This government meeting is brought to you by Eastworks and our local cable subscribers. Uh all right, good evening everyone. Thank you for joining us um for our regular session of school committee meeting this evening, Tuesday, May 13th,
2025. Um we want to make a couple quick notes. Um we are officially called to order now. Uh one of our members is feeling a little under the weather. She is joining us remotely. Good evening, Linda Marquee. Um, so you and the public might
note that all of the votes we'll be taking tonight uh will be roll call votes so that Linda will have an opportunity to vote. This is something that's required when we have a mix of inperson and remote members who are voting. Um, secondly, um, I had a
conversation today and am expecting written receipt later this evening of a notice of resignation of our member Ben Hersy. Um, I would just want to take a moment to thank Ben for his years of dedicated service. Um, their personal family circumstances have changed and
Ben has decided to step aside and make room for a member who has a different focus at this moment. Uh we will verify with city authorities, but it is our understanding that because there were um
multiple candidates in the election a year and a half ago, that the um any vacancy that happened um more than 90 days before the next election, which would be this November, so we are still within that window, would go to the next
highest vote getter, which we believe to be Timothy St. John. Um, all of that, of course, as I said, will have to be verified by city authorities. Uh, we take a moment to, um, remember that Barbard is no longer working with us. So, we are going to verify with a couple
of sources just to be sure that we're doing everything entirely appropriately. So, stay tuned for that. Do we know how to change this? Maybe we don't need to. Um, that's fine. Oh, cuz it turned to me. Yeah, I'll work on that. That's fine. All right. So with that we are
going to move ahead to um we're going to go ahead to announcements and begin with gifts. Uh I am not aware of any gifts. Okay. And uh the next category is correspondence. Uh we did receive one
item of correspondence. Um, it was a letter from the EA, which is the East Hampton Education Association, that is more commonly known as our teacher and support staff unions. Um, it was regarding some comments made
by one of our members on a private Facebook post uh that was critical of their child's uh experience with their teachers at one of our district schools. Uh the EA took issue with that and requested that said post be removed. Um
I don't want to get too deeply into the weeds with this, but I will just say that while I can understand the frustration of faculty and staff seeing or being made aware of criticism of their work, that it is not under our purview to censor or restrict the
private comments made by um any citizen, including one of our members. Uh and we certainly look forward to any opportunity if someone has criticism to offer. Um everything short of defamation, slander or liel should be an
invitation for a conversation and uh a teachable moment for us to talk about, you know, where is uh where is the room for compromise, further discussion, and in what ways can we improve while still be supportive of our teachers and staff
as well as our elected officials. So, uh, we're going to move on to the student representative update. Walter, are you here for AA? No. No. Is AA joining us remotely tonight or AA is a senior, I believe.
And AA is going to be going through it. So, she may not have had time in her calendar to join us this evening. Do we know anything about that, Mor? Yeah. Through the chair. I believe that AA was coming tonight. Okay. Um, if she arrives later, we can just kick back to her
then. And, uh, Kenzie is the new representative. So, came tonight just to say that uh, he's going to be Oh, I mean Walter came tonight. Walter. Well, came tonight. No, no, no, no, no. I don't think that's correct. So, Kenzie Ascu is
from Mountain View. Walter's a sophomore at the high school. So, Walter, what do you have to share with us tonight? Just so I don't keep dragging you up here. I think he's the replacement for this. We're having some trouble with the um muting. Oh h What's happening? I doubt that this
is what we wanted. What? So sorry, we're trying to a tech issue. That's a separate thing. So Walter, were you here for a student update or for something else? I don't really know. Okay. I was told that I was told to be here at 5:40. Walter, are are
you the new student representative for next year? Yeah, I will be. Yes. Excellent. So, Walter, why don't you come to the podium? Okay, Walter is something of a celebrity in our little No one can hear us. What? Sorry. Hold on just one moment cuz
nobody can hear the Zoom. That's no good audio. I know. Julia saying that she can't hear us. There's no audio. No. Um, that's a great question. Um,
is that Try it. I can't remember what it is. Maybe if it's Can I Okay, I'm relying on uh a message and we're all blurry. Is it all blurry at home, too? This is just what what we're dealing with
tonight. Um, hopefully I don't hear any feedback. So, hopefully this is now. Okay. So, what about this thing? I think we're good. Are you good? I think we're good. People here. I have received a message that they get
super blurry and um but this is Yeah. So, you just have the idea of what of what we look like, but you can hear us. Okay. So, here's what we're going to do. Sorry about that. It is 609. You can have a seat for a second, Walter. We're going to have to start over because nobody has heard
anything we've said to this point. Okay. Sorry about that all. So, to those joining us, many of you have probably been watching. So, we're going to start over because you couldn't hear anything that was just said. Um, so we did call the meeting to order. I noted that we have two absences. Uh, Linda Marque, one of our members, is not feeling well, but
still wanted to participate. She is joining us remotely. Uh, people, members of the public, will note that all of the votes that we take this evening will be roll call votes so that Linda will have the ability to vote. This is a a state requirement if we have a mix of members
in person and joining remotely. Um secondly, our member Ben Hersy uh notified me in a telephone call this afternoon that he has chosen to step down. He will be resigning as of this evening. Uh so I want to thank Ben for
