ninth meeting of the school committee to order. Would you 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. you all for being here. The mission of the Damas Public Schools, creating a supportive environment where all learners thrive. This meeting is being broadcast on Davis Community Access Television. Is there anyone in
the audience recording? I'll say it now and I'll probably say it again, but just in case I miss it, our next meeting will be April 13th. And we are ready for items of interest to superintendent, school committee, community, and public comment. So, is
there anyone looking to raise an issue here tonight? Mark, go ahead. You all right? >> I think that's on already. Mark, >> can I suggest something, please? One of
the things I don't know whether I'm going deaf or I may be getting old, but I'm not getting deaf, but I can't hear you back there. So, please speak to the microphones >> because I think the audience can't see
you and I can't see you or hear you. I come before you today because of uh last meeting that we had and I had some questions raised that uh I
became prepared this time because I was challenged on some of the information that I was passing along. One of the issues was the total cost of school education in the town of Dan
and the town of Danvers. If you look back through the records and I have a package of information for Mr. I did some calculations as I promised
and right now all I can do is go back to 2025 because the number for the town of Danvers has not been developed yet for the next coming year.
So I took 2025 numbers and I took school committee control budget in 2025 was 51,990 town proportion of it that is assigned
to the school department and is for the school department purposes was $21 million11,000 that here for a total of school
Denver's controlled numbers was 73 million2,000 in 2025. We're we're going to be going into a much higher number this year. However, one of the questions that I
have raised to myself, who is responsible for the education of the entire Danverse school system, Danverse students.
I'm talking about your control under the 3,113 that we have in our town. We have 260ome in Essex Tech and we have another five
to 600 in the private schools in St. John's Prep. Uh you know the other schools that we have in town. So the question to me is you're a school committee. You're a school committee for the town of
Danvers. Don't the Essex Tech students belong to the town of Danvers? They're being paid for by the town of Danvers. The town of Danvers is contributing tax
dollars to Essex Tech of in 2025, and I'm going back to the original number of $4,300,000. Is that part of this school committee responsibility or whose responsibility is it?
The thing is that we had a hearing at the uh select board and one thing I want to do is I want to congratulate the uh uh superintendent
for his presentation because it was well well more informative than what you gave on the day when you had a public hearing in this room was very well explained.
The problem is is that we also had a very um deliberate speech by your chairman and I was just wondering whether it was a campaign speech, but it was well
delivered and it showed that you care about what's going on in the town. The problem is is that we talk about these. >> Mark, can you wrap it up? Those three minutes. So, thank you.
>> Oh, just give me a minute, please. >> Mark, you get three minutes. >> This threeminut business is ridiculous because what's happening Mark >> is that we never the public never has a chance to express their views to either
your committee or to the select board. and that has been brought up many times. So, I would appreciate a little bit of uh leniency on this thing. I'm not trying to crucify anybody, but there are issues that need to be addressed.
>> Mike, three minutes. Could you please wrap it up, please? >> The question is, who is responsible for the education of the entire town of Danver's population? And last meeting I was here get no
answers. This time I hope I get an answer because this thing is very important because your budget is more than half of what the $150 million town of Danver spends on running this town. So
>> thank you for bringing Thank you for bringing that question, Mark. >> Yeah. >> Anyone else like to Hi everyone. Can you hear me? >> My name is Julie Bulldock to Philippo. I'm the chair of the Dammer CPAC. Um wanted to thank everybody for the
engagement um you all had in the budget and most of all the families who engaged and signed a letter in support. We had 89 uh Denver voters who signed a letter in support of special education and seeing its continued growth. Um I'm not
I'm just really confused about some of the questioning that even came up at the select board. I can say personally from being present at all these meetings that a concern for me has never been where money is going or if it's not being managed correctly, it's never been a concern for me. Um, and I can say that
as a citizen who's, you know, been present in all of these, um, the concerns for me are the real issues. Um, and I I hope that we don't get distracted, um, by some of the some some of these questions. Um, and just wanted to remind folks to look at our website.
We had a first of um, a a parent education series last week. There's a two-part. We had over a hundred parents register. It was on executive functioning and ADHD and practical tips for parents from a clinician. um in the area. Uh we have part two coming up in
March uh an event by an OT that's going to talk about the differences between private OT and schoolbased OT because they tend to differ a little bit. And um our last event is we're doing a community forum. It's going to start with uh BCBA who's going to speak for
about 20 to 30 minutes about screen time for tween and teens and then it will be followed by a community forum for CPAC parents which is any parent. Um, and it will focus on middle school. So, we really want to learn more about the experiences of students and their
parents with um, the Holton Richmond. Um, and I think our board is mostly elementary school parents, although we have some rising next year. So, we really are trying to make a special effort to connect with that population. That's going to be April 29th at 7 p.m. virtually. And you can check out our
website for more information. Thanks. >> Thanks, Julie. >> Anyone else? Please just state your name and your name. >> Andrew, he tow media member precinct 4 and I have two kids in the school system. I was at the meeting on Saturday
for the town for your present. That was very good. Couple follow-up questions. I see you want to raise the transportation fees. I'm not sure how much that's going up, but is there an option to make like a two-tier system? Because right now, my kids only use the bus one way, like
home. We bring them in in the morning and they take the bus home. So, I'm not sure if that's an option to have like a one-way transportation fee, per se. Um, and you answered all my other questions. I want to say thank you for uh funding the special ed stuff and
hiring the appropriate team members because I felt that my son has fallen through the cracks over the last few years and this year could have been better but it you guys have rided the ship so far this year. So, and he's enjoying the rise program that he's in
right now. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? I'll close this portion of the meeting then information from the superintendent.
>> Great. Thank you very much. Uh before we begin though, I do um we typically go with the student report, but I'd like to uh bring Principal Strauss up because there is something that he um told the committee that we're waiting for. It's uh recognition for the advanced
placement programming. Very nice. Mr. Lok asked about ensuring that we get a banner made for not only AP honor role for the first time but also for AP access award which we've talked about
which is proportionally ensuring that um our marginalized students are getting an opportunity to reach higher level classes. So we're excited this is going up um and silver medal was a big deal as we've talked about. >> There you go. >> You put that right in the atrium.
>> Yes. Excellent. Congratulations. >> What? What' you want? You thought it'd be bigger. I don't have a budget. It's tight. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. We'll turn over to our
wonderful students for the student representative report. >> Okay. Hi everyone. We have lots of great updates for today. Um, so the first one is at the New England Association of Schools and Colleges Committee. Um, they came into the high school today and I believe that they're here tomorrow as
well. Um, and they came in for their acredian meeting. Um, I was one of the lucky students that got to give a tour today um, to some of the members and it was really nice getting to talk with them. Um, getting to answer some of the questions and just trying to guide them
around the school. Um the next thing is that the winter sports season um they all ended really successfully. Some of the highlights was the girls basketball team. They had a school record of 19 wins with one loss and they won the NEC championship. The girls hockey also had
a school record of 15 wins with three losses and they also won the NEC championships. And then the boys hockey also made the tournament um for the Sweet 16 after a really successful season. So that was really good highlights. Ashley Fitz and Thomas Fish
both received the NIAA Boston Bruins award for the NEC for both uh for sportsmanship and leadership. It's the first time that one school has had a member from both teams win the award. Falcon Eyes moves uh forward in their
competition season travel to Connecticut on Sunday for the semi-finals and they have a very high chance of moving to nationals in New York. Uh, Wintergard had its second competition at Melrose High School and was very successful. The
theme of the Wintergard show this year is based around the Matrix. They scored 69.2 points and came in fifth place. >> Um, so on Friday the jazz band played at the Cabbat Theater and it was really wellreceived. Um, they had a really
great show there. And then um so the DECA um everyone who's in DECA that qualified for states which was 130 students um they're moving on to states in Boston. They leave on Thursday. I'm one of the people that is moving on as well. Um and then Brooke
Lowsky, she's a junior. She's going to be singing that national anthem um in front of a crowd of over 4,000 people. She sang last year. It was really amazing. She always does so well with it. Um, and I was really excited to hear that she was going to sing again this year.
Um, and then the next thing is that the seniors are all starting to prepare for their internships. Um, so I'm interning at Great Oak um, in one of the classrooms, I think the kindergarten classrooms. I'm super excited. Um, and then the seniors are also going on a trip to the Red Sox game on April 6th
um, for the class. So, anybody who signed up is going to go to that. We get like class t-shirts. Um, it's going to be super fun. And finally, MCCAST is beginning at the end of the month and we are having assemblies to preview what the testing day looks like overall.
Um, and then from the fall, seven of our field hockey players um were named the NFHCA, which is the National Academic Squad this year. Um, so the seniors that were um awarded this was Allison McInny, Ava Patch, and Molly Bhookuski. And then
the juniors were um Olivia Henry, Addison Moore, Kyla Moroni, and Dillia Smith. And Olivia Henry was also received um the high school scholar of dis distinction recognition. Um so super proud of her for that. And yeah, that's all we have for you today. Thank you.
