school committee to order at 6 o' first order Bas approve am of January 16th approve minutes January 16 2025 second no conversation all in favor statement okay 14 warrants uh were
signed since the last meeting and reviewed electronically totally 9,931 35 um two things that I wanted to point out one on the school choice report you'll see that there is an amount in there for $90,000 for out of District
tuition um we don't have a student going out this year I think they actually aged out last year and we just left it in because that's where we paid it from so that'll save us 90,000 in school choice expenses which is positive because it'll help us fund them as we continue that
conversation moving forward um and then on the general fund you'll notice that the maintenance account line is currently over in that report um it's towards the back of the report function code order
20 I think somewhere around there um this building is starting to show its age in regards to the HVAC system it's functioning but there's been a lot of repairs needed and when I say a lot we
spent probably $15,000 already this year on various um adjustments to air handware units um we we had a freeze recently with something with a really cool brother cost us quite
a few thousand dollar so nothing catastropic but you know it's a 30-year old building and while the boilers are in great shape some of the parts that go along with that and bringing starting to show um I think that's important to talk about because if our budget is 40,000
and we've already spent 15 and have a few more months to get through and you know once we start running those AC units even though they're all brand new they're going to have some Kinks to work out or a lot of them are brand new um so it's good chunk of our building General repairs budget going to so it might be
something that we want to talk about in future budget years we have increase those not a major concern all I have unless you have specific what in particular are the issues that we're having with the the
boiler is there a specific like it's not the boiler because the boiler is relatively new um I'm going to pull up the maintenance sheet and I can look at the notes in it it has to do more with well this is the unit is up there
right but in a lot of the office there's or classrooms there's like these large um they're called air handler units like we have in our offices that helps regulate the Heat and circulation in the room so that's really
been we have a pretty details on Serv like the root the question I just wonder is there a need to to kind of look um project out for make a major expense or it we
looking at nickeling diing our way through this issue in the years ahead or and what's the what type of issue are we running into here yeah and I again it's not the boiler because the boiler is relatively new right so I think that you're looking
at the list that's BR us here it's a lot of um small things you you know dampers that are sticking inl I'm not sure the culation here but that is on
theal so you know the con you know push the water through the boilers needs to be replace that's 30 years old you know so that's on the capitalist but um it's those kind of things so um you know you put it together for a bigger project or you just kind we can ask we can talk
to see if that's what's the best way to go a lot of the notes are repair a fan and an air handler unit replace a broken belt in an air handler unit um which those are just you know small individual things but they add up to quite a bit
one because we're paying prevailing wage you know but a small small job you know could be 122500 and have 10 service um a heater leak in a bathroom so it's nothing catastrophic
but we certainly can talk with B about it we have a facility next week right so we'll throw that on the list and and understand what absolutely we're looking at thank you next up the principal report which was emailed
out yeah I'm covering read your report you guys can read through it um I think that great talk about this all school meetings in the field trips and the um
you know the instruction leader team update so you know through it question right next up public comment youa want to give a public commenta you're up here
ready yeah I'm coming on it's slow I don't know if you can there okay um than thanks so I'm Lisa gayer I'm a special education teacher at Deerfield and also co-president of the Union 38 Educators
Association and I have a statement that um I've prepared to read these are based on January statements that were released by The Nea the MTA and Darius Medesto for Frontier and Union
38 National Education Association president Becky Pringle released the following statement on reported executive actions that hurt students public schools and communities most Americans believe that every student deserves opportunity
resources and support to reach their full potential no matter where they live the color of their skin or how much their family earns parents and Educators agree are students need more learning opportunities not less they need smaller class sizes to get more into
individualized attention they need nutritious School meals so they can pay attention to class rather than their stomachs and they need access to mental health supports they need to be respected for who they are no matter their race Place background sexual
orientation or gender identity and our students need to learn the good and bad of our history to be prepared to succeed in our diverse and interdependent World MTA president Max p Ag and vice president Deb McCarthy released this
statement we condemn in the strongest possible terms the directive that would allow ice agents to raid and arrest students in our Public Schools it is repulsive to our shared common values and this cruel policy shatters the trust that families place in our Educators and
our Public Schools as safe havens and inflicts Lasting trauma on innocent children as Educators we stand in solidarity with immigrant Advocates Community allies and all who fight for justice and Humanity we will fight
against this policy with every tool at our disposal and remain committed to ensuring our public schools are spaces of learning belonging and safety for all students then Darius our superintendent released two statements regarding
immigration concerns and revisions to Title 9 or challenges to lgbtq plus rights and I want to say that Darius did that in advance of even desie sending out their statement um just this past week desie sent out a