his years of service to the city. Uh due to a change in his personal family circumstances, they are shifting their priorities to their child and in other arenas. and Ben felt it was in his and the city's best interest to leave some space for uh another member. I had
mentioned when we were all muted that it is our understanding the way this process will unfold because there were multiple other candidates in the last election a year and a half ago that uh in the event of a vacancy that would happen prior to 90 days before that election that rather than an appointment
that uh vacancy would be offered to the next highest vote getter who would be Timothy St. John. So, I'll be reaching out to Mr. St. John immediately to um get a feel for whether or not he is interested to confirm with city authorities that that is in fact the proper procedure. Um we will make
updates available by our June meeting, but if you see a new face at the June meeting, that would be the backstory. Um so with that, we're going to start with announcements. Um Megan, I'm going to take the lead though. We had one item of correspondence which is a letter from the EA that is the East Hampton
Education Association known more colloquially as our teacher and support staff union. uh they were writing in regards to a post that one of our members made on his private Facebook page that was uh critical of his child's
experience with and uh at one of our district schools and that has prompted their decision to choice him into another district. Uh the EA uh took issue with the comments made by that member and made a request of myself and
the committee to remove that post. So again, what I had said earlier is I don't want to get too deeply in the weeds, but I I want to honor this request made by the EA and also honor the support that it is my job to offer this support to my members. So here's what I will say on this topic that it is
not within our purview to censor or restrict the comments of other members. um that we are all free to share and receive criticism and I would hope that we could take it as an opportunity to have a further conversation about what we're doing right and how we can
improve. Uh I certainly can sympathize with teachers who are doing difficult work and difficult times and who will be really hurt by the receipt of criticism. Um certainly myself and my fellow members can understand. We've been in
similar position multiple times in our tenure in public office. Um, so I think if there are further questions, I would invite further conversation either privately or publicly with the EA and their leadership. And I hope that they
feel satisfied with us um allowing them an opportunity to air those grievances. So moving on to gifts. I think Megan said that we had none. And so the next item on the agenda is our student representative update. Um, our current East Hampton High School representative,
Austin Patel, is a senior who is set to graduate in a hot minute and I'm sure is extremely busy. But we are joined tonight by Mr. Walter Baker, who I am told will be our student representative for the upcoming school year. So, go ahead to the podium and why don't you
introduce yourself, Walter, to the five people who don't know who you are in this city. Hi, everyone. My name is Walter Baker and I will be a junior at East Hampton High School in the fall and serving as the East Hampton High School uh student
council president. Um so I'm excited to be uh representing the student body to our school committee. Congratul You're an a rising junior. Yeah. And student council president. Yes, that's right. Li. Congratulations, Mr. Baker. Thank you. You're welcome. Um may I ask maybe
I'm picking a scab. How did it go at WC in those elections? What? Okay, I'm excited. So So there was three candidates. There were three candidates. Um I'm going to I'm very confident that
I came in second. Okay. Very very confident. Okay. I heard from a lot of uh advisers from Frontier and Mahar that uh you had a lot of support. They weren't feeling it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, a a well-run race is a
lesson in itself. Congratulations to you. And I mean, running for WSC, which is our regional board that reports to our state board, is a big deal. And I'll tell you what, Walter, I only made it on the state board because there weren't a lot of Western Mass candidates at the time. Big fish, little pond. You're in a
bigger pond now. Well, I'll tell you that I plan to run for state vice president. Do it. Get it. That's amazing. Excellent. Um, it's always a crapshoot because a bunch of kids are going to pick one office to all run. There will be one candidate for president, one for secretary, seven for VP. Right. Yeah.
Best of luck. Thank you. We look forward to your illustrious updates every month beginning August. You want to come in in August? Our August meeting? I could. All right. If not, we'll see you in September. Okay, thank you so much. Have a sparkling summer, Walter. Thank you. Thanks so much, Walter. Um, we also do
have a Mountain View representative, Kenzie SQU, who I don't believe is with us tonight. Again, May is bananas, so we give all the grace to everyone. We hope Kenzie is doing really well and we look forward to hearing Mountain View updates in the near future. And we are going to
move on to public comment. Um, we don't have anyone joining us in person, but if anyone joining us remotely has comments they would like to share, just please raise your virtual hand. We'll take note of that. Give you an opportunity to speak. Give that just a minute in case
someone is stealing themselves. I don't you don't see anything, do you? I don't see anything. Okay, leave that five four. All right, we are going to move on. um out of um our director of business services, Julia
Sari Franks, is out of town this evening at a professional conference. So, in an attempt to try to accommodate Julia and our gratitude for her joining us, even though she is juggling a lot of balls right now, we're going to move her ahead and ask her to offer the business update, the finance and personnel
reports at this point. Are you um are you ready to go, Julia? Hello. Are we able to Something's fighting tonight with this. Yeah, there's something weird with the tech tonight. I love tech. I want to call on you. How
shall we call on you? Can I make her a co-host? Can you? Where's all my options? Let me Oh, boy. I see Julia's raised hand. We are trying to figure out why this is not.
Normally I have like a option to make somebody. We're not usually looking like that. No. Maybe when That's weird. She's down here. Hold on. This could be it. Ah, you got it. Try it again, Julia.
