dr Lang and the administration for the funding assistant and uh they loved treating the staff it was such a great
event uh since school has its science faar tomorrow night and just aite science fears were started by pto's and um and I remember when it was started um and uh the person
who is now one of the co-presidents of the PTO of the high school was big big big in starting it so it's really amazing uh to see where it's taken off especially at the elementary school level and then the stem fairs and
finally the Council of schools which is my um one of my the groups I go to the Grier presentation um they did survey the staff at the medal school they got 32 responses and they were all extremely
positive on the impact that that presentation had so um that's a great thing to hear too great right en join say tomorrow night okay great all right any new items people have um I just wanted to ask I know there's a lot
of um uncertainty coming down on the federal side with um Mo whatever not M with the uh executive orders and all that um like today there was an announcement that they're cutting a bunch of um Department of Education people and I believe that desie or somebody is putting out some kind of
alerts as these things happen like are we getting some kind of updates from the state to the town saying hey you know this Federal impacting is going to impact this budget line item or if there's anything like that out there maybe talk to Andy uh the the legal staff for those at home so there's a
couple different okay there's a couple of different um Avenues um I don't I just felt I permission so we do get legal alerts from the different law firms so any type anytime there's some type of a um like a
policy or procedure uh implications uh both Andy's office and uh Tom nuttle who's our special Leed attorney their office will send like little updates all right um we do also get information uh from the Attorney General's office of mass you know they've been up on on top of things they'll issue guidance um we
look to that as kind of like the um the direction to follow desie from sometimes will actually send out specific guidance and then different associations we're all tied into like the superintendent Association will send out things um I'm on the legislative committee with that organization so I'll get alerts about
like legislative things that are happening um it's honestly been so fast and furious the way stuff's been coming that everyone has basically been just saying kind of you know don't change your practice stay the steady um if something actually happens and is going to change it'll take a little bit of
time for that to happen we should be able to get notice and then we'll um we'll be able to react to it but we do get a lot of information it's just trying to fish through and see like what's what's real and not but I think we've got things pretty well covered yeah and I think what we're asking more is probably to filter the stuff that's most at a school committee level right I
think and also parents probably going want to know if there's going to be changes and and I think there's going to be out there so there's nothing comes up you know maybe there's nothing to report but maybe going forward yeah if there was anything that was actually going to really have like a direct impact on Chumps and something we're doing because Joanna is looking at the report around like um Federal funding and what we
currently um spend our money on just so that we have that but um there haven't been any indications as of yet that anything is going to change with that um I was talking to Diane a little bit before the meeting but um you know there is some talk even with if you know the Department of Education at the federal level were to dissolve or not be there
it doesn't seem at this point like the um it's just going to go away there were different pieces of the department that would ultimately get merged with other departments um funding and things would still just flow directly to the state as opposed to kind of bypassing at the federal level but things is so far up in the air that it just it hasn't had any
actual implication for us yet we just kind of continuing to Monitor and I certainly would put on the agenda if we got anything that was going to like timely affect chord so J's putting together a report oh that's terrific yeah we we do like the third quarter projection that we'll just um
call up for you because we have it in the budget document like the Federal grant things but we'll actually just list all the federal funding sources for you just so you can see um what we get kind of what's tied to it how we use it it's not small it has oh it's it's Millions um
you know one of the big ones obviously like your title one but also your idea the special ed Grant is very large and that funds a lot of things for us so that's that's significant yeah and we we can keep of it in case something suddenly gets taken away right M some of
us have gone through this at you know kind of work before with the administration so like it just let's more more preparation we can do the better we'll do for our constituents and for the students so thank you that's all that's all I want to ask anyone else have any new items I would just love uh
to hear an update on the uh search for the project manager for the Parker project yeah the OPM for the for the Parker project so we actually um we did Issue the RFP um we received 12 responses uh which is great from
interested uh firms to um to be considered to be the project manager the um group who's doing the evaluations and ultimately would do the interviews and make the recommendation um met yesterday and we shortlisted uh four firms to come in for interviews next Wednesday the
19th so we will interview uh the four firms next Wednesday probably take a day or two to our notes and things like that we'll reconvene and ultimately we'll convene the lodger building committee the first to second week in April and make a recommendation to that committee um about which uh firm we recommend to
be the OPM and then we have to put all of our paperwork together and we do a submission to the msba because we're on the May 12th msba uh board meeting I'm sorry this is a specialized OPM meeting that we get approval to basically contract with OPM so if everything goes
well May 12th we'll actually have an OP PM kind of signs in under contract with us and then we'll kick into the next phase which is the designer so then we have to go through the whole procurement process to get a designer on board the architect who's going to actually help us with all the plan design and schematic design um help facilitate all
the different Community visioning sessions and public input and things like that which will start in the fall so we're really hoping between May and August we get the designer on board those are the two key people and then we'll uh we'll get going for September this is great so getting 12 applications
was Excell excellent um so I'm happy we actually put the RFP out uh even though we get bumped a little bit meeting wise we still put our RFP out at the time the other two districts did we didn't wait um so I think we're kind of getting our first crack at the candidates which is great great and we got an email from um
Paul Cohen about the Strategic plan and just a summary of it I believe well it was the proposed plan that is going to be presented to the so board but it's to get feedback um from the community if
anyone has any feedback before we finalize it yep yeah but that plan as he put out is what we and the building is on it the building building is part of it and the clause about the select board and the school committee meeting twice a
year just to show that we're collaborating I saw that right any anything else new okay I just have one thing I request just to to announce that chord Democratic town committee is having a candidat debate
night um on Wednesday March 19th from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the police training room and um the public is invited to come and I'm sure it'll also be televised so wants to know about the planning board race and uh select Board
Race the school committee race all those candidates will be at that that event so all right all right uh we have no further public comment um so I'll take a motion to adjourn I make I move that we adjourn I second all those in
favor right we are adjourned thank you I have