Before we close out though, um, as we know, Nathan's so humble, our students was humble, but uh, great participation at the Winter Guard and I know Principal Strauss was there and um, great credit for that and I I see the group practicing all the time. Uh, very proud and Olly finishing up her gymnastics
season and just commented earlier what a great year it was and um, congratulations to both of you. Well done. >> Thank you. >> Good luck at Becca. Thank you. >> Okay, shifting gears. If I could have Mr. Peter Dear come forward. He's our
secondary curriculum coordinator. Um and as mentioned in the student update a little closer. Is that better? Okay. U we are going through our accreditation u which is a 10-year cycle. Um, and without further ado, uh, before we do
begin though, I want to underscore the work that Peter has done with his team to coordinate this. It's a big undertaking, a lot of coordination. The accreditation is a very important part and I think the real value in this is not only affirming the great things we're doing, but also for areas that we
need to improve and it's certainly a lever to utilize that. So, uh, take it away, Mr. Dearo. >> Thank you, Dr. Maro, for that introduction. So, I'm just here tonight to give a a review of where we stand in terms of our credit reacredititation process. Um, it's very timely since today was the first day of our two-day
collaborative conference visit. Um, so I'll just if you go to the next slide, I can just give you an overview of the whole process. They've really revamped the whole reacredititation process over the past several years. Um, it used to be a it was still a pretty large exercise in reviewing all of the school
initiatives and school standards to make sure that you were either meeting them or partially meeting them or not meeting them. Um, but they've really changed the process um to make it more growthbased so you can do an internal audit and review of everything you're doing in the school. focus on your strengths and then
also look at those opportunities where you can really take the next couple of years to focus really hone in on those and make sure they're living and breathing as part of the school improvement plan to demonstrate growth and have the team come back and see that growth moving forward. Um so here's a a brief overview of the whole process. Um
it starts it starts with a kickoff of the school doing their own self-reflection process uh which we started earlier this fall all the way through up to literally last week. um where you review the five standards, which I'll go over in a second, um and then write a draft narrative of evidence
that the school is either meeting or not meeting those different standards. So, we do an internal review ourselves to say, are we implementing these different standards? Are we partially meeting them? Are we not meeting them? To assess where our own strengths and weaknesses are and submit this self-reflection
report to the NES committee. Um all of the standards the language that we submitted is presented to the faculty and the faculty has a chance to vote on for approval or provide any feedback to us. After we completed the report we move into the next step which is happening today and tomorrow where the
collaborative committee comes in to hold the collaborative conference for them to basically be partners in the work with us review our report and say yes we agree with your report or here are some additional things that we think would be helpful for you to work on moving forward. So, I really appreciate it because it really does truly feel like a
collaborative process. I think as educators, we can kind of, you know, strive for perfection all the time and if things aren't exactly right, we want to be defensive or apologetic. But I really want to commend that we have six educators visiting our school and they really emphasize that look, we're we're collaborators with you in this work. So,
don't feel like you need to like apologize about anything. We're here to work with you, find out, find the evidence that you have and really hone in those areas that we want you to be able to hone in on moving forward. So after we meet with them tomorrow so that they're actually here in Danver at the
Ferncraft writing up the report right now um after they got all the evidence today they will go back in um tomorrow morning to Danverse High finish their report maybe they missed a few things they go can I visit this classroom can I meet with this teacher teacher just to make sure they have a full picture view
of everything that we're doing at Dammer High School um and then the steering committee myself Mr. Strauss will meet with them um to have a final debrief um to go over their recommendations based on their review of our our own self-reflection report and if they sort of say, "Yep, you're on the right track.
you identified all your strengths, your opportunities and if they have any differences um with what we put down from here between now and 2028. This is where we can then take those recommendations and as I said before really as a school community focus on those different areas and work on them
over time together more evidence uh and then they will come back for the actual denial visit in 2028 to do another few day review um and see the growth that we made in those areas. That's sort of the whole process. And so these are the different standards
that um they review and we wrote many many uh pages of a self-reflection report on each of these standards. So the first standard one is all about learning culture. Standard two is student learning. Standard three is professional practices. Standard four is learning support and standard five is
learning resources. So we tackle these one at a time and all of these have key components in in terms of supporting student success moving forward in our school. Um so here are the key events for this year. Um in terms of the steering committee um the administrative
representative representatives are myself and Mr. Strauss. I also want to give a huge shout out to our accredititation coordinators. Typically in addition to the administrators the school um has accreditation coordinators that are part of the teaching staff to help organize figure out all the
logistics draft the report. And so I want to give a shout out to Lee Russo and Wendy Waldron, DHS teachers who have just done a ton of work um in preparing for today. So very uh many thanks to both of them. Uh so we established the committees uh in October. We had a
training where um a member of NES came out to train our steering committee uh train our instructional leadership team and also give our staff an overview of the whole process itself similar to what I just gave to you. Um we wrote our self-reflection reflection report
between October and March and that and then today launched the first day of our collaborative conference visit. And then from here um we had a full day at the school. We had six NEAS team members visiting the high school. This included a school tour from some of our
students. Uh got to show the the visiting members around. They they visited classrooms. They had the meetings with stakeholders which include the self-reflection committee, principles, superintendent, central office, faculty members, students, parents, every single uh community
member that has some type of stake in the high school they met with. Um so it was a it was a busy day, but I think they got a lot of great information and they were very um complimentary of all the things that they saw at Dmers High School, which is very exciting. And so as I said before, tomorrow is reserved
for them to complete the report and then prepare a debrief with us um to give us recommendations moving forward. So after we have that debrief tomorrow, I'm sure we can come back at some point and share those recommendations and how we're we'll be working on those moving forward.
>> Any questions? I would just say, Mr. Chairman, this is you know, always a task that takes a lot of time and effort on the part of the the staff, teachers, students who you involve and um wish you the best of luck
with it. It sounds like you're off to a great start and thank you for the work you're doing. >> Thank you. I've been on a visiting team and I've been a member of the steering committee, so I understand how much work goes into it. Um kudos to everybody who's involved, the entire staff
obviously, but please bring back those results. I'm we like >> Thank you. Yes, of course. >> Thank you, Peter. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. Next up, we have our Danvers Care update. We have Amanda Weber, who's a social worker at
the high school that spearheads our Danvers Cares efforts. Um the coalition is doing outstanding work. Um so, take it away, Miss Weber. Uh >> all right. Thank you for having me here. Um, I did Dan, are you gonna be the
Okay, you're gonna move the slides. All right. So, um, so I'm here today just to give an update about Dammer's Cares, where we are as of today, uh, March 9th, 2026. Um, if we want to move on to the next slide. Thank you. Uh, team members,
I know we've gone over this before. I'm Amanda Weber. I'm the program director. I'm also a social worker at the high school. uh Whitney McNeely, who couldn't be here tonight. She's our administrative coordinator. She's a um school counselor over at the high school. And then we have some amazing
social workers and teachers both at DHS and Holton Richmond who run the youth leader groups. Uh and just a quick overview, uh Dammer's Cares is a dynamic community-based coalition focused on positive youth development through
collaboration with community partners. The coalition strives to implement evidence-based prevention and educational programming in the community and in the area of youth mental health, substance use prevention and healthy decision-making. Uh, one of the key components especially in a lot of the initiatives we have this
year has been our work with the regional youth prevention network uh, which is uh, kind of oversees all of the co coalitions on the Northshore. They provide a lot of the grant funding for our youth facilitators. Um the Beverly
the communities that are also included are Beverly Switch Gloucester Manchester Essex and Rockport. Uh one of the other things they do of they have something called Northshore leaders. So our DERS cares youth uh come together once a month and they actually meet with the
youth leaders from other some from other towns and they meet as a whole and then a lot of that work gets um you know it's really a lot more powerful when we have students from all different communities working together. We can move on to the next. Okay. Um, so
community engagement, uh, initiatives and events for this year. Uh, I just wanted to highlight the trusted adult campaign. We actually had our, uh, March meeting this morning. Um, and we had Chelsea Goldstein who runs the regional youth prevention network and she
highlighted all the work with the Trusted Adult Campaign. So, I'm going to give a really brief brief overview of what it was, but essentially it started, the work started last year. Um, and what they did is they had each of their communities put out trusted adult
surveys to students uh, in the schools. They took all that data, they interviewed the students, they made this really amazing video of students describing students in all communities describing what it means to them to have a trusted adult, what the
characteristics are, what they look for. And then once they filled out the survey, uh what they did is they created certificates and then handed them out to the trusted adults um that were identified throughout the communities. And then they went in and they
interviewed the trusted adults. So I won't make you watch the videos, but I highly recommend it. And I linked it to these, but there's this uh we had two teachers at DHS. We had more than two teachers identified at DHS, but for the video purposes, they interviewed uh one of our world language teachers, Brian
Bosler, who is wonderful. I just want to give a shout out to him. Um and Christina Ae, who is one of our ALA teachers and also uh oversees the community block program at the high school. Um and then in addition to that,
they ran these three uh information panels. So these three nights for adults uh with youth panels helping adults in the community who work with students and young people understand what it means to be a trusted
adult. Uh so Chelsea explained today it was really good. The first part of them were skills based and then the second part of these panels were just really talking to the youth and hearing in their own words um what those relationships looks like and what they're really looking for. Um, in
addition to that, we did the North of Boston Health and Wellness Expo at Essex Tech earlier this year, which was um, you know, not it was the first year they did it. Uh, weren't weren't really sure what to expect when we got there. Um, it was a really great networking
opportunity. Um, essentially all of the health and human services agencies in the area uh, came together at Essex Tech. Um it was just a great way to meet people, understand what's going on in the community. We got a lot of people's
cards. We got a lot of new membership in the coalition. Uh we're also planning, we've already started planning for Light the Night Purple. Uh this year it's going to be on Thursday, May 14th. Um uh already have the planning committee in place. For those of you who don't know, Light the Night Purple is an event that
has I think we're going into the 10th year uh where it really brings the community together for a walk to celebrate um hope and recovery and destigmatize uh
substance use and misuse in the community and how it impacts students and families. Uh we're excited. We're trying to shake things up a little bit this year and we're going to do kind of a whole hour and a half I think pre-walk um to really engage the community. We're
going to do most of the the the speeches. We're going to have we've already talked to the um one of the art teachers at the high school to have like face painting for kids and and do a little bit more to sort of invest uh all age levels uh at the event. Uh we also I