statement Union 38 Educators Association fully supports all of these statements that have been made and appreciates that our superintendent sent these out to ensure that our students are supported and protected we know that not all superintendant have come out with
statements supporting these marginalized communities we feel fortunate to be in a district and community that values all of its members thank you I heard any else who wants to read a statement but does anyone else have there now it's your
time all right thank you moving on all right next we are going to take a look at the budget the budget yeah we'll we'll email it out um great I'll send it to the Town Administrator tomorrow morning and
then you guys should I didn't print any paper copies um you should have Frontiers by now I that off Julie as well okay yeah thank
you that big enough okay all right so as a reminder uh 1% General budget increase over the prior year is just over 53,000 uh the level service budget that we're going to talk about today includes
uh wage placeholder uh for teachers and IAS that are in negotiations currently school-based staff and the central office staff it also includes some adjustments based on actuals to the below accounts that we're going to look at and this is new since the last
meeting so we have a student tuition in into the den program from another District that student has left mid year so the tuition for the current year has been reduced and we did not anticipate tuition from the program next year we were paying an IIA on that this year um
knowing that we had some tuition coming in so we moved that back that's a Chang in that month so that was an adjustment of $33,000 uh so the expense accounts that have been adjusted are are relatively minor um The copier contract we have new
ERS and copiers in the building that is showing an increase of Just sh of 2500 Transportation which is based on our contract has a coal of 2 and a half% building and liability insurance which we pay to the town because they pay uh whole bill and then bill us for
this our water consumption has been up over the last several budget Cycles so we're making an adjustment there and then also an adjustment for taking those pieces into consideration and the wage grow the level service budget came in at 4.41
over FY 25 which is roughly $235,000 uh when we last met in January rural Aid had not yet been applied to the budget Darius and I are making the recommendation to bring down the 4.41% of applying half of the district's allocation of ver
Aid this year we received about $110,000 we're recommending putting $55,000 which is just over 1% to reduce the budget increase over FY 25 to 3.38 um the other half of Rel we are going to
recommend new requests are minimal uh we did talk about this last month uh we are asking for an 11,000 adjustment which is an additional 21% to to increase the line for musical instrument replacement and repair if it
were strictly replacement we would look to see if we had other funding sources or end of year funds to try to replace but what's happening is we're T we're needing to replace more frequently because of the age of the instruments and then um we are not currently having
enough funds in the budget to cover so that's a $3,000 request and then an additional $88,000 to help cover the maintenance of the new installed rain Gardens as well as the playground and I know if we do the renovation out back if we're able to get enough funding for
that that'll have the port in place surface but there will still be some wood chips around the building on this side the older kids play um and even in part of the the preschool playground right because we're talking about two phases of development for the so we have
to replenish those so that we meet desie codes for or he SE codes for surface falls on so considering level services and the new requests the budget that we're talking about today is a
3.59% increase total over fy2 uh roughly $192,000 uh so let's talk a little bit about next steps and what our options are oh I gave you historical data in this report also I think it's good to look at here the average budget increase over the last six budget Cycles is
2.62% part of our growth in FY 25 was related to the increase in the transportation contract otherwise we would have been just under that 4% Mark um but typically deerfields budgets have been in in a really healthy position um you all know that's because they've made
some hard decisions over the last few years that have allowed us to stay more thisly all right so here's the next step so we're going to give you a little bit of um food for thought and things to talk about uh so on one hand while we've
included an increase of $20,000 for those expense adjustments that we talked about Above The copier or the transportation Cola all those pieces and then the $111,000 for ground maintenance and instrument repairs that
$31,000 could potentially be discussed this being pull from the budget um we don't want to falsify our budget we want to have enough money to cover all of our expenditures however Deerfield has had Savings in probably the last if not four
out of five definitely three out of five because of leaves of absence that happened in this building they tend to be maternity leaves but they could be other leaves of absence or they could be vacancies in IA positions and it generates savings for us um so we have
been able to cover these expend with existing budget money without growing the budget there is no one right now that we know of going on leave of absence next year and the money um savings would not be guaranteed because
that's a change that you know could come up at any point for any of our employees uh but if we did eliminate that additional three $31,000 it would bring our budget down to just over 3% 3 you know Darius and I have heard there
several conversations that there may not be a lot of new Revenue growth in the town there are some other projects happening everyone has high needs um so you know I think anything that we can do to reduce would be greatly appreciated so we wanted to
throw that on the table and the last thing that I have um before we Circle back to questions and continuing this discussion is just reminders of upcoming meetings I think the town meeting is April 28th it's usually that last last Monday um So based on the calendar but I
couldn't find it dat on the website but we are scheduled to have our public hearing on the 5th March 5th and then uh school committee vote on the 20 talk about where was so this was different for January
one is it just because of no um that's not true uh so the uh sub commit not the subcommittee the committee for negotiations after we put out a financial package the numbers in that change the placeholder a little bit