Oh jeez. Yeah. Oh no. Okay, hold on. What that is? Well, we can hear tunnel effect. Good evening, Julia. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Great. Thank you for bearing with us tech issues if you
can believe that. Absolutely. All right. So, we are ready for the business update. Okay. Um at this time, uh 76.77% of the appropriation has either been spent or is encumbered. Um this is
similar to where it's been at this point in the year the couple of prior fiscal year. So um not concerns about that outside of the issues that we have already talked about. Yes, she is. Um second item on the report is the financial audit. Uh the audit firm of
Scanland and Associates have completed the end ofear report audit. Their audit report has been sent into DESIE. A copy of that report was provided to the school committee. Um they did identify one item which resulted in an uh amendment being filed to the end ofear
report. Um it just changed the line item where something was reported. Um it wasn't a material change to the content of the submission. Um but again a copy of the auditor's report has been provided to the school committee. Um the next item on the report is that uh
as we've been talking about, we anticipate there being um a budget shortfall for the current fiscal year for FY25 um in the amount of around a million dollars depending on what happens um with the remainder of the fiscal year. We have about 7 weeks left of the fiscal
year and we're watching numbers very carefully. Um, I am recommending that a supplemental appropriation request be submitted to the city council in the amount of $650,000. If secured, the appropriation will be used to cover unanticipated deficits in the current fiscal year budget related to the additional cost of
settling collective bargaining agreements during FY25 as well as unanticipated special education expenses for out of district tuition and specialized transportation. Um, and the last item on the report is the personnel report for uh, April. is includes included for your
reference. Excellent. Thank does anyone have any questions for Julia because otherwise I want to be mindful of her time and let her I know she has an evening appointment at this conference. Thank you very much Julia. We are um going to vote on that motion this
evening and uh I'll text you the update. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great night. You too. Thank you. Thank you, Julia. So, um, Superintendent Bender, we're going to move to your update and then I think right after yours, we could do the vote for that
appropriation request. Okay, great. Uh, to the chair. So, every year, uh, you have to do a school choice vote of the school committee. Um, then, uh, also this year the state uh, after you do the vote tonight, uh, the state sent us a
survey that has to be sent out. So we'll be sending that out as soon as tomorrow so that we can get the information the state needs. So uh every year we look at our numbers in our classrooms and uh we decide how many openings we have in each
grade level. So uh for next year we have two openings in kindergarten. Um we have two openings in grade one. We and then that's it until we get to the high school. Right. And that's it until we get to the high school. Yeah.
And You know, as you know, with the budget, you know, sometimes we have to close a classroom. So, if you close a classroom and you consolidate teachers, then your chances of opening those spots for school choice are affected, right? And we have to be mindful too, like if
there is one or two, if there's a one or two seat wiggle room and let's say grades 3 through 8, people move throughout the school year, there has to be some room for kids to like shift around and enter the community. That's right. depending upon but right now this is what uh we have to publish this
what's open so uh for grade nine we have six openings uh for grade 10 we have three for grade 11 we have three and we have five for grade 12 okay can I ask one question that just goes into um our life skills program that we'll be
kicking off again next year at the high school the if we had out of district students who are interested in entering that program their parents should reference given whatever grade level their student is at, 9 through 12, they would look at one of those slots and they could potentially take one of those
slots at the high school level to enroll in that life skills program. Yeah. And it's a it's a brand new life skills program. It's opening up this August. Um teachers already been hired. Um it would have to be written in a child's IEP that they require that level of service, right? And that that person would
actually be tuitioning in, not necessarily school choice. So you can also tuition in to the special ed program with an IEP. Okay, that was my question is do they have to be mindful of those slots or are there tuition? Okay, for the life skills program.
Great. So, you can do so to clarify, you can do either. You can either if you if your district agrees on a placement at in our program through the IEP. That's one way of doing it. Um or you can um enter the school choice lottery and um
and then if your child is picked then we are able to uh implement their IEP here. Thank you for that clerk. Yeah, that's great. Yeah. Uh that's wonderful. Very excited about that. Um so I would entertain a motion to approve the school
choice slots as delineated by superintendent Benetta. Uh so move. Thank you. May I second? Second. or are you taking them? Yes, I am. Oh, thank you so much. Okay, so we are going to roll call every vote. Linda, I'm going to begin with you and you can either
unmute or raise your hand. Uh, Linda Marquee. Can we unmute? I can't. Oh, no. Oh gosh, this is so Oh, she's a host. Okay. Do you want to do the room first and then go? Yeah, we're going to do that. Okay. Okay. So, Linda, we'll circle back
to you. Eric, yes. Megan, yes. Sam, yes. Laura Scott, I Linda Marquee, going to mark Linda as an abstension because the technology is not allowing us to recognize her vote. Uh, so motion carries. Thank you all. Um, and the
second topic would be the supplemental appropriation request. So, that document you all could have received and reviewed in your packet. Essentially, we have a $650,000 budget shortfall this year. Um, I believe we've discussed this at length in prior meetings, but I just want to
get the public up to speed once again. So, uh, the way I think the most kind of pedestrian accessible way to describe this for the public who isn't really versed in the complications of school finance is that we had kind of two buckets of complication this school year. Uh, the first bucket were some
unforeseen um, cost explosions and that fell under two umbrellas. uh some were special ed education services and some were transportation including transportation for some of our most vulnerable students. Those costs exploded in a way that we could not have predicted. Um and at the same time as
that we had um were finally able to reach an agreement with our teacher and support staff unions for a three-year contract with significant pay increases um to provide more equity and support for the for the important work that they do. So, we probably could have
withstood that cost increase or the unexpected cost increase that I had referenced earlier. It was um a bridge too far for this small district to absorb both in the same fiscal year. And so, we find ourselves in this position. So, I want to reassure the public this is not an issue of money mismanagement.
This was not an issue of, you know, people working for us in a professional capacity not doing their jobs to the best of their ability. They absolutely were. These are just incredibly trying financial times. I'm sure you all see the headlines in the paper of um layoffs and difficulties in all of our neighboring communities. Um so lucky for
us, we've been able to avoid those drastic measures. But in order to uh maintain the quality of education that we offer and we find so important in East Hampton, we're going to require about $650,000 to cure this fiscal budget which closes at the end of June.