just wanted to point out we have monthly coalition meetings this year and the goal really has been strengthening those community partnerships. So I know last year there was some question about sort of bringing this into the high school as far as the leadership for Dammers Cares goes if that meant that we were going to
be um sort of blocking out other other community members that this really is a coalition of the Dammers community. It's not a coalition of the public schools. So, one way to highlight the partnerships that we have is we started to move some of the meetings that we
have outside of the high school. So, um in February we had our meeting we had our damage cures meeting at Essex Tech at the new Larkin building which was beautiful and um I think it was just a really we got to eat the food that was
cooked by the culinary students over there. Uh we had a wonderful presentation from Judith Ryan who's a public health nurse over um in Danvers. It just it felt different in a really positive way. Um in April we're having
our meeting at the Pew Institute Library and I just talked to the librarian there today who said that she plans to give us a tour while we're there to really walk through all the resources that they have for teens um and youth at the library. And then in June, we're going to do sort of a sendoff um at Endicott Park. And in
between, we're going to be doing we we're holding meetings virtually as well because I think some of the feedback that we got last year um was that sometimes it's really hard for people to attend meetings. So we really wanted to give a variety of options so that we can increase uh community involvement. Uh I
also just wanted to point out in 2024 the YRBS data um we had made these video segments with JD Marts and DAT to really uh break down the data that was collected from that survey. Um I won't make also I won't make you watch that
now either but maybe we can share these slides after the meeting and I do have links to at least one or two segments of those videos. Uh we haven't really figured out where what we're going to be doing with these, but I think it it breaks it down in a way that helps. Um
it's not taking in all the data all at once. Uh school staff opportunities. We're continuing to train staff in youth mental health first aid. Uh student assemblies. Uh we're planning in May a mel mental health awareness month. Uh an
assembly around mental health awareness. Uh we had Katie Greer earlier in the year to do a social media and mental health presentation. We just had last week um somebody from Hawk which is uh
he stands for something now uh healing abuse and welcoming change. Uh so the women we partnered with women of the world and at the high school and we brought in uh Amanda Lane who uh works with Hawk and she gave presentations on healthy relationships and then there was
this really cool uh more intimate for for students that had a particular interest in that topic. we were able to um she came in on I think I Tuesday and Thursday and then on Friday we were able to have students who signed up to have more uh workshopping um for those that
were invested and interested in the topic and we're hoping to do that with some substance abuse education uh Judith Ryan um and Christa and I always mispronounce her last name Ch I can't I'm going to do it wrong so I'm not even going to try but she is a
um she works really closely with us on life Purple and she also is a nurse who works at Recovery Centers of America. Um she's a former Danver's grad. Uh she is wonderful and invested and the goal is to do a couple presentations. Um we're
asking for student feedback to really get their input on what questions are important. And we did this with the healthy relationships one as well and I think it really framed it in a way that felt relevant and important for students. Um, and then we'll do a follow-up with them as well where they
can have, you know, more intimate networking with Judith and Christa, uh, probably next week or the week after if that's an area that they really want to talk further about. Um, I'm going to skip a couple things. Internships. I just wanted to point out we do have three interns. Um, I know that we were
talking about the senior internship. So, we already have three interns for the spring for Danvers Cares. Uh, and then we're continuing to do scholarship. I think we're doing one scholarship this year. Um, our resource pages are always there and available. And then I'm going to highlight what the students are doing
real quick. Okay. Um, so part of that trusted adult campaign, there are the links to the two videos. Uh, I highly recommend watching. Um, we our students also do the Northshore youth leaders meetings that I talked about. Here's just a sampling of some of the things they've been doing. They're going to do
a lot of work with us this year around Light the Night Purple. Um, we're hoping to lean on them for some of the fundraising. Um, which I think they like to do. Uh, and then we're planning for Project Adventure in the spring. Uh, Holton Richmond, uh, they're doing this bathroom stall newsletter, which is
really cool, which is focused on mental health that, you know, you're in the bathroom, you know, you you look on the door, uh, you get a little fun fact about mental health, anti-bullying, or substance use prevention. And that was a a kid-led idea. uh at the high school this year. We're also uh
we've started we got some additional grant money uh and Emily Gonzalez at the high school who's a social worker and Christia Rendle at the middle school. Um they are these are sort of sub groups of the youth leaders who are really focused on mental health
awareness. Uh we had a lot of student interest in this area. Um the goal of these groups, we're just getting up and running, but um it's a group of students who aim to increase awareness, promote wellness, and foster open conversations about mental health in an effort to create a supportive, informed, and
stigma-free school and community. So, I haven't been in the middle school, but I believe they're doing the same. But at the high school, uh Emily and some of these students have been facilitating monthly resource tables at lunch. If you look at the image, they did a stress
management table around uh midterms and then in the month of February and Valentine's Day, they did a table that was really about um connection and belonging. Um and they had little note cards that people could, you know, do a little note
and hand it out to a friend or a teacher. Um and then really it's it's just an opportunity. We really want it to be student driven where their ideas, you know, what is important to you and then really develop um the initiatives
from from their ideas. Uh and here's the contact info. I that's me up top, Emily. And I did this presentation for a different group that we work with Kristen Anderson on. Um and so I forgot to take her name off that.
So, but she is always a great person to contact as well. Um, but myself and Whitney McNeely are the two uh administrative people that if you do have questions, please reach out to us. >> Any questions for Amanda? >> I'm sorry I can't make it to your
meetings anymore. I really like the like being there and I we all appreciate the work that you you do and you your team does. So, thank you for bringing that here. >> Thank you. I was going to make a commentary about we haven't had a school committee member there in a while and it was really great to have you. Hopefully
you still get our meeting notes though. >> I do. >> Um Okay. Excellent. >> And if I could just add um the meeting that Amanda so nicely presented at was because we got a large grant for a multi-tered system of suicide prevention
and uh we have a team of 10 that work on that for Danbridge public schools and when we did our self assessment the running it were so impressed with Dan's pairs that it exists and there's a coalition of all the folks involved in mental health that they actually invited
us to speak and so Amanda and Emily did a great job with that. >> Thank you. Thank you Amanda. Just moving along. Um the budget update itself uh just as we know we presented Saturday at the select board and the
select board uh supported moving us forward with our uh FY27 budget. So the next step is to move forward to the FIN count for approval. That is April 15th, 7 p.m. I believe that will still be at the town hall. Um so you know it was
it's always a team effort. just to say uh Mr. Shannon let off with some very moving comments that made us all think about like why are we doing this? Why are we investing our time and the importance of public education? Um really comes down to what is our why?
Like why why is this important? And it's critical to always reframe that because it's hard work. We have an outstanding staff that work really hard. We have families that support our schools and the taxpayers that that do a great job supporting us. And I think it's important to go back to that. Um, and
our team that helped prepare the presentation, Pamr Crumbs, outstanding Kristen in the background doing work and Christina Ryan as well as the administrative team giving all the input in the multiple multiple iterations of the budget, school committee support,
and also great feedback through our subcommittees that allowed us to make moves and uh, obviously great support from the town. So, um, it was it was a a great day. Um, I just want to make a couple quick points though in terms of some adjustments that we'll need to make
uh considering the voluntary teacher PD. Um, it is a contractual issue been working with the DTA which we have a great relationship. So, I'm going to have I will need to find we will need to find an alternative to replace that cost savings and we're in the process of doing that because that is in the contract the voluntary PD and we'll make
that work. Uh, also there has been adjustment with the library of media aids. Initially, we showed one, but as it turned out, our team worked really hard. Um, and looking at some of our specialist schedules, and it will that will take place in two of our buildings where the full-time teachers uh
specialists that have room in their schedule will take those digital media. So, there's an adjustment there. We're not asking to reduce any more IAS, instructional assistants. It'll just be shifted into that piece, which I think is really important. I do want to make one uh point of correction that there was a comment made
in afterwards when the public has an opportunity and our enrollment data that we shared. I just and I did share with the school committee uh documentation that our data comes from a January 1 report that is submitted to DESIE, right? Janet Ingram does a great job and
we basically take the information we have a whole guidelines which I included in the documentation of how we report to Desi and you can go on to the desi link you'll see exactly the data that was presented um and there was some questions whether that data was accurate
or not and I'm not going to go any further than that because the data is accurate uh we utilized the specific numbers that we submitted to DESIE and I went home and double checked to see what was on the website and I confirmed that up and double checked and triple checked
father Janet all day today because you know it's important that not only we accurate with the information but we share accurate information and it's also available to the public so they can go on to the link they can see the data and the point that I was trying to make and it was brought up actually in the budget
hearing um through some public comment in terms of enrollment data which we always include enrollment data but I wanted to go a step further to say what has it been for five years and and on the back sheet was the slide which shows
over five years you could see the the ups and downs of the data but we've been holding relatively steady which we actually have a a little bit of an increase this year which I think is an important piece of the public narrative additionally we wanted to make a comparison to all public all students
that live in Danver school age and how many actually attend public schools and also how many actually attend Danver public schools which the school committee is responsible for. So that's why you see that 82 81 80% that's hovering about around in the 80s which
is consistent. So I also wanted to put that data down to show because I believe I hear narratives that students are fleeing our schools. Well when you look at the data over the last 5 years you can see that's fairly steady. Now if you go back 10 years you can see that it was
a higher percentage about 85 or so that attended the damage public schools but that is the intersection as Essex Tech started to expand. So my point in correlation is that we're doing a great job as a school district and not only
keeping students here but we're bringing students back to our schools because of the efforts of our staff, our programming, the support of our community. Again it's not a competition with the other schools. this is what we do because the school committee is responsible for the students that attend our district and that's what we're doing
and I also wanted to point out that the McKenna Vento students and that's classified as students that are homeless or foster are not included in these numbers and that was a question that I wanted to clarify because if you the guidelines for reporting which is on the sheet right number five do not include
state wards foster care students or homeless students in this report. So, I just wanted to be very transparent on that. I did not have an opportunity to go back to the microphone on Saturday for any clarifications. Um, but I did want to point that out publicly for that
because accurate information is critical and I also think that it's important the feedback we've been receiving we utilize for presentations and we wanted to make sure that the enrollment because that was brought up in in public comment in the hearing. So, I said, "All right, let's really show where we're at." >> Okay. So, I wanted to clear that up.