based on the structure that we put in place for our position so um I did make an adjustment there so that increase wages slightly based on what we put out as again I'm have a c look at but what is
the increase in what was the increase in 10 um in the current year it's only two and a half% okay which was said2 $4,000 the first year had the major adjustment the next four years of the
contract only have a two and a half and we did reduce a a bus run to make the budget bu that went up to eag so be almost their own run bus stops at the bottom no long Tak so the majority of the level service
budget is Wages you know I I only made $20,000 in adjustments for non wage account so the 180,000 it's wage based which is typical you know that's that's what happens every year um and then the ask you know
$111,000 is minimal request we're not asking for any new Staffing it's really just for covering expenses that we are know and then just for the conversation point of I know Mary's heard this at
Frontier but you know looking at um rural Aid so you know rural Aid is you the governor's budget is look to be evenly funded we still don't trust that as a you know not it's not a revenue Source but we're not we don't trust it
as being consistent every year so but we do recognize that it is the state's attempt to offset the communities like ours that aren't giving up to Chapter 70 so um we're trying to apply 50% of it across um in all the schools in all the
towns it's kind of our first approach um so hopefully that number will continue to go up right now I attended a kind of a budget forecasting from the taxpayers association um did something for the superintendent last week and they said if it goes up it's not going
to go up by much um so you know we can look at funding and while while the funding doesn't go up they're giving it to more towns and so it's actually you know was actually adjusted and came down from the initial numbers that came out in um and they
actually came out really late this year we were worried that was going to be a 9C cut there was all these rumors and we got scared um so kind of using it in portion and we're using it a year in the rear so basically we're using this year's funds that have to be extended by
June 30th for next year and we're just transferring it through school through school choice but the idea is that that we don't want to be dependent on funds that can be cut during the school year if we can help it there's a lot of our a lot of our colleagues in neighboring
districts are not fles enough to be able to do that they're sending the year of and they're sending all the make budget so we have a another healthy area that we have some flexibility in and much how we kind of man school choice years um
but we did year and year spending right out of the we said you know we're not going to use that offset budget um in the same year um the same kind of mentality that we're approaching here so we get
have theam us little about the on so it's going well um and the um you know I don't want to misquote me
we we did have an external we were going to do only internal students to start for the first year and then we had the opportunity to take a um tuition student um but I believe that that tuition student has moved on so um so it came in it offset a
lot and then um we charge the St district for that and then it students needs you I don't know details is no one with us so that that details are the M stop coming
in and we have resident students in the programs that's why we built the programs because we have the need internal so that we don't we can meet our students need and the IIA who was in the program if I'm remembering this correctly I know that she was an
existing IIA um so we moved her in there to do one to one with this student um so we're sort of just moving her back to a different position and there is almost always vacancies or absences of IAS in
this building so the reason I'm saying this is we didn't add an IA to service the students needs so it was on budget in fy2 we moved it to den to follow the student to pay for it from there she's now moved back so only part of her
salary will hit this year's so where I was talking about how we often have salary savings this is what happens you know there's all these circumstances where you know we budgeted 30 something thousand we're only going to spend 17 with that so it frees up
some money some of those and I did verify with Cena just last week um that she still needs the same number Staffing EV program for next year should
we then 31,000 you can cover that the budget it's not a guarantee if we had every staff member because salaries is really our only place to save money we don't have flocking other
lines so if we had every staff member in the building Every Day next year no one with unpaid time if we had a substitute to fill every vacancy that that we have um we would not have enough money but
knowing what I know about deerfield's budget and having watched the numbers and gone through this or six budget Cycles now I feel comfortable that we could ride it out at a minimum we could take some of the
savings that exist in the current year because we know we have vacancies and we know that we've had people on leaves and take that money from this year and help use it to supp year which we've also done in the past I
think feel about pulling off money that we we have true expenses but we're saying we'll fund them with existing funds yeah I agree I think that's the list yes my only question is
are there any historicals not that postco is a good time to look at like the the the work for Force numbers in in the Staffing but we have a percentage on on or a dollar amount on like each year we we acred dis amount in savings for
those salaries so that we can just kind of Benchmark where we are this year with us St um I would say we've had probably the equivalent of a full-time teacher out between various salary lines every
year whether it's a teacher two IAS or whatever it is you know a lot of times we have somebody that's supposed to start first day of school as an IIA and they don't work out they don't come in so then we don't hire someone for three months so we automatically have three
months of IIA Savings in salaries so a lot of that happens here in De Deerfield being the largest school with the road so I feel pretty comfortable with I think we within our you know
within our process here right so basically we're been through it um we're announcing our budget we're then have a public hearing to hear questions on it and then we can make adjustments still at that point okay you can't go up after