So that is the short uh long story short there. Um, does anybody have any questions on that before I call for a motion? So, I have I have a question. I I just want to clarify. I heard earlier that there was a deficit of about a million dollars and our um request is
for $650,000. So, I'm just kind of wondering about the difference in those numbers. I Let me start and then Morin will fill in the gap. So I think when we prior to um Julia sorry Frank joining us we had heard some commotion about this from our prior director of business
services um Nick Bernier and what Nick was saying at that point was trying to predict he could see we were going to have some level of a shortfall and it was going to be somewhere between half a million and 1.1 depending on a variety of factors and I think that 650 is about
the conservative place where we land after we have drawn from a bunch of reserve funds. Is that your understanding Moren? Yeah, that that's true. So, we could use uh we figured out that we would use some of the school choice funds, but you can't use all of it because you want to be able to have some for next year. And then um the
special ed circuit breaker, uh we we applied for extraordinary relief. Uh we did we see that it's just a prepayment. It is not additional funds being awarded to the district. It's just basically an advance on some of that special education reimbursement. And we did not uh we weren't eligible for it because
you have to get 15% over what you had applied for last year. It's very rare that a district will get that two years in a row next year. That might be something that you might be apply for, but when you get your circuit breaker money, it's actually next year's money that you get ahead of time. So you if
you use all of that, uh then next year uh you won't have that funding. So, we applied some of the circuit breaker money and we also applied the school choice money and that's how we got down to the 650,000. Okay. And does the does
the recent increase in the circuit breaker funding for next fiscal year that's in the budget in the house budget or are um that is a great question. Does that affect that at all? So, yes, that would so if that extra money um was given to us, we would use more of the
circuit break money. Okay. on this and and obviously then we would return that extra funding uh to the city. So there is a chance to just because we don't and and the problem is like we never know really what's up with the circuit breaker until after the budget and we are not allowed to run a budget at a
deficit. We are required by law to close out a balance book at the end of June. Yes. And these are services that we are required by law to provide as well. Absolutely. Um so right out of district placements right um Right. And I mean, just for those
watching, if you if you tune in to school committee, perhaps you turn into city council, it is not an uncommon event, particularly in a year where contract negotiations have been settled. You know, because you're planning your budget in advance while those negotiations are ongoing. You can't
predict, nor are you legally allowed to budget for something you haven't signed and had agreed by the union in question. So there are often times where you have to go back once you're able to come to an agreement on those contracts. You then have to go back to the city to explain, you know, here's how we value
this work. Here's the reasonable agreement that we've made with the parties concerned. Here are the funds that are going to be required to make that um balanced. So that is where we find ourselves just like every other department. Um, so I would entertain a motion for the school committee to
approve the supplemental appropriation request for FY2025 in the amount of $650,000 cents. Can I just um ask one question before Can you say so moved and then we can do questions before votes? So moved. So moved. Can I get a second? I'm going to be a state. Yeah. Nope.
Second. Thank you. Wow. Second. It's all right. Cuz I don't think Thank you. I need land to vote. Okay. Uh yeah, go ahead, Sam. Um, if we So, uh, obviously because I've proposed the motion, I'm in favor of this. Um, if if the city is not
able to grant us this appropriation, kind of what are the next steps after that? Not good. Moren, would you like to get to the details? Well, actually, um, by law, this the city actually has to help us close the budget. So, we we
would obviously go back and ask the city to do that. Okay. Just wanted to make sure we were clear on I mean we're fortunate we have a very congenial professional working relationship. So what will happen to the
public um we have a the way that our city charter is written. It's a home rule city charter. It affords an enormous amount of authority particularly fiscal authority to the mayor and then the city council is meant to be more of a check balance to the mayor's power not um an authority in and
of itself. So, the way this process works is the school committee will or won't approve this request. If it's approved, that will be sent to the mayor's office. The mayor can choose to either send that forward to the city council or not. Um, I have every reason to believe that the mayor will forward it to the city council where the city
council will then take it under advisement and the mayor will have an opportunity at that point as well to offer their feedback on whether or not this is necessary, warranted, and what impact it will have on the city finances as is a larger piece. So, this is just step one in a kind of multi-step process
to make sure that, you know, we're not causing any harm to other departments or to the city as a whole, but we're also protecting the fidelity of the school department. Sounds good. Okay. Uh, Linda, can I check in with you one more time? Are you able to say anything or
raise your hand for this vote? I'll call the phone. You want to call her phone? Yeah. Because I need her for the We need We need That's okay. Don't apologize. I can't. She says she can't unmute. Okay. Can she just message you then?
Yes. Oh, perfect. So, we are going to roll call. We have a vote on the floor to approve the supplemental appropriation for fiscal year 2025 in the amount of $650,000. Now, we are going to roll call vote. Uh, Linda, I'll begin with you. I would take either a message, raised
hand, or a yay or nay. You can unmute now. or a raised hand or a message in the chat. Yay. Yay. Thank you, Linda. Uh Eric, abstain. Megan,
Sam, yes. Laura Scott, yes. Um the request is approved. So, as I said, uh Julia and Moren will sign off on this and send it to the mayor's office, who will also sign off on this, who will send it to the city council, and then they will have uh eventually a public
hearing um likely in very early June. Um thank you so much, Linda. Yeah, we're all set. We got it. Uh next on the agenda, I think we have the um parent square with Jew. It was on the superintendent.