Okay. >> Thank you. Any further questions on the update? >> I would just comment that um having attended I think both of you did a terrific job and appreciate the advocacy for the school budget and not just by
you but everyone on the team who um had a chance to work on the budget was terrific when she spoke. Um all of you did a great job and uh the students today was a better off. And I pointed this slide out which I think is important to note because as we
stated in the um the hearing on Saturday, right, all all towns across the Commonwealth are facing, you know, budget issues um and and the cost of doing business is is going up and certainly trying to be cognizant of like
frankly we're doing a lot more for students than I know that we did 20 years ago. That's just a fact. Um, and there's a cost for that. But we also need legislative help. So the Northshore Superintendent Roundt group, we meet on a monthly basis. And our advocacy with
our local legislators is that we need help from the state. We can't sustain what we're doing in terms of the financial implications, not just in Danvers, but if you look around the towns, the Northshore, but across the Commonwealth, we're really getting to
the financial cliff. and and there needs to be a reckoning uh and help from from the state. Chapter 70 funding, I'll just go through this quickly. Chapter 70 funding is the money that we receive to support our our school services. The the formula itself is outdated, needs to be
adjusted. Um there is movement within the legislative branch to bring this up. Right now, we're at a foundational $75, which 270 districts are across the Commonwealth. And that doesn't seem right to me because that's based upon need. And we certainly know that our
students and our families with financial needs that's going up, right? So by looking at a minimum of 150 for that aid certainly would take a lot of pressure off the town. Secondly, out of district uh expenses, although we have fewer
students going out of district, um the cost of tuitions are going up at a rate that's really tough to sustain. Reimbursement we receive is 75% for out of district placements and transportation. There's advocacy for moving that number to 90% which would take a lot of pressure off the towns.
There's also um legislation in the works to look at a cost share model for students that are in residential placements which means they have a very very high level of either medical care, mental health care, so be it at an individual private setting. Um and when
you get to a setting in a placement like that, it's by law that we put a a student in the least restrictive environment. an individual residential placement is over $250, $300,000. So, when a district is faced with one or two that that move into district or uh
go through the process, you know, we currently have a few of those that we're working through, right? And that's 27 um 24 hours, 7 days a week care. So, the cost share model is really how can the state partner and look at districts to fund the educational component versus
the whole bill. And that would take a lot of pressure off. All districts are facing this transportation. We know our contract is up this year and there more than likely I don't know how many will bid on it but many communities will see only one bid because there aren't many companies out there and you have
monopoly situations and you get into a situation where the increase is is not sustainable. So there should be some oversight in terms of limitations for single bids at a cap and a ceiling. And then last but not least, the UGGA, the unrestricted government aid is stagnant.
So aids that get to town, you know, the money is not really increasing as much to take pressure off because we all are faced with the Prop 2 and a half uh limitations. Um there's some great things that the legislative done is to help us with the universal meals. Last
year they increased our um circuit breaker to 75% transportation, but we need help from the legislature and we Sally Karens and Joan Lovely are outstanding. I say this to the public because really this is beyond a Danver's issue that needs to be reckoned with.
Next, I will go on to central office update just very quickly. Uh, as we know, we we will be um reducing one administrative leadership position in our central office. Um, and as that moves, we are working on a reorganization plan. And right now,
we're currently reviewing the responsibilities of our central office team. We're finding what best aligns to the needs of the district, best aligns to the central office team, but more importantly looking at like how best can we support our students. Um and and and honestly and I know um you know
Kristen's right here. She's moving on um and we're sad to see her go and her work in this short period of time has been nothing but outstanding. So we're grateful for that and and many of the things that she has brought to us will stand which you'll see all throughout the updates with my own goals that's
related to our strategic plan. So grateful for that uh as well. We'll talk more at the end. >> It it's been a pleasure to be here and I'm going to be here for three more months but I can honestly say this is the best school committee superintendent I've ever worked for.
So as a result uh and Kristen has been behind the scenes because trying to break up her responsibilities in terms of grants uh which is multiaceted and it's not only applying for grants but it's not only actually putting in the data but it's also I saw a letter we got
back from the state that is justification for the M which we need. So that's a big piece of it. So I'm really looking for studentf facing operations and non-facing operations as a way to streamline. Um the the bottom line is is that I will bring a
reorganization plan to school committee which I will need your approval. We'll do that in April. So there's still a lot of work to do and I'm working with the internal team and um I'll bring that forward. Okay. So that's really it for that. Any questions?
Thank you Christie. >> Mr. Shannon, just one quick comment. Just uh the legislature updated. It's good to see that there's potential to get that increase in sp in in funding for that chapter 70 and then also that out of district placement because as
anybody that paid attention to this budget over the past several years it continues to be the you know one of the top expenditures that out of district placement the transportation and the you know in the placement as well. So hopefully there's more support than just our our two representatives out that that come to visit us.
>> Thank you. If I may, Chair, uh, at the legislative lunch and yes, uh, Senator Bruce Tar really has been an advocate, um, and really understands the issues that all the districts are going through. So, it was an opportunity every year to share that and really develop the relationships and, and I know last
year, you know, uh, Sally and Joan pushed really hard for that full reimbursement of circuit breaker from 45% to 75 for transportation or 44 to 75. That was about 300,000 plus. that really helped us because that's expended out. So, um, and I'll keep the committee
updated with any updates, >> school choice. >> Okay. Um, so every year the school committee is obligated to vote on uh to participate, opt in the school choice or opt out. Um,
and last year we presented uh our case to opt into school choice. So, what I wanted to do tonight is uh offer up information, just review school choice, make recommendations, um, and then obviously going into a hearing, going through the hearing process. I wanted to
start that earlier for one big reason. Uh, it's been successful, but we know that as a late start, there were people that students that actually applied late, weren't able to get into the program. um by applying earlier. That's when people are looking for opportunities and we have a lot to offer
in the district. So I'll go through um the slides themselves. So we have an annual hearing that we have to do and that's we're presenting tonight. Um so the law as we know it allows public school students to attend schools in any
town in the state. That's by law. Um then districts we have the option to participate or not. Um, a big reminder, the parents and guardians are responsible for transportation. That is a huge piece. Receiving districts can limit the number of out of district
students they receive by grade and we break that down. Um, if we get into a situation where we have more applicants than seats available, we do a random draw without discrimination. Um, and our advertisement really is just on our web page. We we don't really go out and advertise that. And um, we do let the
union know as an update that we're going through this. And obviously we let the school administrators know. But the tuition that we receive for every student choicing in is 5,000 plus administrative fee. So as we know districts all around us are participating in school choice. Um
and these are some of the districts where our students that have choiced out 63 of them are. And I did a a comparison last year of you know we had 57 students out in 2024. 2025 we had 63 students out. And this year we have the same number of students out in choice which
is a good sign that's leveling off. Um and we control the amount of seats we offer by grade. We review the enrollment. We work with the principles. Um and I think a big piece here is certainly our staff. It's a great option for staff that work here can certainly have their students attend school here
and it works great for staff retention which I think is important. I think a piece that we talked about last year is if a student receives IEP services that are above and beyond what we can provide, we can charge the sending district. If there's any case where a student may require out of
district services, that goes back to the sending district. And I think that's a huge piece. Uh the chapter 70 funding though does not follow that student. That stays with student in district, but it does count towards our enrollment. um and tuition funds that we receive it it
comes to the schools as opposed to the town. So we utilize that to cover uh deferrals. Last year we utilized it to help seed a math excuse me uh a reading interventionist at the middle school. We weren't able to go forward in a budget, but it's a critical position and we're
able to utilize that. Um and and really um it's an opt-in opt- out situation. So, um, if students do come into our district through choice, they are obligated to stay here for as long as they wish to graduation. And just to give you an idea of last
year, we offered up 36 choice seats. Um, we went to six seats. Um, each grade level, 18 at the high school, 18 at the middle school for 36. And at the end, uh, with a late start, we filled 16 seats. And you can see a distribution
throughout. We did have one student withdraw midway through. And that does happen sometimes. So although we we went with 36 as the total and we went with 36 because we analyzed our enrollment, we analyzed class size and we were putting in numbers that would not impact class
size because as we know at the high school and middle school, it's such a matrix of a schedule. So it's not linear like the elementary. So students spread throughout six students within a class you would not even notice. So that's the breakdown. Um, we did an analysis last
year. We did not enter any elementary seats because we felt just getting off year one, we wanted to be conservative. But through research with our elementary principles, looking at elementary class size, we feel there's opportunity to open up a few seats at the grade levels. We would never have it at kindergarten
because that's unpredictable. Um, and we we look at uh recommendations for three seats at each grade at the elementary except grade four, which is a little bit higher. The key for elementary choice is that and if you look at our class average size 18 17 19 that's all within
good numbers. So the three students would not tip the scales and we would also look at the schools that would have the lowest class size and that's where the student would enter if you know that transportation is required by the parent. So therefore there's not a placement to a local school. So that
gives us that flexibility upfront and we work with our principles with this. Um, I will be honest with you, talking with our staff, there seemed to be really good feedback, particularly with the elementary. So, we may we feel this may be attractive. At the high school, middle school, we're roughly keeping
this the same in terms of the seats. It looks like we hope to have a larger sixth grade class if retention stays good. So, I went from six down to five, but I kept it at six. The senior year, we left four because we have a couple students that will be moving up and we
want to keep the seats for them. So, we're not really adding that many more seats at the secondary level. So, if you look at the tuition moving it forward, um, again, this is all speculative based on students that may attend over time. I went conservative.
We actually at 15 because one dropped received 74,000 in aid. Those students return next year, we receive that aid again. If you add 30 students, that would bring us to 45. So you can see the revenue possibilities that would come in. Um, and I know that choice is used
to seed projects, not to base a budget on. It's to help bail out when there's tough times. But I already have a few ideas for some deferrals that we could utilize the choice funding to help improve our district. Um, and certainly knowing that the experience has been very positive this year. I asked the
principles, they do not even really know. They know who the choice students are, but there have been no issues at all. Um, and I did speak with two families that are grateful grateful for the opportunity to be in our schools. So, my recommendation as we go to enter
hearing would be to move forward um recommend opting in the school choice again uh adding 13 elementary seats and adding 39 uh seats at the secondary level. So, um, from that piece, just to let you know, if approved, we then Janet
is in charge of everything pretty much, but her job is the administrator for school choice where she'd post the updated documents on um the website. Um, documents would be there. We'd open the window tomorrow and keep the open window open until right at April break to give
people ample time. And then when we close the window, we look at the applicants. If there are more applicants than seats available, then we have a blind drawing. Um, and once we do figure out where the seats are, we notify families, then they have one week to
commit to whether they will attend or not. Um, so that's the same process we utilized last year. So, um, if possible when we enter the hearing, this would be my recommendation. >> Thank you.