the public hearing you can come down um or you have to have another public hearing so you can but process it so I'm just kind of saying that all loud in the sense of you know Finance commit is hearing it for the first time they're going to digest it so they may have some questions and if you do have um like
specific like numbers and that kind of stuff please send us an email so they shely can bring it and you know you can have [Music] that but and also like you know not all line items or you know anything that comes up um you know please if you can
list iead of time easier but we will be we be prepared to at the budget hearing so we have a budget hearing we talk about it and then we even we don't vote the budget that night we used to um then we got some feedback that it was kind of moving a little bit too quickly for folks so now then we'll have another
meeting after that to then finally but there's still a lot more talk that can happen if things change um you know if you come up with questions that kind of thing folks get a hold of you and want you know have ideas um this is kind of
like the first time though we're just going to announce this is where looking the land andbody that makes sense as far as the new requests they're so minimal i' really like to be able to do that that yeah I mean we'll we'll
have to pay for at a minimum the rain Garden maintenance we we don't want our beautiful front building overgrown and and not taken care of and our custodial staff can't handle the and maintenance on that so we'll have to out
but you know what we'll just we'll find ways to cover it because that 11,000 is part of the 31 um as we continue to near year end I will keep you updated on available budget funds and I do think we could find a way to pull at least a
portion of that 31,000 if not all of it off a current year salary saving um you know we sort of grow something that we paid on school choice onto general fund to save it save the school choice money and then we'll spend the
school choice money savings next year these um yeah so I guess obviously if you have more questions let's continue the conversation um but we would look be looking sort of for a not a formal vote right you haven't been doing that at all
the Committees have you um yeah it's a vote to move the budget forward I guess as presented to bring the move to hear so may it's a cleanest way something smaller me there's three people that was not a yes and that was
good enough so have Bud voting to move this number for support to move forward let's just call it a 3% increase not shutting down 3% forward
yeah sorry for any further conversation or discussion all there so I will continue preparations the public hearing conversation will be much larger we'll get into how the budgets develop the processes that we've gone through you all will get a line by
line item budget for that you'll get it in advance so if you have questions and want to send them my way ahead of time you can always ask them here but sometimes it's easier to be able know some moving on to new business school choice
typically I'm gonna have to take the lead on this [Music] and there's a good conversation here so this is looking at our so we have two things we look at tonight one you have to make a vote that continue I
need a formal vote for the Department of Education Mak you formally vote that you be a school choice School each year you continue to be participating in that so that's one thing and then um Tina provided a outline of where applications are right now um as you can
see in the second far was PR to the pending applications and then she has you know we basically in the past have given her discretion based on the numbers that you see to allow um to make decisions about numbers of school choice coming
in you know the interesting thing so you can kind of see through the the uh number of resents that we have in each class the number of school choice um um for next year that we already have in in sections and then you can see the
number of sections and here's the concern So currently the kindergarten is projected to be at 18 residents we have 22 applications for school choice
um and the concern is when if we go with a single section and I know this is the route we've gone um for those who newer to the committee there used to be three sections per grade and we did over time reduce it to
two sections per grade and sto taking larger numbers of choice where the majority of our classroom may have been choice in a few in a few grade levels throughout so you reduce that down the concern is that you have a single section of um single section
grave um and you it's a big decision so we can this is something that we can kind of talk about over um into the next meeting as well but the idea that if you go to a single section think it does disrupt the school because now you have a single
section teach going through every single year you're going to have to change teachers in grade levels because as that Singleton goes through all the double teachers for each grade level only one's going to be teaching that and the other ones going to have to switch grade Mars so it causes A disruption going through
we we dealt with that when we went from 3 to two um you lose the ability to divide students up um and you also are um you know it's still a healthy number class you know the size of growth you
still six six pie students there go she wanted to bring people's attention because it is um it does become um a different kind of issue um she said
that so she said basically she gave she put options on here and she was going to walk through them but one cl is is to go to one classroom reduce the staff no no school choice admissions of the 22 applications that we have um this would result in one Canan classroom with 18 students would create a bubble year
meaning that I was just explained um would accommodate one section the future grades [Music] um and it would also mean our current prekas students toy students who are with us would not go into kindergarten so those who are in our preschool right
now will not come up because we don't open up um option two is to go to two classrooms except school choice with current 18 residents and four preschool Stu Choice students we can create two classrooms of 11 each and then um
balance class siiz and then we can open up 14 school choice slots resulting in two sections approximately 18 so it's a interesting problem right I think for for own residence seems like we did get f