It's not on my agenda. Okay. So, be and Oh, yeah. Fair and square. Yep. Okay. If you're ready for it, is Jean able gave her. Okay. So, next on the agenda is you can you uh Oh, roll out the intro for this
for me, Megan. For Jean. Oh, can I? Thank you so much. Um, this is a new Jean is is cringing um while watching this. This is a new communication uh coordination software that is uh well
being piloted and is proving to be incredibly useful. Um and I meant to replace kind of the malange we have of like remind and please please save me please. Okay. So we have Jean Libby whose role in the district is our um
family outreach coordinator. Good evening Jean. Hi. Can you all see me and hear me? Yes. Great. Um, I'm going to apologize in advance. I'm home uh with my toddler, so if she
We're hoping that she comes in. Um, so yes, I'm Gene Libby. I'm the family engagement coordinator for the school district. Um, and I've been working, you know, alongside all of our school partners for a while on a bunch
of different things. Um, but I've been, you know, part of the equity committee for a number of years. I've in my role on board new families, hear from families, supporting current, um, families with, um, anything that they might need in terms of like connecting
to the schools or figuring out who to ask their questions to, um, things like that. I also manage the social media, um, and our school website, um, for better or for worse. Um and and all of those things what they
have in common is that I have heard from and have been part of communicating on behalf of uh the district and for families for a number of years. Um we've used Remind as our primary one of our primary sources of communication
between families and their teachers. Um, and we're very excited. I'm very excited to be able to say that we are moving forward with moving over to Parent Square, which if you're not familiar with Parent Square, um, it is
it recently acquired Remind as a company. So, everything that we've used for will still be in place. Um, Parent Square is sort of an all-in-one communication tool that many districts are using um to really facilitate that family engagement that we've
been hardressed, not hardressed, but like it's it's hard to do um really good family engagement consistently um across all grades and AC across all classrooms. Um and Parent Square is going to allow us to do that. So, I just I I asked if I could make the announcement now as like
sort of just a preemptive keep your eyes peeled. We're going to be rolling out um a little bit this spring. Um we'll be sending out messages to our staff um and families and starting to get them registered with parent square. It is an
appbased um program. Families can also choose to use it on their laptop if that's their preference. Um and then we are going to hopefully go for a full roll out in September um with the new school year. Um there will be many many
opportunities to be able to share about what it is and help families get on board um figure out the usability of it and I will also be working um to support our our tech department um as well as our teachers and staff in rolling it out. Can y'all still hear me? Okay. Yes,
I can. All right. I want to get a little fancy. Is it possible to share my It should be screen. That means very little, but it should be. You have a You have host status, so you should be able to. Why don't you see if you can? No. The tech has been really Oh, wait. I
present. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Um, hold on. I'm like so familiar with Zoom. I just haven't I know. I know. Yeah. If that's what the problem is, it'll be fine. That's the thing,
man. Yeah. Did we just lose her? It looks like we might have. I think we lost. Yes. Oh, shoot. Hi, Linda. But we got Linda. Oh my gosh. The agita created by this
tech. I just Yes. I I know we say this every time, but just so people are aware, truly at least one minor thing changes in the tech setup every so it's not that we don't can't learn things. No. Okay. No. Um All right. So, here's what we're going to do. Jean's back.
Okay. I can't hear you, Jean. Hold on one sec. She's a host. Okay. Oh, there we go. I'm so embarrassed. I'm sorry. That did not work at all. Um, you know, I'm going to not risk getting myself kicked off
again. And I'll just I can um email this little It's just a little promo video about Parent Square. It's like nothing except a little overview. Um, stuff like that will be going around um all over the place very soon. So, you
know what? Take my word for it and let me tell you, it's an excellent Chief, we will um while we'll prepare to have it ready to go perhaps for the August meeting as people are kind of refocusing. So, we will get it we'll make sure to get that out there in August and then certainly people will
see it all over the place by September. Do you have a comment? That's so great. Um and and if I can make one ask to the school committee is that um for those of you and for the public that is on this call um it would be great to have a
couple of uh cheerleaders of of sort um to kind of help get on board um with parents where of course you know with any communication or with any change um comes a little bit of hesitancy and nervousness. So, I I would ask the
school committee to like do a little um searching around the I'll set in some of the information about parent square. Um familiar familiarize yourself with what it can do. It's really going to be um a revolutionary tool that we can use to um
enhance our family communications um and and our engagement with our families, allowing them to better support their students throughout their time at East Hampton Public Schools. So, Jean, you'd mentioned it was an app. So, I assume parents could probably go ahead and download the app now, but and then what would be required once they start um
once they're reenrolled in the fall and we start kicking off the actual use. They'll probably get a classroom code or a school code or something to connect them. Yes. So, every parent is going to receive um an emailed invitation um which is like an invitation to
register. Um and with that registration, once you get um that registration, your student will automatically be kind of linked to your application. Um so your student information should pre-populate once we get all of the rostering done usually over the summer. Uh that means
like which teachers are assigned to teach which students. Um you'll get a an automatic notification like who you're going to be communicating with that year. Um, one of the biggest benefits of this program is that you can have um,
posts internally. Um, so think of like all of the social media posts that we've been trying to put out. It's really hard to post, you know, updates that are happening within the school. Uh, because we're very sensitive to um, student privacy. But this is an internal
application where you would just be sending messages to your classroom as a teacher. um and the the parents um aren't making posts the same way like on social media or something. It's it's just going to be really good and it's very intuitive. It's not
um it won't even require too much like typing in a code and knowing which class code and everything like that. It'll be simpler than that. I just had I already see my kid's name on it. So Sam and then that's awesome. I just
wanted to um I I think this sounds great and I'm excited to um be a cheerleader for it. Uh I hope um one thing I um would suggest, I know that the library has um uh first of all, our our local library is open until um 8:00 p.m. on
some days and 6 p.m. on other days. So, it's um open like well after the end of the uh the school day. And so I'm wondering if maybe we could um work with their staff on make and on kind of teaching them how to help people access this great so that we have another point
of um kind of tech support for if people uh need help kind of figuring out how to get on. Yeah, that's a great idea, Sam. I think that um is definitely something that we could do. even um sort of mirroring different drop-in hours
like you all have um sometimes at the library or different places like that's something that I could do in person. Go to the library after hours and help families. Um we'll have lots of opportunities to get get like the whole schools um trainings done and and people will
have lots of opportunities to ask questions. But that's a great idea. I'm friends with the people at the library. I'm sure they would love to do that. Awesome. Yeah. I've just volunteered them for this knowing that they'll probably love it. Yeah. Oh, they will. Um the other the one more other thing that I think is a really exciting
feature. Um and then that's it. I I don't have much more to say, but um there's a calendaring app or like a calendar portion of it. Um so that in one place you'll be able to open the app and see all of the upcoming events, when MCAST is going to be, when there's
dismissals, um things like that. Uh, so you won't have to look in a hundred different places for that sort of information. That's great. I have a quick question. Can I ask you did you say I might have been typing that you were in the minutes that you were starting to speak. Um, did
you say that educators had a chance to try it? Um, our administrators have seen it. Um, and the educators haven't yet gotten the training or the invite. Um, this is like hot off the press uh news. We just
signed the contract a couple weeks ago. So nice. Um we're going to be sending it out to staff first uh so that they can get a look at it um with the expectation and understanding that they don't have to do anything yet. Um just sort of know that it's coming. That's why I wanted to talk to them. Just get the first credit.