The hearing for school choice is now open. Any comments or questions from the committee or concerns? Any concerns, comments? Uh, I mean, I'll just say given that,
you know, our surrounding communities are doing it and we have, you know, our students have an option of leaving, it looks like the the pilot year that we kind of considered last year went well. And, uh, I like that we're, you know, kind of walking our way into it and measuring it every year. So, uh, I don't
see any concerns or flags. >> I I agree with Mr. Lopes. think uh we I was concerned on it last year when we when we opened this up and you know you never know what what you're going to get for a student could be behavioral issues you know you never know what what kind
of a student you're going to inherit but I think just given our our pilot and again you never know what you're going to get in the future either but I think just knowing it wasn't uh it wasn't a disaster and and we're continuing to to bring in good kids into the community I think we can continue this
>> um yeah I'm gonna reiterate what they were saying, but I've worked in a district that had school choice. Um, and the students you tend to get are the students whose parents are invested in their education, you know, especially with the uh transportation piece. So, they're
looking for betterment of them, of the whether it's socially, educationally, or the whole package together, and they're going to be invested in it. You're not going to get as many as people from the outside think. you're not going to get the kids that are just being dumped off, so to speak, from other uh districts.
You're going to get the kids that really want to learn and be part of the the community. So, I appreciate it. >> Yeah. So, year one was clearly successful and u none of the things that people were worried would come to pass came to pass. And uh I'm all for you
folks doing this next year and if things don't work out, future school committees can make changes as they see fit. right now there's no reason not to go forward. >> Yeah, I appreciate the analysis um and the intentionality that everyone you know puts into it to look and see where
we have what we can take on and where we have availability and uh as long as that continues it was a great first year. So hopefully we continue on that path. This is a public hearing. So if anyone would like to address this piece of business,
three minutes, come to the mic and state your name and address. >> Hi everyone, this is Julie Bulldock to Philippo. I'm the chair of the Dammer CPAC. Um I wanted to again come this year to note how CPAC always supports um
more choices for students to come to our district too. the strengths that that brings the discussions the that become more robust when you have people even with slightly different life experiences that cannot be underestimated adds to Danverse it doesn't take away even if
those students have some struggles and challenges that we might not see all the time here it really does add it's an opportunity for us so I I hope the committee continues to support school choice um I've talked to a lot of folks in the Northshore area that look at
Danverse and you know are going to be really excited if you approve this and I think you know you might find yourself especially for elementary school having more applicants in those seats. So I really do hope you support this again. >> Thank you. Thank you, Park Zub.
The question I have is more in the net net of what's it going to cost us and how much are the incoming students going to pay. So what I'm
hearing is that you're not increasing teacher load and all this is is an increase in the number of students per class.
Is that correct? So looking at the numbers when you put up I think it was 39 openings that you're planning on having. Um
last year you had what? 36. >> Yeah. Yes. 36 was the initial target. >> And how many show up? We had 16. Uh but one did withdraw. So we're a total of 15. Yes.
>> So we had 36 openings and all 16 came to the table. This year what we're doing is we're increasing that because I I don't understand why we're increasing to 39 if we only had 16 last
year. Well, I know it was mentioned that many people last year was a short window and many people did apply for it after the deadline. We had like a two-e deadline maybe. So, we're an attractive school district. We have a lot of rigor at the
high school. We have a lot of programs at the high school as well as all the way down. So, it's not going to be an extra cost to us. their housing districts, their home districts where they're paying their taxes are actually going to pay a tuition to us. Same as our constituents
when they go to Beverly or to Salem because maybe their parents or teachers there. So, it's opening up opportunities for for us to receive students and we're setting the number so it's not going to increase classes three per grade. So, it's going to be invisible.
>> That's the maximum that >> the numbers were there. It's like six in the middle school. So that's like two per team or whatever the the however many teams there are these days. They just blend right in. So it's not taking a class size and going from 16 to 24.
It's think of how many fifth grades there are in town. There's only three seats open. If I go back to it. So we're we're a very desirable very desirable district to come to school for. >> Mr. Dy, can we can we stop the cross debate? >> Yeah. No, I'm just I'm trying to I'm
trying to appreciate the question, but yes. Thank you. and and the money is there. >> You want to finish up, Mark? Please. >> I'm sorry. >> Would you finish up, please? >> You're allowed three minutes, Mark. So, we're there. >> Oh, you're in your three minutes. >> The problem is is
>> when we talk about the total incoming funds, is that for the 16 students that we talked about or is this the anticipated for the 39? No, it's who for who? For those who show
up, >> right? And that's at chapter 70 plus 5,000 plus $75 per student. >> It's it's 5,000 per sending district per student and then a $75 administrative
cost. Yes. >> Are we in any way liable to lose money on this deal? because this has been discussed for years and every time they have resisted, the school committee has resisted, the
superintendent has resisted. Um, if it works, that's a good thing. And the thing is that we have incoming and outgoing students. So, how many outgoing students do we
have? >> Three. 63. >> 63. >> 63. >> Okay. Then that's that's a big number compared to the 36 or 39 that you're thinking of. So, what are we liable to lose? That's the
only question. >> Thank you. Anyone else to comment on this piece of business? Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing. >> Close the public hearing. Do >> a second. >> Second.
>> I sorry. >> All those all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> The oppos. >> I'd like to motion that we um vote to accept the school choice uh enrollment numbers as presented. >> Second.
Any further discussion or comments? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Passes. Thank you. >> Thank you. I can have Mr. David Pulsifer come
forward. Um, we'd like to move into the uh user fee discussion. So, just before uh Mr. Pulsifer then Mr. bets um present their uh final recommendation. I just want the committee to know that it was well taken
from our our budget subcommittee that certainly as we increase user fees which this grouping hasn't been increased for over 12 years understanding the the tight financial constraints that our families have but also the increasing costs that have not been addressed over
time. It really is in our due diligence to do a a regular review of user fees. So that will be part of our protocols. So also understanding that the increases that we have although they're increases they still will not cover what is needed budgetarily but we also don't want to
strain families and know we need a larger conversation about this. So both presentations really these are two-year uh cycles of these increases so the committee knows. So we're proposing for just year one and then year two is to be
determined because we need that broader conversation. So, we took that feedback uh very well. So, Mr. Pulsifer, please take the win. >> Yep. Uh David Pulsifer, the transportation coordinator for the school district. Uh happy to be here tonight. Uh so, last month when I was
here, um the slides really haven't changed. Uh just a quick overview again, you know, it has been uh since 2012 since there was any increase in the district. um at $180 per day, that's a dollar per student. That is very uh
cost-effective. But looking at the district fees across several of the surrounding districts, um if you average that down, you know, I was looking at 270 as an average cost. Um and
you know, it is a you know, let's say $70 increase, but there hasn't been an increase. And I can talk from, you know, the cost of a bus, you know, like we said, is is $78,000 per year roughly. Um I think it's $486 per day for a school
bus to run. Uh so I mean it's not going to, you know, take a huge chunk off the budget, but it will help uh offset some of the high costs that the district has seen across the board in transportation. Um,
>> and if if I could just interrupt too, there were some some points I just want to clarify and it was actually brought up in public comment and I appreciate the comment because there are some variances that were requested. Can we utilize there's just some administrative items that we just cannot do in terms of breaking down and and following, you
know, in terms of a one-way fee. We're we're not in a position this year to do any of that. However, we're open for future discussion on that. So I wanted to be clear that recommend we we are listening to that but we are not at that point administratively to be able to handle that from our piece but we heard
what was said earlier and that's something we can look for next year. Sorry do I interrupt? No it's it's fine. Uh so originally I think I had the slide uh you know for a discount of of 200 uh so we're at 210 per student to register
between June 22nd and July 17th. My original proposal was to have have um the discount for the month of May, but realistically the district does has never started registrations before May and that didn't make sense to put that
time constriction on a change like this. and listening to what the committee members said, you know, being a big increase uh right off the bat, this does give families, you know, five weeks to
pay a $200 $210 fee, which is $30 more than than last year. Um early registration fee last year was $10 off, so it was 170 if they registered early. And I think there was like 350 students that took advantage of the early
registration. And I think this would this would get more families to also register early. And the and the second part of registering early is it gives the district better transparency on how many bus seats we're going to need. I mean, the data doesn't change too much.
you can get a good guideline, but you can see like maybe there's a bunch of fifth graders that are rolling up to the middle school to the middle school and that bus for example last year had 50 seats but now it's going to be 65 because just the way the demographics
were and and so you have to kind of fluctuate with the rooting and and uh things like that. So, um, and then after the 17th, it would be a full rate of of 250 per student. Uh, and then the family cap is 540. Um, and if you have there's
a lot of two family dis there's a lot of two family registrations or three family. So, so if you are a two family, um, you're going to pay, if you paid early, you'd only pay $420,
$20 instead of 500, you know, $500 for 250. So, there is some savings if they do pay early. Uh, and then just an overview, if we do increase the fee, we would probably uh generate, you know, another $53,000
reduction off of the school contract. that we're allocating for. Next slide. And just going forward, um, you know, like Dan mentioned, we we would look at this, you know, next year as well to see what what kind of increases may be
needed. We do have a bus contract coming up and we don't know what that cost is going to be going into next next school year. Um, but you don't want to have large large uh increases, right? that that affects everybody, you know. So, I
think it's good to look at as an incremental thing if it needs to go up. Um, and then, you know, we're just going to look at all the aspects of transportation that we can we can do. Uh, and I think we have a good oversight on on the busing
in the district. And I think overall uh we we do our best uh for our town buses that we run and with working with the contractor Salter uh to to make sure that our buses are are running, you know, efficiently and and and on time
and and being able to serve the community and and get the kids to school uh on a timely manner. So that's that's it. Did you guys have any questions? >> Okay. Not so much a question, but I mean comments because I know in our budget
subcommittee um that most of us participated in this was almost a two-hour conversation, maybe more. And we explored everything, getting rid of a bus, looking at mileage restrictions, um definitely taking a lot of consideration into families and how to, you know,
bring this in. And I think one thing that isn't is not called out here is um consideration for families who will need some financial assistance and some kind of mechanism to uh to recognize that. But I just wanted to say like I just wanted to say this was a really tough
conversation. I know I threw a lot at you guys in regards to can we get rid of a bus? Can we tighten up the roads? Can we look at the number of buses at high school to make sure that we're taking care of the younger kids. So, it I I
just know a lot of work went into this and I want to acknowledge that and thank you for that. Um, but more than anything else, I know we had a gentleman earlier who came up and discussed is there a way of phasing this? And I don't see that here, but I know it's something we discussed, >> fa phasing it
>> the fee for a family who may need a little extra help on that. >> Oh, yes. So, yes, the district does have a financial waiver. So, any any family can can apply for that waiver when they register. They just ask the question and then it'll they'll get sent to power
school um consent and then basically the state uh guidelines that the um school was it uh the school resource um cafeteria the the state >> yes funding. If they're on that on that
list um they get a approval automatically. Um and then if they if they're not on that list then they can fill out a form that goes to the business manager for review um for for financial assistance if they're not on that >> from the state.