one kindergarten in AUST or September turned out to be I've definitely done it in other schools just had to do that this year in Sunderland because they went from 19 to 26 in a single in a single fall um that
they have even more that happens a lot there when they get prod and downs um superintendent with residents at 18 that's a little bigger than we like to see in a single and you know
or few more come in Su whatever right it's just difficult to add a section yes go 25 it can go up to 25 large class people want to know that we your Banks that's the State Banks and then usually very 25 year prob two IAS and
probably a third most likely sometimes usually based on me even there's just been a lot more need um in the younger grades coming out of Co we're just saying that um we not promote larger class item so
um you know and I think there's also a benefit to um there there's a benefit to a certain SI certain Mass right of students as well when you have two groups it allows you to change groupings it allows people to when you have issues between students and so forth over the
duration of their time here separating students that kind of thing is um is is is a great thing to be able to do so there there's a lot of benefits there obviously um the downside is that we were trying to get away from having majority of school choice in one
classroom I will say that those applications the other elementary schools in our district we are seeing double digits in kindergarten in all of our buildings and the majority of of their districts they not take any or take very few they're very they're all
pretty much at their Max um and so that's the other they just they're single con school so they're single gr so they're not what they have the opposite the classroom may have to here
to the opposite so so I think you know out in the community school choice is a subject sometimes it's hard to understand it's hard people understand why this doesn't cost why would you do
school at all I don't know but I idea two sections and taking in some school course I think making that part of our budget presentation what school choices how we
benefit from it over time I think it's something know more about and one last question in the the proposed budget for next year includes two kindergarten teachers it's it's already in there at this
moment and if she can fill 14 school choice slots didn't have the budget money even if it was just $5,000 and there will be with 14 students you will get St statistically alone you're some of
those are $20,000 yeah and I think you're right me when we look at Choice what people don't realize the amount of things that um amount of capital we try to not to offset budget with it because it get in
that dangerous thing but we do do I'm sorry we do offset budget but um where we dip in further is you know especially obviously at Frontiers the same way I mean there's they took down $1.8 million Capital debt and there is no debt anymore they P it offs money and choice
um it also creates a mass of students that allows you to have extra programing so you allow you have more different types of specials here um you know more than once a week as well when you have capacity like that so scheduling those kind of things so you know and then
obviously have the frontier as all many of these scho ways kind of trickle through um you know if Frontier didn't have a cice students you wouldn't have anywhere near the electives and then you'd have the opposite effect where students would leave to go find those electives go find
the music program that you know has capacity drama program has capacity our Arts our AP courses and then our specialized programs and a lot of we have you know three separate special education programs of a frontier there's
um two here where you know those can be tuition in and we keep our students here let so it is a you I think um I wish I don't have the information from me I wish I knew what the sense of
data was for preschool you know what I mean and um you know are is this a dip or that's things exam so we have just so you have the
full picture and all the information nine outgoing six so if we do not replace those nine students we will automatically be down with their so you know we talked about this that as
our class size is strength and we have limited ability to take Choice it's going to eventually have a budget impact and you talked about this a little bit and we've talked about it in the past with the decisions to reduce sections it dynamically is going to
change the school and what it looks like it feels like the smaller we get and that class will you know you'll carry that through till sixth grade just going to keep drinking and going back the two classes will be more
challenging if we have ad budget even in a year I adding a section or keeping section just budg reason that
and we have um normally school choice this feels it's not usually February we purposely are moving it up um we found that as people wait sometimes they make decisions based on who they who accepts them first and so we're trying to get
earlier in the process of families know and all four towns all four principles are doing it so that we don't um one school doesn't steal from the other just by being first in making the decision so we're all all the school committies are this month going SCH Choy schools and
they have a release dat where they're going to let families know then obviously just as a reminder to how Sol Choice works if we didn't have enough space and we more applicants we have to do a lot of system which we don't get to
select let's see right now she said she said she could take 14 if we do we do 14 School sites 14 oh you're right she would have to do L thank you do we have
um data that shows for students that we admit for school choice at a young age how many of them T to stay they go back into a lottery once yeah but we only have to do Lottery once even just through Dees it might be nice data to show that when we do let
Because by the community talking point for these aren't kids that come through right um the majority of our school toy students at Here Comes other we only take a handful of students who are
coming we're choosing FR here start is there um proportionately we probably get the most from Greenfield um and then it goes up and down from it's the north coming coming
south though um it's Go Green Field um Mohawk you know and as it's a you know choic of a tough game because it's again I said you know they make that that saying you know don't
don't hate the player hate the game um say um because we're in it but we've been the beneficiary of it and to um as other schools are getting smaller and smaller students are families are making choices to seek out programming