Makes sense. That's great. It's I've also signed in and this is it's my kids are already in there. Like this is pretty pretty. Yeah, I would say yeah, I would say to parents if you're interested, go ahead and download that app and there's a there's a couple steps of like verification for your phone and your so
get that all done now and then you'll start seeing things roll out into August and September. Go ahead, Marine. I threw the chair also um it translates uh automatically into languages. So that's right, Gina. I love a strong part of parent square and I know that a lot of
parents didn't like that they had difficulty opening up the emails that came from the principles. Um there's no more difficulty doing that wonderful and we won't be using um school messenger anymore eventually. So, the snow day
announcements, everything comes through there as well as eventually um all the forms that any parent needs to fill out for field trips or anything. Everything will be on this one app. So, it's it's one place to go. You fill it out, goes right where it needs to go. It's really
awesome. It's really it's an it's really amazing uh what what they've developed. Sweet. That's amazing. Yeah. In addition to the language translation, it's also um fully ADA compliant. They've done all of the work already um the developers
have to m meet all the ADA compliance. Um so it's screen reader compatible. Um the contrast on the thing like you're I was playing around with some of the um settings and it won't even let you set something that doesn't meet the ADA compliance standard. So that's really
nice. Um it's just it's pretty exciting. I'm great. Pumped. Little things that make a big difference, right, team? Yeah. It's going to be huge. Yeah. Cool. A few years from now, we're going to look back and wonder how we ever did it
differently. All right. Great. And does anybody else have uh questions for Jean? Yes. No more. Thank you. Thank you so much. Great. Thank you everybody. Thanks for letting me join in. We're I tried to drag this out so we
could see your toddler and it didn't work. I know. So, she's so quiet. I don't want to interrupt. She's um doing a puzzle. I mean, not a puzzle, but you know. Yeah. With puzzle pieces. Thank you. She's brilliant. Thank you. Bye. All
right. So, next up, we have a school committee discussion. We're going to start with a policy subcommittee update. Sam, we um had a great policy uh subcommittee meeting. Um we uh uh Julianne Leavenan, our curriculum director in the district um has uh
proposed a policy for uh use of generative artificial intelligence in our district um otherwise known as Gen AI. Um this is a pretty big deal. This is not an area that um many districts in our state have policies on, although that is um it is growing. Um there's
currently nothing kind of um super concrete from MASC either. So, we're going to be kind of one of the first districts to have one of these policies. Um, so, uh, we, uh, went through it. Um, we gave some feedback. Julian and I are going to meet and just, um, change a
couple of small things, mainly just kind of clarifying who is responsible for, um, for what, but, but I really um I, uh, enjoyed kind of working through it uh, with everybody. Do you want me to summarize a little bit of what what it is? Could we hit that? I would love to
dedicate more time to it when we're ready for first reading. I would prefer that too. Yeah, I think that would be good. But um for anybody in the public who's interested, it's all up. It's part of our agenda. Like it's on our it's on the website or if that's hard to find or you can't get it for some reason, you can just email me and I will send it to
you. Perfect. Um but it's um yeah, it's it's exciting and um I really appreciated just how kind of um nuanced and thoughtful um the discussion has been. It's not neither a um kind of free-for-all. we we all love AI. We're going to use it for everything or a like
hands off or not touching it. Um you know, we're really like kind of considering um the the many ways that this technology uh is becoming a part of our lives and will continue to become a part of our lives. So, all things in moderation. All things in moderation. Thank you so much. That's the policy. Great. Can I ask for clarification? This
is a new policy on AI. This is a new policy on AI. Thank you. Generative AI in particular. Um Yikes. Okay. Um, as somebody who has a multitude of tech issues just trying to run Google meets, uh, I really look
forward to the next set of challenges. Um, excellent. Uh, finance subcommittee. Yes, that is me. Okay. What do I have for an update? We have not met. Um, although we had discussed since our last meeting, we discussed in our last
meeting the appropriation and the need for it. And we have an upcoming meeting on Monday the 19th. Thank you. Monday the 19th at uh 4:30 and the city council uh finance committee meeting about the education department is directly
afterwards at 5:30. Um so anyone who's interested in a marathon meeting for us finance folks. Yeah. So the the we'll meet first and then we'll adjourn and then they will start and we'll be there to um answer questions. Wonderful. And that's all I got. Yeah.