>> If I could through the chair um it's similar processes with athletics. >> Okay. >> So that waiver uh is consistent. We should have had that on the slide >> and actually it's across the board. Chromebook, right? Athletics and so it's across the board for if you're on if you're on that, you're eligible for all
three. And then also the uh a resident did ask a question about being able to pay for for one one seat. It's really I don't know of any districts that that offer that. Um there's and you're really, you know, need to take care of
all seats first and then how do you determine, you know, who's going to ride? So it's not it's something that we want to come look at when it comes to transportation. We want to look at all things and yes we did have a a long lengthy conversation about looking at different options and obviously the the
uh the student fee for bus is is one of them and you know offsetting like I think we did reduce we did manage to reduce one bus um and then it's a process right every year as we do this looking at the state guidelines looking
at uh how we can serve the community and and do it all and you know provide the best we can to the district and the students. >> Josh, >> I was just going to say uh Mr. Lopes and I were on the budget subcommittee on this. We did to to your point, we did
play with this for about two hours and um talk about some different ideas and and and get creative with it. And at first glance, $70 is a is a big kind of chunk because, you know, we have to be you sensitive to everybody's financial situation in the community and, you know, there's a wide spectrum of people.
So, Um, you know, with the hardship program, I know at first glance that $70 might be kind of a tough tough pill to swallow, but with the rising cost of everything around us, you know, we there's only so much that the district can absorb and we're taking a loss on this anyway. So,
I think that this does make sense to to move forward with the increase >> if it's a um I I looked at this closely because we never like to to raise fees if we can avoid it. um it's a 16 if if you sign up in the window it's a 16.7%
increase seems like a lot but on the other hand it's after no increases for 12 years the other thing is even with the even with the increase in full to 250 if you don't sign up early it's still less than the surrounding
districts charge on average those are the two reasons why I can support this this year u because it's been so long since we raised fees. >> Um, yeah. So, to go with it, I mean, I I understand that fees have to happen. Um,
as someone who schedules a lot of buses throughout u the summer, I I've seen over the last 10-15 years, the costes almost multiply by five or six times. Um, and for us to not have a fee raise
since 2012, that's 14 years ago. I mean, I know the budget that we had, our field trips in the summer have to get jacked up because that's our biggest piece. So, if we look at it, it's about a dollar and a quarter a day, possibly 180 school
days. Um, you know, so yeah, on the outside it looks like a large amount, but you know, if you're going to take an Uber, it's way more expensive. Just to throw that out there, even if you were to take the ride and be eligible for the ride, you would be spending a $1.70 a ride or whatever. So, I think that that
the increase is is a fair number. And I obviously I think that that $40 deduction if you're early is is a good number, too, because it helps us out and helps the families out as well. So, brings it to like what a dollar1 a ride or something or a day.
Would anyone care to make a motion? move to increase. >> Oh, sorry. I will move to increase the bus fees as recommended by the superintendent and transportation director. >> Second. >> Any additional thoughts or comments?
See none. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. >> Thank you. Thank you, David. >> Thank you, David. And I appreciate the uh discussion because it opened the doors and even the discussion from families. We know that things are tight and having that reduction early window
helps keep the family cap the same. Um and also reducing one bus off is important. Mr. Betts athletic fees. Um so so similar I think when I uh sort of last presented you guys with three different options. Um, I tried to just
look at neighboring districts and to just hone down into just one recommendation of what that fee would be. Um, and so similar on this next slide here is kind of the one that uh we thought would be the most appropriate in terms of just being kind of right in the middle of just sort of like a phased in
approach. Um, but similar to the bus fees, they have not increased since 2012. Um, so that's a good 14-year run. Um, and I think even with this increase that we're looking to do, we're still on the lower end in comparison to a lot of neighboring districts. So, it's still a
very very affordable um, opportunity. So, it's from a value standpoint, it's good bang for your buck. Um, but the goal, as we had chatted about before, of of user fees is to help offset coaching stipens, which is in the DTA contract. Um, those co coaching stipens are
increasing on an annual basis. So, this is going to help this this user fee increase would help um get to a more appropriate percentage of covering those coaching stipens. Um and this is also in alignment with on a you know an officiating standpoint, we have
officiating fees increasing from anywhere from 7 to 11% each year. Um so, you know, when you look at the number of contests that we have, it's just to help sort of keep up with that. Um and then similar as Mr. Pulser mentioned our our transportation has also increased just
based off of um the cost per trips. Um we do try and regionalize a lot of our um you know match up so that that way that transportation cost is is a little bit more affordable and has also been offset by um the use of our school bands. Um but again I I will just
reiterate that even with this increase we're still on the lower end within our own athletic conference. Um, and essentially in comparison to what it could be for some of the outside organizations, whether it's travel, whether it's AAOU, even when I sign my own kids up for a oneweek summer camp,
um, it's also very very important. And then the kind of the last piece of it is also this helps um, I think our families and boosters since this we do have some coaching stipens that are funded by boosters. This increase would eliminate all of those funded positions. So, a lot of our booster fundraising can then
continue to go back directly into that individual program, whether it's football, whether it's basketball, whether it's soccer. Um, so those are that would be something that I think from our families um would also very much appreciate on that end. Um, and then similar as David had mentioned, we we we do have our financial waiver and
that's something that will continue to remain to go through um the principal's office. Um, so again, this was our current fee structure. Um, and this this is something that we had a a family cap of $745 and we did have our three tiers.
Um, you see the number that we will collected over this past year or well I say this past year the 2024 2025 school year was around $145,000 in fees. Um, the projected of what it would be is if we go to the um, sorry to the next slide of what our next approach would be or
sorry this is our the comparison districts which is something that I think you guys will have um, seen. And so if we're able to go to the just projected um this so this is the proposal that I kind of wanted to put forward to you guys as kind of the what
I viewed as kind of the um most effective. So this would again increase our fees by an average of about $53. Um our family cap would increase probably the the most um of of all of it. So our
family cap would go from $745 to $1,200. um which also is still on the lower end in comparison to most um districts. Most districts have a family cap of a little bit closer to $1,500 or more. Um and it would have our three tiers um of our top
tier are sort of our our most expensive sports being around 300 or being $300, tier 2 being 250, tier three being 200. Um and then our tier four being our um middle school sports would being $150. Um, and so the general estimated revenue
um increase would be around $32,000 with this increase. >> Does anyone have any questions uh for Mr. Balis here? >> No question, more comment because I I personally know the importance of
athletics. I hate fee increases, but at the same time to to have a sustainable program and to, you know, keep that engagement level, it's a bit of a balance. Um, although I
hate the fees if you know, we still have that waiver that applies across the board that you folks uh highlighted, but there is no alternative. if you go to another school, you're going to pay in some cases double. Um, so I don't really see
another way around it. Um, it's it's either athletics or the quality of education and and we have hard choices to make, but um, I applaud the effort. I'm happy to see that we are still um the best value across surrounding
communities and I I hope we can continue to find other ways to to fund this stuff because I you don't you can't see it go away. You don't want it to go away because this is athletic. So what not to discredit education but a lot of memories go back to not only the
academic experience but the experiences and the lessons learned in all these sports. Um, so it's a tough call, but um I'm comfortable with it because we are still the best value um in with any surrounding town. So I'll
leave it at that. >> I'll also add we have done um some things like this past fall, we actually had it as a a no cut policy um to just really push people to try new and different activities. And that's a credit to some of our programs like we had a JV golf team that had 18 student
athletes on it, which is great. Um, so we have tried to do creative things to help sort of push that a little bit more. Um, but I I and I do agree like obviously I think athletics are incredibly important. It's a huge part of the educational process and we want that to continue and we also want to
just make sure it's continuing to be a quality opportunity versus um looking to like you eliminate a certain number of games or cutting down on a certain piece. But I think that's where um this aligns with essentially the increase that's been going everywhere with all
part all facets of it. My my one question is we have family assistance if if it's needed. Has there ever been an issue to your knowledge where family assistance was asked for, they were denied and then
we don't have that that student athlete out on the field? Not that I'm aware of. Um I will say like I said any any families that do reach out um we do send them to Mr. Strauss because our principal is the approver of the waiverss. Um but as far as I'm aware we have not had any families that have been
denied access. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Sure. >> And and I agree 100%. It's it's a it's a part where you know I feel we were in a bad position structurally right. a lot of the things that we've been trying to
do where fees should be reviewed over periods of time so that you don't get into larger increases. So we try to be very cognizant of not doing that. But certainly the fee increase itself is not covering the cost of the athletic program at all. Not even close. But we
want students to participate because we know that might be the difference for some student to keep them engaged, right? And has been pointed out in our public comment. We have students of all backgrounds that are participating, right? But we don't want this to be something that offsets other programming
that we have as well. So David Pulfer is doing a great job with the transportation. He's kind of bringing it down with our in district drivers. We have the vans. We try everything we can to economize uh athletics, but we also are taking out those volunt those paid
positions by boosters, which is really a conflict of interest and and that's something we're cleaning up as well, which I think is important. And that does help the boosters because they they work so hard for the program. So, um I do not want to see anything. We know that this increase in athletics should
never balance the budget nor any other program. So we want to be cognizant of that piece and and very clear. I think it was a very valid question about families that might not quite hit that line but reach out. We find ways to help them as we would help all families.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I'd entertain a motion at this time. >> If you're so inclined, >> I'd like to move that um We vote on the new user fees for