um you know in similar and at the same time what's happening at Frontier is we're having less students me and so that's where we also that also helped how we paid down um the debt that one year was not just the fact that we have student choice in the amount that were
going out the amount that were going to Charter Schools went way down and hundreds of thousands way down because the charter school is $20,000 for each student um and so the charm of charter schools seems to be going down at least in our community
um we're not seeing the numbers I'm just head to make sure say correct have friend here yeah yeah so be confirm same there um so but yeah so you know the amount of you know um in students going to ammer or Northampton
which I say the bigger schools people are looking for more programming is also done um so be see would like graduated what's that my kid graduated so we were school choice
again so and there was and it goes to you know there was some spikes in um school choice out when we had some bad budget years not in Deer when Sunland had lost all his extras and whatever you know this was again I was principal
assistant principal at the time so over 10 years ago but they had a major and they lost I think eight AG to 10 students Choice out because they had to made so many Financial cuts and then then they Al then you're paying also your financial Cuts got doubled and
they've since you know obviously they dug out of that place now any so that's what happens with the schools up north and um I say a lot so people know but the tech school continues to grow and so they've increased by over 100 students in the
last four years and while the um the valley is getting smaller they're getting bigger and they're taking more students and you you go with you know what they did the Pioneer two years ago um they took 42 students out of an 80
something person class and so obious sudden they midd they ninth grade class went from you know close close to 100 to in the 40s and then it caused a mass exit because it was not enough anything and so that class has actually gotten
down I think to in the them and so we actually picked up a few kids from that because they you they can't offer some many things and so they're I they're fighting to build that back up but when those kind of things happen yeah I mean the conversation
around funding or filling the class for school choice kids is important but if you look at the rest of the class sections there if we did not have school choice our resident numbers are high enough that you would still need two sections in every grade level and school
choice right now funds nine IAS if we didn't have that Revenue coming in you'd either be letting go of 9as or some other type of service in the building whether it's you know Arts related service providers you'd have to come up with that
$250,000 elsewhere we ask well just with the percentage of students that you still have you wouldn't be cutting you yeah well if the town could afford it I guess and then you would be yeah I was just being more yeah
wouldn't be so easy just to no it would of course it would have been easier um so you're we're not needing to make a decision on that tonight but it seems like so thinking about it um it would be good for you to make a
decision on it if you think you need more time um I believe our decision making for school choice is March 15th um so we could take this to the
next meeting we are meeting early we're the first we're meeting the first week in March so it's in two weeks does anyone feel like they would like more conversation one seems to me like if if these if
we're looking at this same type of statistic this time next year then then a more serious uh Deep dive into the identity and makeup of our population needs to be had but to the Ripple effects of this over the course of the the term of this
class through sixth grade I think that that does more damage than than If This Were to be just the one exception here so I would I would um move that we we um I I make a motion that we um select
option two where we accept the um the students for um school choice and have two classes in kindergarten it looks like we would have a lottery I just texted T text me earlier today so but I'm
asking her if um she knows the census yeah I'm very curious if this loan year is it a result of familyes not moving in is it a result of these are kids who are born during Co year it's odd because all the other toes have a
ton of residen so I don't know what happened in Deerfield I was just to say we did a financial indicators you um and demographics was one of the most concerning um factors I don't
remember the specifics but basically the population is remaining essentially unchanged in numbers the age distribution is just get um I believe that report is available online in website there was a
lot to talk about that you're in housing people staying in their homes and homes aren't turning over and it doesn't know where to go and the housing prices and all so um we'll made a motion to do we need to vote on option one or just
voting to approve school choice as recommended as with the two sections with you would say you would be voting first you're going to vote to be a school school and then you would say we are going to vote we are um looking at option number two to instructing the
principle to make two sections and fill you know I would say her discretion that way you can she can if more people come not just that grade level but other grade levels as they come if get more applications you have to come back here it's her
discretion you know based on the numbers here do do that we do that for would you like modify your motion I will attempt to make a motion to um
approve de elementary school as a school choice school for the 2025 2026 year and and I move that we
uh provide um the principle with the um we had the right word there for a minute there I lost SCH choice discre oversight and discretion um related to school choice
decision okay there a second so I found an email from Kim McCarthy The Early Childhood director it's from December so not updated and her this is not okay never mind was giving youo team
just wrote March 1st is there r acceptance so I'm glad you guys just go to that so also um we don't have the census we usually get it typically in requests it in January and she hasn't gotten it yet also typically we have three or four additional summer that
come in the summer I have two tours scheduled after vacations of fam saying they're moving to Deerfield they both have commity guard students for next year this this is the thing that that drives me a lot too because just being in a real estate family we're always