Yeah, it's the it's the handful of months in the year where finance isn't totally bananas. Um, uh, we're going to have a CES update and then I'm going to swing back to you, Megan. Do we have anything going on? So, do we have anything going on at CES? Since last
time, anything new? CES, just to remind everybody, this is the um, collaborative for educational services. This is the education collaborative that we're a member of. They're located in Northampton and they are a giant sprawling nonprofit that offers a number of um different services. Um some of
which are kind of part of our uh our our membership and some of which are from other agencies. Um there's been you know a some real concerns around kind of the financial um outlook for the um the agency. There are definitely some
challenges with morale right now as there have been a lot of layoffs and they were not communicated super well. Um, and I I attended a listening session um with the with the staff and the leadership um a couple of nights ago. Um, and I would really like to um, you
know, we have a meeting coming up in a couple of weeks, but I would really like to um, spend some time at some point, maybe not tonight. I would like to just kind of come up with some of our needs as a district that the collaborative might be able to address because one of
the things that I'm noticing is is just like most collaborives, you know, they operate essentially special education schools and the collaborative does have um a special education school and then they also have the Mount Tom Academy and we use both but we also use other special education schools in the area
for different needs. Um we use Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative for certain things. Um and then we have other uh you know kind of as we're talking about this appropriation we have these um out of district uh or or these out of district placements um tuitions
we um occasionally have uh residential placements come up that are um very expensive. We also have um challenges around special transportation and none of those are really areas that that our current collaborative is addressing and the collaboratives were developed to
address kind of extraordinary special education um costs especially for small districts. So, I would like to um at some point kind of figure out kind of what we're looking for and then I would also I I'm I'm would like to kind of and I've been doing this a little bit like I've been talking to other board members
from other districts just kind of about what their districts are facing and um are there other things that we could be doing together through the collaborative that would help the collaboratives um kind of improve their financial outlook but then also like provide more of the services to our districts that we uh
really need right now. One example that I thought of um that seems to be resonating is you know right now it's really hard and partially because of um the way that it's hard to predict special education cost. It's been really challenging to provide like electives for middle schoolers uh particularly in our district but also in other
districts. Um, and you know, one thing we were we were thinking about was, you know, could we like have, you know, work with a collaborative to share the cost and maybe like in the springtime, East Hampton gets the French teacher and then in the, you know, in the in the fall we get the cooking teacher, you know, like
and we we give the kids an opportunity to try some new things. We move the staff around different districts and then we're not respons. So like that's that's different because historically it's always been like direct special education services uh that we get from the collaborative. This would be like
this would be kind of addressing other um other things that we either can't afford or that um are not we're not able to sustain from year to year partially because we can't really predict our special education expenditures. So I I just think there's like room to kind of rethink what a collaborative does and
rethink like kind of what our relationship to the collaborative is and um I don't know how to do like I don't know what format to have that conversation. Let me let me steer this cuz I I keep going. I agree and we've had many conversations. Here's the two
things I'm kind of bearing in mind is one is the money. It is May heading into June. So the district money, state money, neighboring communities money, all of that is in question. So that conversation is probably a bit more useful and on the nose after August,
September when there's some finalization. Additionally, we are heading into the last six months of our two-year term. So, what I'm thinking might be helpful is for somewhere between August and October to have a work session or a meeting to lay out a basic sketch, a timeline, a template to
offer to the next full school committee. Perhaps some of us will be participating in that, but at least there will be a document that survives this specific committee that can be kind of used to move forward. I think so. I made a note that like to bring it we'll plug it in there somewhere between August and
September depending on kind of what the finances look like and at the very least just get something down. Yeah. Um, and I'd like to, you know, and I I've seen in other in other districts and to some extent historically in our district, although I think this is more a more pressing issue in other communities
right now, just I I think sometimes we look at special education expenditures. And we kind of end up inadvertently pitting special education cost against uh other things, foreign languages, electives, um, sports, you know, that kind of stuff. And I just don't I I you
know, as a parent of a kid with a disability, like I um I I don't want families to feel like, you know, their kid is getting an education and then other families are losing things because of that. That's not like not what we're trying to convey. So, I think that's a great idea. I'd love to just kind of
have a bigger bigger picture kind of envisioning like what what we're looking for. Um what do we really need right now in our district? And then like and then let's go, you know, we can approach the collaborative and and and lower pioneer valley as well and kind of see what can we do here like where can we kind of plug some of these. I think there's a
step in between that kind of addresses the specificity of issues of some of our neighboring communities who are having a hard time pulling together a level service budget for next year because they are really hesitant to sacrifice some of the um supplemental educational
services that they offer because that is a real big attractor for their population. So we can have those communications with neighboring communities. Let's say it's for example middle school foreign language. If there was a way that they could still provide that but offset some of the cost to try
to get closer to balancing their level service. So it feels like all of these things could actually work really well together if we can kind of take a leadership position and initiate those conversations. Yeah. Okay. Any we'll do anything to stretch us 45
minute meeting out to that full hour. You and I are here for it. Um, okay. One more update under school committee discussion that I'm going to kick to Megan who's been working tirelessly on our Mountain View playground reimagining. How is that going? Where are we at? True. Um, I'm not working
alone on it. I've had a lot of help from our committee that's amazing who's um members of this committee, but also uh parents and a member of city council who have like stepped up and everyone is like doing tasks between meetings. It's really It's like uh when you had a group
project at school, but it went well. Oh, you're not familiar with that. I know. It's really cool. Um so, and we've also um had support from our admin both uh in central office and also at Mountain View and um at the city side from the
planning department. So, I had a meeting with them today and they're on board and they're going to help out. So, it's a it's a large effort at this point. We are at the point where a survey is about to go out. I thought that was going to be a quick process. Um, it turns out it's not a quick process. Partially
because, and Jean is, if she's still on, is probably laughing at me and Moren probably too about the the level of detail I put into colored the the color copies versus black and white copies. Um, the wording on, you know, all the things. Anyway, by the end of this week,
you will um have received that survey in a variety of ways. Um, so we are looking forward to hearing from all students. What's the deadline to respond to this? The deadline to respond is Tuesday, May 27th. Excellent. Okay. So, enough time
for people to respond, but not so much that you set it aside because it's due in two months and then you forget all about it, which is what I always do. Super quick. Um, and it'll have a QR code and a link. And, um, we've been calling this the playground committee, but I really want to, um, stress from the committee that this is for all
students at MVS. So, we want to hear from, um, middle school students. We want to hear from our youngest students. Um parents, please or caregivers, please help um them take the survey. It's really quick. It will take you five, six minutes maximum. Um and tell us things
that you are hoping to see, but also tell us the things that you love about the playground or the outdoor space because we want to make sure that we protect and preserve what we're doing. Exactly. So, um yeah. So, thank you so much. Yeah, of course. Um, so I did receive a phone call from the mayor
today uh regarding the playground that's at Maple, right? So, can we be specific? There are two playgrounds at Maple. So, that was the little bitty prek playground and then there was the all access all accessible. Okay. So, that was the former
pre relatively new. Yes. So, um Larry, who is the facilities director, uh went over this morning for us to look at it, uh whether or not we can move it. Um council initially told the city and then um Jill Bestie and myself went over
today also to look at it and it's in great shape and so we do think that it can be moved and uh so now we were going to be getting some figures on what the cost would be um but I spoke to the mayor again today and the mayor said that um the department of public works
uh would be willing to move it and set it up for free for us. So, um, it just really needs to be cleaned, but it's in great shape. And so, it's going to be relocated to the Mountain View at Mountain View. Uh, there's a spot that they that they had there uh in the kind
of where the other playground is, but on the elementary side, on the elementary side, uh, that will fit in very nicely. And so, I I didn't know if uh that you knew that that happened today. And it's um exciting. That's good. It's so it's
so accessible. It was actually made for that. There's a sign there that says all accessible playground. So, uh now we're going to be make plans for what's the next step. How you know how does it get moved? Obviously, there's got to be cement. You know, the cement it's down
there really secure the foot cement footings and have that done. So, and it's it's in great shape. So, that's awesome. I'm really glad that that can be another piece. I don't like throwing anything away. So that makes my heart and I and I want to clarify to the public that is a um a great accessible
playground for little children. Yes. It was designed for preschool for preschool age kids. So we are like we're also working on the accessibility for the older kids. But that's great that we have that um cuz that was a significant investment too that we needed. So I'm glad we've been able to move it. Great.