athletics. Second, seeing the motion made second. Are there any any additional comments or concerns? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Next up is the voluntary retirement
incentive plan for unit A members. Unit A that refers to our teachers. Um earlier in a uh previous uh special committee meeting, we asked for a vote to start the process of reviewing and looking into detail uh with this what
this program could do. We've done our research. We've done our due diligence. Um as the ceiling for um procurement is below a threshold where we did send out bids, uh we received the bid from a company we've been doing the work with. So I want to walk you through this
because we do need approval to enter agreement with this particular company to move this forward. So just uh quickly the company that has we've been working with um that submitted the bid is PARS which is the public agency retirement services. They work across the country
uh with public entities and schools to basically it's a full package turnkey operation for early retirement incentives. They do everything in terms of helping you do the analysis. is it worth moving forward, the solicitation to eligible members, the orientations,
the individual meetings, then coming back with us, and then they actually implement the program. So, it's it's really uh very detailed. They've been around for quite a while. So, the rationale really is that if you look at our our teachers, uh 65% are at
the top salary step, right? Um and we have a pretty good percentage at the top step and column. So you get to this piece here where you know the rationale is can we help take pressure off long term right by looking to incentivize higher
salary close to retirement or maybe want to separate because that number is much higher than incoming replacements or if you do not replace the position. So it's to help the attrition and mitigate the impact of having to have massive layoffs and cuts which we don't want to do. Um,
and again, this is a one-time offer. They either separate or retire, right? It's an annuity that's purchased through Pacific Life Insurance Company. That's not by us organizing it. It's by PARs. The other piece is is that it's deferred over time. So, the payout um we would be
responsible for over five years to do this. Uh, the eligibility is age 50 or 10 years of service to the district. So, we have over 60 members eligible. We don't know how many will take advantage of this. There's 15 options for payouts um and monthly monthly payments and it's
only unit A. We've had that question asked for administrative assistance and structural assistance. U the differential is is is not great enough for those units. So quite frankly where we're at right now is you know the analysis has been performed right we've
met we know where we could go with this. We've met with our council the town council as well. Um, and what we're looking for tonight is to solidify this, uh, for a vote to open the 45day window. And then once that happens, um, the company will send out enrollment packets
to all 60 eligible employees. We'll send out a communication to say, please, uh, look at the packet. It's on its way. And then the company's looking to set up the orientation session, um, which will be soon. Um, and again, that that's important. The the piece about it is is
that we're under no obligation because the post implementation is once the window closes, the company will work with us and review the analysis of a how many people uh put in for this and what is the savings and if it's fiscally in our advantage to do so, we can move
forward. If at any time it is not at that window closing, we can say no. We also have to be concerned with that the town pays the health in the other benefits for our uh many of our members. So we need to you know see is are these
members taking the benefits or not. So it's a lot of work. So there's no financial obligation until the end. If it's viable then we will come back for a vote to either approve or reject. Right. Um, so basically everything's referred
to the health cost, incentive cost, natural attrition, the future loss, the savings, and then that's our net cost. So at a $50,000 um uh buyout, again, this is deferred over time, right? And what's in yellow is that if we choose
not to replace five of the positions, you know, projected savings in year one is is 120,000. But what's important to note is over three and five years because as we discussed Saturday at the budget hearing and and other meetings the budget constraints are going to be
tight for us moving down the road. Um so again if we have and that's with 11 estimated that we'll take advantage of this. That's conservative on their part. They this is all they do. So it could be higher than 11 and the savings may be
more or if it's not then we have decisions to make as a committee. Um so the timeline really is tonight I'll be asking um the committee to adopt the uh PAR's voluntary separation incentive plan and then it starts the process of
the orientation um 45day window opens once the post analysis is completed in April May then we will have the data to say do we move forward or not we move forward or not we still will have a vote with the committee um and then once that
happens if we choose not to the question is could we do this next year if we choose not to do it and the answer is of course because it's kind of late in the year to do this but we feel that we may have interested parties. So on the on
devil's advocate if it doesn't go people know about it and it might change the view next year. If it goes forward then great. If it goes forward then we're not obligated to make a payment till July and then the employee receives their benefit in August. So, we didn't count
on any of this for our budget and we shouldn't because it's uncertain whether this is going to go. If it does and we have the savings again, that may help for some deferrals, but we're not looking to add to the budget because we know we're looking down the road to save and for the rainy days we know that are
coming. So, all I'm asking for tonight is the adopt the uh PARS voluntary separation plan and the retirement contributions as part of the separation program effective uh as of the vote that will open the 45day window and there's
no obligation with this vote. Again, that will come later in late April or May. Um we have a decision to make. So, this is the ask tonight to move forward and it's official to move with this company.
Any questions for the superintendent? >> Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any comments or uh discussion? >> I think it's been well vetted. I think that the fact that we're not committing
to anything until we have another chance to sense and uh the fact that you've worked with the town, this company has been in business for over 40 years and does this as a specialty. I'm certainly comfortable with
having 65% of our staff, top staff is a compliment to them. They want to be here. >> Yes. >> It's a very very big compliment. Um But it's also a problem. Um, but I'm intrigued to see how many people are actually interested in this. We won't
know until this piece gets gets moved. So, anything else? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I opposed. >> Thank you. If I could bring up Mr. Peter Dearo and
Principal Colin Tony um to present the Holden Richmond program of studies proposed revisions for the upcoming year. So Mr. Colinton and I reviewed the program of studies for Holton Richmond for next year 26 27 um and the majority
of it has stayed relatively the same. uh we made some up updates um that are summarized here on the screen. So we're just going to go over those now. Um due to the change in the schedule from last year to this year, uh we did adjust the wording around the structure of the year. Um so we adjusted the course terms
to quarters and semesters versus trimesters. We also adjusted the grade reporting to four times a year to make that align with the new schedule as well. Um and then curriculum wise, we updated the course descriptions for science, English, language arts, and math to reflect the new curriculum program adoptions. So for science, uh we
integrated language around the open sed curriculum that the science department is utilizing this year. For ELA, uh we put information around the fish tank curriculum and then for math, we kept the information in um from the Carnegie learning curriculum, which they were using to start the year, but also
acknowledged that they're going through a new math curriculum adoption process. So that soon as that information is available, we'll incorporate that into the program of studies for next year as well. >> And just a few other things, we're currently piloting a new schedule this year, our master schedule. So, we took
out um the rides block from our master schedule uh in our current program studies. That's a 25m minute block that happened every day previously, but this year we're piloting a schedule. We took that out to to go to a seven period day and we put those 25 minutes into all the classes so we can get closer to where we
were last year. So, we're in a pilot year with that. We'll be working with our staff to see if we're going to continue um without that rise block next year. And just our uh programs for our STEM um curriculum, we just renamed them to align grades six through eight. So, it's a STEM six class, a STEM 7 class, a
STEM 8 class. They were all learning the same things in previous years, but they had different names, which was a little confusing on their student schedules. Then lastly, um we have implemented uh the reason we went to quarter is so we could implement a more fluid intervention model this year. So for math and literacy, we have intervention
grades seven and eight that we're pulling more students on a quarterly basis >> through the chair. >> So the approval is there really aren't substantive changes, just tweaks and alignments for that. So they're asking
for approval for program studies moving forward. >> Anyone have any questions? I do. Um so any you I think you addressed this to some extent but maybe I didn't catch it. The um what are we
doing to replace the uh rise block essentially so that the services are still the opportunities are still there. >> Yeah. So so the rise block was used a lot of different ways over the last few years. Again it was an everyday block for 25 minutes that was attached to the lunch period. So different grade levels
used it for different purposes. checking in with teachers, uh, some organizational skills, some extra help. That's where we really focus on the math and reading intervention. >> We're in the pilot year. Um, so we're not sure if we're going to move forward or not with that rise block. >> Okay. >> Um, we added the late buses this year.
Um, so that students could still get extra help after school. >> Um, some of our teams of teachers are coming in early in the morning to offer breakfast, club help. Um, so we're trying to compensate other ways to see if not having that block um or getting the return value of getting that extra
class every day going to seven periods. >> Okay. But I assume you'll you'll analyze how this year goes and then tweak it if you need to or if it seems to work go. >> Okay, I get it. >> Yeah. So, we're working with our faculty on kind of evaluating what's working, what's not and we'll be talking together
in the next few months about that. >> Okay. Thanks. Um, I think just going to a a quarter schedule kind of organically increases some need for intervention or at least check in uh with the students. I mean
your your hurdle there is that families are used to having trimesters. You need to get them used to and the students used to say, "Hey, the term's not as long. Therefore, we need to check in and uh you know, make sure everything is copic before those grades come out." We
start hearing from the parents. So, yeah, you know, Steph needs to, I guess, check in with people. >> It's helped blow up. >> Yeah, it's helped to be on quarters. It's more frequent feedback and it's helped us with um shorter rotations intervention. >> Thank you. Anyone
want to propose a motion? >> I'd like to make a motion to approve the proposed changes for the HRMS. >> Second. >> Any further discussion? >> Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed.
>> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um so the last part of the meeting for for uh purposes just some updates in terms of strategic plan. Um we're very proud of the work done with our strategic plan and we just wanted to
highlight um some of the areas. So as you know we have four main pillars of teaching and learning systems, family and community partnerships as well as district procedures and policies. So we just broke down the essentials under each of the the pillars. There are a number of things that probably aren't in
there. um and our team, our central office team, as well as the admin, we've been looking at this and I'd like to get something out to the community. Uh the goal is at the end of the year to have a comprehensive update to share with the community because they should be quite proud of the work that we're doing here. Um and I'm proud of our staff for all
the efforts in our admin team. So, if you look at the teaching and learning just um under curriculum review and alignment, uh Kristen's been driving a lot of the work with our curriculum directors. The port of the graduate is moving forward. the compies are there and we we've done a lot of great work
which that is really going to drive us as a district. Um the math curriculum adoption at the elementaryaries is well well received and it we will see huge turnaround in that which we're very proud of. Kristen's done a lot of work with the math curriculum at the middle
to high school level uh which has been outstanding. Again feel free to jump in anytime Kristen because you're all over. Thank you. Um we continue our learning walks where we lead and their administrative teams now adding some teachers which is great and working um
with um quickly >> research for better teachers is just outstanding. They've helped us. We've adopted the new dusty rubric uh and we created an IIA mentoring program instructional assistant and it actually was collaborative because we're putting
our instructional assistants in the most vulnerable positions helping kids. um and and you know bringing them in they don't have the mentoring as the teachers. So we actually have a group of trained IAS that are mentors that meet on a monthly basis with our newer IAS. I
think that's fairly new in this area to be honest with you. >> Right. So we're very proud of this the collaborative effort which is outstanding and the applied learning and I know uh Peter is is huge with the 18 foundation which is the basically the
experiential learning that is just really diving deep that that really is the key uh I think to make connections for students this is happening through faculty meetings professional development days uh project lead the way and the leadership team so all these are moving in a great direction
the graduate we have it and it's moving forward and and We'll provide some more updates as we move along. Just just really proud of the work happening here. Systems and structures. So, schoolwide expectations, our data teams, um Kristen's been really operating to
create the dashboard that we're we're bringing into play. Um our DECAP, which is our district accommodation plan, which needs to be wolffully updated. It's in the process of MTSS handbook, the Swiss database which is logging behaviorals so people get an idea of
what's happening where and what part of the building. So therefore those areas could be addressed. I think the consistent operations which saw coming in is a great need for building our internal uh piece. Special education procedural manual was completed which is a lot of work for our student services
team. Uh Kristen led the evaluation of our EEL um the tiered focus monitoring huge integrated monitoring review of special education is on its way. Our NES accreditation which we heard tonight informiccast which is our broadcasting of um an emergency. It's a process that
now we have uh reunified reunification planning which god forbid a massive issue happens. What do we do? How do we how do we deal with that? that's ongoing now and our bullying harassment audit which we've utilized the bill better programming teacher leadership again we
talked about the mentoring Kristen has brought in the department chairs at the secondary PD pathways and then our teacher leadership institute uh which actually on Thursday a quick plug for that we have Jeff Riley the former commissioner of DESIE who's leading um the day of AI here so um I did invite
the school committee if they'd like to attend um we have about 30 educators and admin in there. It's wonderful. So, great stuff. I think on the community partnerships and families, we going to reach my teach platform for district communication automatically translate
communication and documents. So, that used to be blackboard. We use reach my teach and that's what I send out my regular messages and and I all that can translate into all the different languages and attachments which is unbelievable. Uh we have a survey to stakeholders which is going out. We
worked on that today with the DTA and other stakeholders. Kristen's led the way with that. Um, and then trust and transparency, the advisory council is going uh the LPAC, which is our for our English language learner and families. CPAC, we just can't believe the
unbelievable partnership we have with both newsletters and updates. We work more regular communication from the schools. And then last but not least, our policies and procedures. Uh we're working on a centralized repository like where to go, where to find things when
you need them. Um and we've found lots of things that we what's that process? What's that procedure? We're building that staff handbook's been updated. The special education procedural manual is huge. And then we've developed a bullying and harassment toolkit for administrators that came off of the
audit. So there's immediate like how to conduct the investigation, what's the paperwork, what's the letters and all that, which is fantastic. district systems. Big kudos to, she's not here tonight. It's Kim Beavenon, our HR manager, and Pamrum, our business manager. Remember
last year, we're looking for ways to save money. So, we we left our third party vendor for finding subs. We do that now in house. That allowed us to to basically move a position, quite frankly, help the team chair at the middle school. So, but the work that
went into that, we have a stable of subs, the monitoring. Janet uh does a lot of the work ensuring that on that day because now it's all through our uh platform and if there's any gaps Janet works really hard to make sure that there's coverage in the building. So it's a collaborative effort. Uh reach my
teach which helps with translation and families that may struggle and then munis which again pam and Kim Beavenon that's town uh centralizing all of our payroll and and all the data for
employees. It's a huge huge effort. So that is moving us forward. Um the district op and why that's important is because once that get we'll be more efficient as an organization. And then district operations the the dashboard we talked about uh we are working for
capital improvements and and looking at uh bigger picture and then procedures such as enrollment transfer of students. We're really working hard to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks. So in terms of the strategic plan, there's a lot of progress. We'll provide
a more comprehensive update at the end of the year that we will put together in a narrative that we send out to our stakeholders um the whole community because they should be proud of this work that's ongoing and I'm proud of the work that's happening. So I'll pause
there to see if there's any questions. >> Nope. Oh. No questions, but that's a lot. It's actually quite impressive given all the budget work and everything else that's happening. Um, I just wanted to give you guys kudos for really prioritizing
what we need to see done in the district and the transparency in the organization. So, thank you and thank you for pointing out the team because all that's happening and this is actually helpful to me in getting into like all right, we're now in March, the budget is moving forward. What do we got
to get back to to really finish up the year strong? That's huge. And then I will now transition. Kristen, you want to add something? Yeah, I just wanted to um make sure that you heard Dan say that we are sending a survey to all our stakeholders to start measuring the strategic plan and how we're doing, how
feel people are feeling communicated with and their sense of belonging and so forth. So all the pieces in our strategic plan. So the folks that are getting the survey are getting but also all families, all parents, all students
in grades 3 through five, all students in grades 6 through 12, all teachers and all staff uh IAS BTS, cafeteria workers, custodians, and so forth. So I just wanted comprehensive and the idea is to
give the same survey um every year at the same time. So, end of March, end of March, end of March for the five years of the strategic plan. And it's measured. We're using questions um that are normed nationally so we can see how we're doing, not just against our our
goal, but also against how other districts are doing. And then my own personal goals which again really are I believe a reflection of the work that's happening with our administrative team but those on the front line are great teachers or
instructional assistants admin assistants food service and everybody. So five goals which student achievement professional practice partnerships district procedures and policies and then implementation of the strategic plan. So really working for my goals to
align to the strategic plan. Um so I just I'm just going to say in progress and they've been in progress work to be done. Um in terms of the curriculum there's been a lot of progress and really very proud of the work that's happening there. Uh student achievement we'll be seeing you know the MCCAST we don't know this year. We're in the
process of that. Uh the dibbles data looks very promising. Uh the other benchmarks look great. The AP scores we're working on but it's still in progress. More work to do. the 18 foundation integrating with middle school. Uh Adam the principal and team has been involved with that. That's
coming along and that's kudos to Peter tomorrow. Really important the graduate um significant progress. Uh Kristen's leading that charge doing outstanding work. Um and then professional development um really distributive leadership is so key because in our
organization we have so many outstanding leaders that might not necessarily hold the title of administrator but their leadership is critical. So everything from the teacher leadership institute to the IIA mentoring program to our PD pathways. Um we're looking for ways the
team chairs, the department chairs to add more because we have some great staff. Um the benchmarks coming off of schoolwide structures and uh bullying harassment audit was really important to us because we know that certainly we
want to make sure that we're alignment but more importantly that work goes to help students and families navigate tough situations. So we've made a lot of progress. We actually had another brush of PD last week with our attorney and our administrative team. The handbooks are coming together. Kristen is actually
working on a this uh unified school handbook. So that that will be just one and the individual pieces will go into our um individual websites that will help our admin to be more aligned. That's outstanding. The mental health team you
saw tonight Danver Cares Kristen's leading that effort dual enrollment plan which we're looking to add an associates degree opportunity that's ongoing. I am visiting Indiana in the 20th. I have a meeting set up with a school in Indiana that has that option. So, um that's on
my dime, by the way. So, yeah, but a family visit as well, which is good. Um and then the technology. So, Jim Sullivan has done outstanding work. We know we're going to change our device at the high school and looking for ways to improve at the middle and the elementary.
um when we look at the uh family outreach and opportunities, you know, there's always more opportunity for that and that's something that I want to keep pushing where how can I interface and connect with families. Um you know, we added the advisory council, we meet with the central pack on a regular basis. Um
you know, the branding part, we're getting there. Um and then the advisory council is there. Goal four, uh the alignment of student services. You've heard Christina and Ryan and her team talk and we're really in a good place with that and and know
we're continuing our work and this year's budget will support further strengthening that alignment of our prek services. Um the other part too is just the improved service delivery. Right now that's in progress. We're looking for ways to improve our hiring and bring
people on board, keeping them here. Uh Munis, which is outstanding. Um the online registration for families, we're trying to streamline that. And then the multi-year facilities upgrade is a lot more work is needed on there. That hasn't had as much attention. Uh but we're working on that. And then the
absence and substitute program, it's fully integrated and kudos to Kim and Pam and Janet. And then just moving forward for the strategic plan, we provide the midyear update. We're really looking forward to the end of year update because we will have that data
from the surveys coming in. Um, and we need a little bit more work, I think, with stakeholders getting that out, which we'll see how the data goes and maybe open up a few forums to do that. So, ultimately, that's the the five goals. Uh, they're in progress. Some are further than others. Um, and I'll bring
this to finale, I guess, in May. Uh, when we go through that process. So, that's it for the update on the goals. >> Any comments? You're you're going to Indiana to visit a school on your dime? >> Yes. I was going on family anyway. So, I
reached out to the superintendent out in Center Grove, Indiana. Uh that's where my nephews both went to school and they both graduated with uh opportunities for an associates degree. My brother, um again, this is personal, but I saw this for years and I'm like, why don't we do
this? >> So, anyway, I'm not sure that's what you're asking, but I'll stop. Well, I mean, I'm not I'm not complaining about the fact you're doing it on your own dime. What I'm complaining about is since you're paying, you didn't invite us to go with you. >> Uh, we're at the minutes, I believe.
>> Mr. Chairman, I move that I move that we approve and release the minutes from the January 29th, 2026 budget workshop, the February 9th, 2026 regular meeting, the February 18th, 2026
special meeting, and the February 25th, 2026 budget hearing. >> Second. >> Any comments? >> Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed? Consent agenda.
>> Motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. Any comments? Seeing none, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> And uh communications. Do we have any communications? None.
>> Legislative update. >> Yeah, he did. We got the campus cares update all left. All right, we're good. Our next meeting is April 13, 2026.
There's no other comments or business. I entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All those in favor, please say I. I oppose.