showing my wife's always showing homes young is trying to get in you so not drop up a hat we could have we have new students or hand have a motion a second there's no further compation all favor okay next up is approval of the new contract for the director
Administration I very happy to say say that we were able to Sher few more years um and we extended the contract for three years thank you sh appreciate
you uh we do have to uh vote to approve the new contract second forther conversation all favor okay our next item is a discussion on um immigration enforcement in
schools so I sent out um I sent out the procedures that I put into place met with school administrators and they have since gone done training to their front office staff about what to do is immigration
enforcement was law enforcement was to come to the school and try to have access to students um and basically the big fear that's been out there um is that um ice agency ice agents would be
coming to the school in fulfilling their agency um warrants and so their own agencies have their they have warrants within their own agency and that's how you know so they know who they're working to pick up and know basically um who they're chasing down um through you
know IM immigration status and what um schools are you as I explained it and did a couple trainings on this spit to learn more about this and know all the details before um but schools you know while it's a public school we aren't
open to the public so um immigration enforcement agencies cannot just come into the school with their own warrants to access students or Student Records they're protected under fura and um they would need a Judicial warrant and the
concern out there said by the state is that schools would not know the difference between the two and um would be handing over students without you know not without of kind of the legal protections as as are being parents here um being local
paren um of those students so basically the procedure I put in place has if there's any law enforcements that come to Res school um seeking either information or um person that they would have to R
through the superintendent's office um and super we have a quick line to our attorney as well so we would you know find you know get a copy of whatever warrant they have make sure it's appropriate and if it isn't appropriate send them on their way that they can through their business here um and I've
said this in the other school committee meetings you know I I think it's kind of shameful that the federal government um where I in one side is you know schools used to be a sanctuary place where um
immigration enforcement was not taken was not done um they just kind of stayed out of schools because according to the Supreme Court in 1982 um we must educate all individuals in our community regardless of IND
status and it just makes complete sense because nobody wins by keeping kids out of speak no matter where their lives take them we we help the world um by educating everybody that we can so the fact that that we by law have to take
them in and then we are going to then use the place that we bring them into as a place to um Round Up um is just I firmly disagree with that and I think it's going definitely shap um so that
being said um you know our our role as schools is to make sure when parents send their children here that they're safe and that um you know their legal rights are going to be protected while they're here as well so that's what
this process goes through um and whether or not agree or disagree with what's going on in the immigration thing I think that's that's where the school I think is standing it l the other two documents that you have um that were sent out were sample documents coming from
National organizations about policies one's a policy one's a resolution the policy um is going to go to a policy subcommittee Frontier had a discussion on earlier this week and so did your other elementary schools and the idea there is that you have a policy
that basically is taking my procedures I need the procedures from that policy and um you know other information I got from State organizations um is if I was to suddenly leave and you have a new administrator they can change procedures right and so if you have a policy at
least you're holding up holding the foundation of what you believe um should happen in in the instance where immigration forcement um the resolution is more about making a
statement to the community in a different way um and if you go into that it's going to have to be Rewritten because a lot of things do not apply directly to our school and there's a lot of language that's um probably doesn't our community correctly um so I'm recommending that you know moving
forward with a policy basically passing legis basically your it's your legislation to um you know move things forward you can always change things that you change later on but it do send the message between me that you're back
Anders here moving forward as a so um that is not being done tonight that was just kind of informal if you want to put it on the agenda and because I knew front here was going to do it and so I said you know what I don't want you has to be two months behind thinking all the
poliy so yeah that's the that's the other two things that could be discuss so the um my proed was just an FYI and then the other things is if you want to do something I just want to say thank you
for moving forward on this publicly and getting the speakers on pleas and taking a stand on how the school stand I attended the seminar that masc coordinated memb similar to the
one I found on P it was very helpful informative a lot of information how the students are protected what within a lot of that is so uh the policy is going to the subcommittee sorry on it way on its way
okay the policy sub has set up a meeting yet if you're on policy who's on so um I haven't set it up yet but basically they made a decision coordinate that me to
BS and so so that was coming either way at this point um and then if you want to do resolution you guys can discuss or if you want to do that is good an important stance to the school's taking in terms of this this
this very important boundary between the inside of the school and the outside of the school and that's an important boundary again regardless of where you stand politically in the big picture we just don't allow anybody to walk into the school and and take a child um unless they go through the approved