Thank you. That's great. That's really exciting. Thank you. All good things. We have, did I say we have a meeting on the 27th? The playground committee. That's when the survey is due and the committee is meeting that night. What day of the week is that? That is a Tuesday night. I tried to schedule it for Memorial Day and was told by several people it's
Memorial Day. Yeah. And that makes sense. So, Tuesday um on the 27th, come even if you don't want to accept, you know, I really hyped up the committee and like that everyone's doing tasks. You don't have to. You can just come and give us your input and check out what's going on. We would love to see your kids
are welcome. They don't have to be quiet. You know, it's a free-for-all. Wonderful. It's very relaxed. It's going to be a busy night. Okay, we are going to move on to action items. Linda, are you ready? So, Linda, just to
Hello. We're going to roll call all of these and I'll I'll roll you in first, Linda. Okay. So, we're going to begin um Megan with a All right. A motion to approve the minutes of the 325 2025 regular session and public hearing on
the fiscal year 26 proposed school budget. Can I get a second? Second. Thank you, Sam. Uh, Linda I, Eric. Yep. Oh, wait. No, Eric, you can approve this one. Yes. You have a few minutes, but you were ready. Okay.
Once I see budget money. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Cuz there is the uh Yes. Yes. Sam. Yes. Laura. I Okay, great. Motion A passes. Go ahead, Megan. Uh motion to approve the school payroll dated 32025 in the amount of $636,145.84.
Second. Thank you, Sam. Linda I. Eric, abstain. Megan, yes. Sam, yes. Laura, I motion carries. Motion C. Motion to approve the accounts payable authorization for payment dated
32025 in the amount of 366,763.86. Second. Second. Thank you. Sam Linda I. Eric Megan I. Sam. Yes. Laura I. Motion C carries. Motion D. Motion to approve the school payroll dated
32025 supplemental in the amount of $292.96. Second. Thank you. Sam Linda I. Eric abstain. Megan I. Sam. Yes. Laura I. Motion D carries. Motion E. Motion to approve the school payroll
dated 432025 in the amount of $636,844.99. Second. Thank you Sam. Linda I Eric abstain Megan I Sam I Laura I motion E carries motion F motion to approve the accounts payable
authorization for payment dated 432025 in the amount of $699,44960 second thank you Sam Linda I Eric Megan I Sam I Laura I. Motion F carries. Motion G. Motion to approve the
school payroll dated 4172025 in the amount of $622,55245. Second. Thank you. Sam Linda I. Eric abstain. Megan I. Sam I. Laura I. Motion G carries. Motion H. Motion to
approve the accounts payable authorization for payment dated 417 2025 in the amount of 350,663.15. Have a second. Second. Thank you. Sam Linda I. Eric Megan I. Sam I. Laura I
motion H carries. Motion I. Motion to approve the school payroll dated 512025 in the amount of $611,870.14. Second. Second. Thank you. Sam Linda I. Eric. Megan I. Sam I. Laura I. Motion
I. Carries. Motion J. Motion to approve the accounts payable authorization for payment dated 512025 in the amount of $359,580.83. Second. Thank you, Sam. Linda I, Eric, Megan, I, Sam, I. Laura, I
motion J carries. That's the final motion. All right. Our last day of school, June 17th, is June 17th, which is a half day. Yes. June 17th. What day of the week is that? Tuesday. Tuesday. It is a Tuesday. Last day of school for
everyone but seniors. Tuesday. June 17th. That will be a half day. So, pick your kids up at 11, 11:30 or 12, depending on what school you're in. Um, our next meeting dates, um, I'm just going to give you May and June. So, we'll be meeting May 27th, and then
again on June 10th, and then we will have monthly meetings through the summer, and then uh, two meetings in October, one in November, one in December. I'm just going to throw on there. So, on the 27th, it's a 5:00 playground meeting, and then a 6:00 regular session. So, you'll be right in
the building. That's perfect. And then the finance meeting is Monday the 19th and that's a backto-back our finance and then city council finance. Excellent. Many many May is month of meeting. So many choices for you. April showers bring May meetings. Um I will entertain
a motion to adjurnn. A motion to adjurnn. Uh second. Second. Thank you, Eric. Uh Linda, I. Eric, good night. Megan, good night. Sam, good night. And Laura, good night, East Hampton. We will see you later this
month.