processes so um that's very important I think that that that front staff training that procedural training be implemented and then reinforced U as much as possible because this would happen very fast right do I do I feel like this is is um right around the
corner I don't know but if if it does happen it'll happen very fast so I worry that um front facing staff uh would be caught off by the intensity of such a moment so the training is imperative and that's also why you put the separation
you don't that person their policies that I can't so the poliy they can't share information either so under furu we can't share the information with without a Judicial warrant and um we don't collect information of someone's prescy status United States so um or
immigration status so we that's not WR down anywhere so someone even ask us for a file we a give them that we may know through conversation with app parent what they you know if they share that would for the most part we don't know um you know those kind of things um so um
again on top of that the um the concern was they would be coming with warrant to gain try to gain that information to look through student files and that is all protecting they would have to have want and you're way will things change I
don't in I think realistically it's not going to start in Western Massachusetts if you know in our community um you would see something happening elsewhere there has been no ice grades on schools um there's talking about happen in different states you really have to read
into the article there's a lot of gang stuff going on and that you know so really reading into why they were there in the first place um but it's not going to seek and find students but the concern is yeah right we've seen some you I never thought they would take away Sanctuary stats so you
know um it is it's going to be prepared and if on Monday things change we you know my organization will let us let me know I will let you know and if we have to make changes we'll make changes because it's our job is to keep can say we don't collect resident
information but do the schools require birth certificates um question I don't think they so uh I think we need to have a conversation on do we want to discuss having a resolution or are we just letting if the
policy isit but that stand on and this would be this is a proposed resolution think this our first reading back in the proposed resolution is literally the cut and P
stamp so you know if uh if you were to adopt something like that you know probably want someone to go through remember do but um
very we'll need to approve so sub will great some will uh you know there was some questions about they came up the Deerfield now um but they came up a dear whether or not the agents themselves would be allowed to enter the building
to have a conversation with the administration or the Administration has to where the conversation has to happen in the site so there was conversation that they wanted to that in the policy so um about 20 minutes on that um so um
they're gonna you know they're going to put together a policy you'll get a copy of the policy before the next meeting um you can wave your um two two readings to make it go Place faster because you've already kind of seen an example of it and such um you know so that'll be what
I'll recommend people do um so that's kind of what's going forward so I would recommend let's work with the policy unless someone really wants to go and take the draft of resolution and bring it back committee and you as a committee do something different I think you're the only committee that's
s has every you're the last meeting you're the last meeting of the month so [Music] um no we else are doing the resolution just doing the policy well I think there is value in a
resolution publicly and firmly stating where we stand on these things the policy is doing what we you know it's accomplishing what we the resolution would be so set the resolution so the policy
put next agenda and people change their mind you anything else on that just out of curiosity Darius so the and I might have read through it in but
so they in in an example where there is uh ice interaction with school Personnel here at Deerfield Elementary School uh they follow protocol and direct them to your office what is the protocol at that point what we do you we legal councel right and so basically
you know we would be so you know we deal with more so a frontier than here we deal with law enforcement and investigation agencies I want to say all the time but it's not like oh my God observe some agencies here what do we do so it's it's not completely you know
what what's why what do you needan what do you he for you know I mean and that's kind of what we talk about in a sense of like these are in my perspective these are officers that work the United States government and I'm going to treat them with respect they're going to come in and we're going to talk about what's your business here and I'm going to see if they have the proper documentation and
conduct you know um and meanwhile if they also have as part of it we would be calling the parents of the children um to let them know that there's um if they were looking for certain individuals rather than just general information um you'd be saying that there's so many law unfor here they can talk to your child
or you know talk to or you know that kind whatever the warrant says if the warrant is you know will be run by the attorney I I've looked at them it's not rocket science to figure out the two but if someone as you kind of saying the rest and can be very intimidated by the
moment um you know you could look at a some warrant say looks really official it is an official thing but um a bench warrant we've SE we've seen War we SE battles and that kind stuff so we know what look like um so um I would go
through if they have the proper documentation then we would talk about how to appropriately fall that's how we you know we do that kind of thing in the past we've had do that in that Frontier in the S an arrest had you made say it's never happened it's happened before and
so you work with the agency about how do we do this appropriate they don't have the documentation and sorry you can't and they know that right and at that point you know go on their way and still be
notifying parents that they were here in in such and so that's kind of how we all the what ifs but if I had to come over here come and I have backup people show a backup and also par you know the
director of student services back of both all right anything else I not have um there is there was very little not um I ask before
session no okay great thank you very much